Vienna

I had a terrible jetlag, so it is 230am right now and I am wide awake. Might as well documenting my thoughts of the recent holiday before time and memories fade away...

Next up is Vienna, a well developed city. It feels wealthier, especially off our train which departed from Venice, which is another expensive city. The city is clean, I spotted the main sights around the compact area which I had researched throughout my trip.

Breakfast onboard the OBB train

Resting at OBB Lounge

In essence we spent the day around the Stephendom, travelling from Schwedenplatz U-Bahn (the metro stop), strolling towards south passing Fleichmarkt, Stephansplatz, around the Vienna Opera house and finally Karlsplatz. The St Stephens cathedral is of course majestic, but what I can remember is the stop for horse-carriage next to it. We also wander around the shopping street, and found Petersplatz where the magnificent St Peters church was a highlight.

Domkirche St. Stephan

Graben

Hotdog stand or Vienna's hotdog (Würstelstand)

In front of St. Peter's Church

The Baroque interior of the Church

We then stroll to the and Albertina where we stop to rest at the junction near the famous Sacher Hotel. Through a kirschy time-travel exhibition that depicts the old Vienna from Roman time. It looks interesting for history-buff we had the time.

We passed the large public square Heldenplatz where the old imperial Palace was.

Public square & gardens in front of the old imperial Hofburg Palace, with imposing statues

Heldenplatz

 Crossed to the east for Vienna Opera House (Wiener Staatsoper), arriving at Ringstrassen area.

There is tourist information centre where we rest, while Henry and Mom hunted some photo at Sacher hotel.

Velvet sofa at Cafe Museum

Sacher torte

Apfelstudel with vanilla sauce (divine)

Original "Wiener Schnitzel"
golden brown breaded veal cutlet, parsley potatoes, lettuce and cranberry sauce

Viennese mixed sausage platter
four kinds of different, typical Viennese sausages,
onion mustard, horseradish, gherkin and rye bread

The desserts bar

Omigosh

We then capped our trip via a superb lunch at Cafe Museum, a smart cafe on Operngasse with replicas of original Adolf Loos decor, a former hangout for Klimt, Schiele & others. It opened in 1899; although their desserts selection is very tempting, we selected Vienna's speciality. My favorite is the original Wiener Schnitzel (made of veal not pork) and Apple strudel (Apfelstrudel).

Karlsplatz

 

Paris

Why is Paris always have this unique flair in the air. The weather and atmosphere seems dramatic, and chic when I stroll around the city. We are back to Singapore right now, landed 7am this morning, and after a quick check at luggage services, we quickly take taxi home to rest before my office hour. The 3-day in Paris passed quickly. We use the first day to stroll around the city and has the one experience of tourist cheat over the ticket - infuriating. Other than the upsetting experience in Paris (which seems like everyone we know had experience in Paris) we enjoyed our final leg of the journey...

Arrival at Paris Gare Du Nord station

Department store, closes on Sunday... (boo)

Classic Hotel Du Ville

The following morning we went to explore Paris by ourselves, nearby La Marais neighbourhood

Breakfast with a croissant at a budget cafe around Pompidou Centre

Church (Paroisse Saint Eustache) that is adjacent to Jardin Nelson Mandela.
The nearby site is under construction, also the RER interchange for Les Halles-Chatelet

The Bourses

Louvre Pyramid

Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel

Musee D'Orsay

Pont Royal

Mini bug at Palais Bourbon

Lunch at Le Saint Germain

outstanding Pave du Thon (seared tuna steak)

big plate of mussels dish (very good as well)

third dish we ordered was Pork Medallion

Eiffel view from Esplanade des Invalides

Musee Rodin

Walking along Invalides

Invalides

Afterwards we took bus 89 back to our accomodation which was at Le Marais. That is a good bus touring around the city passing famous sights (preciously the direction we were walking earlier in the morning!). A bus ticket costs 2 Euro on board of the bus, if you bought in advance from ticket machines, the generic ticket (which can be used for bus,train,tram, or metro) costs 1.90 each or 14.40 in a pack of 10.

the next morning Carousel near Place du Concorde

Champ-Élysées

Arc du Triomphe

We then continued to shopping at Outlet area La Vallee, which is at the end of rail RER A, the last station just before Disneyland Paris. A couple of very good brand at good deal, we shopped at Tumi and Gucci.

At night we went straight to sunset at Basilica.

Amsterdam

This morning we are getting ready to explore Paris again, day 2. It was mentally exhausting yesterday with high maintenance parents after 18-day holiday (too long for self-planning) but I will keep up. Yesterday after a brief breakfast at the AirBNB house at Rue de Rosiers, Le Marais district, we stroll around to Hotel De Ville, the modern art museum George Pompidou, then proceed to Louvre, passing Jardin Nelson Mandela (a beautiful square garden with majestic church and the circular building of Bourses), then stroll across Seine river thru Pont Royal to Musee D'Orsay and Boulevard St. Germaine. We waited for Henry to catch up on a bench near La Defense, the boulevard was almost deserted on a Sunday and the fact is that it was a long weekend with the Feast of Assumption today on Monday Aug 15. We finished after a lunch at St Germaine Café (a great lunch with superb tuna steak and vegetable side, pork medallion, and a huge mussel dish) then stroll under a hot summer sun across Invalides and Eiffel Tower at Jardine.

Well I was planning to post about Amsterdam. We arrived after an overnight train from Prague, we caught the train at Duisburg after a long-transit which we spent on a café over croissant and caffe. We arrived around noon under a rainy and wet weather. The place we stayed is over 10-mins bus ride on bus 21 / tram 10 at Van Bossestraat road at Westerwerk neighbood to the west of the canal. We had lunch at Café Restaurant Amsterdam at the old gas station, now a stylish concept, where we had a taste of Amsterdam bitterballen and etc. We then walk around the city, I like Amsterdam. The city is orderly with lots of biker and relaxed, friendly, but efficient attitude.

Amsterdam Central train station

I Amsterdam sign Museumplein

Windmill

Lunch at Café Loetje Museumplein, Loetje burger veal croquettes

And Steak Bali

Cheese wheels at Albert Cuyp street market

Posing near Heineken Brewery

Belgium

We arrived for a short stay in Belgium, Brussels. Enroute, we travelled through the city from our arrival on ICE International train which departed at 7:50am from Amsterdam, reaching Brussels Noord close to 11. We then checked in at Crowne Plaza hotel that is formerly Le Palace hotel. It's opposite a garden called Botanique and just a stroll away from subway Rogier and a mall with Carrefour at the basement.

A really tasty lunch yesterday at Nuetnigenough. It's a place with really tasty and budget-price with high quality meal. We were curious about it's bipolar review on Yelp, people either hate it or love it, and apparently the place is famous for its beer selection. We had a tasty Confit duck with foie gras and a bed of potato mash (delicious and part of its recommendation) at Euro 21. We also had highly regarded beef stew (bro likes that) and Veal meatballs, both served with sides either Belgium fries (tasty!!) or potato vegetable puree (very comforting and yummy). I can't stay enough great things about this happy meal. In total we spend around 55.60 including a class of draft beer Rador from Dupont brewery served very cold.

Grand Budapest Hotel

Watched the magnificent Grand Budapest Hotel, the Wes Anderson's 2014 movie that is artistically fascinating with great cast like M. Gustave by Ralph Fiennes and Zero, the trusted lobby boy by Tony Revolori, and their adventure. Lovely, eye candy to watch, delightful in its wittiness, and entertaining.

I watched it during my short flight on Thai Airways TG404 to Bangkok, and continued that during my Saturday morning.

My top 10 goals for Europe

Stay in convent in Italy

Dine in Michelin-star restaurant

Montmatre at night in Paris

UNESCO Heritage sites

Colosseum in Italy at night

Gelato in Rome

Amarone vineyard near Venice

Biking near windmill village nearby Amsterdam

Mass in Vatican city

Expresso at Italian caffe

Gondola ride in Venice

Visit David at Accademia Firenze

Island hopping around Venice Isola

Dawn in Prague along Charles Bridge

Pilgrimage

Going to Rome and Vatican always hold a special meaning for a Catholic. I went through the virtual tour of Scavi tour, which is the tour on the underground passage to where St. Peter tomb where his body was laid to rest after his prosecution and the bedrock of the St Peter's Altar in the Vatican city.

It was really moving to feel the emotion and spiritual grief of his sacrifice and his faith at the same time. You can access the virtual tour in the Vatican's site here.

My race certificate

My Performance Series, Coney Island e-certificate is here... 10km 1hour and 34 mins. Not a record to be proud off... but still it is 11km according to mapmyrun :-)

My race certificate

Europe Plan

Planning Europe trip, and dragging Pa and Mom along with the planning. I have booked leave on Aug 1 thru Aug 16, so what's left right now is just the itinerary for the 18-days. We are not short of places to go, but we need to prioritize since it's my parents' first trip to Europe.

We have decided so far to skip Spain, Portugal, and Greece (sadly, but I vetoed the removal of Prague)!

We'll cover Singapore - Rome (2 nights) - Pisa/Florence - Venice (3 nights) - Salzburg/Vienna - Prague (3 nights) - Amsterdam (3 nights)- Brussels/Bruges - Paris (3 nights) - London plus interland travels. Red means travel day, Overnight

July 29 Friday night (SQ 366) 1:20 Singapore time - arriving Rome 07:55

Day 1 Rome check-in (2 nights), Colosseum, Italian dinner

Day 2 Vatican City

Day 3 Rome to Florence. (1 night)
Roma - Firenze 1:30 by Eurorail and Firenze - Venezia 


Day 4 Pisa, and Venice check-in (2 nights)
Train from Florence to Venice starts at 830am, taking 2 hours to reach Venezia St Lucia station.

Day 5 Venice

Day 6 Venice full day. Taking night train en-route to Prague via Vienna or Salzburg: 3 choices Thello (link) overnight train from Paris to Venice/Milan or Bernina Express (link) or ETR610 EuroCity train (link)

(1) Overnight train
Direct EuroNight sleeper train called the Venezia-Vienna Express leaves Venice Santa Lucia on the banks of the Grand Canal at 20:57, arriving at Vienna Hauptbahnhof at 07:55 next morning.

Thello serves Paris to Venice, Verona or Milan starts at €35 one-way in 6-berth couchettes, €55 in 4-berth couchettes, €152 in a 2-bed sleeper.

(2) Bernina Express
Morning Venice via Milan Centrale - Tirano - Chur - Zurich
Zurich to Chur costs CHF 38 (about £28) each way in 2nd class, CHF 63 (£47) in 1st class.  Fixed price, no reservation necessary, can be bought at the station.

Chur to Tirano by Bernina Express costs CHF 58 (£43) in 2nd class, CHF 96 (£71) in 1st class for the basic ticket, plus a reservation fee for the Bernina Express of CHF 9 (£7) in winter, CHF 12 (£9) in summer.  Reservation is required for the Bernina Express itself, although other trains on the same route do not require reservations.

Tirano to Milan by Trenord regional train costs €11.50 (£9) in 2nd class or around €17.50 (£14) in 1st class.  Fixed price, no reservation necessary, can easily be bought at the station. Check times at www.trenord.it.

• take one of the direct EuroCity trains from Cologne & Koblenz along the scenic Rhine Valley past the famous Lorelei Rock to Chur, from €39 booked at www.bahn.de.  

(3) One daily direct EuroCity train from Venice to Brig (change for Zermatt) and Geneva, leaving Venice Santa Lucia around 16:20 and arriving Geneva around 23:21

Day 7 Vienna, Prague (3 nights)
Overnight spending day in Vienna, taking afternoon train to Prague check-in
Prague: Sandeman' tour http://www.newpraguetours.com/daily-tours/new-prague-free-tour.html

Day 8 Prague
Nomadic Matt's travel blog for 4-days in Prague.

Day 9 Prague

Day 10 Prague check-out and taking sleeper train from Prague to Cologne
The City Night Line sleeper train Phoenix leaves Prague Hlavni every night at 18:27 and Dresden at 20:53, arriving at Duisburg Hbf at 06:09 and Cologne Hbf at 06:56 next morning.
Cologne to Prague or vice versa by City Night Line sleeper train starts at €43.50 in a seat, €60 with a couchette in a 5-berth compartment, €105 with a bed in a 2-bed sleeper, €135 with a bed in a 2-bed deluxe sleeper (all per person per bed), or from €145 with a bed in a single-bed sleeper.

For Amsterdam, get off in Duisburg and take the 07:12 InterCity train from Duisburg Hbf to Amsterdam Centraal arriving at 09:34.
Amsterdam or Brussels to Cologne or vice versa starts at €19 in 2nd class or €39 in 1st class.

Tu, 09.08.2016, 18:27
Praha hl.n. - Köln Hbf for 3 persons incl surcharge Euro 237

Day 11 Cologne (1 night)

Day 12 Amsterdam (2 nights)
Cologne to Amsterdam 3hrs train. Checkin

Day 13 Amsterdam

Day 14 Brussels / Bruges
Arrive in Paris for check-in 3 nights

Day 15 Paris

Day 16 Paris

Day 17 Paris

Day 18 London
London to Paris by Eurostar starts at £45 one-way or £69 return in 2nd class or from £110 one-way, £159 return in 1st class.

Day 19 London back to Singapore (SQ 317 11:25 arrive Singapore 07:30)