Chad Is Everywhere

The last stop of my recent overseas trip was a stopover in Hong Kong on the way back. You see I had friends there to visit. This alone made it the perfect city I had not seen before to stopover in Asia at. And then it just got better. My former flatmate in China decided she could make a side trip for a stopover to say hello too! Awesome I thought. I had just 48 hours in Hong Kong. Enough time to see some places without getting into much trouble. Heck my biggest trouble was booking the wrong hotel dates before I even left the country. I gave my friends a free stay-cation (travel term for going nowhere). Anyway the replacement hotel happened to just be the same hotel my university course had discussed in a lecture, The Eaton Hotel. It was right smack bang in the middle of Nathan Road. Unfortunately for me why it came up into the search was that it was actually undergoing renovations at the exact time I had arrived. I mean I didn't get any noise on the 18th floor, and the glass ...

Antwerp was a hard decision for me when it came to deciding upon my last few days of my European trip this time around. I had initially thought I'd visit Amsterdam again as this was my departure city out of Europe by plane. However I didn't pull the trigger on a decision straight away. And as time went by things kept working against Amsterdam. Hotel prices in the start of July were ridiculous. Even the hostel rooms were going for over $50AUD a night, for a shared room. By the time a decision was required I had reflected upon having been to Amsterdam before, and was believing the hype of avoiding cities which are obviously hitting the maximum capacity for tourism. The start of Northern Hemisphere holidays meant it was getting flooded by those who know only the big name cities. Perhaps it was too many young tourist thinking it was the only city you can get high. Or the only place with trendy bars and frites. My internal decision process kicked in. No Chad you've been to Br...

Visiting Verviers for the start of day 3 of the Tour offered a different experience to that of Dusseldorf. This time I was outside of the big city environment. This was the first true day of Le Tour starting in a small city along the way. Away from all the big crowds of the days before. This presented a unique opportunity to walk around the starting point with it's stage for the riders announcing their arrival and signing in. Walk around the promotional stands of the sponsors, and them also do my own Le Tour souvenir shopping while waiting for the day to start. I unfortunately didn't quite get all my timing right on the day. I had mistakenly thought the riders were departing at 10:15am. No this was merely the carnival. The riders didn't depart until 12:15pm. 2 hours later. It didn't cause a big issue. Just meant that whereas I had thought I had time to explore Verviers after the tour had departed mean I had to rush to a train I had booked at 12:40pm (alas it ended u...

In my planning for visiting the Le Tour I realised I should just add in an extra day following the tour. Not because I needed to, but because when the heck was I going to be in Europe again at the same time. This was after all a bucket list item I'd be completing. So after much back and forth on how to end my European leg of my holiday I settled on a plan of taking a train ride down to Aachen on the German border for the night, and then catching a train to Verviers for the start of day 3. In researching this option I had read that staying in villages or towns where the tours starts or stops for a night was often expensive, and accommodation hard to find. Aachen I found was the perfect solution. It was only an hour from Dusseldorf. And the next day the Dbahn / Belgian Rail trip cost all of 7 euro each way, a half hour of my time, and it had multiple budget hotels located close to the railway station for my ease of transit. So it fit my brief all round. I could leave my bags at th...

Day 2 of Le Tour was a new adventure. This was where I got to see all the riders as one big bunch. Originally I was not expecting to see it having been indicated we'd do a day trip. But traffic was to be impossible for a day trip. So a trip into the Tour start was as the best idea.  We managed to line up a position near the start within the ceremonial introductory riding area before the riders when to a presentation, and then were onto their bikes for a bit more before completing the neutral zone and game on! It also meant we could just waltz around the corner to get them a second time. Sweet. After that it was farewell to Oscar and Greg leaving Lina and I for a day walking around the city and all of the festival events of the tour before I departed on a train. Thanks Lina, Gregoire, and Oscar for spending the time with me in Düsseldorf.    at Le Tour.

Before I even go into my experience of the Tour de France I just want to give you all an insight to how I got there. And why this was a bucket list item of inevitability. I've for quite some time enjoyed watching the Tour de France each year as it traverses through the French countryside. Watching the television screen as the camera would take us up close as the pentalon of riders zoom through a small French village filled with tourist, to then cut to an aerial view of some 14th century chateau that's been held in the same family since the 1600s. It always captured my interest late at night as the coverage would not start until after 10pm at night when all of the day in Australia was done and there was nothing much to do but to curl up on a couch in the middle of winter thinking of my next trip. Not thinking of work. Mindless late night television for a night owl. I watch the tour like it's a television series. I love the food segments. I am seriously starting to und...

I finally returned to Hamburg. Having made a promise a long time ago to some former guests that I'd visit them in Hamburg I finally took a flight back up that way. Here I was thinking finally made it back. So much has changed, gosh their daughter must be like 1 and a half by now. Nope Chad, try 2 and a half. It had been 5 years since my friends had been in Brisbane. Whoops! Seriously that long. Anyway I scheduled 2 nights in Hamburg as I wanted to catch up with my friends, and I wanted to see more of Hamburg. I had only spend 1 night there 10 years before. Luckily Valentina and George were very hospitable. They even did a German BBQ for me the 2nd night. I was stoked. After 2 weeks of travel I was hankering for just something with salad! That was an awesome dinner. So great to have friends all around the world. I don't get to see them all the time. But it's good to know I got friends who will catch up whenever we're in the some location. My days were spent walki...

Lisbon is the darling of the tourism world at the moment if you take the time to read the travel websites. Portugal is of course the place you should be, as all other countries are considered old news. And to add to it's attraction Portugal is priced nicely too. Although busy it's not Barcelona, nor London. Lisbon is a place many travellers visit after they've seen some of the more famous European cities. Yet if I remember my educational history of ocean explorers of the 1600s I really am under selling the importance of Portugal as an influencing country of the ages. Portugal is though for size punching above it's weight. A bit like Australia really. Perhaps why I like it. It is in the shadow of Spain trying to get attention. So in retrospect it's probably more like Canada. I suspect their tourism slogan is "we're not Spain". It's a shame really because from what I've seen Portugal really is an under explored gem of a country. I still don...

Madrid was the last stop on my whirlwind tour of Southern Spain and Portugal. However it wasn't merely a "we're here" type of day. Tour really wanted to kind of say to people we'll get you to Madrid, but first we'll visit Toledo. And when you get to Madrid must try the burrito, and what you do after that, freedom. But burrito first. Why burrito, and why do I mention the Burrito. First off it was the customary last meal with our guide and tour group. And secondly it was the biggest and best burrito I've ever had. That's why. This was a meal the tour leader had looked forward to all trip. And it didn't disappoint. I was not underfed by this monster. I slept well after too.   And I was smart enough to avoid the pub crawl after. For I had plans for breakfast the next morning to catch up with my cousin who of all things had flown out for a pharmacy medical conference in the Madrid. It's not everyday you get to meet up with your ...