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.