grand tour of europe

this is a draft post... i can't get the pics up coz my internet is too slow. argh.

paris day 1 (6 june 2006)
our ‘grand tour’ of europe began on sterling nb537 from copenhagen to paris, charles de gaulle. we arrived at the supposedly city of romance at about 7pm, and yh, sy and i checked in to hotel luxia which is near the notorious red light district and montmartre area. we decided to rest early so that we can prepare ourselves for an exciting day ahead.

paris day 2 (7 june 2006)
our day was mainly dedicated to musée du louvre, which houses the widely celebrated da vinci’s mona lisa. the painting itself was smaller than its popularity, and way tinier than the crowds visiting it. the museum had four floors, and three wings, richelieu, sully and denon, making it a really large museum. other prominent artworks we saw are the tomb of philippe pot (French sculpture), michelangelo’s the dying slave, sculpture of Aphrodite (vénus de milo), sculpture of the winged victory of samothrace, and the portrait the raft of the medusa. the architecture of the museum was by itself a stunning artwork – modern glass pyramids and fountain surrounded by the vast palais du louvre, an old fortress built by philippe-auguste in the early 13th century.

after an artistic saturation at the museum, we ascended the tour eiffel. the eiffel tower is a massive structure constructed from junk metal (as so i see), pretty ugly. the french themselves don’t like the tower, because it damages the beauty of the skyline. we paid €11 to get to the very top of the eiffel and watched the sun set upon the french city landscape.

from the eiffel tower, we walked towards the arc de triomphe it is situated in the middle of place de l’étoile, the world’s largest traffic roundabout and is linked to av des champs élysées.

the arc was commissioned by napoleon to commemorate his imperial victories. today we only see french parades at the arc.

paris day 3 (8 june 2006)
the french open! well of course i won’t be as excited as abel about it. haha. we watched the quarter-finals of the women’s singles and the mixed doubles. it was a pretty inspiring day of tennis after seeing those beautiful strokes launched by the players, manoeuvred by the racket and performed by the ball. i think i’ll learn tennis!
okay the following pic is that of the men’s doubles. on the left are the american brothers m. bryan and b. bryan. they’re the world’s best according to abel.

paris day 4 (9 june 2006)
xuefen came to join me in paris today! she came to our hotel to meet us, and we first visited the basilique du sacré cœur (basilica of the sacred heart). it lies on the top of the montmartre hill and is built by the parisian catholics.
it was at the foot of this fateful hill where yh, sy and lc met some ‘friends’, or ‘brothers’ they so fondly call them. these are the blacks attempting to ‘sell’ friendship by demanding money after tying friendship bands on the wrists of tourists.
we next visited the cemetery of montmartre. it is interesting; each family has a small house which accommodates the bodies or ashes of the whole family. when we left the cemetery, we passed by a bakery and under xuefen’s recommendation, i bought the chocolate religieuse.
our next destination was hôtel des invalides after a picnic at a grass patch outside the invalides metro station. hôtel des invalides was originally louis xiv’s hospital for injured soldiers, as so implied by its name.
we also went to the cathédrale de notre dame de paris, or simply cathedral of our lady of paris. it is an remarkable french gothic masterpiece. xuefen told me that when it rains, the gargoyles on the cathedral can store water such that water spills out from their mouths, creating some sort of fountain.
in the evening, we spent some time at the shakespeare bookstore (a bookshop which sells english books) while we wait to enter the le caveau de la huchette. that is the jazz club which xuefen recommended. it was a medival caveau (cellar), but gives a nice homely ambience. when the music was played, the french (generally quite old) started to go on their heels and toes on the dance floor. it was so amazing to see these people full of life at that age! i was even invited by a french and an american chinese onto the dancefloor! i had much fun despite my incompetence in dancing when compared to those french ladies.

paris day 5 (10 june 2006)
today is a day of shopping and slacking. we went to the area near the opera metro station for shopping. but everywhere was crowded with people so i didn’t get much chance to unleash that shoppaholic in me.
we called it a day after buying that oh-so-delicious spring chicken from our nearby supermarket, champion.

paris day 6 (11 june 2006)
we went to versailles, where the most famous chateau in france is. the palace housed the famed hall of mirrors and hall of battles. the gardens are pretty, but less attractive is the desert like environment around the palace. yh and sy met their friends coincidentally and we also noticed hordes of other singaporeans visiting the place. it was so easy to tell from that uniquely singaporean accent.
our evening was spent with pictures at la defence, the french statue of liberty and moulin rouge.

prague day 1 (12 june 2006)
matička praha, or little mother prague, is one of the most beautiful cities i’ve been to so far. the scenery from charles bridge isn’t the impressive kind, but a quiet yet elegant view of the vltava river.
we went up the hill which the prague castle stood, explored the castle, cathedrals and the leafy surroundings. we were also in the staré město (old town) and nové město (new town). the old town is where the astronomical clock is located. a closer look at its gothic motifs reveals a parade of apostles and a skeleton.
also at the old town, we managed to catch a match of the world cup. the whole czech crowd roared in delight when their country won the match!

prague day 2 (13 june 2006)
as we’ve finished almost all the attractions yesterday, i dedicated the whole of today to shopping! to my delight, things are very affordable in prague. going through hordes of tourists in shops, i was still able to get two pairs of shoes and one top. not forgetting to satisfy my growling stomach, we had tasty goulash with bread dumplings and gravy. and dessert from the friendly supermarket tesco.

basel day 1 (14 june 2006)
utopia found: switzerland
mountains! seeing those gorgeous rock formations bordering the rhein river from the airplane made me really high. haha. basel is an interesting area in switzerland between france and germany. at the basel-mulhouse airport, there are three different exits; one each towards switzerland, france and germany. thus, the locals speak either french or german, in addition to good fluent english.
the first thing that stuck me about switzerland is the amiable character of the locals. when we were carrying our heavy backpacks looking for directions to our hostel with a map, a man approached us and asked if we speak english and if we needed help. motorists horned to say hi, rather than for expressing irritation. the counter personnel at the train station was also extremely patient with us and explained how the swiss rail pass works even though it was almost time for him to knock off.
we bought the 4 day swiss youth pass at chf188 and with the booking of seats on glacier express (one leg of our journey on the train), the total cost of our transportation in switzerland is chf203. we later paid another chf78.50 to get up the jungfrau (pronounced as yung-frau) in the swiss alps. thus, to make good use of our swiss pass, we took numerous trains, trams and buses.
in basel, we visited a münster (cathedral) and a peculiar fountain. the rhein river also offered a pleasant sight.

basel, zürich, lucerne day 2 (15 june 2006)
we had a sumptuous breakfast at our basel hostel. it consists of different kinds of cereals, yoghurt, orange juice, milk, the whole machine dispensing cappuccino to latte, bread, jam, cheese, mushroom or bacon-studded hams. exceptional! i had three servings of yoghurt and lots of ham. :)
we begin our grand tour of utopia today using our newly acquired swiss youth pass. the previous night, abel and i came up with a comprehensive travel plan so that we can make good use of our swiss rail pass. it is as follows:
15 june 2006, late morning: train from basel to zürich. zürich wasn’t part of our original travel route, but we included it since we have a 4 day pass.
15 june 2006, late afternoon: train from zürich to lucerne.
16 june 2006, early morning: ferry across lake lucerne to flüelen, train from flüelen to göschenen, on the wilhelm tell express. then train from göschenen to andermatt.
16 june 2006, afternoon: on the glacier express from andermatt to brig.
16 june 2006, afternoon: hop on the lötschberg line from brig to spiez.
16 june 2006, evening: train from spiez to interlaken ost (east).
17 june 2006, afternoon: jungfrau region train from interlaken ost to lauterbrunnen to jungfraujoch to grindelwald and back to interlaken ost.
18 june 2006, morning: train from interlaken ost to interlaken west, via zweisimmen to montreux on the goldenpass line.
18 june 2006, evening: train from montreux to genève.
thus, we arrived in zürich and enjoyed the scenery of lake zürich.
at zürich, i bought a swiss army knife for dad. we also took this tram that is slanted to the shape of a parallelogram up a hill, only to find ourselves among the houses of the rich and famous and walking towards the direction of a zoo.
we later arrived in lucerne, but so late that we missed the opening hours of the glacier garden :( fortunately the lake, the beach and the snow-capped mountains appeased us during our short time there. the medieval old town was enchanting too. it had nice churches and interesting bridges.


lucerne, flüelen, göschenen, andermatt, brig, spiez, interlaken ost day 3 (16 june 2006)
our early morning ferry took us for a tour along lake lucerne. we ignorantly positioned ourselves in the first class seats (again) until we were kindly requested to leave for the second class seats by the conductor. the scenery was the same though.
our journey continued on the train from the ferry in flüelen to göschenen (wilhelm tell express) and then to andermatt. resting on the comfortable seats while feasting our eyes on the wonders of mother nature is the definition of ‘holiday’. and from andermatt, we took the glacier express to brig. we didn’t see any glaciers though, but meandering rivers, misty mountains and grand waterfalls.
we finally arrived at interlaken ost after hopping onto the lötschberg line from brig to spiez. our hostel in interlaken is called ‘funny farm’, but it wasn’t exactly funny when i had to bathe in ice cold water for two nights.

jungfraujoch (top of europe) day 4 (17 june 2006)
the jungfraujoch (3454m above sea level) is the highest train station in all of europe. it brings us to the proximity of the jungfrau mountain which is at 4158m asl. and today we’ll make our ascent. our swiss pass brought us only to lauterbrunnen, and our itinerary was to start off from lauterbrunnen to jungfraujoch, and then we’ll depart to grindalwald (the land full of ricola candy herbs). these were the additional train tickets we purchased to get up the jungfraujoch.
but firstly in lauterbrunnen we saw the trümmelbach falls.
then we took the special jungfraubahn to kleine scheidegg (2061m) and then further up past eigergletscher (2320m), eigerwand (2865m), eismeer (3160m) and finally to jungfraujoch (3454m).

up on the top of europe, we explored the ice palace, the sphinx (3571m) and the plateau. on the plateau and from the sphinx, we can see the peaks of the eiger (3970m), mönch (4107m) and jungfrau (4158m), and from the sphinx it was claimed to have views of france, germany and italy.
and if you’re wondering about the temperature at the jungfraujoch, please don’t be deceived by the amount of clothing we wear! afterall we are ‘seasoned europeans’ and we’re accustomed to such harsh temperatures in denmark. thus, for beginners, don’t attempt to imitate us and do put on more clothing!

interlaken ost and west, zweisimmen, montreux, genève day 5 (18 june 2006)
we left interlaken for montreux, by taking the goldenpass line from zweisimmen to montreux. the goldenpass line is the nicest train i’ve ever taken. each cabin is constructed in a circular wooden frame, each with a table and lamp. romantic!
at montreux, we had an awesome view of lake geneva.
finally, after arriving at geneva and taking a few photos of its lake, we headed straight to the airport. we stayed over at the lonely geneva airport as our flight to rome was early next morning.

rome day 1 (19 june 2006)
we arrived in rome, with the fear of not having any accommodation. this is because the previous night at the geneva airport while using their free internet, i received an email from ‘freedom traveller’, our accommodation in rome, that their hostel is encountering some ‘electrical problems’. thus they have to close for a few days. they asked if we can reschedule our trip else they would have to reallocate beds in other hostels for us. my hypothesis was that the hostel was burnt down, inferring from what they meant by ‘electrical problems’. so we decided to just go and pretend to be ignorant about the incident, and see what they can do for us. fortunately when we arrived, they told us we were reallocated to another hostel of better condition. it was a six bed dorm instead of the eight bed dorm which we originally booked for. it also has a nice kitchen and a large bathroom. ‘freedom traveller’ also revealed to us that their ‘electrical problems’ were because they just renovated their hostel and have yet to get the licence from the authorities.
with a peace of mind that our accoms is settled for the two night in rome, we went out to visit the colosseum, arch of constantine and the roman forum. the roman forum is and ancient roman commercial, political and religious centre, but now it consists of the ruins of those ancient buildings.
while we were engrossed with buying souvenirs, suddenly i heard someone call me. it was grace from lund university and the gang of friends who i went to norway with were there! songning, william, amy and grace! we arranged to meet the following day to visit the vatican city.
after that we checked in to our hostel to rest a bit, but only to realize that we woke up only next morning… we slept a total of 15 hours that night!

rome, vatican city day 2 (20 june 2006)
the vatican is an independent country by itself, and is the smallest country in the world. so singapore really isn’t that small! the pope has full sovereignty over the vatican. all of us went to the vatican museum first. there was a really long queue under the scorching sun and we waited for at least 2 hours. the vatican museum has many artworks by raphael and michelangelo. and in the sistine chapel are michelangelo’s famous frescoes of the creation and last judgement.
after that, we went to st peter’s basilica and square. the church is where peter is buried.
we later proceeded on to other attractions in rome, namely the fontana de trevi (trevi fountain) and palazzo nuovo.
our evening ended with a nice catching up with betta (the italian girl in my container at dtu). i had a strawberry margarita while chatting betta, abel and lc. betta bought us to her house and was also kind enough to drive us back to our hostels.

pisa day 3 (21 june 2006)
in the morning we bid abel farewell as he will head towards pisa and florence before us. we began our trip with trepidation, especially after all the rumors we hear about italy. but our first hurdle was simply to find a train that can get us to pisa! there was a strike and our train from rome to pisa was cancelled. thus, after queuing for a really long time to change our train tickets, we were scheduled to leave rome in the afternoon. the train journey was safe; there was a pleasant old couple sitting together with us in our cabin. the old lady even offered me her cherries. it was also nice gazing at the fields of sunflowers amidst the mountains in the countryside of rome.
we arrived in pisa to see the somewhat humorous leaning tower of pisa in campo dei miracoli (field of miracles). we all took the typical leaning tower photo there.
we enjoyed our stay in pisa mainly because we had nice accommodation. the camping site which i booked on hostelworld turned out to be a really nice chalet style resort. the rooms are clean and we had our own bathroom and kitchen.

florence day 4 (22 june 2006)
florence, or firenze in italian, was much of a disappointment. it is supposed to be part of beautiful tuscany and acclaimed by the italians as a place not to be missed when travelling in italy. but the place is overcrowded with tourists and tourist shops, that it has lost any of its tuscan flavour. anyhow, we visited the duomo (cathedral), ponte vecchio (bridge), palazzo pitti, galleria dell’accademia (museum that houses michelangelo’s david), basilica di san corenzo and cappelle medicee (medici chapels).

rome day 5 (23 june 2006)
we returned to rome for a night so that we can catch our flight from rome to berlin the next morning. with nothing much left to tour, we only visited the san Giovanni laterano (cathedral). but what was more rewarding was the ‘blue ice’ gelato we ate on the way. i had mixed berries and after eight ice cream!

berlin day 1 (24 june 2006)
funny it is, but our two days in berlin was spent mainly at shopping, in ONE shopping mall, and it’s called ‘galeria kaufhof’. it has a nice food department, with stuff ranging from the world cup ritter sport to touristy mozart chocolates, from swiss mövenpick coffee to chinese gunpowder. naturally i gravitated towards the chocolate and candy section, getting lots of haribo gummy bears, ritter sport chocolates and some coffee.
besides shopping, yh also brought us to the attractions which they went the previous time they were in berlin. and these are the fernsehturm (tv tower), bebelplatz (site of the nazis’ first burning of books) holocaust memorial site, checkpoint charlie and the berlin wall.
we also watched the world cup at a local pub. it was germany vs sweden, and the germans went into an emotional high when their players beat the swedes. practically along every street the germans were singing, waving their flags or sounding their car horns as a sign of celebration. this is the world cup fever.

berlin day 2 (25 june 2006)
we visited the brandenburger tor (brandenburg gate) and the reichstag. The brandenburg gate has a winged goddess of victory in a chariot with four horses; it is a symbol of berlin and previously the boundary between the east and west. the reichstag on the other hand is where the reunification of germany was carried out.

berlin day 3 (26 june 2006)
berlin ended nicely and we headed back to copenhagen today. though tiring, i think i will really miss this backpacking experience. the 20 days were fun and the company was great. think i’ll really miss europe after i return to singapore.