Finally here, useless at speaking French and trying to get everything working!

Well, thank goodness, we finally got here.  On Saturday morning we were rushing around like the proverbial blue arsed flies - finishing off our work, cleaning the house, I don't know what else, but we barely had time to breathe!

Creasy's dropped us off at the airport, and there was no problems with our bikes.  The luggage was booked all the way through to London, so the walk from the domestic to the international terminal was easy (but cold!).  Managed to get an upgrade through to LA, which was great, then sat in the lounge for 4 boring hours.  We went to buy some Coruba Rum to take to Jason and Isabelle in France (their request), only to be informed that because we were transiting in LA, we couldn't take it as it would be confiscated.  Not realising that Coruba Rum is a NZ brand and you can't buy it anywhere else, we didn't argue. Of course, we now know that if we had chosen to stay in the optional transit lounge at LA, we could have taken it , and we now know that you can't buy it anywhere else...  arrggghhh.

I must have been very tired, as I slept (with no melatonin or sleeping pills) for about 8 hours of the flight.  I've never done that before!  Watched Shutter Island (half before and half after the sleep) - it was good, recommend it.  Watched a little bit of Valentines Day before landing (what rubbish!).

At LA, they got us to go through immigration, out of the terminal, back in and through security, just so we could use the Business Class Lounge (which was nice, but I would have used the other lounge if I knew I could and have brought the Rum).  Then, we managed to get the upgrade to London. In retrospect, I think that the airfares that we paid (because we booked at the last minute) were probably the same as business class both ways - so we probably ended up paying for the upgrades).  C'est la vie.

Had another good flight and slept more!  Watched Ghost Writer (I would highly recommend) and Edge of Darkness, which I wouldn't (fell asleep during it and only woke up when the kiwi music blared into the headphones at the end of the movie!).

Trevor picked us up at the airport, which was lovely. And it was neat to spend the afternoon and evening with Tracey, Trevor, Celia and Briar (Lewis was away for the weekend).  Walked in to Ealing, trying to get the darn GPS working. Now that I have had the same problem in France, it appears that it takes an hour or two or more to work out which satellites are here!  Managed to track our route from town to their house, and I have now worked out that you have to set up a 'profile' as to whether you are going by car or bike or foot.  It doesn't like it when you cut across a park either, but it picks up where you are and then tells you which street to take to get back on track.

Lovely roast chicken and chocolate pudding for dinner, then, as we could barely keep our eyes open,asleep by 8.30pm UK time.  Good sleep until about 5am, then woke up excited about the next part of the journey.

Tracey dropped us off at the tube.  This was the first time we had to carry our bikes and bags. It wasn't far, so wasnt a problem.  As it was a Bank holiday, there was virtually no-one on the tube at 7am and we had a good run into Kings Cross.  Then the carrying of the bags started.  It seemed a long walk, but we managed it.

Managed to get our electronic Eurostar tickets easily, and because we booked at the last minute, we had fully far flexible business tickets, so sat in the lounge, and nice comfy seats on the train, and got breakfast and champagne (one glass!).  We were breakfasted out by then, having had toast at Traceys.  But thankfully we did, as we didn't get anything else to eat for 10 hours!

Read lots of newspapers and magazines including the International Herald Tribune, which was really interesting, Financial Times and Spectator.  The first two put the journalism and media coverage that we get in NZ into perspective - our coverage is really quite tabloid!

Then came the fun bit, getting from Paris Nord to Paris Montparnasse to catch our TGV in under 1 hour.  I had researched and got the information off the internet (thank goodness, there is no way we could have done it otherwise), and we opted to take the trip that they said would take 15 minutes.  WELL, maybe 15 minutes of train time.  But about another 40 minutes of rushing/'running as much as we could with 18kg on each arm through train terminals!  Lots of stairs and transitions.  We got to the TGV around 5 minutes before it boarded. Phew and exhaustion!

TGV just a fast train.  Unfortunately we had an obnoxious undisciplined 2 year old opposite us that kept shrieking, kicking the table and climbing over his chair and table.  Finally his mother took him for some walks,but we were glad to get off that train!

Weather cold and drizzly.  We got a cab to our hotel.  That is where I learned the first lesson of booking hotels based on other travellers recommendations.  This hotel (at least it is clean and we are sleeping) is a sterile business hotel miles from anywhere.  But, they are friendly and we have worked out how to walk to get the tram into town.  There are no other restaurants or bakeries around here.  So the first night, we went into town to get dinner.  We were grumpy and tired, and although we registered how beautiful Bordeaux is, we didn't really have a great time.

We tried out our French - as the people in the touristy (all the other guests were tourists) didn't seem to speak any english, and they had no idea what we were saying, and we were too tired too.

So, had a perfunctory dinner, and came home (freezing, raining) and we couldn' work out how to pay for the tram, so we went both directions with no tickets - felt very guilty.  Then got home and slept!

Will go and see how Peter is going with the bikes and then come back and update the last day.