Glimpse of Europe
came back from Europe on monday evening.... was a very very tiring trip but still had loads of fun...went on a tour of France, Switzerland, Germany and Netherlands...
Left malaysia on june 2nd...flight was at 11pm... was such a loooooong flight approx 13 hours....thank God for inflight entertainment...haha...watched Hitch and Sepet before falling asleep..reached Heathrow airport (the most busiest airport in the world...as we were driving away u can see planes coming in for landing at intervals of less than a min) at 5am local time.... my uncle and aunt fetched us from the airport back to their house.....was pretty surprised to find sooo many and i mean SO MANY asians in london... if you didn't know any better at certain areas you would have thought you were in an asian country and the whites were foreigners....had breakfast in my uncles place, then round noon my uncle took us to see the sights.... went to windsor castle and then went shopping for souvenirs and stuff.....the next day we went sight seeing in town....went to Westminster abbey, Westminster, Scotland yard, saint James park, buckingham palace and harrods....later at night went out with my cousins for a game of pool... oh btw in europe the sun rises at 4-4.30am and sets at 10.30-11pm .....the next day we had to leave for the tour which leaves at 6am...from london town we took a transfer coach to Dover where we boarded the ferry to cross the english channel into France...
The ferry ride was about 11/2 hours...ferry stop was at Callai (spelling may be wrong :p) ...then was another 4 hours bus ride to Paris....after checking into the hotel we went on what the tour director called an introduction to Paris (pronounced Pari )...basically looked out the bus window as we drove through town....at night we went for a cruise along the River Sine...when we finished the cruise..just as we were getting of the boat the Eiffel Tower started sparkling...such a breathtaking sight....later drove to town agn ... paris looks magnificent at night...truly different and spectacular.....the next morning we went up the Eiffel Tower...great view of the city from the top ..after that we went to mountmough (really not sure of the spelling for this place)...its a mountain at the top there is a square where artist come and paint or draw or sell their paintings..then was on to the lourve (pronounced louve).... gosh the place is HUGE...according to the tour guide it takes 5 months to see every single piece of artwork there...she showed us the place where the DaVinci's Code takes place.... saw the mona lisa, venus de milo, coronation of napoleon and many many more artworks...very educational experience...haha....at night was the moulin rouge...amazing performance...hard to put to words though....next morning was back on the bus....
next destination was switzerland... the bus ride from paris to Lucerne took 10 hours..... at lucerne we went to the lion monument...its a statue of a lion with a spear in its back carved into the side of a cliff over a lake in memory of the soldier that died during WWI .....the next day we went for a cruise (lots of cruises on this tour) on Lake Lucerne....was nearly frozen by the time it ended..then went up a mountain...i thought the lake was cold...geez nearly froze up the mountain ... but the scenery was stunning... mountain peaks covered in snow...and we can hike around the mountain peak....took about 30 mins to make a complete round...lunch was at a restaurant where they had traditional folklore show...was very interesting (unlike our folklore which i find puts me to sleep *snore*)....oh my dad got called up to yodel...and we found out that my dad cant yodel to save his life.... gosh....after the yodelling all those who yodeled had to drink beer from this huge glass goblet...and while they drank the singer sang a song from their country...i was shocked when she started singing Rasa Sayang when my dad was drinking..she even sang a chinese song for this guy from china...hebat man.... rest of the day was spent walking round shopping for souvenirs and eating ice cream *yummmm*
Then was off to Germany..... passed through the Black Forest.... made a pit stop at a cuckoo clock making place ..hehe... the whole side of the building was a huge functional cuckoo clock ...watched a demo on how they make the clocks..... went to Cologne and checked in to the hotel....the next morning went for yet another cruise along the Rhine River...saw lots and lots of castles....haha...i found germany quite boring personally ... nothing much there...except that the hotel we stayed in was quite nice ....
The next day was on to Netherland a.k.a Holland.....we stayed in amsterdam...went for yet another cruise along the canals....was quite interesting seeing all the boathouses...some of the ppl staying in the boathouses were really friendly as well...waved to us as we passed by .....another interesting eye-opening experience (literally ..hahaha) was our walk through the red light district......gosh its like window shopping, honestly....they are all in little private rooms that have a big glass window in the front (if the curtains are closed means they are busy)....the tour director said the oldest women working there is 74 yrs old...gosh .....they even have live sex shows (they make the outside look like its a cinema...only instead of movie posters u have pornographic pics) and sex shops and a few soft drug shops selling drugs and drug paraphanilia....but amsterdam is really kind off a dirty place in my opinion ... they even have public open air urinals for guys .... lol ....that whole area smells like urine all the time.... gross...
next day was back to callai and then back to london .....the ppl on the tour were really friendly and interesting ....stayed overnight at my uncles place....had bbq for lunch .... and caught the night flight back home ....the flight back wasnt as long ...only 10 1/2 hours...watched robots and constantine this time around....all in all was a wonderfull experience.....quite an expensive one as well....hehe used RM100 worth of credit ;) ......next trip... KOREA..yay!!!
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