City bikes Paris

In the end, mainly because of the cold we didn't actually take one of the numerous city bikes for a spin. However here's some information for would be cyclists. BTW Sunday is the best day to take a bike since traffic is substantially reduced.

Taken from (gadling.com) riders insert a credit card into a special bike rack in order to release one of the bikes. If it is never returned, the user is charged €150. If the bike is placed back into another special rack anywhere in the city within half an hour, there is no charge. Every hour after that costs €1.

Locations of velib bike stations throughout Pairs

Chartier Restaurant, 7 RUE DU FAUBOURG MONTMARTRE 75009 PARIS

Good food great atmosphere. THis is surely one of Paris' most popular eateries, and for good reason. The dining room in over 100 years old. The food is good, the atmosphere great, and the prices are very affordable.

It gets a mention in practically every guidebook. As a result it is frequented by a lot of tourists, who can chose from the range of French classic dishes on offer such as escargot, Bloc de foie gras de canard, Andouillette AAAAA. They don't take bookings instead (if you are eating anytime after 6pm til closing), you join the queue outside, and wait for a table to become available.

Food is simple but tasty.

We ate:
Starters:
Museau de boeuf vinaigrette 50,
Jambon de pays et saucisse seche (dried meat) 55
Oeuf dur mayonnaise (Egg mayonaise) 70
Terrine de campagne (Block of country pate) 75

Mains:
Magret de canard au poivre (Duck breast in pepper sauce with mash) 80,
Poulet fermier roti frites (Roast chicken with fries) 65
Choucroute alsacienne (Alsaciene sausages, meat, and potato with sauerkraut) 60
Porc aux olives (Pork with an olive sauce) 65

fromage:
Saint nectaire 65,
Fromage de chevre80
Pont l' eveque 65

Links
Menu and website

Ambassador Hotel, 16, Boulevard Haussmann, 75009 Paris

(also posted on tripadvisor)
We stayed here for the 5 nights in Dec 2008. We had a double room on the 7th floor which had a view of the Eiffel Tower. The location of the hotel is excellent being near the Opera and beside major department stores. The room was comfortable and bigger than previous hotel rooms we have experienced in Paris. I would say, if you were picky you might find the location of the bathroom( its door opened onto the bed) a little off putting. Our room had an interconnecting door which may explain the level of noise from our neighbours - they weren't being noisy but we could hear every sentence they said as clearly as if they were in the room with us - not a very romantic scenario! This was the only real negative of an otherwise enjoyable stay.

Paris

We visited Paris for 5 nights from Dec 26 - 31. We stayed in the opera region. Very central area for shops and restaurants, and walkable distance to Louvre, Champs Elysée etc.

Treking Nepal

Here's an article I swiped from http://www.leelau.net/chai/nepal.htm

Their website seems to a be a bit up and down so I'm copying it here.



Subject: Everest vs Annapurna - a detailed study

Date: Thu, 23 Dec 1999

I did not want to bore most people on my email list with the details of this but since many of you wanted to know why I rated Everest ahead of Annapurna, here goes...

Flora/fauna and trail-side scenery - Anna
Lodge quality and amenities - Anna
Crowds and the regions ability to spread them out - Anna
Variety of terrain throughout the route - Anna
Less altitude problems and warmer climate - Anna
Costs and prices - Anna
Pretty villages and temples/culture thing - Anna
Stunning mountain views - Everest

So, Annapurna wins every category except the most important one, mountains views. I came to Nepal to see incredible mountains. Not just ordinary ones but huge in-your-face towering walls which make your neck stiff. For all but a select group of obsessed mountain loving people I would recommend Annapurna over Everest. Most people would not appreciate Everest's stunning views enough to put-up its mis-givings. Annapurna's big strength is the amazing variety of terrain you trekked through and I think that would appeal more to most people.

In 17 days you went from sub-tropical jungle to alpine forest (similar to Banff) to tundra-like open pastures to rocky scree and glaciers to high dray Tibetan plateau then back to pine forests and sub-tropical jungle. But, you rarely got the incredible mountain views and that was the surprising thing. In 17 days circling this huge massif of 7000-8000m peaks there were only a day or 2 when you got to see them unobstructed and in-your-face. The rest of the time they were behind a ridge or the trail was just too deep in the valley.

Everest, for the most part had only one type of terrain, above tree-line grassy slopes with monster mountains all around you. It was easy to ignore the crappy trail conditions, shitty lodges, bitter cold, hoards of people, ugly villages etc. since the views were just so damn good.

Annapurna's top 3 viewpoints were : Thorung La Pass looking down to the Tibetan Plateau and Mustang Valley, Tilicho Lake, main massif from Pisang/Manang high-route. Although these 3 were spectacular, they do not even come close to Everest's trio of Gokyo Ri, Chhukung Ri and Kala Pattar....and this is the main reason I rate Everest ahead.

The 3rd trek I did, Annapurna Sanctuary falls far behind the above 2. 7 day hike and 6 of them were just plain ordinary. There was nothing wrong those 6 days but I did not trot all the way to Nepal just for "ordinary". The 7th day was spectacular but 1 in 7 does not cut it. Everest on the other-hand was about 15 in 22 and Annapurna about 7 in 17. Also, as far as mountain amphitheatre's go, I felt Chhukung surpassed the Sanctuary.

Thank goodness I did the 3 day Tilicho Lake side-trip which provided most of Annapurna's big mountain views and vista's. A new 2 year-old lodge built half-way to this lake has provided access without having to camp. Tilicho Lake is huge body of water at 5000m with Herzog's famous Grand Barrier (a monster 7000m wall of ice and rock) tumbling into its south shore. I still can't believe very few bother to see it (less than 10% of passing trekkers). Lazy buggers.

As for overall hiking regions, here's my say :
1) Karakorams
2) Everest
3) Annapurna Circuit, Alaska, Cdn Rockies (tie)

Restuarant Review; Siam Thai Dublin

Siam Thai. St Andrew Street, 353 (01) 6773363, http://homepage.eircom.net/~siames/Andrew-St.htm

This was my first visit to Siam Thai. They have 3 branches currently in Dublin, the other two are in Malahide, and Ballsbridge.

They offer an early bird menu which offers a slightly cheaper version of some of the a la carte dishes. It offers ok value if you have 2 or more courses. Since we were both hungry, we went for early bird options. 2 mixed starter platter consisting of ribs, spring roll, satay chicken, We found the starters slightly poor. Run of the mill dishes you'd expect from your local takeaway.

The mains were slightly better. I had beef penang curry. Nice but not as good as my benchmak dish of Lamb Massaman from Diep Noddle. Bit stingy on the curry sauce... Guest A's' chicken and oyster sauce was unremarkable. We skipped desert, always a good idea in Dublin Asian restuarants.

Other details.. Draft beer is available, a list of wine, full bottles, half bottles is avalable. Full bottles from €18. Staff good. Nothing extrodinary here. Average cooking at the usual Dublin overinflated prices. Eatly bird slightly improves this. Not the worst but we won't be hurrying back.

6/10.

Mount Zeus

At 1003m (reports vary from 1001 to 1004) Mount Zeus is the highest point on Naxos.

Fantastic panoramic views greet you from the top so it is a worthwhile climb.

There are 2 different starting points.

The first is the route marked on the road that takes you past Zeus cave. It is more difficult that the second route. I managed to get lost twice on this route.

The second route is easier, and better marked. It starts from Agia Maria chapel on the road to Danakas. (About 3 km further from the turn off for Zeus Cave and the first route).

Air Canada and Westjet.

Just back from a holiday to Canada. Few Air Canada from London to Toronto.

I'm afraid I have to say I found them to be one of the worst long haul carriers I have ever flown with.

• Old plane (Boeing 767)
  
• Poor food
  
• Little legroom
  
• No individual video screens.
  
• Very few video screens per section means you can have a bad view of screen (as we did).
  
• On both outward and return journey the headphone socket did not work correctly (had to hold it constantly to get it to work)
  
• very poor film selection (including original 1978 superman, and 1989 Batman).
  

As part of the same holiday we also flew WestJet internally from Toronto to Charlottetown PEI. The difference was huge.

• Modern planes.
  
• Individual video screens.
  
• Satelite tv channels available to your individual video screen
  
• Westjet staff were exceptional.

The flight from toronto to Charlottetown was the most enjoyable fight I was ever on. The lead flilght attendent (I belive her name was Cara) has a future career as a stand up comedian. Who would have thought a sercurity briefing could be so funny. I have never seen passengers pay so much attention to it before. (I must also stress that it was still completely professional and covered all the aspects required).

So its WestJet 1 Air Canada 0. I know who I'll be flying with in future.