Hi all. I'm back from France.
Some Disney Paris observations: Wowzers. I was not prepared for what
Disneyland Paris had to offer. Part of me thought, oh, the park wouldn't be as large (have been to Disneyland Hong Kong, Shanghai and Orlando. As I was only spending a day there, I didn't think it would be as large or intense as I actually experienced. First off, the parks are BEAUTIFUL, particularly Disneyland park. Took quite a few pictures before I even got into the park. As my hotel was located at CDG, I did NOT get to see the nighttime shows (although it definitely wont be another 26 years before I go back if I can help it) it would have taken me 2.5 hours to get back to the hotel by transit and uber was TOO much
Rides: When I said intense, I need to bold, italicize and triple underline this for the rides. Hyperspace Mountain, Big Thunder and Indiana Jones...OMG I wear glasses and i definitely heeded the operators words to store them before the ride took off. My heart was still racing after I stumbled off.
Other thoughts: The beauty cannot be understated. The metalwork around the park is top notch. I missed multiple shows. You definitely need 2 or 3 complete days from rope drop to conclusion and nearby hotels to fully take everything in. The one thing that really bothered me was the insistence for people (adults and kids) to cut in line. When they were called out on it, they just looked at you like you were in the wrong. I imagine if you were to do the same thing to them, they would squawk
Some Olympic observations. WOW!! what an amazing experience. Started off in Lille and got to see all of the first men's basketball games. Germany went up into the stands after their game Walked right by me. Couldn't get a selfie (some were able to). There was a tech glitch for South Sudan's anthem and in a great show of humanity, the stadium (27K capacity) stayed standing, applauding South Sudan with a 2 minute standing ovation and calling for them to replay the anthem (which they did). Canada, in its game vs Greece was whistled and booed heavily throughout the game. I also attended a women's basketball game between Spain and China (#2 vs #5 in the world) That was a classic which went into OT, but people were not keen even though it was included in the doubleheader ticket)
From there, I made my way down to Paris where again, AMAZING, the festival and mix of people was something to behold. I had tickets to boxing, tennis at Roland Garros, table tennis (didn't go
), racewalking (where I was right at the start finish line and watched Evan Dunfee finish 5th - got to talk with his family who has Sask roots) and rowing (was in standing only area but watched the Dutch win a gold and a close silver)
When I wasn't watching events, I visited the different houses - Club France, Holland House and Canada House. Was at Canada House when Deguchi(sp?) won gold in judo
I also brought some Canada and Saskatchewan flag pins to give and trade with people and wound up with a couple dozen pins from other National Olympic Commitees and others
Flying to/from Canada - was supposed to fly Toronto - Munich - Paris but that got changed to Toronto-Paris direct. As a result, I wound up flying with the Canadian fencing team and got a pic of the young woman who won the fencing medal as well as some of the Canadian Olympic staff and the 3X3 team
Flying back flew Paris- Toronto direct and members of the rugby team and archery team were on the flight
Took SO many pictures of the Olympics and the touristy stuff (prob close to over 4000 pictures). Will take time to sort through them all
