First and Last

Thursday 8 August 1996. We drove to Lands End. On the way we saw a column of smoke and a few yards farther on found a car on fire. A fire engine was approaching on the other side of the dual carriageway and I stopped to let the firement run across to fight the fire. Frank was driving behind me and pulled into the other lane to stop traffic getting past us in case they hadn't seen the firemen. The owner of the car was sitting on the grass at the side of the road. He didn't look too pleased...

By the time the firemen let us carry on, his car was a wreck, all the paint had cooked brown and blistered round the bonnet and the inside of the car had filled with smoke. On the positive side it was very entertaining for us...!

The rest of the journey was fairly non-descript after that. From the north of Newquay down to Lands End is around 43 or 44 miles straight down the A30 until you end up at the end of the peninsula where the only way to go is back the way you came. Everything here is described as the first and last in England - first and last inn, first and last shop etc. Steve was pointing the video at complete strangers and asking what they thought of the first and last public toilets...

The current Longships lighthouse first shone in 1873. 117 feet high (36m) it was installed with an 8-wick oil lamp and only electrified in 1967. On a clear night in 1898 with the lighthouse working perfectly, a ship - S.S. Bluejacket - managed to wreck itself on nearby rocks, almost wrecking the lighthouse as it did so.

An earlier lighthouse was built in 1795 by Lieutenant Henry Smith, who was granted the lease provided he built a lighthouse. In return he could charge a levy on passing ships. The levy would only become due once the lighthouse was working and unfortunately Lieutenant Smith underestimated both the time and costs required to build it and, having had to take out some hefty loans, eventually found himself in the Debtors' Prison.

There is a signpost there that you can have the mileage to your home town put up and you have your photo taken. There is a similar one at John O'Groats up in Scotland but that's probably not a viable day trip from Newquay... We gathered round the post and had a group photo taken.

We went into The Last Labyrynth an exhibition of Man and the Sea and an audio visual display of the Disneyland type. It took an hour to go round the exhibition which was quite good and when we came out it started to rain heavily. Gill had been to a shop and picked an oyster shell from a pool and there was a pearl in it that she had made into a necklace.

After that we had more or less exhausted the delights of Lands End, apart from drinking in the pub. The rain had set in so we made our way back to Newquay and walked into town with Gill and Steve, who took me into the arcades to play on some simulations of skiing and motor bike racing. Never mind the real thing, you have to be fit for these machines! Steering was done by body movements, I felt like an old crock by the time we had finished! Joints screaming for mercy, I crashed my Ducatti into a wall and gave a sigh of relief as the screen went black...

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Disneyland Paris

Wednesday 30 January 2008. In the words of the old song: "I love Paris in the Springtime". However... It's winter. It's icy cold. It's throwing it down with rain. But hey! We're in the magical environment of Disneyland, right?

Well... right... but I do have to observe that the magic is diluted a bit by a day of non-stop rain! As I noted the other day - there is no evidence and no chance in the rain of street corner musicians to cheer us a bit and so we trog round the park, getting wetter and colder and footsore. The rides were still as great as they always are - we headed first for the Pirates of The Caribbean and then Peter Pan's Wild Flight and Pinnochio.

We rushed through the castle on our first entry but will come back for a closer look this afternoon. It was still fairly quiet even at 11:00am, so perhaps other guests had looked out of their hotel windows and thought "Nahhhhhh!" We were made of sterner stuff though! Well Fran is... I was pushed and prodded and "Come on we're going"ed!
"But it's cold... I'm wet... my feet hurt..." No, you're right! I was racing round splashing in puddles and squealing with delight whilst kids pointed and asked their parents, "Regardez la! Qui est le stupid homme???"

It's a bit disconcerting when Les Pirates (pronounced "pee-rats") speak in French, but you do soon get used to it. There was a look-a-like Johnny Depp - very good indeed in fact - posing for photos as we got off the ride but he didn't recognise me, so I didn't let on to him either! The cheek! The song is still in my head even as I'm writing this... Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me... I dragged Fran round all the bits with waterfalls but by then even her enthusiasm and immunity to rain caused her to moan that I was taking her nearer even more falling water. She ignored altogether my suggestion we should run over the suspension bridge...

Gill our daughter had said we should make sure we went on the ride Buzz Lightyear's Laser Blast. She was absolutely right - it was excellent. On the front of the little pod we sat in we had a ray gun each and had to shoot at various targets of aliens and the Evil Zurg as we went round. We even had a lever that allowed us to swing the pod from side to side! Laser spots showed where we hit so we could correct our aim. Or at least so I could... Fran scored abysmally. I scored 30x her score and that was with a spell ignoring the targets to exchange deadly laser fire with the occupants of the pod in front... They got off with little wisps of smoke rising from their coats...

We had some lunch and then went to see the excellent Lion King show in Discoveryland. Before the show started a team of drummers in African tribal dress entertained the audience who were sitting cheerfully dripping down the aisles until small waterfalls cascaded over every step. We were sitting on the front row and the drummer nearest to us was a big guy who was really funny, mimicking any actions he saw people in the audience do. I made the mistake of wiping my nose... The show itself had lots of dance and music and some animated characters led by a cast member, dressed in a Timon costume. Look carefully in the programme as the show is performed in different languages, so make sure you attend the right one for you!

We squelched back to the castle and had a look around, admiring the crystal glass figures and watching the glass blower making some small animal character. Then it was down into the cavern beneath the castle where the dragon woke and lifted his head, roaring his displeasure at my use of flash!

We went on the paddlesteamer, trying to decide whether it was wetter on the boat or under it. Fast food only or not, I needed something to warm me up. Besides, Fran was planning a shopping marathon along Main St USA. I nipped in a shop myself and settled down with a coffee. Oh... and a chocolate chip cookie... Grand as owt... It was still throwing it down with rain. We made our way to the beginning of Main St, then climbed up to the balcony of the steam railroad station. The daily parade was about to make its way down Main St and then past us.

So we'll finish with a few photos of the parade. Tomorrow will be the 31st January - last Thursday and our last full day before returning to the UK. We are planning to have a day in Paris itself.

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Disney Studios

Tuesday morning, 29 January 2008, found us up, washed, and fed and back at the Disney Complex for a day in Disney Studios. This hadn't existed the last time we were at Disney Paris back in 2002, although we had visited the studios in Florida 15 years ago.

The new attraction is the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror in which you ride a lift or elevator which suddenly plunges 13 floors. Whilst it sounded fun (or terrifying) from the screams we could hear, the doctors have diagnosed high blood pressure so I was trying to be good and we didn't try it out.

You enter the park through a large building in which it is perpetual night time. This has shops and a fast food outlet. "Fast" is a relative term when applied to food in France. They don't particularly understand why anyone would want to approach food in a rush and I suspect the vast majority of burgers bought there are by us foreigners.

In fact I did wonder over the week whether America has decided there's no way the majority of its citizens are ever going to be slim and attractive and therefore are on a mission to fatten up the rest of the world? It's almost impossible to buy anything other than a burger or hot dog to eat in the parks, sandwiches are just about non-existent and other food outlets very hard to find except for those selling cookies and cakes.

Anyway we only visited this outlet to buy drinks and it was in the middle of the afternoon. There were large queues at just two open tills out of the 20 or so there must have been.

The Studios had a decent restaurant but it was an "eat all you like" buffet which meant you paid for a huge meal whether you ate one or not. It did (for a while anyway) have live music in the form of a jazz band who were truly excellent and it went some way to make up for the lack of live street entertainment that had been everywhere we looked in the Disney parks in America but had been missing everywhere we looked in Paris.

In fairness it was winter of course and no musicians could have played outdoors for very long, but they could have had a go for 15 minutes then nipped inside for a brew! Florida and California don't have to put up with temperatures measured with a minus sign in front and Disney doesn't appear to have given this much thought. Ice cream stalls were still open but I'd have given my right arm at times for a little paper cup with some tomato soup in it!

Given that I was trying to avoid going on rides that may have driven my blood pressure even higher (though we did go on the excellent Nemo ride - more later) we went into most of the show-type attractions.

CinéMagique was excellent and I'd recommend it to anyone. We also went in Animagique which was the Disney characters show. Again excellent for kiddies and entertaining enough for adults, though the somewhat random noise and laughter soundtrack playing incessantly before the show started was so annoying I'd recommend rushing in at the last minute just before the show starts!

We also went in the Moteurs...Action! Stunt Show Spectacular which was well worth sitting in the freezing cold for an hour. It was absolutely superb and the stunt drivers were unbelievably good and hellishly fast in such an enclosed space!

As already said, we went on the Nemo ride and had a 20 minute queue for this, though it went quickly enough, mainly thanks to the two girls in their early teens who were behind us who queued with us for 10-15 minutes then saw a sign which mentioned sudden twists and drops and there was then a prolongued conversation which went along the lines of:

"Do you want to go on it?"
"Yes I'm fine."
"'Cos we don't have to if you don't want to..."
"Do you want to?"
"Oh yes, but, you know, if you weren't sure..."
"Is it the drops?"
"Well it is a bit, but I don't mind going on."
"I don't know do you think we should?"
"I don't know... what do you think?"

...and so on for a while longer until at the last minute they reached a decision and sped back down the line of people and out before they could change each others' minds again!

We watched the parade and I couldn't help but feel sorry for the performers who were trying to give it their all, but again in Florida and California, they do not normally have to perform to "guests" who are freezing cold and struggling against the odds to look enthusiastic and give the impression they are enjoying themselves in rain and typical European January greyness.

Sunny weather definitely helps get in a Disney mood. Going in winter means fewer crowds and less queueing but more discomfort!

There was some consolation in spotting the tell-tale lumps and bumps of layers of thermals under the flesh-coloured tights and bodystockings!

I couldn't help but think there should be more shows with pyrotechnics as I'm sure half the people on the tram tour were just there to warm themselves up a bit when the lorry explodes into flames in the earthquake bit!

And so it started to go dark. In the winter months the parks close at 6 o'clock and there are no firework displays which was a shame.

We made our way to the gates and I turned back to take a final photo, which, even if you can't find any artistic merit in it, at least gives the explanation for the shot the other day of Fran with Mickey Mouse ears! We caught the free shuttle back to the hotel with only a minimum of waiting and were soon back and heading for a meal in the hotel restaurant.

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The Disney Village

Monday 28 January 2008. After checking into the hotel and unpacking what needed to be unpacked we caught the shuttle bus to the Disney complex.

In the centre of the complex is Marne la Vallée railway station and the bus station is just next to it. Then if you imagine four quarters radiating around the centre there is Disneyland in one quarter, Disney Studios in another, the Disney hotels and service area in another and the Disney Village adjacent to the hotel area.

The Village contains a row of shops selling almost exclusively Disney goods, restaurants and bars and nightclubs.

We had been on the go all day and just wanted something to eat that was fairly quick and uncomplicated so we went into Annette's Diner and had a burger meal. Annette's is a fun place and the food was good. The burger I had came with lots of sliced mushrooms and it was cooked a little less than an English or American burger would have been - the French like their steaks medium or even rare and tend to recoil in horror at those who like it well done! The more you cook steak the less tender it gets so I have to agree with them.

Anyway in a burger, there was a tendency for it to fall apart so it was definitely a knife and fork job! There is a steak restaurant, a Bavarian castle themed restaurant and Wild Bill's Wild West Show with music, cowboys and indians, knife throwers and a small herd of buffalo going by the photos. We thought about it one night but decided against it in favour of the steak restaurant.

After food it was a look around the shops. It all starts to go hazy after this point and I vaguely remember staggering out once the close proximity to so many soft toys became too much.

I walked the length of the Village, which doesn't take all that long, and took a few photos.

Once Fran had had enough of shopping it was dark and cold and we walked down to have a look through the gates at the two parks (they close at 6 o'clock during the winter) and made our way back to the bus station to catch the shuttle back to our hotel. We had decided that the next day would be spent in the Disney Studios.

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The Dream Castle Hotel

28 January 2008. So here we are, just arrived at the Dream Castle Hotel near Disneyland Paris.

This is a little further from the actual parks than the Disney hotels, just over the main surrounding road that circles the Disney complex and Marne la Vallée railway station. It was walking distance, but at this time of year it wasn't perhaps a good idea especially after dark as the total absence of street lighting and the sneaky presence of some steep wide ditches would have made it a precarious adventure - but at less cost than paying to go in the park and ride Space Mountain of course.

There are shuttle buses to the parks laid on free and they are excellent, coming every 12 minutes or so during the main part of the day and only down to 20-25 minutes before 8:30am or after 9:30pm. They carried on until just before midnight when (of course) they turn back into pumpkins.

The hotel was themed on a romantic idea of a European castle of the medieval period, although the rooms were thankfully not as basic as the theme might have provided!

There were wall hangings and loads of suits of armour (the swords were chained down...) and a full size mannekin of the King facing the doorway to scare you witless as you walk in! Also a couple of thrones are placed so you can play at being royal, but sadly there's no-one going to start lopping heads off at your say-so.

The public areas such as lounge, restaurants and bar had lots of paintings showing scenes that could well have come from children's story books around the theme of castles and medieval royalty and knights.

The restaurant was good, we ate breakfast every day and had one evening meal there too. In the morning there is bacon and egg, though the bacon was too thin and crispy for our taste. But little matter as there was plenty of other stuff that we did enjoy. Fran was impressed at the soaps provided which were l'Occitane liquid soap, milk shower cream and milk shampoo. Yep guys, means nothing to me either but I'm assured the ladies will understand! As far as I'm concerned it lathered when mixed with water and didn't smell repugnant - so it earned a casual "yup!"

The shuttle from the airport was a VEA shuttle bus and cost 17 Euros for each person. They run 4 times a day heading back to the airport. But as yet we're not ready to go back so let's unpack and then go for a look at the Disney Village!

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Disneyland Paris

Just in case anyone has missed me over the past 5 days... (er... you have, haven't you?) This is where we've been.

On Monday we flew out from Manchester to Charles de Gaulle airport, Paris and we've been staying at the Dream Castle Hotel nearby the Disney parks at Marne la Vallée.

Full reports (some of which will be true(-ish)) over the next few days but for today, we've not exactly had the best of weather and have come back apparently to a new wreck off Blackpool's coast - will see if I can get some pics of that tomorrow! We've not had snow or high winds but there has been frost and lots of rain - the magic definitely is diluted by rain... but it's been a good few days! We had 3 full days there: one in Disney Studios, one in Disneyland itself and one in Paris where we tried out the "other" Tower and then walked to the Arch de Triomphe and from there to the Louvre - a walk I've been wanting to do for years!

And lastly, a sneak preview of what a couple of days in Disney did to Fran... These are not bought or fastened on a band fitted onto her head...! See if you can guess how I did it - the answer in a day or two!

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