Bisou Ciao: The Cold Lands

It would be hard to think of two more contrasting places than Fes and Paris, and we are both excited and relieved to be returning to Europe.

We land at Paris Beauvais airport, about 100km from Paris centre itself. On the shuttle ride in Oli catches his first glimpse of the Eiffel tower at night - a magical sight!

Eiffel Tower at night

Coincidentally the taxi driver is from Morocco, and takes great pleasure in playing us some tunes from back home on the otherwise peaceful ride in….

Paris is the first stop in the 'Cold Part' of our trip - this is how we have been referring to the forthcoming 3 weeks while we have been swanning around the sunnier parts of Europe.

We expect Paris to be cold, but our first day dawns blue skied and warm. A perfect day for exploring Paris on foot, we set off on a mammoth walking mission including all the major sights of the city.

The Arc - right next to our hotel

A beautiful day for walking down the Champs Elysees

We tick off the Champs Elysees, the Notre Dame, and the Louvre. A German student sells us her tickets at a discounted rate after she had left early, and we manage to skip the queue to the Louvre. This saves us at least an hour and 10 euro. We put in a valiant effort at the Louvre, but aside from seeing the Mona Lisa we struggle to get excited about the no doubt fabulous art displayed.

We preferred the outside...

Our walking route takes us down through St. Germain and we come upon the Eiffel tower just as dusk is approaching. A great time for photos, we watch the lights come on and resolve to climb the tower the next day.

Sadly the following day dawns rainy and cold. Undaunted, as this was more seasonal, we head out for our second sightseeing day, focussing more on food, shopping and this time use the metro to get around.

Rainy day Sacre Coeur

Best to stay tucked inside bookshops like these

All in all, 3 fantastic days in Paris. So much to do and barely able to scratch the surface, but we will no doubt return soon!

From Paris we take a train to Brussels and from there on to Bruges. Oli's godmother, Teresa has come down from London to meet us and spend a couple of days together in Bruges.

Bruges by night

And by day...

Just like the movie really, the town is almost too picturesque. We spend a fun day doing the proper tourist thing and enjoy a canal tour, a chocolate factory tour, and we even climb the city tower (which was overrated). The highlight is hiring some bikes and riding to the nearby village of Damme, which is possibly even better looking than Bruges!

Biking in Bruges

Heading out to Damme

Damme pretty

The food and beer in Bruges was definitely something special, our favourite being the variations on Flemish stew. Three nights in Bruges pass easily and it was great to be able to see Teresa, albeit for such a short time.

Autumn colours

Our next stop is Amsterdam, another short train ride away. This time Oli's aunt, Wendy, is flying from the UK to meet us for a couple of days. We have booked at the same hotel, the funky Citizen M.

I am sterdam

Amsterdam is cold and grey, but we enjoy a canal tour and wander around the streets of the Jordaan and the '9 streets' shopping district. We have a couple of excellent meals with Wendy and it is great to be able to catch up!

Cold canals

Houseboats on canal

We feel that being in Amsterdam we need to see some windmills and clogs, so we head out to nearby where they still have some functioning windmills and some extra large clogs to stand in. The day is grey and freezing and we are nearly the only tourists there, but they make a mean hot chocolate.