frankfurt on my own

Main River in Frankfurt... there was a fun fair here, so it was especially crowded and festive...


a hen's party (this is a tradition that the frankfurt people observe - about a week before a wedding, the bride's friends get together and throw a party for the bride... the bride is paraded in the streets, with the entire party wearing pointy hats... and the bride has to sell stuff to strangers to raise money to pay for the entire group's night out! this is a v friendly bunch of pp as u can see... :-)


my attempt at art and museums... just thought this looked quite cool...

took this picture at the goethe museum... not sure i understand even a tenth of what the museum was trying to say... the explanations were mostly in german and very brief...

spotted this outside the musuem... a donald duck spoof of the original... was very amused by this...

my lunch... cheap and good fish and chips... by cheap, i mean 4euros... which is like the cheapest meal i probably had in a week... happy... :-)

ok, gonna head to london now... likely to be heading to edinburgh tomorrow morning...

cheers!

new horizons and opportunities

in frankfurt... guess how old she is?


79 years old and so independent... wow! :-)



enthusiastically biting into his fish burger at the frankfurt city centre...

friendly germans who helped me translate for my fish and chips order...

turkish woman at rothenburg...

it really makes my day when the elderly people literally light up when they realise that someone is interested in taking their photo...

germany is an advanced country... on my berlin tour, the walkabout guide took us through a train station that hitler designed... hilter?! that's in 1930+... and singapore was still debating whether we really need a train station in the 1980s... that really stretched my mind: are we like 50+ years behind germany??

think there's so much we can learn from the advanced countries in europe... their poor people and their elderly seem more mobile and have more spending power than asians too... their trains run very efficiently and on time across almost all european countries... and the lives of their middle classes appear more leisurely than the hectic singaporean lifestyle... and their heritage and culture is so rich! plus there is real diversity and seeming acceptance in germany at least (the cities are pretty cosmopolitan, with many ethnic groups working there)... how did they do this?

of course, there are flaws in the system, etc, etc... but still pretty much worth learning...

btw, i thought of a cool and meaningful retirement career for dad and mum... tell u when i'm back! :-)

frankfurt

yep, my colleague just left on the train to catch her plane back and i'm sitting at an internet cafe typing this... feels quite free, with nearly 2 days to explore a new city on my own... 1st stop after this will be to find a decently priced and safe hotel to stay in for the night (which shouldn't be a problem, so no worries)... then i'll go explore the city later (already did a quick round of the city centre romer area main sights earlier this morning: the cathedral was really big and inspiring!)

oh ya, and i had a really expensive breakfast at the hotel i was staying in this morning: s$30! can eat buffet dinner back home already lor... so the cheapskate me packed lunch from the buffet too... haha... 2 pieces of bread thingy... and ketchup...

dunno what's with internet cafes here, they lock up the CPU so i can't access the usb ports and so therefore can't upload pictures... the pictures are nice! think i took more than 1000+ photos so far on the trip... had a minor scare yesterday cos all 4 batteries went dead at the same time even tho i certainly did charge them... but the batteries seem ok today... oh well... hope they remain ok...

anw, i'll be in london by tomorrow evening, YJ will pick me up at paddington train station so should be quite safe too...

dad, mum and wen, if u want any thing in particular from here, do sms me... mum, i tried to get a souviner from each city/town that i travelled to but it's getting a bit repetitious... they are all starting to look quite the same (eg. 2 t-shirts, 2-magnets, some postcards, etc), especially in the tourist areas... so i'll probably only buy the more distinctive stuff from now)... wen, i heard from huifang that longchamp bags here are cheaper than in singapore, will try to get u 1 if i see... what colour u want?

ok, update again when i manage to find a computer that can post pictures... cheers! :-)

reutte and rothenburg

at a delightful little medival town called rothenburg now (alot of well preserved old or reconstructed-to-look-old buildings)... it's a great place to just chill and walk along the alleys and shops, and sit down at the cafes around when tired...

came from reutte, an austrian border town... because both austria and germany are part of the EU which does not have border controls, i got no extra passport chop crossing over to reutte... in fact, there wasn't even border control! quite an interesting experince... reutte was a slow-paced town, with v nice mountains on most sides, and it was a good break from all the hectic travelling...

after leaving reutte, did a quick city tour of munich yesterday, exploring rothenburg now and will end up back in frankfurt tonight... will be staying in frankfurt for the next 2 days, so hopefully will be able to find proper internet access to blog more (i'm using the free 15-min access at the local tourist information office now, and this computer does not allow photos upload)...

btw, i'm gonna buy a really nice beer mug for dad from here... considering bavaria (the southern part of germany) is beer country, it's a suitable and useful gift (since dad drinks beer)... dun scold me hor... :-)

trains and the bavarian alps

i'm at a german town called fussen now, in the bavarian alps... it's just next to austria, which is going to be my next destination (a town called reutte) after i go look at some fairytale castles (their designs are apparently nice enough for disney to copy from) ...

spent the entire morning from 6+am travelling from munich, took a wrong train (or didn't get off at the right stop -- couldn't exactly figure out, cos of language problems), but anyway, thanks to a really helpful train inspector, finally managed to get to the right place, after quite a few train changes...

once again, the trains and train scenery here is great! there was even a proper bathroom in the sleeper train last night, and 1st class today was v comfortable as well... and the scenery was just fantastic, making even getting lost a nice experience..

ok, upload photos the next time... going for lunch now... :-)

not prague but munich

ok, latest update (from an internet station at berlin train station)... i'm not going to prague already... no time...

gonna head to munich by overnight train instead... travelling 1st class, with a proper bed and bathroom even... haha... luxury tour sia... u can be sure it's not my idea... but i suppose it would be a good experience! tell u more tomorrow... :-)

berlin city tour

the 4-hour berlin city tour brought me past many buildings like those above... the first few were like "wow!"... then it was like "ok...", and by the end of the walk, i was like "enough of buildings!"

the history of berlin was fascinating and we had a very knowledgeable guide... so that made up for e insane amount of walking...

yesterday was also museum day... i went to pergamon museum (which shows turkish stuff, to make up for my abortive turkey trip) and the jewish museum (which traces the history of Jews in germany)... it's quite cool...

was entirely exhausted by the time i reached back hotel just before midnight...

today, i'm going to wittenburg, where martin luther started the protestant movement... think it'll be cool... may end up in prague today or tomorrow... :-)

berlin

the welcome message at the berlin hotel (der!)... it's a nice hotel tho, s$130 per night...


glorified italian rissotto (it's like chinese mui fan!) and apple juice


at an "atas" italian restaurant... the bill came up to less than 14 euros tho, so quite ok...

first class train seats... worth every cent extra paid! no need to squeeze with the crowd and u get vip service, like shorter queues at train stations and a service attendant will even offer chocolates and newspapers on the journey!

journey from hamburg to berlin


friendly cafe lady on the port cruise tour who gave us directions to our next destination, the palace



delicious fish and chips + crab salad lunch (hamburg is a seaport known for it's fresh seafood)

no worries about big backpacks, cos can always leave them in train station lockers! :-)

beautiful scenery from frankfurt to hamburg

Hi dad, mum and wen!

See the photos above? It's in reverse order of what i did yesterday... (poor i.t skills... haha...)

going to eat the nissin cup noodles dad bought for me now! then will join a walking city tour of berlin...

update u again! :-)

cheers from berlin,

ping