We travelled from San Francisco down to Mexico. In the journey, we stopped at a few places.
While in Los Angeles, we stopped at Chinatown.
I arrived in London Luton Airport from Paris and stayed in the Aylesbury area for one night. The next day, I took the tube (train) to London (about 35 minutes) and stayed for 2 days. I took another tube to Ipswich, which is in Suffolk, for another 2 days.
While I was travelling in the tube, I heard multiple announcements that transport workers going on strike on the coming Sunday. Passengers were advised to make their own alternative transport arrangement. As my flight was on the strike day, I decided to take the airport bus from Ipswich station to Stanstead airport. In fact, I took the earlier bus (2 hours earlier) and reached the airport 4 hours before the flight. I flew with the budget airline, Ryan Air, to Berlin, Germany.
San Diego is very close to the Mexico border. It is well-known for beaches, parks and warm climate. In San Diego, there are the world-famous Zoo, Safari Park, Seaworld and Legoland but I did not visit any one of them. However, I did cross the border and walked into Mexico.
The Vatican City is in Rome. It is the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church. This is the world’s smallest independent nation-state, with 44 hectares in size. You just need to take about an hour to walk through the whole country.
You could climb to the top and have a nice aerial view.
You could walk into the city for free. However, you will have to pay to enter the Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museums. I went inside the both of them and recommend that you should also go inside. At the end of the route, you could see the paintings of Michelangelo on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. It was so beautiful that I just want to stay there as long as I could.
I was thinking of taking the Euro train from Paris to London. Because of my hesitation, I have to take the plane instead. It would be cheaper if I get the train ticket online while I was in Singapore as the price of the ticket keeps on increasing till I found that it is cheaper to take the domestic flight.
From Chinatown, I took a slow walk to the British Museum with my 65 litre backpack behind my back and a green haversack in front of me. The entrance to the museum is free but I was being denied entry at the gate by the guard because of my big and heavy backpack.
It took me about 2 hours to travel from Brussel to the Burgundy region in South of France. This is the countryside and there is no shopping centres or fast food restaurants. The place is every peaceful and I even camp near the river for a night.
Pont Canal De Briare
The Castle
There was a market near the castle.
I visited a museum.
There were people fishing and playing along the lake.
I have to pay 9 Euro to enter Chateau de Guedelo. This is a construction site where a team of people is trying to build a castle using the techniques and materials used in the old days (without the help of technology). The daily work stops after sunset as there is no electricity. The project began in 1997 and is scheduled to complete in 25 years.
Each year hundreds of people visited the site and this place is now a popular tourist spot. According to the information I have gathered while I was there, the authority has already collected enough money from the entrance fee to build the castle. Now they are trying to slow down the work so that more money can be collected. What a good business strategy!
Parc Astérix is a theme park situated in the north of Paris, France. This theme park is based on the stories of the French comic character Asterix. You will enjoy the park more if you do know about European comics and appreciate the France humour.
If you have more time, take a walk across the bridge and have a good aerial view of the habour.
You could sign up for the half day climb of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and get certified.
There is also the Rock where you could have some refreshment while doing your shopping.
You could also take the ferry to the zoo or to the other side of the nude beach and take a bus back. Just take note of the timetable for the ferry as the last boat is at 5pm.
