Day 18a Chateau Versaille & the Eiffel Tower

Today I planned to go to the Chateau Versaille. It is an hour & 2 trains to get there from my hostel. The train was packed and everyone went to the chateau. I pre-purchased my tickets online to 'save time'. When we got there we had our tickets checked then directed to a line. For myself & most other people, we were directed to the HUGE LING WINDING 4 ROWS line 😠 2hrs it took for us to get to the entry gate! So much for saving time! I had to miss my catacombs tour in order to see this place. It was soooo busy inside but it is a 1 way path. Everyone is going in the same directing so it isn't too bad. I know nothing about the Chateau except that it is famous. Turns out a King Louis and Marie Antoinette lived there! It is a massive place. Seriously ginormous! And so elaborately decorated that it is OTT. Although, if some handsome prince asked me to marry him & live with him there I wouldn't say no 😀 I made a ne friend in the queue, a Canadian girl, and we explored the grounds together. She speaks some French & knows about the place so that was handy.

On our way out we went to the stagecoach gallery. They have a collection of very old stagecoaches including the Queen's coronation coach.

Then we jumped on the train & parted ways in Paris. I headed to the Eiffel Tower for my trip up. I took the elevator to the 2nd floor and was literally blown away. It was so windy! The views were amazing but my gosh that wind was awful. It was so bad the summit was closed so I was disappointed I couldn't go to the top. I didn't stay long, just enough to admire the views then go back to get away from some of the wind. It was starting to rain too unfortunately. I then headed to Champ der Mars where there was a market. It was more of a good stalls market but that's ok. I ended up having potato bake (forget the French name but it starts with T) and a sausage (terrible tough bread roll, good sausage). Then it was so awful weather wise that I went back to the hostel.

Tonight I am planning on going to the Arc de Triomphe to watch the NYE light show (no fireworks here). Hopefully the weather is kind to us! I'll post NYE pics in a different post.

Day 17 Paris

Today was my full day of walking around Paris. I got up early and headed out for my first destination: Sacre Coeur. It was a long walk but I made it. It's a huge basilica on top of the hill so it has great views of the city. The dome was not open so I could only go into the main part.

Next up was the Moulin Rouge. I was talked out of attending the dinner show so I had to get an external photo at the least! 

Next was the Arc de Triomphe. It was a long walk but the streets were pretty. It was very busy! The spiral staircase to the top is brutal! The views were awesome though! I got my first proper view of the Eiffel Tower from here. It is much bigger than I imagined!

Next was the long walk along Champs Elysees and through Place du Concord to the Louvre. I didn't realise it is a big shopping street. This is where I'm spending NYE. 

I made it to the Louvre just after my admission time but still inside my window time. I literally went straight in after the security screening. I followed the signs for the Mona Lisa, along with everyone else. After being crushed in the crowd for about half hr I finally got to the front and got to see the famous painting. It is literally the ONLY reason I went to the Louvre. It was a horrible experience with the disorganisation & pushing people. 

Next was the Notre Dame cathedral.  I only pledged to view from the outside and lucky I did because the line was massive! The cathedral was massive too & as like everything else in Paris, very ornate & intricate.

Next was a chocolate shop. Not what I expected so I bought nothing and continued to a fromagerie. The website said they have truffle brie so I was keen to see it. They showed me and it looks like they cut a wheel of brie in half, layered on a truffle cream made wth fresh truffles & put the top back on, like a jam filled sponge cake. I bought their smallest piece (200g) and it cost €12! I got a box of salada type biscuits to eat it worth on thr way back. My hostel has no kitchen & outside food is banned so I had to sneak it back in and eat it all tonight since it won't keep overnight without a fridge. It was very good though! It did stink to high hell but tasted amazing! 

After returning to the hostel I rested for a few hours after my 18km walk. Then I got ready and went to the Eiffel Tower to see the evening light show. I took the train though as its 1.5hrs walk from my hostel. It was an amazing view from the Trocadero. The tower sparkles for 5mins every hour every night. It's quite pretty. 

After that I walked the streets to the Louvre. Took me 1.5hrs as I got sidetracked by other things to look at. The pyramids look very pretty lit up at night. Then I took a train back as I couldn't be bothered walking the 1hr back.

Day 16 Reims & Epernay

Today was a champagne kind of day! Literally! I had booked the 8am train to Reims to begin my champagne tours. Its only 45mins by train so that's good. I walked to the Mumm house but could only view from outside. Then I walked through Reims. It is a stunning town filled with very old buildings. I went to the Notre Dame cathedral. Man that place is massive! It is beautiful.

Next I walked to the Taittinger house for my tour. I chose this one as it is pretty expensive stuff and it is one of the few that I recognised that are open this time of year. The lady started by telling us the history of the company & house. It is a family owned business & they only use grapes from a small number of local families. Then we went down to the caves. Wow! There are 2km of chalk caves filled with bottles at a number of different stages in the process. They also have a bigger property in the centre of town (not open to tourists) with 10km of tunnels. In total both properties hold 26 million bottles of champagne!! Holy cow that's a lot of bubbles! She told us the step by step process of how champagne is made. It is so labour intensive! The bottles stay there for 3.5yrs for non-vintage & 10yrs for vintage. It was absolutely fascinating! Then we went for tastings. I bought a ticket that included 2 tastings: the classic and the Comtes champagne blanc de blanc 2006. Ooooh myyyy godddd! I need to get seriously rich cos that vintage Comtes was outstanding! I could drink that all the time! Even the classic was excellent!

After that I walked through town before catching a train to Epernay. It's another town in the champagne region but on the other side of the mountains. This town is home to Moet (pronounced mo-ET, not mo-E) & Chandon and the location of my second tour. I chose Moet as it is well known in Australia. From the outside this house looks quite modern and beautiful. Again we started with a history of the founder & the house. Moet dates back to the 1700's and he was friends with Napoleon. We went down into the caves again. These caves are 28km long and hold many millions of bottles. They felt much emptier than Taittinger though as they didn't have any bottles in the final stages of processing so there were lots of empty racks. There is a locked area where they keep rare, old & all the vintages. They have champagne that was bottled in 1860! It was interesting to hear the differences and similarities between the 2 houses. Moet is the largest and most popular in the champagne region. Each bottle of Moet Imperial (the normal stuff) has a blend of 150 different wines in it! They have 800 vats because the juice from each village and each type of grape has it's own vat. Again we had tastings. For me I had the Imperial & Imperial Rose. Much drier then the Taittinger I think.  I know which one I prefer! Interesting fact: champagne is made from chardonnay grapes, pinot noir grapes & pinot meunier grapes. There are rules staying how much sugar, processing time etc that must be met to be classified as champagne.

After that I had a quick walk along champagne avenue and saw lots more champagne houses. Then I got the trains back to Paris & checked back into my hostel. Now its bedtime as I have a big day walking around Paris tomorrow :)

Day 15 Stockholm

Today I had a 9hr stopover in Stockholm. After rising early & struggling to find the right train to take me to Helsinki airport I finally got on my flight. Unfortunately Burger King doesn't serve breakfast here so I missed out on that. Upon arrival I got the Arlanda Express train to Stockholm. The train goes so fast! The highest I saw on the screen was 181km/hr! My main goal today was to get to the Vasa museum. After getting myself completely lost and asking several people for directions, I finally found it. What should have taken 28mins took me over an hr! Anyway, the Vasa Museum has a HUGE viking ship that they have resurrected and restored from the ocean floor. It is massive. Like seriously massive. There are 7 levels of viewing platforms in the museum and you still don't reach the top of the masts! It is incredibly ornate for such an old wooden ship. Looking at the back of the ship made me think of the Black Pearl! All you need is Captain Jack Sparrow and you're set! It is an impressive sight. They have lots of exhibits of items collected from the ship and surrounding ocean floor. Definitely a must see when in Stockholm.

After that I walked back to the city (the right way this time) and wandered around the buildings and shops. I think there is a whole series of undergrounds shops and tunnels connecting everything. I think you can walk most places underground! The thing I didn't like was that every toilet required payment. One I saw was 10kr which is about $1.50aud!! Not impressed by that, should be a law against paying for toilets in my opinion.

Anyway, I made my way back to the airport and an now waiting for my plane to Paris. Im in Paris until the 2nd of Jan so it'll be nice too be in 1 place for a few days :)

Day 14 Traveling to Helsinki

Today was another travel day. I was up bright and early to catch the train at 6am. The trains are double decker and I paid for an upstairs individual window seat with power. Turned out to be a great decision! I had so much specs and my chair faced directly out the window. I had my own powerpoint so I plugged the powerboard in and, combined with free wifi, I was set for the next 8.5hrs. Oh and the food in my bag of course! The train however had technical difficulties & we had to change to another train 1hr into the trip. In the end we arrived 1hr late to Helsinki. It was wet when I arrived but fortunately the hostel isn't far from the train station.

After check-in I went for a walk around the streets. It was mild enough I even ventured out without a coat!

Unfortunately I am really sick with a cold & cough so I am now staying inside where it's warm.  Tomorrow morning I am flying to Stockholm before flying to Paris tomorrow night.

Day 13 Trip on an icebreaker

Today I had an early start as I was going on a day trip to Sweden. I had booked a cruie on the Polar Explorer icebreaker. It was a 1.5hr drive to the border of Finland and Sweden turn a further 30mins to the port. We boarded and wandered around the ship. There must have been 100-150 people on board. The bay connects to the Baltic Sea and is frozen over in winter. We didn't drive very far, always within sight of our port.

After a while we stopped & the crew setup the ocean swim. Each group had an allocated time to be in the changing room to be suited up. My group was last so I was able to go into tut offee and walk around a little. We only had to remove our shoes & coats as were were donning sexy orange survival suits! The crew got us in them then we made our way down to the ice where other crew members put us in the ocean. All you can do it float on your back like a big giant orange upside down turtle. You could tell the water was cold but you couldn't feel it much. I think the water would have been 0c as it was frozen before we smashed through it. When the crew called us in we manoeuvred to the edge of the ice and the crew pulled us out. It was fun. I took some videos on the GoPro and will post then on YouTube when I can. Once everyone was done we headed back to port. I stayed in the wheelhouse with the captains as it was warm & had a great view.

Then we drove to a Swedish fisherman's village for lunch. It was a buffet overlooking the river. We had salmon, Swedish meatballs & potatoes. I didn't eat the salmon obviously but the meatballs were great. The restaurant is on the Swedish side of the river and across the river is the Finnish side of the village. There is 1hr time difference between the countries so as the restaurant owner says 'it is a time machine because you can look into the future by 1hr'. The river is also one of the best spots for salmon fishing with over 100,000 salmon passing by every summer.

Then we headed back to Rovaniemi. I bought a kebab which is as long as my arm almost!! Tonight is my last night here, tomorrow I am uo early to catch the 6am train to Helsinki.