Howdy folks, I don't know if I'll keep this up, or how detailed I'll be compared to other recent trips like #bondsjour, but I thought I'd do a little roundup of our time in Auckland so far.

I go through periods of intense posting, notably around the Sydney Festival (Jan), the Sydney Film Festival (Jun), the Oscars (Feb), and if I'm travelling (the most recent sojourn was #bondsjour), otherwise I'm pretty chill and low-volume.

I forgot that before #bondsjour and junk, I was logging the things I achieved during my long-service leave, which continues for another month-and-a-bit as well. So today, I...

I probably shouldn't have calculated this, because it makes me feel more exhausted, but that was a 39.5 hour trip door to door. #bondsjour

We're back in the country, lock your doors. #bondsjour

We have successfully made it to Singapore, where I am eating a traditional McSpicy (confirmed once again that it's significantly better than the ones we get in Australia) #bondsjour

Jez, in a crinkled travel t-shirt, looking sweaty and kinda annoyed at his kids, and also stressed about the upcoming 20 something hours of flying ahead of us, but also like the gin he has currently imbibed has pleasantly dulled all that temporarily.

I don't currently look like the sort of person you should let into the Star Alliance lounge. #bondsjour

A nice, cut-glass tumbler of gin and tonic (mostly gin) with a can on Schweppes tonic next to it to pretend like I put a lot of tonic in it (I did not).

We made it through the queues at CDG, and somehow my Star Alliance status still exists (I used to travel a lot for work, and Air NZ was generous at extending status through COVID), AND somehow they allowed me to take 3 people into the lounge. Anyway, I'm now drinking a very large G&T. #bondsjour

Also: I love my two kids, but international travel with them is significantly more painful than travelling alone. #bondsjour

Well, we're at the airport. Getting here from the centre of Paris wasn't the longest leg, but it was maybe the most annoying: long lines to buy single tickets, packed trains with suitcases, and of course the airport shuttle train, coz the actual train doesn't go to our terminal. #bondsjour

Next up is the part I'm least confident about, lugging our suitcases on a peak-hour RER train to Paris Airport. #bondsjour

The TGV trip was pretty much uneventful, except that customs came on looking for the owner of the "bright yellow suitcase" and we're like "WE have a bright yellow suitcase, maybe they mean us!".

They did not mean us, which is a shame because it would have made this story more interesting #bondsjour

A glorious, horrific, god-like meal, that is somehow also an affront to god and all his creation: the French Tacos.

Second leg is also complete, and I have obtained my final French Tacos of the trip. #bondsjour

(I think, including transfers and things, we have 5 legs to go) #bondsjour

First leg of our journey (driving the rental car back to Luxembourg train station) is complete without complication. Next leg (TGV to Paris) is 20m late, which is fine since we have 10 hours in Paris to get to the airport. #bondsjour

Unless something amusingly tragic happens on our trip that makes for a good story, this may be our final #bondsjour post. I hope you've enjoyed them as much as I've enjoyed the agonising ordeal of grinding them out every day.

Tonight we had a final dinner with Sarah's brother, and said farewell to them (at least for a short while). After dinner we packed (mostly), ready for an early start for a very long trip back to Sydney over the next two days (Luxembourg->Paris on the train, then Paris->Singapore->Sydney). #bondsjour

"Camel. Of Course! €58 for 10 x 20packs" screams the billboard above the very on-display packs of Winstons and Camels and all manner of other cigarette brands.

A bunch of different small plastic beer kegs for sale if you want them, ranging from bland Luxembourg lagers to bland Mexican lagers, with some stops along the way for Goose Island IPA, Hoegaarden and 4 kinds of Leffe".

...and a supermarket, where I was quite bemused to find you can still advertise cigarettes at the point-of-sale in Luxembourg. Also kegs of beer are for sale—have at them. #bondsjour

"Moutarderie de Luxembourg". You may remember their products from the "selection of mayonnaises" we got at lunch the other day in Luxembourg City.

Then, sadly, it was time to head home to pack and say farewell to the family before we leave tomorrow. But not before a quick pass by the Luxembourg Mustard Factory... #bondsjour

A salami pizza, that looks oily, in a very American way.

A 50cl glass of Benediktiner Weissbier Dunkel looking pretty good for lunchtime on a Monday.

We stopped in for lunch at a pleasant pizza and dunkelweizen restaurant. #bondsjour

The outside of Karl Marx's birthplace, a relatively well-kept building on a standard street in Trier.

A close-up of a plaque telling us that Marx was born here, and going on to explain that in April 2024, some guy named Jez Fletcher (who's pretty Hard Marx) will turn up at this spot and take a photo of it. Or something like that. I don't really read German that well.

We then made a visit to the birthplace of Karl Marx, which is now a museum dedicated to his work. A bit of a pilgrimage for me, because as you might be aware, I'm pretty Reinhard Marx. #bondsjour

A nice fountain. Apparently, the four corners represent the four seasons. I believe this on might be Autumn, because it appears to be someone harvesting grapes and immediately getting drunk on their juices. and Autumn is the season I most frequently do that.

Here's a nice fountain. #bondsjour

Two green sheep standing in the Das Genusshaus shop in Trier. Whoever knew that they weren't sleeping at the end of the book after all.

We also found these. Someone tell Mem Fox her long search is over. #bondsjour

Two US number plates in the rear window of a car (I believe a Škoda Octavia), one from Arkansas and the other from North Dakota.

We've been playing a game while we've been in Europe to collect as many different countries number plates as we can (furthest afield so far have been Lithuania and Bulgaria). So you can imagine our surprise when we came across these two. #bondsjour

A plaque that reads "Hier wohnte Josef Dany JG. 1911 Eingewiesen 1938 'Heilanstalt' Andernach 1943. Verlegt 'Heilanstalt' Landsberg Ermorden 1944 in Hadamar Aktion T4". These plaques are designed to be a constant reminder of the holocaust that you just come across as part of your daily life. Here's an interesting article on them: https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/feb/18/stumbling-stones-a-different-vision-of-holocaust-remembrance

A fascinating thing we found in Trier was one of these "stumbling stones"; plaques installed in the pavement near the last places that victims of the holocaust lived voluntarily. #bondsjour

Looking down from the Porta Nigra onto the square below and the pleasant buildings of Trier. In the left hand side you can see the top of the Cathedral we just visiter, and more towards the centre is the steeple of the other church which regaled us with the soft jazz soprano sax from mid-90s album "Breathless".

A closer shot from the top floor of the Porta of the cathedral in all its round-pillared, disgustingly over-the-top glory.

The best part of climbing up the stairs was the view you got over the town, including the church where we'd just been. #bondsjour

An imposing black-stoned arched Roman building over 3-4 levels with fairly solid stonework.

A view from inside the gate, looking up through the central atrium of the structure, showing the inner galleries in a lighter, pinker stone.

A view from inside one of the galleries, showing off some of the elaborately carvings inside the arches.

Next on our visit was this magnificent Roman building, the Porta Nigra, once part of the ancient Roman city of Augusta Treverorum, from whence "Trier" gets its name. #bondsjour

Part of the weirdly formatted lists of Bishops of Trier, that means that the name "Reinhard Marx" gets split over two lines, leaving the phrase "Hard Marx" leading a line.

I was once a mildly left-leaning liberal, but I'll admit in the past few years I've turned...

#bondsjour

Looking through narthrex to the wabe, crossing the aucrox on the way which are all terms I didn't make up. There are rows of pews in a very tall vaulted room, with an elaborately decorated dome in the background, standing above a massive platform of black marble.

A pretty incredible pipe-organ hanging like a fungus on the wall of the church.

Some big ol' religious thing. Very heavily decorated, and would probably sell for enough money to bring out of poverty some proportion of the population of Trier.

Like I've previously said: I'm not a religious man, but I do still love the scope and awe of a good church. This isn't quite up there with St. Peter's Basilica or the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, but it's still pretty good. #bondsjour

A wide, but still tall (much like yours truly) cathedral built of ancient-looking stone (less like me), which stands looking like a fortress against any threat to Catholic rule (very much unlike me).

Our first stop was "Trier Dom" alternately known as Saint Peter's Cathedral, a massive church build like a giant stone hippopotamus. This is, apparently, the oldest church in Germany, and has occupied this site as a religious building since the Roman era. #bondsjour