about:blank: Spending Euros

Excerpts from my Memoirs of a Tourist:

Day 1:
Bearable 12 hour flight flew by pleasant enough. 3 movies & lots of sitcoms to numb the ride. Landed in Frankfurt's mini airport with scary brusque immigration officers. One day I'm going to get one of those stylish winter jackets these tall tall women are wearing.

10 degrees Celcius is perfect weather. Highway looked like a horror movie setting with its bare tree branches. Everywhere is Audi, Mercedes & Volkswagen. Ended up in a tiny neighbourhood hotel after passing industrialized areas. Teeny tiny elevators with elevator music. Like those movies where the bad guys listen before they charge out again.

Funky lights in our first hotel room.

Day 2:
Shop shop shop at Wertheim Village's factory outlets. Jay's little crush on Angelica from our tour group. Our bus driver doubles as a translator since our tour guide's a little rusty in this business.

Seems everybody only drinks sparkling water which comes in medium & hard (measure of sparkliness?) but fortunately also in natural. The servers in the little restaurants we eat in all carry cash pouches for coin change. Tried a little light beer with Sprite in it.

Spent the night in a different hotel with ye olden days decor. I suspect the humongous flush buttons in all their loos reduce the mechanical strength needed to press. Petrol kiosk toilets even clean themselves; of course a 50 cent coupon's the fee.

Jaydon has a cruuuush.

Day 3:
Boy, red pants are all the rage. Visit to Tisidee, near the Blackforest, named after its dense dark trees. It rained and hailed ice pellets. Felt the beginnings of frostbite (I exaggerate). Unpredictable weather with sporadic gorgeous snowfall.

Strong winds and pelting ice

Both families bought cuckoo clocks. Dad's are part of our inheritance someday, he says. Butter fish, pork knuckle and venison noodle for lunch rounded off with the bestest, moistest, fluffiest Blackforest cake with a delicious berry on top.

This little guy eats dumplings when the clock strikes the hour. Cuckoo!

Rheinfall in Switzerland, land of Swiss knives, St Bernards and where Dad hoped to meet Roger Federer.

Rheinfall

Lucerne: The first romantic city I've been in. Gorgeous old buildings interconnected by paved alleys. Love how every building is unique. Posh shops.

Streets are empty by 6pm+ in Lucerne

In the center was a square with tents selling really creative art like pretty stained ornaments, recycled tin turned into cutesy toys and wooden carved barns and figurines. The buildings were decorated all over with murals. Water fountains. Sigh.

Pretty painted windows

Day 4:
Switzerland is completely surrounded by snowcapped mountains, like the defining backdrop of the country. Beyond breathtaking. Up Mount Titlis we went.

Cable car base

Got our Rolex spoon at Bucherer. Felt like the awful tourists we were, in and out a 1000 times but no purchases, but they were so nice. Then shopping back at Lucerne streets till the shops shut at 6.30pm. Ended with a family dinner in the hotel rooms with supermarket food.

Day 5:
Visited the King's castle in Vaduz, Liechtenstein.

Followed by Neuschwanstein castle, the New Swan castle that Disney copied. King Ludwig built it as a tribute to Wagner. Poor Ludwig died at 40 after being declared insane. The castle had incredible paintings and a huge mosaic floor but the rooms were mostly unfinished, only 16+ were done by the time of his death.

Went onto the bridge that overlooked the castle, over this deep ravine. Poor Mama huffed and puffed the whole walk up to the castle. Darkness was falling so fast and it rained the whole trip.

Neuschwanstein up close

Down to Innsbruck, Austria. Chinese dinner at a sushi bar run by a Taiwanese lady who was so excited to see fellow Asians who could speak some Mandarin. Local people just kept staring everywhere we went.

Throughout the trip, our bedtime got earlier & earlier. It started at midnight, the next day 11pm, then 10pm up to a point it was 7.30pm and Adelia was already showered and asking if it was time to sleep.

Day 6:
Dad, self proclaimed Reaper of Innsbruck was the hero of the day. Found Jay's Mickey in a trashcan after retracing our entire route few times. He named himself that after roaming the streets last night like a vagrant fisherman.

Posing by the streets in Innsbruck

Got lots of Swarovski jewellery.

Swarovski has some funky landscaping

Got a glimpse of the Olympic ski stadium. Lian-ee made a deal to get a free ticket in with the stadium keeper. He was mighty impressed with her audacity and said, 'I will definitely remember you, Ms Li from Singapore' to which she replied, ' And I will remember YOU from HERE! Hokkaido!', jabbing at his Hokkaido badge.

On to Salzburg, birthplace of Mozart. No time for Sound of Music locations or the saltmines, partly due to our inexperienced tour guide. Back to Munich.

Day 7:
To the old and new town halls in Munich. Gargoyles and other ancient statues in the old building.

Old town hall in Munich

Rothenburg, little old medieval city enclosed by walls. Just one long stretch of road of houses ending in the market square. Huge Christmas ornament shop which Lian-ee spent an hour in while we wandered the streets. Love how they sell you drinks in a mug and you get to keep the mug or refund it.

Day 8:
Heidelberg Christmas market. Little trinkets like every other town but lots of food. Hot wine concoction. Sausages 3 times the length of their buns. Crepes. Yummylicious beef burgers. Awesome fried mushrooms. Lots of different doggies trotting around due to the dog photoshoot. One hugongous dog on all fours was the height of Jaydon. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!