Twice around the world in 40 days

[RooFlyer]

Before the next post, some summary thoughts on visiting Israel. The over-abundance of biblical and Islamic history goes without saying. Tour groups predominate over independent travellers, and that doesn't make for a pleasant experience, often. The beaches and food & wine I didn't get into much but I think would be a highlight if you were more relaxed than me and lingered for those experiences.

Two negatives, and they aren't disastrous, but notable, in my view. First, relatively low penetration of English, including in public transport areas such as the airport and trains but also many restaurants that I came across. On the roads, it was just OK, but I took a few wrong turns where there were signs in Hebrew and Arabic, but no English. Drivers on the freeways are aggressive and busses do NOT give way. The second is a general attitude of many folk in the service industries which I thought several times was archetypical 'New Yorker'. Gruff, and 'I don't give a stuff'. Again, if you get away from the tourist hot-spots, which is where I was mostly, it would hopefully be more relaxed, but it was noticeable for me.

Security. Wasn't as tight (at least obviously) as I expected. I thought there would be soldiers with guns at the airport, train platforms etc, but there were far fewer (seen) than, say, in London or Rome. I didn't have any hesitation in going to Jerusalem, but I did feel uncomfortable at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which was packed with pilgrims and no specific security. Mind you, I used the same level of personal awareness as I did when visiting Westminster Abbey later on.

So - visit Israel; stay at a nice beach resort and enjoy the food and wine. Visit the Dead Sea, but choose your hotel with care and avoid the Crowne Plaza there like the plague. Do visit Jerusalem; I judge it to be no more dangerous than visitor hot spots in London or Paris.

 

[love_the_life]

Before the next post, some summary thoughts on visiting Israel. The over-abundance of biblical and Islamic history goes without saying. Tour groups predominate over independent travellers, and that doesn't make for a pleasant experience, often. The beaches and food & wine I didn't get into much but I think would be a highlight if you were more relaxed than me and lingered for those experiences.

Two negatives, and they aren't disastrous, but notable, in my view. First, relatively low penetration of English, including in public transport areas such as the airport and trains but also many restaurants that I came across. On the roads, it was just OK, but I took a few wrong turns where there were signs in Hebrew and Arabic, but no English. Drivers on the freeways are aggressive and busses do NOT give way. The second is a general attitude of many folk in the service industries which I thought several times was archetypical 'New Yorker'. Gruff, and 'I don't give a stuff'. Again, if you get away from the tourist hot-spots, which is where I was mostly, it would hopefully be more relaxed, but it was noticeable for me.

Security. Wasn't as tight (at least obviously) as I expected. I thought there would be soldiers with guns at the airport, train platforms etc, but there were far fewer (seen) than, say, in London or Rome. I didn't have any hesitation in going to Jerusalem, but I did feel uncomfortable at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which was packed with pilgrims and no specific security. Mind you, I used the same level of personal awareness as I did when visiting Westminster Abbey later on.

So - visit Israel; stay at a nice beach resort and enjoy the food and wine. Visit the Dead Sea, but choose your hotel with care and avoid the Crowne Plaza there like the plague. Do visit Jerusalem; I judge it to be no more dangerous than visitor hot spots in London or Paris.

Thanks for the descriptions, photos and summary RF but I’m waiting for you to move on to other places.

 

[Daver6]

With your trip report in mind and just arriving in Israel yesterday I was thinking to myself. Customer service in Israel sucks. People are just downright rude. Having said that, I find that if you actually need help and stop a random person in the street they are really warm and obliging.

I got in a taxi at the airport and the guy was just angry as heck about something. Not even sure if it was related to me or not, but geez, what a coughpy experience. Like @RooFlyer said that. This place is no more dangerous that many other places people visit. Worth a visit!

 

[RooFlyer]

Amenities kit in a soft 'wash bag'.



Menus; I forgot the wine list, but it was the same as I posted up-thread.





Drink after take-off. nuts in a little bag is a bit cheap-looking. My tray table was broken (just flopped down onto my lap). FA said she would come back and 'get your details' (sounded like a compo offer) - but she didn't. Avios would be no use to me, so I didn't pursue it. Our route took us over the Greek islands.






Lunch abt 1.5 hrs into flight, which was good. All very nice.



After lunch, I attempted a siesta with the bed deployed. There the fun ended. The foot well is tiny. At full deployment, your feet go into that box at the end - you can't put your feet either straight up, or sideways without overlapping them. No way I could sleep in this bed. Oh, the broken tray table popped out pre-christened with debris from whoever last used it.


The footwells in the bulkheads appear the way to go.



Overall, not bad for 5+hr flight, but avoid for overnighters.

 

[RooFlyer]

Arrival at LHR was the usual bad experience. At immigration, I recalled, somewhere in my mind, that 'Fast Track' wasn't the way to go, but I went into that line anyway. Big mistake! The people joining the regular queue got though a full 15 mins before I did. I took 30 mins which I guess isn't disastrous, but largely because the 2 officers processing Fast Track at first were just - <very rude bit>. Slow and tedious to a tee. How can I say that? They changed after a while, and the next two somehow managed to process each person and group in half the time the first two did.

Bag was very lonely on the carousel when I got there - obviously all the whY pax were long gone. Jeez I hate LHR>

Piccadilly line to Hammersmith and the Novotel London West Hotel.

Ooops, now boarding JAL to Japan. The TR is a bit behind!!

 

[RooFlyer]

I was in London for 3 days visiting the UK National Archives for research for my uni project (I might just be the only uni student who travels international business ). When I was here last year for the same reason, I stayed at the Novotel London West at Hammersmith. It was an awful stay and I vowed 'never again', especially as I had essentially abandoned Accor. However .... looking at convenience from both LHR by tube, and daily tube to the Archives, and general price, it just had to be the Novotel WL again. Its 5 mins from Hammersmith station which also has a lot of shops around.

And I'm happy to say it was a vastly improved stay this time. Room not bad, and quiet, which is what I wanted. The UK National archives is at Kew and is the repository of 1,000 years of history. You need to get a Readers Ticket on first arrival (I got mine years ago), then you order stuff in and examine it; you can also photograph it to your heart's content. Because I've done lots of family history research here over the years, I'm used to the funny looks I get when I answer the question "What did you see and do in London?" with "Oh, the inside of a darkened archive office and lots of musty old records."



By Saturday I had done most of what I wanted, so I took the opportunity to re-visit Westminster Abbey, which I hadn't been in for 30 years or so. I didn't expect that it would have changed much, though.

What has changed is Big Ben of course - currently in the middle of a make-over. Richard the Lionheart still giving his enemies what-for. He has a connection with Israel, as a leader in the Crusades in the 1100s.



People will know I love the carvings and details on buildings - such as the Houses of Parliament.






Now to the Abbey. Construction of the present building was begun in 1245, by Henry III, although there was St Peter's Abbey there for several centuries before that. All coronations have been held there since 1066. Nothing like a good flying buttress to get the heart going!







I had bought a ticket on-line a few days prior (UKP20). Turned out this was a good move. I turned up early and was one of those milling around the gates when they opened at 9:45. In front of the entrance, we were split into two groups - those who held tickets for the Abbey, and those that held other admittances, such as London Pass.

They obviously KNWIA, as this was the queue for the Abbey ticket-holders. RH was 'the rest' (it was much longer than in the pic).



In at 10am with little to-do and an audio guide. I was first into the Abbey main and was blessed with having some peace and quiet for the first part, at least until the rabble caught up.

LH pic is the central part of the Abbey, looking towards the point where the coronations, wedding vows etc take place. Soon after this pic, I was informed by one of the lay caretakers that photography wasn't permitted. WTF Heck? I had seen some 'no photography' signs, such as on the tomb of the unknown soldier, and resected that, but no pics, anywhere? Nope, it seems. Well, that quite pissed me off. I have been in a few - very few - churches where photography isn't allowed, and have respected that, but having paid for admission, I thought the 'sanctity of the church' rule wouldn't apply. No photography in the Sistine Chapel of course, and that's widely ignored (and exists because Mitsubishi, who sponsored the restoration years ago, wanted no commercial photography. The Vatican just extended it and has kept it up.

So I decided to ignore the rule, where I could. I was just into recording some of the 7,000 memorials to the great and the Good (and some not so great and not so good). Looking up to the tomb of Edward the Confessor (1066) RH pic.


Some of the many royal burials/monuments.

 

[RooFlyer]

I got a number of pics in but was eventually harangued by some trumped up verger in a black frock, so I gave it away. You can take pics in the Chapter House, however "because its not the church". This was where the first Parliament sat. Stained glass windows are tributes to Britain's fighting forces. The vaulted ceiling is magnificent.





I only took an hour there, wich surprised me. At that time, the queue to get in was very long.



I was briefly smug about avoiding the queue, until I decided to go to the British Museum, to re-visit the Greek and Persian exhibitions, following my visits to those areas last year. I thought I was just turning up, but there was a huge queue to get in something I don't recall ever seeing before (this was Saturday). Again, the queue was longer than I've shown. As I'm not into queuing, and this wasn't a priority visit, I turned heel and left, returning to the Archives for the afternoon.

 

[RooFlyer]

Archive offices tend to be closed on Mondays as well as Sundays so in planning this trip I wondered what I should do for two days. I really wanted to take an intro look at somewhere I hadn't been before, such as Serbia or Ukraine and spent a lot of time on LCC web sites trying to make it work. Unfortunately their use of out-of-the-way airports in the UK meant a lot of time faffing around getting to and from there and in the end I just couldn't be bothered. So I then looked at picking up some medieval history, and plumped for the south of France, thanks to a TR by @Jacques Vert . It would be scandalously brief, but better than hanging around the UK for two days where I had run out of things to do.

Again, a LCC was contemplated, but in the end BA won out, again for using a convenient airport (LHR) and incorporating an Avis rental deal. So my flirtation with Ryan Air and EasyJet came to naught.

That evening I de-camped to the Sofitel at T5 LHR to get a good start for my flight the next day. I got a great deal on the Sofitel for the one night - don't know how, exactly but it was under half the price of every other time I went to book, including for my next stay there. Its a true Sofitel, with some elegance and good service, a couple of bars and a couple of restaurants. I got some sort of upgrade (Accor Gold).



sat down in the tea room to have a drink and do some lap topping and whilst there was a drinks menu on the tabes, the service for this was excruciatingly slow. I mean glacial, even though, as you can see, there was virtually no-one else there.



I chose the less formal restaurant. Entrée of crispy squid was a let down - not much better than pub food quality, but a Thai curry was nice.



I had some time to kill after that, and not being familiar with T5 I did a recce. Its a pretty impressive bit of engineering.





Next morning, I had a good run through security at T5 -10 mins for the lot, a bit after 6am. T5 biz lounge next to security was better than the other I experienced during my transit to Israel a week before. Lounge uncrowded and brekky offerings up to par.

Boarding gate 10 via a bus to the far-far end of the BA aprons area - out next to the ?fire fighting building. It was a bog standard A320 BA flight to Toulouse in whY (separate ticket from my RTW). All quite OK for a weekend away.

 

[tgh]

I am getting dizzy, talk about fast lane travel, no moss on rooflyer's carry on….

 

[RooFlyer]

I am getting dizzy, talk about fast lane travel, no moss on rooflyer's carry on….

You are right there. I was conscious of this being a bit of a whirlwind trip when I was planning it and considered if I was overdoing it. Answer is probably yes, but I had a bunch of things to tick off the list and being away for 40 or so days is past my limit already. I always try to cram too much in . But when I get to India and Sri Lanka, things settle down - a bit.

Anyway, arrive at TLS HLO and proceed to Avis counter for my car booked through BA. Amazingly the reservation was all in order, and, asking how the tolls worked (and getting a wrong answer, it turned out) off I choofed, headed for Nimes. But the first stop was Carcassonne, made somewhat famous by the board game. The weather was coughpy and loathing tolls anyway, I took the non toll road, so got to see some nice countryside through the showers.

Carcassonne is a very well preserved (albeit restored in the 19th Century) walled city. The first fortification was probably in Roman times and by the 5th century there were walls part of which survive today. Invaders around 750 found the fortress impregnable. By the middle ages the city had assumed much of its present form.

There is easy (paid) parking nearby and you walk into the town area over this bridge and through the space between the two sets of walls.



Inside there is the town with lots of shops and crowds, but you have to pay E9 to enter the castle itself, effectively behind a third set of walls. Carcassonne perfected the use of wooden hoardings atop the walls - temporary ramparts in time of attack where the defenders could rain things down on the attackers, while calling out insults in vile French accents (and not hurling cows etc etc)



I didn't realise what it was at the time, but one side of the fortress has been adorned with the abstract yellow lines that make a shape when viewed from a certain angle. there were recent posts about it in the View from my Office thread. From the castle it just looks like a defacing.




There are exhibits in the castle, with things uncovered during the restoration in the 19th Century, led by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc.

I moved on to the church, the basilica of Saints Nazarius and Celsus, completed in the 12th century.



As usual, I appreciated the gargoyles (specifically, elongated animal or human forms designed to transmit rainwater away from the building), with the mouth being the out-spout:

 

[VPS]

What did you think of Carcassonne? It was always a bucket list and I don't know why but I was quite disappointed with it. It was incredibly crowded when I was there and I was thinking about getting a real sword instead of the plastic ones all the children had and then disposing of many said children

 

[RooFlyer]

The town was chokkers, but the paid Castle not too much. It was a cold and wet day which may have kept many away. I liked the experience. I haven't done many European Castles for years, so this was a break from mosques!

I couldn't get Monty python out of my mind, though ( the French repelling Arthur)

 

[RooFlyer]

After Carcassonne it was to my overnight stop, the Novotel in Nimes, close to Montpellier. It had the advantage of being in the historic centre of the town, but with parking . What you might call on the more basic side of Novotels, but quite OK.

I did a recce of the Roman amphitheatre I planned on visiting the next morning, but discovered it wasn't o[pen, except for some coughpy 'Spartacus' show. So the recce of the outside sufficed.



I don't know the significance of the LH feature below, but there is a strong affinity with bull fighting amongst the Roman arenas in southern France. Here's a statue to a bull fighter - poor chap, it seems he had a cancer



A war memorial, and the Palais de Justice completed my evening walk.

 

[Melburnian1]

Roo, love the photos, especially of Cagliari.

The 1100 'lunch' i something I've (not) enjoyed a few times whether in J or Y, particularly on trips starting from Oz. Why can't they respect that we want it at 1230 or 1300? Staff wanting to sleep as quickly as possible?

This will test your memory, but how much was the platter you had there (the one you couldn't finish?)

When you flew to Israel, you didn't mention any pre-boarding (at check in) quizzing by Israeli security or contractors. I thought it occurred every time.

Did you consider travelling by train from London to the south of France? More pleasant IMHO.

 

[RooFlyer]

Just about to board in HKG . I'll get back to you on those!

 

[love_the_life]

Just about to board in HKG . I'll get back to you on those!

I can't keep up. Blink and we've moved 2 continents!

 

[OZDUCK]

After Carcassonne it was to my overnight stop, the Novotel in Nimes, close to Montpellier.
I don't know the significance of the LH feature below, but there is a strong affinity with bull fighting amongst the Roman arenas in southern France.
View attachment 124998

That photo of the crocodile and what I found out is a palm tree intrigued me. Apparently the symbols date back to Roman times and are now the cities official symbol. Thanks for the photos and encouraging me to do a bit of research.

CROCODILE – SYMBOL OF NIMES

"Two thousand years of history, architecture, and art are to be found in Nimes, a lovely and surprisingly un-touristed city. Wander through the streets to feel the Roman atmosphere. And if you look carefully, you will see lots of medallions and statues of a crocodile chained to a palm tree with the inscription “COLNEM” an abbreviation of ‘Colonia Nemausus’, meaning the ‘colony’ or ’settlement’ of Nemausus. The town of Nîmes was then called Nemausus, after the god of the same name. Roman soldiers who had served Julius Caesar in his Nile campaigns, were given plots of land to cultivate in Nîmes. The chained crocodile has now become the city’s symbol."

 

[VPS]

And you see lots of these little plaques on the streets. I really like Nimes (and it helps my friend has a flat there)

 

[RooFlyer]

Well, I've been out-historied. I was a bit cheesed off at the arena being closed, so I didn't bother researching Nimes much .

Next morning, I went over to nearby Arles for some more Roman stuff, and got some bonuses.

Arles lies on the Rhone river and was a Phoenician settlement before the Romans set up camp. Van gough lived here for a few years and there are numerous references to him about the town. The Romans left a number of features, such as a Theatre and amphitheatre, which I visited. Emperor Constantine I frequented the place, and his son, Constantine II was born there. Constantine II made Arles his western capital in 408AD. I won't go into the complexities of what happened subsequently ... Holy Roman Empire, Visigoths, Kingdom of Arles ...

The main branch of the Rhone and an interesting little side street in the old town.



Place de la République, a gorgeous town square. The obelisk was first erected by Emperor Constantine II on the 400s, but fell into disrepair, was repaired and the lions change with the prevailing politics. That's the Hotel de Ville (town hall) at the end and the church at the right.



Church of St. Trophime dates from the 12th century; one of the Holy Roman Emperors was crowned here in 1178. The carvings around the entrance are exceptionally fine, and intriguing! Apparently its the story of the apocalypse.

 

[Jacques Vert]

Loving the TR but having trouble keeping up.

I trust you enjoyed Arles. I'm not sure what it is, but there is something about the town that got to me. A nice atmosphere, nice light, etc. I enjoyed my time there very much. OTOH, +1 preferred Avignon.