Day 3 24/8/08 - Norway

Bergen -> Myrdal -> Flam -> Gudvangen -> Voss -. Bergen

Highlight

• A very long day ahead of travelling, and as our tour started very early and breakfast started late on a Sunday, we had to quickly wolf down our breakfast, like everyone else.
• Amazingly, we chose the right side of the Myrdal train to sit on (which was incidentally, the right side), so we were able to enjoy the spectacular scenery.
• Unfortunately, we didn’t do the same with the Flam railway (which was the left side this time), and as it was extremely crowded with tourists, we couldn’t actually run to a spare window to take any pictures. What annoyed me though, were all the tourists who reserved the right seats, but were too busy talking to even look out the window!!
• Watched a cheesy performance on our 5 minute stop to view a waterfall, where some woman comes out and dances to some eerie music. The performance lasted 3 minutes, after which time we all piled back onto the train again.
• Flam was very beautiful. We hired a bike from the very trusty tourist info, where they don’t even lock up their bikes. For 50NOK for an hour, it was well worth it, as we covered a lot more ground, although if you just took the bikes, they wouldn’t know anyway. But we were honest.
• We managed to ride to the Marina, a waterfall and a stave church, which was coolly painted on the inside.
• It was thrilling to ride through the mountain and water, and the weather was perfect.
• Had a look at the not very interesting Flam Museum, before fighting it out with everyone to get on the boat.
• Passed through some very nice scenery but it was too crowded to really enjoy it. We found relieve on the bottom deck, where there were no chairs and no speakers to hear the commentary, but you could see the scenery and there were no people.
• Another day of beautiful warm weather, but slightly cloudy at times. For Bergen and surrounds, this is excellent, considering they have like 260 days of rainfall a year.
• We actually bumped into Franklin and Danny on the cruise, what a small world. Because of the crowd though, we couldn’t really hang around together.
• We hung around Gudvangen instead of trying to rush for the bus when the cruise docked…bad mistake. They had miscalculated the number of people that were on the cruise and as a result, they weren’t enough buses, so we had to fight with everyone else to get on, and we didn’t end up getting a window seat on the bus.
• That was good and bad in a way, good because we got to take pictures from both sides of the bus, but bad because we weren’t in the best position.
• And the scenery were spectacular too. Went through Naeroydalen and up Stalheimskleiva (Stalhein Road), which climbs up the mountain between the Stalheim (126m) and Sivle (146m) waterfalls, with 13 hairpin bends and 20o slope.
• Even more amazing, we saw all these people running UP this road, apparently there was a race on the next weekend and everyone was training for it.
• The views once you reached the top of this mountain was absolutely spectacular, overlooking the Naeroy Valley.
• Had a brief stop at Voss, the “Adventure Town”, before we had to get back on the train, but of course we didn’t’ have the time to do any adventure activities.
• We did manage to see the lake, Olav’s Cross dating from 1023, the Bergslien monument, the Mosafinn Memorial and Vangskyrkja (Voss church).
• Then back on the last connection, an extremely crowded train, back to Bergen.
• Had dinner at what looked like a uni hangout, serving café fare with a focus on soup. The reindeer soup was very gamey but you couldn’t really taste reindeer as much as the mushrooms.

Food

• Incity breakfast:
  • bread with 7 cold cuts, cheese, herring, salad, pate, tuna and sardine
  • muesli and rice puffs with melon yoghurt
  • apple juice
• Zuperia dinner:
  • seafood soup with baguette
  • reindeer mushroom soup with baguette
  • raspberry yoghurt soup
  • cappuccino cake

Day 2 23/8/08 - Norway

Bergen

Highlight

• Asked to swap room, room next door also did the same thing. Went from 303 to 608.
• Everything opened later than stated, but everyone came very early to breakfast. They must all want to rush off somewhere.
• Breakfast had the usual offerings. I didn’t eat as much as usual because I didn’t feel so well from not sleeping at all the night before.
• Supermarket and tourist info, before a stop at the fish market. Although it was past 8am, the stalls were still just opening. There were lots of live crab, salmon, trout and caviar, as well as whale meat.
• Walked past Korskirken Cathedral and some bread shops on the way to the Funicular.
• We were the last to get on so didn’t get the front views. You could see the same views at the top viewing point anyway.
• The weather was glorious and we spent quite some time taking snaps.
• Started on our walk. There was not much people to start with, but got busier as the day wore on.
• The walk itself was very nice. We started by the coast, moved up and down mountain ridges. Pine forests and mountains were the main views, as well as the water when we were near the coast of course.
• There was a nice breeze but the sun shone for most of the day.
• There were a few difficult sections with mud and steep climbs, but the worst had to be my shoes, which started rubbing on and bruising my toes. After about 5 hours, I couldn’t walk downhill without hurting, so the 600m descent we had to do over some very steep hills and loose rocks absolutely killed me and took about 3 times as long as normal. I was really glad to get down.
• Spent 10 am to 6pm walking, although we did have a lot of stops along the way for food and photos.
• Finally got down, found the bus and had a brief walk around the harbour. Now there were lots of people out and about, enjoying themselves, and eating ice-cream.
• Decided to have dinner at a place close to our hotel as I really couldn’t bear the walk. It was actually very good (but expensive as usual). Modern Norwegian using traditional ingredients. The only hiccup was the rice that came with the scallops, which was very hard and was too salty.
• Slokky made me mad by substituting his asparagus, which I REALLY wanted to try, for trout, even though he could’ve swapped his scallops since I was getting the same though. He claimed he didn’t hear me even though I stated various facts I wanted the scallop swapped: trying more of the menu, scallop and trout being the same price…etc etc. The fact that he thought I would even consider swapping asparagus really annoyed me, so another perfectly pleasant meal was ruined.

Food

• In City breakfast:
  • bread with 7 cold cuts, cheese, herring, salad, pate, tuna and sardine
  • muesli and rice puffs with apple
  • apple juice
  • cherry milk drink
• fish cakes
• Smayet mat og Vinhus dinner:
  • bread with garlic butter oil and vinegar, aioli
  • Aquavit cured mountain trout with crab and pistachio aoili
  • monkfish with sundried tomato
  • pan fried red fish with apple and basil puree, fish veloute
  • rack of lamb with creamed artichokes, Norwegian carrots and shallot confit demi-glaze
  • rhubarb parfait with hazelnut and strawberry
  • pan fried scallops with pumpkin risotto and balsamic vinegar
  • Entrecote with brie de meaux, mango sauce, sauteed cep mushroom and summer cabbage
  • Valhrona chocolate cake with cherry sorbet
  • rose granita

Day 1 22/8/08 - Norway

London -> Bergen

Highlight

• Plane took off ½ hour late. The airport was very busy as usual with long weekend travellers.
• Still, we managed to land only a few minutes late but had to wait ages fot the Flybus to leave anyway. At least we got to pick the best spot to sit.
• The city though, was in full swing when we arrived. People dressed in their naughtiest and sexiest outfits were wondering the streets, falling in and out of nightclubs.
• We finally got to bed at 1:30am, but couldn’t sleep the whole night because of the really really loud music in the nightclub anyway.

Day 8 9/12/07 - USA

San Francisco -> Minnesoda -> London

Highlight

• Early morning start, walked to bus depot as the BART wasn’t running yet.
• Took awhile to find the right bus, but after that it was easy, and got there with just the right time again.
• Got "selected" for screening, so at least I got to bypass the queue. Even though the tests were longer, at least they were more interesting. Did an air test where I had to walk through this device thing, then got all my stuff checked and my shoes tested, at least it passed the time.
• Flight was very full, but at least on time. I couldn’t choose a nice seat though as everyone else could check in on-line. I was squashed in the middle seat and at the back of the plane.
• Lunch at Minnesoda/St Paul, walked the whole airport and wrote my blog to pass time. At least I didn’t have to pick up my bag.
• No queues at the airport, so I got home nice and early.

Food

• caramel slice
• oat and berry bran muffin
• cheese scone
• oyster biscuits
• NW airline dinner:
  • lettuce salad
  • chicken, mash and vegetables
  • cheese and biscuits
  • apple pieces
  • apple juice
  • egg and cheese roll

Day 7 8/12/07 - USA

San Francisco

Highlight

• Tried to pack in a very full day. The 1st day of touring with Slokky and also a very nice day.
• 1st stop, the Ferry Building’s farmers market. It was a lot of fun with a great array of produce. Lots of taste testing allowed. Unfortunately, the produce, especially the dairy, was not really up to the standard I’ve had in Oz and in the UK.
• Tried the SF oysters – very different to the Australian ones but great tasting.
• Great Mexican stand where they press fresh tortillas. Got some chicken mole with a to die for chocolate chilli sauce.
• Got some baked goodies for the flight.
• Walked down The Embarcardoro to see Cupid and the Bay Bridge.
• Got the N-tram to AT&T Park. Slokky used the GO card to get in. I rushed back to the ferry building, but the Ferry Lien Cruise was cancelled for the rest of the year, so I rushed to Fishermans Wharf and just made the Red & White Cruise.
• Glorious weather, so got some great pictures of the SF skyline and the GG Bridge.
• Learned more about SF than you need to know with the American way of having commentary on everything.
• On the Boudin Bakery tour, where there’s even more info on SF. Great smell and you get to watch the factory at work. The best thing though had to be the tasting room at the end. I tried 4 different types of breads and there was no one there, so I got my $3 worth in eating. There were 3 dips there too, but they were more of an afterthought.
• Slokky had to try his burger joint, so went to In N Out for a “double double”, which is better than McDonalds, but that’s about it. The milkshake was good old fashioned stuff though, the chips were crap.
• Finally to Go Car, a three wheel glorified motorbike. You get GPS guided tour of SF. Our 1st car didn’t’ work so we had to go back for another. At least we got used to the car with the first one.
• It was a really cool way to do SF, if it’s a glorious day and you don’t mind everyone staring at you.
• Got to do all the stuff I couldn’t do my bys. Highlight was driving along the beach. At Fork Point, in the Presidio with the cliff face side, along the cool streets of Cow Hollow and Chestnut Street, and of course, driving down Lombard street.
• After 1.5 hours, we were happy but cold from the wind, so stopped of for that last bowl of chowder (no bread this time as this wasn’t lunch). This time at nick’s Lighthouse. Ok, it was better than bebella and La Torre, but that’s about it. Next time I come to SF, I definitely want to try a bowl at a better restaurant. The tourist spots never deliver, but you have to do it at least once, and I’ve now done it twice!
• Finally made it to Pier 39, that’s where all the tourists were. Consisting mainly of touristy food joints (think ice cream, donuts, hot dogs and pretzels) and heaps of lolly shops, gift shops. It didn’t hold much interest. Step to the back though, and we got glorious view of the bay at dusk.
• Aquarium on the Bay was closing early for a function,, so it only left us with ½ hour to see everything. Turned out that’s all the time you really need. It was a very small space, mainly for viewing for children, with 2 big tanks being their main attraction. Sydney Aquarium trumps them anyday.
• Another long bus trip to Yabbies for our 1st seafood dinner. Got a seafood platter – excellent sauce and the sweetest Dungess crab and the SF signature soup, the cippano. So much better than the room service one. The desserts were comfy and sweet.
• Back to the hotel to pack and SF is over.
• Still didn’t see:
  • Cloat Tower
  • Twin peaks
  • West of Golden Gate Park
  • Lincoln Park
  • mission district
  • Grace cathedral
  • cable Car Museum
  • Full House and after Victorian Houses
  • steak house
  • diner
  • ice cream
  • French Laundry!!
  • shopping

Food

• lemon scone
• 10 oysters ($20)
• chicken mole ($9.50)
• boudin bread: sourdough, multi grain, asiago cheese, chocolate raisin
• In and Out double double burger, chips and strawberry shake
• Nick’s Lighthouse clam chowder with oyster biscuits
• Yabbies Coastal Kitchen dinner:
  • baguette
  • cippano with dunguese crab
  • seafood platter: oyster, prawn, clam, mussel, dunguese crab, shrimp salad, avocado and tortilla

Day 6 7/12/07 - USA

San Francisco -> Napa -> San Francisco

Highlight

• Breakfast at a “scone” (the American scone as opposed to the English “jam and scone” scone) place. The American muffin was moist and soft, but the scone were really disappointing.
• Tried the morning coffee at the hotel (not great), before heading to wait for my tour.
• Gray Line didn’t have a chip machine, so I couldn’t test out the theory of whether my Go pass was for 1 day or 5.
• There was quite a large group of more than 30 going for the tour. Our driver/tour guide had been doing this for over 45 years! He gave us a running commentary and lame jokes the whole way.
• Glorious blue skies, beautiful green running hills with orange vines.
• Stop 1: Napa Valley Visitor centre for tastings. Of note was an Orange Muscat.
• Stop 2: Drop people off at the wine train.
• Along the Silverado trail, to St Helena and Sutter Home estates. We couldn’t stop at a lot of places as they don’t take coaches…hehe, don’t want a big bunch of free loaders stopping off, I don’t blame them.
• Stop 3: Sutter Home – really cheap but really bad wine. I tasted 3 and then gave up.
• Stop 4: Yontville – home of yuppy and gourmet dining, including The French Laundry. I went back later to take pictures.
• Had lunch at the Bouchon bakery as I didn’t want to get too full for the party tonight. The restaurants sounded very appealing though.
• The pastries were wonderful, I enjoyed them in the garden of Bouchon with a Belgium couple who were doing some sort of religious study in Orlando. They were just complaining about the size of American meals the whole time.
• Walked around the shops, looking for shoes to got with my dress. There were lots of nice stuff on sale but they didn’t go with my dress.
• Stop 5: pick people up from the Wine Train.
• stop 6: Madonna Estate. Got a talk and cellar tour. The best thing was being taught how to taste wine (yeah I know I was told this before, but I can never remember…), so here it is: swirl, sniff, roll around, gulp air, taste, spit (if desired).
• The wine here were, finally, quite nice, but I didn’t buy anything as I didn’t really want to lug it.
• We got taught how to check the cork as well….but I can’t remember that already :p. Screw top is the future anyway.
• They had some cool wine opening gadgets on sale, but as we had already just invested in a bottle opener, and more because of the fact that we almost never drink any wine, I didn’t buy it.
• A long bus back, the traffic was not too bad.
• I did a mad dash around the Embacadero Centre to get stuff for the party.
• I needed metallic shoes, which were quite hard to find. If it had been black shoes I needed, I would’ve been done already. I found some I liked at Banana Republic but they couldn’t find the other shoe!
• Managed to pick up a pashmina and beaded bag at Georgino at 25% off only. I don’t think I’ve shopped that just in my life!
• More transport to City Hall. It was a bit strange to be all dressed up to go on public transport, but it was Christmas season, so people are probably used to it.
• The venue was excellent, it had been lit up by lots of different colour lights (haha, sure beats the drinks in a bar for HSBC). There were different rooms with different food and music. The best was the Mexican. The desserts selection was small and too sweet for my taste.
• Lined up to get photos taken. They put them against a background of snow and the Golden gate. We chatted to some interesting people while waiting in the line.
• I don’t know about the rest of the USA, but San Franciscans are definitely stylish and skinny! I thought it would be a pretty relaxing kind of party, but people were dressed really formally.
• Met Slokky’s workmates and his boss, and generally had a great time. It was freezing by the end of the night though, so my pashmina was money well spent.

Food

• Specialties breakfast:
  • cranberry and yoghurt muffin
  • mocha scone
  • blueberry and lemon scone
  • choc chip and yoghurt croissant
• Bouchon bakery lunch:
  • cream cheese danish with ginger
  • pistachio brioche
• BGI Christmas Party dinner:
  • cold cuts
  • olives, eggplant dip
  • bruschetta
  • pasta – ravioli, tagitelli
  • corn chips with salsa
  • mole with corn
  • pumpkin mash
  • country style stew
  • vegetable and salad
  • cranberry juice
  • chocolate, caramel and vanilla cupcakes
  • caramel slice
  • apple turnover
  • marinated mahi-mahi
  • candy bar

Day 5 6/12/07 - USA

San Francisco

Highlight

• Another rainy day, at least there’s no fog (yet)
• Slokky made me walk a long way to Noah’s Bagel, even though there was one closer, and didn’t take the blame for it.
• Another long bus ride out and changes to Golden Gate Park to view the Golden Gate Bridge. The bus stopped in the middle of the park. I snapped loads of pictures, but I couldn’t see that well, since the fog has started again.
• I didn’t have time to walk across and had to fight with the Chinese tourists to take photos.
• Caught another bus to the Palace of Fine Arts – very pretty, probably more so in the rain, giving it a mysterious quality. Fought with another truck load of Chinese, one who actually told me to move away so she could take a photo!
• Heaps and heaps of kids at the Exploratorium. It was definitely heaps of fun, but a lot of exhibits I’ve already done at the Science Centre at Valencia. Still, it’s always fun to play with. I did about half of the museum before I had to leave.
• Another bus back to Fisherman’s Wharf to pick up my Go San Francisco Pass. They seemed to have given me a 5 day pass instead of the 1 day, so that meant I had a huge change of plans.
• Lunch at the stand up bars at Fishermans wharf. No tourists today as the rain was very ejavy. Nick’s Lighthouse, the stand with heaps of people, ignored me, so I went next door instead. The meal was not that nice, there was no seafood
• I had only 2.5 hours left in the day to use my card, and I wanted to do the bakery tour at Boudin, but it wasn’t running today for some reason, so went to the Wax Museum instead.
• It was very scary, not for the right reasons though, more for the fact that I was the only one there and the figures looked really ugly and nothing like the real people they were representing.
• Tried to go to the Asian Art Museum, but got very stuck in traffic, and didn’t get across town until 4:30, so didn’t get to go.
• Missed Zeum as well, so spent about 40 minutes at Y and the Dalai lama exhibit.
• Slokky was 10 minutes late to meet up, so I could’ve spent the time finishing the exhibit afterall.
• SFMMA – finished Matisse and did the Olafur Eliasson with the BMW, the freezer and the light effects, very cool.
• Then joined a really crappy supposed “highlight” tour. Instead I got told how to use the stairs and read signs, and wasted 45 minutes of my time.
• Only got to finish the “box artish” Joseph before the museum closed.
• I was still full from my late lunch, so cancelled our Waterfront booking to go to Chinatown instead. Big disappointment. It was very boring, everything was closed, and there was no people in any of the restaurants.
• Back to Union Square, Macy for fast food.
• Managed to get my dress for the Christmas party in record time.
• It was raining very hard, and we couldn’t get a bus, so got soaked walking back to the hotel.

Food

• Noah’s bagel breakfast:
  • sun dried tomato, peppers and pesto with onion and chive "shmear"
  • sourdough with garlic herb shmear
• Sabella and LaTorre’s clam chowder in a sourdough bread roll
• Jamba Juice peanut butter moo’d smoothie – all natural peanut butter, bananas, choc moo’d bake, non fat frozen yoghurt, soy milk
• macaroni and cheese
• shoe string chips with ketchup.

Day 4 5/12/07 - USA

San Francisco

Highlight

• Breakfasted at a cool bakery, then a long bus ride to try to get into Golden Gate Park. No bus actually stop there, so I had to get off at the edge of the park and walk.
• Lots of Chinese doing their morning tai chi and others walking their dog.
• Did the whole East side, took 1.5 hours.
• The highlight of the park was definitely the Conservatory of Flowers and Stow Lake.
• Saw lots of squirrel up a tree.
• de Young Museum has great design and architecture. The highlight was the free docent tours every ½ hour. I went on Arts of the Americas as a private tour as I was the only one who wanted to go! Then did Leverson (cool) and African and Oceanic. Explanations posted were excellent and there were heaps of different stuff to see.
• Went to level 9 observation tower for 360 degree views around the park, including the new Academy of Sciences.
• Left reluctantly after only seeing about 1/4 of the museum, as by now I was extremely hungry and need to go to the Legion of Honour.
• The weather has taken a turn for the worst. I was greeted by cold and a very heavy fog. Caught bus #3 to the west end of the park. Saw a hazy dutch windmill and then tried to find the other windmill, but I couldn’t see anything in the fog and masses of trees.
• Gave up my hunt for the windmill and went to Ocean beach instead, but there was some oil spill so the water was covered with oil and I couldn’t go on the beach at all.
• Legion of Honour in Lincoln Park, which is virtually a golf course, not that I could see very much of the park because of the fog.
• This museum was less interesting for me as most of the stuff I’ve seen before, and much more of it around Europe. As usual, the explanations here were much better than anywhere in Europe, with the exception of perhaps Amsterdam.
• The highlight were definitely their Rodin (of The Thinker and The Kiss fame. They had quite a collection, which I hadn’t seen before. Also, their collection of surrealism books added to my SFMMA experience.
• Nearly finished the whole thing (including reading everything) when it closed. In hindsight, I should’ve spent more time at De Young.
• Did the multiple bus change and more than 1 hour of gridlock with multiple stops before finally making it mack to the hotel.
• Took the BART to Berkerly. Looked pretty much the same as SF. Went to University of Berkerly but it was so dark we couldn’t really see anything.
• We had to wait until 8:15 for the 2nd seating for dinner at Chez Panisse. Luckily, a supermarket opposite the restaurant meant we could waste some time. Got some Lindt on special and Ghirardelli for pressies, otherwise nothing of much interest.
• Chez Panisse was supposed to be in the Top 100 restaurants in the world, but I was underwhelmed. The food was good, especially dessert and the service pleasant, but there was nothing to give me that "Wow" factor. I thought it was about the same as Range.
• Another long ride back, with back pain, cold, stomach ache and extremely sleepy, not a great end to a great day.

Food

• French toast – buttered brioche bread with maple syrup ($4.25)
• Poppy seed muffin ($1.95)
• sour cream coffee pineapple cake ($2.95)
• Chez Panisse dinner:
  • …see sep sheet…

Day 3 4/12/07 - USA

San Francisco

Highlight

• Had an early breakfast at the San Francisco Soup Company.
• Nothing was opened – I went to the Ferry Building for the supposed farmers market, but it wasn’t opening until 2pm. However, there were some cool shops in there (shut) and nice architecture.
• Back to Pier 33 to inquire about the missing cruise ticket, but it turns out that the cruise they advertised was substituted with the Alcaltraz one.
• Booked my Napa Valley tour.
• Got my keys cut for $2 but they didn’t have the particular key that I wanted so couldn’t get it all cut.
• Got a haircut at a convenient place. They got it completely wrong. It was way shorter than what I asked for and it was uneven. It was the worst paid haircut I’ve ever got. To add insult, it was expensive at $18 and it was done by Asians!!
• Went to the California Academy of Sciences – completely misleading name. Really an aquarium and insect place, not science. It was under renovation so there wasn’t much to see. I shared it with heaps of kids.
• Walked around Westfield – Bloomingdales, Nostrun and the food shop. It was very cool but I didn’t buy anything so I don’t have to carry anything around.
• Finally got the historic cable car. It was still crowded so I couldn’t sit on the outside.
• Got off (in the middle of the street, cool!) and looked at some Victorian Houses.
• Walked up Lambart St (known as the crookest street). Very cool and had good views too, but it was a bit foggy today.
• Down to Fishermans Wharf shops for photos because the sun came up. Browsed some shops (EB was the same price as everywhere else).
• Yerba Buena Garden – pretty, with a Martin Luther King Memorial fountain.
• SFMOMA – beautiful architecture. Joined a very detailed tour that explained a few paintings. I like Picasso and Maltese. I still don’t know how to appreciate the art that are just lines and blank canvas though.
• It was interesting to walk around the museum as there was actually information explaining the interpretation. It was free on the 1st Tuesday of the month, and since I didn’t finish it, I can come back again.
• Went to See’s Candies for free samples and some chocolates. It’s quite cheap for what you get.
• Got some replacement nail clipper and water at the pharmacy.
• Dinner in the Mission area. Range has one Michelin star. The food was very similar to Mod Oz or Mod Brit, but it was with "American" ingredients. The cocktails were excellent.
• Had a hot chocolate at Ghirardelli Square. It was nice but WAY too sweet.
• Caught the cable car back. Great views, got to hang on the outside finally.
• There was some police hold and that blocked the streets for some reason, so we had a long walk back to the hotel.

Food

• Kara's Cupcake Buttery Buttermilk Vanilla ($3) – vanilla cupcake with a Madagascar bourbon vanilla buttercream
• San Francisco Soup Company new England Clam Chowder ($5.99) – with clams, potatoes and bacon with a sourdough bread
• sourdough bread with mayo and sweet relish
• orange juice
• See’s candies dark chocolate truffle
• Range dinner:
  • Hawaiian ono
  • steak with horseradish
  • date tart
  • persimmon and lime cocktail
• Ghirardelli decadent hot chocolate with biscotti ($4.95)

Day 2 3/12/07 - USA

San Francisco

Highlight

• Breakfasted at bagel place – so many choices of bagels. We of course completed the deal with a giant coffee, the only size they sell in the US it seems.
• Walked along The Embacedero to Pier 33. Saw some fat seagulls, a guy fishing for crabs and caught them in a net with raw chicken.
• Got the City Pass and went for a cruise to Alcatraz. There weren’t too many people yet but the weather was pretty good.
• All the places in Alcatraz was just like the Tony Hawk game. It was surreal as it seemed like I had already been there. I made sure I walked the whole island and read every sign.
• Standout of course was the cellhouse and the exercise yard for the great view.
• The audio tour which covered the cellhouse was pretty good.
• Joined a walking tour that talked about the famous escapes on the island.
• The weather was starting to turn by the time I made it back to the mainland.
• Went to Hyde St Pier and the museum to look at some maritime boats, then wanted to get cable car up to Lombard St, but there were too many people waiting, so I walked along the foreshore to Ghirardelli Square to look at the factory and sample lots of chocolate instead.
• Bought a very cute cupcake – it tasted deletable too!
• Took a very long bus ride on the famous American grid system of roads down Polk St, with the cool shops.
• Spent ages going from station to station to try to get a MUNI passport for Slokky, the first one closed early (lazy soot), the second one didn’t sell them and the third one had a huge line of everyone all wanting a MUNI!!
• Dinner at the very American Cheesecake Factory, on the top floor of Macys. There were HEAPS of people there, but at least they give you a buzzer which goes off as you wait for a table, so you can have a shop around while you wait.
• There were lots of stuff I wanted to buy – including a carpet! But we decided we didn’t have enough time to make an informed choice.
• Finally got buzzed and we weren’t disappointed with the American experience. Everything was crumbed and deep fried and the servings were HUGE! Good thing we could order an appetiser and entrée and be very full, so GUI could foot the bill without us having to pay for anything.
• We had to try the desserts though, it is called the Cheesecake Factory afterall. The peanut butter cheesecake was so rich I couldn’t move afterwards. I must’ve eaten a week’s calorie in a meal.
• Had another walk around Macys. The clothes were great. I bet NY would be fab for shopping, but there were so many things not my size. I didn’t get to spend too long there though ‘cos Slokky was complaining, so we took more transport rides back.

Food

• asagao cheese and spinach bagel
• choc chip bagel with peanut butter and jelly
• coffee
• cranbbery juice
• sourdough bread
• Ghirardelli chocolate peppermint bark
• dinner at The Cheesecake Factory:
  • buffalo Blasts – chicken breast , cheese and spicy buffalo sauce all stuffed in a spiced wrapper and fried until crisp, served with celery sticks and blue cheese dressing ($8.95)
  • white and brown bread
  • chicken Madeira – sautéed chicken breast topped with fresh asparagus and fresh mushroom and melted mozzarella cheese, covered with fresh mushroom, Meideira sauce and served with mashed potatoes and shrimps with cloves of garlic, fresh basil and tomato ($19.95)
  • chocolate peanut butter cookie dough cheesecake – chocolate cheesecake loaded with peanut butter cookie dough and topped with chocolate

Day 1 2/12/07 - USA

London -> Minnosoda - > San Francisco

Highlight

• Slokky called be at 7:20 am to tell me he lost his ring in Vancouver! He looked for 3 hours and still couldn’t find it.
• Left as planned, but there were trackworks at Farringdon, luckily the trackwork were finishing and I was able to catch the first train out and everything went smoothly.
• Relatively short queue at Gatwick.
• Just missed the rain again, but poor Iggy.
• The flight was not too bad, we taxied for a long time though…as expected nowadays.
• Talked to Abdul, who lives in Minnosoda, and he told me all about the city.
• The airport was pleasant, but Slokky plane was delayed, so I caught the BART 1st, which was quite efficient.
• It turned out that Slokky changed to an earlier flight and didn’t bother telling me, so he got a taxi himself and got there before me. That was inconsiderate as I had to walk deserted streets with my big backpack.
• We ordered room service for the first and probably the last time. It was very extravagant but wasn’t very good tasting.

Food

• NW snack:
  • apple juice
  • mini pretzels
• NW dinner:
  • potato and cooked vegetables
  • chicken, rice and broccoli
  • chocolate cheesecake
  • cheese and cracker
  • tea
  • white wine from Chile
• NW snack:
  • orange juice
  • ham and tomato roll
  • chocolate ice cream
  • Le meridian San Francisco Bay Chowder Cioppino style with sourdough croutons ($9)

Day 1 16/8/08 - England

London -> Portsmouth -> Ryde -> Winford -> Alum Bay -> Ryde -> Portsmouth -> London

Highlight

• Slokky didn’t know the way so we went on a big walk around Portsmouth Harbour looking for the ferry, which was actually right at the station.
• At least we got to check out the discount outlets and Gunwharf Pier. Will need to “do” Portsmouth one day.
• The ferry ride was very quick. We managed to get w for 1 ticket, so wasn’t too expensive.
• The sun was out, but disappeared very soon after we arrived in Ryde.
• Had a quick walk around Ryde, lovely small town, visited the farmers market for really yummy unpasteurised milk blue cheese.
• Caught the Open Top touring bus to the Garlic Festival. It was very windy and bumpy and cold, we couldn’t really hear the commentary, but it was fun nevertheless.
• I didn’t expect the Garlic Festival to be so popular…it was really a country fair afterall, but it seemed like all the locals were out enjoying the day.
• We watched a dog show, some bad fire eaters, a boring cooking demo and some mediocre bands.
• The highlight had to be the food. All the garlic-themed food was fun, if not always successful, the ice-cream was definitely the standout.
• We managed to spend 2 hours looking at everything, then caught a bus to Newport for another bus ride to The Needle. The bus took a long time, but The Needle was definitely worth it. Fringed by chalk cliffs and spectacular views. If only the grey clouds didn’t decided to come over at that minute, and if only it wasn’t so cold.
• Because of that, we pretty much headed off after having a quick look at an old rocket launch site and a rocket exhibition.
• We walked to Needles Park, had a look at the carnival and stalls set up there, before another bus back to Newport, listened to a very dumb lady read out loud.
• Had very disappointing fish and chips (we didn’t have time to have a sit down meal) before jumping on the ferry for the crossing back.
• We actually got home quite early. Because the bus rides were so long, we didn’t really have enough time to do the whole island. We will come back again, probably when another festival is on.

Food

• Garlic festival:
  • garlic bread (£2)
  • garlic beer(£2)
  • garlic caramel fudge (£1)
  • garlic ice cream (£2)
  • Minghella chocolate chilli and garlic ice cream (£2)
  • garlic soup (£1.50)
  • bbq corn with garlic butter (£2)
  • bbq corn with garlic butter (£1.80)
  • taste test garlic relishes, cake, smoked goods, tomatoes, cheese
• cod and chips (£4.30)

Day 3 24/3/08 - England

Hull -> Humbler -> Lincoln -> Ely -> Mistley -> London

Highlight

• Just when I could sleep, I got woken up very early with the constant announcements over the loudspeakers.
• Had to endure a long wait and the usual grilling at immigration.
• Had a quick look around Hull. There were a few stately buildings, a nice enough harbour, but nothing was opened so we left.
• At least the weather was sunny (to start with anyway), but it was so cold it snowed.
• Crossed the Humbler bridge and went to the observation area, which was fun.
• Lincoln – a very picturesque town with charming building. I really liked Steep St, (it was steep!), filled with lots of charming tea shops.
• Lincoln Cathedral was spectacular, looking a lot like York Minster actually.
• Lincoln Castle, joined a few tours. There were some nice views from the wall. They have a prison, execution and one of only 4 copies of the Magna Carta, so I guess it was worth the money.
• Got some chocolate from a shop but it was not good.
• Was going to Spalding to look at flower fields, but because of the cold, they had not bloomed yet.
• Decided to visit Ely purely for the name, but the cathedral was magnificent.
• It started snowing again, so it was decided it was time to move on, so we drove to Mistley for an early dinner.
• The swans and the sunset by the river occupied our times for a little while, before we had a lovely dinner, and was very stuffed before heading back to the traffic jam of London.

Food

• cardamom cake
• Brunch at Cafe Zoot:
  • lattes (£2.30 large)
  • Mushroom Omelette (£3.95)
  • Toasted Teacake (£1.50)
• chilli truffle
• dark chocolate truffle
• Mistley Torn dinner:
  • Grilled whole sardines in garlic butter (£6.95)
  • Saffron and Glove Artichoke Risotto with Parmesan Cheese (£6.95)
  • Colchester Native Oysters served raw with ginger shallot mignonette (£1.75 each)
  • Mersea Island Rock Oysters served raw with ginger shallot mignonette
  • Roast Rack of Lamb in a Herb Crust with Wholegrain Mustard Mash, Mint Vinaigrette & Seasonal Vegetables
  • Grilled Skate with Caramelised garlic, Smoked Paprika, A Mano Olive Oil, Local New Potatoes & Alison's Organic salad Leaves (£13.95)
  • Warm Sticky Toffee Pudding with Vanilla Ice Cream

Day 2 23/3/08 - Netherlands

Rotterdam

Highlight

• The boat arrived late, and I couldn’t sleep because of the noise as we were really close to the stairs and the lifts, and every time the lifts arrive, it makes a big “ding” sound.
• The coach for Rotterdam only left at 9:40, most of the people went to Amsterdam, it only took 30 minutes to get to the city centre.
• Rotterdam surprised me. It was very pretty, with nice architecture. The sun was not but it was very cold, and certainly not many people out and about on Easter Sunday.
• The tourist info was very good, we picked up a few guides.
• Dropped by ALL the Maccas, there seems to be one on every block, just to get warm.
• Looked at an old church, but it wasn’t opened.
• The highlight was the funky cube house, which reflected the forward thinking nature of their architecture.
• Took a walk along the harbour, really nice and peaceful.
• Couldn’t find any place open for lunch.
• Cheered on riders of some bike race with big foam hands.
• We wanted to go to this restaurant for apple pie and afternoon tea, but it was booked out, so we got chips instead.
• We thought we would find stuff open in Chinatown, but I was disappointed. Only a few places were opened, and they were all doing a roaring trade. Who knew there was such a huge Asian community in Rotterdam? It seemed like every single Asian has come out for yum cha, as we couldn’t get a table at all.
• As it was already 1:40, and I was anxious to get to the museums, we left Shan & Aileen, and headed to the Architecture Institute (NAI).
• It was nearly 2pm when we got there, and Slokky had already made me mad.
• The display though was very interestingly presented. The highlight was definite the Schov house, a 1930s house that was way ahead of its time.
• Back to Chinatown for takeaway noodles before boarding the boat.
• More cards and chocolate before dinner, which tasted very bad and not because we were prejudiced either.
• More cards, cocktails and a good piano player at the lounge before bed.

Food

• cardamom cake
• tomato baguette (£.49)
• chocolate and cream waffle (€2.50)
• McDonalds bitenballen
• chips with tomato and mayo
• Japanese udon fried with seafood (€12.50)
• Fried beef noodles (€10)
• P&O dinner:
  • bread roll
  • Field mushrooms with bacon & Lancashire cheese
  • Char-grilled rib-eye steak, Bearnaise sauce
• Sea Breeze cocktail: vodka, cranberry, grapefruit
• Fruit Paradise cocktail: Malibu, pineapple, orange, Chambord

Day 1 22/3/08 - England

London -> Cambridge -> Hull

Highlight

• Weather was very bad, it was actually hailing.
• The car hire people were so dumb, it took us ages to get our car.
• Arrived at Cambridge when the sun was out, so took advantage of it to try to see some sites.
• Very similar to Oxford in terms of architecture and the people, I guess university towns are always similar.
• St Mary the Great. All students have to attend here when they first come to study.
• Market Square, a very boring market.
• Toured a free college... could be Corpus Christi College.
• Looked at Senate Hall and the gate.
• The tourist information was bad, you have to pay for a map of the town, which we did as we had no choice as Slokky couldn’t find his way around on the GPS.
• We were going to go in Kings College, but it was too cold and we didn’t have enough time to make it before lunch, and seeing the weather was just not fit for walking around, we decided that we needed to come back to Cambridge another day anyway.
• Walked to The Backs briefly, but the rain and wind meant that everything was gray and so we didn’t bother.
• We ran through the hailstorm to Midsummer House, where we were welcomed with warm tea and tranquility.
• Everything was beautifully and painstakingly executed. The food itself was not as nice as Le Gavouche, but very innovative and interesting in its own way. Read the reviews here.
• Stayed there for 3 hours, watching the alternate sun and rain play out before us through the huge bay windows.
• We were very glad to be able to jump in the car and go after that. We will have to do Cambridge another time.
• A very long drive to Hull. The check in was pretty easy, then went to check out the ship.
• The ship was much better than I expected.
• Spent the evening just snacking and played cards.
• Lots of people dressed up and was making a big occasion out of it too.
• The resident band was very bad.

Food

• Midsummer House lunch:
  • cheese stick
  • balsamic vinegar foam and crisps
  • green olives
  • foccacia
  • brown bread
  • Grapefruit and Champagne foam
  • Tiger Prawn, Cucumber and Cauliflower
  • Langoustine and King Crab
  • Piquillo Pepper Cannelloni
  • Sauteed Scallop, Bay Leaf, Pigs Trotter
  • Risotto of Parsley, Garlic Snail, Yeast Foam
  • Roast Zander, Red Wine and Nettles
  • Pousse Café
  • Bourbon Smoked Pigeon, Iceberg Lettuce, Sweet Potato
  • Camomile, Lemon and Ginger
  • Pear, Black Olive and Fennel
  • Coffee, Chocolate and Passion Fruit
  • Baignet with crème anglais and plum sauce
  • chocolate – mandarin, pineapple, green pepper, dark

Day 3 4/8/08 - France

Paris -> London

Highlight

• A leisurely late start for once.
• Brunch at Angelina. The décor used to be nice once upon a time, but is now a faded glory. Still, the food was very very good and the service was not too bad. This is loads better than Lauderee.
• Very full and satisfied, started walking around. It was great because the sun came out an the weather was glorious, but disappointing since most of Paris decided to go on vacation so everything was closed.
• Spent 1 hour at our favourite pharmacy, got lots of cream and stuff for Slokky.
• We were definitely much happier when we got to St Germain area, lots to walk around and see. There wasn’t that much stuff on sale, an of those, not much in my size.
• We did managed to score at Heyraud, a pair of brown shoes of Slokky and some black and white heels for me.
• Found some very cute knits from somewhere (that's a store name!), but no good one my size
• Tried to find wii but couldn’t.
• Walked around the Latin quarter for a little while, and had lunch at 3pm at a touristy place. Not too bad for the price (€10) but not great, except for the excellent chips.
• Picked up our stuff at the hotel, then Eurostar, with yet another very very long line.
• Took 40 minutes to check in and nearly missed train, which left late because of the line.

Food

• Angelina breakfast:
  • mini croissant, pain au raisin, pain au chocolate
  • baguette with jam, butter, honey
  • fruit salad
  • orange juice
  • hot chocolate with cream
  • brioche
  • eggs benedict
• L’Auberge du Moulin lunch:
  • pate with baugette
  • cheese crepe
  • roast chicken and chips
  • pepper steak and chips
  • chocolate mousse
  • napolitan ice cream

Day 2 3/8/08 - France

Paris

Highlight

• Grabbed breakfast at the local patisserie. Quite nice but not as good as the one we visited last time.
• Walked around the Tuileries, checked out Angelina, then lined up at Musee d’Orsay.
• We got there at 9:15, and was just outside of the taped off area, so not too bad, but a massive line did form behind us. We got in by 9:40.
• Decided to get the audio guide, which was not great at all, but as there was nothing to explain any of the paintings, it was better than nothing.
• We managed to finish the ground floor and the 5th floor before they kicked us out, still need to do 2-4, so looks like another trip is on the cards.
• Highlight was definitely the 5th floor and the vast collection of Money, Van Goth (extremely crowded here!), Renoir, Sisley and Pisarro.
• Back to hotel to relax before venturing out for dinner.
• It rained as we were walking there, but luckily stopped when we left.
• Hardly anyone eating so got very quick and personal service.
• Heavy Asian, especially Japanese influence, but chef is half Spanish. The food is excellent, especially the pork, but was very expensive.

Food

• croissant
• chocolate Viennoise
• pain au raisin
• ham baguette
• emmental cheese baguette
• lipton peach tea
• La Table du Lancaster dinner:
  • baguette ,campagne, lemon, olive bread
  • cucumber soup
  • sardines with wakemi and wasabi
  • frog’s leg with cauliflower tamarind sauce
  • tuna with Japanese rice and ponzu sauce
  • pork with honey barbeque sauce, apple
  • goats, brie, 2 other cheeses with dried apricot and redcurrant
  • floating island, rolled coconut, candy floss and cream
  • pistachio dim sum with strawberry sauce
  • Himalayan tea
  • blue mountain Jamaican coffee
  • pistachio macaroon, passionfruit chocolate, raspberry almond cake

Day 1 2/8/08 - France

London -> Ashford -> Paris

Highlight

• Stuffy train ride to Ashford.
• It rained heavily so we gave up trying to see the town, and headed straight for the Ashford Designer Outlet instead.
• Well, this seemed to be stragith out of UK suburbia, with overweight families dragging along their kids to indulge in the fast food at the food court.
• I was disappointed there was nothing on offer in terms of food, so I actually had to eat fish and chips from a chain store.
• Slokky though got to indulge in his Maccas, and I had a bite to see if anything has changed in the 15 years or so I have been avoiding the place. Even though they have supposedly upgraded their ingredients, it seems the taste is still the same.
• This place is supposedly designed by the same architect as the Millennium Dome, and it actually looks like it from the outside, but the design was definitely not practical as it was not shielded from the elements, in a country that constantly rained, so that as we walked between the shops, we kept getting wet.
• We started off slowly, but then stalled at a couple of stores, and had to rush at the end. I was satisfied though that we had covered most of what we wanted by the time we had to leave.
• The discounts differed. Some were very good while others weren’t worth bothering. Ted Baker had nothing my size, neither did Next
• Ended up with:
  • silk knots (£2)
  • Ralph Lauren shorts (£6.99
  • Adidas tank top (£7)
• Eventually it did stop raining, so it made our walk back to Ashford International a bit more pleasant, but still no sun.
• The check-in for Eurostar was very quick, so we had to hang around for a long time at the not much to do terminal.
• We sat next to some extremely noisy people on the Eurostar, so I couldn’t sleep.
• Eurostars hotel was very modern, very much like the Scandinavian design hotels.
• Dressed up for dinner. Luckily other people were quite dressed up too so we felt good.
• Dinner was excellent. We went a la carte for once, and was treated to some an amazing meal. The service was a bit slow but the waiters were so cute!
• The weather had changed for the better, so we took a leisurely walk to the metro. Ah, Paris.

Food

• Harry Ramsden's lunch:
  • fish and chips (£5.20)
  • apple juice
• McDonalds oriental beef burger and chips
• Senderen dinner:
  • bread sticks
  • saffron lobster soup
  • Chanterelle mushrooms served with squid and cockles flavoured with spiced oil
  • Poached duck liver with morel mushrooms, walnut and curry
  • Roasted wild duck with beetroot, cooked in a salt crust
  • Roast suckling pig, leeks with rougail, carrot taglitalle with pink berries and mango
  • raspberry pannacotta
  • French napolean with Tahiti vanilla cream
  • Butter biscuit with rhubarb and strawberry
  • raspberry macaroon, orange jelly, almond tartlette with psichacio

Day 1 26/7/08 - England

London -> Brighton -> Hove -> Brighton -> London

Highlight

• A very bad start to the holidays with the dismal service from Southern ticket office, where they refused to help us get our tickets after the machine didn’t work. I wrote a complaint about that so will see what they do with it.
• After that debarkle, where we had to run to make our train, the ride went smoothly.
• Not as many people as I imagined, started off by walking to the Visitor Centre, but kept getting sidetracked.
• Stopped off at the many shops, first off, Taylor St Baristas, where they ground the beans in front of you and do coffee art, but that has never guaranteed good coffee before. Luckily, this place actually made the best coffee outside of Monmouth in the UK that I’ve tried, almost worth coming back to Brighton for. They said they have an offshoot in Liverpool St, so I’ll see if that one is any good.
• Next distraction, the various bike and outdoor camping shops, where we managed to get a big bite valve to replace the one we lost for our Camelbak, no such luck with the bite valve cover though.
• Watched Slokky try on all sorts of shoes, but didn’t end up finding one because his feet are deformed.
• And then found a nice Mambo canvas belt and some polo shirts for Slokky…
• By the time we made it to the visitor centre, it was around 10:30 already…
• Never mind, it was such a nice day, around 25 degrees, the sun was shining, it was great to walk around.
• Decided not to pay the £8.50 entrance fee into the Royal Pavilion because the weather was too nice, might come back another day when the weather is crap to do that, and the Art Gallery and Museum too.
• Laid around on the deck chair in the Royal Pavilion Park, before venturing towards food, via The Lanes.
• As can be expected, there was lots to see, with lots of quirky shops and kitchenware and food stores, where we picked up some coffee from Ringtons, so by the time we made it to Bankers for fish and chips, we were quite hungry.
• Got our food down by the sea in Hove to eat. It was quite peaceful, apart from the people screaming from the bungy jumping.
• Back for another walk around Hove, observing the architecture, the yuppy chic people who live there, and the wonderful stores they have.
• Stopped by Audrey’s for award winning chocolate. They were good, but not better than the Belgium variety, but I had to try since Prince Charles had been to the shop.
• Wanted to go into the Real Eating Company for a look and see if I could pick up a cake or something and then tick them off. Well, I couldn’t resist the food that I saw everyone having, so we decided to have a second lunch. The salad had the sweetest crab meat and wonderful nutty dressing and flavoursome tomatoes. The experience was unfortunately let down by too hot and too bitter coffee. Still, you can’t beat sitting on the pavement on a nice sunny day, people watching while you sip your coffee…
• Back to the waterfront, and made our way back to Brighton. As the scenery changed from chic to shabby, the more people appeared on the beach.
• Stopped by The Pumphouse for some delectable ice-cream. As we were really full from our 2 lunches we could only afford one scoop, but it was good!
• Walked by the classic jellied eels store but was too full to fit any more in.
• Paid a visit to the shipping museum, and you can see that a lot of Brighton reflects the heritage of the area.
• Made our way back to the shops, this time to visit the quirky Newtown vibe of the North Lanes. There were people everywhere, hanging out in the myriads of vegetarian cafes and record stores.
• We window shopped our way through the lanes, including an organic shop that reminded me of home, before taking a walk around other quieter areas, like the back of the Pavilions.
• Back to the sea, to the extremely popular Brighton Pier. It seemed everyone was there, hanging out at the fun fair. We watched people screaming on the rides (which were VERY expensive, £4 to go in the ghost house, and that’s the cheaper ones, 5 rides and you can afford to go to Disneyland!)
• Watched all manners and shapes of people sunbath, play the fair games, and eat.
• Decided against going to the Marina as it looked like there was nothing there, so laid on the pebble beach for awhile, before heading to Barry.
• Had a wonderful laid back dinner, read review here before heading home.
• Delayed for 15 minutes coming back because some person vandalised the train so they had to disconnect the last three carriages and also meant everyone had to squish into 6 cars.

Food

• Taylor St Baristas cappuccino (£1.80)
• Bankers haddock & chips (£4.99)
• Audrey’s chocolate Vienna mint
• Audrey’s chocolate hazelnut baton
• The Real Eating Company lunch:
  • Dorset crab salad with tomato (£8)
  • cappuccino (£2.50)
• clotted cream ice cream
taste test Booja Booja ice cream
• dinner at Barry at the Tureen:
  • Mushrooms stuffed with crab and garlic
  • Fresh salmon cakes with a basil mayo
  • Marlin steak sauteed with lime and cream
  • Scotch salmon boned escallope oven-baked with a red pesto, cheese and crumb crust
  • Blackberry liqueur soufflee served frozen
  • Gooseberry fool

Day 3 14/4/08 - Netherlands

Arcen -> Weeze -> London

Highlight

• Slokky didn’t ask about check out, so we didn’t know what to do with the keys.
• We almost got locked out as he put the key in the slot and we couldn’t open the front door, which was locked. Luckily I was smart enough to try to unlatch the door, while Slokky panicked and didn’t listen to me.
• The flight was on time for once.

Food

• cherry and strawberry yoghurt
• sandwiches of cheese, salami and ham
• orange

Day 2 13/4/08 - Netherlands

Best -> S’Herb -> Veghel -> Boekel _> Gemert _> Venray -> Arcen -> Well -> Arcen

Highlight

• Tried to look around Best. Besides a semi interesting church, there was nothing around.
• S’Hersh, as usual, dead on a Sunday, but it’s a pretty town, so even window shopping was fun.
• Lovely market square with lots of beer house and café.
• Had to wait for all the museums to open.
• Highlight definitely St John’s church, but we couldn’t go in as there was a service on.
• Walked by the canal for the same funny houses.
• The Citadel was boring.
• Walked to because Slokky didn’t know the opening times.
• Walked back to the museum to learn a brief history.
• SM is a modern design museum, very cool.
• We couldn’t find any herrings or fries place that was open, so we just ate cake for lunch.
• Trip down the brown, flat countryside. There was a nice church and building at Veghel.
• Absolutely nothing at Boekel.
• Gemert was interesting. Very good location castle, even if not elaborately decorated.
• Venray for WWII cemetery. There were 3 Aussies buried there.
• Arcen to check in our hotel. It’s in the roof of the building and quite charming.
• Walked around the small town of Arcen, very popular with the tourists, who were all eating ice-cream!
• Kasteeltunen was more touristy but otherwise looked like the other castle.
• Dinner at the charming riverside restaurant. It was much more classic and much less English. People seem to be locals. A guy came to talk to us about his travels to China.
• The food was again quite slow, but there wasn’t a huge lull like the other place. We got to try two different menus.
• The chef greeted us as we parted, so that was very cool.

Food

• butter cake
• apple
• dinner at Brenin:
  • tuna with tomato and lobster salad
  • asparagus soup with shrimps
  • fish with prawn and asparagus
  • tuna and other fish 3 ways
  • smoked fish with truffle mash and asparagus
  • brioche, white rye, seed, tomato bread
  • duck breast and mash, beans and bok choy
  • lamb chop with pesto, lamb cutlet, sausage, cabbage
  • chocolate 4 ways: brownie, aero, terrain, mousse
  • mango terrain, vanilla ice-cream, cream and dried mango

Day 1 12/4/08 - Netherlands

London - > Eindhoven -> Best

Highlight

• Another very early morning start. Especially since we had to pick up a new camera after the thief took ours.
• Eindhoven airport really only serves Ryanair. It is very small.
• Caught the bus downtown to pick up the car, got an Audi.
• Drove to PSV stadium, took some photos, visited the store, got some nice red socks for Slokky (which can be seen in photos of the Peak District), for €10, then walked to the city.
• Dropped by Media Centre to get a camera case for the camera.
• Walked through department stores and shops on the way to the tourist info. Got a cute light bulb egg holder and Eindhoven t-shirt as souvenirs.
• Walked to the market square, lots of Chinese restaurant looked dodgy.
• Looked at church, which was quite nice.
• Went to Hema and got yummy butter tart.
• Considered going to get chips, but the places were not that appealing.
• Van Abbey museum – modern art, very cool but hard to understand.
• Walked around the park and admire the hanging trees.
• De Bengen – with very cool shops, kinda alternative.
• <> museum, old and not much to see, but situated in a church.
• Back to the shops. Hema for more food, not many other shops were opened, so we were bored.
• Walked around the vast “Phillips” area. Afterall, Eindhoven is the birthplace of the Philips light bulb.
• Waited in the car anxiously for dinner.
• The restaurant is situated at the stadium. It was very cool as you can see into the stadium. As expected for a one Michelin star place, it was very formal. But alas, the style didn’t reflect the quality.
• Dinner was very formal though, but we were disappointed. I had to complain as it took one hour between the starter and the main, but my concern wasn’t even addressed. They just kept saying it was coming very soon.
• The highlight was definitely the starter with the cucumber and the crab. The quail was too dry.
• Because of the long wait, I couldn’t really enjoy myself. We spent from 7 until 11 there
• So, another very tiring day. And we didn’t get to use the NH Best facilities.

Food

• malteasers
• organic apple juice
• butter tart (€1.60)
• Avant Garde dinner:
  • cheese toast, spice cake, bacon sour cream on cracker
  • salmon with beans in tuna broth and wasabi
  • snail foam with wasabi, goose liver mousse with millefeuille
  • brioche, white toast, herb
  • cucumber sorbet on king crab, king crab with cumquat ice, crab with wasabi jelly
  • monkfish with fried sardine and langoustine and blood orange
  • blood orange ice sorbet
  • quail with truffle sauce and sardines and lobster in its own gravy
  • pineapple rollup, curried pineapple soup, crème brulee parcel with caramelized pineapple
  • mint marshmallow

Day 3 6/4/08 - Denmark, Sweden

Copenhagen -> Malmo -> Copenhagen -> London

Highlight

• After a leisurely breakfast, walked to Central station to catch the extremely nice and quick train to Malmo.
• Going over Oresund Bridge was not very spectacular as we were stuck in the bottom level and couldn’t really see anything.
• Malmo was a dead town when we arrived at 10am.
• Strolled around the central square, Stortorget, the largest city square in Northern Europe (which was not really that big) to see the statue of King Karl X Gustav and the city hall, among other things.
• Observed the families at work, with the designer strollers, at Folkets Park. The park itself wasn’t too pretty, but there were a few ponds for the water effect.
• Malmohus Castle was pretty boring, we didn’t even bother walking up to it, you can get a good view of the Turning Torso, a funny twisted building, though.
• Tried to find the market they talked about on Wikitravel but it was closed.
• Dropped by the supermarket to pick up our Swedish chocolate bars.
• Walked down the major shopping street. By now it was 12 noon so I was expecting more shops to open, sadly it was not the case.
• Started to feel sick, so I rested while the guys ate at a family oriented steakhouse, Jensens Bofhus. I actually was so bad that I didn’t even try the food.
• Was feeling even worst, so decided to cut the trip short (well, we’d seen almost everything anyway, just missed <> street and the Turning Torso building).
• Spent most of the afternoon sitting or leaning against various object, until we made our way to the airport.
• Arrived at the airport 4 hours early, wandered around the shops, sorted our photos, sat around being bored, and was finally able to board our plane.
• Luckily plane was on time so we got time just after midnight.
• Don’t get me wrong, Copenhagen was an extremely beautiful city, it was just that when the major attractions were not open and the weather not that beautiful, there was not that much to see and do.

Food

• Hotel Savoy breakfast:
  • soft-boiled eggs
  • muesli with peach and raspberry yoghurts
  • Danish ham, salami, cheese with rye bread
• chocolate croissant
• chocolate cinnamon scroll
• seeds bread with herring in curried yoghurt sauce

Day 2 5/4/08 - Denmark

Copenhagen

Highlight

• After a hearty breakfast, checked out to find someone has already paid our bill!
• Quick visit to Nationalmuseet, did “the history of Denmark in 60 mins) tour…it did give you a sense of why Denmark is what it is. I would’ve liked to have visited the rest of the museum as it looked very interesting.
• Met up with PJ at her hotel, then off to see the Little Mermaid. There was not that large a crowd, so that was great, but the statue was very small, as everybody said.
• Walked around Kastellet, the star shaped fortress. Some good view with the swams and cherry blossoms.
• Dropped in Frihedsmuseet for a very quick browse around, about Danish resistance during the German occupation in the 1940s.
• Walked to Amalienborg Slot to see the not so grand royal palace, but we managed to catch the changing of the guard.
• To Nyhavn to see the colourful hosues and the tourist attractions of café and restaurants.
• Found a smorrebrod place and got very delicious food for lunch.
• Didn’t rush back to Marmorkirken (marble church) in time to climb the dome. The exterior is like St Paul, but the interior was not that interesting.
• Walked back to hotel via Stroget again, this time stopping at Bodun and picked up some cool vacuum glasses.
• Got some Danish butter biscuits from supermarket. Couldn’t buy herrings as we can’t check in any luggage.
• Early dinner at a Vietnamese place. Everything looked great but tasted only average. We should’ve stuck with Danish food!

Food

• Connect hotel breakfast:
  • scrambled egg, sausage, bacon
  • muesli with figs, raisins and yoghurt
  • cheese, spreads, meat on bread
  • pain au chocolate, croissant, Danish
  • muesli pot with grapes
  • fruit
  • apple juice
  • pickled herring
• dinner at Le Le Nha Haeng:
  • pigs ears
  • poached fish with peanut sauce and rice paper wrap
  • spring rolls, rice paper rolls, prawns
  • banana sticky rice

Day 1 4/4/08 - Denmark

London -> Copenhagen

Highlight

• Flight only slightly displayed.
• Train from airport broke down, and we had no idea what the announcements meant, but we still got to the hotel quite early.
• Tivoli was closed because of the winter.
• Walked past Borsen (former stock exchange), Christiansborg (church), which was getting renovated, Folketinget (parliament), but not that interesting since it was overcast and I’ve seen much better before.
• Visited some churches, Christians Kirke (boring), Vor Frelsers Kirke (being renovated so completely closed), we wanted to climb the spire too 
• Walked along harbour before a very extraordinary and very tasty lunch at Noma. They kept on delivering extra courses, everything was beautiful and innovative, and the waiters were super cute!!
• We left the restaurant at 4pm, super full and super happy.
• Took a walk around Christiania, which is totally unlike the rest of Copenhagen. It’s totally hippy, and there are huge signs up that says not to take any photos.
• Walked along the Moat, visited some shops, including the department store, Magazin du Nord and its basement food fall.
• The mannequins here have much bigger boobs, but their H&M is not up to par with Sweden’s
• Vor Fruekirke (cathedral where Princess Mary of Tassie got married) was pretty boring.
• The shops were not that interesting so we went to H&M again.
• Walked down Stroget, the longest shopping street in Europe, to see Caritas Springvandet (fountain), Helligandskirken (another church).
• Rundetarn, another tower, was closed by the time we got there.
• It started raining heavily so we headed back to the hotel.
• Teaser buffet was very good quality food, but I was too full to take full advantage of it.
• Since the weather was bad, we basically just relaxed at the hotel, and even managed to book another holiday!

Food

• green apple
• smoothie
• Lunch at Noma (1900 DKR):
  • birch sap water
  • smoked ostrich egg
  • new season herbs on crust
  • rye, roe and chicken skin
  • spring root vegetable with egg sauce
  • pickled cucumber
  • beef tartare with juniper berry and tarragon sauce
  • Razor clams and horseradish ”snow”, Parsley and dill
  • Salsify and milkskin, Rape seed oil and truffle from Gotland
  • Monk fish and seaweed, Stems and roots of vegetables
  • Ramson onion and onions from Læsø, Onion-cress and onion bouillon
  • Pork from Dronningmølle and leek, Malt, seeds and fresh leaves of acidic herbs
  • Toasted jerusalem artichokes and seabuck-thorn, Malt and vinegar
  • Dried berries and dried cream, Walnuts and dust of walnuts
  • coffee with chocolate coated beetroot meringue
• Connect hotel teaser buffet:
  • curry squid
  • corn cob
  • tuna with sauce on toast
  • cauliflower and picked berry
  • duck cassoulet
  • French onion soup
  • sunflower seed bread
  • salad with olives, feta, tomato, beetroot
  • fruit
  • gazpacho
  • rice salad
  • brie, goats camembert, blue with grapes, figs and apricots

Day 3 16/3/08 - Sweden

Stockholm -> London

Highlight

• Got a later start than planned, but the weather was much better today.
• Walked around the harbour to Vasamuseet. Quite a lot of tourists (must be very crowded in peak times, but the ship was absolutely magnificent.
• The displays were great and the architecture superb. It was definitely worth the money.
• Went to NH (the David Jones equivalent) to get excellent pastry and lingoberry bread.
• Ate lunch by the river, the sun was truly out then, but we didn’t have time to wonder to bjurgarden, although all the locals seemed to be heading there (with their walking sticks).
• Finally made it to Gamla Stan (old town). Reminds me of the hill town of Tuscany. Highlight was seeing Kungliga Slottet’s guards who don’t stand still and march randomly.
• Palace itself was the most spectacular.
• Made our way to Storkyrkan, one of the more interesting and pretty churches, whereas the Tyska Kyrkan was less interesting.
• Walked through the narrowest street of the old town, Marten Trotzings Grand.
• Most of the shops were closed because it was Sunday, but some were still open, with the most interesting being Ekovaruhuset, selling only organic stuff, with some very pretty organic clothes, and Kalika, selling toys including Pippi Longstocking dolls and finger puppets.
• Stocked up at the supermarket on herrings, salads, bread, gravalex before our flight.
• The Arlanda express was efficient, we hadn’t caught a late train yet in Stockholm.
• Airport was very boring though ,no Swedish shops like at the Revjavik airport, just international labels, and not interesting ones at that.

Food

• Connect Hotel breakfast:
  • bread
  • cucmber
  • tomato
  • pate
  • ham
  • cheese
  • hot chocolate
  • cappuccino
  • peach and apple yoghurt
• roll with pate
• NH cardamom scroll
• NH lingoberry bread
• salmon gravalex
• pickled herring
• prawn salad with dill
• prawn, mushroom salad with dill
• wafer chocolate bar

Day 2 15/3/08 - Sweden

Stockholm

Highlight

• The weather was quite bad, being very cold and overcast and it even snowed!
• The hotel breakfast was very boring, but they had some very nice bread.
• Caught the train to wonder around as things don’t open that early.
• Skogokyrkogargen Cemetery, the most picturesque cemetery I’ve been to, with tall pine trees and fresh flower beds. It’s famous for its architecture and Greta Garbo’s grave, which was really unexciting.
• Continued on the Garbo trail, to the place where she spent her childhood at Blekingegatan 32. There was a bust there to commemorate her, but otherwise, there was nothing there. At least you could observe suburban life though.
• Back on the tourist, past the seaside, to Katarina Kyrka, where you can observe some of the “old style” houses before they were knocked off.
• The church itself was yellow and beautiful, but it was burnt and rebuilt.
• Another church, Maria Magdalena Kyrka, was just about the same as the other one, so that was boring.
• Stockholm’s Stadmuseum is one of the only free museums left in the city, but the displays were modern and interesting. We learned about Stockholm’s history.
• Up Katarina Hissen for a view of the city. Had to walk though as we didn’t want to pay money for the lift.
• Wanted to go to Ostemalms Saluhall, the famous foodmarket for lunch, but a misprint on Lonely Planet meant we went on a wild goose chase instead, waited for ages for the bus, only to find that the stop we were supposed to go to turned out to be a museum!
• Bumped into Linus, who was here for the weekend, and he invited us to drinks.
• By the time we got back, it was 1:30, and sat down to an extremely good meal. We didn’t want to eat too much as we had booked dinner, but we did get a coffee at a recommended place (which turned out to be not that great).
• The 40 minutes we wasted on the wild goose chase meant that we had less time to shop as most close around 4-5pm and don’t open on Sundays.
• We managed to hit:
  • Judits Secondhand - v cool and hip, with the whole SoFo area vibe.
  • 10 Swedish Designers – funky fabrics
  • Designtorget – closest to Ikea we found
  • Nitty Gritty – very expensive and out there, combining clothes, music, books, a hairdresser and a cafe
• Byt this time a lto of stores were closing, so we wondered around a few clothing stores (btw, H&M are everywhere, but it’s quite popular and stock different stuff to what you get in the UK).
• Made it to Chokladfabriken just before they closed, got a very good hot chocolate and some truffles. The place was very full and very happening.
• Back to more wondering the streets…Ahlens (the Myer equivalent) and tried to get a hair cut, but we were too late and they were closed.
• We finally got kicked out, so headed early to F12 via yet another church.
• As usual ,we were the most underdressed of the lot. The wait staff were excellent, with very good English as can be expected. The place was very stylish, green being the dominant colour. They explained everything. We had the “innovative” tasting menu. While creative, some of the flavours were too strong and didn’t work well together, but it was very fun and different nevertheless, plus the waiters were very cute.
• Went back to change for the bar, but we were still the most underdressed, not to mention the ugliest. Everyone was blond, tall and skinny, and all seemed to be having a good time.
• We got to O’Baren just before midnight and had to line up. The place was packed and the drinks very expensive (well, the whole of Sweden is expensive, but their alcohol is outrageously so)
• We met quite a few of Linus’ friends and had a pretty good time.
• We left after 1am and got back after 2am, and was dead tired.

Food

• Connect Hotel breakfast:
  • bread
  • cucmber
  • tomato
  • pate
  • ham
  • cheese
  • hot chocolate
  • cappuccino
  • pineapple and papaya yoghurt
• tasta mari lunch:
  • herring plate with potatoes (80)
  • saffron seafood soup(110)
• Roberts coffee latte (29)
• Chokladfabriken passionfruit truffle
• Chokladfabriken cardamom truffle
• F12 dinner:
  • bread and bread sticks
  • sour - onion pickle, salt – clavier, sweet – oyster crème brulee
  • celery and apple drink
  • .....

Day 1 14/3/08 - Sweden

London -> Stockholm

Highlight

• Plane was delayed by 1.5 hours, but no announcement was given. There were lots and lots of people at London City airport, with absolutely nowhere to sit.
• The airport at Stockholm was completely different of course, it was completely deserted when we arrived.
• We were really confused by the train for ages, before finally figuring it out.
• We were confused again by the hotel, and couldn’t find the entrance for ages.
• Needless to say, it was very late before we got to sleep.

Day 4 27/11/07 - Poland

Gdansk -> London

Highlight

• We had a later start than most days, but the same old breakfast.
• It was snowing very heavily, the road was very slippery but extremely pretty.
• No line on the plane, and even managed to buy some Chopin vodka for 79 PLN.

Food

• La Petite Hotel breakfast:
  • cherry yoghurt
  • muesli with pineapple
  • boiled egg and mango
  • cheese
  • ham
  • bread and breadstick
  • sausage
  • rye bread with cottage cheese, tomato, cucumber and olives
  • apple juice

Day 3 26/11/07 - Poland

Gdansk -> Sopot -> Gdynia -> Gdansk

Highlight

• Stuck in another traffic jam on the way.
• We couldn’t get to the concentration camp at Strutthof, as we had to cross a river by ferry, which was nowhere to be seen. It was supposed to be running but obviously it was not, so we wasted all that time, and had to drive back to Gdansk, where we were stuck in another traffic jam.
• The New Synagogue was very ugly.
• Oliwa Park and the cathedral were the nicest in Gdasnk, with pretty autumn leaves and landscaping.
• Sopot was much more resort like and residential. There was quite a bit of English around the place and was touristy, but nothing compared to the big cities.
• We started at the beach, which was very nice but cold. That would be my first trip to the beach in a down jacket!
• Walked along the very long pier, great view, saw the lighthouse.
• The Hippodrome was very boring, just a patch of grass with nothingt o see…I was hoping there would be some sort of marking or something.
• Walked along another touristy street from the pier. There were a lot of construction going on, a huge Sofotel complex was due to open soon…so even more tourists to come I suspect.
• Passed the statue of Parasolnik – very weird as Parasolnik is a clown!
• Past the famous crooked house, which was just that…a crooked house.
• Lunch at Bar Elita. It was a very quiet and cheap place, with another charming waiter. Things were a little salty, but nice!
• Couldn’t find: Garrison Church of St Jerzy, Sopot Castle, St Andrew Babola Church, but I’m sure we can live without seeing them.
• Gdynia – we walked up another hill, Kamienna Gora, which had another cross on top. The Polish sure are religious.
• This time we had a view of the town and the ocean. There was an excellent park attached to the hill too.
• Down to the beach and the naval museum, but we didn’t go in. They had the only ship, Dar Pomorza, that was built before WWII that survived.
• Church of the Scared Hear of Jesus – grey and ugly on the outside, but surprisingly different and pleasant on the outside.
• Couldn’t find:
  • Church of St Michael the Archangel - after driving for 40 minutes because we were stuck in a traffic jam)
  • Domek Abrahana – small museum in nondescript looking house
• Saw a huge traffic jam on the highway back so took the scenic route. It was dark and long, and very scary, but at least there was no traffic jam.
• We then couldn’t find the perogi restaurant (I guess there’s a theme here), we went to Matarnia to go shopping instead. Went to a hardware store, Obi, to get duskpan and bath mat, but couldn’t find a soap dispenser or command hooks.
• Ikea was very small and very disappointing. They didn’t have the bathroom stuff I wanted. The complement drawers didn’t have black and they had no square frames.
• Toured another supermarket with very cheap Lindt chocolate (2.8 PLN) but it was sold out, so we didn’t buy anything.
• Nothing else of interest, so we went to the hunting lodge restaurant.
• It started snowing heavily so everything was covered in white.
• They mis-interpreted our order but was nice and gave us one for free anyway. They didn’t accept credit card though so we had to go to an ATM to get money out. We gave them a large tip anyway.
• Slokky managed to make me mad by being absorbed with the internet.

Food

• La Petite Hotel breakfast:
  • cherry yoghurt
  • muesli with pineapple
  • boiled egg and mango
  • cheese
  • ham
  • bread and breadstick
  • sausage
  • rye bread with cottage cheese, tomato, cucumber and olives
  • apple juice
• Bar Elita lunch:
  • flaski (tripe soup) (5.4 PLN)
  • placeki (potato pancake with gouliash sauce) (7 PLN)
  • golanka (pork knuckle (24 PLN)
• Mysliwski dinner:
  • bigos mysliwski (hunters bigos) (8 PLN)
  • rosol muysliwski frykase (chicken broth with noodles) (6 PLN)
  • picen z dzika (wild boar neck) (20 PLN)
• apple

Day 2 25/11/07 - Poland

Gdansk

Highlight

• There was a small selection at breakfast, which was good so I didn’t get too full.
• It snowed in the morning, though only lightly, so the landscape was speckled in white
• We got a tram to Central station, and discovered all the bread shops located underneath, and the roaring trade they were doing.
• Started our city tour of one of many many brick churches, which everyone was going to for mass.
• Went to the “Road to Freedom” exhibition, which was an excellent display of Poland break from communism, which all started in Gdansk of course. The exhibit was made all the more poignant when you realised that it wasn’t that long ago.
• Met a very nice Polish guy when we were walking on the street, who talked to us about his life in Gdansk and helped us to find our way. He worked for some company with dealings with America so his English was quite good, and he displayed his pride in his town.
• We certainly attracted a bit of attention as we were the ONLY Chinese in town.
• Docks area to see the memorial to the fallen protesters and “the gates” where the dock workers separated themselves from the rest of the authorities.
• Down Long Lane, the old town, which had been completely rebuilt, and was very much like Munich.
• Lots of amber and jewellery stores, who display their wares on little tables out on the street.
• By chance, met an Aussie from Brisbane. They were part of an expat community who were out and about preaching Jesus to us and even gave us a copy of Awake!
• Lunch was a great find. It was a little pub situated below ground. It was full of people and the food was cheap and tasty. I just didn’t get the pictures of male naked bums that was hanging everywhere?
• Walked around the Marina, saw some unrepaired ruins of WWII, which were really the only remnants you can see from the war.
• Viewed “the crane”, but didn’t pay to go in, and the boats.
• Got tickets to go to a concert (Chopin of course!) at the concert hall.
• Climbed up the hill to a cemetery (with a cross of course) with great views over the city, which we actually managed to cover most of in one day.
• People eat very early here. We were there at 5pm and some people were already finished. The venue today was a perogi specialist, and I have to say, their perogi was very very good indeed. I was really tempted to try the perogi dessert but I was too full.
• The concert was in a small hall, but it was classy, and lots of kids go too. The pianist was excellent for a small hall in Gdansk. He even gave us two encores. He played a mixture of Schubert and Chopin.

Food

• La Petite Hotel breakfast:
  • raspberry yoghurt
  • muesli with pineapple
  • boiled egg and mango
  • cheese
  • ham
  • bread and breadstick
  • sausage
  • curried egg
  • apple juice
• paragon fiskanlny (fried donut with apple filling and icing sugar) (1.80 PLN)
• <>lunch:
  • zurek (sour soup) (4.5 PLN)
  • bigos (stew) (10 PLN)
• forest fruist chocolate (.9 PLN)
• <>dinner:
  • mushroom soup in rye bread (12 PLN)
  • pierogi with cabbage and mushroom (17 PLN)
  • pierogi with game (22 PLN)

Day 1 24/11/07 - Poland

London -> Gdansk -> Malbork -> Gdansk

Highlight

• Managed another very smooth run to the airport, again timed exactly right.
• Lots of people again, but we moved quickly.
• Gdansk doesn’t have a lot of signs and definitely no English, so it was a bit of a struggle. A small percentage of people seem to speak English, so it was not TOO bad.
• We finally found our car, amid the snow, a little red Renault.
• Managed to check in early. The hotel was basic, but comfy and quite cute.
• Drove to the shopping mall to get some supplies. Their huge Carrefour certainly doesn’t pale compared to others.
• Ate our goodies in the car, on the way to Malbork Castle – but got stuck in a traffic jam, and of course Slokky stalled the car, but he didn’t actually get lost!
• The weather got colder and darker, with light rain as we drove along.
• Malbork Castle is the biggest brick castle in the world, with a river and moat around, as expected. However, it was pulverized after the war and almost completely rebuilt.
• The castle was very cool and scary, with many dark passages. And since it was dead season, there weren’t many people visiting, so at times we had the whole place to ourselves and the guards. You can definitely get lost.
• The reason for our rush was that everything closed at 3pm, so we drove to Fashion House, another one of those fashion outlets, complete with a fake lighthouse, because we needed to stock up on winter clothing!!
• Well, there was no designer brands here, just high street, but we were surprised by how steep the prices still were, after hearing that everything is cheap in Poland. Well, don’t believe it, and the people are very stylish as well!
• We spent ages looking for a winter coat, but luckily the place is quite small and the assistants are very helpful. We ended our trip with gore-tex gloves and a down jacket.
• We chose a small, hard to find restaurant with Polish only menu, with a great waiter, of which only one spoke English and great food. We also almost had the restaurant to ourselves too!
• Back to hotel for that very fast free wi-fi, since we still didn’t have Internet at home (thanks BT!), then sleep.

Food

• Muller rice yoghurt apple, vanilla custard and strawberry
• orange juice (5.79 PLN)
• Cebularz (onion bread) (2.10 PLN)
• chleb bread (195 PLN)
• Leczo (sausage stew) (13 PLN /kg)
• toffee chocolate bar (3.65 PLN for 4)
• dinner at Restauracy jka U Babuni:
  • red wine (8 PLN)
  • barszec ezlpiero (beetroot soup with dumplings) (8 PLN)
  • Piecrony schab po (pork with apricot sauce) (29 PLN)
  • Pierogi ruskie (18 PLN)

Day 3 19/11/07 - Spain

Valencia -> London

Highlight

• We checked out without any problems, unlike check in.
• Took the bus to the old town and walked around some more sights.
• Glorieta – park with lots of trees next to the Puerta de la Mer – big archway roundabout thing. Slokky took ages to take pictures.
• Went to Santo Domingo and finally found Palacio Cervello, but it was closed 
• Carmen – the hippy, graffitied part of town. It’s much less buzzy than I expected, with only a few old people, but they did have a secondary market outside, before winding our way to the central market again.
• We picked up spices, ham, bread, pastries and antipasto after a long deliberation, but we didn’t get any mushrooms or fruit.
• Tried to go to <>, the only reason for going to town, but it wasn’t even open, it must be very low season, so it was a waste.
• Did manage to find another horno patissier with very good pastries and olive tarts.
• caught the bus back for more photos of the Science Centre, then spent the rest of the time, until 7pm in fact, there.
• We spent most of our time looking at the display of the complete genes, as we had seen other displays recently. There were lots of interactive displays: Amazon, space, addictions, light, wind, sports. Our favourite was the sports section with heaps of activities.
• Just had time to get to the supermarket and food shop before heading to the airport.
• Our Bono metro ran out, must be because we spent more than 1 hour retrieving the laptop.
• Ate our food on the metro, straight to airport and on plane
• Slokky didn’t get lost once today!

Food

• chocolate croissant
• empanada with tomato
• mini pastry with fish paste
• mini pastry with chorizo
• jamon
• stuffed peppers with anchovies
• palmier
• olive and tuna tart
• baguette
• marinated artichokes
• lollies
• stuffed peppers with tomatoes
• dried muscat
• white anchovies
• orange juice

Day 2 18/11/07 - Spain

Valencia

Highlight

• Sunday of course means that all the shops were closed. We walked around the Arts & Science Centre, really grand and different and magnificent, there were lots of joggers about.
• Took 20 minutes to find the Museo de Fallas. Slokky didn’t even look and it was right next to where we were going, and he took us on a big walkaround.
• We got stuck behind 2 tour groups as a result. We tried to follow the English one around, but they were too slow.
• The puppets stuff was very cool, including a few movie themes. There was no English again. We’ll definitely try to go to a festival one year in March.
• Finally, some shops were opened, we went to a bread shop for some pastries and we were actually able to buy Bono Bus.
• Bullfighting Museum – actually some English (yeah!). Very inhumane to bulls but the costume were grand and the displays were good. Unfortunately we couldn’t go into the ring because there was an event going on.
• Got metro to the seaside, but couldn’t find the Royal Shipyard – finally asked someone and made it 10 mins before it was supposed to close. A modern arts and design exhibition, but all in Spanish.
• Had to find the Museum of Semana Sena (Easter), the other of the big festivals in Valencia. Asked more people again. We did stumble upon the rice museum, so went in, as they had a repaired rice machine. We watched them prepare production rice, but as usual, everything was in Spanish only.
• Finally got to the Easter Museum, again, all in Spanish, but it was fun to look at all the floats and displays.
• Finally got to go to the beach, which was very flat with beautiful sand, some waves, a wide boulevard and a whole row of restaurants and bars.
• We did a walk through before deciding, only to find out that All of them were full and won’t serve you. There were HEAPS of reserved tables for 2:30pm, but also a lot of people leaving. Still, we tried every single one and they all said no. I guess they have enough business and don’t want more. In the end we had to give up and eat chocolate for lunch instead.
• Went to Pio Turia park and played on equipment of a giant man, quite fun but the slide hurts.
• Walked around the City of Arts and Science again and got combo tix to museum and Imax. Walked around the outside of the Oceangraphic and to the greenhouse for more pictures.
• Saw Secrets of the Titanic, but the sound was stuffed. We had to sit up and not move, otherwise we couldn’t get English. We complained afterwards and managed to get a refund.
• Bought some xuju juice – very yum, from the cart outside.
• Had an early dinner (7:45) since we didn’t have lunch. We ate with all the people there having their pre-dinner drinks, at a chain in the shopping centre of the hotel. At least the guy spoke English and the food was decent.

Food

• beer
• orange and pineapple juice
• palmier
• mini croissant, mini brioche
• chocolate croissant
• chocolate
• xuju juice
• dinner at Canas y Tapas:
  • San Miguel
  • mixed cheese (Manchejan, Idizabal, Cubra) (6.46)
  • croquette combo (ham, cabrales)
  • grilled wild mushrooms with garlic oil sauce (4.49)
  • potato in hot sauce (3.48)
  • white anchovies in vinegar with natural tomato (3.75)
  • pan of broken eggs and potatoes chistorra and green pepper (5.30)

Day 1 17/11/07 - Spain

London -> Valencia

Highlight

• The bus ride to Stansted was very smooth. We timed it just right again.
• The flight wasn’t full, but it was very hot, as though they make you sweat so you will spend money on drinks.
• We decided against getting the Valencia card as everything seems to be free on Sundays.
• Slokky realised he left the laptop on the plane, 20 minutes into our Metro ride out of the airport, right after I asked if he left his scarf, since he did the same thing on the bus to Stansted. Of course he said yes but he didn’t think about his laptop.
• So had to go all the way back to try to get it. Luckily it was still there as all of our stuff since we left Oz were on it and we had no backup!
• After our big delay, we finally made it to our hotel, after stopping off to buy ham and bred on the way.
• The hotel was situated in Aqua, a new age shopping complex. That was cool in a way, but it took us ages to find the entrance to the hotel.
• We had to wait 20 minutes at the check in, and then we couldn’t even get a room.
• Got the bus to the city, but we couldn’t buy the Bono Bus (a 10 trip pass), so we had to pay the full fare.
• Central market – was very good, so much fresh food and spices, but it closed for the lunch break, so we had to be quick. Managed to pick up some pastries before we were kicked out.
• La Lonja – was closed. Impression? Squarish with some animals on the door.
• Church of Sasntos Juares – pink building, also closed.
• Plaza Redonda – was being renovated. If it was not being done up, it certainly would’ve been impressive, a square with a fountain in the middle.
• We weren’t having any luck. Santa Catalina was also closed.
• Had our lunch at the park opposite the cathedral, with beautiful flowers and yummy ham.
• The Cathedral was the only touristy thing that you have to pay for (and probably why it’s opened!), but it had the “holy grail”, so we had to see it. Included with the entrance fee was an audio guide, which used some very complex English words, so naturally I didn’t really understand what they were talking about.
• Climbed the gates of Torres de Serranos for very good views – and for the clear glass floor where Slokky screamed every time he had to walk over one.
• Watched people playing football from the bridge on the way to the Museum de Belle Artes.
• The museum had no English at all, so we couldn’t really appreciate what they had.
• Observed some more architecture at Plaza de la Virgin, Roman ruins and the palace.
• Couldn’t find Palacio Cervello, so went to Plaza de Patriarca (a uni), where they have a modern art display, very cool.
• Musee de Ceramicca is housed in this beautiful historic restored Palaccio de mardhesde Dos Aguas.
• Slokky made us run to the bull ring even though it was 7:55 and it closed at 8, needless to say, we didn’t make it.
• Watched people have beers, coffee and chocolate & churros before dinner.
• Walked everywhere to try to get a Bono Bus but we couldn’t find any at all.
• We wanted to eat at restaurant Aquilia, but we couldn’t find it (probably closed), so ended up walking back to the hotel, finding a semi-full restaurant and eating there. Luckily the food was good.
• Back to the shopping centre, (now 10pm), and found it was in full swing with people eating dinner. We got some churros and chocolate before retiring to our room.

Food

• Espresso breakfast:
  • croissant
  • baguette with bacon and sausage
  • cappuccino
• Spanish ham
• mini empanada with tomato and pesto
• milky bread
• jam filled pastries
• palmiers
• Ciencias multi-vitamin juice
• Exemari dinner(basque Cuisine):
  • chorizo in cider
  • Northern cockles stew
  • salt cod Basque style
  • orange juice
• churros and chocolate
• beer