Saturday 24th December – Early Swedish Christmas

Feeling better this morning, if still a little tender, I’d slept mostly solid until 10:30am and enjoyed a nice, private shower. Over a breakfast of pastries (as allowed per my doctor’s orders) I learnt that Christmas Eve was the main event in Holland and nothing is closed on either Eve or The Day. After breakfast,…

Friday 23rd December – Not a Great Day for Travel

Good morning. Actually, not good. I’d been up in the night with a sore tummy, cough, dry throat and trouble breathing. It all came to a head in the shower where I threw up and had hot/cold shivers. I was still optimistic as I returned to my bed, I set an alarm for 9:30am so…

Thursday 22nd December – A Friend in Paris

I allowed myself a miniature sleep in, hoping I would start feeling better but I wasn’t so lucky. My cold persisted. I did the same deal with breakfast and lunch again and caught a bike back to the Louvre. The audio guide wasn’t included with my museum pass so I explored silently because I didn’t…

Wednesday 21st December – The Local Tourist

Today, my strategy was all about avoiding as many queues as possible so I was up at 7am. Another session of coughing and spluttering in the shower to try and shake the sickness from my body, after which I had breakfast and made lunch. Not bad to do all meals except dinner on EUR3! I…

Tuesday 20th December – Paris, Le Magnifique

Alarm went off at 7am and I was ready to get up. I’d been up in fits and starts all night because the room was way too warm so my throat was now completely dry. The Irishman’s remedy didn’t work. After coughing my guts up in the shower and dropping the key card to my…

Monday 19th December – Bla Bla to Paris

Somewhere along the way I have picked up the superhuman capability to sleep wherever and whenever I need to. Today is the day those powers came out in force. I woke to my alarm still sleepy, but I’d had a good night’s sleep and I was feeling better, almost over my cold. Sabrina was the…

Sunday 18th December – Rest and Recovery

I had a rough night, but nothing compared to Sabrina. We were both feeling very poorly so no one had a great sleep. I was tossing and turning and was too cold so at some point during the night I picked up my air mattress and moved into the living room where the heating was…

Saturday 17th December – Red Light City by Night

We had a very, very late start to the day. I was up at 9am and ready to explore! After making pancakes and frying some eggs and a lot of faffing around, everyone was ready to leave at around 1pm. I would have to get used to this type of schedule! It was just over…

Friday 16th December – Gloom in Germany, Beers in Holland

I was offended by the alarm this morning. Sabrina had to be at university for an 8am class so we were up early. When I eventually dragged my arse out of bed, I felt lethargic, sick with a sore throat and in a foul mood because of stupid dreams that had been interrupted. On our…

Thursday 15th December – Five Museums, Two Sore Feet

The alarms were set, they went off, but there was no action. We both got out of bed around 9am. Sabrina had missed her class and I had missed being at my first museum for the opening time of 10am. We had a slow start but thankfully the hangovers weren’t too bad. I left the…