The final couple of days of 7 week European Christmas trip, the long trip home… and the trip wrap-up. Everyone’s favourite bits (and least favourite!).
Like our start to the trip, we had a few issues.
Back at CDG airport….
This was day 48 & Day 49 – Paris, France to Canberra, Australia via Sydney and Tokyo – Thursday 16 Jan to Sat 18 January.
After our frantic day of shopping and eating in Paris, we made it back to Charles de Gaulle airport with plenty of time and were glad to have priority check-in, when we saw the giant lines at the JAL counter. JAL then refused to check our luggage all the way through, despite our flights being linked to the Qantas domestic flight, so we were were a bit worried about making our connection.
We had to placate Anto, who was rather annoyed at JAL, with plenty of French pastries and champagne in the Air France lounge.
Here we are, all 5 of us made it alive through 7 weeks of travel and we breathed a collective sigh of exhaustion when in the lounge ready for the trip home.
Despite none of us being hungry after our buffet breakfast, and box of French pastries we just hoovered, we still managed to find some additional stomach room for our last bits of French bread, butter and pastries. Who knows when we were going to get the real deal again!
Then the staff brought around h’ors oeuvres and French champagne I was compelled to drink. It wasn’t a terrible way to end the holiday!
Off to Tokyo….
Our flight took off around 5.30pm on Thursday the 16th. Like the Tokyo – Paris leg, the premium economy cabinon our JAL flight was pretty empty.
Despite being exhausted after a late night the previous night flying from Oslo, and our speed shopping in Paris, the kids got a second wind.
We watched our last European sunset as we flew over France and got through a couple of movies while drinks and our meals arrived (yes more eating!).
Premium in JAL has the economy meals, which were generally pretty good (although not as good as the business ones as evidenced by Di, Lorraine and Max). Zinnia got amazing kids meals though, they were so cute, and huge!
These 14 odd hour legs aren’t fun but at least we had some darkness and all napped a bit. We’d all made it through about 2 movies already so sleep was in order.
Our flight path today did not go over the Arctic Circle unlike our trip over to Europe. So sadly no Northern lights out the window this time. We were pretty quickly into daylight again as we skirted around Russia. I was surprised to wake up and find all the blinds shut and Astrid informed me the tiny Japanese hosties had come around with giant sticks to poke them all closed while we slept.
By 2am Paris time we were all awake and the kids had a third wind, so that was the end of sleep. We convinced ourselves it was fine as it was daytime in Australia now anyway!
Hello Tokyo…..
Soon we were approaching Tokyo and could see the huge city below us. It was a beautiful clear afternoon, so we got great landing views.
It was a very uneventful flight (thankfully!) and we landed in Tokyo just after 3pm local time on the 17th. We had 4.5 hours to kill, before our next leg so off to the lounge it was via a little (disappointing) duty free shopping. It had been 7 weeks between Japanese feasts so plenty of udon, ramen and egg rolls were consumed.
We all appreciated the excellent Japanese showers in the fancy shower rooms. Although Soren disappeared for over 45 minutes, having his shower, and we subsequently discovered he was using google translate to figure out what all the buttons did on the shower and toilet. He still got some amusing surprises when he hit the wrong ones!
The kids also discovered the massage chair room, which amused them for a good hour. The sun had set again and and once we got bored of the lounge we were in we moved to the next JAL one upstairs which was even quieter with more comfy chairs – we now know for next time!
The sun was well and truly set and we were rather weary and very glad when I flight was called for boarding.
When we arrived at the gate for boarding we found it delayed but we couldn’t be bothered heading back to the lounge. They then announced there was bad weather in both Tokyo and Sydney and the seat belt sign was going to be on for a lot of the flight, and we were advised to use the bathroom now! This did not bode well for a peaceful flight.
An eventful flight back to Sydney…
Eventually we were on the plane, again like the outbound Syd-Tokyo leg the premium cabin was packed. Anto was so tired that he fell asleep during our extremely long taxi around the airport and he must have kept thinking we were in the air and was trying to lie his seat back and put his foot rest down, while Soren grumpily shoved it back up for him and told him we were still on the ground!
As predicted it took forever for the seat belt sign to go off. I’d gotten through at least another 1.5 movies before they finally finished the drinks and meal service. Zinnia again got a super cute meal (the ones out of Tokyo were always amazing) and was determined to wake up and eat it.
Having grazed on food for about 2 days straight we all tried to get some rest, which was partially successful. Unfortunately, the lights were all back on by 2.30am as the poor weather meant they had to do the breakfast service early so the crew could be seated for the last 1.5 hours of the flight which was expected to be very turbulent. This made for limited sleep for tired people….
More food, more movies – I got through at least 6 between Paris and Sydney. We were definitely all ready to be on the ground in Australia!
As soon as we hit the East coast of Australia the weather was indeed disgusting. The last bit into Sydney we weren’t sure we were even going to be able to land, and it was a bit of a gnarly approach and landing with storms and gale force winds, but we landed just before 7am on the 18th.
So close, but yet so far….
It was pouring as we got off the plane, Sydney had really turned on the weather for us. It was supposed to be a beautiful hot Summer’s day back in Australia! Instead it was windy, rainy and 17 degrees.
Almost home but we had a tight connection and needed to get those bags rechecked. We sped through to immigration, skipping duty free as we were worried we wouldn’t make our connection. We got through immigration super fast as Zinnia was too young for e-passport and there was no line at the counter (bonus). While waiting for our bags Anto got our long list of declarables signed off by quarantine without having to open our bags (double bonus). We were out and over to the transfer counter where Qantas said they’d recheck our bags as we had our e-boarding passes, so the bags were gone, phew. We were onto the transfer bus and we made it to our gate for our flight with 10 minutes until boarding. Home was in sight!
It was 8am and there was our plane waiting for us. We’d be home pretty soon……..
We procured an actual coffee (yay!) and despite the weather it looked like it wasn’t even delayed – half the board was full of cancellations and delays. Then they announced a 10 minute delay due to a water leak on the airbridge. Then a further delay as our plane was now being diverted to an international flight……
There was now a very cranky gate full of passengers (the majority of whom had been on international connections and were very tired). After a couple of hours it was established we were not getting a new aircraft. A few people got spots on the next flight at 11.30am but not us. There were no train seats available that day, no bus seats until later in the afternoon (and not 5 on the same bus). Anto couldn’t find a car big enough for us and our luggage that we could hire. Plus we hadn’t slept much in 3 days so we didn’t really want to drive the 300km home.
This is the part of travel that is just not fun. You want to get home, you are tired and jet lagged and all you want is a shower and your own bed.
In the end Qantas organised a chartered coach to get the remaining passengers from our cancelled flight to Canberra. We decided to go with the coach as we just wanted to get home and the board was filling up with cancelled flights due to the weather, so we were not keen on waiting to see if we maybe got a spot on the 4.30pm flight.
Our bags were retrieved and we had to go obtain some dodgy Sydney airport food to get us through the next few hours …… the thoughts of those French pastries and champagne from before we left were not helping!
Our bus driver had a good sense of humour given the load of smelly, tired, cranky passengers he ended up with, and we were very pleased not to be driving in the rain and wind on no sleep. Before long the kids collapsed and even the adults micronapped through most of the 3 hours to Canberra.
After leaving Norway on the Wednesday afternoon, it was now 2pm on the Sunday. A long journey indeed. We all agreed the longest bit was the many hours between our pre-7am arrival into Sydney and finally making it to the cars and seeing Lorraine for the first time since we all departed Vienna, a few weeks earlier, and Mikl, who we’d last seen when he was helping us sort out cars at almost midnight in November, when Qantas stuffed up our outbound flight.
We made it home many hours later than planned but at were at least home.The chickens and Inti were very pleased to see us and we were very pleased to see them and our own beds! It had been a fabulous 7 weeks of adventure, amazing places, great food and so many wonderful memories for the years to come.
The trip wrap-up…..
This trip was 50 days (7 weeks and a day) in total. We visited 9 countries: Japan, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Poland, Sweden and Norway. It was the first time for any of us to Japan and Norway. The kids and I hadn’t been to Hungary and Poland before either (Anto had apparently visited as a 4 year old). Zinnia, the poor deprived child of the Covid travel-ban era added 9 new countries to her list.
We stayed in 15 different cities during the 7 weeks, and did day trips to 5 others! Even though we mostly had 4 nights in each place, there was an awful lot of packing up and moving our luggage.
We ended up doing 8 flights (2 were cancelled – thanks Qantas!) and at least 20 international trains (plus quite a few more shorter trains).
Aside from some mild temperatures in our outbound stopover in Tokyo, where we got to the mid teens (and T-shirts!) we barely had anything above 5 or 6 degrees for most of the trip. Pretty much all of January was sub-zero, day and night, and our coldest temperatures were in Sweden where we hit minus 15! The upside was that we had snow, lots of snow during our trip. Including that much longed for White Christmas. We also got lucky with very few rainy days. There wasn’t a lot of daylight in some of our stops – Poland, Norway and Sweden we had the sun setting by 3.30pm but we made the most of our days and the weather.
I definitely lost count of how many Christmas markets we visited….. and how many glühweins we drank. Our 2015/16 Christmas trip we’d thoroughly enjoyed our Christmas markets and were keen to repeat the experience, this time in many new cities.
Each country (and region) had different styles of markets and plenty of different foods to try and souvenirs to buy. We definitely noticed that prices have increased a lot since our last trip and the conversion from Aussie dollars certainly made it more expensive than we experienced last time. This didn’t dampen our enthusiasm for Christmas markets but it did curtail some of our eating and shopping! A few of us thought Cologne in Germany had the best variety of Christmas Markets, but Strasbourg and Colmar in France were definitely the most beautiful, with Christmas decorations.
Favourite memories
When we returned I asked each of the kids their favourite (and least favourite) places and memories from the trip. They didn’t hear each others answers but all gave remarkably similar verdicts. It’s fun to look back on which places they enjoyed the most and maybe we’ll get to visit there again soon.
Zinnia
I liked when we went to the Michelin star restaurant in Budapest and I did my colouring in. I also liked our special Christmas dinner in Innsbruck, when it was very dark. I liked the fireworks on New Year’s Eve in Budapest, even though they were loud and scary.
I liked going up the Eiffel Tower but it was a bit scary up the top on the third level.
I liked ice skating everywhere but my favourite was the ice skating in Warsaw, near our apartment. I really liked the food in Paris.
My favourite place was Mürren because I liked the snow and sledding. I didn’t like Basel because I was feeling sick and it was raining and cold. I want to go back to Basel one day without everyone feeling sick.
Soren
I really enjoyed going to Ichiran in Tokyo, both for the food and the experience.
I loved the sledding in Mürren, Innsbruck and then again in Sweden.
Overall my favourite place was Murren, because of the snow and the apartment (our beautiful chalet in the mountains).
My favourite city – Mürren, and then Brunsberg (staying with Bjorn and going in the snow).
My worst day was in Basel as I was really sick and it was cold.
I think Cologne had the best Christmas markets. My favourite memory – our first night in Cologne in the xmas markets with kinderpunsch.
Astrid
I would like to go back to Japan and see more of the country and spend more time in Tokyo.
I enjoyed Mürren the most because of the views, the snow and sledding even though getting there is annoying, with all the trains and cable cars.
I didn’t enjoy Basel because of the weather, this was my least favourite place.
I still liked Innsbruck even though I was feeling sick for most of the time we were there, due to the gastro bug and missed out on some of the dinners and markets.
One of my favourite memories is of the ice skating rink near the apartment in Warsaw.
Anto
My best memories:
– The unexpected Northern lights from the plane on the way over.
– The Oslo ‘cruise’ + all the interesting indoor & outdoors art / museum stuff in Oslo.
– For bizarre / interesting the Polish Aviation Museum – a rather weird & unexpected look into life behind the iron curtain.
– Ice skating on fairly pristine ice in the snow in the Swiss Alps.
– Auschwitz was a frankly unbelievable experience (and not in a good way) made even worse by seeing the same rhetoric that was used to justify it’s existence still being used by various groups around the world over 80 years later.
The worst day: Basel in the rain, while everyone was sick – I’m fairly sure Basel would be lovely in pretty much any other weather, but not this time. For just weird experiences, NYE in Budapest – the relative chaos and so many people doing whatever they want with explosives was an experience.
Places I’d like to go back to:
(Obviously) I’d go back to Tokyo (our next trip). Another trip for winter sports in Innsbruck, Austria (being sooo much cheaper than the Swiss Alps) would be good to do again – or perhaps we just got massively lucky with the Xmas snow. The (ex-)eastern block countries were certainly interesting, and probably worth another visit (not that we more than scratched the surface) perhaps when it’s not the depth of Winter.
Nic
I have a really hard time picking my favourite places from the this trip. I enjoyed every country and city for different reasons. It was great going back to one of my favourite cities, Paris and again having fabulous snowy-adventures in the Swiss Alps and Innsbruck, Austria. I could revisit those places over and over.
I enjoyed the markets and Christmas atmosphere and it was great to visit new German, French and Swiss cities. All the markets were very different to each other. I think I have a soft-spot for German markets but I love the different feel each city has for their markets, and even the markets within the city.
I had been really looking forward to all the ‘new’ countries I got to visit – Poland, Hungary, Norway and Japan. I think we selected some excellent cities and towns to explore and there were so many fabulous memories from each stop on this trip.
If I was forced to pick, my least favourite place was probably Budapest, but only because the weather was grey, foggy and cold the entire time we were there. I actually really enjoyed the city. I was just over the weather and was a bit tired by then. The rest of the family disliked Basel as we had a run of illness and a wet day, but I would also love to go back there in nicer weather. The most tiring day was definitely Zakopane, Poland. That was a long day trip and while it was certainly an experience I think if we hadn’t of been meeting up with my Dad and Kim, we definitely would have skipped that one.
A favourite memory is really hard. I have about 45! I think, like the kids, I loved all the snow bits again. The stunning mountain scenery, the sledding and ice skating and mind bogglingly cold temperatures. It’s all magical. I could have spent much longer in all the snow destinations and I really didn’t want to leave either Innsbruck or Mürren.
One of the single best individual memories was us all ice skating in the dark in Mürren, surrounded by mountains and then the snow started falling (after we got soaked from rain). We were freezing and wet and coated in snow but it was magical and we were all laughing with the excitement and joy!
My favourite part of the trip would have to be the opportunity to soak up all the Christmas festivities in so many different cities and countries. The markets, the beautiful decorations and the food. We also got to share it friends and family along the way. Seeing the kids experience new places so much Christmas cheer was wonderful.
It’s been a long-held dream for us to all share a white Christmas together and we were so lucky to have a magical and snowy Christmas in Innsbruck. One that will be talked about for years. Even though I was struck down with our nasty rotating gastro virus on Christmas day (I really was not a fan of that) it was a very special Christmas indeed!
I might have taken over 7300 photos on this trip…. hence why it’s taken me 9 months to get through editing them all and writing up all these blogs. There were definitely some truly amazing sights though and I have so many beautiful photos and memories from those 7 weeks. It was certainly an adventure for all of us 🙂