Day 14: Last day in London and it meat our last 2nd day of the trip.So sad.....lol.Anyway we woke up and had our breakfast in the hotel.After which,we checked our the hotel and went down to St Paul's Cathedral.
St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral on Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the City of London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The present building dates from the 17th century and was designed by Sir Christopher Wren. It is generally reckoned to be London's fifth St Paul's Cathedral,all having been built on the same site since 604 A.D. The cathedral is one of London's most famous and most recognizable sights. At 365 feet (111m) high, it was the tallest building in London from 1710 to 1962, and its dome is also among the highest in the world.
Sadly,photography is not allowed inside but we did climbed up to the upper top most gallery,where you can have a nice view of London City.There was a whispering gallery,where it was at the dome of the cathedral.There are tiny holes on the walls,where you can actually speak through the holes and the people on the other side of the dome can hear wat you said.Followed up is the stone gallery and golden gallery,total up is 500 plus steps.
After that,we headed down to Victoria Station,where we originally wanted to go Buckingham Palace.But in the end,we went into a restaurant for lunch instead,hahahaa....
After lunch,we headed down to St Pancras International station.We were looking for our train back to Paris but we cannot find it on the list.Stupid me!!Bought the train tickets for the wrong date!!In the end,we had to buy another tickets back to Paris for a total of 300 plus GBP!!!So expensive,and it was not a confirmed seat tickets.It was just for a seat near the door.So angry with myself...So we ended up waiting at the station until it is time to board the train.
On the train,we didn't wanted to sit near the door,so we went to the cafe coach to stand.After the train started to move,there was a group of Australian.They had reserved seats in the train but they didn't sit on the train,they also stood in the train from London to Paris.They had bought a lot of beers up and they were making merry there.(Noisy!!They even sang loudly!!OMG)
After 4 hours plus of standing in the train,we finally reached Paris (Gare de Nord station).It was around 8 plus and we still need to take the metro back to the Airport station.So we bought the tickets and took the metro back to the Airport station.By the time we reached there,it was quite late.Then we still have to find the stupid shuttle bus back to the hotel.
In the end,it was a small bus with so many people trying to squeeze up the bus (as the shuttle bus was going for 3 hotels together).Luckily we managed to get up the bus,if not,we will have to wait another 15 mins for the next bus.Finally we reached the hotel and checked in.Then we just went to bed,super tired day.....
Hotel stayed: Campanile Hotel
Places visited in London: St Paul's Cathedral
Day 9 (Cont'd): After Augsburg town,we were brought to Donauworth town (can't remember what we encountered there).Anyway,we headed to Nordlingen town,where we had our lunch there as i was very hungry by then.We had a half-chicken meal there,which we finished the chicken in 5 minutes.The chicken is ok,just tat it was abit oily.Then we tabao our fries and left the town.Then we went to Dinkelsbuhl town,which we didn't get to tour around the town.We just passed by the town,then we headed to the last stop of the day,Rothenburg Town.
We reached Rothenburg around 3 plus,then a taxi came and picked us up.We were brought to our hotel in the town.It was a 3 floor high cottage house and we stayed on the top floor.The owner is a very good host,very helpful too,he started recommended us some good restaurants around the town.
We went up to our room,as it was on the 3rd floor and we need to carry our luggage up the stairs.Then we rested inside 1st before going to tour around the town.All the houses are cottages and there was a big square at the center.And there was a big cottage house with a clock which will ring every hour and the side windows will open with 2 figurines doing some movements.
Later we went for a city tour which started at 8pm.The sun was only starting to set.Lol,the city guide dressed up as a night watcher of the town.He introduced as himself as the Night Watcher of the town and his duty was to keep the town safe in the night by patrolling the town.He mentioned that there were 5 or 6 of them previously,now he is the only one left.And as he needed to earn a living,he took up the job as showing people around the town and getting fees/tips to keep alive.The guide is so funny.Everyone was rushing to have a picture with him together.There was 1 part which he showed us a green house which was the house of the riches of olden days.Now it was occupied by the descendants of the house.Outside the house,there were 4 ropes which were the doorbells of each houses.Because the tourists kept pulling the bells,the house owners got normal door bells as normal houses.He said that the people in olden days would threw their animals' waste out of the windows every morning.Hohoho,the way he described was soo funny.He even introduced us a restaurant which the name initials can be used to spell out 'HELL',so he told us that to tell people to go to 'Hell' (which means that place).Hahaha....Anyway we decided to pay the city guide instead of using our vouchers.
After the tour,we returned to our hotel to sleep and with this,ended our day.Hotel stayed: Hotel Spitzweg
Day 8: Arrived in Munich train station at around 7 plus,had our breakfast there and walked around the station.Tried to find the meeting place for our next tour,is a 3 days from Munich to Frankfurt package tour.We waited in the train station until it was time to go to the meeting place.Finally we boarded the coach,there are alot of people going together.Chinese,japanese,korea and even united states,first stop: Linderhof Castle.We reached the castle and it was raining again.We had to walk 10 to 15 mins through the garden before we can reach the castle entrance.The castle does not allow visitors to take photos,we only took those outside the castle.Much of the designs are much similar to those in Paris.The king's bedroom window is facing outside where there is a very big fountain and musicians would play music for the king.
After the castle tour,we went to a town nearby called Oberammergau.This town is famous for its play,and the houses are painting with drawings of Christianity.We had 1 hour of free time to walk around the town.Bought a few stuffs from there too,then we waited for the tour guide to regroup.After that,we headed to Neuschwanstein Castle.It was a 2 hours ride up there,we had our lunch at a hotel called Hotel Muller.As there was a lot of people inside the hotel and we couldnt get a table,we took 2 free chairs and sat a table near the window.As when we were having our meal,we saw the tour guide and driver were taking out our luggage,so i asked my friend to go down and check.
It was the hotel we were supposed to check in (The guide didn't even know and we were not even informed anything on the arrangement).Luckily,we didn't go back to Munich with the tour group as the guide thought we were going back to Munich Airport after the tour.And we got all our documents for the next 2 days.After lunch,we went up to Neuschwanstein Castle.It was a long way up to the castle,need to walk up the mountain to the castle entrance.There are buses and horse carriages to bring people up to the castle.On our way up,we saw an old man collapsed on the road and the tour guide or group members were doing CPR on him.When we got to the top,we heard the ambulance arrived.Then we went to tour around the castle,unable to take photos again as it is not allowed.Inside the castle,there were a lot of great paintings which displayed heroes of fairy stories which were the favorites of King Ludwig II.After the castle tour,we went back to the hotel to rest for a while before going for dinner.The hotel room was fantastic,there is an old cupboard to keep stuffs and there was a big carpet.Best of all,there was a balcony which can go out and see the mountains.And Neuschwanstein Castle was on the left side of the view and there was 2 big mountains right in front of the hotel.Pity,we didn't go up to see Hohenschwangau Castle,which was at the opposite side.It was a castle with a swan on top.
Later,we went down to the hotel restaurant and had dinner.We were given a glass of champagne as a welcome drink and we had bread as starter.Then came our main course,it was nice for the pork.Hohohoho....After dinner,we went back to hotel to sleep.
Day 9:Woke up and had our breakfast provided by the hotel.It was buffet breakfast and there were a lot of different kinds of bread and cereals.They even have soft-boiled and hard-boiled eggs.Got a nice view of the castle while having breakfast before leaving the place.It was a very enchanted experience there.
After that,we headed down to take a coach down along the Romantic Road.It was a wavy road which stretched very very long.There are a lot of towns along the way,which we ended the ride with a stay in Rothenburg town.First we were brought to a chapel which was having service.Then we were brought to a bigger church,followed by Augsburg which we were joined by 2 English people who wanted to get to Rothenburg train station.
In Augsburg,went to the city hall.We went inside to have a look,it was big and the room was filled with people as there was a musical concert which going to start in the golden hall and it was free admission.Too bad,we only had half an hour there,if not,we could have stayed there and enjoyed the concert.
Towns visited:
1. Augsburg
2. Donauworth
3. Nordlingen
4. Dinkelsbuhl
Day 14: Last day in London and it meat our last 2nd day of the trip.So sad.....lol.Anyway we woke up and had our breakfast in the hotel.After which,we checked our the hotel and went down to St Paul's Cathedral.
