As usual we visited a few tourist attractions.  If you are an art-lover, I highly recommend you to visit the Picasso museum, La Sagrada Família and the Gaudi Park.  I am honestly not too excited about the works of Picasso as I think my artistic sense is not really up to that level, but I do like some of his works and bought a few postcards.

The La Sagrada Família is a church designed by Antoni Gaudi (1852-1926) and is still under construction.  It is truly an amazing design – blending nature, modern art, cryptic and biblical stories into the church building.  A picture is worth a thousand words – which I will post later.

The Gaudi Park features more of Gaudi’s works.  Magnificient is the only word that can describe them.

We also ate a lot, well, as usual.  There are 3 things I must try: Sangria, paella and the suckling hog.  I only knew there are other variations of paella when I arrived.  Apart from the traditional paella, we tried the paella cooked in squid ink and the paella in noodle instead of rice, named Fideua.  The paella in squid ink is our favourite.  I had Sangria with my meals every single day, and Doris was complaining that I talked too much when I drink.  Oops that sounds like my dad.

We had big problem finding restaurants serving the suckling hog.  Finally we found it in a traditional restaurant.  It was lucky we went early as there was a long queue when we left!  They also serve very well prepared fish and I must say all the food that they serve are truly stunning.  Although it was the most expensive meal we had for the whole trip, it well worths it.

We also tried a lot of tapas in the tapas bars and cafes.  Not all of them are nice, I must say, but generally they are tasty and make a good snack between meals.  Spanish usually have dinner after 9pm.  Spanish hams are also very famous and we had that for breakfast (!!) on the first day.

Our next ‘big’ trip is going to be Lisbon.  Before that, I seriously need some rest…

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

We happened to be visiting Holland on the coldest weekend of Europe.  It was very windy.  However it has such a nice scenary!  I especially like the houses along the canals.

There are a lot of bicycles in Amsterdam as it is well planned for cyclists.  This is a ‘bike park’ near the train station:

Bike park

As you can see it is full of bicycles.  If it was not that windy, we would have hired some bicycles and travel around.

View our photo album here

We have also visited Willeke’s place in Leiden.  Thank you for the lovely dinner!  And we also had a very nice chat.

Kat stayed in Leiden for 2 weeks as she was working in Willeke’s lab to gain some experience.  And hence we had a tour at the lab and the hospital (which was attached to the lab) and I have seen a lot of things which I have no idea about!

The trip was great fun and relaxing.

This time we travelled with Faith & Christy.  Surely, we had a very enjoyable and fun time!

Nice scenary, nice food, nice chats.

Amongst the 3 cities, I like Cannes the most.  It has the best scenary and very enjoyable walk-path by the beach.  Living in Switzerland, different from in NZ, causing us not having a chance to see the sea for a very long time!  And for the last 3 days, we have been walking along the beaches, smelling the smell of the ocean, feeling the breeze, walking on the sand…

Not to be missed are the nice seafood, wine, steak, cocktail, ice-cream…

We spent the last 1/2 hour in a beach-side restaurant drinking nice cocktail.  It was a pity that we had to rush to the airport.  It would be so great if we could sit there for only another 1/2 hour…

Unlike most of our trips, we didn’t bother to visit the tourist attractions.  We just have a relaxing weekend, walk around, lots of chats, eat eat eat, and I did some reading as well.

We visited a big toy store – 7 levels full of toys!  We bought 2 new Lego sets, which are basically board games built by Lego.  The set that I really wanted was out of stock   And by reading the catalogue, I found that there is another set that I want ….

We watched the “Dirty Dancing” musical and it was surprisingly good.  Love the dancing and the stage design – superb.  I give 8 out of 10.

We stayed at Mary’s place this time (thanks Mary) and as usual, we are being taken care of very well.

(Photos to be uploaded)

We met up with Elaine and had a big lunch.  The cafe that we went to was very crowded, and the food there wasn’t too special, hence we didn’t take much photos.  We had a nice cup of coffee / Chocolat Viennoise though.

We spent our afternoon visiting Victor Hugo’s apartment – which is now used as a small museum displaying things related to Victor Hugo.  Many people know about Victor Hugo because of Les Miserable.  In fact there were old posters of Les Miserable displayed, hence we took a few photos of them.

It was Elaine’s idea to visit the graveyard of Frederick Chopin and Edith Piaf (a very famous French singer).  It was a pity that we didn’t manage to reach Edith Piaf’s grave early enough, as it was a big slope to climb, and the graveyard was closing.

After the ‘mountain climbing’ we decided to head to the train station and have a quick dinner.  Well, it was quick but still not too quick.  We just didn’t have enough time for dessert before our train departs.

We decided to take train home instead of plane as we live very close to the train station, and the few hours that we spent on the train was a good sharing time.

It was a bit rush, but we had great fun in Paris with Elaine.  We hope we would visit Paris again very soon!  There are still heaps of places we did not manage to visit.  Anyway, our next trip is – Vienna!

And the other reason we must go there on Thursday is that we were planning to meet Elaine Ng there.  Elaine is traveling (yes she still is) Europe and her first stop was Paris.

When we arrived, we met at the lounge of the hotel and we were so happy to see her!

Our first stop was Louvre.  It is a very famous museum, yet big and glamourous.  There were a few famous pieces in the museum, including Mona Lisa by Da Vinci, The Weddng Feast at Cana, The Dying Slave, and La Venus de Milo. We had lunch at the museum cafe and continued touring until very late.

Then we walk along the Ave Des Champs-Elysees, where the major designer brand shops are located.  We weren’t too interested in LV but we actually found something much more attractive – Lancel.  I can say their products are not as expensive as LV, but of much higher quality.  It was a nice walk but a bit sunny – hence after taking photo of the Arc de Triomphe, we sat down and had afternoon tea.  Doris was trying to communicate with the waiter in French, and the waiter said “Bien Francaise!” to her.  That made her very happy!

At the evening Elaine brought us to the Latin area where we had a very nice dinner, with French red wine, of course!  We had a nice long chat.  When we arrived at the hotel, it has already passed 12!  We had a really nice sleep in the Best Western Hotel.  Thanks Doris for booking

We visited 4 places in UK – Manchester, Birmingham, Cambridge and London.

First Stop – Manchester

Wai Ching (Doris’ friend) picked us up from the airport.  We had lunch at her place with her husband, Dave, and her daughter, cutie Zoe.  Then they drove us to catch the bus to Manchester. We only spent one night in Manchester, but it was a relaxing evening.  Nice dinner (well, actually steak was a bit dry but not too bad) with nice French red wine. We also watched a movie in the comfy hotel room.  It was so nice to be able to relax.

The next day we walk around Manchester city.  And of course we started the day with a nice big breakfast.  Coffee was okay – of course never going to be as nice as Italy.  We arrived at Chinatown a bit too early and all shops were closed.

Second Stop – Birmingham

We took the bus back to Birmingham.  However, there was a traffic accident and hence all buses were late.  We ended up waiting for 2 hours for the bus to come   And it was really cold.  But anyway, thank God it finally arrived.

Wai Ching came and pick us up again.  It is so great that we can stay at her place.  Such comfy and warm feeling.

Again, we walked around in the Birmingham city.  The road system is very complicated indeed – giving us the excuse of getting lost about 2 million times.  The malls here are huge, but because it is the end-of-year sale, it is always crowded.  It was so crowded that people have to queue to get on the elevator!

Wai Ching also took us to the University of Birmingham to have a look.  There was a small lake and Zoe was feeding the ducks.  Nice place to study – if you are indoor.  It was just far too windy and cold.

During our stay we cooked for Wai Ching’s family for 2 evenings.  That’s the only things that we can offer.  Thanks for taking care of us

Third Stop – London & Cambridge

I met Chung in Sydney when he came over to travel.  Doris introduced him to me and we became friends.

And this time, it is my chance to annoy him hahaha… We stayed at his place for our whole London trip.  I must say he is such a professional tour guide.  We didn’t even have to take a map with us.  He just showed us around with routes well planned.  He even took us to the spot that we can take the best photos.

On New Year’s Day Chung drove us to Cambridge.  And because it is a public holiday, we can enter the colleges for free :p

Not sure if he is really moving to Beijing.  But if he is, then we can surely have an easy Beijing trip as well

I was so glad that I have the chance to have lunch with Scott.  It is always good to catch up with good friends.

Doris & I watched 2 musicals – We will Rock You & Les Miserables – and certainly makes our day.  As usual I would purchase the program.  And hell they know how to earn money – they have another booklet called ‘brochure’ and sold seperately.  The story line of We will Rock You is a bit dumb but it is a musical produced by Queen (the famous band) and Ben Elton.  Music was so good.  At the encore section the whole cast sung “Bohemian Rhapsody” and it was so great! And the guitar solo is just awesome! (FYI “Bohemian Rhapsody” is a song by the English rock band Queen. It was written by frontman Freddie Mercury for the band’s 1975 album A Night at the Opera.)

My second time watching Les Miserables, although it is Doris’ first time.  How lucky she is to watch such a magnificient musical in a theatre in London with the London cast!

To view more photos that I uploaded to facebook, visit here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=69704&l=1e09c&id=591917272

More photos on Doris’ Facebook profile:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=70343&id=647057650
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=70683&id=647057650
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=70851&id=647057650
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=71054&id=647057650

After that, we took the light rail to Odaiba – Ferris wheel, Fuji television building, rainbow bridge, Venus Fort shopping mall, etc. We also did a bit of shopping there . We also visited other districts like shinjuku, shibuya, Akihabara (where Leo bought his MODELS), etc and there are still many places we wanted to visit. We promise we will come back!

Our flight from Rome to Munich was delayed because of strong winds.  We were waiting at the Rome airport for more than 6 hours!  And of course we missed our connecting flight to Tokyo.  We were made to stay overnight in Munich.

Just outside the Munich airport there was a Christmas fair.  However, we have used up our Euro and hence we have no money to buy the famous German sausages We could only smell them. We had some bigger notes but we didn’t want to break them.

We got free accommodation and dinner at the Movenpick hotel. It was a very high class hotel.  We didn’t have much choice on the dinner though.  We could only choose between Thai curry chicken or Spaghetti.  And because we have been in Italy for 2 weeks, we had too much pasta and decided to go for the Thai chicken.  Hence, we had Thai food in a Swiss hotel in Germany

And early next morning, we got onto the flight to Tokyo.

Doris is clever again by choosing a hotel very close to the railway station. The host & hostess there are so nice. The hostess talked a lot about where we can go and what to do, along with a lot of free information booklet and maps. She even gave us a set of travel guide that costs them, for free. But we learnt that we have to get up early if we need to go somewhere, because every morning, we stood at the counter listening to her for at least 15 minutes.

Although it seems to be a messy place, Rome is actually quite well organized. Going to everywhere is easy as long as you have a map handy. Things here are not as cheap as the other places, but there are more things to look at. Sculptures, fountains… And of course shopping as well. However, our next stop was Tokyo, so we didn’t really buy a lot here. Doris and I both managed to get some shoes, which are really nice!

Talking about fountains, there was a famous one which the HK TVB has a shot here for the famous pilot drama serious. We were told that if we toss a coin in the fountain, we are very likely to go back to Rome again! Oops we went pass it about 5 times but never did. Well, Italy is surely a good place to visit again!

And since we are in Italy, of course we need to enjoy an Opera. Wrong… we never got the chance. We missed the famous Rigoletto by one whole week However, we managed to get some tickets for some Arias. It is actually Doris’ first time listening to operatic music, and she really likes it! The group performed a lot of famous pieces including La Donna Mobile, Habanera and other pieces from Carmen, pieces from marriage of figuro, Rigoletto etc. We both enjoyed the night very much!

Thanks to the hostess again, we were also pointed to 2 famous gelato places. One of them made the best Gelato and the other one has the most variety – hundreds of different Gelatos for you to choose from, can you imagine that? Only for chocolate, there were at least 20 different chocolate flavours. From the best gelato place, I especially like the pear sorbet and honey gelato. Highly recommended! If you are planning to go to Italy please make sure you get the address from me.

In Rome we have tried both cheap and expensive food. We bought pizza priced by weight instead of pieces. They are more like takeaway food in Rome. And don’t forget the Italian Coke – Chinoto. It is so nice and cheap. We got a bottle from the supermarket and finished it in no time. We spent our last evening of our Rome stop in a very nice restaurant. There we had the best spaghetti carbonara that we have ever tried.

Enough of food, of course we visited the famous Colossum and Vatican City. It can easily be identified how glorious Rome once was. The Colossum was a huge place. Surely there were a lot of great (/ violent) shows here before. But half of the Colossum was destroyed by fire. Sad.

We visited the Vatican City. As it was the most famous place, we were advised to go there early and queue as they only open for certain period of time. We started queuing at 7am at such a cold weather! We were told that the museum would be opened at 10am but luckily, we were allowed to get in at 9am. My advise is that if you are going to visit such places, it is better to join local tours because tours can go in before general public. Inside the museum there was the Sistine Chapel, which holds a lot of nice arts and crafts, including the famous “Creation of Adam”. I never did know it was actually painted on the ceiling!

We also wanted to visit the St Peter’s Chapel but we found out we had to queue for 4 hours under the sun. At that time we were already so tired (signs of getting old) and hence we decided only to take pictures outside. It was such a huge plaza anyway.

The Pantheon was also a famous place. It is quite funny that the building has a big hole at the ceiling. It was designed to let rain go into the building and drain away. There they displayed a lot of paintings. We took too many pictures.

There were many other places we visited in Rome…

Although tiring, our time spent in Rome was so enjoyable.