Bye~ London! Bye~ Friends!

Everything has to come to an end eventually...and when good times come to an end, it always makes me feel a little sentimental. I had enjoyed my trip very much, especially meeting with friends whom I don't get to meet often...

This day I arranged to meet J and her family at her house in Epping for lunch. We checked out at noon and made our way there on the tube. It was the last station so by the time we arrived, it was around 1:30pm, just nice for lunch. J cooked us some Singaporean dishes which I enjoyed very much after eating European food for the past 10 days. She was so thoughtful. It was my first time visiting her at her house and I was glad to find the jig-saw puzzle picture of old Singapore displayed on the wall of her living room. J also told me that the dishes she was using to serve me lunch were presents from me! I didn't remember that?

After lunch, we had a leisure time chatting over coffee while her husband P cleaned up and her 3 beautiful daughters played on their own. They are also stuck on the DS Lite games. *Smile* I From the dining area where we were sitting around, we could see the garden with a little playground for the children. It was not a very big garden, but would be enough for having a nice BBQ gathering with a few friends and family. This is the kind of quality living that we in Hong Kong and Singapore don't get unless we are very rich. *Sigh*

We said our goodbyes after a short walk in the Epping Forest which was only a 10 minutes drive away from J's house. That was our last chance at getting our lungs filed with good quality air before coming back to polluted Hong Kong...Bye~London! Bye~Friends! Wish we will meet again soon~

Travel~ Travel~ London 10th May 2008

The Map Room at the Cabinet War Rooms

We slept through till almost noon before making our way out to visit the Churchill Museum and the Cabinet War Rooms. Hubby has always been interested in the World War II and the events and characters involved in the war. We had a light lunch inside the canteen of the Cabinet War Rooms where it had really been used as a canteen during the war. They had very tasty tomato soup and bread. The chocolate cookie I had with a hot cup of cafe latte was delicious too.

Tower Bridge from the cruise

After Churchill Museum, we went to take a cruise along the River Thames and had a magnificent view of the Tower Bridge. In the evening we met up with V and D at the Tower of London and went for dinner at a Spanish tapas bar in Soho. The food was great! We were lucky to be there early and got ourselves seats because the place was soon packed with people waiting for seats behind us. It was Saturday afterall, so we went for more drinks at Cocoon, a stylishly decorated restaurant and bar recommended by D. The girls there were really dressed to kill and most of them looked absolutely gorgeous. Even though V and I were not dressed up to their standards, but being the only 2 Chineses girls around, we still had our fair share of attention from the gweilos. Not bad at all! *Cheers!*

Travel~ Travel~ London - 9th May 2008

"Big Ben" Clock Tower & the Palace of Westminster

Although most of this day was spent again on the bus from Paris to London, my spirits were still very high. The excitement of meeting V for the 1st time after 20 years made the journey bearable. V had searched for me on Facebook and found me last November. We had been updating on each other's lives online and planned for this meeting for a few months. This trip for me was a "hit 2 birds with 1 stone" kind of trip; ie. to tour Europe with hubby and meet V. No wait, I think it was "hit 3 birds with a stone" because hubby also met his long lost primary school friend here in London! V flew in from Munich where she's residing with husband and son to meet me in London. How sweet~ :D

We met at Oxford Street, had tea, met another friend of hers J at Piccadilly Circus and then we all walked to Westminster area. There we saw the Westminster Abbey, the "Big Ben", the Palace of Westminster and also the London Eye. So much to see around but even more to talk about with each other. 4 Singaporeans, all living overseas with different purposes. Who knows when and where we will all meet again?

Travel~ Travel~ Paris - 8th May 2008

In the morning, we went to the Louvre Museum to see the famous Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci. I don't know about you guys, I just don't understand what's so special about the portrait? I couldn't appreciate it, not when I had to squeeze my way through so many people just to see a small half-body portrait of a woman displayed behind security glass panel. It was said that most tourists could only spend an average of 15 seconds to appreciate the portrait because of the crowd. I think hubby and I spent less than that! However, the glass pyramid was impressive and also the court yard in which it was built was so grand!

Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci

Notre Dame de Paris

After the Louvre, we went to the beautiful Notre Dame Cathedral. I especially liked the Gothic architecture and the magnificent rose windows. They were celebrating mass when we arrived and I felt so blessed even though I am not a Catholic nor a Christian.

Inside of the Notre Dame Cathedral

Nutella & Banana Crepe *Heavenly*

Seafood Plater Parisian style~ *Gorgeous!*

Travel~ Travel~ Paris - 7th May 2008

Arc de Triomphe

Finally after more than 9 hours on the bus, (we were getting so restless!) we arrived into Paris. And Paris being Paris was too expensive for the tour to arrange hotel for us in the city center so we had to stay just outside of Paris. We went straight to the hotel, checked in, rested for awhile and then went directly for the optional night excursion which felt more like a late afternoon tour because it was still bright until 9:30pm! The bus took us around Paris, crossing the beautiful bridges and then went onto Avenue des Champs-Élysées. We could see the Arc de Triomphe right in front of us at the end of the road. We had an hour of free time around Arc de Triomphe to find dinner before heading off to go up the Eiffel Tower.

View of the Eiffel Tower from below.

View from below the Eiffel Tower.

View of the River Seine from the Eiffel Tower (2nd upper level)

Travel~ Travel~ Mt. Stanserhorn & Lake Lucerne - 6th May 2008

The range of Swiss chocolates found at the highway stop-over shop.

No words could describe the beauty I saw at Mt. Stanserhorn and Lake Lucerne, so I decided that this post shall be all pictures instead. Enjoy~

First sight of the Swiss Alps which greeted us after entering the Swiss border.

Sight of the beautiful meadows from the tram ride up to Mt. Stanserhorn.

Gorgeous view from the top of Mt. Stanserhorn.

View from the cable car on the way down.

The charming tram driver waving back at me~

View from the cruise into Lake Lucerne.

View of a charming castle-looking mansion on the lake.

View of Lake Lucerne from land.

Travel~ Travel~ Venice - 5th May 2008

On the way into Venice on the water taxi.

Overall I deemed this day as disappointing. It was raining from the time we arrived in Venice in the morning until the time we had to leave at around noon. The cold I caught in Rome started to get nasty with me and I was feeling terrible. Then we were almost late for the meeting time to leave because we were lost in the back streets for an hour. The only good thing that happened in Venice was that I found a cobbler while we were lost to mend my boots' heels which got broken from walking in Rome on the 1st day. It costed 6 Euros but well worth it as I felt much more comfortable walking after that.

View from the famous Rialto Bridge.

Shops on the Rialto Bridge.
A raw foods market we found while lost in Venice.

After Venice, it was another 5 hours bus-ride to the Lake District of Italy for the night before heading on to Switzerland the next day. There we found this lake about 45 minutes brisk walk away from our hotel and managed to enjoy briefly the beautiful scenery before dinner. Again, there was nothing else we could possibly do after dark around there...

Food on the road - Ciabata with ham and cheese~ *Yummy*!

The beautiful lake near our hotel.

Travel~ Travel~ Venice - 4th May 2008

Most of today was spent inside our tour bus, taking us from Rome in the morning to Venice in the evening. I didn't really count how many hours we had spent on the road as I was busy playing "Lost In Blue" on my DSLite (hubby's DSLite actually but whatever his is mine~) :p Hubby said it was about 8 hours, including 2 toilet breaks we had along the highway, so I think we arrived in Venice almost 5pm and went straight for the optional Gondola ride.

This time the gondola ride took through some back canals of Venice not usually shown to the average tourists and we got to see how the Venetians live in their habitats on water. We even got to see how they hang their clothes out to dry like in this picture! Suddenly Venice was not romantic anymore... I was glad we weren't on our honeymoon trip, I would be so disappointed with the ride. Two other couples in our tour group were on their honeymoons and they shared a special "Love Boat" with 2 Italian artistes who sang and played some love songs for them. They sang so loudly that all other tour members like us in the other gondolas could hear, so I really didn't think the "Love Boat" was any special.

After the ride, we were transported to a charming little hotel which was outside of Venice. No bathtub, just a small shower unit. Dinner was served in the hotel and at night there was absolutely nowhere to go...

Travel~ Travel~ Rome - 3rd May 2008 (Part Two)

After the Vatican, we went to the Colosseum to see the venue where the gladiators would fight against each other and/or wild beasts even till death for the entertainment of the spectators.

*Wouldn't want to be entertained this way!*

Being more than 1900 years old, the whole structure was actually quite badly ruined. This piece of external wall pointed out to us by our guide was the most well-preserved piece of wall with its entrance number LII in roman numerals still visible.

Inside the Colosseum, it actually looked quite pathetic and much imagination was needed to truly understand how magnificent it must had been in those ancient times. It was said that it could have accomodated more than 50,000 people! *Wow!* Did they have binoculars then? If not, how could the poor spectators on the most upper floor possibly see?

Site of an ancient shopping center now in ruins...

After the visit to the Colosseum, hubby and I left the tour group and went roaming around Rome by ourselves. We had several objectives, first we needed to find the correct adaptor for our electronic gagets as the battery on our Sony digital camera was running out fast and the batteries on our game sets had already ran out the night before. The adaptor that we had brought didn't fit into the sockets of our hotel room. Then I was hoping to do some shopping at my favourite Italian boutiques such as Gucci and Prada. And hubby was determined to try out more delicious Italian foods.

Souvenir stalls like these were everywhere!

In the end, first objective couldn't be fulfilled in the city center because we couldn't find any electrical shop there. There were cafes, restaurants, souvenir shops, Gelato shops, boutiques and theatres but there were just no household electrical shop. Then we found some of my favourite boutiques near the Spanish Steps but the prices weren't any cheaper than Hong Kong after the currency conversion, so I didn't buy anything. However, I must say food was still the best in Italy, even the take-away pizzas we had were delicious. Below are some of the foods we had in Rome. *Yummy*

The pizza and the pasta we had in Piazza Navona

The range of gloriously delicious Gelato~

Even this plain-looking spagetti was delicious and the tramisu was FANTASTIC!

Travel~ Travel~ Rome - 3rd May 2008 (Part One)

" Morning call 6, breakfast 6:30 and departure 7:30!"

*Arrgh...*

This morning we joined another optional excursion to visit the Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Basilica and the Colosseum. We had a group booking according to our guide so I guess that was why we didn't have to queue that long before we entered the Vatican Museum. When we arrived, there was a big crowd of tourists outside the entrance, all with group bookings, I suppose? We were given walkie-talkie lookalike radio devices for listening to our guide's commentary inside the museum without her having to shout. Quite convenient.

Our guide was explaining to us how the Romans had viewed themselves being in the middle of the world with this lopsided map of Italy.

I don't know why but somehow I wasn't as impressed with the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel as when I first visited. Perhaps I didn't need to visit twice? I wonder how our guide feel about the place having been there countless times explaining to tourists over and over again the same old things? Maybe it was because of the crowd, didn't remember the place so crowded when I last visited. However, I must say that all art pieces were still amazing. I particularly liked one piece of tapestry of Jesus with his eyes looking down at us no matter where we were standing. And I loved the ceilings! But I had always wondered why they had to put so much emphasis on the ceilings?

After walking through the museum with our guide, we arrived at the Sistine Chapel with it's legendary ceiling paintings by Michelangelo and we were given 20 minutes to appreciate the art in silence. We were suppose to be silent but I found that the tourists just couldn't keep their mouths shut and there were guards shooing at us! *Sigh*... We were also not allowed to take pictures inside the Sistine Chapel, but the most famous piece of painting inside the chapel, "God creates Adam" can be found printed on postcards and all sorts of souvenir items everywhere.

Next up, St. Peter's Basilica where I particularly liked the marble sculpture "Pieta" made by Michelangelo in 1499 when he was only 24. The virgin Mother Mary's face was made so serenely beautiful! It was said that Michelangelo had created Mother Mary's face thinking of his own mother. She had died when he was only 5...*Pity*

Then I went under the balcony where the Pope will stand and give his blessings to the crowd below on special occasions such as Easter and Christmas imagining myself blessed. *Smile*

Travel~ Travel~ Rome - 2nd May 2008

On the 2nd morning, we made our way back to Heathrow terminal 5 and boarded another BA plane to Rome. I had fond memories of Rome after my 1st visit more than 10 years ago, I remember myself being very attracted to the Roman architecture, to the Italian fashion and to the Italian people, especially the Italian men. (Oops! Hubby is going to be so jealous reading this!)

2nd May marked the start of our 8-day tour with Trafalgar Tours. (Remember I ever mentioned that it wasn't the best way to travel?) We arrived too early for the hotel transfer time at 3:30pm, so we had a couple of hours to roam around the airport and I found that Hello Kitty is also popular here! Yippee!

We were finally picked up and transferred to our hotel, arriving at around 4:30pm for a briefing by our Tour Director who was actually quite professional. (We later found out that he has been in this job for 15 years.)

We joined the optional excursion for a night drive-through tour in the city center of Rome and visited the famous Trevi Fountains, the Pantheon and had our dinner at the charming Piazza Navona. Rome being Rome, was still impressive to me although I was not as amazed as I was when I first visited.

Not a very good picture of the Trevi Fountain but just see how crowded it was!

It was so crowded at the Trevi Fountain that hubby and I had to literally squeeze our way through to find an opening to throw our coins in. The correct way to throw the coin according to our guide was to hold the coin in the right hand and throw it over the left shoulder with the back facing the fountain water. And the legend goes: "Throw 1 coin to visit Rome again, throw 2 coins to find a lover and throw 3 coins to stay with your lover in Rome happily ever after." I had always thrown only 1 coin in my previous visits and I did go back, so I think the legend is true. So if you want to find an Italian lover and live in Rome ever after, remember to throw in 3 coins!

The Pantheon's magnificent concrete dome with an "oculus" - the Great Eye.

The Pantheon was built in 125 AD, making it the oldest still standing domed structure in Rome. (1883 years old!!!) The diameter of the dome and the height to the oculus is said to be exactly the same at 43.3 metres or 142ft. The oculus which is an opening at the top of the dome admits sunlight to light up the interior of the Pantheon and also for cooling/ventilation purposes. And it was explained to us that when it rains, water will be drained away relatively fast as the internal floor of the Pantheon is concave outwards. Amazing!

The cafe where we had our first Italian dinner at Piazza Navona.

Finally we arrived at Piazza Navona for an hour of free time to have dinner. We had a seafood pasta and a mushroom and cheese pizza at one of the cafes facing out to the square. The food was great, the best Italian food we both have had so far. The waiter who attended to us was rather suave and charming in the unique Italian too, speaking a little English. The only disappointment that night came from the street musician who was performing near our table.

First night in Rome was romantic and good until bathing time back in our hotel. There was a big tub in our bathroom but before the tub is half filled, hot water system ran out and we didn't have hot water to shower until the next morning! The Romans do not like hot baths?

Travel~ Travel~ London Food

PAUL's range of delicious pastry

I had forgotten to mention about the food we had in London in my previous post, so I'm filling in here before I start my post on Rome.

During our morning walk, I was desperately looking for Starbucks as I needed my morning cafe latte badly. It wasn't difficult, Starbucks was everywhere. However, I found this charming looking cafeteria a couple of shops away from Starbucks and decided that I would try something different. They had a wonderful selection of danish pastry and their cafe latte was GREAT! Better than Starbucks, I must say. They should come open shops in Hong Kong or Singapore.

Fish & Chips

For lunch we tried some traditional English cuisine at a local English pub and restaurant near our hotel at Earls Court. It wasn't a place recommended to us but we found that the food was rather delicious.

Chicken Curry

Can anyone tell me why Chicken Curry which is obviously an Indian cuisine is served at the local English pub?