Enjoyed waffles with icecream for breakky before packing up our stuff and checking out of our wonderful loft! We loaded up the car and then left it in the hotel garage whilst we went off to the upper village to rent a bike! Initially Di was rather hesitant about riding cos the weather didn’t look too crash hot and it had drizzled already that morning but I thought we might as well just go ahead and do it!
We got the trail map out and were soon cruising our way along the Lost Lake Trail, which led us not surprisingly to Lost Lake! We rode around part of it before following the map guide towards Green Lake. We enjoyed some downhill runs, being careful not to skid on the gravel. This is when we then got lost! Somehow the map fell out of my back pocket and we took a wrong turn and basically couldn’t find Green Lake! Then it started to drizzle!
We promptly followed my navigational instincts and took a random trail that I thought looked like it was heading back to the village. Di really enjoyed this trail as it led us alongside the river up and down along a narrow dirt path! We eventually found our way back to a main road and we decided to return the bikes after riding for just an hour.
We then said bye to Whistler, vowing to return one day in winter to ski/snowboard! We drove south (very slowly due to roadworks upgrading the Sea to Sky highway in preparation for the 2010 Vancouver winter Olympics) and headed for the Capilano suspension bridge! This bridge apparently runs through the forest canopy but we decided not to do it cos it costs CND 30 per person!!! Having done a similar bridge in Malaysia for RM 6 or something like that, we decided instead to go to the Vancouver Aquarium!
We drove south over the Lion’s Gate bridge to Stanley Park where the aquarium is situated and got there around 2pm. There were still plenty of people about! We checked out the tropical fish tanks, a butterfly/slough enclosure, and some cute baby tortoises! Then we grabbed a burger at the aquarium café before hearing a talk about the Beluga whales, which are their star attractions. Qila, the mother whale gave birth to a baby girl just 8 days ago so they were very excited about that! We heard about the birth and how Qila’s own mother Aurora helped teach her how to nurse her baby calf! Then we headed to the viewing area below to watch Qila nurse her baby! Our visit to the aquarium was rounded out by a visit to the dolphin enclosure where 3 dolphins performed some cool tricks for us, and then the sea otter tank where 2 sea otters playfully swam around!
It was around 5pm when we left the aquarium and drove east towards Burnaby. We called Di’s dad’s friend Mun Kong and met up with him at a golf club in Burnaby. Then he drove us in his car to Coquitlam to have Japanese food for dinner! He was really really friendly and we enjoyed chatting with him over dinner! The food itself was great! Fresh seafood here makes for great sushi/sashimi!
After dinner we headed back to Ray and Soo’s place! We played with Ethan and Evelyn a bit before they were put to bed and then we showed Ray and Soo our wedding photos before enjoying some of their freshly baked muffins for supper! Time for bed - the penultimate night of our honeymoon!!!
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Day out in Whistler!
Got up early to get some breakky from downstairs before the tour group staying at our hotel took it all! Di was kind enough to get it whilst I struggled to get up! It wasn’t bad! Freshly made waffles, pastries, juice, and tea!
After breakky we set off to the visitor centre intent on buying our tickets up to Blackcomb mountain! When we got there the lady showed us the live web cam feed of the mountain and it didn’t look too inviting! Dark clouds, wind, and freezing temperatures made us think twice about going up! We returned to our hotel and after seeing the sun poke its head out intermittently, we decided what the heck, let’s do it!
Putting on 3 layers each, we got our tickets and walked up to the upper village to catch the chairlift up Blackcomb mountain! We first took the Wizard Express to a midstation platform before catching the Solar Express lift to Rendevous. On the way up we were fortunate enough to spot a native black bear! It looked like a cub!
The higher up we went, the colder it got! Some people were actually skiing and snowboarding and making their way to the top of the mountain. We caught a shuttle bus to the 7th Heaven Lift and headed for the summit! Up here it was freezing man!!! Without proper winter gear, my hands and face were numb, and my anklet socks weren’t cutting it!
Up the top we had splendid views of Whistler valley and there was significantly more snow up here than at the bottom of the hill. We took refuge in Horstman’s Hut and enjoyed a hearty bowl of minestrone soup! Then it was time to go back down as it started to snow!
Going down was even colder! The wind seemed to be blowing straight at us and it seemed to take forever to reach the bottom! On the way back down we spotted 2 more bears! Di was so happy!
Back at the bottom, we checked out Spicy Sports bicycle rentals before deciding to rent them tomorrow cos it looked like it was gonna rain. Instead we grabbed lunch at KFC to satisfy our craving! Mmm mmm!
After lunch it was already 3pm and we headed back to our hotel to rest a bit before going out to the cinema next door to see Kung Fu Panda! It was awesome!!! Really funny and great cinematography!
Dinner was home cooked fish and chips with leftover salad and chicken kebab from yesterday night! Time to sleep…right after our A & W root beer float! Yeah!
After breakky we set off to the visitor centre intent on buying our tickets up to Blackcomb mountain! When we got there the lady showed us the live web cam feed of the mountain and it didn’t look too inviting! Dark clouds, wind, and freezing temperatures made us think twice about going up! We returned to our hotel and after seeing the sun poke its head out intermittently, we decided what the heck, let’s do it!
Putting on 3 layers each, we got our tickets and walked up to the upper village to catch the chairlift up Blackcomb mountain! We first took the Wizard Express to a midstation platform before catching the Solar Express lift to Rendevous. On the way up we were fortunate enough to spot a native black bear! It looked like a cub!
The higher up we went, the colder it got! Some people were actually skiing and snowboarding and making their way to the top of the mountain. We caught a shuttle bus to the 7th Heaven Lift and headed for the summit! Up here it was freezing man!!! Without proper winter gear, my hands and face were numb, and my anklet socks weren’t cutting it!
Up the top we had splendid views of Whistler valley and there was significantly more snow up here than at the bottom of the hill. We took refuge in Horstman’s Hut and enjoyed a hearty bowl of minestrone soup! Then it was time to go back down as it started to snow!
Going down was even colder! The wind seemed to be blowing straight at us and it seemed to take forever to reach the bottom! On the way back down we spotted 2 more bears! Di was so happy!
Back at the bottom, we checked out Spicy Sports bicycle rentals before deciding to rent them tomorrow cos it looked like it was gonna rain. Instead we grabbed lunch at KFC to satisfy our craving! Mmm mmm!
After lunch it was already 3pm and we headed back to our hotel to rest a bit before going out to the cinema next door to see Kung Fu Panda! It was awesome!!! Really funny and great cinematography!
Dinner was home cooked fish and chips with leftover salad and chicken kebab from yesterday night! Time to sleep…right after our A & W root beer float! Yeah!
Monday, June 16, 2008
Vancouver to Whistler!
Today was just one of those spontaneity days where we didn’t really accomplish too much. We need these days sometimes and I enjoy it because it doesn’t feel like there’s a schedule to keep to.
We woke to the Sun family having breakfast but both Ben and I were still so sleepy. Not sure why as we had at least 8 hours sleep. We managed to get out of the house by 10am to pick up our rental car at Metrotown. Following which we went to the Canadian Superstore to pick up some snacks, toothbrushes and water. I wish we had a store like that in Australia. There a dispensers of M&M’s, lollies, pasta and lentils. I misjudged the M&M dispenser as I ended up with about 600 grams of M&M’s. Ben made me ditch about half the bag. Cruel man I married.
We headed off for an early lunch of sushi, teriyaki chicken and tempura in the foodcourt. The noodles which accompanied the teriyaki chicken was more like spaghetti than noodles. Funny that. In Italy we ate spaghetti which seemed like egg noodles, and in Canada we ate Japanese which seemed like spaghetti.
Finally we headed off for Whistler. We were planning to stop by Shannon Falls on the way but we weren’t sure where to stop and we inadvertently passed the falls even after stopping at the right place. We headed on to Whistler as we could stop by on the way back to Burnaby.
We arrived at our hotel (Whistler Village Inn & Suites) and had to wait for our room to be cleaned. We overheard the receptionist say to her co-worker ‘we’ll need to put them in the loft’ and both of us knowing that this was a better room with a fully equipped kitchen hoped that they were talking about us!
After waiting for our room to be tidied the moment of truth came. We got the loft! Both of us were so happy! This meant we could cook our own dinner! When you’ve been traveling for 3 months, cooking for yourself is a luxury!
We went for a walk around the village which was beautiful. There are also some summer sales of winter clothes that we looked into. We planned for the next day and picked up some groceries for our feast.
The hotel has a BBQ which we used to cook our steak and chicken kebabs. I think we got over excited as we ended up with way too much food. But ah, such is the luxury of cooking for yourself!
We woke to the Sun family having breakfast but both Ben and I were still so sleepy. Not sure why as we had at least 8 hours sleep. We managed to get out of the house by 10am to pick up our rental car at Metrotown. Following which we went to the Canadian Superstore to pick up some snacks, toothbrushes and water. I wish we had a store like that in Australia. There a dispensers of M&M’s, lollies, pasta and lentils. I misjudged the M&M dispenser as I ended up with about 600 grams of M&M’s. Ben made me ditch about half the bag. Cruel man I married.
We headed off for an early lunch of sushi, teriyaki chicken and tempura in the foodcourt. The noodles which accompanied the teriyaki chicken was more like spaghetti than noodles. Funny that. In Italy we ate spaghetti which seemed like egg noodles, and in Canada we ate Japanese which seemed like spaghetti.
Finally we headed off for Whistler. We were planning to stop by Shannon Falls on the way but we weren’t sure where to stop and we inadvertently passed the falls even after stopping at the right place. We headed on to Whistler as we could stop by on the way back to Burnaby.
We arrived at our hotel (Whistler Village Inn & Suites) and had to wait for our room to be cleaned. We overheard the receptionist say to her co-worker ‘we’ll need to put them in the loft’ and both of us knowing that this was a better room with a fully equipped kitchen hoped that they were talking about us!
After waiting for our room to be tidied the moment of truth came. We got the loft! Both of us were so happy! This meant we could cook our own dinner! When you’ve been traveling for 3 months, cooking for yourself is a luxury!
We went for a walk around the village which was beautiful. There are also some summer sales of winter clothes that we looked into. We planned for the next day and picked up some groceries for our feast.
The hotel has a BBQ which we used to cook our steak and chicken kebabs. I think we got over excited as we ended up with way too much food. But ah, such is the luxury of cooking for yourself!
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Day out in Vancouver!
Enjoyed a bit of a sleep-in cos Evelyn was still asleep! When we were all up and ready, we crammed into Ray and Soo’s camry and off we went! We drove to Granville Island, about a 15 min drive away. This arty place isn’t really an island but is located under the Granville Bridge by the water! It’s kinda like Paddington back home - with upmarket markets, craft and clothes stores.
We found a parking quickly and after getting Ethan and Evelyn into their strollers we were off! We checked out the markets and some of the craft stores before finding a spot outside on the pier to have lunch! We bought some pot pies from this renowned place for pies and enjoyed the warm Canadian sun! As we ate our clam chowder and pacific salmon pies, we enjoyed street actors doing acrobatics and stunts!
Ethan was servicing us by chasing the seagulls away from the wharf. It was quite comical watching Ethan wave his green stick for bubble making while running after the seagulls. After lunch we took a short walk around the area and picked up an ice-cream.
We boarded a cute boat and sailed around along the river with Soo and Ray as our tour guide. It’s was a mixed scene along the way. There was a concrete factory, a large array of apartment buildings, the science centre and water side entertainment. Ethan was looking a little tired on this trip and he ended up falling asleep in his pram! Gee I miss being a kid!
We had a look around at the shops but this area was really for the tourist, and the people who like arts and crafts and are willing to pay for it. Ben and I have never been such people, so we just admired.
Next stop was Stanley Park. There was a bit of traffic going through Downtown but once we got there we were rewarded with a mini train ride. It goes through the forest and loops around a bit so you have good viewings of the fake moose, bear and birds. It was nice and Ethan loved it. I couldn’t help thinking of my own Ethan who loves trains!
We then walked along to the water and found a bridge which looks exactly like the golden gate bridge, only green. We then crossed over to the other side where we saw the huge cruise liners just before they took off for Alaska. We were on the way to the Totem poles which were replicas made and placed in the park. According to the sign board the animals that were often on these poles were the Eagle (as the king of the sky), Whale (king of the sea), the Wolf (king of the land) and the frog which symbolized the link between land and sea. These totem poles were traditionally made to reflect their dreamtime stories. It was made clear that they were not worshiped or idolized.
Ethan was full of energy at this stage and practically ran all the way back to the car. His Dad had to chase after him and slow him down!
We headed back to the Sun’s place and got Indian take out for dinner. The rest of the evening was filled with research for what we were going to do in Whistler over the next few days.
We found a parking quickly and after getting Ethan and Evelyn into their strollers we were off! We checked out the markets and some of the craft stores before finding a spot outside on the pier to have lunch! We bought some pot pies from this renowned place for pies and enjoyed the warm Canadian sun! As we ate our clam chowder and pacific salmon pies, we enjoyed street actors doing acrobatics and stunts!
Ethan was servicing us by chasing the seagulls away from the wharf. It was quite comical watching Ethan wave his green stick for bubble making while running after the seagulls. After lunch we took a short walk around the area and picked up an ice-cream.
We boarded a cute boat and sailed around along the river with Soo and Ray as our tour guide. It’s was a mixed scene along the way. There was a concrete factory, a large array of apartment buildings, the science centre and water side entertainment. Ethan was looking a little tired on this trip and he ended up falling asleep in his pram! Gee I miss being a kid!
We had a look around at the shops but this area was really for the tourist, and the people who like arts and crafts and are willing to pay for it. Ben and I have never been such people, so we just admired.
Next stop was Stanley Park. There was a bit of traffic going through Downtown but once we got there we were rewarded with a mini train ride. It goes through the forest and loops around a bit so you have good viewings of the fake moose, bear and birds. It was nice and Ethan loved it. I couldn’t help thinking of my own Ethan who loves trains!
We then walked along to the water and found a bridge which looks exactly like the golden gate bridge, only green. We then crossed over to the other side where we saw the huge cruise liners just before they took off for Alaska. We were on the way to the Totem poles which were replicas made and placed in the park. According to the sign board the animals that were often on these poles were the Eagle (as the king of the sky), Whale (king of the sea), the Wolf (king of the land) and the frog which symbolized the link between land and sea. These totem poles were traditionally made to reflect their dreamtime stories. It was made clear that they were not worshiped or idolized.
Ethan was full of energy at this stage and practically ran all the way back to the car. His Dad had to chase after him and slow him down!
We headed back to the Sun’s place and got Indian take out for dinner. The rest of the evening was filled with research for what we were going to do in Whistler over the next few days.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Happy Birthday Ethan!
Got up around 10:30am but everyone else was already awake in preparation for Ethan’s 3rd birthday party! His birthday was actually on 30th May but because he was sick and many of his friends were going away, they decided to have it today.
It turned out to be a nice day for a party! Around 11am guests started arriving! We met some of Soo’s friends and their cute kids! The theme for the party was bubbles and Soo had set up bowls of bubble solution and got the kids to blow bubbles! They loved it! They also had a mini jumping castle going, which the kids loved!
Over the next hour about another 10-15 kids arrived! They were the kids of Ethan’s playgroup, Sunday school, and preschool. Ray and I went to pick up some pizza for lunch and the birthday cake. In the meantime, Sandra, one of Soo’s friends, was leading the kids in song and dance! Then it was time to cut the cake and for Ethan to open his presents! It was nice being involved with family life again and a glimpse into what life with kids will be like one day! What the parents kept telling us time and time again was to enjoy our life without kids as much as possible cos when they come, even though they’re a joy, they’re a handful too!
The party finished around 2pm and we helped clean up! Boy was there a lot to clean up! Plates, cups, balloons, food and drink! In the afternoon we had a rest before Ray took us out to Burnaby mountain to admire the view of Vancouver and its surrounding landscape! We admired the beauty of the snow capped mountains in the backdrop and cityscape against the afternoon sun!
We returned home and soon Ray’s parents arrived for dinner! They brought some dishes along and Soo jeje cooked some stir fried long beans. It was really really nice chatting with Mr and Mrs Sun! They were really lovely and we enjoyed chatting about our travels and differences between Canada and Australia.
After dinner we played with Ethan and Evelyn until they had to go to sleep. Both enjoyed the toy we had bought them from San Fran! Once asleep we enjoyed some port and dessert wine before watching 300! Night!
It turned out to be a nice day for a party! Around 11am guests started arriving! We met some of Soo’s friends and their cute kids! The theme for the party was bubbles and Soo had set up bowls of bubble solution and got the kids to blow bubbles! They loved it! They also had a mini jumping castle going, which the kids loved!
Over the next hour about another 10-15 kids arrived! They were the kids of Ethan’s playgroup, Sunday school, and preschool. Ray and I went to pick up some pizza for lunch and the birthday cake. In the meantime, Sandra, one of Soo’s friends, was leading the kids in song and dance! Then it was time to cut the cake and for Ethan to open his presents! It was nice being involved with family life again and a glimpse into what life with kids will be like one day! What the parents kept telling us time and time again was to enjoy our life without kids as much as possible cos when they come, even though they’re a joy, they’re a handful too!
The party finished around 2pm and we helped clean up! Boy was there a lot to clean up! Plates, cups, balloons, food and drink! In the afternoon we had a rest before Ray took us out to Burnaby mountain to admire the view of Vancouver and its surrounding landscape! We admired the beauty of the snow capped mountains in the backdrop and cityscape against the afternoon sun!
We returned home and soon Ray’s parents arrived for dinner! They brought some dishes along and Soo jeje cooked some stir fried long beans. It was really really nice chatting with Mr and Mrs Sun! They were really lovely and we enjoyed chatting about our travels and differences between Canada and Australia.
After dinner we played with Ethan and Evelyn until they had to go to sleep. Both enjoyed the toy we had bought them from San Fran! Once asleep we enjoyed some port and dessert wine before watching 300! Night!
Friday, June 13, 2008
San Francisco to Vancouver!
Today we travelled from San Francisco to Vancouver! After breakky we walked six blocks down to Market St to do some last minute shopping before returning to the hotel and finishing up our packing!
We had lunch in the Chinese restaurant next to the hotel. It was quite good! We had salt and pepper squid and stir fried eggplant with rice and soup for USD 11 all up!
After lunch we brought our stuff down to the hotel lobby and checked out. We had 8 bags all together! Two suitcases, two big backpacks, two small backpacks, a small carry bag, and Di’s handbag! Just as we were heading out the door, our shuttle to the airport arrived!
The drive was really quick and we got to the airport around 1:30pm, at least 2hrs 40mins before our flight at 4:10pm. We had no problems going through security except that they are so strict here you have to take off your jacket and shoes even!
Our flight was delayed so we only left San Fran around 5:10pm. By the time we landed, got out of the airport and caught a taxi to Soo and Ray’s place in Burnaby, it was around 8pm! So all in all we travelled for 7hrs door to door!
We rocked up to their front door and rang the door bell. Ray opened the door and was somewhat surprised to see us! Soo joined him at the door and apparently she had thought we were coming tomorrow night! Oh well! We got all our luggage in and they made us feel really at home!
Ethan (3yrs old) and their newborn Evelyn (5 months) were both asleep but as we ate the instant noodles dinner Soo jeje whipped up for us, Evelyn awoke and we got to meet her. She’s soooooo cute!!! Very easy going happy little baby!
After dinner we had showers and set up our bed in their living room. Nitey nite!
We had lunch in the Chinese restaurant next to the hotel. It was quite good! We had salt and pepper squid and stir fried eggplant with rice and soup for USD 11 all up!
After lunch we brought our stuff down to the hotel lobby and checked out. We had 8 bags all together! Two suitcases, two big backpacks, two small backpacks, a small carry bag, and Di’s handbag! Just as we were heading out the door, our shuttle to the airport arrived!
The drive was really quick and we got to the airport around 1:30pm, at least 2hrs 40mins before our flight at 4:10pm. We had no problems going through security except that they are so strict here you have to take off your jacket and shoes even!
Our flight was delayed so we only left San Fran around 5:10pm. By the time we landed, got out of the airport and caught a taxi to Soo and Ray’s place in Burnaby, it was around 8pm! So all in all we travelled for 7hrs door to door!
We rocked up to their front door and rang the door bell. Ray opened the door and was somewhat surprised to see us! Soo joined him at the door and apparently she had thought we were coming tomorrow night! Oh well! We got all our luggage in and they made us feel really at home!
Ethan (3yrs old) and their newborn Evelyn (5 months) were both asleep but as we ate the instant noodles dinner Soo jeje whipped up for us, Evelyn awoke and we got to meet her. She’s soooooo cute!!! Very easy going happy little baby!
After dinner we had showers and set up our bed in their living room. Nitey nite!
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Exploring San Fran!
First thing we did after our continental breakky was return our rental car to Budget on Howard St. Our least favourite parking attendant was somehow still on duty after being on yesterday evening. We didn’t tip him for bring the car 5m from where the car was parked!
We said goodbye to our trusty Chevrolet Cobalt at Budget and walked up to Market St. We bought 1 day unlimited Muni passports that allowed us travel on all of San Fran’s public transport for a reasonable USD 11. Then we hopped on a F Line street car to Fisherman’s wharf! For those wandering what an F line street car is, it’s basically like a Melbourne tram.
It was another beautiful day at Fisherman’s wharf and warm too! We got off outside the Boudin Bakery and headed to Pier 45 to check out the naval vessels there! Whilst Di browsed the Museum Mechanique (containing antique carnival game machines) I boarded the USS Panpamito, an old submarine from WWII! On board I got to see most of the submarine including the torpedo room, living quarters, galley, and control room!
Afterwards we walked around Fisherman’s wharf, past all the seafood restaurants selling clam and crab chowder! We then checked out Hyde St pier and some of the historic ships there. There were also these barrels with signboards teaching you how to tie various knots that the sailors used so we had fun learning new knots!
Next we grabbed icecream at a store called Ghirardelli - a Cookie Bottom Sundae! It was basically two scoops of vanilla icecream on top of a choc chip cookie with chocolate hot sauce on top! So rich so good!
Having finished seeing everything we wanted to see at Fisherman’s Wharf, we caught the famous San Fran cable car from Powell St to Union Square! Halfway up a hill the cable car stopped and the driver told us to get off! The power must’ve cut out or something. In not too long though we were back on the cable car! It was rather crowded and we were glad to get off at Union Square!
Here some promotion for World Harmony Day was happening so we checked that out before hitting the shops! We visited Niketown, Ninewest, and Macy’s before lunch! Managed to get some things on sale! Then we had lunch at an Indonesian restaurant advertised in our San Fran city guide! The place was funnily called ‘Indonesian Restaurant’ for lack of a better name! We had quite good lunch combos with beef rendang, some chicken dish, fried tofu, and another beef dish plus gado gado. All quite reasonable for USD 10 per person!
After lunch we walked back to our hotel to drop off the shopping before heading out again! We walked down to Market St past Civic Center and a bunch of hobos! Then we walked up Market St from the 7th street intersection checking out the shops! We didn’t really find much until we reached the Westfield. There we found mostly upmarket stores, not many with sales on. We kept on walking up Market St and checked out Marshalls and a toy store called Gregories before deciding to catch the Bart and bus no 19 back to our hotel.
Still feeling full from lunch, we opted to skip dinner and finish the fresh food we still had. We had bananas and root beer for dinner! And here we are watching Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark on our last night in a hotel! Nite!
We said goodbye to our trusty Chevrolet Cobalt at Budget and walked up to Market St. We bought 1 day unlimited Muni passports that allowed us travel on all of San Fran’s public transport for a reasonable USD 11. Then we hopped on a F Line street car to Fisherman’s wharf! For those wandering what an F line street car is, it’s basically like a Melbourne tram.
It was another beautiful day at Fisherman’s wharf and warm too! We got off outside the Boudin Bakery and headed to Pier 45 to check out the naval vessels there! Whilst Di browsed the Museum Mechanique (containing antique carnival game machines) I boarded the USS Panpamito, an old submarine from WWII! On board I got to see most of the submarine including the torpedo room, living quarters, galley, and control room!
Afterwards we walked around Fisherman’s wharf, past all the seafood restaurants selling clam and crab chowder! We then checked out Hyde St pier and some of the historic ships there. There were also these barrels with signboards teaching you how to tie various knots that the sailors used so we had fun learning new knots!
Next we grabbed icecream at a store called Ghirardelli - a Cookie Bottom Sundae! It was basically two scoops of vanilla icecream on top of a choc chip cookie with chocolate hot sauce on top! So rich so good!
Having finished seeing everything we wanted to see at Fisherman’s Wharf, we caught the famous San Fran cable car from Powell St to Union Square! Halfway up a hill the cable car stopped and the driver told us to get off! The power must’ve cut out or something. In not too long though we were back on the cable car! It was rather crowded and we were glad to get off at Union Square!
Here some promotion for World Harmony Day was happening so we checked that out before hitting the shops! We visited Niketown, Ninewest, and Macy’s before lunch! Managed to get some things on sale! Then we had lunch at an Indonesian restaurant advertised in our San Fran city guide! The place was funnily called ‘Indonesian Restaurant’ for lack of a better name! We had quite good lunch combos with beef rendang, some chicken dish, fried tofu, and another beef dish plus gado gado. All quite reasonable for USD 10 per person!
After lunch we walked back to our hotel to drop off the shopping before heading out again! We walked down to Market St past Civic Center and a bunch of hobos! Then we walked up Market St from the 7th street intersection checking out the shops! We didn’t really find much until we reached the Westfield. There we found mostly upmarket stores, not many with sales on. We kept on walking up Market St and checked out Marshalls and a toy store called Gregories before deciding to catch the Bart and bus no 19 back to our hotel.
Still feeling full from lunch, we opted to skip dinner and finish the fresh food we still had. We had bananas and root beer for dinner! And here we are watching Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark on our last night in a hotel! Nite!
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Shopping in San Fran!
Today was shopping day! We drove 70 miles or so to the Gilroy Premium Factory Outlets! The drive took almost 1hr 30 mins as we drove south past the airport and San Jose. At the outlets we found 150 stores with all the big names! They were divided up into 4 blocks of shops and were so spread apart that at times we drove from shop to shop!
We were quite selective in the stores we visited. Some of the ones we checked out included Gap, Ninewest, Ecko, Banana Republic, DC, Fossil, Bass, and some random factory shoe stores. Managed to find some bargains during the 4 hours or so we spent there!
We grabbed lunch at a Chinese fast food place there, trying the Kung Pao chicken that seems so common at Chinese restaurants in America! Around 3:30pm we left the outlets and headed back to San Fran.
The plan was to return the car before Budget rental’s closing time of 5:30pm (earlier than our original return time of 11:15am tomorrow morning to save USD 15 in parking fees overnight again) but the traffic was so bad it took over 2 hours to get back to downtown San Fran and we ended up reaching Budget 5mins after closing time! Darn it!
Oh well! To make use of the car, we drove to Fisherman’s Wharf and found some street parking. Di was hungry so we had dinner at Bistro Boudin, a bakery famous for its sourdough and clam chowder! We ate in the restaurant section and had a window table overlooking the bay but after our meal of pepperoni sourdough pizza with a side of petite clam chowder in bread bowl, we left the restaurant to find that we could’ve gotten the exact same meal at the casual dining outlet downstairs for half the price! Double darn it! Oh well! You pay for nice views and nice toilets!
After dinner we walked to Pier 39 and checked out the sea lions that have inhabited one of the docks. Then we checked out the retail arcade on the pier whilst waiting for sunset! Sunset over the bay was awesome but it was rather chilly so we headed back to the car straight after.
We wanted to visit Macy’s cos there was a one day sale on today but we couldn’t find parking so we ended up just heading back to our hotel! Night!
We were quite selective in the stores we visited. Some of the ones we checked out included Gap, Ninewest, Ecko, Banana Republic, DC, Fossil, Bass, and some random factory shoe stores. Managed to find some bargains during the 4 hours or so we spent there!
We grabbed lunch at a Chinese fast food place there, trying the Kung Pao chicken that seems so common at Chinese restaurants in America! Around 3:30pm we left the outlets and headed back to San Fran.
The plan was to return the car before Budget rental’s closing time of 5:30pm (earlier than our original return time of 11:15am tomorrow morning to save USD 15 in parking fees overnight again) but the traffic was so bad it took over 2 hours to get back to downtown San Fran and we ended up reaching Budget 5mins after closing time! Darn it!
Oh well! To make use of the car, we drove to Fisherman’s Wharf and found some street parking. Di was hungry so we had dinner at Bistro Boudin, a bakery famous for its sourdough and clam chowder! We ate in the restaurant section and had a window table overlooking the bay but after our meal of pepperoni sourdough pizza with a side of petite clam chowder in bread bowl, we left the restaurant to find that we could’ve gotten the exact same meal at the casual dining outlet downstairs for half the price! Double darn it! Oh well! You pay for nice views and nice toilets!
After dinner we walked to Pier 39 and checked out the sea lions that have inhabited one of the docks. Then we checked out the retail arcade on the pier whilst waiting for sunset! Sunset over the bay was awesome but it was rather chilly so we headed back to the car straight after.
We wanted to visit Macy’s cos there was a one day sale on today but we couldn’t find parking so we ended up just heading back to our hotel! Night!
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Yosemite National Park to San Francisco!
Got up around 9am and packed up our stuff into the car before checking out and driving to nearby Mirror Lake. We parked in the stables car park and found the trailhead a few hundred feet away. We enjoyed the short walk along a paved flat pathway through the redwood forest. On either side cliffs towered above us and along side us a river with rapids rushed by! After 30mins we reached the Mirror Lake, so named cos of the beautiful reflections of the mountains in the water. We walked around a part of the lake and after taking some pics, headed back to the car.
Around 11am we set off for San Francisco, only 180miles or so away! We drove for an hour through national parkland before the landscape changed to dry grassland that reminded me of our countryside back home. At 1pm we stopped for lunch at the small town of Oakvale. We had 6 pieces of KFC and an A&W root beer float! Yum!!!
We continued our drive west and reached San Fran around 4pm and checked into our accommodation for the next 3 nights at Air Travel Hotel. The hotel was on a dodgy looking street, made apparent by numerous hobos and crazy ppl on the street and the fact that it was in the middle of Little Saigon. The hotel itself didn’t look too crash hot but inside we found a great recently renovated room on the 6th floor with a new bed, modern bathroom, plasma tv, and free wifi!
After unloading all our luggage, we set off to see some of San Fran’s sights! Using our GPS, we headed for Golden Gate park down the road. This huge park is kinda like San Fran’s equivalent of Sydney’s Centennial Park. Inside we visited the tranquil Japanese Tea Gardens before heading to the nearby Stow Lake and Strawberry Hill which afforded a view through the trees of San Fran’s hilly cityscape!
Next we drove to the foot of the famous Golden Gate bridge! We stopped at Fort Point to take pics of the bridge and bay but didn’t stay long due to the strong chilly wind!
Our last sight for the day was the crookedist street in America - Lombard St! This section of the street runs the length of one block down a steep hill with a 40 degree incline. It consists of a zigzagging road down the hill with nice gardens in the non road parts of the street and pedestrian steps on either side of the street! We parked in the parallel street and walked down the street before getting back in our car and driving down the street!
Next we headed to Chinatown to find some dinner! We parked near Grant Ave, the main street in Chinatown and looked for a restaurant packed with Chinese ppl! We found a reasonably priced one about halfway up the street and went in for some chicken chow mein and spicy eggplant! Mmm! Good food and good value!!!
Finally we headed back to our hotel around 9pm. We discovered that the parking under the hotel is contracted out to a valet parking service and that we had to pay USD 15 to park it for 12 hours overnight. What a rip!!! Ended up parking it there cos we couldn’t be bothered to search for street parking. The parking attendant was so obnoxious we couldn’t stand him! No tips for him!
Around 11am we set off for San Francisco, only 180miles or so away! We drove for an hour through national parkland before the landscape changed to dry grassland that reminded me of our countryside back home. At 1pm we stopped for lunch at the small town of Oakvale. We had 6 pieces of KFC and an A&W root beer float! Yum!!!
We continued our drive west and reached San Fran around 4pm and checked into our accommodation for the next 3 nights at Air Travel Hotel. The hotel was on a dodgy looking street, made apparent by numerous hobos and crazy ppl on the street and the fact that it was in the middle of Little Saigon. The hotel itself didn’t look too crash hot but inside we found a great recently renovated room on the 6th floor with a new bed, modern bathroom, plasma tv, and free wifi!
After unloading all our luggage, we set off to see some of San Fran’s sights! Using our GPS, we headed for Golden Gate park down the road. This huge park is kinda like San Fran’s equivalent of Sydney’s Centennial Park. Inside we visited the tranquil Japanese Tea Gardens before heading to the nearby Stow Lake and Strawberry Hill which afforded a view through the trees of San Fran’s hilly cityscape!
Next we drove to the foot of the famous Golden Gate bridge! We stopped at Fort Point to take pics of the bridge and bay but didn’t stay long due to the strong chilly wind!
Our last sight for the day was the crookedist street in America - Lombard St! This section of the street runs the length of one block down a steep hill with a 40 degree incline. It consists of a zigzagging road down the hill with nice gardens in the non road parts of the street and pedestrian steps on either side of the street! We parked in the parallel street and walked down the street before getting back in our car and driving down the street!
Next we headed to Chinatown to find some dinner! We parked near Grant Ave, the main street in Chinatown and looked for a restaurant packed with Chinese ppl! We found a reasonably priced one about halfway up the street and went in for some chicken chow mein and spicy eggplant! Mmm! Good food and good value!!!
Finally we headed back to our hotel around 9pm. We discovered that the parking under the hotel is contracted out to a valet parking service and that we had to pay USD 15 to park it for 12 hours overnight. What a rip!!! Ended up parking it there cos we couldn’t be bothered to search for street parking. The parking attendant was so obnoxious we couldn’t stand him! No tips for him!
Monday, June 9, 2008
Upper Yosemite Trail walk!
Didn’t have the best sleep last night thanks to some poms next door who arrived around 11pm or so and were so loud yakking and laughing away at the novelty of staying in a canvas tent! We set off around 9:30am after parking our car at Yosemite Lodge and walking to the start of the Upper Yosemite Falls walk nearby. Along the way we ate our prebought breakky - donut for Di and apple danish for me!
The Upper Yosemite Falls walk was a 3.5mile walk to the top and marked as ‘strenuous’ on the trail map we had. We soon found out just how strenuous it was! The walk to top took about 3hrs and basically consisted of zigzagging rocky terrain all UPHILL! We had frequent breaks in whatever shade we could find!
Halfway up we stopped at Columbia point to admire the view of Yosemite valley but we didn’t stop too long as the sun was bearing down on us! Further on we had had a view of the waterfall itself! We welcomed the sprays of water from the fall that the wind carried to us!
Around 12:40pm we finally reached the top of the falls! We checked out the overlook point and found a shady spot for lunch whilst we admired the view! Lunch was prebought egg and tuna sandwiches from the general store.
After spending an hour at the summit admiring the snow capped mountain range and the valley far far below, we headed back down. On the way we checked out the trail leading to Yosemite point, another mile away. We walked part of the trail to see the river from which the waterfall originates.
Then it was down baby down! It was heaps easier going down but it was still slow going in some parts due to slippery rocks and sand. Shade from the adjacent cliff face afforded us cool relief and consequently the journey down only took 2hours.
With weary and aching legs, we trudged back to the car and headed back to Curry Village around 4:30pm. I had a refreshing shower whilst Di had a cool swim. Then it was time for another buffet dinner, different menu tonight! We got in at opening time at 5:30pm and enjoyed a dinner of fish, pork loins, chicken parmisan, and rice and veges!
Afterwards Di had a shower and here we are, relaxing and enjoying our last evening in Yosemite - the highlight of the honeymoon according to Di so far! Night!
The Upper Yosemite Falls walk was a 3.5mile walk to the top and marked as ‘strenuous’ on the trail map we had. We soon found out just how strenuous it was! The walk to top took about 3hrs and basically consisted of zigzagging rocky terrain all UPHILL! We had frequent breaks in whatever shade we could find!
Halfway up we stopped at Columbia point to admire the view of Yosemite valley but we didn’t stop too long as the sun was bearing down on us! Further on we had had a view of the waterfall itself! We welcomed the sprays of water from the fall that the wind carried to us!
Around 12:40pm we finally reached the top of the falls! We checked out the overlook point and found a shady spot for lunch whilst we admired the view! Lunch was prebought egg and tuna sandwiches from the general store.
After spending an hour at the summit admiring the snow capped mountain range and the valley far far below, we headed back down. On the way we checked out the trail leading to Yosemite point, another mile away. We walked part of the trail to see the river from which the waterfall originates.
Then it was down baby down! It was heaps easier going down but it was still slow going in some parts due to slippery rocks and sand. Shade from the adjacent cliff face afforded us cool relief and consequently the journey down only took 2hours.
With weary and aching legs, we trudged back to the car and headed back to Curry Village around 4:30pm. I had a refreshing shower whilst Di had a cool swim. Then it was time for another buffet dinner, different menu tonight! We got in at opening time at 5:30pm and enjoyed a dinner of fish, pork loins, chicken parmisan, and rice and veges!
Afterwards Di had a shower and here we are, relaxing and enjoying our last evening in Yosemite - the highlight of the honeymoon according to Di so far! Night!
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Las Vegas to Yosemite National Park!
We left Las Vegas around 9:30am after a quick stop at Albertsons to buy some more water! The drive to Yosemite National Park took about 6-7 hrs! We enjoyed listening to our only three CDs – Wicked Soundtrack, Snow Patrol Eyes Open, and Colbie Caillat’s Coco. Along the way the scenery changed from sparse desert to green forest with snow capped mountains in the background as we approached Yosemite!
Lunch was Burger King at a Chevron petrol station in a town called Tonomah. Along the way to Yosemite, we stopped by Mono lake to check out the scenery.
We entered Yosemite National Park around 4:30pm. The drive towards the entrance was spectacular as we passed through snow capped mountain passes with glacial lakes! There were plenty of photo stops along the way!!!
Once in the park we checked out the visitor centre and picked up a map of trails in the park. Then we continued our drive west through the park which took about an hour. We finally reached Curry Village around 7pm and checked in. Our accommodation for the next 2 nights is a canvas tent which is basically a hut with wooden frames and flooring but with a canvas roof and walls.
After unloading our gear we grabbed a buffet dinner at the village’s restaurant. It wasn’t bad for USD 12 per person and had soup, fish, pasta, rice, veges, and salad. Time to rest for a long walk tomorrow!
Lunch was Burger King at a Chevron petrol station in a town called Tonomah. Along the way to Yosemite, we stopped by Mono lake to check out the scenery.
We entered Yosemite National Park around 4:30pm. The drive towards the entrance was spectacular as we passed through snow capped mountain passes with glacial lakes! There were plenty of photo stops along the way!!!
Once in the park we checked out the visitor centre and picked up a map of trails in the park. Then we continued our drive west through the park which took about an hour. We finally reached Curry Village around 7pm and checked in. Our accommodation for the next 2 nights is a canvas tent which is basically a hut with wooden frames and flooring but with a canvas roof and walls.
After unloading our gear we grabbed a buffet dinner at the village’s restaurant. It wasn’t bad for USD 12 per person and had soup, fish, pasta, rice, veges, and salad. Time to rest for a long walk tomorrow!
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Viva Las Vegas!
Viva Las Vegas baby! Today was our day to explore the famous Las Vegas Strip! We caught the free Sun Coast shuttle at 10am which dropped us off outside Bill’s Gambling Hall. It was another perfect day in the USA and although it was only mid morning, already it was boiling hot!
We crossed the road to check out our first casino for the day - Caesar’s Palace! This ancient roman themed casino had a forum, statues of Augustus Caesar and even the famous rape of the Sabines, lavishly decorated interior, and even a set of Spanish steps! Albeit the imitations weren’t anywhere near as good as the originals, one could not help but feel amazed at the amount of detail of the re-creation!
We checked out the Forum shops which housed all the luxury brands! Then we caught the free Lost City of Atlantis water fountain show at 11am! It told the story of the two children of the king of Atlantis were fighting over the throne to such a degree that the Gods decided to sink the city! It used fire, water, and animatronic effects!
Next we headed over to the Bellagio next door and walked by the famous water fountains. We caught a show around 11:30am with the fountains dancing in sync to some American song. It was amazing how some jets of water shot maybe 10 stories or more high into the sky!
We continued walking south along the Strip until we came to the New York New York casino. This casino recreated some streets of New York within the casino, and even Times Square! Outside there was a statue of liberty and a façade of the New York cityscape!
We didn’t spend long there and instead headed across the road to the MGM Grand to find some lunch! We ended up in the chain restaurant called the Rainforest Café. This jungle themed restaurant featured animatronic animals and lightning and thunder effects with waterfalls! We shared an entrée of buffalo wings and BBQ ribs - yum!
We headed off to the Dirk Arthur magic show at the Tropicana Hotel. We watched as Dirk made tigers, ligers (half lion, half tiger) and other wild cats appear on stage. It was pretty cool, although a little cheesy sometimes when Dirk stood at the front and smiled at the audience. The dancers were alright, but I noticed that they were sometimes out of time… But it was pretty cool and I still can’t figure out how he did a lot of his tricks!
We returned to the MGM grand after this to check out the lions in their artificial habitat within the casino. Our first thoughts were that it seemed kind of cruel that the lions be kept in such a small area. There were 2 men inside the habitat. One was throwing a ball and some other dumbbell looking object around for the male lion. Meanwhile the other was sitting on the ledge watching. Later on the lioness joined him and decided to lay next to him. For the sake of conscience though we were told that the lions have their own groomers, vet and keeper so we are to assume they’re well looked after. The enclosure was fairly spacious so I suppose it isn’t too bad that they’re in there.
Our next stop was M&M world where we were surrounded by M&M merchandise. On the 3rd floor there was a 3D movie where red lost his M on one of the craps tables in the casino! The rest of the movie was about him getting his M back. It was 3D and very cute. After dropping off into the coke store we headed for the northern side of the strip.
The Venetian is a huge casino with a canal running through it and its own gondola’s. We made our way through the streets until we arrived at St Mark’s square where there was a show of jesters and opera singers in Venetian costume. This was more than anything we saw in the real St Marks square! And, important to note, the Venice in the casino is much cleaner than the real Venice! No pigeons for a start!
However, the prices are similar, we found a shoe store that had a sale where shoes could be purchased for a humble $300!
The Wynn casino has a Lake of Dreams which is a light and fountain show. We headed over and found a nice viewing spot. To our dismay, due to daylight saving the show didn’t start until 8pm. We had reached our great viewpoint at 6:45pm! At 7:05pm when we had discovered that the show wasn’t happening until 8pm we left to catch the evening show of the Bellagio fountain. On the way, Ben picked up a fish burger meal from Macca’s.
After our pretty long walk we arrived at Bellagio only to discover that they weren’t running the show tonight! Due to high wind conditions! We felt pretty ripped off as we had missed 2 fountain shows!
We caught the shuttle back to our hotel and at the same time discovered our drive to Yosemite will be 7 hours! Got to sleep now!
Night!
We crossed the road to check out our first casino for the day - Caesar’s Palace! This ancient roman themed casino had a forum, statues of Augustus Caesar and even the famous rape of the Sabines, lavishly decorated interior, and even a set of Spanish steps! Albeit the imitations weren’t anywhere near as good as the originals, one could not help but feel amazed at the amount of detail of the re-creation!
We checked out the Forum shops which housed all the luxury brands! Then we caught the free Lost City of Atlantis water fountain show at 11am! It told the story of the two children of the king of Atlantis were fighting over the throne to such a degree that the Gods decided to sink the city! It used fire, water, and animatronic effects!
Next we headed over to the Bellagio next door and walked by the famous water fountains. We caught a show around 11:30am with the fountains dancing in sync to some American song. It was amazing how some jets of water shot maybe 10 stories or more high into the sky!
We continued walking south along the Strip until we came to the New York New York casino. This casino recreated some streets of New York within the casino, and even Times Square! Outside there was a statue of liberty and a façade of the New York cityscape!
We didn’t spend long there and instead headed across the road to the MGM Grand to find some lunch! We ended up in the chain restaurant called the Rainforest Café. This jungle themed restaurant featured animatronic animals and lightning and thunder effects with waterfalls! We shared an entrée of buffalo wings and BBQ ribs - yum!
We headed off to the Dirk Arthur magic show at the Tropicana Hotel. We watched as Dirk made tigers, ligers (half lion, half tiger) and other wild cats appear on stage. It was pretty cool, although a little cheesy sometimes when Dirk stood at the front and smiled at the audience. The dancers were alright, but I noticed that they were sometimes out of time… But it was pretty cool and I still can’t figure out how he did a lot of his tricks!
We returned to the MGM grand after this to check out the lions in their artificial habitat within the casino. Our first thoughts were that it seemed kind of cruel that the lions be kept in such a small area. There were 2 men inside the habitat. One was throwing a ball and some other dumbbell looking object around for the male lion. Meanwhile the other was sitting on the ledge watching. Later on the lioness joined him and decided to lay next to him. For the sake of conscience though we were told that the lions have their own groomers, vet and keeper so we are to assume they’re well looked after. The enclosure was fairly spacious so I suppose it isn’t too bad that they’re in there.
Our next stop was M&M world where we were surrounded by M&M merchandise. On the 3rd floor there was a 3D movie where red lost his M on one of the craps tables in the casino! The rest of the movie was about him getting his M back. It was 3D and very cute. After dropping off into the coke store we headed for the northern side of the strip.
The Venetian is a huge casino with a canal running through it and its own gondola’s. We made our way through the streets until we arrived at St Mark’s square where there was a show of jesters and opera singers in Venetian costume. This was more than anything we saw in the real St Marks square! And, important to note, the Venice in the casino is much cleaner than the real Venice! No pigeons for a start!
However, the prices are similar, we found a shoe store that had a sale where shoes could be purchased for a humble $300!
The Wynn casino has a Lake of Dreams which is a light and fountain show. We headed over and found a nice viewing spot. To our dismay, due to daylight saving the show didn’t start until 8pm. We had reached our great viewpoint at 6:45pm! At 7:05pm when we had discovered that the show wasn’t happening until 8pm we left to catch the evening show of the Bellagio fountain. On the way, Ben picked up a fish burger meal from Macca’s.
After our pretty long walk we arrived at Bellagio only to discover that they weren’t running the show tonight! Due to high wind conditions! We felt pretty ripped off as we had missed 2 fountain shows!
We caught the shuttle back to our hotel and at the same time discovered our drive to Yosemite will be 7 hours! Got to sleep now!
Night!
Friday, June 6, 2008
Grand Canyon to Las Vegas!
After initially contemplating waking up at 4am to see the sun rise over the Grand Canyon, we realised we were way too buggered to do that and just woke up around 8:30am. It was another beautiful day with clear blue skies stretching for miles in every direction! We packed the car, checked out and drove into the village centre.
After parking in carpark D, we walked towards the Grand Canyon’s South rim! We caught our first glimpse of it at the start of the Bright Angel Trail. Boy it was something to see! It very much reminded me of the look out at the three sisters in the Blue Mountains back home but the canyon has much sparser vegetation. The terrain was more colourful than I imagined with hues of red, orange, and green!
We started walking down the Bright Angel Trail into the canyon itself but when we started encountering mule dung and when we realised that views along this trail would be similar most of the way, we turned back. Instead we did the hermit road trail! This lead westward from the village along the top of the south rim. We enjoyed fantastic vantage points from 4-5 look out points1 We spotted eagles, squirrels, and the Colorado river running through the canyon!
Initially Di wasn’t terribly impressed with the magnitude of the canyon but at Maricopa point we got a glimpse of a larger part of the canyon and her impression changed! It really was a humbling experience to stand atop the canyon that runs about 273 river miles long, 10 miles wide, and 1 mile deep!
At Hopi point we caught the free shuttle bus back to the village. All in all we walked around 4-5km and it was already starting to get boiling hot under the Arizonian sun! Once back at the village we returned to our car and headed to the other side of the canyon!
We drove 23 miles to a place called Desert View which is the site of a watchtower built by Mary somebody in the 1900s. After checking out the view from the ground, we climbed the watchtower’s 4 or so levels! At each level of the circular tower there were viewing windows providing 360 degree views of the canyon and surrounds!
After appreciating the view, we left and drove the 23 miles back to the Grand Canyon village. Then we grabbed some lunch (quesalladas) at a café in Tusayan before saying farewell to one of the natural wonders of the world as we set off for Las Vegas!
The drive took around 4 hrs 30 mins and again consisted of driving along basically 4 very long and dead straight highways! Along the way we stopped to have a quick look at Hoover Dam.
Around 7pm we entered the outskirts of Las Vegas! From a distance we could make out the high rise casinos of the famous Strip shrouded in a haze! We headed to our accommodation for the next 2 night at Suncoast Casino and Hotel! The carpark was full and the first thing we saw when we entered the hotel was the gaming floor! Somehow we found the hotel registration desk tucked away in some corner and checked in. For the 5 minutes we spent in the ‘lobby’, when we got to our room we already stank of cigarette smoke!
Our room turned out to be a spacious (non-smoking thankfully!) room even larger than our one in Phuket, with a plasma tv, huge bathroom with 2 sinks, fridge, and couch. Di was so happy! After a long day I was rather buggered so we went down to the car to get our bags and then went to one of the hotel’s restaurants for dinner.
We had Mexican once again! This time we had a chicken fajita salad and a beef torsillada. We also tried their margherita! Once again we ended up with way too much food! Our waitress was nice enough to provide us with some takeaway boxes though!
After dinner we planned our day for tomorrow! Man I’m wasted! Time to sleep!
After parking in carpark D, we walked towards the Grand Canyon’s South rim! We caught our first glimpse of it at the start of the Bright Angel Trail. Boy it was something to see! It very much reminded me of the look out at the three sisters in the Blue Mountains back home but the canyon has much sparser vegetation. The terrain was more colourful than I imagined with hues of red, orange, and green!
We started walking down the Bright Angel Trail into the canyon itself but when we started encountering mule dung and when we realised that views along this trail would be similar most of the way, we turned back. Instead we did the hermit road trail! This lead westward from the village along the top of the south rim. We enjoyed fantastic vantage points from 4-5 look out points1 We spotted eagles, squirrels, and the Colorado river running through the canyon!
Initially Di wasn’t terribly impressed with the magnitude of the canyon but at Maricopa point we got a glimpse of a larger part of the canyon and her impression changed! It really was a humbling experience to stand atop the canyon that runs about 273 river miles long, 10 miles wide, and 1 mile deep!
At Hopi point we caught the free shuttle bus back to the village. All in all we walked around 4-5km and it was already starting to get boiling hot under the Arizonian sun! Once back at the village we returned to our car and headed to the other side of the canyon!
We drove 23 miles to a place called Desert View which is the site of a watchtower built by Mary somebody in the 1900s. After checking out the view from the ground, we climbed the watchtower’s 4 or so levels! At each level of the circular tower there were viewing windows providing 360 degree views of the canyon and surrounds!
After appreciating the view, we left and drove the 23 miles back to the Grand Canyon village. Then we grabbed some lunch (quesalladas) at a café in Tusayan before saying farewell to one of the natural wonders of the world as we set off for Las Vegas!
The drive took around 4 hrs 30 mins and again consisted of driving along basically 4 very long and dead straight highways! Along the way we stopped to have a quick look at Hoover Dam.
Around 7pm we entered the outskirts of Las Vegas! From a distance we could make out the high rise casinos of the famous Strip shrouded in a haze! We headed to our accommodation for the next 2 night at Suncoast Casino and Hotel! The carpark was full and the first thing we saw when we entered the hotel was the gaming floor! Somehow we found the hotel registration desk tucked away in some corner and checked in. For the 5 minutes we spent in the ‘lobby’, when we got to our room we already stank of cigarette smoke!
Our room turned out to be a spacious (non-smoking thankfully!) room even larger than our one in Phuket, with a plasma tv, huge bathroom with 2 sinks, fridge, and couch. Di was so happy! After a long day I was rather buggered so we went down to the car to get our bags and then went to one of the hotel’s restaurants for dinner.
We had Mexican once again! This time we had a chicken fajita salad and a beef torsillada. We also tried their margherita! Once again we ended up with way too much food! Our waitress was nice enough to provide us with some takeaway boxes though!
After dinner we planned our day for tomorrow! Man I’m wasted! Time to sleep!
Thursday, June 5, 2008
LA to Grand Canyon!
Today was a driving day from LA to the Grand Canyon! We said farewell to Dilys and the kids and then left to have breakky with Boon Piou at a pancake place called IHop. For USD 5.99 I got 2 strawberry pancakes, 2 eggs, 2 sausages, and a hash brown! There was so much we couldn’t finish our plate!
After breakky we said farewell to Boon Piou and plugged Grand Canyon into our GPS! We also plugged in an outlet store Boon Piou had recommended in a town called Cabazon. It took around 2hours to reach Cabazon and not long after leaving LA the landscape had already become desert like! At Cabazon we found the Desert Hills Premium Factory Outlet with around 100 genuine factory outlet stores!!! It looked like all the big names were here but we put a time limit on our shopping given the amount of driving ahead of us!
In the 1hr 15mins we were there we only visited 2 stores! I got some jeans and a top at the Levis outlet and Di got 2 pairs of shoes at the Sketchers outlet.
We got back in the car and off again we went! I drove for an hour before filling up and continuing another 3 hours along desert highways! One thing about American highways - they’re long, flat and dead straight for the most part! Shortly after crossing the California/Arizona border we stopped for a rest stop and Di took over the driving.
We reached the town of Williams around 6:40pm and grabbed some dinner at Rod’s Steak House yeah! Di ordered prime ribs and I ordered ground sirloin steak. Both dishes came out different to what we expected! Di’s ribs weren’t ribs at all but a cut of slow cooked steak. Mine was like ground up meat ie a burger patty, albeit with quality steak meat! Oh well! Both were not bad anyhow!
After dinner we headed up highway 64 towards the Grand Canyon National Park! The sun had already set and it was starting to get dark! It seemed like many more cars were leaving the park than heading towards it! After an hour or so we reached the entrance (which was unmanned so we didn’t have to pay the entrance fee!) and headed to the Grand Canyon Village and our accommodation for the night at Yavapai Lodge.
After checking in we drove our car round to the rooms themselves. Ours was a decent sized room with 2 queen sized beds and ensuite facilities! Not bad not bad! Nite!
After breakky we said farewell to Boon Piou and plugged Grand Canyon into our GPS! We also plugged in an outlet store Boon Piou had recommended in a town called Cabazon. It took around 2hours to reach Cabazon and not long after leaving LA the landscape had already become desert like! At Cabazon we found the Desert Hills Premium Factory Outlet with around 100 genuine factory outlet stores!!! It looked like all the big names were here but we put a time limit on our shopping given the amount of driving ahead of us!
In the 1hr 15mins we were there we only visited 2 stores! I got some jeans and a top at the Levis outlet and Di got 2 pairs of shoes at the Sketchers outlet.
We got back in the car and off again we went! I drove for an hour before filling up and continuing another 3 hours along desert highways! One thing about American highways - they’re long, flat and dead straight for the most part! Shortly after crossing the California/Arizona border we stopped for a rest stop and Di took over the driving.
We reached the town of Williams around 6:40pm and grabbed some dinner at Rod’s Steak House yeah! Di ordered prime ribs and I ordered ground sirloin steak. Both dishes came out different to what we expected! Di’s ribs weren’t ribs at all but a cut of slow cooked steak. Mine was like ground up meat ie a burger patty, albeit with quality steak meat! Oh well! Both were not bad anyhow!
After dinner we headed up highway 64 towards the Grand Canyon National Park! The sun had already set and it was starting to get dark! It seemed like many more cars were leaving the park than heading towards it! After an hour or so we reached the entrance (which was unmanned so we didn’t have to pay the entrance fee!) and headed to the Grand Canyon Village and our accommodation for the night at Yavapai Lodge.
After checking in we drove our car round to the rooms themselves. Ours was a decent sized room with 2 queen sized beds and ensuite facilities! Not bad not bad! Nite!
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Rest day in LA!
Today was an errands day in LA! Got up late and first up drove our rental car to LAX airport to pick up our Budget rental car to take to San Fran. Then we drove both cars back to Lomita and returned the Enterprise rental car. This all took around 2hrs! Sp now we’re driving a black 2 door Chevrolet Cobalt. It’s got basic features but looks sporty!
We returned to Boon Piou’s place and Di did a load of washing/drying. In the meantime I went out again to get my hair cut and find some lunch to bring back. I looked up hair dressers in the GPS and finally got my hair cut at the 4th one I visited! The first one was non-existent, the second closed, and third fully booked when I visited. I ended up at a Korean place funnily enough but she was really good! Finally I have nice short spiky hair again!!!
Next I plugged Mexican food into the GPS and found a place called Enquitos Mos or something like that! Got two burritos and the guy even threw in a scoop of corn chips for free! Went back to Di’s cousin’s place and we thoroughly enjoyed our Mexican lunch!
After lunch we decided to check out the shopping scene in LA and found the South Bay Galleria in our GPS. This was about 8 miles away. We checked the directory but were kinda disappointed at the range of stores. They did have some major department stores like Macy’s and Mervyns but they didn’t have the general American brands like Levis, Fossil, or Timberland etc. We did some window shopping and picked up some baby clothes from Gap for some of Di’s friends expecting. Then we grabbed a HUGE old fashioned lemonade in the food court. It was seriously like a 1 litre cup!!!
We left around 5:30pm and stopped by Albertsons supermarket on the way home to pick up some groceries for our roadtrip starting tomorrow! We got back around 7:15pm and Boon Piou, Dilys, and the kids were all home. Dilys was feeling slightly ill with a headache so she was asleep and stayed home whilst we went out for dinner.
Boon Piou took us to that Malaysian place he had wanted to take us to on Monday night called Belacan Grill. It wasn’t bad! We had great satay for starters, then mains of hainanese chicken, curry beef, belacan kangkong and chow kway teow. The kids really loved the chicken! Natalie loved the curry beef! The chow kway teow wasn’t bad, but the other dishes weren’t quite up to par. It was quite reasonably priced though at around USD10 per dish and it was nice to have Malaysian food again!
We returned to Boon Piou’s place and Di did a load of washing/drying. In the meantime I went out again to get my hair cut and find some lunch to bring back. I looked up hair dressers in the GPS and finally got my hair cut at the 4th one I visited! The first one was non-existent, the second closed, and third fully booked when I visited. I ended up at a Korean place funnily enough but she was really good! Finally I have nice short spiky hair again!!!
Next I plugged Mexican food into the GPS and found a place called Enquitos Mos or something like that! Got two burritos and the guy even threw in a scoop of corn chips for free! Went back to Di’s cousin’s place and we thoroughly enjoyed our Mexican lunch!
After lunch we decided to check out the shopping scene in LA and found the South Bay Galleria in our GPS. This was about 8 miles away. We checked the directory but were kinda disappointed at the range of stores. They did have some major department stores like Macy’s and Mervyns but they didn’t have the general American brands like Levis, Fossil, or Timberland etc. We did some window shopping and picked up some baby clothes from Gap for some of Di’s friends expecting. Then we grabbed a HUGE old fashioned lemonade in the food court. It was seriously like a 1 litre cup!!!
We left around 5:30pm and stopped by Albertsons supermarket on the way home to pick up some groceries for our roadtrip starting tomorrow! We got back around 7:15pm and Boon Piou, Dilys, and the kids were all home. Dilys was feeling slightly ill with a headache so she was asleep and stayed home whilst we went out for dinner.
Boon Piou took us to that Malaysian place he had wanted to take us to on Monday night called Belacan Grill. It wasn’t bad! We had great satay for starters, then mains of hainanese chicken, curry beef, belacan kangkong and chow kway teow. The kids really loved the chicken! Natalie loved the curry beef! The chow kway teow wasn’t bad, but the other dishes weren’t quite up to par. It was quite reasonably priced though at around USD10 per dish and it was nice to have Malaysian food again!
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Universal Studios!
Today we visited Universal Studios! We got there just after the studio’s opening time of 10am! We parked in the Curious George carpark and walked through the Universal Citywalk towards the park entrance! It reminded me very much of the Warner’s Bros Studios on the Gold Coast! There were quite a lot of people but it wasn’t exactly packed for a weekday.
First up we did the new Simpson’s Ride! We lined up for 30mins before finally reaching the front of the line! It was a motion simulator that took us on a rollercoaster and flying adventure over Springfield! Pretty good! Next we headed to the lower lot of the park and Di convinced me to go on the Jurassic Park ride! There was no line at this ride so we got straight in! This was a river style ride with an 84 foot waterfall drop at the end!
Next up we checked out the stage effects show which showed us some common visual, creature, and sound effects used. Then we checked out the Backdraft show which demonstrated how they did the fire scenes from the movie! The last thing we did before lunch was the Mummy ride! This was an indoor rollercoaster almost completely in the dark! It was short but pretty scary! Thankfully I didn’t feel sick afterwards!
We had lunch in the Jurassic café before heading back up to the upper lot to do the famous Universal Studio tour! Again we didn’t have to wait and we got straight on to a tram. They took us through the backlots which is apparently the largest in Hollywood. They showed us sets from the Fast and the Furious, Jaws, the Mummy, old western movie sets, and a huge outdoor blue screen used to film Evan Almighty. We also so Wisteria Lane from Desperate Housewives! Many of the sets had live action demonstrations eg the mechanical shark used in Jaws and the robots used to produce the stunts in the Fast and the Furious! We also saw the remains of a set that caught on fire just on Sunday!
After the 45 min tour we headed to the Waterworld live show! This was based on the movie Waterworld and the stage was a huge pool with much of the set from the movie. The show was really good! There was a storyline and lots of action with jet skis, powerboats, flying foxes, and even a huge boat plane!
Next up we saw the Terminator 3D show and then the cute animal actors show! Finally we caught the last session of the Shrek 4D show (the 4th D is the vibrating chair and air and water effects) before doing a spot of souvenir shopping before the studio closed at 6pm!
As we headed back to the carpark along the Citywalk, we decided to hang around and have dinner. Until then we filled the time by watching Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull! It wasn’t as good as the original 3 unfortunately! When the movie finished at 10pm, most of the restaurants had closed! We had initially planned to eat dinner at Hard Rock Café but it was only serving drinks by the time we made it there.
Instead we had to settle for Jack in the Box drive through on the way back to Di’s cousin’s place. A long day but we made the most it and really enjoyed Universal Studios! Nite!
First up we did the new Simpson’s Ride! We lined up for 30mins before finally reaching the front of the line! It was a motion simulator that took us on a rollercoaster and flying adventure over Springfield! Pretty good! Next we headed to the lower lot of the park and Di convinced me to go on the Jurassic Park ride! There was no line at this ride so we got straight in! This was a river style ride with an 84 foot waterfall drop at the end!
Next up we checked out the stage effects show which showed us some common visual, creature, and sound effects used. Then we checked out the Backdraft show which demonstrated how they did the fire scenes from the movie! The last thing we did before lunch was the Mummy ride! This was an indoor rollercoaster almost completely in the dark! It was short but pretty scary! Thankfully I didn’t feel sick afterwards!
We had lunch in the Jurassic café before heading back up to the upper lot to do the famous Universal Studio tour! Again we didn’t have to wait and we got straight on to a tram. They took us through the backlots which is apparently the largest in Hollywood. They showed us sets from the Fast and the Furious, Jaws, the Mummy, old western movie sets, and a huge outdoor blue screen used to film Evan Almighty. We also so Wisteria Lane from Desperate Housewives! Many of the sets had live action demonstrations eg the mechanical shark used in Jaws and the robots used to produce the stunts in the Fast and the Furious! We also saw the remains of a set that caught on fire just on Sunday!
After the 45 min tour we headed to the Waterworld live show! This was based on the movie Waterworld and the stage was a huge pool with much of the set from the movie. The show was really good! There was a storyline and lots of action with jet skis, powerboats, flying foxes, and even a huge boat plane!
Next up we saw the Terminator 3D show and then the cute animal actors show! Finally we caught the last session of the Shrek 4D show (the 4th D is the vibrating chair and air and water effects) before doing a spot of souvenir shopping before the studio closed at 6pm!
As we headed back to the carpark along the Citywalk, we decided to hang around and have dinner. Until then we filled the time by watching Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull! It wasn’t as good as the original 3 unfortunately! When the movie finished at 10pm, most of the restaurants had closed! We had initially planned to eat dinner at Hard Rock Café but it was only serving drinks by the time we made it there.
Instead we had to settle for Jack in the Box drive through on the way back to Di’s cousin’s place. A long day but we made the most it and really enjoyed Universal Studios! Nite!
Monday, June 2, 2008
Hey there Hollywood!
Today Boon Piou took the morning off to show us around Ranchos Palos Verdes! We visited Trumps National golf course before checking out some of the multimillion dollar mansions in Rolling Hills and Boon Piou’s dream home! Then it was off to Costcos to check out prices for a GPS!
Costcos is basically a huge warehouse that sells everything in bulk for cheap! You have to be a member to shop there. I think it costs around USD 30 per year. They didn’t stock the model we wanted though. Boon Piou got a call from work and had to rush off so he dropped us at Enterprise car rentals in Lomita. We got a Hyundai Sonata for about USD 55 per day and we were off!
Man it was weird driving on the left side of the car and right side of the road! Di had to constantly remind me which lane to drive in! I also had difficulty keeping the car in the middle of the lane and kept drifting to the right cos I’m used to right hand drive cars! We drove to Circuit City nearby and got a Garmin Nuvi 200W to use for our tour of California!
Next we drove to Santa Monica beach to grab some lunch and check out the Californian beach scene! We found free parking in Macy’s shopping centre and headed towards the water. Now finally we found a real beach like those back home! The beach had fine sand and stretched for miles! We headed to the famous Santa Monica pier and checked out the small carnival there and the Bubba Gump store before getting a taste of our first real American fast food!
Di got a cheeseburger and I got a fish fillet sandwich! Mmm so greasy! After lunch we went for a walk along the beach enjoying the warm Californian sun and watching people cycle and rollerblade along side us!
Mid afternoon we headed over to Beverly Hills and the famous Rodeo drive! We drove down the snazzy shopping strip with all the luxury brand names before turning into that street you always see in the movies of Beverly Hills lined with the tall palm trees!
Then we drove to nearby Hollywood! We parked under the Kodak Theatre and checked out the Hollywood walk of fame! We saw plenty of big names’ stars including those from the movie, tv, and music industries! Outside the Chinese theatre there were plenty of people checking out the hand and footprints of Hollywood’s famous in the sidewalk!
We left Hollywood around 6pm and headed back to Boon Piou’s place. It took almost an hour! Then we went for dinner! They wanted to take us to this Malaysian place for dinner but we went there and it was closed! So we went to a Japanese place instead called Hakone! We had sashimi and tempura/teriyaki combos - yum!
After dinner we watched some of Nigel’s soccer matches before playing Wii soccer! Nite!
Costcos is basically a huge warehouse that sells everything in bulk for cheap! You have to be a member to shop there. I think it costs around USD 30 per year. They didn’t stock the model we wanted though. Boon Piou got a call from work and had to rush off so he dropped us at Enterprise car rentals in Lomita. We got a Hyundai Sonata for about USD 55 per day and we were off!
Man it was weird driving on the left side of the car and right side of the road! Di had to constantly remind me which lane to drive in! I also had difficulty keeping the car in the middle of the lane and kept drifting to the right cos I’m used to right hand drive cars! We drove to Circuit City nearby and got a Garmin Nuvi 200W to use for our tour of California!
Next we drove to Santa Monica beach to grab some lunch and check out the Californian beach scene! We found free parking in Macy’s shopping centre and headed towards the water. Now finally we found a real beach like those back home! The beach had fine sand and stretched for miles! We headed to the famous Santa Monica pier and checked out the small carnival there and the Bubba Gump store before getting a taste of our first real American fast food!
Di got a cheeseburger and I got a fish fillet sandwich! Mmm so greasy! After lunch we went for a walk along the beach enjoying the warm Californian sun and watching people cycle and rollerblade along side us!
Mid afternoon we headed over to Beverly Hills and the famous Rodeo drive! We drove down the snazzy shopping strip with all the luxury brand names before turning into that street you always see in the movies of Beverly Hills lined with the tall palm trees!
Then we drove to nearby Hollywood! We parked under the Kodak Theatre and checked out the Hollywood walk of fame! We saw plenty of big names’ stars including those from the movie, tv, and music industries! Outside the Chinese theatre there were plenty of people checking out the hand and footprints of Hollywood’s famous in the sidewalk!
We left Hollywood around 6pm and headed back to Boon Piou’s place. It took almost an hour! Then we went for dinner! They wanted to take us to this Malaysian place for dinner but we went there and it was closed! So we went to a Japanese place instead called Hakone! We had sashimi and tempura/teriyaki combos - yum!
After dinner we watched some of Nigel’s soccer matches before playing Wii soccer! Nite!
Sunday, June 1, 2008
London to Los Angeles!
Slept in till 10am or so and enjoyed the chocolate croissants we had bought in France for breakky! Around 11 we said farewell to Paula and headed back to Dartford. We dropped Beng Kiet koko and Cheng Yee off at Dartford station before rushing back to Uncle Alex’s place so we could pack! We had an hour to pack and chow down a bowl of instant noodles before it was off to the airport!
Along the way we reflected upon what a great 5 weeks had been in Europe! Man the time went quick! People ask which city was the best but I really think it was all good, each city having its unique attractions!
We checked in on time around 2:30pm for our 4:15pm flight but turns out we were 1 of 25 ppl remaining to check in!!! It meant we didn’t get a window seat but we didn’t mind. Uncle Alex and Aunty Clem said farewell and we went through the departure gates!
Our flight left an hour late due to traffic at Heathrow but otherwise was quite good! Flight time was around 10 hrs 30mins to Los Angeles and we enjoyed watching Vantage Point, Cleaner, Definitely Maybe, and The Bucket List! The food was great once again! We had lamb curry with rice and banoffee pie for dinner and dessert, and chicken foccacia for the light meal.
We got to LA around 8pm local time but it didn’t take long to get our bags and get into the arrival hall! There Di’s cousin Boon Piou, his wife Dilys, and two kids Nigel and Natalie greeted us! We hadn’t met them before but they were super welcoming and hospitable! We loaded up their Honda Odyssey and they took us to Chilis for dinner! As we drove there from the airport we marveled at the lights and the busy multi lane highways of America’s second largest city! Dinner was great! The portions were huge and Di and I were glad we shared the plate of ribs and chicken we had ordered! I also got root beer - yum!
After dinner it was on to their place in Ranchos Palos Verdes! We got the grand tour of their huge single storey former ranch house! Finally we collapsed in bed, exhausted from our travels and the jet lag! Nite!
Along the way we reflected upon what a great 5 weeks had been in Europe! Man the time went quick! People ask which city was the best but I really think it was all good, each city having its unique attractions!
We checked in on time around 2:30pm for our 4:15pm flight but turns out we were 1 of 25 ppl remaining to check in!!! It meant we didn’t get a window seat but we didn’t mind. Uncle Alex and Aunty Clem said farewell and we went through the departure gates!
Our flight left an hour late due to traffic at Heathrow but otherwise was quite good! Flight time was around 10 hrs 30mins to Los Angeles and we enjoyed watching Vantage Point, Cleaner, Definitely Maybe, and The Bucket List! The food was great once again! We had lamb curry with rice and banoffee pie for dinner and dessert, and chicken foccacia for the light meal.
We got to LA around 8pm local time but it didn’t take long to get our bags and get into the arrival hall! There Di’s cousin Boon Piou, his wife Dilys, and two kids Nigel and Natalie greeted us! We hadn’t met them before but they were super welcoming and hospitable! We loaded up their Honda Odyssey and they took us to Chilis for dinner! As we drove there from the airport we marveled at the lights and the busy multi lane highways of America’s second largest city! Dinner was great! The portions were huge and Di and I were glad we shared the plate of ribs and chicken we had ordered! I also got root beer - yum!
After dinner it was on to their place in Ranchos Palos Verdes! We got the grand tour of their huge single storey former ranch house! Finally we collapsed in bed, exhausted from our travels and the jet lag! Nite!
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Day trip to France!
Uncle Alex rapped on the door nice and early at 6:30am and after a quick cuppa tea, we were off on the motorway towards Folkestone! We had 6 ppl in the car - Uncle Alex, Aunty Clem, Paula, Cheng Yee, Di and I! It was surprisingly not too cramped in the back!
We checked in at Eurotunnel and then had a quick look at the duty free shops before queuing up to board our train! Soon we had driven onto the train and were zooming under the English Channel!
We arrived in France around 9:15am or so and after putting our clocks forward an hour, we headed south towards the seaside town of Bologne! The drive didn’t take long but there was sufficient time to get a bit of shuteye in the backseat!
It was sunny and reasonably warm as we pulled into Bologne! After parking near the old part of town, we walked downhill to the markets which was bustling with locals! We had a look around at the stalls selling everything from fruit and veges to flowers to clothes! Next we headed down to the docks to check out the fishermen’s catch! They were mostly selling sole but we also saw some huge lobsters too!
We headed back to the car and grabbed our pre-made lunch of turkey rolls that Paula had made. We enjoyed the warm sun in the garden near the carpark as we gobbled down lunch. Then it was time to explore the old part of town surrounded by an ancient wall! We found the gate into town and walked up cobblestone streets to the main street lined with craft shops and cafes! There was this annoying African man who came up to us asking us where we were from and a few other questions. Uncle Alex pretended not to understand what he was asking and after a while just walked by. He presumably wanted money but we noticed him hassling every other tourist walking by! We found a nice café to sit at and grab a drink before deciding it was time to move on!
Back in the car, we headed north to the town of Dunkirk! Again I fell asleep but soon enough we were there! We parked near the pier and then walked into the town centre where we found a hub of activity going on! It turned out to be some sort of agricultural fair and there were animal exhibits and stores promoting organic foods. After checking it out briefly, we escaped the crowds and continued walking around town. It was nearing 5pm and we were feeling hungry so we started to keep an eye out for places to eat! I had my stomach set on moules fritte (mussels and fries!).
Eventually we found a few cafes by the sea and picked one advertising moules fritte! They didn’t really have much of a selection and it took a bit of guesswork to figure out what the other dishes on the menu were! Our French waitress was friendly enough but could not speak a word of English! In the end Uncle Alex, Di and I got the moules fritte, Aunty Clem got steak, Cheng Yee got this local specialty of cold chicken/pork, whilst Paula decided to just have cheese on toast with fries! The mussels were great! Uncle Alex’s provencal sauce was probably the best though!
Filled up, we left Dunkirk and drove to Calais to do some shopping before catching our 9:50pm train back to the UK. We managed to find the outlet centre near Cite Europe but it had just closed as we pulled into the parking lot at 7pm! Disappointed we headed over to Cite Europe and Uncle Alex, Aunty Clem, and Paula went crazy at Carrefour and Tesco buying a whole trolley full of booze! They got even more at the duty free store after we had checked in!
Our 9:50pm train ended up being full and we were first on the 10:10pm train. We finally reached UK soil around 9:30pm after putting back our clocks! The drive back to Paula’s place was about 30mins and Beng Kiet koko welcomed us back around 10pm! Paula reheated some of last night’s Indian food and mmm was it good! We also enjoyed some of the wine we had bought! The perfect end to a nice day out! Nite!
We checked in at Eurotunnel and then had a quick look at the duty free shops before queuing up to board our train! Soon we had driven onto the train and were zooming under the English Channel!
We arrived in France around 9:15am or so and after putting our clocks forward an hour, we headed south towards the seaside town of Bologne! The drive didn’t take long but there was sufficient time to get a bit of shuteye in the backseat!
It was sunny and reasonably warm as we pulled into Bologne! After parking near the old part of town, we walked downhill to the markets which was bustling with locals! We had a look around at the stalls selling everything from fruit and veges to flowers to clothes! Next we headed down to the docks to check out the fishermen’s catch! They were mostly selling sole but we also saw some huge lobsters too!
We headed back to the car and grabbed our pre-made lunch of turkey rolls that Paula had made. We enjoyed the warm sun in the garden near the carpark as we gobbled down lunch. Then it was time to explore the old part of town surrounded by an ancient wall! We found the gate into town and walked up cobblestone streets to the main street lined with craft shops and cafes! There was this annoying African man who came up to us asking us where we were from and a few other questions. Uncle Alex pretended not to understand what he was asking and after a while just walked by. He presumably wanted money but we noticed him hassling every other tourist walking by! We found a nice café to sit at and grab a drink before deciding it was time to move on!
Back in the car, we headed north to the town of Dunkirk! Again I fell asleep but soon enough we were there! We parked near the pier and then walked into the town centre where we found a hub of activity going on! It turned out to be some sort of agricultural fair and there were animal exhibits and stores promoting organic foods. After checking it out briefly, we escaped the crowds and continued walking around town. It was nearing 5pm and we were feeling hungry so we started to keep an eye out for places to eat! I had my stomach set on moules fritte (mussels and fries!).
Eventually we found a few cafes by the sea and picked one advertising moules fritte! They didn’t really have much of a selection and it took a bit of guesswork to figure out what the other dishes on the menu were! Our French waitress was friendly enough but could not speak a word of English! In the end Uncle Alex, Di and I got the moules fritte, Aunty Clem got steak, Cheng Yee got this local specialty of cold chicken/pork, whilst Paula decided to just have cheese on toast with fries! The mussels were great! Uncle Alex’s provencal sauce was probably the best though!
Filled up, we left Dunkirk and drove to Calais to do some shopping before catching our 9:50pm train back to the UK. We managed to find the outlet centre near Cite Europe but it had just closed as we pulled into the parking lot at 7pm! Disappointed we headed over to Cite Europe and Uncle Alex, Aunty Clem, and Paula went crazy at Carrefour and Tesco buying a whole trolley full of booze! They got even more at the duty free store after we had checked in!
Our 9:50pm train ended up being full and we were first on the 10:10pm train. We finally reached UK soil around 9:30pm after putting back our clocks! The drive back to Paula’s place was about 30mins and Beng Kiet koko welcomed us back around 10pm! Paula reheated some of last night’s Indian food and mmm was it good! We also enjoyed some of the wine we had bought! The perfect end to a nice day out! Nite!
Friday, May 30, 2008
London to Dartford!
Got up early at 7am to have breakky with Fiona before she left for work. We cooked bacon, eggs, mushrooms, onions, and hash browns! We had a little accident with Fiona’s cast iron pot - the inner paintwork crackled and popped spoiling our mushrooms! Anyhow it was nice to have a big breakfast again!
We said farewell to Fiona as she left for work and then Di went back to sleep whilst I surfed the net. Around 11:30am we took our clothes which were still wet to the Laundromat to us the dryer. It did the trick! We skipped lunch and went to watch Iron Man at the local Empire cinema! Not bad!
After the movie we rushed back to Fiona’s place to finish packing our bags and then we were off to the train station to head to Dartford! We caught the underground to Embankment and walked to Charing Cross station to catch the southeastern train to Dartford. All up the journey took almost 2hrs! We arrived in Dartford at 6pm and Aunty Clem picked us up at the station. She called Beng Kiet koko who was on the train and he said he was only 10mins away so we decided to wait for him at the station. Twenty minutes later he turned up and explained that his train had been delayed cos some guy had jumped onto the tracks!
We got to Uncle Alex’s place and repacked our small luggage bag for our overnight stay at Paula’s! Around 7:30pm we drove to Maidstone, about a 20min drive away. We picked up Cheng Yee from Maidstone station and then headed to Paula’s place.
Paula’s place is a nice 2 storey semi detached place in a dead end street. It had a very homely feel about it! Paula welcomed us and took us on a tour! She has a living room, separate dining room, conservatory, downstairs and upstairs toilet, and 3 bedrooms, one with a shower ensuite! She also has a decent sized backyard and deck!
As soon as we entered, we could smell wafts of home cooked Indian cuisine! Mmmm said my stomach! We made ourselves at home and cracked open a bottle of wine whilst Paula finished preparing dinner and Aunty Clem her apple crumble dessert! Dinner was amazing! Tandoori chicken (spicy!), ginger chicken, baked salmon, curry chicken, and salad to cool things down! It was just really nice sitting down to a home cooked meal after being on the go for the last few weeks!
Ok better go to bed now cos it’s an early start for our trip to France tomorrow!
We said farewell to Fiona as she left for work and then Di went back to sleep whilst I surfed the net. Around 11:30am we took our clothes which were still wet to the Laundromat to us the dryer. It did the trick! We skipped lunch and went to watch Iron Man at the local Empire cinema! Not bad!
After the movie we rushed back to Fiona’s place to finish packing our bags and then we were off to the train station to head to Dartford! We caught the underground to Embankment and walked to Charing Cross station to catch the southeastern train to Dartford. All up the journey took almost 2hrs! We arrived in Dartford at 6pm and Aunty Clem picked us up at the station. She called Beng Kiet koko who was on the train and he said he was only 10mins away so we decided to wait for him at the station. Twenty minutes later he turned up and explained that his train had been delayed cos some guy had jumped onto the tracks!
We got to Uncle Alex’s place and repacked our small luggage bag for our overnight stay at Paula’s! Around 7:30pm we drove to Maidstone, about a 20min drive away. We picked up Cheng Yee from Maidstone station and then headed to Paula’s place.
Paula’s place is a nice 2 storey semi detached place in a dead end street. It had a very homely feel about it! Paula welcomed us and took us on a tour! She has a living room, separate dining room, conservatory, downstairs and upstairs toilet, and 3 bedrooms, one with a shower ensuite! She also has a decent sized backyard and deck!
As soon as we entered, we could smell wafts of home cooked Indian cuisine! Mmmm said my stomach! We made ourselves at home and cracked open a bottle of wine whilst Paula finished preparing dinner and Aunty Clem her apple crumble dessert! Dinner was amazing! Tandoori chicken (spicy!), ginger chicken, baked salmon, curry chicken, and salad to cool things down! It was just really nice sitting down to a home cooked meal after being on the go for the last few weeks!
Ok better go to bed now cos it’s an early start for our trip to France tomorrow!
Thursday, May 29, 2008
WICKED day in London!
Today was our rest day in London! Slept in till 11am and spent the remainder of the morning doing more laundry and surfing the net before deciding to go out for lunch around 1:30pm. We grabbed some noodles at Coco noodles (beef pho noodles) before doing some shopping at M & S and then getting some groceries for dinner and tomorrow’s breakky from Tesco.
Then we headed back to Fiona’s place and watched Sweeney Todd (sick movie man!) whilst preparing our home cooked dinner of fettucine bolognaise with aubergine and funghi! Man it was good! Meaty and chunks of veges! Yeah! I dare say better than all the pasta we had in Italy!
At 6pm we caught the metro to Victoria station to see Wicked at the Apollo Theatre! We had prebooked the tickets online at lastminute.com for GBP 40 per ticket. The show was awesome!!! For those who don’t know, Wicked is the prequel to the Wizard of Oz! The set was amazing, the music awesome, and the lighting/stage effects spectacular! We’d highly recommend it to anyone! Now showing in London, Los Angeles, and Broadway as far as we know!
Got back to Fiona’s place around 11pm and she had dessert ready since we had cooked dinner! We enjoyed apple crumble and Ben and Jerry’s icecream whilst listening to the Wicked soundtrack, which Fiona had! Night!
Then we headed back to Fiona’s place and watched Sweeney Todd (sick movie man!) whilst preparing our home cooked dinner of fettucine bolognaise with aubergine and funghi! Man it was good! Meaty and chunks of veges! Yeah! I dare say better than all the pasta we had in Italy!
At 6pm we caught the metro to Victoria station to see Wicked at the Apollo Theatre! We had prebooked the tickets online at lastminute.com for GBP 40 per ticket. The show was awesome!!! For those who don’t know, Wicked is the prequel to the Wizard of Oz! The set was amazing, the music awesome, and the lighting/stage effects spectacular! We’d highly recommend it to anyone! Now showing in London, Los Angeles, and Broadway as far as we know!
Got back to Fiona’s place around 11pm and she had dessert ready since we had cooked dinner! We enjoyed apple crumble and Ben and Jerry’s icecream whilst listening to the Wicked soundtrack, which Fiona had! Night!
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Amsterdam to Brugge to London!
Got up early for the last time and loaded up the coach! We left Amsterdam around 8:15am and headed towards Belgium!
Around 10:30am we stopped for a service stop and after watching Shawshank Redemption on the coach, we soon arrived in Brugge, Belgium around 1pm. We didn’t have long here cos we needed to make the ferry. Jaz rushed us into the main square and after giving a brief history of the place and some historical buildings of significance, she pointed out places to eat and places to shop and off we went!
We hurried to a chip stand cos apparently Belgium is famous for its chips with mayonnaise. Also got a hot dog. Thought both were rather ordinary actually! I guess we have good chips back home! We then looked around for Belgium’s other specialty, Belgian waffles! We walked back up the street we had come and found a take away waffle store. We each got a Belgian waffle with vanilla icecream and chocolate sauce. It came on basically 2 pieces of folded cardboard and was rather difficult to eat. We found a low lying section of wall alongside the street and sat down. The waffle was good but the icecream was rather disappointing!
The last thing we did there was check out the supermarket cos Jaz told us Belgian chocolate would be cheaper there. We didn’t find a huge range so we didn’t bother.
It was back on the bus at 2pm and we zoomed off towards Calais to board the ferry back to the UK. We arrived in Calais around 3:45pm to find that our ferry was running late due to strong winds across the channel. Our rescheduled departure time was 5:25pm! We spent the time passing through immigration, taking a last group photo, and checking out the dock. Jaz also revealed that she and Matty (our driver) are dating!
Our P&O ferry arrived around 4:30pm and we watched as cars, trucks, and buses from Dover were unloaded and then the batch going to Dover loaded. Our bus drove us onto the ferry to drop us off and we said farewell to Matty (he’s based in the Netherlands)!
On board the ferry we found quite a number of services and facilities including a restaurant, bar, gaming area, duty free shop, and bureau de change. We sat with Jon and Erika in the restaurant for the 75min journey across the channel. It was nice reflecting on the good times we had had!
The journey was mostly smooth and we arrived in Dover around 6:15pm English time. We boarded an Excalibur coach to take us back to London with the other Topdeck group. The trip took almost 2hrs as The Da Vinci Code was played on the tv. What made the journey unpleasant though was the stench of urine coming from the coach’s toilet! Jaz tried cleaning it with Coke and using deodorant but the stench remained with us pretty much for the whole journey! We had to use Jaz’s scented wipes and Erika’s perfume to mask it!
We were only too glad to get off early at Victoria station! Jon and Erika and Barrett and Krista also got off here. At the underground we said farewell and took the district line to Ealing Broadway. We got to Fiona’s place around 9pm. She hadn’t had dinner yet so we headed to a nearby Mexican restaurant for dinner. It was Fiona’s treat and we got a 2 for 1 deal on the quesalladas. We shared some nachos for starters. Not bad!
Went back to Fiona’s place and Di put on scrubs! Ah…so nice to not have to wake up early tomorrow!!!
Final thoughts on the tour: Great 2 weeks!!! Got to see many places that we probably would not see on our own! Had a nice small group with people of similar age and life stages which was way better than it could’ve been if we had been stuck with double the number of 18 year olds! Good accommodation, alright food! Jaz was an awesome tour leader! She really looked after us and did everything she could to make our trip all the more enjoyable! Only downside was the early starts every day and some long driving days which meant we were quite tired much of the time. But hey we saw so much so it was worth it! Would recommend it to everyone!
Around 10:30am we stopped for a service stop and after watching Shawshank Redemption on the coach, we soon arrived in Brugge, Belgium around 1pm. We didn’t have long here cos we needed to make the ferry. Jaz rushed us into the main square and after giving a brief history of the place and some historical buildings of significance, she pointed out places to eat and places to shop and off we went!
We hurried to a chip stand cos apparently Belgium is famous for its chips with mayonnaise. Also got a hot dog. Thought both were rather ordinary actually! I guess we have good chips back home! We then looked around for Belgium’s other specialty, Belgian waffles! We walked back up the street we had come and found a take away waffle store. We each got a Belgian waffle with vanilla icecream and chocolate sauce. It came on basically 2 pieces of folded cardboard and was rather difficult to eat. We found a low lying section of wall alongside the street and sat down. The waffle was good but the icecream was rather disappointing!
The last thing we did there was check out the supermarket cos Jaz told us Belgian chocolate would be cheaper there. We didn’t find a huge range so we didn’t bother.
It was back on the bus at 2pm and we zoomed off towards Calais to board the ferry back to the UK. We arrived in Calais around 3:45pm to find that our ferry was running late due to strong winds across the channel. Our rescheduled departure time was 5:25pm! We spent the time passing through immigration, taking a last group photo, and checking out the dock. Jaz also revealed that she and Matty (our driver) are dating!
Our P&O ferry arrived around 4:30pm and we watched as cars, trucks, and buses from Dover were unloaded and then the batch going to Dover loaded. Our bus drove us onto the ferry to drop us off and we said farewell to Matty (he’s based in the Netherlands)!
On board the ferry we found quite a number of services and facilities including a restaurant, bar, gaming area, duty free shop, and bureau de change. We sat with Jon and Erika in the restaurant for the 75min journey across the channel. It was nice reflecting on the good times we had had!
The journey was mostly smooth and we arrived in Dover around 6:15pm English time. We boarded an Excalibur coach to take us back to London with the other Topdeck group. The trip took almost 2hrs as The Da Vinci Code was played on the tv. What made the journey unpleasant though was the stench of urine coming from the coach’s toilet! Jaz tried cleaning it with Coke and using deodorant but the stench remained with us pretty much for the whole journey! We had to use Jaz’s scented wipes and Erika’s perfume to mask it!
We were only too glad to get off early at Victoria station! Jon and Erika and Barrett and Krista also got off here. At the underground we said farewell and took the district line to Ealing Broadway. We got to Fiona’s place around 9pm. She hadn’t had dinner yet so we headed to a nearby Mexican restaurant for dinner. It was Fiona’s treat and we got a 2 for 1 deal on the quesalladas. We shared some nachos for starters. Not bad!
Went back to Fiona’s place and Di put on scrubs! Ah…so nice to not have to wake up early tomorrow!!!
Final thoughts on the tour: Great 2 weeks!!! Got to see many places that we probably would not see on our own! Had a nice small group with people of similar age and life stages which was way better than it could’ve been if we had been stuck with double the number of 18 year olds! Good accommodation, alright food! Jaz was an awesome tour leader! She really looked after us and did everything she could to make our trip all the more enjoyable! Only downside was the early starts every day and some long driving days which meant we were quite tired much of the time. But hey we saw so much so it was worth it! Would recommend it to everyone!
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Tour de Amsterdam!
Our day started today with a bicycle tour of Amsterdam! Matty dropped us off in the museum district and Jaz led us to Mike’s Bike Tours where we met our tour guide for the morning. Another Topdeck group was there (a hostel group I think) and they were being issued with their bikes. Apparently they hadn’t booked their tour until this morning and the bike company had to call in another tour guide leader. The other group arrived first so they got our leader and we got the guy who was called in after he was out till 4:30am last night!
Anyhow, we got our bikes and our sleepy and what turned out to be kiwi tour guide led us off! I was a bit shakey at first but picked up quickly! Had to remember to stay on the right side of the road, that cars give way to bikes here, and to stay in single file! Some of the things our guide showed us included Von Lippel park, Leidesplein, the yuppy area, and some museums. He pointed out this public monument funded by taxpayers that looked quite elegant, kinda like a toned down Brandenberg Gate. He was rather cynical in pointing out that the latin inscription on the monument translated to ‘People do not piss against the wind’. How meaningful!
Di really enjoyed the bike tour but it finished all too soon at around 10:30am. After returning our bikes we were left to our own devices until the farewell dinner this evening. We decided to check out some markets in the south part of the museum district. Here we found stands mostly extentions of the shops behind them. All kinds of things were on sale including fresh fruit, meat, and seafood, clothing, and other typical market junk. We got ourselves a gelato and also bought some mixed nuts for snacking.
Around midday our stomachs were telling us to look for lunch so we started keeping an eye out for places to eat. Apparently traditional dutch food basically consists of lots of fried things but other cuisines they have there that are done well include Indonesian and Chinese.
We started walking towards central station where we intended to catch a bus back to the hotel for an afternoon nap, hoping to grab a bite somewhere along the way. We visited the flower markets along the way but still couldn’t find any food that looked appealing!
We ended up in Dam square and remembered that we could catch a tram from there to the hotel. We eventually found the right tram stop and were soon on the number 14 tram back to Bos en Lommerplein! The ride took around 20mins and when we got back, we had our hearts set on KFC! It turned out to be just as good as back home and it hit spot! Yeah!
Di spent the afternoon napping whilst I surfed the net (free wifi at last!). We had intended to go to A./nne Frank’s house before heading to dinner but Di was sleeping so peacefully and looked so wasted I didn’t have the heart to wake her.
At 6:15pm, we met most of the group out front on the coach and Matty drove us into town for dinner. We parked near Central station and walked to Sea Palace Chinese restaurant for dinner! Man I had my reservations about this floating restaurant with mostly non-chinese waiters but the food turned out to be quite good. We got rice and noodles (more like spaghetti!) with mains of sweet and sour pork, szechuan chicken, and seasonal veges on a huge platter. Dessert was icecream and fruit.
After dinner we went with the group to a nearby pub. Most of the group stopped by first at the coffee shop next door for a last joint/space cake/muffin and then joined us later. It was nice hanging out one last time and seeing the effects of the hash on the others!
At 10pm Matty drove us back to the hotel for the last night of the tour!
Anyhow, we got our bikes and our sleepy and what turned out to be kiwi tour guide led us off! I was a bit shakey at first but picked up quickly! Had to remember to stay on the right side of the road, that cars give way to bikes here, and to stay in single file! Some of the things our guide showed us included Von Lippel park, Leidesplein, the yuppy area, and some museums. He pointed out this public monument funded by taxpayers that looked quite elegant, kinda like a toned down Brandenberg Gate. He was rather cynical in pointing out that the latin inscription on the monument translated to ‘People do not piss against the wind’. How meaningful!
Di really enjoyed the bike tour but it finished all too soon at around 10:30am. After returning our bikes we were left to our own devices until the farewell dinner this evening. We decided to check out some markets in the south part of the museum district. Here we found stands mostly extentions of the shops behind them. All kinds of things were on sale including fresh fruit, meat, and seafood, clothing, and other typical market junk. We got ourselves a gelato and also bought some mixed nuts for snacking.
Around midday our stomachs were telling us to look for lunch so we started keeping an eye out for places to eat. Apparently traditional dutch food basically consists of lots of fried things but other cuisines they have there that are done well include Indonesian and Chinese.
We started walking towards central station where we intended to catch a bus back to the hotel for an afternoon nap, hoping to grab a bite somewhere along the way. We visited the flower markets along the way but still couldn’t find any food that looked appealing!
We ended up in Dam square and remembered that we could catch a tram from there to the hotel. We eventually found the right tram stop and were soon on the number 14 tram back to Bos en Lommerplein! The ride took around 20mins and when we got back, we had our hearts set on KFC! It turned out to be just as good as back home and it hit spot! Yeah!
Di spent the afternoon napping whilst I surfed the net (free wifi at last!). We had intended to go to A./nne Frank’s house before heading to dinner but Di was sleeping so peacefully and looked so wasted I didn’t have the heart to wake her.
At 6:15pm, we met most of the group out front on the coach and Matty drove us into town for dinner. We parked near Central station and walked to Sea Palace Chinese restaurant for dinner! Man I had my reservations about this floating restaurant with mostly non-chinese waiters but the food turned out to be quite good. We got rice and noodles (more like spaghetti!) with mains of sweet and sour pork, szechuan chicken, and seasonal veges on a huge platter. Dessert was icecream and fruit.
After dinner we went with the group to a nearby pub. Most of the group stopped by first at the coffee shop next door for a last joint/space cake/muffin and then joined us later. It was nice hanging out one last time and seeing the effects of the hash on the others!
At 10pm Matty drove us back to the hotel for the last night of the tour!
Monday, May 26, 2008
Berlin, Germany to Amsterdam, Netherlands!
We found the lock this morning but not the sock! The lock turned out to be on the coach having fallen off my backpack. We set off around 7:45am, 15mins late after most of the tour group were trashed after their pubcrawl last night. Some had come back around 4am whilst some arrived back at the hotel just an hour before our departure time at 6:30am! Troy didn’t even make it back! Jaz left him instructions to catch a train from Berlin to Amsterdam.
We hit the highway (or should I say Autobahn) and drove west towards Amsterdam. We hit some traffic around 10am and here we are crawling our way towards Amsterdam!
After a lunch break at a roadside service station restaurant (we had an ok chicken schnitzel), we continued on watching Meet the Parents and Meet the Fockers back to back on the coach! We finally reached Amsterdam at around 5:45pm after driving 670km in around 9hrs thanks to traffic! We were supposed to see a cheese and clog making demo but this was postponed to when we leave Amsterdam due to insufficient time today.
We checked into Best Western at Blue Tower which turned out to be just about our best accommodation so far! Nice clean accommodation with plasma tv, kettle and coffee/tea, but no fridge. One thing we’ve noticed throughout our trip in Europe is that when we boil water, there are often floaties in the water! Not sure if it’s the European water or our kettle! We tried the hotel’s kettle though and got the same result. Maybe it is something in the water…!
At 6:45pm we met up in foyer and Matty drove us to Central station. Then Jaz walked us to the Red Light District. Most of the group were seeing a live sex show at a place called Moulin Rouge but Jonathan, Erika, Di and I opted to just go for dinner and then a stroll afterwards. After walking around the huge Chinatown (conveniently situated in the red light district!), we ended up settling on an Indian restaurant since we’ll be having our farewell dinner tomorrow night at a floating Chinese restaurant.
The Indian waiter/owner was really really friendly! We ordered 2 curries and asked that he make them very hot and boy did he deliver! We were sweating and our noses were running and the red wine we ordered didn’t really help! The waiter stood there laughing at us!
After dinner we walked to Dam square to check out the National monument, the palace and a cathedral. Then we headed back to Moulin Rouge to meet up with the group for a nighttime tour of the red light district! Jaz led us through narrow passageways and down the infamous skinny alley. It was sad to see girls selling themselves in shop windows.
At around 10:30pm, the others went out for drinks, whilst Matty led us to the Central Station bus stop where we caught the number 21 bus back to our hotel! Nite!
We hit the highway (or should I say Autobahn) and drove west towards Amsterdam. We hit some traffic around 10am and here we are crawling our way towards Amsterdam!
After a lunch break at a roadside service station restaurant (we had an ok chicken schnitzel), we continued on watching Meet the Parents and Meet the Fockers back to back on the coach! We finally reached Amsterdam at around 5:45pm after driving 670km in around 9hrs thanks to traffic! We were supposed to see a cheese and clog making demo but this was postponed to when we leave Amsterdam due to insufficient time today.
We checked into Best Western at Blue Tower which turned out to be just about our best accommodation so far! Nice clean accommodation with plasma tv, kettle and coffee/tea, but no fridge. One thing we’ve noticed throughout our trip in Europe is that when we boil water, there are often floaties in the water! Not sure if it’s the European water or our kettle! We tried the hotel’s kettle though and got the same result. Maybe it is something in the water…!
At 6:45pm we met up in foyer and Matty drove us to Central station. Then Jaz walked us to the Red Light District. Most of the group were seeing a live sex show at a place called Moulin Rouge but Jonathan, Erika, Di and I opted to just go for dinner and then a stroll afterwards. After walking around the huge Chinatown (conveniently situated in the red light district!), we ended up settling on an Indian restaurant since we’ll be having our farewell dinner tomorrow night at a floating Chinese restaurant.
The Indian waiter/owner was really really friendly! We ordered 2 curries and asked that he make them very hot and boy did he deliver! We were sweating and our noses were running and the red wine we ordered didn’t really help! The waiter stood there laughing at us!
After dinner we walked to Dam square to check out the National monument, the palace and a cathedral. Then we headed back to Moulin Rouge to meet up with the group for a nighttime tour of the red light district! Jaz led us through narrow passageways and down the infamous skinny alley. It was sad to see girls selling themselves in shop windows.
At around 10:30pm, the others went out for drinks, whilst Matty led us to the Central Station bus stop where we caught the number 21 bus back to our hotel! Nite!
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Checking out Berlin!
Today was our free day to explore Berlin! Started out with a Third Reich walking tour of the historical sites around Berlin. We all caught the U-Bahn to Mohrenstrafze and met our tour guide Jakob there. He started by pointing out the Nazi Ministry of Propaganda and other historical buildings around Wilhelmplatz before walking us over to the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe. This memorial was designed by American architect Peter Eisenman and completed in 2005. The Germans rather than trying to forget the past have the attitude of wanting to accept responsibility as a nation for their history.
The memorial consisted of 2711 concrete rectangular blocks laid out over an entire town block. They stand at slightly different angles and heights, with the towering blocks concentrated in the centre. The idea is to walk through the memorial and as you reach the centre the blocks towering over you represent the peak of the Nazi oppression and persecution of the Jews.
Next Jakob led us a to the nearby site of Hitler’s underground bunker. It is no longer accessible today after collapsing but he described how it had super thick walls (3.6m concrete walls and 4.3m for the ceiling) and was where Hitler committed suicide on 30th April 1945. Now there’s an inconspicuous carpark situated over it so that people can’t make a shrine out of it.
We headed on to a remnant of the Berlin Wall and the Topography of Terrors outdoor exhibit. The exhibit basically details the operations of the SS and Gestapo security forces during WWII. We noticed that someone had graffitied Ben Lee on a part of the wall! Looks like I don’t have to do it myself!
Our final stop was checkpoint Charlie, one of the 3 main border crossings between East and West Berlin during the cold war. After the tour we were left to our own devices. Di and I checked out some of the info boards around Checkpoint Charlie before deciding to look for lunch.
We walked up Friedrich St towards Under den linten St where some markets were marked out on the map. We didn’t end up finding the markets but we did find a small German pub in a backstreet where we had a yummy pork schnitzel and meatball with potato salad!
After lunch we checked out the Brandenburg gate before heading to the Reichstag (German Parliament House). We had a 30min wait in the hot sun before passing through security checks and ascending in a lift to the terrace level of the Reichstag. Up here we had a 360 view of the city and there was this glass dome with ramps around its walls that you could walk up to the peak of dome for an even better view! Inside the dome there was also information about the German Parliament’s history and we read that before walking up to the peak. At the top the roof was open and there was this circular bench that we reclined on to rest our weary legs! After a while it was too hot and time to look for a drink!
We left the Reichstag around 4pm and decided to check out the activities in the nearby park where the finish line of a cycling marathon was. We found a range of stores selling Brauwurst, Currywurst and every type of wurst etc before spotting one that sold slurpees! We quickly grabbed two and enjoyed them on a park bench near the Brandenburg Gate!
After this refreshment we spent the next 3 hours checking out the information centre at the Memorial for Murdered Jews and then the Topography of Terrors exhibit! Tired of reading signboards and sobered at the stuff we were reading about, we decided to get dinner around 7:30pm.
We bumped into Jonathan and Erika at Checkpoint Charlie who had just had dinner at a nearby Thai restaurant that they recommended! Since we were running out of time before our 8:45pm pickup, we decided to just go with that! We ordered red chicken curry which looked more green than red, and spicy fried beef with garlic and chillis which turned out to be fried duck in sweet and sour sauce! We couldn’t be bothered correcting the order and both dishes tasted good anyhow! Somehow we managed to finish the huge portions and afterwards I was so full I couldn’t lie down for a few hours!
Matty and the coach picked us up at Checkpoint Charlie at 8:50pm. The whole tour group was on their way to a pubcrawl that Di and I passed on cause we were already exhausted and stuffed! Got back to the hotel around 9:30pm and found that most of our laundry had dried save my jeans. We also realised that one lock and one sock was missing!!! Searched the entire hotel room and our backpacks and everything and couldn’t find them!!! Oh well! That takes our lost items tally to one travel adapter, one wedding ring, one lock and one sock! We’ll see if we can find em tomorrow morning!
The memorial consisted of 2711 concrete rectangular blocks laid out over an entire town block. They stand at slightly different angles and heights, with the towering blocks concentrated in the centre. The idea is to walk through the memorial and as you reach the centre the blocks towering over you represent the peak of the Nazi oppression and persecution of the Jews.
Next Jakob led us a to the nearby site of Hitler’s underground bunker. It is no longer accessible today after collapsing but he described how it had super thick walls (3.6m concrete walls and 4.3m for the ceiling) and was where Hitler committed suicide on 30th April 1945. Now there’s an inconspicuous carpark situated over it so that people can’t make a shrine out of it.
We headed on to a remnant of the Berlin Wall and the Topography of Terrors outdoor exhibit. The exhibit basically details the operations of the SS and Gestapo security forces during WWII. We noticed that someone had graffitied Ben Lee on a part of the wall! Looks like I don’t have to do it myself!
Our final stop was checkpoint Charlie, one of the 3 main border crossings between East and West Berlin during the cold war. After the tour we were left to our own devices. Di and I checked out some of the info boards around Checkpoint Charlie before deciding to look for lunch.
We walked up Friedrich St towards Under den linten St where some markets were marked out on the map. We didn’t end up finding the markets but we did find a small German pub in a backstreet where we had a yummy pork schnitzel and meatball with potato salad!
After lunch we checked out the Brandenburg gate before heading to the Reichstag (German Parliament House). We had a 30min wait in the hot sun before passing through security checks and ascending in a lift to the terrace level of the Reichstag. Up here we had a 360 view of the city and there was this glass dome with ramps around its walls that you could walk up to the peak of dome for an even better view! Inside the dome there was also information about the German Parliament’s history and we read that before walking up to the peak. At the top the roof was open and there was this circular bench that we reclined on to rest our weary legs! After a while it was too hot and time to look for a drink!
We left the Reichstag around 4pm and decided to check out the activities in the nearby park where the finish line of a cycling marathon was. We found a range of stores selling Brauwurst, Currywurst and every type of wurst etc before spotting one that sold slurpees! We quickly grabbed two and enjoyed them on a park bench near the Brandenburg Gate!
After this refreshment we spent the next 3 hours checking out the information centre at the Memorial for Murdered Jews and then the Topography of Terrors exhibit! Tired of reading signboards and sobered at the stuff we were reading about, we decided to get dinner around 7:30pm.
We bumped into Jonathan and Erika at Checkpoint Charlie who had just had dinner at a nearby Thai restaurant that they recommended! Since we were running out of time before our 8:45pm pickup, we decided to just go with that! We ordered red chicken curry which looked more green than red, and spicy fried beef with garlic and chillis which turned out to be fried duck in sweet and sour sauce! We couldn’t be bothered correcting the order and both dishes tasted good anyhow! Somehow we managed to finish the huge portions and afterwards I was so full I couldn’t lie down for a few hours!
Matty and the coach picked us up at Checkpoint Charlie at 8:50pm. The whole tour group was on their way to a pubcrawl that Di and I passed on cause we were already exhausted and stuffed! Got back to the hotel around 9:30pm and found that most of our laundry had dried save my jeans. We also realised that one lock and one sock was missing!!! Searched the entire hotel room and our backpacks and everything and couldn’t find them!!! Oh well! That takes our lost items tally to one travel adapter, one wedding ring, one lock and one sock! We’ll see if we can find em tomorrow morning!
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Prague, Czech Republic to Berlin, Germany!
Another long driving day today as we headed from Prague to Berlin. We stopped off at Dresden after crossing the Czech/German border around 10:30am. We then had around 2hrs 30mins to explore the town and get lunch!
Dresden is supposedly a thousand year old town that was almost completely destroyed by allied bombing during WWII cos that’s where many of the supply factories for the Nazis were. Today many of the original buildings have been rebuilt almost to original form. We had cursory looks at the opera house and towering cathedrals before heading towards a restaurant/café area. We walked around the block once and after being tempted by dirty Chinese, settled on a reasonable looking Vietnamese restaurant. We were wary cos the whole area was kinda quiet (being around 11am on a Sunday morning) and it looked like the equivalent of Darling Harbour’s eating areas or King Street wharf minus the water. Lunch turned out to be rather good though! We had pho beef noodles and crispy chicken rice which were both decent sized and reasonable value for money.
Re-energised we spent the hour we had left in Dresden walking along the riverside and checking out the inside of one of the large cathedrals there. Notably, there was a statue of Martin Luther outside one of the cathedrals so perhaps he was from this town?!
At 1pm it was back on the bus as we continued on to Berlin. We rolled into the German capital around 4pm and had a bus tour of the city! Jaz provided commentary and pointed out the city’s famous sites including the Brandenburg Gate, museum island, checkpoint Charlie, the Jewish war memorial, the city’s tower, and its parliamentary building the Reichstag. She described how the city was divided into East and West Berlin after WWII and the differences between the two sides of the city. We had a photostop at the East Side Gallery where a 1.3km remains of the Berlin wall still stood. Then it was on to our hotel!
Our 3 star hotel was rather good I must say! All the essentials including tv, fridge, and radiator heater to dry our washing! No wireless internet but the owner downstairs was super nice and let us use his main reception computer! We had about 90mins till dinner at 7pm and most of the group was using the Laundromat at the corner of the street so we decided to look for a supermarket instead. We found a small one in the underground station and picked up some sweet strawberries, popcorn and coke!
At 7pm we met in the lobby and Matt drove us to near the Berlin zoo where we were having dinner. We ate at a place called Joe’s and it was huge! It was kinda like a big beer garden with plenty of locals! Dinner was tomato soup for entrée with brautwurst with sauerkraut and mashed potato for mains. Dessert was icecream! Tried a Diesel drink which is half beer half coke! Sounds wrong but it was quite good, especially seeing as I’m not a seasoned beer drinker yet!
After dinner Matt drove us back to the hotel and we managed to do a load of washing at the Laundromat. The dryer didn’t work that well and some people were using it 3-4 times to get their clothes dry but it was already closing time after one run so we’ve hung up our clothes around our hotel room to dry! Nite!
Dresden is supposedly a thousand year old town that was almost completely destroyed by allied bombing during WWII cos that’s where many of the supply factories for the Nazis were. Today many of the original buildings have been rebuilt almost to original form. We had cursory looks at the opera house and towering cathedrals before heading towards a restaurant/café area. We walked around the block once and after being tempted by dirty Chinese, settled on a reasonable looking Vietnamese restaurant. We were wary cos the whole area was kinda quiet (being around 11am on a Sunday morning) and it looked like the equivalent of Darling Harbour’s eating areas or King Street wharf minus the water. Lunch turned out to be rather good though! We had pho beef noodles and crispy chicken rice which were both decent sized and reasonable value for money.
Re-energised we spent the hour we had left in Dresden walking along the riverside and checking out the inside of one of the large cathedrals there. Notably, there was a statue of Martin Luther outside one of the cathedrals so perhaps he was from this town?!
At 1pm it was back on the bus as we continued on to Berlin. We rolled into the German capital around 4pm and had a bus tour of the city! Jaz provided commentary and pointed out the city’s famous sites including the Brandenburg Gate, museum island, checkpoint Charlie, the Jewish war memorial, the city’s tower, and its parliamentary building the Reichstag. She described how the city was divided into East and West Berlin after WWII and the differences between the two sides of the city. We had a photostop at the East Side Gallery where a 1.3km remains of the Berlin wall still stood. Then it was on to our hotel!
Our 3 star hotel was rather good I must say! All the essentials including tv, fridge, and radiator heater to dry our washing! No wireless internet but the owner downstairs was super nice and let us use his main reception computer! We had about 90mins till dinner at 7pm and most of the group was using the Laundromat at the corner of the street so we decided to look for a supermarket instead. We found a small one in the underground station and picked up some sweet strawberries, popcorn and coke!
At 7pm we met in the lobby and Matt drove us to near the Berlin zoo where we were having dinner. We ate at a place called Joe’s and it was huge! It was kinda like a big beer garden with plenty of locals! Dinner was tomato soup for entrée with brautwurst with sauerkraut and mashed potato for mains. Dessert was icecream! Tried a Diesel drink which is half beer half coke! Sounds wrong but it was quite good, especially seeing as I’m not a seasoned beer drinker yet!
After dinner Matt drove us back to the hotel and we managed to do a load of washing at the Laundromat. The dryer didn’t work that well and some people were using it 3-4 times to get their clothes dry but it was already closing time after one run so we’ve hung up our clothes around our hotel room to dry! Nite!
Friday, May 23, 2008
Exploring Prague!
Slept in till a luxurious 9am! Went down to breakfast to find a buffet that one might expect at lunchtime! Plenty of cold meats, cheeses, cocktail sausages and bread rolls were lain out in addition to cereal and oranges. Where were the bacon and eggs?! Ended up making hot dogs for breakky!
Di and I headed out around 10:30am for town! We caught the metro to Malostranska which got us out at the foot of the Prague Castle. We climbed the old castle steps (Stare zamecke schody) to the castle’s entrance and found swarms of tourists already there!!! Nuts!
There was a nice view of the city from the top of the castle steps and after taking it in, we battled our way against the hordes of tourists and through the narrow passageways and stairwells to the castle entrance! We found the ticket booth and with tickets in hand entered the Golden Lane. It’s basically a quaint little lane with a row of shops and an exhibition on weapons and armour from medieval times. Don’t really know what’s so golden bout it! Again we found ourselves in a river of tourists and with the drizzle that started, it was difficult to take our time and enjoy browsing the stores and exhibition. In the end, we were funneled through the exit at end of the lane!
We checked out Dalibor’s Tower next which used to be a prison and a torture chamber. Then we headed further inside the castle to St Goerge’s Square. We decided to check out the Old Royal Palace next. This turned out to be a stately hall with an adjoining chapel and throne room. Didn’t spend too long here again due the amount of ppl!
We headed out and around the corner to the spectacular St Vito’s Cathedral! We were dismayed to find a pretty long queue formed around the side of the cathedral but thankfully we only had to wait around 10-15mins to get in. Inside the most stunning thing were the colourful and intricate stain glassed windows! We walked around the many chapels before coming to a stairwell. We decided to climb it and 280 steps later up a spiral staircase we had reached the top of one of the church’s towers! Here we had an amazing view of Prague from all angles! Took plenty of photos and videos of the city’s famous buildings and the river with its many bridges. Afterwards it was all the way back down and out of the cathedral.
We checked out St George’s Basilica just because it was included in the ticket price but it turned out to be rather plain compared with St Vito’s Cathedral that we had just visited. Inside people were lining up to go down to a crypt which we think may have had a shrine or tomb dedicated to St George. In any case we were sick of lining up and our stomachs were grumbling so we left!
We headed back down the old castle steps to Malostranska and started looking for a place to eat. We ended up in Restaurace Malostranska which seemed reasonably priced with a traditional Czech menu. Di ordered roast pork with dumplings and sauerkraut, and I had a pork schnitzel. Both were quite nice, though Di’s roast pork came in little lumps rather than a steak and the dumplings weren’t like Chinese dumplings, but rather like white bread cut out in circles!
After lunch we crossed the Charles bridge and saw the many statues alongside the bridge. Out numbering these statues were the stalls for tourists to buy their drawn self-portrait, jewelry, paintings and pictures of the city. We then checked out the Don Giovanni. Prague is famous for their puppet shows and this was one of the places which had 1 metre tall puppets. After finding out the price and that most of the show was singing and not in English we decided to keep heading along the street. We found a nice gelato shop where Ben had pistachio and I had caramel crème ice-cream. It was really nice.
Our next stop was the famous astronomical clock tower. We were there 5 minutes early and surrounded by tourists. On the hour, the skeletal statue rings a bell and begins to turn over an hourglass in its hand. There are windows further up which open and statues glide across them and face the crowd momentarily. The main bell then chimes (we think 17 times as it was 5pm) and the whole thing is over. The audience begins to applaud. I let out a big ‘is that it?!’ What a let down! It looked far more impressive than that performance!
After this disappointing event we took a walk to the Jewish Ghetto to see what we could find. We found out that they charged 300 Kr to see a handful of synagogues and their cemetery. Considering how late it was we thought it was too expensive since we probably only had a few hours to go through it. Also, we were only really interested to see maybe 1 synagogue and the cemetery which apparently is very unordered. We walked around the Jewish Ghetto and were able to sneak a peak into the cemetery and the outside of the synagogue.
We left then for a wander. Not really knowing what to do at this stage. We ended up briefly at the Powder Tower which was famous for storing the gun powder during its day and then headed through the shops for dinner. Jaz had recommended a restaurant near our train station so we headed there.
Dinner was huge, and quite good. Very meaty though. We ordered the pork leg in beer sauce and the quarter duck with potato dumplings and red cabbage. Halfway through some other guys from our tour found us and also had similar dishes. The pub had an interesting myth attached to it.
A beautiful woman, married to a rope maker lived in Prague. Her husband would travel away as his skills were needed elsewhere. Being bored, the woman asked her husband if she could open a pub. Her husband, being innocent of any misconduct arranged it and so began the pub. However, her clientele were male and soon it became known that she offered drinks and other services. When news of this spread to her husband, he returned to see it for himself and strangled her to death via his rope. It is said that her ghost now remains in the pub where she is cursed to relieve those with a broken heart. To accompany this story is a portrait of her in the pub.
After dinner we wandered around to do some shopping and returned back to the hotel.
Di and I headed out around 10:30am for town! We caught the metro to Malostranska which got us out at the foot of the Prague Castle. We climbed the old castle steps (Stare zamecke schody) to the castle’s entrance and found swarms of tourists already there!!! Nuts!
There was a nice view of the city from the top of the castle steps and after taking it in, we battled our way against the hordes of tourists and through the narrow passageways and stairwells to the castle entrance! We found the ticket booth and with tickets in hand entered the Golden Lane. It’s basically a quaint little lane with a row of shops and an exhibition on weapons and armour from medieval times. Don’t really know what’s so golden bout it! Again we found ourselves in a river of tourists and with the drizzle that started, it was difficult to take our time and enjoy browsing the stores and exhibition. In the end, we were funneled through the exit at end of the lane!
We checked out Dalibor’s Tower next which used to be a prison and a torture chamber. Then we headed further inside the castle to St Goerge’s Square. We decided to check out the Old Royal Palace next. This turned out to be a stately hall with an adjoining chapel and throne room. Didn’t spend too long here again due the amount of ppl!
We headed out and around the corner to the spectacular St Vito’s Cathedral! We were dismayed to find a pretty long queue formed around the side of the cathedral but thankfully we only had to wait around 10-15mins to get in. Inside the most stunning thing were the colourful and intricate stain glassed windows! We walked around the many chapels before coming to a stairwell. We decided to climb it and 280 steps later up a spiral staircase we had reached the top of one of the church’s towers! Here we had an amazing view of Prague from all angles! Took plenty of photos and videos of the city’s famous buildings and the river with its many bridges. Afterwards it was all the way back down and out of the cathedral.
We checked out St George’s Basilica just because it was included in the ticket price but it turned out to be rather plain compared with St Vito’s Cathedral that we had just visited. Inside people were lining up to go down to a crypt which we think may have had a shrine or tomb dedicated to St George. In any case we were sick of lining up and our stomachs were grumbling so we left!
We headed back down the old castle steps to Malostranska and started looking for a place to eat. We ended up in Restaurace Malostranska which seemed reasonably priced with a traditional Czech menu. Di ordered roast pork with dumplings and sauerkraut, and I had a pork schnitzel. Both were quite nice, though Di’s roast pork came in little lumps rather than a steak and the dumplings weren’t like Chinese dumplings, but rather like white bread cut out in circles!
After lunch we crossed the Charles bridge and saw the many statues alongside the bridge. Out numbering these statues were the stalls for tourists to buy their drawn self-portrait, jewelry, paintings and pictures of the city. We then checked out the Don Giovanni. Prague is famous for their puppet shows and this was one of the places which had 1 metre tall puppets. After finding out the price and that most of the show was singing and not in English we decided to keep heading along the street. We found a nice gelato shop where Ben had pistachio and I had caramel crème ice-cream. It was really nice.
Our next stop was the famous astronomical clock tower. We were there 5 minutes early and surrounded by tourists. On the hour, the skeletal statue rings a bell and begins to turn over an hourglass in its hand. There are windows further up which open and statues glide across them and face the crowd momentarily. The main bell then chimes (we think 17 times as it was 5pm) and the whole thing is over. The audience begins to applaud. I let out a big ‘is that it?!’ What a let down! It looked far more impressive than that performance!
After this disappointing event we took a walk to the Jewish Ghetto to see what we could find. We found out that they charged 300 Kr to see a handful of synagogues and their cemetery. Considering how late it was we thought it was too expensive since we probably only had a few hours to go through it. Also, we were only really interested to see maybe 1 synagogue and the cemetery which apparently is very unordered. We walked around the Jewish Ghetto and were able to sneak a peak into the cemetery and the outside of the synagogue.
We left then for a wander. Not really knowing what to do at this stage. We ended up briefly at the Powder Tower which was famous for storing the gun powder during its day and then headed through the shops for dinner. Jaz had recommended a restaurant near our train station so we headed there.
Dinner was huge, and quite good. Very meaty though. We ordered the pork leg in beer sauce and the quarter duck with potato dumplings and red cabbage. Halfway through some other guys from our tour found us and also had similar dishes. The pub had an interesting myth attached to it.
A beautiful woman, married to a rope maker lived in Prague. Her husband would travel away as his skills were needed elsewhere. Being bored, the woman asked her husband if she could open a pub. Her husband, being innocent of any misconduct arranged it and so began the pub. However, her clientele were male and soon it became known that she offered drinks and other services. When news of this spread to her husband, he returned to see it for himself and strangled her to death via his rope. It is said that her ghost now remains in the pub where she is cursed to relieve those with a broken heart. To accompany this story is a portrait of her in the pub.
After dinner we wandered around to do some shopping and returned back to the hotel.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Salzburg, Austria to Prague, Czech Republic!
Getting into the routine now of our travel days! Early wake up, quickly get changed and pack rest of clothes, take backpacks to hotel lobby, chow down breakky, then get on bus! Breakky wasn’t too impressive today but managed to make a cheese and salami/ham/devon roll for lunch out of it.
We were on the bus and rolling towards Mauthausen concentration camp around 7:30am. Around 8am Di was observing how her hands were a little dry cos she hadn’t put on her lavender hand cream last night. Then she made a dreadful realisation. Her wedding ring wasn’t on her finger!!! My heart sunk. She quickly went through when she last had it and where she could’ve lost it. She remembered having it on last night when she went to bed so we concluded that it must’ve have fallen off somewhere in the Salzburg hotel room this morning. Jaz called up the hotel to see if they could check the room for the ring. Unfortunately when she called back 30mins later the reception guy hadn’t found it and was going to ask the cleaners to have another search and call Jaz back if they found it. So far today they haven’t called =(. We’ve resigned ourselves to the fact that they probably won’t find it or maybe someone will and they’ll just keep it. Oh well - Di will just have to get another ring after just 7 and a half weeks of being married! I told her that means she has less to spend in the US!
We arrived in Mauthausen around 9:30am in time for a 10am video presentation about the history of the concentration camp. Although the primary purpose of this camp was for the prisoners to work a quarry mine, it didn’t diminish the shock and tragedy of the many deaths that still occurred here. The camp did have a gas chamber and crematoriums that were in use and human experimentation and torture occurred there too. The prisoners included not just Jews but also political prisoners from the former Soviet Union, Austria, Poland, and Spain.
After the video we had some time to check out the camp itself. It was sobering to walk through the exact same gates the prisoners would’ve been shepherded through. We had a look at the barracks where prisoners were crammed into, the gas chambers, the crematoriums, and the numerous memorials there. We also saw the notorious death staircase where prisoners were forced to carry 40-50kg quarry stones up the stairs 11hrs a day.
We left Mauthausen with a somewhat heavy feeling in our stomachs at what had occurred there and at the other concentration camps. This was not helped by a stopover at Maccas for lunch!
After lunch we drove for almost 5hrs towards Prague, taking probably an hour and a half longer than it should’ve due to getting stuck in traffic due to roadworks. The countryside was rather similar to that of England’s with its rolling hills covered with the yellow flowering rapeseed plants.
We reached Hotel Olympik Tristar in Prague around 5:30pm and checked in and here we are resting in our hotel room before dinner at 7pm! Simpsons is showing in German on cable tv which is rather interesting to watch!
We had a nice dinner in the hotel restaurant which was a buffet of stewed pork, roast chicken, rice, veges, and sponge cakes for dessert. Then we set off for our walking tour of Prague around 8:30pm!
We all caught the metro from Invalidovna to Mustek station in Wenceslas Square. Jaz gave us some time to change money and we managed to change some AUD to Czech krowns at a rate of about 14.80. Jaz then led us the old town square (Staromestske nam) with its astronomical clock, then past the Tyn church to the Jewish quarters (pointing out the Jewish ghetto where Jews were kept during WWII), finishing up with a walk along the river towards the famous Charles bridge. As the sun started to set and the city’s lights came on, we had stunning views of Prague Castle across the river on a slight hill.
After the tour, we went with Jaz and most of the tour group to one of her favourite pubs, a pub beneath this restaurant! You go through this ordinary looking Czech restaurant and at the back is this little staircase leading down below. At the foot of the staircase is a small bar and then there are quite a few tables in what may have once been a cellar. Quite a few of the guys and girls tried the local specialty Absinth! It’s basically a 70% vol bright green drink, the one that Van Gogh was high on when he got his ear cut off, and the one the bohemians drank in Moulin Rouge. The way you drink it is to heat up some sugar in a spoon with a lighter, then stir the melted sugar into the shot before drinking it. We didn’t try it but the guys told us it was like drinking metho! We tried their local beer instead and afterwards decided to call it a night!
We caught the metro back to Invalidovna and our hotel easily enough just as a slight drizzle began to fall. Yay we get to sleep in tomorrow! Nite!
We were on the bus and rolling towards Mauthausen concentration camp around 7:30am. Around 8am Di was observing how her hands were a little dry cos she hadn’t put on her lavender hand cream last night. Then she made a dreadful realisation. Her wedding ring wasn’t on her finger!!! My heart sunk. She quickly went through when she last had it and where she could’ve lost it. She remembered having it on last night when she went to bed so we concluded that it must’ve have fallen off somewhere in the Salzburg hotel room this morning. Jaz called up the hotel to see if they could check the room for the ring. Unfortunately when she called back 30mins later the reception guy hadn’t found it and was going to ask the cleaners to have another search and call Jaz back if they found it. So far today they haven’t called =(. We’ve resigned ourselves to the fact that they probably won’t find it or maybe someone will and they’ll just keep it. Oh well - Di will just have to get another ring after just 7 and a half weeks of being married! I told her that means she has less to spend in the US!
We arrived in Mauthausen around 9:30am in time for a 10am video presentation about the history of the concentration camp. Although the primary purpose of this camp was for the prisoners to work a quarry mine, it didn’t diminish the shock and tragedy of the many deaths that still occurred here. The camp did have a gas chamber and crematoriums that were in use and human experimentation and torture occurred there too. The prisoners included not just Jews but also political prisoners from the former Soviet Union, Austria, Poland, and Spain.
After the video we had some time to check out the camp itself. It was sobering to walk through the exact same gates the prisoners would’ve been shepherded through. We had a look at the barracks where prisoners were crammed into, the gas chambers, the crematoriums, and the numerous memorials there. We also saw the notorious death staircase where prisoners were forced to carry 40-50kg quarry stones up the stairs 11hrs a day.
We left Mauthausen with a somewhat heavy feeling in our stomachs at what had occurred there and at the other concentration camps. This was not helped by a stopover at Maccas for lunch!
After lunch we drove for almost 5hrs towards Prague, taking probably an hour and a half longer than it should’ve due to getting stuck in traffic due to roadworks. The countryside was rather similar to that of England’s with its rolling hills covered with the yellow flowering rapeseed plants.
We reached Hotel Olympik Tristar in Prague around 5:30pm and checked in and here we are resting in our hotel room before dinner at 7pm! Simpsons is showing in German on cable tv which is rather interesting to watch!
We had a nice dinner in the hotel restaurant which was a buffet of stewed pork, roast chicken, rice, veges, and sponge cakes for dessert. Then we set off for our walking tour of Prague around 8:30pm!
We all caught the metro from Invalidovna to Mustek station in Wenceslas Square. Jaz gave us some time to change money and we managed to change some AUD to Czech krowns at a rate of about 14.80. Jaz then led us the old town square (Staromestske nam) with its astronomical clock, then past the Tyn church to the Jewish quarters (pointing out the Jewish ghetto where Jews were kept during WWII), finishing up with a walk along the river towards the famous Charles bridge. As the sun started to set and the city’s lights came on, we had stunning views of Prague Castle across the river on a slight hill.
After the tour, we went with Jaz and most of the tour group to one of her favourite pubs, a pub beneath this restaurant! You go through this ordinary looking Czech restaurant and at the back is this little staircase leading down below. At the foot of the staircase is a small bar and then there are quite a few tables in what may have once been a cellar. Quite a few of the guys and girls tried the local specialty Absinth! It’s basically a 70% vol bright green drink, the one that Van Gogh was high on when he got his ear cut off, and the one the bohemians drank in Moulin Rouge. The way you drink it is to heat up some sugar in a spoon with a lighter, then stir the melted sugar into the shot before drinking it. We didn’t try it but the guys told us it was like drinking metho! We tried their local beer instead and afterwards decided to call it a night!
We caught the metro back to Invalidovna and our hotel easily enough just as a slight drizzle began to fall. Yay we get to sleep in tomorrow! Nite!
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Ljubljana, Slovenia to Salzburg, Austria!
You don’t come to Europe for the food. You come for the sights, and today we got what we came for.
Breakfast was a sad buffet of sorry looking sausages, bread, fruit and cereal. We were disappointed after Croatia as the quality of food there was slightly better.
Our first destination was Lake Bled. It is a beautiful lake with an island (Bled Island) in the middle where a church is perched on top. Surrounding the lake are Alps with houses and one had a church on its slopes. A man in a row boat, rowed 7 of us to the island in the middle. It cost €10 a person for the ride to the island. Once off the boat, there was a large staircase before reaching the church on the island. We were told by Jaz, our tour guide, that legend has it that a husband was to carry his bride to the top of the stairs and ring a bell for a happy marriage. So 2 out of the 3 couples did this. Bonus for the boys was that the girl was to be silent, but I think that was the only up side.
Of course Ben didn’t carry me up the staircase! Are you kidding?!
When we reached the top it was a further €3 to enter the Church of Mary the Queen to ring the bell. Not a nice sounding bell, but it satisfied the tourists to ring it.
The island was very green. There were lots of healthy and lush looking trees and shrubs. The water was a distinct green colour but it blended in well with the surrounding Alps and lush forest. Although the weather was overcast it was really nice being on the island and also looking out.
We were accompanied by what seemed like 2 full bus loads of Japanese tourists, so you can imagine that the boat rowers were keen to get rid of us on the way back. So, being dropped a few metres further along the lake we walked back to our bus. We were met by a family of ducks. The ducklings were so cute! It was a complete family, Mummy duck, Daddy duck and 2 ducklings.
Next stop was Austria. However the ride getting into Austria as awesome! Huge mountain ranges with lush greenery and houses spotting the hillside. In the distance we saw some snow capped mountains. This is what I was waiting for. This was the scenery I had expected!
We arrived at Hotel Haunspergerhof at about 1:15pm. Our tour guide had arranged for us to join the Sound of Music tour at 2pm. So after having a quick lunch of an apple scroll and instant noodles we headed for the 4 hour bus tour.
Our tour guide, Beatrice, was a local Austrian who was proud of her country. She had a smile plastered on her face which Ben thought was quite scary. She told us about the real Von Trap family (yeah! I didn’t realize that either!) who ended up in America during the 2nd World War. The places from the movie we saw:
· Where they filmed the driveway to the Von Trap family’s house
· The original Gazebo
· The Baroness’ house and the lake beside it.
· The lake where they went for a bicycle ride.
· The church where the wedding scene was filmed
· Where they filmed the children in the trees when Captain Von Trap arrives home, and
· The area of which the helicopter shot the opening scenes (over one lake to another)
In the middle of the tour, Beatrice’s big surprise was a toboggan area where you could pay €4 to come down this hill. It was cold and we were wondering what relevance this had to the Sound of Music?! People did do it though. Beatrice tried to sell it by saying the original Maria Von Trap has ridden down this ride. Whatever!
We stopped in a town called Mondsee for an hour. Here was the church that their wedding was filmed in. We walked around a little and had an apple strudel which was recommended to us at a shop which had been open since the early 1600’s. It was really nice, perfect amount of sugars and cinnamon and the pastry was slightly crisp but not too much.
We arrived back in town at 6:15pm and took a walk through the main parts of town. It’s a similar town to Lublijana but it has it’s own history and character too. There is a fortress on top of the mountain (we did not have time to visit this) and a convent near it.
Dinner was provided by the tour. We had
· mixed vegetable soup
· Beef (I think) stew with some sort of pasta, and
· Ice-cream.
Not bad, pretty good compared to the last time they included dinner and it was at a restaurant!
All in all I had a good day! We go to Prague tomorrow!
Breakfast was a sad buffet of sorry looking sausages, bread, fruit and cereal. We were disappointed after Croatia as the quality of food there was slightly better.
Our first destination was Lake Bled. It is a beautiful lake with an island (Bled Island) in the middle where a church is perched on top. Surrounding the lake are Alps with houses and one had a church on its slopes. A man in a row boat, rowed 7 of us to the island in the middle. It cost €10 a person for the ride to the island. Once off the boat, there was a large staircase before reaching the church on the island. We were told by Jaz, our tour guide, that legend has it that a husband was to carry his bride to the top of the stairs and ring a bell for a happy marriage. So 2 out of the 3 couples did this. Bonus for the boys was that the girl was to be silent, but I think that was the only up side.
Of course Ben didn’t carry me up the staircase! Are you kidding?!
When we reached the top it was a further €3 to enter the Church of Mary the Queen to ring the bell. Not a nice sounding bell, but it satisfied the tourists to ring it.
The island was very green. There were lots of healthy and lush looking trees and shrubs. The water was a distinct green colour but it blended in well with the surrounding Alps and lush forest. Although the weather was overcast it was really nice being on the island and also looking out.
We were accompanied by what seemed like 2 full bus loads of Japanese tourists, so you can imagine that the boat rowers were keen to get rid of us on the way back. So, being dropped a few metres further along the lake we walked back to our bus. We were met by a family of ducks. The ducklings were so cute! It was a complete family, Mummy duck, Daddy duck and 2 ducklings.
Next stop was Austria. However the ride getting into Austria as awesome! Huge mountain ranges with lush greenery and houses spotting the hillside. In the distance we saw some snow capped mountains. This is what I was waiting for. This was the scenery I had expected!
We arrived at Hotel Haunspergerhof at about 1:15pm. Our tour guide had arranged for us to join the Sound of Music tour at 2pm. So after having a quick lunch of an apple scroll and instant noodles we headed for the 4 hour bus tour.
Our tour guide, Beatrice, was a local Austrian who was proud of her country. She had a smile plastered on her face which Ben thought was quite scary. She told us about the real Von Trap family (yeah! I didn’t realize that either!) who ended up in America during the 2nd World War. The places from the movie we saw:
· Where they filmed the driveway to the Von Trap family’s house
· The original Gazebo
· The Baroness’ house and the lake beside it.
· The lake where they went for a bicycle ride.
· The church where the wedding scene was filmed
· Where they filmed the children in the trees when Captain Von Trap arrives home, and
· The area of which the helicopter shot the opening scenes (over one lake to another)
In the middle of the tour, Beatrice’s big surprise was a toboggan area where you could pay €4 to come down this hill. It was cold and we were wondering what relevance this had to the Sound of Music?! People did do it though. Beatrice tried to sell it by saying the original Maria Von Trap has ridden down this ride. Whatever!
We stopped in a town called Mondsee for an hour. Here was the church that their wedding was filmed in. We walked around a little and had an apple strudel which was recommended to us at a shop which had been open since the early 1600’s. It was really nice, perfect amount of sugars and cinnamon and the pastry was slightly crisp but not too much.
We arrived back in town at 6:15pm and took a walk through the main parts of town. It’s a similar town to Lublijana but it has it’s own history and character too. There is a fortress on top of the mountain (we did not have time to visit this) and a convent near it.
Dinner was provided by the tour. We had
· mixed vegetable soup
· Beef (I think) stew with some sort of pasta, and
· Ice-cream.
Not bad, pretty good compared to the last time they included dinner and it was at a restaurant!
All in all I had a good day! We go to Prague tomorrow!
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Pag Island, Croatia to Ljubljana, Slovenia!
Another early start today! After our last buffet breakky at Hotel Loza, we loaded the coach and left Novalja after a nice 3 nights there! The weather looked threatening as menacingly dark clouds rolled in overhead. We arrived at the ferry dock around 8am, a good 30mins before our 8:30am ferry. We spent the half hour walking around the docks and taking note of the contrasts between the harsh barren landscape before us and the signboards advertising idyllic resorts on the other side of the island! Also noted the presence of what looked like a modern military bunker/fortification on the hill overlooking the dock! Some of the boys had bought BB guns and were shooting each other like schoolboys playing brandings! This stopped when a police car pulled up along side the coach to wait for the ferry to the mainland!
The sea was choppy as we crossed over but the ferry was surprisingly stable. Once on the mainland it was time to nap as Matty drove us towards Slovenia! Di’s passport was again taken off the coach to be checked at the Croatian/Slovenian border but it was returned with no dramas. We rolled on towards the Slovenian capital Ljubljana after a brief service stop. Di and I ate our salami and cheese rolls whilst watching Snatch on the coach’s dvd/tv - awesome movie man!!!
We drove into the outskirts of Ljubljana and our hotel for the night around 2:30pm. Our hotel was actually situated on a camping/caravan/cabin site. This warranted some apprehension at first but the hotel rooms themselves turned out to be really nice! They were 3 star rooms with clean bathroom, tv, mini bar fridge, and heaters!
After an hour’s rest (during which we did some hand washing), we all got back on the coach and Matty drove us into the Slovenian capital’s center for our walking tour of the town. I was curious to check out the town that our missionaries the Box family recently lived in! It took almost 30mins to reach Congress square due to peak hour traffic. Once there Jaz led us off the bus and took us on a brief tour of some of the city’s landmarks, ending in the old town square. We saw some monuments, some churches including a beautiful Franciscan one, and the city’s renowned Triple Bridge (basically one bridge built initially, then two smaller side bridges built on either side of the original).
There was some light drizzle on and off and it was rather chilly at 9 degrees or so as we set off by ourselves to explore the city before dinner at 6:30pm. We decided to visit Ljubljana castle, perched high atop a mountain. To get up there we found the ticket booth to a funicular railway to take us up. It cost a reasonable 5 euros for a return ticket on the railway and entrance into the castle and its tower and virtual museum. Soon a couple more ppl from our tour group joined us to visit the castle.
We all went up on the railway which had glass walls allowing for nice views of the city as we ascended. At the top we disembarked and headed straight for the castle’s tower. We climbed up a spiral staircase and emerged at the open rooftop with sweeping 360 views of Ljubljana and its surrounds! It was drizzling though so we quickly took a few photos and went back down. We hung around for the 5pm virtual museum presentation which was a 23 min 3D video about the castle and a brief summary of Ljubljana’s history. The 3D effects weren’t that great and quite frankly I was a bit zonked out during some of the dry factual bits. Anyhow, some parts were interesting such as how Slovenia became an independent state after a 10 day war with its original rulers Yugoslavia.
After the presentation we quickly checked out the castle wall, an exhibition, and the shop before heading back down on the funicular railway. We checked out the dragon bridge, so called because of the dragon statues perched on 4 posts at either end of the bridge. It was erected in 1901 to mark the 40th anniversary of the accession of the Austro-Hungarian emperor Franz Josef when Slovenia was still part of the Austro-Hungarian empire.
We walked along the riverside and passed on some tempting gelato to save space for dinner! We met the others at 6pm at Sokol, a traditional Slovenian restaurant recommended by Jaz. Pretty much everyone was there! Most ppl ordered the game goulash but we tried the mushroom soup and game plate. The mushroom soup was nice and hearty and came in a bread bowl. The game mix took a while to come and when it did it wasn’t quite what we had imagined! There were medallions of deer, stag, and wild boar, each with a different type of sauce. They were accompanied by a dumpling type thing and polenta. We liked the stag and wild boar but the deer had a bit of a strong taste and the slight aftertaste of liver. I guess we took a gamble but at least we tried the local food!
After dinner we headed off to the supermarket to stock up on snacks and even found instant noodles in bowls! Got some pastries for lunch tomorrow too! Met the group back at Congress square at 8:30pm and Matty drove us back to our hotel! So that was our visit of Ljubljana! It was a nice mix of modern and historic elements and it’d actually be a nice place to live I reckon! It’s on to Austria tomorrow!
The sea was choppy as we crossed over but the ferry was surprisingly stable. Once on the mainland it was time to nap as Matty drove us towards Slovenia! Di’s passport was again taken off the coach to be checked at the Croatian/Slovenian border but it was returned with no dramas. We rolled on towards the Slovenian capital Ljubljana after a brief service stop. Di and I ate our salami and cheese rolls whilst watching Snatch on the coach’s dvd/tv - awesome movie man!!!
We drove into the outskirts of Ljubljana and our hotel for the night around 2:30pm. Our hotel was actually situated on a camping/caravan/cabin site. This warranted some apprehension at first but the hotel rooms themselves turned out to be really nice! They were 3 star rooms with clean bathroom, tv, mini bar fridge, and heaters!
After an hour’s rest (during which we did some hand washing), we all got back on the coach and Matty drove us into the Slovenian capital’s center for our walking tour of the town. I was curious to check out the town that our missionaries the Box family recently lived in! It took almost 30mins to reach Congress square due to peak hour traffic. Once there Jaz led us off the bus and took us on a brief tour of some of the city’s landmarks, ending in the old town square. We saw some monuments, some churches including a beautiful Franciscan one, and the city’s renowned Triple Bridge (basically one bridge built initially, then two smaller side bridges built on either side of the original).
There was some light drizzle on and off and it was rather chilly at 9 degrees or so as we set off by ourselves to explore the city before dinner at 6:30pm. We decided to visit Ljubljana castle, perched high atop a mountain. To get up there we found the ticket booth to a funicular railway to take us up. It cost a reasonable 5 euros for a return ticket on the railway and entrance into the castle and its tower and virtual museum. Soon a couple more ppl from our tour group joined us to visit the castle.
We all went up on the railway which had glass walls allowing for nice views of the city as we ascended. At the top we disembarked and headed straight for the castle’s tower. We climbed up a spiral staircase and emerged at the open rooftop with sweeping 360 views of Ljubljana and its surrounds! It was drizzling though so we quickly took a few photos and went back down. We hung around for the 5pm virtual museum presentation which was a 23 min 3D video about the castle and a brief summary of Ljubljana’s history. The 3D effects weren’t that great and quite frankly I was a bit zonked out during some of the dry factual bits. Anyhow, some parts were interesting such as how Slovenia became an independent state after a 10 day war with its original rulers Yugoslavia.
After the presentation we quickly checked out the castle wall, an exhibition, and the shop before heading back down on the funicular railway. We checked out the dragon bridge, so called because of the dragon statues perched on 4 posts at either end of the bridge. It was erected in 1901 to mark the 40th anniversary of the accession of the Austro-Hungarian emperor Franz Josef when Slovenia was still part of the Austro-Hungarian empire.
We walked along the riverside and passed on some tempting gelato to save space for dinner! We met the others at 6pm at Sokol, a traditional Slovenian restaurant recommended by Jaz. Pretty much everyone was there! Most ppl ordered the game goulash but we tried the mushroom soup and game plate. The mushroom soup was nice and hearty and came in a bread bowl. The game mix took a while to come and when it did it wasn’t quite what we had imagined! There were medallions of deer, stag, and wild boar, each with a different type of sauce. They were accompanied by a dumpling type thing and polenta. We liked the stag and wild boar but the deer had a bit of a strong taste and the slight aftertaste of liver. I guess we took a gamble but at least we tried the local food!
After dinner we headed off to the supermarket to stock up on snacks and even found instant noodles in bowls! Got some pastries for lunch tomorrow too! Met the group back at Congress square at 8:30pm and Matty drove us back to our hotel! So that was our visit of Ljubljana! It was a nice mix of modern and historic elements and it’d actually be a nice place to live I reckon! It’s on to Austria tomorrow!
Monday, May 19, 2008
Day trip to Zadar, Croatia!
Enjoyed another nice buffet breakky today before ducking across the road to the supermarket to pick up some supplies! We met Haydee in the hotel foyer and headed for the bus stop to Zadar, about a 20min walk away. When we got there we met up with Santiago, Dan, Goran, Sarah and Gemma who were also heading to town for the day. We caught the 11:50am Antonio Tours bus which took around 1hr 40mins to reach Zadar after picking up passengers in Pag and some other small bus stops along the way.
We didn’t really know where to get off the bus and just followed the others when they got off the bus! Once off, we walked towards the harbour and asked for tourist information. We were directed over a bridge that took us into the old part of Zadar with its surrounding city wall. After walking past some markets we reached the small town square and got maps from the information desk.
We split up from the others and checked out the tourist points on the map including a number of churches and small town squares. We found some gardens which were rather nice and the remains of the roman fortification of the city from ancient times! We climbed one of the church bell towers for 10 kuna pp and enjoyed a stunning view of the city and surrounds! Following our tourist map we went from one end of town to the other, eventually coming to the sea. Here we found an attraction called a sea organ! It kinda looked like steps going down into the sea and on the sides of the steps were small slits. As water flowed into the steps, musical tones emerged from the slits and holes that sounded like someone blowing over partially filled glass bottles of water. It was pretty cool!
We enjoyed a rest in some nearby gardens and then decided to continue on with our tour of Zadar! We looked for the bus station to check where the bus back to Novalja was going to leave but couldn’t find it. Heading back to the town square we bumped into the other guys and Dan managed to find out that the bus back left from a bus station outside of the old town area.
With this settled, we agreed to meet at a restaurant for dinner and wandered off to kill the hour or so before dinner. Di and I found a supermarket and got some salami and cheese to make lunch for tomorrow. Also found some handy cutlery and freezer bags. We then wandered to a bakery we had spotted earlier and got some rolls and a jam filled donut for tomorrow.
At 6pm we met the others including Jaz, Matt, Troy and Bronwyn (who had gone to Bosnia for the day!). Heard about how they had visited a town just over the border that still had evidence of the recent conflicts such as bullet ridden buildings. It was a sobering reminder of what a scary part of the world we were in!!!
Dinner was rather nice at a traditional Croatian restaurant! Di and I shared a mixed grill plate, a seafood risotto, and a vegetarian dish! The mixed grill came with a steak, grilled chicken, a burger pattie, and pork kebab. Rather nice although the meats were a bit overcooked. The vegetarian dish was what Jaz thought was buckwheat with spinach and a piece of fried cheese. Weird!!!
After dinner we all headed for the bus station, about a 15 min walk away as a light drizzle started. We got on the bus with 15 mins to spare and found it half full already. Some school kids who were on the bus into town were on the return bus back and they proved to be rude and rowdy for the entire trip back! We were relieved when most of them got off around Pag.
We caught the yellow local bus back to our hotel and packed for another early start tomorrow!
We didn’t really know where to get off the bus and just followed the others when they got off the bus! Once off, we walked towards the harbour and asked for tourist information. We were directed over a bridge that took us into the old part of Zadar with its surrounding city wall. After walking past some markets we reached the small town square and got maps from the information desk.
We split up from the others and checked out the tourist points on the map including a number of churches and small town squares. We found some gardens which were rather nice and the remains of the roman fortification of the city from ancient times! We climbed one of the church bell towers for 10 kuna pp and enjoyed a stunning view of the city and surrounds! Following our tourist map we went from one end of town to the other, eventually coming to the sea. Here we found an attraction called a sea organ! It kinda looked like steps going down into the sea and on the sides of the steps were small slits. As water flowed into the steps, musical tones emerged from the slits and holes that sounded like someone blowing over partially filled glass bottles of water. It was pretty cool!
We enjoyed a rest in some nearby gardens and then decided to continue on with our tour of Zadar! We looked for the bus station to check where the bus back to Novalja was going to leave but couldn’t find it. Heading back to the town square we bumped into the other guys and Dan managed to find out that the bus back left from a bus station outside of the old town area.
With this settled, we agreed to meet at a restaurant for dinner and wandered off to kill the hour or so before dinner. Di and I found a supermarket and got some salami and cheese to make lunch for tomorrow. Also found some handy cutlery and freezer bags. We then wandered to a bakery we had spotted earlier and got some rolls and a jam filled donut for tomorrow.
At 6pm we met the others including Jaz, Matt, Troy and Bronwyn (who had gone to Bosnia for the day!). Heard about how they had visited a town just over the border that still had evidence of the recent conflicts such as bullet ridden buildings. It was a sobering reminder of what a scary part of the world we were in!!!
Dinner was rather nice at a traditional Croatian restaurant! Di and I shared a mixed grill plate, a seafood risotto, and a vegetarian dish! The mixed grill came with a steak, grilled chicken, a burger pattie, and pork kebab. Rather nice although the meats were a bit overcooked. The vegetarian dish was what Jaz thought was buckwheat with spinach and a piece of fried cheese. Weird!!!
After dinner we all headed for the bus station, about a 15 min walk away as a light drizzle started. We got on the bus with 15 mins to spare and found it half full already. Some school kids who were on the bus into town were on the return bus back and they proved to be rude and rowdy for the entire trip back! We were relieved when most of them got off around Pag.
We caught the yellow local bus back to our hotel and packed for another early start tomorrow!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
