Freddy goes to Paris

With all the tripping around we have done for Steve's work he decided the girls needed a treat so he took us to Paris.... so from Mieke and James house we went to Dorridge train station where we caught the train to Marleybone where Steve met us! We then took the tube to Kings Cross St Pancreas where we took the Eurostar train to Paris. We went under the English channel and we were in the tunnel for twenty minutes! 

On the first day we went to Disneyland!

Bella outside Sleeping Beauty's castle - you walk through the castle to Fantasyland!

The girls were very excited yet did not quite know what to expect. Sari said she was excited about seeing 'Donald the Duck'. Steve and Caro both visited Disneyland LA as 3 year olds so looked forward to seeing what they remembered. We started with Fantasyland...

Our first ride was the Carousel

Luckily we timed our visit after the school holidays had finished so the crowds were not as big and the wait times not as long as normal. The longest we waited was 30 minutes for the Dumbo ride

Bella rode her own Dumbo, Steve and Sari were in the elephant behind.

On the Dumbo ride there was a a gearstick you used to fly your own Dumbo up and down as you wanted! Steve remembered this from his first time at Disneyland! Phoebe was unfortunately too small for this ride so had to sit it out - you needed to be 1 year old.

But luckily she grew by three months in time to ride the spinning Tea Cups!
Sari had to be coaxed on to this ride having met Captain Hook on the way from the Dumbo ride. We had to convince her that he was not a real pirate and he was actually a man dressed up!

We found the NZ doll and the kiwi in Its a Small World! 

Sari loved Its a Small World ride and Caro even remembered this from her first time at Disneyland - who wouldn't love watching singing and dancing dolls while riding in a boat!

We rode the steam boat the Molly Brown in Frontierland and the girls thought this was very special as their good friend back in NZ is Molly and their Nana is Molly too!

But even in Disneyland a good old playground can be just as fun - maybe it was because there were very few people and no obnoxious Disney music blaring out! We really enjoyed our Disneyland experience and came away happy but very tired! 

We stayed two nights in Paris in an apartment in St Ambroise which was very central. The apartment was on the 6th floor and there was no elevator! 

It was just next to a playground...

And had 5 balconies!

If you stood on this balcony you could see the church of St Ambriose and if you went on tippy toes you could see the top of the Eiffel Tower!

We bought our baguette from the local bakery and headed off for the Eiffel Tower early on the second day. We caught the Metro to Trocadero and as we rounded the corner of the Palais de Chaillot we saw across the Esplanade du Trocadero to the Eiffel Tower shining and beautiful in the early morning light! It took our breath away!

We wandered down through the Jardins du Trocadero where we stopped to have some breakfast, across the River Siene 

and under the Eiffel Tower!

After a bit of discussion we decided that Caro and Bella would climb the Eiffel Tower and Steve, Sari and Phoebe would find a park and some ice cream.

The view from the top of the Eiffel tower to the Parc du Champ du Mars. Steve, Sari and Phoebe played in the playground on the left a third of the way down. 

Bella and Caro found the climb up the 647 steps to the second level not too bad. They then had to take the lift to the top - they would have done the steps if they could have but there is no access to the steps after the second level. The view from the top was amazing! 

Bella and Caro at the top with the River Siene to the left.

After the Eiffel Tower we then took the Metro to the Gare du Nord and caught the Eurostar train back under the English Channel to London. What an exciting and amazing time we had in Paris! Tres extraordinaire!

 

The Paralympics

The Paralympics are now over. Tim placed 6th in the 1500m and 5th in the 800m in the T13 category. Steve said the standard has increased across all the events at the Paralympics and in Tim's events it has had a huge jump - Tims times at this Paralympics would have won the IPC world athletics champs in Christchuch last year and gold in Beijing in 2008. This was Tim's third and final Paralympics and he did amazingly well to reach both finals and run so well. 

We all enjoyed watching the different events and highlights were the Long Jump and High Jump in the T44 T42 category which is above and below the knee amputees - just remarkable how they could jump so far with the prosthetics and in the high jump how they could hop with one leg then generate enough power to clear 1.74m!

Bella was lucky enough to join Steve to watch Tim's 800m final in the Olympic Stadium. The highlight for Bella was that she could see the medal podium from her seat and she loved getting up and down for the medal ceremonies and watching the athletes get their medals. 

Bella in front of the Olympic Stadium!