Seoul, Korea Trip

Viewing of North Korea

Day 1
Went to Seoul, Korea from 17th Feb to 23rd Feb 2011. We met up @ 5.45am in the morning and made our way to Changi Airport T1. Then we checked in our luggage and waited for our plane to KL. We took AirAsia airline, we waited in the airport until 8.55am. Then our plane took off to KL, and reached there around 9 plus. Then we went to the KL Plaza Premium Lounge in the budget terminal, in there, we had shower, lunch and waited for our next plane to Seoul.  We started to make our way to the gate at around 12 plus, then i got delayed in the Malaysian Customs. I asked my friend to go ahead 1st to clear the checkpoint, by the time i was done with the checkpoint, i was unable to find my friend after the checkpoint (Don't know ware she went, 吓死我). Finally i saw her already inside the gate,waiting for me. Then we went up to the plane, which took us 6 hours plus to Seoul.  We played monopoly card game on the plane (My friend kept winning...lol), ate our dinner and slept on and off on the plane. Finally we reached Seoul, and the temperature was like below 0 degree (Shiok!!). Then we collected our luggages and tried to make our way to our hotel. It was located in Dongdaemum (East Gate) area, where all the fashion shopping malls are located. Then we checked in our hotel, then we went out nearby for a walk and tried on the food sold by the roadside stalls (yummy!!). Then we went down to coffee bean and bought hot chocolate drinks, after which we went back to our hotel to rest.

Day 2
Woke up in late morning which we prepared to go the Gyeongbokgung Palace. But we went down to the hotel lobby to settle the data roam first, which took us 2 hours. By the time we reached the palace, it was already 2 plus in the afternoon. But we still managed to go for the mandarian guided tour, so we waited for the guided tour. There was a changing of guards performance at around 3pm, were unable to watch it due to the guided tour (My friend "很凶地" called mi to go liao..hohohoho). Then we went around the palace, guided by the tour guide. The palace was very big and there were alot of interesting things inside. The guide took around 1 hour plus, then we went to the museum cafe for a small snack (which was our breakfast and lunch). It was nice, then i took a nap while my friend chatted on her phone. By the time we left, it was past 5pm and we was not able to go to the palace museum, as the last admission was 5pm. But we still went in to take a peek inside the museum displays. Then we left at around 6 plus, which the sky was already getting dark and the temperature was getting lower. Then we made our way to Jogyesa temple, which was @ Anguk station. The monks were chanting in the hall, so we just see the surroundings of the temple (Anyway it was kind of dark, as there was no street lights outside the temple). Then we went to have our dinner, we had bibimbap (with no beef, only vegetables..hohoho). It was nice with all the side dishes, and were very full. Then we went back to our hotel to rest (as we were going to have our DMZ tour the next day).

Day 3
Woke up early to prepare to go to our DMZ tour. We left hotel at around 6 plus and made our way down to Samgakji station. We had problem finding the USO office from the station. In the end, we took cab down to the place (Luckily, we still managed to find the office, thanks to my friend's GPS, which she used it to guide the cab driver). By then, it was already almost 7.30am, luckily, the bus waited for those latecomers. And so, we managed to go for the tour (which was worth it, eye-opening too).  The bus left at 7.45 am and we were on our way to the DMZ zone. There was a checkpoint that the US army was required to check on our identifies before we can go in. The tour was guided by US army, so our guide was a new soldier who was just posted there. He introduced to us on the JSA area and the meeting place, where South and North Korea was divided (so the conference room was also divided by half, and was determined by the doors on South and North Korea side to determine who get to use the room for their own meetings). There are 2 villages located at that area too, one was called Freedom village (in South korea) and another was Peace Village (in North Korea). There was also a flagpole war between South and North Korea. South Korea had placed a flag up on their area, North Korea responded by placing a much higher flag pole, which was 160m tall, the world 2nd highest flagpole. There was an incident called Axe Murder Incident, which was quite an incident where 3 US soldiers were up against more than 20 North Koreans soldiers, all because of a poplar tree.

After which, we made our way to the 3rd tunnel. There were total of 4 tunnels, which the south koreans found out, and they opened the 3rd tunnel to public for visiting. We had to walk a super steep walkway down to the tunnel. Then we just walked to the end of the tunnel, to see 3 small windows which can see across to the other side of the tunnel. Then we made our way back up to the walkway, we had to climb up the steep steep slope, it was tiring. By the time we reached, we were both sweating and the temperature outside was like still below 10 degree (Had to take off our thick sweaters to cool down, hohooho...).  After that, we went to the observatory to have a better view of North Korea. At there, we were only allowed to take photos from a yellow box drawn on the ground. Then we had our lunch at their canteen there,and then we went down to Dorasan Station.
There, we took a look around of the train station before making our way back to Seoul. After reaching Seoul, we made our way to Myeong-dong for shopping and dinner. There were alot of shops and stalls selling clothes,food,etc. There were people selling hugs for free too, you just have to walk up to them and they will hug you for free..Kekekeke..... When we were at the hotel, we got a call from the ski tour agent to inform us that there will be maintenance going on in the ski area on monday. So she requested us to change to the next day instead. So we went ahead with the plan, to go skiing the next day. And so we went to bed to prepare for the next day.

Day 4
Went up early morning to prepare for our skiing tour. The tour van came and picked us up at our hotel at 8am. Then we went to a nearby hotel to pick another 4 persons that had joined the same tour. The tour guide's name is Summer. She is very funny, told us alot of jokes along the way. The other group of friends are also super funny, they also chatted and told jokes with the guide. We headed down to the ski place, where we rented the ski equipment before we drove up to the mountain. Halfway up, the ski rental shop had forget to pass us our gloves, so we u-turned back to the shop to get them. Then when we were on the way, my friend found that her gloves were of the same side. Kekeke......thgt we need to u-turn back to the shop again, but the guide called up the shop and 'scolded' them for the mistake. In the end, they brought the correct gloves up for my friend. Then we started to try out to ski in the beginner's slope. We both had our fall there, twice. Both of us fell at the same time before we went off, and we couldn't get up on our feet. Luckily there was a kind lady who pulled us up. Kekeke......We also tried to make a snowman (which doesn't even have the shape of the snowman) there.  We played until 12.30pm, then we went to pick the 4 ladies from the ski sled area (which was meant for small children). Then we went down the mountain to have our lunch. We had BBQ chicken, it was so yummy (Best meal of the whole trip). After the yummy lunch, we headed to Nami Island where Winter Sonta (korea drama) was filmed. But we didn't managed to walk the whole island due to time constraint. We took the ferry back, then waited for our guide to pick us up and went to a Ginseng factory. At there, they explained to us when the ginseng can be cooked. There was a total of 6 years, by the age of 2, ginseng can be used to make Ginseng Chicken Soup.
By 4 or 5 plus, we reached back our hotel. My friend stayed in the lobby for internet accessing and i went back to our room. I fell asleep while watching tv in the room, ke lian my friend, cannot come in to our room while i slept (hohoho...). In the end, she took another key from the reception to come in. And i was awoken by the opening of the door when she came in. Then we decided to go down to Seoul Tower for night viewing of Seoul. We went to have our dinner @ TwoTwo Fried Chicken, but by the time we finished our dinner, it was reali getting late. So we dropped our plan of going to the tower and went back to our hotel instead for early resting.

Day 5
Went up abit late today, since the previous 2 days we had been waking up early for the tours. Today we went up to Seoul Tower. We found the Namsan cable car building and went to buy tickets for cable car ride up to Seoul Tower. Everyone was being squeezed into the cable car and being brought up to the tower. On top of the tower, we still need to buy admission tickets to the Observatory and the teddy bear museum. Plus, we paid for our lunch at the top of the tower @ Han Cook. After that, we went to the teddy bear museum first. It was quite small, with all the teddy bear miniatures display in it. Then we went up to the tower observatory to have a 360 degrees view of Seoul. Audio guides are available at the tower to help you identify the places down below (but seriously, it was hard to see the buildings even with the audio guide was explaining the different building standing). After that, we went for our lunch. It was buffet-style for the side dishes and we were required to order only 1 main dish for each.
(Lunch was at around 2 plus or 3, why we always eat meals very late de?)
After lunch, we went down to Namsangol Hanok Village, which was someware near Namsan area (which i don't know ware). We went to a bus stop and took bus no. 2 down, it was 2 bus stops away. Then from the bus stop, we walked a short distance to the entrance of the village. We walked around to see the traditional houses of Korea, there were a spot for traditional Korea games too. After that, we headed to watch JUMP performance. We went down to the metro station and headed to the Korea Tourism Organization Office and queried for the directions. While i was asking for directions, my friend called her mum using the free international phone there (3 mins free). Later we called back to our office and disturbed our office friends. Kekekee......
Then we walked down to JUMP theater, bought our tickets and bought our food @ the coffee bean there. After that, we went for the show. It was a (around) 90 mins performance and it was funny. I bought their program book and had it autographed by the cast (^-^, happy happy). After the show, we went to cheonggyecheon stream walk walk, and the fashion malls around our hotel. Then we ended our day.

Day 6
Today was the last day in Seoul, we went for shopping in Namdaemum Market. At there, we walked around the streets, then we walked to the central post office to buy some stamps for posting postcards back. After that, we had lunch at a small shop @ Namdaemum Market. It was just selling soup noodles there. After that, we went to buy some seaweeds and candies to bring back..... Then we went back to our hotel 1st, after which we went to walk Cerestar shopping mall. It was sooo empty inside, the shopping levels were only up to level 6 and it was a 20 plus high building (weird....). After that, we headed down to the airport, which we had to take the metro down to Seoul station. At there, we had our light dinner first before taking the airport express train down to the airport. Upon reaching the airport, did our check-in, then my friend wrote her postcards and sent. Then we went around to see if there is any restaurants opening. Then later, we took the airport shuttle train to our gate. And so, we left Seoul and we arrived back in Singapore @ Noon the following day (which we also spent the whole morning in KL budget airport, doing nothing except sleep. And the KL-SG plane still delayed some more).

The Seoul Metro can be very confusing when you first take, because there are 14 different lines. And there are alot of different exits and staircases (the lifts are 'hidden', need to try finding). You will need to go from different stairs to get to the correct platform and if you need to decide the platform first before tapping your card, make sure you watch out for the direction that you want to go. (Encountered once, we had to walk until the next line platform so that we can get to the opposite platform)

Hotel Stayed: EastGate Tower
Places visited:
1. Dongdaemum (East Gate)
2.  Gyeongbokgung Palace
3. Jogyesa temple
4. Anguk Street
5. DMZ - JSA, 3rd tunnel, Observatory, Dorasan Station
6. Myeong-dong
7. Ski Place (don't know where it is)
8. Nami Island
9. Ginseng factory 
10. Seoul Tower
11. Teddy Bear Museum
12.  Namsangol Hanok Village
13. JUMP Theater
14.  Namdaemum Market
15. Central Post Office
16. Cerestar Shopping Mall
17. Cheonggyecheon Stream
  
Complete Photo Album: Click here
 

Europe Trip - Amsterdam

Day 11: Didn't sleep much and woke up super early to catch our train to Amsterdam.Luckily this time,there is no need for transfer in between,it was a direct train to Amsterdam Central Station.

Reached Amsterdam at around 9 plus,we tried to ask the bus driver how long it will take to reach the hotel by tram,the driver said half an hour,so we got off cos we still need to go for a tour at 10.30am.Anyway we went to the tourist information agency to help us find a much nearer hotel and within our budget.We managed to get 1 nearby hotel which needs 15 mins walk from the train station.So we went to the tour agency first to check on our day tour package,it was a city tour 1st and windmill village later in the afternoon.Anyway we gave up the city tour and went to hotel instead.But the room was not ready yet,at least we can deposit our luggage there 1st.

So we went ahead with the 2nd tour,which was wonderful (since the start of the day was already so pek chey and like a disaster).First stop we went to Volendam Village,the guide took us for a walk around the village.We went to a chapel first,where there would be an old lady,wearing the traditional Dutch costume (which you can take photos with).Then we managed to go inside a real Marken House (whose the owner happened to be at home).Inside the house,all the traditional stuffs are kept and displayed (like a museum).Most of the houses are all painted in green color and from there we took a cruise (Marken Express) across the big river to Marken village.

After a 15 to 20 mins cruise ride,we reached the port of Marken village.The guide brought us to a shop where we watched a 10mins video on the village.After that,we had a 1 hour free time to ourselves where we did some shopping and walking around of the village.The village was famous for their fish n chips.Didn't try one there but did try the small pancakes (with butter & sugar).It was yummy!!Nice Nice!!Next time go back,must try again.

After that,we went to the cheese farm and clogs factory.They were next-door to each other,so we went for the cheese farm first.In there,we had a brief introduction on how cheese was made and preserved for long long time.There was a special plastic (which is mostly yellow color) to protect the cheese and you can keep for years.The young cheese are like 3 months,and they called those cheese kept for 1 years or more as old cheese.The host demonstrated 2 special knives which were used to cut/slice the cheese very smoothly.Anyway they are selling the knives there.Hohohooo...after the introduction,we got to taste the different kinds of cheese and they are mostly for sale.The cheese was not bad (not really a fan of cheese) and they came up with different flavor of cheese.They even had smoked cheese,the taste was a bit werid though.Lol

After this,we went over to the opposite house,which was the clogs factory.There,we saw a lot of clogs hanging up on the roof.Then the host gave a brief introduction of the clogs too.They made millions of clogs everyday,but the clogs are machine-made now.They made clogs for farmers,clogs for flower planting,clogs stick for their sports,they even made a Nike Air clog.Hohoho...the guy said later he will make an Adidas clog.Anyway he did demonstrated how a clog is made by using the machine and it was fast,like 5 mins.The shape of the clog is done,later he brought to their shops to buy their clogs.You can even buy a pair of clogs for yourself to wear.

After the clogs factory,we headed down to the windmill village ( "Zaanse Schans").But it was already around 5 plus to 6.So by the time we reached there,all the shops are closed and all the people had already went home.The village was like kind of dead,anyway we just went there to take some photos of the windmills.There was like only 3 or 4 windmills lining up in a row.Basically,nothing much there too.After this,the tour ended and were brought back to the starting point.We headed back to the hotel first to check our room.The room was big but the toilet again was very small.The toilet door was just a small cupboard size (if you see the picture,it is the white door just beside the desk).

Anyway,can't be bothered anyway,we went out to see if there is any good food for our dinner.We went to a small restaurant,where i had grilled chicken with potato.The baked potato was a big-sized and it was nice to eat with the sour cream (just tat there was no bacon).After a nice dinner,we went back to the hotel and watched Spiderman 1 on the tv.Then went to sleep to prepare for the next day to start.

Hotel stayed: Nadia Hotel
Places visited:
1. Volendam
2. Marken
3. Cheese Farm
4. Clogs Factory
5. "Zaanse Schans" (Windmill Village)

Europe Trip - Romantic Road

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

Europe Trip - Munich

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

Europe Trip - Paris Disneyland

Day 5: Woke up at 6 plus and had our breakfast.After that,we checked out of the hotel and made our way by Metro to Disneyland parks.We checked in our hotel first and got tickets to the theme parks.After that,we went straight to theme park!!We spent the full whole day in the Disneyland main park first.There was the Disney train which brought the Disney characters out to meet and take photos with the fans.Then there was performance by the Mickey Mouse and friends.There was the chipmunks,toy story,Lilo & Snitch,The Incredibles,Monsters Inc and even Ratatouille.It was showing 4 times a day and luckily it was not raining,so i managed to see the main parade at 4.30pm.Everyone was getting a seat near the road,just to see the parade.Too bad was that there was no fireworks in the night cos the parks' closing time was until 8pm and the sun was not even set!!Bought a nice t-shirt,collar pins and alot of gold coins.Regretted didn't buy the windbreaker there which was like 43 Euro.Sad.....

After a long day in the park,we went out to Disney Village.It was a street where there are alot of shops and restaurants.There is even a hot air balloon at the end of the street.They even kept a crocodile there in the village (fake one....lol)

Hotel stayed: Hotel E'lysee

Day 6:Woke up early so that we can enter the Disneyland park at 8am.We checked out the hotel and left our luggage at the hotel for the day.So we went down to Disneyland parks again,there are not many people there since it was 8am. I took PeterPan's flight ride 3 times as there is no queue yet.Hahahaha....it was not a roller coaster ride though but i like it.We stayed inside until 10am, followed that we went over the next theme parks, Walt Disney Studios.Most of the shows are in this park,but the timings for english was more to the afternoon.Anyway we just went to watch Disney Playhouse Live show first,followed by the motor action show.The motoshow action show was great!!It was a live show where they displayed action by motorcars and motorbikes used in great action movies.The host started out by introducing the action directors and they started with 4 black cars chasing a red car on the street.One of the black cars even broke into 2 parts,lol.After that,Hebe the racing car came out and split into 2 parts and went in separate directions.After the motorcars' action,it was motorbikes' turn to come in action.There are even gunshots and a man was set on fire.There is 1 part where the directors asked an audience to try to control a real car using a remote control.But the car was driving and ramming into anything in the way.In the end,the car turned out to be controlled by a driver at the side of the car.It was funny,the audience was given a certificate for fun too.They had a amazing finale where they put all the action together into a movie and the red car jumped out with a blast of fire on stage.

After the show,we walked around the park and went for our lunch.Had double cheeseburger meals and we stood eating at the table.After that, we went back to our hotel and collected our luggage.Then we went to a supermarket nearby the hotel and bought some biscuits.We made our way down to Gare de Lyon train station.The train station was quite dirty and smelly,think some people just peed at the station there as u need to pay to go to the toilet.Bought a sandwich from a bread stall,the cook was soooo rude.He just throwed the bread to us,and when he was giving us our change,he oso like threw the $ to us.And the bread he sells sucks!!No wonder his stall doesn't have people queuing up.

Finally,we got to board our train to go to Lausanne,where we transferred to another train to Zurich HB train station.Sat on the train for 3 hours plus long to reach Lausanne,walked out of the station for a while. After that,we boarded the train to Zurich which took like another 2 or 3 hours.Finally reached Zurich HB train station around 11 pm plus.Then we tried to find our hotel by walking,it took another 15 mins to 20 mins just to reach the hotel.Then we checked in and slept for the day.

Hotel stayed: X-tra Hotel

Europe Trip - Paris (Cont'd)

Day 3: Woke up at 6 plus and made our way down to CitiRama Agency for our castles trip. We waited for our coach and traveled down to Loire Valley. The tour guide is a young guy.It took like 4 hours just to reach there and it was raining again. And i was wearing already 3 layers of clothing.First we went to Chenonceau castle.

Chenonceau Castle - is also called "Le château de Chenonceau"or Women's Castle because it is famous for its women. King Henri II built it for his favorite Diane de Poitiers but his widow eventually took hold of the estate after the King died in a tournament.

After that,we went to Cheverny Castle.It is currently owned by a big businessman (descendants of the royals) and he let out the place for people to visit.There are photos of the owner and family inside the castle too. Château de Cheverny - currently is a private property and its collection are from the 17th century. King Henri Hurault built the first château in 1634. Upon finding out his wife is having an affair with a page,he killed the page and let his wife to have 2 death options: Sallow poison or Get Plunged by his sword. So his wife chose the less bloody way (which is poison).Then the king torn down the château and built the present one for his 2nd wife.And there are like more than 20 plus hunting dogs being reared there.The owner and family sometimes go back to the castle for holidays and go hunting with the hunting dogs.

After this, we made our way to another château,which is the biggest of all and it is famous for its double staircases built inside the castle. Château de Chambord - built by King Francois I in collaboration with Leonardo da Vinci.It is a grandiose creation,famous for its inventor's design. It had 440 rooms and a unique roof terrace.

After this,we went back to Paris city where we had Japanese food for dinner.Then we walked to the attractions again so that we can see the buildings being lighted up with lights. And i bought a thicker jacket from a shop which i wore for my rest of my trip. Lol,after that,we went back to our hotel to rest.

Europe Trip - Paris

Went for a Europe trip from 8th May 2010 to 23rd May 2010. I went to Paris -> Zurich -> Munich -> Frankfurt -> Amsterdam -> London and back to Paris again.

Day 1: Fly to Paris in the night on an A380-300 plane with Singapore Airlines. Took 11 hours flight.

Day 2: Reached Paris Airport (Charles de Gaulle Airport)in early morning. Took the metro train straight to the Notre-Dame de Paris church, had a tour inside. It was very beautiful and the windows are decorated with colorful glasses.Because we still had our luggage along,so we took turns to go in the church to view.When it was my turn outside,i saw a guy selling Eiffel Tower key chains quarreling with the secuity guard of the church.There are alot of those guys selling the Eiffel Tower key chains,10 for 1 Euro wo...lol.
And then we made our way to the Louvre Museum but we didnt went in. We just took photos there and had our 1st sandwich there.It was nice to eat,just that mustard was put inside!!

After that, we decided to check in to the hotel to put out luggage first.So we made our way to Bry sur Marne station,and found our way to the apartment hotel. There is an oven and a gas stove in the room. So we had bought breads,hotdogs,hams and drumsticks to put in the oven for breakfast.
One thing good in Paris is the breads.Always have a great fragrance and it is not hard (like stone).Lol.
Another thing noticed in Europe was there are graffiti everywhere, on the walls.The metro in Paris are also quite old and most of the windows are vandalized.
Anyway, we made our way down to back to main city again and went to Eiffel Tower. Bought a 3.50 Euro ice-cream and sat there to enjoy. After that we walked to the Arc de Triomphe and walked down along the streets for shopping. As most of the shops are not opened,there is not much to shop around.We bought hams,hotdogs and chicken wings to cook for dinner when we passed a small mini-shop(which is so hard to find a shop open on this day) and went back to the hotel.

Places visited:1. Notre-Dame de Paris
2. Louvre Museum (Pass-By)
3. Sainte Chapelle (Pass-By)
4. Eiffel Tower
5. Arc de Triomphe
6. Statue of Joan of Arc (saw on Day 3)
7. The Panthéon (Went on Day 4)

Hotel Stayed:City Residence Marne La Valleé