Month: May 2003

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Cities visited: Paris, Rennes, Tours

Paris

I arrived in Paris a few days before Bastille Day, the French National Day, and it was full of people. Mostly tourists, like myself. I must say, staying at a youth hostel for about AU$12 a night was a good way to travel, because. Naturally at a place like that, you do need to keep your wits about you, like making use of the night safe for valuables, and taking extra precautions when taking the subway, etc.

Paris is really a city of romance! As I came into the courtyard in front of the easily identified glass pyramid of the Louvre Gallery, there were people having a nice peck. Long and deep too! What’s more, forget about passionate teenagers, these are people of my parents’ age!

This is also a city full of Art Galleries, big and small. From the world-famous Louvre and the Mus�e d’Orsay, to the much smaller but no less obscure ones like the Rodin Museum. It’s a paradise for art lovers. But a word of caution: don’t get overdosed by all the information!

Coming soon:

However, for me the question was: Where can I find Monet? (and other Impressionists as well).

Champs-Elys�es Avenue

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Tours

I have to be honest and say that I really had never heard of this place before I planned for this trip. In fact, had my friend Lorenzo (from Rome) not suggested Tours, I would have missed out on something really wonderful! In fact, I had initially wanted to spend more time in Switzerland, but as he said, there is nothing but “cows, mountains and chocolates” – his words, not mine – I, in hindsight, quite wisely followed his advice.

What are the main attractions here? Well, lots and lots of medieval castles and chateaus! Most (mainly the ones belonging to the royal family directly), such as Chambord and Amboise, have been turned into museums, while some (mainly the properties of prominent officials in the French court) are still in private hands – but portions are open to the public, such as Cheverny with its large pack of hunting dogs. If you are a lover of history, this is definitely the place to be. The Loire Valley is the home to Leonardo da Vinci in the final days of his life; Catherine Medici of the Medici family in relation to the Renaissance movement was also active in this area. The end of the prominence of this region also marked the shift of royal power to Paris.

Finally, to get around, from personal experience it was quite easily to find a comfortable hotel for about AU$15 per night, shared bathroom, very close to the station. There were many day-tours to the various castles to choose from; Amboise itself is reachable by train, although you should always check the departure time of the last train.

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Cities visited: Delft, Amsterdam

Delft

Amsterdam

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Cities visited: Brussels, Bruge, Ghent, Leuven & Antwerp

Brussels

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Bruge

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Ghent

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Leuven & Antwerp

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In 1997, about halfway through my PhD days at ANU, I was fortunate to have the chance to travel around (Western) Europe. As part of attending the European Control Conference in Brussels in July of 1997, I also arranged a number of visits to various universities in Belgium, Netherlands and France. When all the ‘business’ side of things were completed, I stayed in Europe for a further 3 or so weeks.

The links in the side menu list the countries I visited on this trip in a roughly chronological order. There was a slight overlap between Belgium and the Netherlands. I was based in Brussels – or campus of Louvain-la-Neuve to be more precise – initially, but took a few days to go up to Delft and Amsterdam during that period. As a side note, Hong Kong was handed back to the Chinese government on the day that I headed back to Belgium from Amsterdam.

After Belgium, I took a train down to Paris. This was just a few days before Bastille Day, the French National Day, and security was quite tight ahead of the National Day parade. From Paris, I took an overnight train to Switzerland, and spent one night there. I finally reached Italy on another overnight train, and saw many wonderful sights there: from the relics of Roman civilisation, to the birth of Renaissance. From Rome, I returned to Australia, via Hong Kong.

This was the first extended overseas trip that I undertook on my own, lasting for close to 8 weeks in all. In fact, as it turned out, this was to be the first of a couple of solo trips in the next few years. I had a wonderful time and was truly grateful that nothing unpleasant happened to me, as can often happen on an extended trip like this. Moreover, everywhere I went, invariably I would experience kindness from total strangers, either from fellow backpackers I met in youth hostels, or strangers on streets offering directions when I seemed lost.

Being quite inexperienced at the whole backpacking business, I was not exactly ‘backpacking’ in the sense of actually using a backpack. This was quite a mistake, in hindsight. You see, I was lugging along a decent-sized suitcase while travelling, which was fine most of the time, like walking from airport to the train station, or from train station to some youth hostel, but man, it was hard work when I had to climb stairs! I can remember lugging a suitcase through the train stations in Paris. Of course, all the planning (accommodation, transportations) was done by me. In fact, provided you have done your homework, backpacking is really not scary at all and can instead bring many surprises along the way.

These minor nuisances aside, I was fortunate that there were not any ‘misfortunes’ like thefts or illnesses that happened to travellers occasionally. Lastly, there was so much history and art in each place I went to, which I already enjoyed reading but it was definitely a thrill for me to be able to see and walk in those places!

This trip also holds another significance for me. At the time of the trip, there was a someone very dear to my heart. Before I commenced the trip, I promised her that I would share with her all of my experiences in any way I could. I kept that promise by sending postcards to her, almost daily. Although it did not work out in the end, I am still glad that this indirectly enriched my experiences of the trip.

As a side note, another ‘first’ was that since I had just received as a birthday present a Nikon F50 SLR (out of production now, I believe) camera, this provided the perfect opportunity for me to test drive and see if I have any artistic streak in me!? Here are some of the photos I took using the new camera, and I hope you can enjoy!