Europe Part3 - London

This is really a long overdued post, almost 6 weeks after I came back from Europe! Well if u have missed the previous posts about Paris & Rome, you may wanna check out Europe Part1 - Paris and Europe Part2 - Rome.

London was our last stop of the 2-weeks Europe trip. We arrived on 26 Sept and had our fun-filled 4 days in London! Actually...on 26th which was the day when we touched down, it wasnt as fun-filled coz both hubby & I were exhausted from the travelling, so we just settled ourselves into the hotel we booked in King's Cross, and then came out for a nice fish & chips dinner early, and rested the whole night so we can enjoy the rest of the days in London. BTW I must also say, the weather in London is pretty cold!

On 27th, we started our day with a great English Big Breakfast, then we took the Underground to our first destination - Big Ben & Houses of Parliament. It was AWESOME! And apparently "Big Ben" does not refer to the whole clocktower, but to the huge thirteen ton bell that strikes the hour. Attached with the clocktower is The Houses of Parliament which incorporates The House of Commons and The House of Lords & Westminster Hall. And this whole place including the Big Ben is also known as The Palace of Westminster.

Opposite the road not too far away from Big Ben is the famous British Airways London Eye! It was opened to public since March 2000, rising high above London's skyline at 135 metres, making it one of the tallest observation wheels in the world. I'll leave the pic to the end since we went back for the ride on 3rd day night and took some awesome pics of its night view...

Then we went on to visit the Tower Bridge, stood over the River Thames in London since 1894. It has become an iconic symbol of London and is sometimes mistakenly called London Bridge, though London Bridge is in fact the next bridge upstream and it's really very "normal" looking! haha! Tower Bridge is a combined bascule and suspension bridge, and I must say this is really a magnificent architecture.

After that, we walked to the Tower of London which has lots of hystory behind it and I'm not gonna put them down here...On the same day, we also visited the National Art Gallery and took some pictures at the Nelson's Column.

On 28th, we first went to the elegant buildings of Horse Guards, which were built in 1755 and was the original main entrance to the Buckingham Palace. The Changing of Guard took place at 10.30am that morning and those guards with their uniform riding on the horses were truely gorgeous! But we did not manage to watch the entire exchange process coz we rushed over to the Buckingham Palace through the famous St. Jame's Park, to witness the Changing of Guard parade over there at 11am!

Buckingham Palace is the official London residence of The Queen. During the Change of Guard parade, The New Guard marches to the Palace from Wellington Barracks with a Guards band, the Old Guard hands over in a ceremony during which the sentries are changed and then returns to barracks. The New Guard then marches to St James's Palace leaving the detachment at Buckingham Palace.

By the time we finished witnessing the awesome parade, it was drizzling...dem! So we have to take a bus to somewhere indoor, which we decided on Harrods! When we got there, the splendid appearance of this luxury shopping mall really amazed me! And one thing I must mention about Harrods is its "BY APPOINTMENT" shopping experience - a truly bespoke Personal Shopping heaven offering an unrivalled luxurious service that is rare, stylish and indulgent.

After Harrods, the rain stopped, we then went to the Chinatown, close to Leicester Square. Frankly there was really nothing much there and I just cant wait for our flight on London Eye which we planned for that night. After dinner, we went to get our tickets & there we went on the last flight, enjoyed the beautiful night view of London city!

On 29th which was the our last full-day in London, we did only 1 thing - SHOPPING & SHOPPING! We were mainly shopping at Bond Street, Oxford Circus & Regent Street. The shopping experience was just amazing! I was overwhelmed by the sales going on in NEXT, Dorothy Perkins etc, and baby clothings in Mothercare, Marks & Spencers were just so much cheaper than here!

**I definitely look forward to another trip to Europe!

Europe Part2 - About Rome!

Firstly before I start writing about Rome, just wanted to provide some updates regarding my mum...Thanx for all your prayers, she's all well and the biopsy test result was finally out - nothing harmful..."PHEW"

Visiting Rome has always been one of My dreams, so I was really excited as we landed in Rome Fiumicino Airport on 21 Sept, around 1pm. Since we were in Rome for 5 days 4 nights, we have been to almost all the tourist spots and I figured that if I were to write every single details down, this post will probably get too lengthy...so, I'll just summarize it and share some photos with u!

Before I start talking about visiting places, I must say:"I really really love the varieties of Italian pasta available in Rome and the fantastic thin crust pizza there! I totally fell in love with them!" We tried Rotelle, Ravioli, Tortellini, Risoto, Fusilli, Rigatoni and ofcoz Spaghetti and many types of pizza. Personally my favourite pasta is still Tortellini, which I have never had in Malaysia...

On day 1, we only have time to cover Fontana di Trevi (photo below) and Piazza Barberini.

On day 2, we started our day really early at Circo Massimo (Circus Maximus) which is an oval basin, nearly 600 meters long, was once a race track which could hold up to 200,000 spectators. Then we went across the street to The Palatino (The Platine Hill), which was the first nucleus of city life in ancient Rome and thereafter became the Imperial Headquarters.

From there, we walked through the Arco di Costantino (Arch of Constantine) which is situated between the Colosseum and the Palatine Hill, built after Emperor Constantin's victory on October 28 in 312AD.

As we walked down the path, I was amazed when I saw the Colosseo (Colosseum) in front of me! I must say, this is really one of the greatest works of Roman architecture and engineering...Its construction started between 70 and 72 AD, and was completed in 80 AD. Originally capable of seating around 50,000 spectators, the Colosseum was used for gladiatorial contests.

After Colossuem, we went to the magnificent Pantheon, originally built as a temple to the seven deities of the seven planets in the state religion of Ancient Rome but later consecrated as a Catholic Church. The building's dome, more than 43 meters high is most impressive. At the top of the dome is a large opening, the oculus, which was the only source of light.

On day 3, we first went to the famous Sunday Flea Market in Porta Portese. Fantastic shopping and great bargain!!!

Then after a late lunch, we went to Basilica di San Pietro (St. Peter's Basilica) in Vaticano (Vatican City). I believe this impressive building is the largest church in the world, with capacity of over 60,000 people. Near the entrance of the Basilica, there were few famous Swiss guards in their uniform...The interior of the building is just amazing...

On Day 4, we went to San Giovanni, visited the Basilica of San Giovanni, and did some shopping in that area too. Basically this is like our shopping day...so after S. Giovanni, we also went to Piazza Venezia & Piazza Navona. Ofcoz we also shopped at the famous Via del Corso and took picture at the Spanish steps.

Day 5 is when we took our flight to London at night, so we only had limited time in Rome...There is this one important spot which we have not covered so far and we left it to the last day - Foro Romano (The Roman Forum). The site looks like a disorderly collection of ruins to the uninitiated...including temples, basilicas, arches, senate house, law courts and others. The Forum was the marketplace of Rome and also the business district and civic center.

Europe Part1 - About Paris...

On 19th Sept, 6.30am, our flight arrived in Paris Charles de Gaulle International Airport. Hubby has been to Paris so he wasnt as excited as me. Despite of the tiring flight journey, I was all excited & ready to see "Paris"!

After we checked out from the airport, we went straight to check-in to Tim Hotel where we have made prior reservation. Then at 10.30am, we started our "day" at Champs Elysées...We passed by the HUGE Louis Vuitton (LV) shop and we went in ofcoz! Next is the Arc de Triomphe, 50 meters tall and 45 meters wide awesome looking arch, which construction on the Arch began in 1806, restarted in 1825, and was not finished until 1836.

At 11.30am, we arrived at the great giant monument of Paris - The Eiffel Tower! This amazing 320 meters high structure was built for the International Exhibition of Paris of 1889 commemorating the centenary of the French Revolution. The tower has 3 main levels where the first level has the post office, restaurant, cafe and souvenier shop. The second level is mainly the viewing terrace and then the top level is the office and viewing terrace too. Looking down at Paris from the Eiffel Tower is really awesome! And I must say...this is truely an architecture to be appreciated. See some of these pics i've taken...

After lunch, we went to The Louvre Museum. The building itself is 800 years old, and the treasures within it represent centuries of priceless works of art. The highlight ofcoz is the visit to see the original Mona Lisa painting by Leonardo da Vinci. Many people including myself, also stand to marvel the 20 years old pyramid outside the Louvre Museum.

Hubby & I were all tired after the whole day of walking (non-stop), so we went for dinner & we tried Ratatouille! It was delicious but the presentation was really different from the one we saw in the cartoon though...haha! And u know what? We forgot to even take a pic of it!! dem...

On the next day, Notre Dame was our first stop. Constructed in three stages, the cathedral was completed in 1250. This is really one of the most outstanding church I've ever been (since I havent been to Rome, if u know what I mean...haha). The yellowish pic is the architecture model of Notre Dame.

After Notre Dame, we went up the hill of Montmartre to visit The Sacré-Cœur Basilica (Basilica of the Sacred Heart), which was constructed in completion in 1914. From in front of the Basilica, you can actually see the whole city of Paris, which was really an awesome view... This Basilica is not really one of the most famour tourist spot in Paris, but we decided to pay a visit since it's situated at the highest point of the city!

In the late afternoon, we finally had some time for shopping at the Galeries Lafayette! And then we went back to Eiffel Tower again to have a night view of the impressive architecture. Lucky us, while enjoying the view and eating crepe, the spotlight went on so I took this picture...

This is a rather long post coz I wanted to write down those details while I can still remember them fresh in my head...so when I read this some long time later in the future, I would be able to remember the experience clearly...

Trip to Japan - Kobe, Osaka & Kyoto

Over lunch while talking about some places where we have been travelling to, reminded me of my trip to Japan with my hubby 2 years ago....how time flies!

One of the colleagues was saying she may be going to Japan end of this year and was asking me for some interesting places that she MUST go to. I realise...shucks! I've forgotten many of those places' name! So I told myself, I have to blog it down before i totally forget about the whole trip, haha!

We covered 3 cities in Japan - Kobe, Osaka & Kyoto.

Oh...reminds me of the FANTASTIC Kobe beef experience - the BEST beef I've ever had in my whole life! It melts in your mouth, trust me! And I was lucky to have a chance to try Kone beef in different types of cooking - Tepanyaki & Sukiyaki. I personally LOVE Tepanyaki by far more than Sukiyaki....Besides Kobe beef, this is how Kobe looks like at night :

Kyoto is a city full of history...Famous tourist spots we went to included : Kiyomizu-dera Temple, Kyoto Palace, Ginkaku-ji, Nijo-jo Castle and Kinkaku-ji Temple. Some pictures taken as below :

Oh before i forget, there's this place which I would think is seriously a MUST-GO : the Japanese On-sen (Hot spring). This is my first time entering an On-sen and I got a culture shock! Hahaha! Ofcoz the male is seperated from the female area...And there are just many many types of hot spring, some even open-air! I truely enjoyed the experience and this is the On-sen we went to (One of the best Japan) ...

Alright, so that's really summary of Kyoto & Kobe...now OSAKA! Shopping is soooo good in Osaka! We were staying in Dotonburi (not sure if I got the spelling right) and it's near Shinsaibashi with whole lot of shoppings! Besides that, we also visited the Osaka Castle & the Umeda Sky Tower, check out the photos...One very special thing about this Umeda Sky Tower is the floating garden which worth a visit...