Blogs from Europe - page 11341

Just one day after coming back from Croatia, I went to Vienna to visit my dear friend Dani and Tito. We stayed in a city not too far from Vienna called Sooss/Sooß . On the following day we did the usual sightseeing tour across Vienna. We went to Schonbrunn Palace and spent most of the day there. They say that the castle was an imitation of Versailles, but the king run out of money and never managed to make it look as beautiful as the French Palace. We also walked in the town center stopping by the cathedral, which is very impressive. At that night we had some family gathering where I had the chance to try plenty of Viennese dishes, starting with a knoblauch crème supp emit weirsbrot croutons und obershaube, followed by Tafelspitz ... read more

To make our trip to Kilkenny a little more interesting, Iz and I decided to stop off at a couple of sight-seeing points along the way. It wasn’t too long a drive to our final destination, so we could afford to take some time out from our fairly busy schedule. Our first stop was only 30-40 mins from Cork - the Mitchelstown Caves - one of Europe’s major show caves - according to their brochure. We were a little unsure of this when we rocked up - in a tiny car park in front of a dingy country house - and our opinion didn’t improve when we headed up the long drive and into a tiny shack to wait for our guide. First impression were definitely wrong - and as we entered the tiny dwarves door ... read more

We woke up this morning at anchor in the caldera at Santorini, Greece. After going up the wrong set of elevators, we decided to eat breakfast at the Aqua Spa instead of the main restaurant - fewer people, healthier food - all round, a good mistake! Because we were getting ashore via tender boats, we had to get our tender tickets in the theatre - we picked up our tickets and were on tender #3 - and #2 had just left. Our timing was great! The tender boat dropped us at the very small port at the bottom of a very steep cliff. We had the choice of taking the gondola up the cliff, riding a donkey up the switch-back path, or walking (sharing the path with the donkeys.) We chose a 1-way ticket up on ... read more

The first realisation that we're in Paris was when we caught a glimpse of Eiffel Tower and its rotating light at the tip. Wow... dunno why but started to have goosebumps, I'm seeing the real Eiffel Tower, no just the postcard. Spent the next day exploring the Eiffel Tower. But somehow the romantic feel of the Eiffel Tower that I had the previous day simply disappeared, largely due to the long snaking queues waiting to get up the tower. We chose to walk up the first half of the tower instead of taking the "cable car", partly to really discover the magnificence of the tower, partly to save money. What's a few storeys? Like Vertical Marathon only mah. Manage to capture a good view of the cityscape. Buildings mostly low-rise, keeping the classical European and Beaux-Arts ... read more

After leaving Brugge I headed up to Amsterdam. This should have been a nice easy jump on a train and go. I did not need a reservation or anything. Well I ended up jumping on the wrong train and I went to Antwerpen instead of Amsterdam. That wasn't too bad because Antwerpen has a beatiful old looking train station. They also had frequent trains running too and from Amsterdam so I just jumped on the next train and was in the real city of sin in no time. I was plenty forewarned about Amsterdam so I knew all the scams and what to stay away from, but there is a little bit of uneasyness when the first guy comes up from behind you and whispers in your ear "Coke? Ecstacy?" Um, no thanks. I don't want ... read more