Today has been a case of going from something like what felt like 300 kms an hour to 10 - and I am feeling more than a little whiplashed as a result. We have spent most of the day in metings and discussion groups,and despite the fact that we did not have to wak at my usual early hour, I basically slept through my alarm that went on "alarming" for 45 minutes until I switched it off at 6:45. I only discovered this when I sat down to have dinner with Christine Ashton, who has the room opposite me, this evening, and made the comment that I had battled to wake this morning. She then said that she had heard an alarm going off perpetually, and had thought that the girl in whose room she is sleeping, and who had left some of her stuff in the room in a suitcase under the bed, must have left something that had an alarm, and she had hoped that the thing would effectively have flattened its battery by this evening. So, I guess a case of, "Boy was my face red!"
Back to the trip before the Conference and some of what I experienced.
Okay, so for those of you who diligently follwed my Facebook postings there will be some repeats here, as I think I do need to chronicle things a little - especially for when I one day get Altzheimer's - like my Mum
10 - 11 October - EuroDisney
This has never been a place that I have had a craving, or even a simple desire to visit, and yet when Helen suggested that we might wish to go along there since we were going to be going to Paris in any event, it became something we thought the kids would enjoy, and certainly then became an item of interest for me.
This is the entrance to one of the two theme parks that they have at the centre. I think it is also a hotel (there are apparently about 9 or 11 hotels in and around the actual park - and then there are a maze of parks that are a little further off - but serviced by a bus shuttle to and from the park for free every ten to twenty minutes.
I have to confess that both Christine and I felt completely overwhelmed when we encountered this. We actually arrived and had to look around at the three entrances (two to the two parks and the third was the entrance to the place that was home to various restaurants and a massive cinema complex, which we discovered on the Tuesday morning, mainly showed French films.
We then walked into the one theme park itself and that was even more of an "information overload" for us.
This was what was called "The Main Street" - and along the top "floor" there ran a train that Christine and I thought might take us around the park and give us a chance to discover the various sights of the park. We later discovered that this was actualy not the case, but it was not the end of the world - we enjoyed the time off our feet!
We passed under this and were greeted by a main street and at the end of that a massive castle - very "Sleeping Beauty" or such like.
The street was lined with a myriad of shops trying to sell their various Disney wares. We soon discovered, after walking around with Mickey Mouse ear eyes, that each shop basically had similar merchandise, with one or two things a little different to another shop. Although, here and there there were shops selling slightly more specialised goods - such as crystal encrusted jewellery or other such like things. But there were more than just one of each of these stores too.
As anyone who has been to Disneyworld will know, there are a number of different themed areas, and soon Christine and I discovered ourselves in what was called something like the "Frontier Park" - an aspect of the park dedicated to the whole American frontier discoveries.
I had made a promise to myself that I would ride at least one ride, and finally convinced Christine that we would ride the "Big Mountain" ride - or something to that effect and so we went on this funny train like affair -that we discovered was controlled remotely - and was a kind of roller coaster. Unbeknownst to us there is a camera somewhere along the ride, so at the conclusion, as one staggers out of the area, there is an old fashioned photo type stall where they sell copies of the pic that was taken digitally during the ride. We made it to the front of the pic - white knuxckles and all - and rather interestingly both commented that until that point we had never understood why people scream while on those kinds of rides. Well, we now know - you just do!
Christine also manged to lose her old reading glasses that you can see secure around her neck in this pic, but at the end of the journey, all that was left was the string that kept them around her neck. Fortunately they were her old ones, and fortunately she had brought the new ones along, so while it was a loss, it was not monumental.
We had lunch at the Toy Story section of the park, where we had a hamburger, fries and a coke for ten euros. The two former were not at all warm either!
That afternoon we meandered the streets, took the train ride around the outskirts of the theme park, but saw very little of the actual park itself, and then made our way to the street leading up towards the castle, in preparation for the Disney Parade that takes place at 5 each afternoon.
Marshalls, in a relatively (and possibly for the French very) polite manner kept people from standing in the street to catch close ups of the parade and made sure we remained on the sideewalks. We snapped away - Christine and I.
And so for the grand entrance of Mickey and Minnie:
And a rather larger than life Donald Duck:
And then we had the whole caboodle of Alice in Wonderland:
Followed by the green soldiers and then "Toy Story" characters:
And now, dear people - my washing ought to be washed and dried, and so bed calls - before midnight - hard to believe!!!
I LOVE that picture of you!!!!! hahahaha
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