Europe

29 Days Europe Itinerary: Germany, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia and Italy (Part 1)

Published on July 17, 2010May 17, 2020 by MamaKENGLeave a comment

Day 1: Copenhagen to Berlin

We took a morning train at 9.45am and the entire journey was 6 hours 46 min. The train ride was pretty cool as we had to disembark to hop onto a ferry to cross the sea between Denmark and Germany. Stop over at Hamburg for a short while and by the time we reached Berlin, it was 4.31pm. As it was pretty late, we only explored the Alexander platz area before the shops closed at 7pm..

Day 2: Berlin

Joined a free walking tour and this was the best walking tour we ever joined so far! Lots of attractions covered and the guide was knowledgeable in her history of the wars.

Tour starts at Brandenburg gate, at Brandenburger tor station near the Starbucks. 11am, 1pm and I think 3/4pm. Daily whether rain or shine.

Day 3: Berlin

Visit to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp and East Side Gallery.

Walking through the gate that about 200 000 prisoners walked passed

It says “Work will set you free”

Day 4: Berlin to Prague, Old Town Square, Charles Bridge

Went along to Prague as my friend stayed on in Germany to visit her cousin. It was my first solo trip and I must admit I was pretty darn scared! But I soon realised travelling alone can mean lots of fun as it forces you to speak to the locals and fellow travellers more, gaining a different kind of experience.

Hello Prague! Some people are so friendly and kind to help me with my luggage and directions, seeing that I’m alone.

Randomly walking as I have no map and did not do any research beforehand

Managed to end up in the touristy old town square! Well done to myself!

The famous astronomical clock but under renovation.

Day 5: Free walking tour, Prague castle

With the 3 fellow Singaporeans I got to know from the hostel

Went up to Prague castle with Catriona as she happened to be in Prague as well. Thanks to her, she woke me up in time for my train ride!

Day 6: Prague to Vienna

Vienna, the capital of music!

Day 7: Vienna boy’s choir, Museum, Belvedere palace, Opera house

Such a small world, to have met the same people whom I met in Sweden!

Finally reunited with my friend!

Museum

Belvedere palace

Lunch break at cafe Mozart before we head over to Opera house.

Day 8: Vienna to Budapest, Chain Bridge, Mathias church, Fisherman’s Bastion

Budapest was a refreshing change from all the glorious magnificent cities.

Met these 2 Singaporeans at the train station! Nice
Finally! I can rest my brain and leave it to the guys on where to go!

Was just blindly following the guys, no idea where this is.

Saw some flooding…

Day 9: Free walking tour, Parliament, Market

The free walking tour brought us to the same places we went yesterday.

Walked to the Parliament after the tour but it was closed! What a pity! We walked really far to save on the transport cost!

Day 10: Budapest to Ljubljana (Slovenia)

We decided to go to Slovenia (it wasn’t on our itinerary initially) after hearing a lady from our hostel who raved highly about the Lake Bled.

Stopping by the market to grab some food for the train ride

Once we reached Slovenia Ljubljana, free walking tour as usual!

The guide was good as usual!

Dragon is the symbol of ljubljana!

See the little thingy on top of the hill? We’re gonna climb up there!

Ljubljana! A small quiet town

An elevator but of course we didn’t take it… Save money!

Day 11: Ljubljana to Lake Bled

It was pretty late when we reach Lake Bled so we just rested in the hostel.

Bled- Church island. So beautiful! I wish that my family was with me to witness such beauty…

Day 12: Lake Bled

The next day, we did some explorations.

A must try activity: cycle around Lake Bled!

We also rented a canoe and rowed to the Bled church!

At night, we couldn’t understand the local language and missed our train to Trento! We were planning to visit Verona! We were getting scared as there was no one we could ask, no wifi, no data, no roaming calls. We were stranded in the train station with two huge luggages. Ended up taking the next available train which is to Munich. The Italian guy we met we barely spoke English told us the massive train delay was due to World Cup, not because we missed it. He claimed that the Italians moved the balls instead of the trains. Haha!

Day 13: Munich

We reached Munich which wasn’t part of the plan but it turns out to be awesome!

We joined the walking tour and had really delicious pork knuckles. Watched the world cup while sipping some German beer with German sausages!

Day 14: Trento

Reached at 2pm and did not explore much as Trento was small. We had lots of free time on hand since Trento really has nothing to offer to us and it was pretty late to go Verona so we just played in the playground. Fun to watch the teens play football though.

A refreshing change from the big cities. Had a slow morning jog!

Stayed in Trento hostel and took day trip to Verona as Trento is cheaper than Verona.

Day 15: Trento to Verona

Verona Another historical Italian city. Oh I really love Italy! Always feel homely whenever I’m back there.

Bought a Venetian mask here instead of Venice as things were so marked up in Venice! Verona is much easier on the wallet.

29 Days Europe Itinerary: France, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium & Netherlands (Part 2)

Published on May 17, 2010May 17, 2020 by MamaKENGLeave a comment

Day 16: Milan

We planned for a trip to Barcelona but when we reached Verona station, we realised that there is no direct train to Barcelona! Not sure if it is due to the World Cup disruption again.

We have to top up 70 euros for the seat and could not use the Eurail pass we have. Hence we decided to take a regional train to Milan instead.

Since we have been to Milan before, we just took some random walk in the city and hop on to Ventimiglia. We slept at the train station in Ventimiglia and caught the 4.30am train to Monaco, preparing to continue to Barcelona.

Day 17: Cannes and Nice

Unexpectedly, there was a flood in Monaco. Thus there was no train to Barcelona! We can only stay on in Cannes! It didn’t help when the locals were speaking in French and we could not understand.

We explored Cannes for 2 hours before deciding to spend the night in Nice.

At Nice, we found that there is bus to Marseilla and from there we could go to Barcelona! However, we have already booked the hostel in Nice and decided to just forsake Barcelona.

Nice was good. We love strolling by the beach.

Day 18: Switzerland Interlaken

It was raining and cold throughout the entire Switzerland trip. We took the golden pass and the scenery was magnificent. Saw many grassland and beautiful houses on mountain top. However, halfway through our journey, we fell asleep as we were too exhausted!

Day 19: Switzerland Interlaken

Bought some watches before we head off to next destination.

Day 20: Frankfurt

Frankfurt was a random stopover day trip before we head off to Paris! We were deciding on a midpoint as travelling directly from Interlaken to Paris by train will take too long.

We decided to save the hostel fees by sleeping in the airport.

Exploring Frankfurt city which is pretty small and mostly commercial business district.

Day 21: Paris Moulin Rouge

Reached Paris late at night as we spent time locating our friend’s house. So we just explored the Moulin Rouge area.

Day 22: Paris walking tour

Day 23: Paris, Shopping at Champs Elysees

Caught evening sunset from the top of Eiffel

Day 24: Paris, Notre Dame, Lourve Museum

Day 25: Brussels walking tour

Joined a walking tour that brought us to the famous peeing boy statue.

Day 26: Brussels to Amsterdam

We wanted to visit the Atomium but decided to give it a miss as we were just too exhausted towards the end of the trip. We were randomly walking around the city, looking for good Belgium chocolates.

We were supposed to head to Amsterdam but we missed the last train so ended up sleeping in the airport… again! 😦

Day 27: Amsterdam, walking tour, red light district

Apparently in Amsterdam, guys can pee anywhere!

No photo-taking allowed and I think it is also good to respect the ladies who are working there.

Day 28: Rotterdam

Went to Rotterdam for some country sightseeing

Final shopping stop: Primark! Really cheap!

Day 29: Amsterdam to Copenhagen

After almost a month of travelling, we finally headed back to Copenhagen, our sweet hostel home. We had an awesome adventure but cannot wait to return to our hostel to have a good rest!

This shoe-string budget Europe trip is so memorable even in years to come.

7D6N UK Itinerary: London, Liverpool, Edinburgh

Published on April 15, 2010May 17, 2020 by MamaKENG1 Comment

London is my current favourite shopping city, and that’s because of Oxford Street and Portobello!

Topshop, River Island, Miss Selfridge, Miss Sixty, Primark, Marks & Spencer, H&M and so on……….

Day 1

We tried to find the Queen’s theatre because YL wanted to watch les miserables.

Meanwhile we found Chinatown!

Telephone booth in London, a must take photo!

Day 2

London’s weather is definitely weird. Drizzle, downpour, sunny. All in an hour.

Walked randomly and found another touristy place. London is good for random walk because there are so many touristy places.

The monument.

Tower hill

Tower Bridge.

London makes mefeel nolstagic…

London eye.

At night we went to Oxford Street!!!!! Although shops close at around 830-9pm, we still don’t have enough time to shop!

Day 3

Buckingham palace.

Victoria station.

Sloane street- the street full of designer goods!

Portobello! A street selling vintage stuff!

Day 4

Travel to Liverpool. Found the LFC official store!! Yippeeee! Will definitely not miss this store if not bro’s gonna kill me!

Wheel of Liverpool.

Day 5

More shopping and in the evening we went to Anfield!!

Day 6

To Edinburgh

We joined the free guided tour in Edinburgh with their recommendation. The guide was good! Really love his stories.

The guide told us many interesting stories and also about Harry Potter. JK Rowling is from Edinburgh and this was where she first wrote her book. At the window seat above the letter R. Edinburgh is a must go for Harry Potter fans!

The Edinburgh castle.

Day 7

We went to look for our NTU friends who were on exchange to Edinburgh.

Edingburh is a small city and we covered the whole town in a day!

5D4N Sweden Itinerary: Abisko Northern Lights (Aurora) and Stockholm

Published on March 23, 2010May 15, 2020 by MamaKENGLeave a comment

Day 1

With our backpacks, we are ready to explore Arctic Circle! Ironically, we didn’t know the place we’re going is already in Arctic Circle!

After 5 hours from Copenhagen, we reached Stockholm (capital of Sweden) central station.

Our 2nd Burger King meal. Because it’s one of the cheapest in Sweden! But we really felt so unhealthy because we didn’t eat much vege and fruits in Denmark. And now in Sweden we have limited water supply. We cant refill in toilet like in Denmark because the toilets in Sweden are ridiculously expensive! SGD2!

From Stockholm, we boarded a night train to Abisko.

Because our night train was delayed for 1 and half hour, we got a complimentary sandwich and drink for our next train to Abisko!

Day 2

Finally reached Abisko! After such a long ride!

Our room. I booked a 6 bed bunk but the owner was nice enough to give us 2 beds room to ourselves while still charging us the 6 bed’s rate.

Kitchen. For this price that we paid, like 30SGD per night, it’s actually very good. Especially in such a far North place!

And we’re back to childhood times!

Abisko, paradise on Earth.

We are 2 proud Singaporeans!

The sky that I saw while lying on the frozen lake.

We suddenly wanted to ski on the frozen lake! So we rushed back to hostel and get our ski equipment!

First time skiing!

And then we caught the Northern Light! So touched! Although it was not as spectacular as the night before which we missed. Our trip was not wasted! But I know I can’t capture it on my lousy camera so I just stored it in my memory =)

Way back home after Northern Light adventure.

It was snowing. Abisko was the place where we last saw snow.

Day 3

We decided to go for dog sled despite the ridiculous high price because so many people kept saying “YOU MUST GO. IT’s SO GOOD”. It’s 200SGD for less than an hour of dog sled session.

We travelled to Björkliden for the dog sled. Our hostel actually offers a dog sled package for only 900SEK but it was fully booked!

You can see the word Narvik on the screen if you zoomed in. Narvik is in Norway and if we just board the train for another like 10-20 min, we’d reach Norway!

Everywhere looks so beautiful. Stunning.

Can you see a U-shaped between 2 mountains? That’s the legendary lapp-gate. Apparently, it’s very well-known to the Swedish.

These dogs are big and looked fierce but they are very friendly!

Dog sled tour.

The guides and the dogs brought us to the mountain top and the view was AMAZING.

The sun was fabulous!

We saw some good location to ski in Björkliden and we wanted to come back tomorrow to ski but because we missed the train so we ended up skiing in Abisko, just outside our hostel. It wasn’t bad.

After the ski, we decided since we have some time we shall go find that National park and the legendary frozen waterfall!

Without any map nor people to ask, we embarked on our adventure! We decided to walk along the highway even though the hostel lady advised us never to walk on highway because the cars are very fast. There wasn’t any public transport too.

The highway with cars driving passed us at 300km/h! We feared for our life whenever big trucks drove pass us.

After 40-50 minutes of walk, we finally reached National park!

And this is the legendary frozen waterfall. We were amazed how the cold get freeze the running waterfall at that moment.

And that marks the end of our Arctic Circle trip. Stockholm tomorrow!

Day 4

Stockholm

Stockholm is more vibrant than Copenhagen! I think not many people come to Denmark because

1) Tax is high so things are so so expensive

2) Nothing much in Denmark.

Sunday is a dead town in Copenhagen as nothing is opened except for museums and restaurants. Even supermarkets are closed. But still Copenhagen is a nice place to live in. People are really nice!