Turbulence

The plane ride to Paris from Copenhagen started off with an hour delay because of the snow we had here last night. They had to de-ice the plane. I slept through the whole thing but the flight didn't leave until 8am. It only took and hour and a half for it to arrive in Paris which was a pleasant surprise. It was supposed to be two hours.

I really want to call home but it's not even 5am in Montreal. It's already a long day as we've been to the tax refund counter where the rudest person in the world works. Then you have to take the paper to the Amex counter to get actual money (so strange). Our four hour lay over was reduced to three due to the delay and now we've spent an hour trying to get some euros back... what a pain.

I've somehow managed to find free wifi here in the airport and am writing this as quickly as I can while waiting for Pat to get his euros. Each person is a fifteen minute ordeal! You should see the line up too ... ouch. Still, I can't possibly be happier that I'm heading home. One more flight to go.

Things that don't work

Unfortunately we had a room here at the Copenhagen Plaza that did not have very good heating. We opted to change rooms and sure enough, to my surprise, the wireless internet I thought we had was not the hotel's. I had been bumming it off some neighbour. The room we've been moved to has zero wireless internet connections. So my emails and blog came to an abrupt end.

Now it's friday night and I'm completely exhausted. We're to get up at 4:30am tomorrow to get to the airport in time for our 7:05 flight. It'll be flight AF344 arriving in Montreal at 3:05pm. I'm very much looking forward to seeing my wife and kids. It's been very long trip although it seems to have gone quite well ... except for one small exception. Not to get into details here, but not all customers are the same. Let's put it that way.

I'm in the lobby of the hotel where they have this internet access. I was hoping to book our tickets and print them out however I need our passport numbers. I didn't bring them so it's back up to the 4th floor for me.

I miss everyone and can't wait to be on Canada time and get some much needed sleep. I'll see if this thing is still free when I get back. I look forward to seeing you tomorrow however I'll be one tired sales guy.

Friendly Danes

What a difference in attitude a two hour flight makes. The people here in Denmark are very friendly and helpful. Having gotten off the plane from Paris it's like night and day. Spacious rooms and polite service. Everyone speaks english too!

I went to see my customer in Jyllinge who had asked that we go for supper. We of course obliged because having time to stop for food has become a luxury. I had a fantastic "roast beef" which was more like a steak. Some fantastic gravy and a side of potato wedges that were just great. We're having a hard time calculating how much everything is because we have to use Danish Krone here. Traded in all our Euros at the airport with an exchange booth run by an Italian woman. That was an odd first experience in Denmark.

It's now pushing 10pm and we're beat. Only a couple more days before I can get home and have a real coffee.

Arrival into Denmark

Up early again ... this time we had a good ride to the airport and then an easy two hour flight from Paris to Copenhagen. I can't say I'm particularly going to miss Paris. It was ok, but Denmark seems a little more spacious and a little more friendly.

We're at our hotel right now and it's really cold. It's about 5 degrees out there. I'm going to try and snap some pictures of our hotel but I'm also starving. All this traveling is wearysome. At least here in Denmark we've rented a car. A very fancy pants SAAB. I'll have to get a picture of that too ... how do I do that without looking silly?

Sleeping everywhere but in bed

Up at 5am sharp this morning in order to get ourselves to the train station fo our 6:50am departure. It's so dark here in Paris at that time. Today it was an extra treat as we headed outside to face the rain. It's been gray and dark since friday but today it poured. Bad timing. We were planning on walking to the train station. So we figure to get a cab. Not possible from at that hour. The cabs are all booked as it's the busiest time of the day (?) and since it was raining it was extra impossible to get a ride. We waited about 10 minutes for the tom foolery of the reception desk here until we decided that the rain had given up enough to walk. We got a little wet but it was more important to get to our train than wait for a cab that ain't coming.

Our train ride was about an hour and forty-five minutes to Poitiers. Needless to say it was very hard to stay awake in that comfy train chair. That was followed by a forty-five minute cab ride to the customer. Thankfully it went really well there. The same cab driver (crazy as a loon) picked us up and brought us back to the station. He suggested a Boulangerie accross the street so we went and got a sandwich (or sangwitch... depends who you are) to go. It was quite good ...

From there it was another train ride further south to Pessac just five minutes south of Bordeaux.

That ended our tour of the west coast of France. We took a direct train from Bordeaux to Paris. Slept most of the way. It's surprisingly hard to stay awake in those trains. Now it's 11pm and I'm ready for bed. Only one thing left to do. Make sure a cab shows up tomorrow morning at 6:30am to bring us to the airport.

Grateful

Thanks for all your comments. Glad to see you're finding time to read my little attempt at blogging.

Me and Eiffel

Here I am ! Can't wait to show my girls the effort I went through to get them an Eiffel Tower.

Stuff happens ... and then you're tired.

Up at 6am today and went downstairs for the complementary breakfast that is offered here. Always nice to be crammed into a basement for toast and yogurt. Then it was off to the train station. It's about 20 minutes on foot (because we haven't had our fill of walking) then we sat for an hour because we were so early. The train station is quite nice for what it does. You don't get to find out what lane your train is in until 20 minutes before it takes off. Finding our car was not difficult though and we rode first class west to Lamballe where we met our first customer of the week.

The customer visit went really well and I believe the buyers were all happy to have met us. Who's not happy to receive promotional items? Right. Then it was a laugh as we waited an hour for the taxi to arrive there and pick us up afterwards. Philippe (my main contact) comes out for his pipe break and chats us up for a half hour while we're waiting. Too funny ... anyways, the taxi shows up and doesn't it say on his taxi that he doubles for an ambulance? What?? LOL. I was just dying ...

Fell asleep on the train home and got back to Paris for a quarter past eight. We then walked to our favorite little Italian restaurant (one of the few places that doesn't rip people off) and had our supper. Some noodles with ham and mushrooms. It was quite good ... of course I was starving so it's always good to eat under those conditions.

Now it's 11pm and I've got to get to bed. Tomorrow we're up at 5am to catch a trian south to Poitiers. After that we're on to Bordeaux and then back home. There's no internet in the trains so I can't write until I'm home. The train station in Paris has wifi but other than today I doubt I'll have time to open up.

I hope everyone is doing well back home. I'm tired and it's only monday. Still ... time is flying because we're busy. At least that's a good thing. I'm looking forward to getting home and seeing everyone. I've already got so many stories.

Impolite

I'm having a few good laughs at the French's idea of customer service. Apparently if you don't know what you want then they're not going to help. Despite this attitude we have successfully found some places to shop and do some haggling. It's been fun but we're beat. We walked over four hours already. Now we're resting our weary feet. I'll upload some pictures to show where we've been.

Sunday Morning

Well it was early to bed last night. Being off your clock like this isn't easy that's for sure. Now it's sunday morning and we're looking for our free breakfast. It looks kind of gray out there again. I guess it's the season.

Last night we did find the major action as far as shops and restaurants. It's just north of where we're staying. We went all the way to the water which is where the Louvre is. Night time doesn't give me the best pictures so we hope to go again today.

Time flies

It's 4pm here already and Pat's taking a nap. I'm going to stay up. Checking emails and reading news on the net. I miss my girls already but I'm surprised how fast the time has gone by. Tomorrow should be more normal in terms of jet lag. Funny how brutal a 6 hour difference is. According to my watch it's only 10 in the morning so no one is around for me to chat with. Oh well...

Train Station

We found the train station. It's a good half hour walk from the hotel. We had a nice little pizza and Pepsi in the Lafaillette shopping mall. Weird place this Paris. So far we haven't found any shopping to speak of. Everything is so expensive here.

Got it!

Figured out how this web cam works. Hellloooooo!

Saturday Morning

We succeed at finding somewhere to eat at 11 last night. Not an easy feat when all there is is coffee shops and crepes houses. Now we're up at 11am. Missed the complimentary breakfast here at Le Senat. It's a nice hotel but tiny. At least they have internet service. I can keep in touch with family tis way.
Today we're aiming for the Eiffel Tower today and maybe some other attractions. I won't be lugging my laptop around so I'll upload pictures when we're back. It's a gray day again but feels quite warm. I need a coffee...

Day 1 and a half

The flight went really well. It was the taxi ride to the hotel that took forever. Lots of traffic here in Paris. Anyway, we visited our first customer and got home for noon local. Fell asleep and didn't get up until 9:30pm. Talk about having a hard time finding a restaurant at that hour.

Now it's 2am and we're watching a movie. EdTV. Kinda wish I could sleep instead. Looking forward to seeing some of the town tomorrow. So far it hasn't been much of a visit. Tomorrow things should be different.

Lift off

I'm taking off tomorrow from the Montreal Trudeau airport at 5:30pm. The travel agent says to be at the airport 3 hours before takeoff. I'm thinking that's ridiculous. The packing is nearly done and I'm already beat. I'm going to go in a little later than normal to work and get out of there by 9 so I don't have to rush. It's going to be a long day...