The Sun Calling the Moon Bright

Europe 2010 Day 12 - Venice - The Walk to Rialto Bridge & Piazza San Marco

2012-01-22T12:52:00.001+08:00

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7 Oct 2010

Our first proper full day in Venice takes us from our B&B to Rialto bridge and Piazza San Marco via a route north of the grand canal.

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The first part of today's walking route takes us down Strada Nova to Rialto bridge.

Goods delivery, all via boat and by manpower

Garbage collection

Along Rio Terra Maddalena / Strada Nova street

Chilli

Fondamenta de la Maddalena near Calle Scuola

Transporting goods on land in Venezia is the only way to resupply the cafes inland

Fixing some building, again by boat

The only McDonald's in Venice, it gets rather crowded during lunch

Traghetto, essentially an undecorated Gondola to get across the canal for €0.50.

Chiesa dei Santi Apostoli

We were told that the average price for a 40 mins gondola ride is €80 per gondola.

The Rialto Bridge (Ponte di Rialto) completed in 1591 CE.

Shops on the Rialto Bridge.

View of the Grand Canal / Canal Grande / Canalasso

Ponte di Rialto, leading on to the main market street of Venice

Carnival masks

Campo San Bartolomeo near the Rialto bridge

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For the second part of the walking route from Rialto, we backtracked a little and looped through the north to see some churches.

The back of Chiesa Di Santa Maria Dei Miracoli where the dome is visible. Built in 1489 CE, of early Venetian Renaissance style with marble.

Full view of Campo Santissimi Giovanni e Paolo where the Basilica di San Giovanni e Paolo is. The church is built in 1430 CE mainly of brick.

The doorway arch of the Basilica di San Giovanni e Paolo

Inside Basilica di San Giovanni e Paolo

Back on course to St Mark's square

Piazza San Marco, flooded in the morning at high tide

The Patriarchal Cathedral Basilica of Saint Mark (Basilica Cattedrale Patriarcale di San Marco) where we were the night before. The main cathedral of Venice, first built as the Doge's chapel in 828 CE.

Archway of the Basilica

We decided to come back later in the day as it was too crowded to walk around without getting our shoes wet

Campanile di San Marco (bell tower of St Mark's Basilica)

St Mark's Clocktower completed in 1500 CE with modifications to the clock since

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As Piazza San Marco was crowded and flooded, we decided to head to the northern bank of Venice to get the island of Murano in the north, famous for it's glassware.

Ambulances parked outside a public hospital near Campo S. Giovanni e Paolo, along Fondamenta dei Mendicanti. We were heading to Venezia Fondamenta Nuove to take a Vaporetto (waterbus)

Inside of the Hospital (Ospedale Civile Strada Statale Giovanni e Paolo)

Transport for funeral service to Isola di San Michele.

Isola di San Michele, the main cemetery of Venice. Chiesa di San Michele lies on the island.

We stood in the shade watching the ships while waiting for the vaporetto to arrive. Having covered a rather long route through the northern part of Venice in just a morning, it seems that the island is rather small after all. Next we will visit Murano to watch the glass blowers in action.

Check back for the next post soon.

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Europe 2010 Day 11 - Venice - Night Views of the City

2011-12-11T21:48:00.001+08:00

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6 Oct 2010

After our long ride on the Semmering Railway and our transfer to bus, we are at last in Venice (Venezia), the city famous for its urbanization and waterways. Venice was the cradle of the economically powerful Venetian Republic that lasted a millennium (697 CE to 1797 CE). Throughout its history, the republic was able to stand up to much larger European adversaries, the Eastern Romans, and later, the Ottoman Empire.

Having arrived by bus we proceeded to drag our luggage across the bridges to get to our B&B for two nights. There's absolutely no other roads except from the main connecting highway bridge and the bus terminal. For today, we will be taking in the night views of the city.

Arrived at Piazzale Roma, near the Venezia San Lucia train station.

The little bridge we had to cross with our 20kg luggage.

Main gate of our Bed & Breakfast place, Alla Vera da Pozzo. Waited for almost an hour because we forgot to update our time of arrival. Worst of all, we were bitten by mosquitoes.

Finally we met the very friendly and helpful owner. The master bedroom with attached bathroom... basically, it's the B&B owner's room rented to us for 2 nights !

Alla Vera da Pozzo is beside the main train station a short walk along a narrow alleyway, Calle Priuli dei Cavalletti. Then again, most of Venice consists of little alleyways.

The Grand Canal near the train station

Aerial view of Venice, with the Grand canal appearing as an inverted 'S'.

Gondolas!!!!

Carnival Masks encountered as we walked towards Campo Del Margherita

It's scenic everywhere!

The Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, Frari for short

Inside Frari

At Campo Del Margherita

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Being near some Universities, we were hoping to find some more reasonably priced food here.

Al Sportivi Pizzeria, no service and cover charge. The "cheapest" place we've found for food. The food's average but do not drink the house wine

Al Sportivi Pizza, tastes okay, €10.40

First tiramisu we had in Italy, one of the nicest although tasted like frozen food.

After dinner we made our way towards Piazza San Marco. This is supposed to be a good place to eat, as recommended by those sitting outside, Casin Del something

Twisting and turning around the dimly lit alleyways, you never know if you'll see something interesting round the corner.

The Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute (Basilica of St Mary of Health, completed 1687 CE) at night

Campo San Stefano after crossing the Grand Canal on a bridge

Someone dining by the canal

The famous Piazza San Marco (St. Mark's Square) at night, where the seat of power used to be with iconic St Mark's Campanile(bell tower)

Live music rang throughout the Piazza with almost every cafe here having performances

The Doge's Palace at night, built around 1424 CE. The Doge was the supreme authority in Venice

The Basilica Cattedrale Patriarcale di San Marco, (Patriarchal Cathedral Basilica of Saint Mark, i.e., St. Mark's Basilica, 1071 CE) at night. The main church of Venice and an example of Byzantine church architecture.

The Piazzetta San Marco, with the San Marco's Lion, the view towards Piazza San Marco. The Piazzetta and the Piazza are right next to each other!

Gondola parking lots at Piazzetta San Marco

Night shot of Ponte Rialto (Rialto Bridge, built 1591 CE) at the commercial centre of Venice. There are shops on the bridge itself

The night view of the Grand Canal from Rialto Bridge

The tiny alley, Calle Priuli del Cavaletti, near the San Lucia train station to get to our accommodation

That ends our walking trip for our first day in Venice. Our first taste of Italy in Venice gave us the impression that we were in a vast tourist trap. The place is beautiful but food and drink felt horribly overpriced. This made the earlier part of our trip feel like paradise. Unfortunately, we are to spend the better part of the trip in Italy. Yet, little did we know that Venice is actually the nicest tourist trap to be in!

Tonight, we had a good nights rest before tomorrow where we will walk through other parts of Venice and visit the nearby island of Murano, famous for its glass products.

Check back for the next post soon.

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Europe 2010 Day 11 - Vienna to Venice via the Semmering Railway

2011-12-04T21:04:00.001+08:00

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6 Oct 2010

Today we depart the Imperial lands and the fantastic beers for the hot sun, wine, and pizza. Our trip to our first stop in Italy takes us from Vienna to Venice (Venezia) via the Semmering Pass on the Semmering Railway, a UNESCO World Heritage site for being the first real mountain rail. We arrived early in the morning at Meidling Bahnhof and embarked on our 8 hour journey.

We are headed from Vienna to Venice through the mountains

One of the trains at the station while waiting for ours to arrive.

Our train. We took the 8.30am train for Vienna-Venice because it passes by the Semmering Pass in the daytime. There are night trains through the area.

Packed lunch

Reserved seats with our reservation information.

The carriages

First look outside as the train moved off. It's rather foggy up here.

Cattle

The train passes rather close to some towns.

I'm not certain which part of the journey is the actual UNESCO part of the Semmering Railway

More cloudy hills. Perhaps it was too foggy to see actual mountains in the background

Designer footbridge.

Very serene

Little towns surrounded by large plots of grass. I presume it's for grazing cattle.

Near Klagenfurt. Looks like a nice resort place, some tour buses were parked in the city

Arrival at Villach Hbf, this took about 4 hours. The train takes us to Villach where we needed to catch this connecting bus the Villach-Venezia route

Scheduled arrival at 12.46pm. Transfered to bus for a scheduled departure at 12.56pm!

We took the front seats on the second level. Nice view but we were over exposed to the blazing hot sun in Italy. The bus waited for some passengers who arrived late due to train delays.

Serene view, near Villach

Freight Train

Oh, Italien

Entering Italy

Can't help but feel sad that the good beer days are over.

Coming down the mountains

The bus stops at Mestre, Italy. The blazing Italian sun ensured we were well baked.

Finally!

Approaching Venice, the cruise ships on the right, the train to Venice on the left

We have arrived after approximately 4 hours of bus.

The entire trip from Vienna to Venice took almost 8 hours. Rather long, which is why there are overnight trains on this route. In all, I didn't feel extremely impressed by the route. Perhaps it was just too cloudy and the full beauty of the place is obscured. The scenery is not unlike some of the beautiful towns around Bavaria in the earlier part of our trip. In contrasts, the Qinghai-Tibetan Railway (the world's highest railway) that we took on our trip out of Tibet last year had some really wacky scenery that one usually does not simply explore on foot. However, the Semmering Railway is more than a century old, being completed in 1854 CE.

Having finally arrived at the bus terminus in Venice, we immediately felt the difference in strength of the sun. Without further ado, we dragged our luggage towards our accommodation.

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Bash scripting: parallel process control with 'bash' and 'xargs'

2011-10-21T13:22:00.001+08:00

I have been attempting to run bash commands in parallel on Windows with bash given by msys with some form of control over the number of processes spawned. With this setup I do not have access to the parallel command.

For example, we can always specify the number of processes for compilation to the make command using:

$ make -j4

that uses 4 parallel processes and no more. After much trial and error, I finally figured out how multiple arbitrary commands can be run in the same way with a similar kind of control.

Let us presume we have a command file with one line per command. For example, I am trying to build different machine learning models to predict outcomes on various datasets in parallel on a multi-core machine using WEKA. Hence I have a text file, cmd.txt, prepared by a script that contains lines like:

$JBIN -Xmx3g weka.classifiers.trees.J48 -C 0.25 -M 2 -A -i -t result-1-1/filter6-weka-train.arff -T result-1-1/filter6-weka-test.arff -p 0 -d result-1-1/filter6-J48.model > result-1-1/filter6-J48-report.txt
$JBIN -Xmx3g weka.classifiers.functions.LibSVM -S 0 -K 2 -D 3 -G 0.0 -R 0.0 -N 0.5 -M 1000.0 -C 1000000.0 -E 0.0010 -P 0.1 -Z -o -i -t result-1-1/filter6-weka-train.arff -T result-1-1/filter6-weka-test.arff -p 0 -d result-1-1/filter6-SVM.model > result-1-1/filter6-SVM-report.txt
$JBIN -Xmx3g weka.classifiers.functions.LibSVM -S 0 -K 2 -D 3 -G 0.0 -R 0.0 -N 0.5 -M 1000.0 -C 1000000.0 -E 0.0010 -P 0.1 -Z -W '1 2' -o -i -t result-1-1/filter6-weka-train.arff -T result-1-1/filter6-weka-test.arff -p 0 -d result-1-1/filter6-SVM-w-1-2.model > result-1-1/filter6-SVM-w-1-2-report.txt
$JBIN -Xmx3g weka.classifiers.functions.LibSVM -S 0 -K 2 -D 3 -G 0.0 -R 0.0 -N 0.5 -M 1000.0 -C 1000000.0 -E 0.0010 -P 0.1 -Z -W '2 1' -o -i -t result-1-1/filter6-weka-train.arff -T result-1-1/filter6-weka-test.arff -p 0 -d result-1-1/filter6-SVM-w-2-1.model > result-1-1/filter6-SVM-w-2-1-report.txt
$JBIN -Xmx3g weka.classifiers.trees.J48 -C 0.25 -M 2 -A -i -t result-1-1/filter9-weka-train.arff -T result-1-1/filter9-weka-test.arff -p 0 -d result-1-1/filter9-J48.model > result-1-1/filter9-J48-report.txt
$JBIN -Xmx3g weka.classifiers.functions.LibSVM -S 0 -K 2 -D 3 -G 0.0 -R 0.0 -N 0.5 -M 1000.0 -C 1000000.0 -E 0.0010 -P 0.1 -Z -o -i -t result-1-1/filter9-weka-train.arff -T result-1-1/filter9-weka-test.arff -p 0 -d result-1-1/filter9-SVM.model > result-1-1/filter9-SVM-report.txt
$JBIN -Xmx3g weka.classifiers.functions.LibSVM -S 0 -K 2 -D 3 -G 0.0 -R 0.0 -N 0.5 -M 1000.0 -C 1000000.0 -E 0.0010 -P 0.1 -Z -W '1 2' -o -i -t result-1-1/filter9-weka-train.arff -T result-1-1/filter9-weka-test.arff -p 0 -d result-1-1/filter9-SVM-w-1-2.model > result-1-1/filter9-SVM-w-1-2-report.txt
$JBIN -Xmx3g weka.classifiers.functions.LibSVM -S 0 -K 2 -D 3 -G 0.0 -R 0.0 -N 0.5 -M 1000.0 -C 1000000.0 -E 0.0010 -P 0.1 -Z -W '2 1' -o -i -t result-1-1/filter9-weka-train.arff -T result-1-1/filter9-weka-test.arff -p 0 -d result-1-1/filter9-SVM-w-2-1.model > result-1-1/filter9-SVM-w-2-1-report.txt

where $JBIN is an environment variable that points to the java bin. Now to run these in parallel but with a limit on the number of processes, use the xargs command to split the input lines as follows:

$ cat cmd.txt | xargs -0 -d '\n' -L 1 -I {} -P 3 bash -c "eval \"{}\""

The options used are:

-0 to retain quotes in the input line and presume arguments are terminated as \0 characters
-d '\n' to set newline as the delimiter between arguments, overriding \0 in the previous point
-L 1 to read one line at a time
-I {} to set parenthesis as a replacement string to substitute the argument read, in this case an entire line
-P 3 to limit to a maximum of 3 processes
bash -c "eval \"{}\"" to execute the substituted command within bash

And that is it. It works as long as the commands are on a single line. I have yet to test it on commands spanning multiple lines.

Europe 2010 Day 10 - Vienna - Schloss Schönbrunn

2011-09-04T14:30:00.005+08:00

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5 Oct 2010

Awoke fresh for our second day in Vienna. First we were headed to the Vienna Naschmarkt. A popular market that has existed since the 16th century. Then, we went on to visit Schloss Schönbrunn (Schönbrunn Palace), the summer residence of the empire.

Pilgramgasse station to get to the main market

We got out at Kettenbrückengasse‎ U-bahn station

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From Kettenbrückengasse‎ we walked down the Naschmarkt towards Karlsplatz

The Wiener Naschmarkt

Sweet stuff

Turkish Doner for breakfast

€ 2.40 Lamb doner in bread

The Vienna Secession, Union of Austrain Artists

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We took the U-bahn from Karlsplatz to the Schönbrunn station where the palace is. Schönbrunn Palace a summer palace and UNESCO World Heritage site. It consists of 1400 rooms and was originally a mansion constructed in 1548CE. The grounds of the large gardens houses the world oldest zoo.

The main gates of Schloss Schönbrunn, Schönbrunn means beautiful spring.

The palace through the main gates

First up we visited the rooms in the palace, elaborately decorated with chandeliers, portraits and wallpaper.

The Great Hall

Another room, lots of red

Back outside, horse carriages. I must say the horses get smaller as our trip progresses. They seem bigger closer to Bavaria.

The grounds of the nice gardens with the Schönbrunn Palace Garden Gloriette, the last building built in garden in 1775 CE, at the back on a hill.

Double headed eagle.

The court bakery to watch the apple strudel show is a vaulted cellar beneath the Café-Restaurant Residenz. Apple strudel actually came from the Ottomans.

The setup of the bakery.

Our strudel (larger version), about €8.40 with coffee and the show, which runs at almost every hour.

The filling: butter-breadcrumbs, cinnamon sugar, raisins, lemon juice, peeled sour apples, and a shot of rum!

The pâtissier, fluent in English and German, who will be demonstrating the apfelstrudel making process.

Stretching the dough is an important step; you could stretch it with your elbows underneath the dough, or...

... flipping the dough up in the air!

Voilà! The stretched dough should be thin enough to read through.

Done with the show, we headed to the Gloriette in the garden. A photo stop behind the fountain.

Schönbrunn from behind the Neptune Fountain.

Gloriette with pond in front.

The Schönbrunn Palace from the hill where the Gloriette is.

A statue near the staircase of the Gloriette.

A closer look at the Gloriette ceiling.

The Schönbrunn Irrgarten and Labyrinth. €2.90 to admit one adult. We went to try out the maze, puzzles, musical platforms, etc. in the compound. Try not to get lost in the maze!

Completed the tour at the summer palace, we headed back to Zieglergasse‎ station to visit the Furniture Depot nearby.

Furniture Depot Museum.

Lots of furniture.

Empress Sisi (Elisabeth of Austria, 1837-1898), famous as a non-conformist, is a feature at most imperial exhibitions in Vienna

More furniture. There is so much furniture it started to get boring.

Red pineapple motif on a chair, commonly used in the palaces for wallpaper and seating

We chanced upon a napkin folding exhibition. Here is an illustration of folding curves on napkin

Folded napkins were used as decorative purposes fo imperial dining

Double headed eagle, the Coat of Arms of Austria

Some kind of bird

An elaborate room setup with Coat of Arms near the ceiling

Leaving the furniture depot, we went in search of a pub near Stephansplatz for dinner

The pub was in the basement

Dinner! We chatted with someone and learned that this is the season for Sturm, a sweet wine that is short-fermented. Next we walked around Stephansplatz.

St. Stephan's Cathedral (Stephansdom), the tallest church in Austria

Inside St. Stephen's Cathedral

The Stephansplatz near the Dom

The Pestsäule (plague column), a monument that serves as a memorial of the plague in Vienna in 1679 CE. Inaugurated in 1693 CE.

We hung around this nearby cafe for a taste of Sturm

Sturm, shortly fermented wine, very sweet, only available in October

The day sums up our time in Vienna and the Bohemian part of our trip. Tomorrow we will be hopping on a long train ride to Venice through the Simmering Pass, a stretch of the tracks that is a UNESCO world heritage site. It is the end of beer and the beginning of wine.

Check back for the next post soon.

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Europe 2010 Day 9 - Vienna - Hofburg Palace & City

2011-07-17T14:31:00.005+08:00

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4 Oct 2010

The time finally came to bid farewell to the Czech republic and our friends. We woke up early in the morning to make our way to the Florenc bus terminus to catch the bus to Vienna, the capital of Austria.

Autobusove Nadrazi Florenc, the bus terminal. We had some difficulty locating it so early in the morning.

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We had to walk through the red building to get to the buses from Florenc metro station.

We are taking this coach to Vienna. About a 4hr 45mins journey

The U-bahn in Vienna (aka Wien), Praterstern station where we got off from the coach.

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We hopped on the U-bahn to get to Zieglergasse where we will walk to our hotel.

Austria Trend Hotel Anatol

We grabbed a Huge sausage for lunch for €2.60.

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Next we went to the city centre where the Hofburg palace is.

Volkstheater near Volkstheater U-bahn station.

Austrian Parliament building

Closer look at the statues in front.

Volksgarten ("folks' park") near the parliament and Hofburg Palace

Not very fresh looking flowers, probably Autumn is eminent

The Rathaus (town hall) in the background

The Hofburg Palace, Neue Burg section in the background. From 1400 CE to 1806 CE it was intermittently the seat of the Holy Roman Emperor. Then, the Emperor of Austria of the Habsburg dynasty, rulers of the Austro-Hungarian empire. It now houses some UN offices as well as the President's official residence.

Hofburg Palace Panorama of the Neue Burg section

The statue of Prince Eugene of Savoy, one of the most successful military commanders in mordern Europe, located in front of the Neue Burg section of the Hofburg palace.

National library in the Hofburg Palace

Spanish Riding school ahead

Spanish Riding School (Spanische Hofreitschule). We went back inside the Hofburg palace to view the imperial service, a collection of items used for banquets in the palace. Then, we toured the palace quarters where the Emperor lived. Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed inside the quarters.

Porcelain, a rather modern collection, the older collections were all made of metal that were melted down in times of war for manufacturing weapons.

Gilded (sort of gold plated) table ornament

Folded napkin Imperial style, only used for the Emperor and Heads of State, few know how to do it now

Greek Style plates.

Dolphin Insignia, used by Empress Elisabeth (Sisi) in Greece. She was the wife of Kaiser Franz Joseph I, born in Bavaria, and a famous non-conformist to court matters.

Some extravagant table pieces

A compressor, used to squeeze duck bone or meat juice

Elaborate napkin folding

More porcelain that became mainstream in modern times

A brittle basket of little practical use.

Emperor's Staircase, no pictures allowed inside his residence

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After visiting the Emperor's quarters we took the U-bahn to the Wiener Stadtpark (city park)

The Kursalon. A popular place for concerts and dance e.g. during the era of the Strauß brothers

The gilded bronze monument of Johann Strauß II

We walked back to Stephansplatz and had dinner in Nordsee, a German fast-food restaurant chain specialising in seafood

That ended half a day in the city of Vienna. Somehow with the gloomy weather, the Hofburg palace had a rather uncheerful feel to it. Tomorrow we will be headed to Schönbrunn Palace (the summer palace) and its surrounding gardens. Hopefully it will be a more cheerful place.

Check back for the next post soon.

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Europe 2010 Day 8 - Prague - Prague Castle (Pražský hrad)

2011-06-19T22:42:00.005+08:00

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3 Oct 2010

After returning from Pilsen, we immediately took the metro from Zličín to Anděl and switched to the tram. We are headed to Prague Castle (Pražský hrad), the largest contiguous castle complex in the world. One of the reasons that is so is because it is a 'castle', not a palace. The castle was started some time in the 9th century with buildings added throughout the centuries. Now, the Head of State of the Czech Republic seats here. Getting to the castle entrance on the hill required walking up the sloping streets and stairs.

Back in Prague for a visit to the Prague Castle. We had to ask for directions as there weren't many sign posts.

Medieval price of beer!

Below the medieval price of beer

Finally, we have reached the top; a shot opposite the main castle entrance where tourists have started to crowd around... hmm...

The change of guard

Bird's eye view of the largest castle complex in the world.

Entrance to Prague Castle

The Saint Vitus' Cathedral (Katedrála svatého Víta). This Gothic cathedral is the biggest and most important church in the country.

Door of Saint Vitus' Cathedral (Katedrála svatého Víta)

The Golden Gate

Inside St. Vitus' Cathedral, the rear is the oldest part. Coronations of some of the Bohemian kings took place here.

Statue

The Pulpit

We are walking on graves, probably of some Holy Roman Emperor or Bohemian King

Lots of stained glass in this gothic church, the church was enlarged over the years since its foundation in year 1344 CE

The back of the rose window

Tomb of John of Nepomuk, National Saint of Czech Republic. Drowned in 1393 CE by the Bohemian King for refusing to divulge the Queen's confession.

The last thing we saw in St. Vitus before moving on to the Vladislav Hall.

These are supposed to be the Bohemian crown jewels in the Vladislav Hall (Vladislavský sál), the crown, made in 1347 CE is supposed to be the fourth oldest in Europe.

Land titles of Bohemian nobility

Left, St. George's Basilica (Czech: Bazilika Sv. Jiří), the oldest church building in Prague Castle since 920 CE where princes are buried.

Inside St. George's Basilica, there is a crypt with a creepy statue down in the basement.

Holy Cross Chapel (Kaple svatého Kříže)

Looking out at Charles Bridge from Prague Castle

Castle Gardens, we left the castle after this.

Passing the Church of St Nicolas (Svatý Mikuláš) as we make our way back to Anděl

Home cooked dinner!

Feeling very poor for some reason, we bought ingredients from Tesco (hypermarket) at Anděl near the apartment we stayed in. Our friends proceed to whip up a nice meal for us. Then, it was time for our last round of drinks at the thirsty deer before sleeping. Tomorrow we will rise early and bid our friends goodbye before heading to Vienna by bus.

Check back for the next post soon.

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Europe 2010 Day 8 - Pilsen - The Pilsner Urquell Brewery

2011-06-15T23:46:00.003+08:00

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3 Oct 2010

This morning, we embarked on a short day trip to the nearby city of Pilsen (Plzeň). The city is famous for being the home of the Pilsner, the most prevalent lager style beer in the world today. At the heart of this is the legendary Pilsner Urquell brewery, home of the original pilsner beer since 1839. To get there the four us took the metro from Anděl to Zličín.

Czech coins: The Czech Koruna

Zličín Station. The bus tickets were bought from the Student Agency office here, it was about CZK 95 per person in one direction.

Bus bays at Zličín

Boarding the bus, it takes about slightly over an hour to get there.

The trip from Prague to Pilsen takes us back a third of the journey towards Nuremberg.

Drinks machine in the bus. They serve cappucino, hot chocolate etc. We missed the closer stop to the brewery and had to stop at the main bus terminal in Pilsen. We should have asked for the number of stops at the ticket counter. Unlike in Prague, taking the trams in Pilsen can be a difficult experience if you do not speak Czech.

Finally at the gate of the Pilsner Urquell brewery

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The view of the Pilsner Urquell brewery from the top

The brewery compound

The visitor center where you purchase tickets to visit the brewery. To our horror, there were no public tours in the morning unlike what was stated in their website! With luck we managed to join a private tour group thanks to their accommodating tour guide. The guide tour was in Czech, translated to Mandarin by the tour guide and finally to English between our group of four. The tour cost us CZK 150 per person and an additional CZK 100 per camera in use.

They claim that they could maintain the quality of the beer because they grow their own crops.

Different type of hops that contribute to the bitter taste in beer. Also as a preservative

The unique strain of yeast that they use, a sample of which is stored in a yeast bank in the UK for safe-keeping

Some of the old equipment that they no longer use

Josef Groll (1813-1887), First Chief Brewer, recruited from ... Bavaria!

Down into the tunnels where the beer is brewed and lagered

Entering the cellar which is kept at 8 degree celcius

Lifts used to haul barrels of beer

There are lots of tunnels here (about 9km), I wouldn't want to be lost in the cold!

Large fermentation barrels with beer inside and temperature markings. We were told that the temperature is used to check the extent of the fermentation process

End product barrels

Yummy fresh beer!

He was trying to entertain the crowd, it was nice. The wall is covered with (possibly) white chalk. Next, the tour ended and I grabbed some beers and a Pilsner Urquell mug at the brewery souvenir stall

Back to the city centre, a Czech brand in Czech

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Aerial view of the Pilsen city centre, I was enjoying the Gambrinus beer bought at the souvenir stall earlier

The Gothic St. Bartholomew's Cathedral, founded in the late 13th century, the tower of which (102.26 m / 335 ft) is the highest in the Czech Republic

Renaissance Town Hall

A statue at the square, Pilsen is a much cleaner and neater city than Prague

Tram stop just around the corner

Tram in Pilsen, there are about 2-3 tram lines

Multilayered Russian honey cake. A Russian specialy. Nice! tastes like oat cookies.

Lunch for 2.

After the rush to get to Pilsen and almost missing out on the tour, we were glad we still managed to see the brewery in the morning. By about 2pm we were back in Prague and headed next to the Prague castle, the largest contiguous castle complex in the world.

Check back for the next post soon.

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Europe 2010 Day 7 - Prague - Petrin Hill & Old Town

2011-05-14T13:50:00.008+08:00

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2 Oct 2010

Today we will be leaving Bavaria for good and moving on to Bohemia. We are heading to Prague which was the imperial capital of the Holy Roman Empire in the 14th Century. Nuremberg is where most routes to Prague pass through from Germany. We hopped on to our bus in the morning at the train station and off we were to the Czech Republic. A nice group of middle-aged German ladies were already starting on drinks enroute to Prague for their vacation.

Coach to Prague from Nuremberg, a pit stop and security check. There were some heightened tensions amid reports of a possible terror attack somewhere. Upon arrival at the main train station at Wilsonova, we changed Euros to Czech koruna (CZK) at the main train station. A horrible mistake that cost us some 20 euros in bad exchange rates. It is far better to change cash elsewhere in the city or at Tesco, where you can pay in euros and get your change in koruna. Only change what you need to purchase your public transport ticket at the main train station. We then purchased a public transport 24 hour ticket at CZK 100 that is good for all modes of transport within Prague.

View larger map
At the main train station of Prague

Down to the Prague Subway station of Hlavní nádraží at the main train station.

Some of the stations are of Soviet era design

View in a larger
Overview of the day's trip. Our service apartment, Aparthotel City 5, is near the Anděl subway station.

Our 4 person apartment, the room with kitchen

The other room, the toilet is shared. €94 a night for the whole place.

Our friends arrived earlier and were off somewhere so we decided to head to Petřín Hill.

Trams up Nádražní, always look out of pickpockets just in case.

The long queue for the Funicular to go up the lookout tower on Petřín Hill, fees are covered under the public transport ticket.

Church at the top of the hill and the tower on the left

Wow, but we had no time to feast

Some traditional cinnamon pastry

The really tight elevator that goes up the tower on the hill

Panorama from the tower on top of Petřín hill. Prague Castle on the left, Prague old town across the river on the right. The dark coloured bridge is Charles bridge.

Landmarks the can be seen from the tower

The Prague Castle. It is the largest contiguous castle complex in the world, because it's called a castle and not a palace.

Charles bridge

The Old Town Square (Staroměstské náměstí)

Strahov Abbey (Strahovský klášter) from the hill to the west of the Prague Castle. The Royal Canonry of Premonstratensians at Strahov is one of the oldest monasteries of the Premonstratensian Order in the world.

Ewok Doggie as we head down the hill and met our friends back at the hotel.

Back in the subway on the way to Můstek station. Lesbi Show?!

Really long escalators on our way out from Můstek, we were headed to the old town square of Prague.

View larger
Our walking route (in red) for the afternoon to evening around the Old Town square, along the river and to the part of town near the castle.

Very decorated car

The Old Town Square (Staroměstské náměstí) with the Astronomical Clock (Pražský orloj) on the left

Ariel view of the square, clock at the southwest

The building that houses the clock is the Old Town City Hall

The Prague Astronomical Clock (Pražský orloj) first installed in 1410 CE and the only working and third oldest clock of its kind in the world.

St. Nicolas Church (Svatý Mikuláš)

Inside the St Nicolas Church

Roof of St Nicolas Church

Buildings around the square

Horses here are smaller than those in Munich and Salzburg

The Powder Tower (Prašná brána) lies along a route leading to the St. Vitus Cathedral at the Prague Castle that Monarchs took for their coronation. It was built in 1475 CE.

"Guard" at the Powder Tower

The Municipal House (Obecní Dum) is at a former site of a palace that housed the Royal Court. It now houses a concert hall and restaurants. Being too hungry to walk further we had lunch here.

Inside

The musicians

Lunch and finally a taste of the famous Pilsner Urquell, the original lager! Food wasn't that great though. Next, we walked to the Vltava river bank.

Ministry of Industry and Trade

Along the Vltava River

Somewhere near the Jewish Quarters

A building at the Jewish Quarter area

The Rudolfinum, a music auditorium

Panorama of Charles Bridge (Karlův most) in the evening . The bridge was built in 1401 CE and is lined with statues. It servers as the most important connection between Prague Castle and the Old Town.

Prague Castle (Pražský hrad) with the St. Vitus Cathedral prominently featuring . Taken from across the river as the lights come on for the night. We will be visiting the castle complex tomorrow.

Walking down Charles bridge

Prague Castle by Night

The Tower on Petrin Hill

Another Church of St Nicolas (Svatý Mikuláš) near the castle

Going back to our apartment by tram

We managed to purchase some cinnamon sugar bread before the stall closed, its nice.

Then, we looked around our hotel for a pub to have some drinks. Staropramen Lager at one of them. We didn't like it so we left. Looking around, we encountered one of the German ladies we saw earlier on the bus leaving the Thirsty Deer Pub right next to our hotel. She said it's a good place so we went in.

Staropramen Dark at the Thirsty Deer Pub. Beer's nice, environment was okay as they had a non-smoking section on weekends. Food wasn't good though.

That ends a day of walking around Prague. Despite the CZK and the prices being cheaper than in Germany, we didn't feel like it was actually so. That is because it is hard to get a good exchange rate for the koruna in Prague and most prices are for tourists. It might be better to get your koruna somewhere else before going to Prague. That aside, tomorrow, we will embarking on a day trip to the town of Plzeň (Pilsen) where the Pilsner comes from. It is home to the famous Pilsner Urquell brewery which we will be touring.

Check back for the next post soon.

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Europe 2010 Day 6 - Bamberg - A Day Trip

2011-04-03T17:30:00.008+08:00

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1 Oct 2010

From Nuremberg today, we will be making a day trip to the city of Bamberg for which its old town is a UNESCO World Heritage site. In medieval times, Bamberg was ruled by Prince-bishops and was part of the Holy Roman Empire. The town was first mentioned in 902CE and was the centre of the Holy Roman Empire for a short time in the 11th Century. Bamberg is home to Rauchbier (smoked beer). A wonderful dark beer that has a barbeque flavour to it. The surrounding areas of Bamberg is one of the places in the world with the highest densities of breweries. Before catching the train to Bamberg on the €28 Bayern Ticket, we walked to the Hauptmarkt in Nuremberg for breakfast.€€€

St. Lorenzkirche in the morning

Closer look at the circular window pattern

St. Lorenzkirche up close reveals some interesting things

Breakfast at the Hauptmarkt, sausages in bun!

One long one

One shorter one, yummy!

Behind is the 4D gelateria where we had the €1/scoop ice-cream

Lost?

We caught the double decker train to Bamberg

Complicated train toilet door operators

Press the right flush! The red button looks like it will jettison you from the toilet seat

Arrival at the Bamberg train station (Bahnhof), we started with the blue route shown below by walking down Luitpoldstraße.

View Larger
Overall walking routes around Bamberg: Blue -- From train station to the famous Altes Rathaus then out to Altenburg Castle, Green -- Back tracking from Altenburg, to Michaelsberg Abbey, Red -- To the Cathedral, New Residence and finally to Schlenkerla for dinner.

Braurei Spezial, one of the places near the train station to have the local Rauchbier (smoked beer)

Down the Grüner Markt (Green Market)

At St. Martin Church (St. Martinskirche) on Grüner Markt

Inside the church

Fake dome created by perception painting

The Pulpit

Continuing down the road, we arrive at the iconic Altes Rathaus (Old City Hall) that is in the middle of the Regnitz river.

The Altes Rathaus up ahead

Houses by the river ahead forms the "Little Venice" of Bamberg

Coat of arms above the old town hall

Walking under

Saw this on the building on the other side, many builds have nice decorational statues

The Altes Rathaus, it was built in 1386CE.

The frescos on the altes rathaus

Nice red creepers

Finding our way slightly out of town to the Altenburg Castle

The long walk out to the castle

Altenburg Castle in a distance

Looking back at Bamberg town centre. It will be about an hour's slow walk from the main town area to Altenburg castle

Nearing the castle

Finally, almost there

Bridge to the castle gate

Entrance to the Altenburg Castle (1109CE). It was the residence of the Bamberg bishops from 1305-1553CE. The highest of the seven hills of Bamberg.

Castle tower

They used to keep a real castle bear here

There is just one restaurant up here, nothing else

What a waste, we were hoping for good views of Bamberg but the sky was overcast.

Walking back to Bamberg

Michaelsberg Abbey on the left, Imperial Cathedral on the right

Nice buildings

Attempting to navigate to Michaelsberg abbey took us to some dead ends

Navigating via landmark, the abbey up ahead, it is on one of the seven hills of Bamberg

We got lost at this point

Nice serene town

Pathway up to the Bamberg Residence

We finally found a small gate that led up to the back of the abbey

The back of Michaelsberg Abbey (Kloster Michaelsberg), a Benedictine abbey founded in 1015CE

View from the Michaelsberg Abbey

The Franconian Abbey Brewery Museum in Michaelsberg

Really small Guinness

Lots of Coasters

Different kinds of roasted malt used for beer

The front of Michaelsberg Abbey

Inside Michaelsberg Abbey

The Pulpit

The Altar

Next, we left the abbey and walked to Domplatz where the Cathedral and New Residence are.

The Cathedral (Bamberger Dom), a late Romanesque building built in 1012CE

Inside the Cathedral, big and plain

Bamberg New Residence (Neue Residenz, 1704CE), used by the prince-bishops and more recently by the disposed King Otto of Greece

360 video of Domplatz, the Bamberger Dom and the Neue Residenz

New Residence entrance

The New Residence Rose Garden

Stairway upstairs, it closes early in October and we missed it

Tired from all the walking, we headed to our final destination, Schlenkerla, for the famous Rauchbier and dinner.

Entrance to Schlenkerla, this place is first mentioned in 1405CE and is a historical brewery tavern

There are few separate dining areas inside, and they have an English menu

Rauchbier! (smoked beer), the default is the Märzen, €2.40 for half litre, comes straight from the barrel. It's fantastic, tastes like a barbeque!

Bamberger Zwiebel recommended by the waitress, its meat stuffed onion with smoke-beer sauce €7.80

Bamberger Sausages

Rauchbier Wiezen style, comes from a bottle at €2.60 for half litre

A small courtyard where you can buy the bottled rauchbier to bring home, I bought a Märzen and a Wiezen. Should've bought more.

Toilets with copper taps!

Walking back to the train station, the Bamberg "Little Venice" along the river

Back in Nuremburg with the €1 ice-cream from 4D

Too tired to walk further we took the Nuremburg U-bahn back to our hotel.

That ends our day trip out to Bamberg. Very manageable from Nuremberg with no need to rush. Bamberg is a very pretty town with nicely maintained buildings and sculpture. Unfortunately, the walk out to the Altenburg castle wasn't as fruitful as it turned out to be. Unless the skies are clear for pictures and good views I wouldn't suggest embarking on that. The Rauchbier more than make up for it though and is something that everyone should try. Tomorrow we will be leaving Germany for good and heading to Prague in the Czech Republic.

Check back for the next post soon.

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Europe 2010 Day 5 - Nuremberg - Around the City

2011-03-12T13:44:00.005+08:00

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30 Sep 2010

Having left our final morning at Oktoberfest in Munich, we went back to our hotel at the Ostbahnhof, got our bags and moved on to our next destination, Nuremberg (Nürnberg). Founded sometime in the 11th century, the old part of the city still has most of its medieval fortifications: walls, towers, and including the Imperial Castle on a knoll. It was an important city during the era of the Holy Roman Empire as the Imperial Diets (Reichstage) and courts met in the castle. In modern times, Nuremberg is also where the Nazis were trialed for war crimes after WWII. Another thing that makes this city unique is the long line of market stands along the King's Street (Königstraße) from St. Lorenz church to the main market (Hauptmarkt).

Nuremberg Hauptbahnhof. Arrived in Nuremberg from Munich. Since Nuremberg is in Bavaria, the €28 Bayern Ticket can be used for up to 5 people.

Hotel Ibis Nuremberg City

View larger
Our walking route, from hotel near the Hauptbahnhof, along the markets, to the toy museum, up the castle and looping back to dinner.

Entering the Old Town of Nuremberg.

They have 3-wheelers here

St. Lorenz church, Bible Discovery house built 1350CE

Lorenzer Platz near St Lorenz Kirche

Markets along King's Street (Königstraße) as we head towards the Hauptmarkt (main market) from St Lorenz Kirche. The castle is at the back

Bird's eye view of the market stalls starting at St. Lorenz Kirche and all the way up north past the bridge to the Hauptmarkt.

Arriving at the Hauptmarkt, the wooden stall slightly to the left of the centre sells a large assortment of sausages.

The Nuremberg Hauptmarkt

Church of Our Lady (Frauenkirche) cosecrated 1358CE at the Hauptmarkt

Golden Fountain at the Hauptmarkt

Up on the left is Sebalduskirche (St Sebaldus Church), the right is the Nuremburg Rathaus (city hall). Next we detoured to the Toy Museum.

The Toy Museum (Spielzeugmuseum)

Toys of yester-years, I had that He-man castle Gray Skull!

At the back of the museum, train tracks complete with pond and fish.

Entrance to the Nuremberg Imperial Castle, it is made up of 3 sections of buildings and was first mentioned in 1140CE

A well opposite the entrance

The Nuremberg Castle complex. Note the garden and the walls surrounding it. View larger

Castle walls

Part of the Nuremberg Castle, I think it is now also a hotel

The courtyard, there's a hostel in here. From left to right, the Heathen Tower (Heidenturm), Emperor's Chapel (Kaiserkapelle), and Deep Well (Tiefer Brunnen)

Sinwell Tower (Sinwellturm)

€2 Euro student price to go up

Going up Sinwell tower

Nuremberg castle courtyard from the tower

Other side of the castle

Nuremberg from the castle tower, the Altes Rathaus on the left and Sebalduskirche (St Sebaldus Church) on the right

Leaving the castle

The Nuremberg Altes Rathaus (Old Town Hall) as we walk down from the castle

Sebalduskirche (St. Sebaldus Church)

A model of the town

Dinner place, Bratwursthäusle bei Sankt Sebald (Bratwurst House beside St. Sebaldus)

Location of the restaurant on Rathausplatz, opposite the Altes Rathaus, beside the church View Larger

Inside of the restaurant, it was rather warm inside, so we sat outside in the cold with gas heaters

Bread basket. The bread always look like toys. A few cents each.

Half a pint of Lederer (€2.10) and a pint of Tucher Old Franconia (€3.05)

The Nürnberger bratwurst (the local special sausage) with Horseradish sauce. It is smaller than most other bratwursts. We ordered ten at €9.90, they were nice to give us eleven.

Liver dumpling soup (€3.10), tasted like luncheon meat, it was delicious!

A pint of Tucher Hefeweizen (wheat beer, €3.25). That sums up dinner for €27.

Walking back at nightfall, here the Hauptmarkt Fountain

Frauenkirche at the Hauptmarkt at Night

We had ice-cream here, €1 for a single scoop cone, cheaper than in Italy

Back to our hotel

That sums up our walking trip around Nuremberg in the afternoon. The city is of a nice size for walking. However it also has a U-bahn system for tired legs that is covered by the Bayern ticket. From here, we will be making a day trip to the UNESCO Imperial City of Bamberg tomorrow. Nuremberg is also the transit point to the Czech Republic, and we will be departing for Prague after two nights.

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Europe 2010 Day 5 - Munich - Final Oktoberfest

2011-02-19T13:12:00.005+08:00

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30 Sep 2010

This is our last morning in Munich before we headed out to Nuremburg. Not wanting to waste the price we paid for our hotel due to Oktoberfest, we decided to return for one last time.

Taking the U-bahn to Theresienwiesen station

The bird's eye view of Theresienwiesen where Oktoberfest is held every year. View larger

Long queue in front of the Hofbräu tent before it's open

We settled on the Hacker Festzelt tent, unlike the Fischer Vroni tent we visited few days ago, the staff here is less friendly.

The Hacker Festzelt Tent in the morning at about 9:30am

The large kitchens

Beer points, there are four of these

No Smoking Sign, this is the first Oktoberfest that is smoke-free

Loads of grilled chicken at the back

Specialty grilled chicken, apple juice and Hacker-Pschorr beer

Always amazed at how many they can carry

Some morning songs

This is the third litre this person is swallowing. Unfortunately, unlike his first two litres, he couldn't finish it leading to some jeers from the crowd.

Around 11am, packed at the walk-in area

People pouring out from a subway station at around noon as we were leaving

Crazy crowds as we were leaving at around noon

The six beers that are allowed to be sold in Oktoberfest.

It's goodbye to Oktoberfest. Next, we are heading north to Nuremberg, a nice town that still retains its medieval walls.

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Europe 2010 Day 4 - Salzburg - Schloss Hellbrunn & Around the City

2011-02-06T12:21:00.006+08:00

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29 Sep 2010

After visiting parts of the city, we went back to the jetty by the river for the Salzach river cruise. The cruise takes us somewhere near the Schloss Hellbrunn (Hellbrunn Palace) where some bus will take us to the palace itself. Hellbrunn was built in 1613-19 CE by Markus Sittikus von Hohenems, Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg, in the Baroque style. It is a day use summer palace with no bedrooms. The main attraction of the palace is the trick fountains in the gardens -- the many mechanisms that spray water and are operated by water. The cruise and subsequent entry into Schloss Hellbrunn is covered by the Salzburg Card.

While waiting for the cruise, the jetty is in fact a bar and they serve cocktails from far away like the Singapore Sling.

Overview of the Salzburg Salzach Cruise route. View in a larger map

One of the nice buildings along the river. I'm not sure what it is

University of Salzburg

Houses by the Salzach River

Destination of cruise, from here a bus takes us to Schloss Hellbrunn

At the castle, walking to a side entrance where the trick fountain tour starts

Ticket for the trick fountains, free with the Salzburg Card. If you do not wish to view the trick fountains and would rather be surprised when you get there, click here to skip this section.

Up ahead the infamous beer table

The infamous table where the Archbishop entertained his guests with beer

Sleep while having your beer and this is what happens, the only dry seat is the Prince Archbishop's

Video of the table in action

The ceiling of one of the many Grottos here

Grotto with face sticking out tongue

The tongue in action

Bird cave, all bird sounds are made by water

Video of the chirping in the bird cave

Trapped!

Stuck again

Watch out!

The entire moving town scene, powered by water mechanisms complete with background music

The entire thing is water powered!

Water powered rising hat

You will not get wet as long as the cap is in the air

Another grotto, surrounds the flying hat

Watch out again!

They are so small it is hard to see them

Schloss Hellbrunn Gardens

Pink roses

Long bed of red flowers

Orange flowers

Purple flowers

The gazebo featured in one of the scenes in the Sound of Music film.

The main building, there's an exhibit in here which we'll visit.

The Chinese room

Decorated roof

One of the heavily painted rooms

Small castle built in a year at a whim on an opposite hill

Leaving the castle, heading back to town

Back in town

At the famous Schloss Mirabell Gardens, the palace was built in 1606 CE and the statues of mythological characters since 1730 CE.

Very nice gardening

Hohensalzburg from Schloss Mirabell

The flower patterns

Strange statues supposedly based on mythology

The garden fountain and the palace building behind

Panorama view fo the front entrance to the garden

The Morzart chocolates sold everywhere here. I heard it doesn't taste so good so we didn't buy any.

Clock at the side of the Salzburg Cathedral

The New Residence

Inside the Salzburg Cathedral

The Cathedral Dome

Organ

A roof panel

Morzart's Residence

Some famous cake

Sunset

On the way to the Augustiner Bräustübl Tavern at Mülln. The Augustiner brewery was founded at the same location by Augustinian monks in 1621 CE. They brew beer using old methods. For some reason, we found the rear entrance to the tavern.

Map of the beer tavern relative to the city centre. View Larger

Grab your mug, pay its volume, get your Bräustübl beer from the barrel, drink, rinse, repeat

At the tavern's beerhall with my litre of beer in a stone mug

Beer warmer, the beer here tastes better when it is warmer

Food stalls

Spiral shaped horse radish!

Nice peppered sausages

The seemingly rear entrance

Our Railjet ride back to Munich

Back in the Munich Hauptbahnhof, an Oktoberfest casualty

The Munich Augustiner, every convenience store is packed full of it for those who haven't got enough at Oktoberfest

So ends our day trip from Munich to the UNESCO city of Salzburg. Indeed it was one of the nicest cities I have visited. The Salzburg Card is a very reasonable price for the number of attractions it covers. Tonight will be our last in Munich and we will be headed to Nuremburg tomorrow. But not before a final stint at Oktoberfest in the morning!

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Europe 2010 Day 4 - Salzburg - Mönchsberg Hill & Hohensalzburg Fortress

2011-01-09T18:32:00.003+08:00

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29 Sep 2010

We made our second day trip from Munich today. This time to Salzburg, the fourth largest city in Austria and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Salzburg is the birthplace of Morzart. Furthermore, many locations of the famous film, The Sound of Music, was filmed in and around the city. Getting there involves a 90 to 120 minute train ride. The Bayern Ticket on weekdays is only valid after 9am. Catching a train after 9pm means we will only reach Salzburg after 12pm. Hence, to maximize our time in Salzburg, we decided to book a more expensive return train trip (at €68 for 2) instead of making use of the Bayern Ticket (at €28).

Catching the OBB Railjet to Salzburg from the Munich Hauptbahnhof

Taking the Railjet to Salzburg, duration from 7.27am to 9.02am. 2nd Class seats

The dining car in the Railjet

First class seats. Upon arrival at Salzburg, we quickly purchased a Salzburg Card for €25 per person for one day at an office right outside the Bahnhof and took a bus to the city centre. All public transport is covered by the card.

The Hohensalzburg Fortress (Festung Hohensalzburg), sitting on top.

We will be taking this cruise ship later in the afternoon along the Salzach river.

Panorama of Salzburg along the Salzach river from bridge at Marketsteg

Map of Salzburg City Centre, most sights are south of the river. Mozart's residenz and Schloss Mirabell with its famous gardens are north of the river. View Larger.

Walking to the Mönchsberg lift, it takes you up the hill with nice views of the city.

The Mönchsberg lift, taking us to the viewpoint above the old town, entry is covered by the Salzburg Card.

The lifts

Panorama of Salzburg's old town from Mönchsberg Hill , it began to drizzle as we walked along the park on the hill

Dom zu Salzburg: Salzburg's Cathedral

Dreifaltigkeitskirche: The Church of the Holy Trinity. Building took from 1694 to 1702 CE

Kapuzinerkloster, a monastery on the hill opposite the fortress

Clock tower of the Salzburg Rathaus

The New Residence (Neue Residenz), where the Price Archbishops lived in the city. They ruled over both the church and secular matters of Salzburg.

We departed the Mönchsberg Hill and made our way along the streets. A walkway with shops. Pedestrian walkways are common and are useful for getting to the road on the other side of a block of apartments.

Toys

Musical liquor

Nordsee restaurant, had our lunch here.

Looks so yummy!

Eat me!

Mozart's birthplace, a small museum, free entry with the Salzburg card

Exhibit in the museum

The New Residence at ground level

Gore-tex on horses. cool

Front of the Salzburg Cathedral

Hohensalzburg Fortress with the Funicular track on the right

Entrance the fortress funicular

"Fortress - High - Salt - Castle", ticket covered by the Salzburg Card.

Going up!

Inside the Hohensalzburg

View of the Salzach River from the Hohensalzburg Fortress

A room on top of the castle stable, used to store salt. Below each pisture is a model of the castle; showing the modification made by each of the Prince Archbishops that are both religious and secular rulers of Salzburg

The wheel, a torture device. Can be thrown at prisoners to break their bones.

Fortress compound from one of the roofs

The compound of the fortress, viewed from a roof

Panorama of Salzburg from the roof of one of the buildings in Hohensalzburg Fortress

A building on the other side of the fortress hill that is mostly flat land. This makes Hohensalzburg fortress a good defensive position

Another defensive fortification on an opposing hill

Bishop's quarters

The Majolica stove. Most castles has stoves at corners of rooms for heating. Some have hidden service corridors where the servants can supply fuel to the stoves without being seen.

A marionette exhibition within the fortress

After visiting the fortress, we hurried through the town back to the river cruise. Next, we will cruise to the Schloss Hellbrunn (Hellbrunn Palace), the summer palace of the archibishops where the famous trick fountains are located within the gardens.

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Europe 2010 Day 3 - Hohenschwangau - Day trip to Schloss Neuschwanstein

2010-12-18T16:14:00.006+08:00

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28 Sep 2010

Today, we will be making a day trip to the small town of Hohenschwangau where the famous fairy-tale-like Schloss Neuschwanstein and the Schloss Hohenschwangau castles are. Hohenschwangau means high (hohen) swan (schwan) district (gau). Neuschwanstein was built in 1892 CE for the "mad" King Ludwig II of Bavaria, the interior was never finished but is the inspiration for Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle. To get there by train, we used a combination of our 3-day Munich City Card and the €28 Bayern (Bavaria) Ticket. Both tickets are good for up to 5 people.

First up, breakfast at the Hauptbahnhof (main train station)

Next, pack some pretzels in case there is no time for lunch

The regional train, RE 32604 to the town of Füssen. Catch the 8:52am train that reaches Geltendorf (the last station valid for the City Card) at 9:22am. From then on, since it is after 9am, the Bayern ticket can be used to continue the journey to Füssen without getting off.

The Füssen train station, bus to Hohenschwangau is at the back of this building

Bus 73 to Hohenschwangau departing at 11:05am, Bayern Ticket usable. There is another bus number that should arrive at Hohenschwangau as well. Look for the castle pictures on the bus.

Rotating stone fountains while passing through Füssen

Hohenschwangau Bus Stop, remember to check the return bus timings! They end early, e.g., 6:30pm, when it is not summer.

Map of Hohenschwangau showing ticket centre, beer garden where we had dinner, and bus stops. View larger.

First look at Schloss Neuschwanstein in a distance

The ticket centre to purchase the castle tours, a short walk round the corner from the bus stop. Tour timings for various languages for both castles are displayed on screens inside. Tell them you want a Royal ticket (€17) and they will space it out so that there is enough time for both castles. Tourless visits are not allowed!

€2 per person to ride up to Schloss Hohenschwangau, but it is easy to walk, takes a few minutes without posing for pictures

The walk up to Schloss Hohenschwangau, about 5 minutes non-stop

Schloss Hohenschwangau as seen on our way up. It was built on top of the remains of the medieval Schwanstein fortress and fully completed in 1855 CE by King Maximillian II, Ludwig II's father.

The town of Hohenschwangau, very serene and very nice buildings

The beer garden where we will be having dinner later

Iniside the castle, a swan fountain. The swan seems to be the royal family's mascot and is commonly featured everywhere

Main building of Schloss Hohenschwangau

What looks like an outdoor bathing area

The surroundings on the other side of the hill

Schloss Hohenschwangau is where Ludwig II spent most of his time as a child with his brother. It is his father's summer palace.

A suit of armour. Unfortunately, no pictures allowed further inside

Back outside the road down the main gate of Schloss Hohenschwangau. We came up via the side footpath

We took a €2 per person ride on the horse carriage for kicks. It takes the longer road along the lake, back to the town

Passing those taking the long way up to the gates of Schloss Hohenschwangau. Once down below, we rushed to queue to buy tickets for the bus up to Schloss Neuschwanstein. Takes about 40 minutes from the bus stop at the town to the castle tour entrance and costs about €2.80 for a return trip. There is a short walk from the terminal bus stop to the castle entrance.

View of Schloss Hohenschwangau on the way to Schloss Neuschwanstein's entrance.

Approaching Neuschwanstein

The main gate of Neuschwanstein. Ludwig II had a thing for an idealised Middle Ages from watching operas. He never stayed in the castle though, he was declared insane and then, he drowned in a lake under mysterious circumstances.

Inside the Neuschwanstein compound, the Palace and Knight's building (right). The castle was never finished. When Ludwig II died, only the gateway building, knight's building and palace were finished. Within the palace only the kitchen, royal apartments, throne roome and singers' hall were complete.

No pictures were allowed in the castle but I managed to get one of the concert(singers') hall. This illustrates why the castle was never finished. Every room is heavily decorated with scenes from operas that Ludwig II enjoyed. The throne room is so lavish that seems more for a Roman Emperor than a king. Ludwig II's bed has wooden carvings of numerous gothic church towers on top. There is even a man-made cave in the castle! It must have been a really costly.

The palace kitchen on the way out

Hohenschwangau down below

Panorama of the surrounding area from Schloss Neuschwanstein near the palace kitchen

Marienbrücke (Mary's Bridge) behind Neuschwanstein, where you can get nice photos of the back of the castle. Don't forget to walk to it before returning to town!

At Marienbrücke, a little waterfall below

Schloss Neuschwanstein from Marienbrücke, but with ugly restoration scaffoldings

The bus back down, if you did not buy a return ticket, you can buy it on the bus

Back at the town, we walked to the nearby lake

The Schloss Beer Garden where we had dinner, they close early, about 5:30pm

At the beer garden, buy your food outside and sit, someone will take your order for beer. We went inside as it was cold outside

Konig Ludwig beer, schnitzel with bread and some sausage, all these for €13.80

The beer hall

Walking back to the bus stop another one of those nice buildings, perhaps it will be nice to stay overnight here

Back at the bus stop, we were shocked that there's only one bus remaining that departs for Füssen at 6:30pm! Thank goodness the beer garden closed early, otherwise we will have to stay overnight

Back safe and sound at Füssen bahnhof, waiting for the return train to Munich

So ends our visit to the fairy-tale castle. Hohenschwangau is one of the nicest towns I have visited. A very relaxing place. The only negative thing is the lack of good sunlight for nicer pictures. But the clouds did add to the dream-like feel of the place. Tomorrow we will be making an even longer daytrip further away to the city of Salzburg in Austria, where Mozart hails from and the Sound of Music was filmed.

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Europe 2010 Day 2 - Munich - The City Centre

2010-12-11T17:07:00.003+08:00

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27 Sep 2010

We left Oktoberfest at about 5pm and returned to Marienplatz to take a walk around the city centre. Originally, we planned to visit the city centre in the afternoon. However Oktoberfest proved too alluring.

Leaving Oktoberfest, huge crowds were pouring in to Oktoberfest after work

On the busy U-bahn

Back at Marienplatz

First, we entered St Peter's Church right opposite the New City Hall. It was built in 1368 CE Strangely, we forgotten to take a picture of the church exterior.

Golden statues adorn the two sides

A closer look at the altar. Next we went back outside and entered the church tower.

Climbing up the tower of St. Peter's Church (€1.50 per person), for panoramas of Munich

At the top, here's the view of the iconic Frauenkirche, Cathedral of Our Dear Lady (bulit 1488 CE), the catherdral of the Archbishop of Munich.

Close up of the clock tower

Panorama to the left side of the Frauenkirche . We view from the left of the Neues Rathaus (New City Hall) to the right.

The Neues Rathaus

The yellow building behind the Neues Rathaus, the Theatinerkirche on Odeonsplatz

The fountain at Marienplatz

Gazing outwards towards the right of the Neues Rathaus

Down below to the right of the New City Hall, the tower is the gate beside the Altes Rauthaus (Old City Hall).

Close up of the click on the gate of the old city hall.

Through the gate of the Altes Rauthaus is Viktualienmarkt (main market) where we were in the morning

The Maximilianeum, a sort of a palace-like building, houses gifted student's foundation and the state paliarment.

Back down below, a close up of the Neues Rathaus Glockenspiel

The statue on the roof of the Neues Rathaus

Walking around the streets of the city

You can get your oktoberfest gear here, ops, I mean the Bavarian costume here.

We shopped around for some souvenirs

Then, we took a tram to the Maximilianeum

The Bavaria statue on the roof

Monument of King Maximilian II of Bavaria opposite the Maximilianeum that was built by him

We were completely stuffed from a day of eating at Oktoberfest, so we skipped dinner tonight and hopped on the tram back to our hotel near the Ostbahnhof. Time for a good night's rest before our next day's day trip out to the dreamy town of Schwangau where the fairy tale Neuschwanstein castle is.

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Europe 2010 Day 2 - Munich - Viktualienmarkt & Oktoberfest!

2010-12-03T23:36:00.011+08:00

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27 Sep 2010

Monday. Our planned Oktoberfest day! However, Oktoberfest starts at 10am on the weekdays, so we woke up early to take a walk around the Viktualienmarkt, a market nearby Marienplatz, the city centre of Munich since 1158 CE.

On the S-bahn from the Ostbahnhof (East Station) to Marienplatz (Mary's Square)

Map of the city centre. We walked from Marienplatz, through the Altes Rathaus (Old City Hall) to Viktualienmarkt. View larger.

The Neues Rathaus (new city hall) at Marienplatz

The Rathaus-Glockenspiel, the figures move at 11am everyday

Virgin Mary atop the Mariensäule (Marian Column), with the Frauenkirche behind. The column was built in 1638 CE to celebrate the end of Swedish occupation.

At Viktualienmarkt

Bread stall, we bought some €0.50 pretzels here

Are we near the mountains or by the sea? There's some amazing looking seafood here

Walking around the market stalls

Veggies Fall-in! Everything is incredibly clean, neat, and looks fantastic.

Souvenir toys

Notice anything of interest?

There's durian and jackfruit, although the durian does look like its been there for too long...

Flower stall

More breakfast for about €2.85

On our way to Oktoberfest, switching over to the U-bahn at the Hauptbahnhof (main train station)

Finally, we are here! Right out of Theresienwiese U-bahn station. Oktoberfest runs from September to October for only about 18 days and sees some 5-6 million visitors. It started in 1810 CE. Many people attend in their traditional dress.

The bird's eye view of Theresienwiesen where Oktoberfest is held every year. View larger

The Fischer Vroni tent, where we decided to stay put.

Fischer Vroni's Specialty, BBQ fish on the stick!

There's so much BBQ fish out here, it smells of BBQ fish in the tent

Inside at about 9:15am, we sat at a table that is reserved from 5pm onwards. This is the first year that there is no smoking inside the Oktoberfest tents. Perfect for non-smokers like us!

The Augustiner, an excellent local beer that is hard to get anywhere else. It is also the oldest in Munich's Oktoberfest. Only 6 local beers are allowed to be sold in Oktoberfest. Everything with beer comes in 1 litre (Mass) at €8.90, more expensive due to the festival. Before attending, we heard about how the waiters/waitresses at Oktoberfest will usually give you no change. To our surprised in Fischer Vroni, they gave us all the change and you decide how much you like to tip them. They even have an English menu, very nice. Next, I took a walk around the tent.

Beer comes from the barrel from a real tap. That's how it should be on the tap!

Reassurance that there's enough beer left, large LCD screens showing CCTV of the store are placed all around the tent.

Souvenir stall

Gingerbread Souvenirs, people buy this and walk around with them round their necks.

Kitchens are large

Since it was still early, I went to check out the other tents

The Hippodrom, they serve Spaten

Inside the Hippodrom, very red, recommended for singles due to high flirt factor

Pretzel stalls and food stalls are everywhere.

The Armbrustschützen - Bull's Eye! tent that serves Paulaner

Inside the tent, one of the attractions is the Oktoberfest crossbow competition

Back at our tent and starting on breakfast, Fillet of Herring with boiled potatoes, €11.50.

It is about 10:30am and it is almost full, the band has started

Closer to lunch time, BBQ Mackerel on the stick! €3.50 per 100grams, this was €14.

Looks like some American tourists are starting the table top dancing early

Every 30 minutes, they will play Ein Prozit (cheers?) and it means it's time to take another gulp if you haven't and knock mugs with your neighbours

Past noon time, the place is full. Looking back at the pictures after the trip I realised there were lots of men. It turns out, we were in the middle of the largest gay event in Oktoberfest without knowing it. Ah... tourists...

The crazy queue outside. No seat, no bier. Smokers also had to stand outside.

Later into the afternoon at 4pm

Time for tea, here's 1/4 a roast duck with two potato dumplings and really tasty red cabbage for €13.80.

It was almost 5pm and time to leave, we took a walk around outside. Some huge horses here. In fact, the largest we have seen on our entire trip.

The Hacker - Bavarian Heaven tent, we will be back here on our last morning in Munich

The Augustiner-Festhalle tent, the friendliest Oktoberfest tent

Schottenhamel tent, the most important tent where the Mayor of Munich opens the first keg on the first day of Oktoberfest at 12pm.

The Löwenbräu tent

More tents

Schützen-Festzelt

Inside Schützen-Festzelt

The Bavaria statue above Theresienwiese. Oktoberfest commemorates the wedding of Princess Therese to Crown Prince Ludwig I of Bavaria

What looks like a large play house where one can stumble around after a few drinks.

The ferris wheel. There are many rides you can go on after drinking.

After an entire day of food and some 3 litres of oktoberfestbier, we left Oktoberfest and headed back to Marienplatz to take a short look around the town centre and St. Peter's Church. One day wasn't enough for all the excellent beer here and already I was thinking of returning for more.

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Europe 2010 Day 1 - Munich - Schloss Nymphenburg (Nymphenburg Palace)

2010-11-21T15:08:00.008+08:00

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26 Sep 2010

After a long flight on Emirates including a 4.5 hour transit at Dubai, I finally arrived in Munich, the capital of Bavaria, during Oktoberfest! Except for the long transit waiting time, the flight was nice with a good entertainment system and food. Upon arrival, everyone waited to cross the customs. They ask the usual, "What are you here for?". Tell them "Beer!" and get your stamp. Tell them "Work!" and you can be prepared to wait till they check all your papers. I waited another 2 hours for my partner to arrive before we went to find our hotel. So begins the first part of our trip that is a beer pilgrimage of sorts.

For today we will be taking it easy and visiting Schloss Nyphenburg (The Nymph's Castle). A Baroque palace built in 1675CE where the famous mad Bavarian King, Ludwig II, was born.

Walking from Terminal 1 to 2, inbetween is a large outdoor space. Here's an 'airplane' stall selling some grilled sausages and beer.

We took the nice and clean S-Bahn into the city after purchasing a 3-day City Card at €48.00 that is good for up to 5 people and covers a large part of the transport network till the airport.

Arrival at Motel One near the Ostbahnhof. It was €124 a night for a double room due to Oktoberfest.

View Munich in a larger map
Location of the hotel

The rooms aren't big but they are new and clean, so is the bathroom.

From our hotel, we had to switch trams at Karlsplatz (Stachus). Here is a panorama of the square

The Justizpalast (Palace of Justice), a courthouse, built in 1897CE.

Arrival at Schloss Nyphenburg via tram 17, the front view of the palace and the waterways leading up to it.

View Munich in a larger map
Aerial view of the palace, notice the large park behind it.

One of the palace wings

Close up of the main building

Panorama of the front of Schloss Nyphenburg and the side wings

The many swans and ducks in the pond in front as we walk up to the palace. The swan is associated with the line of King Ludwing II

Some of the garden flowers, we proceeded to walk to the large park at the rear

The gardens at the back of the palace

A golden lamp

More orange flowers

One of the many statues adorning the garden

Reflection of the rear view of Schloss Nyphenburg in the pond

Many come here for exercise, it feels really serene

We walked to a small wooden bridge across the canal (marked on the map) to take the rear of the castle as the setting sun is reflected on its windows.

Schloss Nyphenburg as the sun sets

On our way out, twin clock towers of a church nearby

A small car that is common throughout our Eurotrip. Next we caught the tram to Isartor and walked to our dinner place from there

The Isartor constructed in 1337CE at the Isartorplatz is the eastern city gate of the second, larger city wall of Munich. It was named after the nearby river Isar and Tor refers to gate.

View Munich in a larger map
We were looking for Schneider Weisse's Weisses Bräuhaus established since 1540CE. It was a walk northwest up Tal from Isartor.

The Weisses Bräuhaus, every waitress is a mobile cash register. Inside there are large tables and sharing tables is the norm. The waitresses did not speak English but they did have an English menu (also in their website above).

Try the house wheat beer, the Schneider Weisse Beer. We also had the dunkel. For food we had the very delicious Tender boiled Ox breast (main picture) with horseradish, and the Peasant's Feast (bottom right) with Semmelknödel (white bread dumpling). Three half litres of beer and these cost €31.

The many beers on the tap.

After dinner we caught another tram back to our hotel. Being our first day here after a long flight we quickly drifted into sleep. Tomorrow we will be visiting the main city square, Marienplatz, the nearby market, Viktualienmarkt, and the seasonal highlight of Munich, Oktoberfest!!!

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Europe 2010 - Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Italy

2010-11-07T14:57:00.028+08:00

Finally the time has arrived for a proper Euro trip. Since we're at it we might as well make it a pilgrimage to the holy land of beer where the most important event, Oktoberfest was being celebrated. Our travel took us through Bavaria (Germany), Bohemia (Czech Republic), Austria, and Northern Italy, starting at Munich and ending in Rome. In the process we visited some 17 towns and cities in a span of 22 days. Thanks to a predorminantly liquid diet, the Euro, and lugging around some 8 pints of beer, I came back some 4-5kg lighter. It was a wonderful experience.

The 8 pints, from left, 2 Augustiners from Munich, Schlenkerla Rauchbier (smoked beer), Wiezen and Märzen styles from Bamberg, the original Pilsener Urquell and Gambrinus from Pilsen, Puntigamer and Ottakringer dunkles from Austria.

Rough map of the our question mark (?) route (View Larger)

Blue Line and placemarks -- Main route and overnight stays
Red/Green Line and placemarks -- Day trips to towns

This is an index page to all the related posts for this trip, to be updated as they are posted.

Day 1 - Germany, Munich - Schloss Nymphenburg (Nymphenburg Palace)

Day 2 - Germany, Munich - Viktualienmarkt and Oktoberfest!

Day 2 - Germany, Munich - City Centre

Day 3 - Germany, Hohenschwangau - Day trip to Schloss Neuschwanstein

Day 4 - Austria, Salzburg - Day trip part 1, Mönchsberg Hill and Hohensalzburg Fortress

Day 4 - Austria, Salzburg - Day trip part 2, Schloss Hellbrunn and Around the City

Day 5 - Germany, Munich - Final Oktoberfest

Day 5 - Germany, Nuremberg - Around the City

Day 6 - Germany, Bamberg - A Day Trip

Day 7 - Czech Republic, Prague - Petrin Hill & Old Town

Day 8 - Czech Republic, Pilsen - The Pilsner Urquell Brewery

Day 8 - Czech Republic, Prague - Prague Castle (Pražský hrad)

Day 9 - Austria, Vienna - Hofburg Palace and City

Day 10 - Austria, Vienna - Schloss Schönbrunn

Day 11 - Vienna to Venice via the Semmering Railway

Day 11 - Italy, Venice - Night Views of the City

Day 12 - Italy, Venice - The Walk to Rialto Bridge & Piazza San Marco

Check back soon for more!

Perhentian Island, Malaysia 2009

2010-11-07T14:31:00.006+08:00

27 Jun 2009

Some time last year we went with a group of friends to Perhentian Island to enjoy the sun, sand, and sea. Having been to Redang before I was looking forward the nice clear waters of the islands in that area.

We took a budget flight on Air Asia to Kota Bahru in Kelantan. It was about an hour drive Kota Bahru to the jetty, but before that was lunch

Fried squid

Steamed prawns

Steamed fish, all very nice

We left the jetty in one of these for Perhentian Island

Arriving at Perhentian

Nice beaches, sand and coconut trees as expected

Our resort rooms, since we were on budget, we didn't take the more expensive rooms by the sea so we had lots of mosquitoes for company further inland.

Panorama of the side of Perhentian Island that we were at, near the Tuna Bay Island Resort

After some snorkeling nearby it was dinner time

Tuna Bay Island Resort from the jetty at night, the front part is the restaurant which we will dine on our last night.

28 Jun 2009

The next morning, we were off to snorkel and visit the other islands in the area, including the more famous Redang Island.

Off we were in one of the little boats such as this

Arrived at Redang Island, in the lagoon is where one usually spots small young sharks swimming about

More More Tea Inn, where the show "Summer More More Tea" was filmed

Grasshoppers...

At around noon, we were off to snorkle at a marine park and were sun burnt in the process

Floating jelly fish it seems...

In the evening we were brought to a nearby freshwater spring to wash the sea salt off

No island trip is complete without a Ramly burger, we spent the remainder of the day enjoying the beach.

Tonight was BBQ dinner night with the duty free port we bought at the airport.

29 Jun 2009

There wasn't any snorkling for today, so we decided to do a trek around the island with a friendly guide.

There are pathways around the island. One can walk to all the other beaches and resorts.

A small trail

There are some disgustingly big millipedes here!

A large iguana

We arrived at another beach resort area

The Fauna Beach Chalet, we had lunch here

And some refreshing cool drinks

Someone's pet monkey

The chalets here

Children playing with coconut

Next we trekked over a hill to a posh resort

They have their own lagoon that seems rather exclusive

Arriving back at our side of the beach

If only they had Carlsberg!

We had dinner at the Tuna Bay Island Resort

30 Jun 2009

We decided to just laze around the morning away before departing for the airport.

Leaving Perhentian Island

On our way back to Kota Bahru, we stopped by to get some local produce. This is the local steamed fish cake that looks like dog poo but its nice. Just don't check out the factory behind or you might throw up what you just ate. So ends our relaxing trip to Perhentian. We will be shedding burnt skin over the course of the next few days.

China 2009 Day 13 - Beijing - The Forbidden Palace (紫禁城, Zǐjinchéng)

2010-09-19T14:07:00.001+08:00

View the previous related post here. Return to the trip index here.

10 Jun 2009

At our final morning in Beijing, we decided to visit the most famous landmark, the Forbidden Palace (紫禁城, Zǐjinchéng). Built in 1420 CE, this UNESCO site houses the throne of the Ming and Qing Dynasties as well as large collections of artifacts. The Palace was further extended and modified in the Qing Dynasty after the Manchurians took over. The Palace is located right in the middle of Beijing and forms a straight line together with Tiananmen Square, Mao's Mausoleum and the Bird's Nest Stadium in the 2008 Olympic complex. Of three royal palaces I have visited (Tokapi Palace and Red Fort), this is the largest ever built.

Ariel view of the Forbidden Palace and the straight line it forms with the Olympic Complex in the North

Back to Tiananmen in the morning. We were just here last night

The Great Hall of the People where the Congress meets

Walking through Tiananmen, all gates are pefectly aligned to the throne

Mao's Mausoleum behind the Monument to the People's Heroes

Taken from within the Tiananmen -- shows the care taken to align all structures including the huge flagpole flying the PRC's flag

Cannons along the way as we walked to the main entrance to the Forbidden City

The main entrance, ticketing booth is on the right

Our two person ticket. CNY 60 per person. A cheap price compared to the size of this place

A bronze lion

The Gate of Supreme Harmony

Panorama at the compound of the Gate of Supreme Harmony. Each of these important buildings and gates are part of a huge open compound.
After passing the Gate of Supreme Harmony, we are greated with another huge compound with the Hall of Supreme Harmony

Panorama of courtyard of the Hall of Supreme Harmony compound

An elaborate carved stone on the stairs with dragons. Only the emperor may walk on the middle path, some are made with marble. Within the palace compound, most middle passage/stairs/doors are blocked - no entry for common people like us.

As noted previously in the Summer Palace, important buildings have figures on the corners of the roof. The more figures of mythical characters, the more imporatant the building. The Hall of Supreme Harmony is the only building to have a full set of 12 characters.

Even the steps are carved

A pattern on one of the doorways

The throne room within the Hall of Supreme Harmony

With a huge carpet

Copper and Iron Vats for Fire Safety, these were placed all around the palace compound after a huge fire

Hall of Central Harmony, first built 1420 CE, used by the Emperor to rest while traveling from the back of the palace to the front halls. This illustrates the size of this place. You need to rest even though you are being carried. Most buildings have their name on the blue board in the middle in two scripts, the Chinese characters and Manchurian script added after the Manchus took over.

Hall of Central Harmony

Hall of Preserved Harmony

Inside the Hall of Preserved Harmony

The largest stone carving in palace that is 16.75 metres long and weighs more than 200 tonnes. The stone was brought into palace by sprinkling water on the ground during winter and sliding it along. Made in early Ming Dyanasty, defaced and recarved in Qing Dynasty by Emperor Qianlong.

Most buildings have two guardian animals or mythical creatures

Palace of Heavenly Purity, built in the Ming Dynasty 1420 CE

Inside the Palace of Heavenly Purity, political affairs of the Emperor was handled here. The Yongzheng Emperor hid the "Heir Apparent Box" behind the Zhen Da Guang Ming board (正大光明, written from right to left).

Hill of Accumulated Elegance 1583 CE, made by piling stones on top of each other. We have mostly walked through the center part of the palace to reach the palace gardens near the rear

Pavilion of Ten Thousand Spring Seasons

The ceiling on the inside of the Pavilion

Lacebark Pine, a special and precious tree grown in the imperial palace with interesting colours

A sun dial

Another ticket that costs CNY 10 per person for entrance to the Museum of Treasures

The famous 9 dragon wall usually featured in many soap operas of the imperial palace was nearby

Red Coral Lion, Qing Dynasty

Empress Court Hat, Qing Dynasty

Gold Candlestick inlaid with Gems

Miniature Plum Blossom made with pearls

Well of Concubine Zhen, supported Emperor Guangxu's modernization plans. It was said she was drowned here on orders of Empress Dowager Cixi in 1900 CE when the 8 Allied forces attacked Beijing.

Gate of Divine Powess within the palace compound. This is the exit to the streets

Jingshan Hill north of the Forbidden Palace

The rear Gate of Divine Powess, with the words that says "The Palace Museum". This was the gate where Emperors often flee from. The last Emperor Puyi was driven out from here in 1924.

On board our Air China flight home

Our meal on board

In all, the Forbidden Palace is a place that will take the entire day to fully explore. We have only managed to visit the main section of the palace, omitting other side exhibitions and the wings. Most buildings and important locations have signs and a short write-ups in English explaining their significance and history. However, the stories of palace intrigues are probably mainly accessible by hiring a tour guide.

This sums up our two week trip to China that took us from the South in Chengdu to the West in Tibet and finally to the north in Beijing. It was certainly a memorable experience.

This is the final post in this series. Return to the trip index here.

China 2009 Day 12 - Beijing - The Summer Palace & Tiananmen at Night

2010-09-11T15:23:00.003+08:00

View the previous related post here. Return to the trip index here.

09 Jun 2009

We switched from our previous hotel to a cheaper one for our one night extension in Beijing that is located near the Wángfǔjǐng (王府井) shopping district. After checking in, we took a taxi to the east gate of the Summer Palace (颐和园, Yíhé Yuán). First built in 1750 CE, in the Qing Dynasty, it has been destroyed and rebuilt several times usually at great cost. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Our cheaper hotel

RMB 60 for the main entrance and admittance to some of the exhibitions

Here we are

The gates doesn't look like much, but the complex is HUGE inside.

It is a sunny day

Many buildings a sprawled around the gardens. Some are now museums.

One of the gatehouse buildings

A pavilion on the huge lake.

Aerial view of the Summer Palace's Lake.

Summer Palace lake with Tower of Buddhist Incense . The entire Summar Palace complex is all around the lake!

Walls with stone carvings

An entrance to one of the many exhibits. There is one for oranaments, theatre, etc

Inside this exhibit areas

Artefacts that used to be kept in the Summer Palace, made of jade and coral, etc

Make up building, in the theatre exhibit, where the artisans prepared themselves

A multi-storey Grand Stage for Opera

A mock up mini performance

A few of these huge strangely shaped rocks were up on display

The "Long Corridor" on the way towards the Tower of Buddhist Incense, the most striking building by the lake on a hill

It is adorned with pictures of mythical stories

The Tower from the base as we walked towards the entrance

Final;y we reached the base, now to ascend the hill

Dragon encapsulated in a wire mesh. Perhaps for lightning protection?

The important buildings are always adorned with figures from the Chinese myth on the roof. The more mythical creatures present, the more important the building.

Imperial buildings are so important they usually have an additional Diety in front compared to other buildings. Note the lightning protection.

The long climb up, there are at least two compounds with stairs like these to overcome

Panorama of the Summer Palace lake from the Tower. From this view it becomes apparent how the Qing Empire wasted its coffers. This artificial lake is man-made.

Looking down from the Tower of Buddhist Incense, this hill we stood on was also man-made.

Tower of Buddhist Incense

Thousand Hand Goddess of Mercy (Guan Yin) inside the tower

Exiting the Tower of Buddhist Incense from the rear

The Realm of Multitudous Fragrance

Close up of the Buddhas that make up the walls of the Realm of Multitudous Fragrance

Next we walked to an attraction called the Little Suzhou

It is probably a new section of the park

With old-styled themed houses beside a waterway

I wonder where this leads to

A Tibetan Buddhist Stupa in the Summer Palace area called the "Four Great Regions". Seems like the Qing Emperor patronised Tibetan Buddhism.

The Garden of Harmonious Pleasures

Walking back along the lake, we came across a Bronze Ox made in Emperor Qianglong's Reign to ward off floods.

The words were written by the Emperor.

Another pavilion

The Seventeen Arch Bridge, by now, we were very tired and decided to leave the palace. This place is ridiculously huge.

We went back to Wangfujing area around our hotel to meet up with the rest of our group for dinner. Here's the Snack Street right outside our hotel selling all sorts of strange mumbo jumbo.

I wouldn't eat these fried starfish or weird bugs if I were you. In fact, this seems to a tourist gimmick, I don't see any locals eating these things.

We came to the famous Quanjude (全聚德) Beijing Roast Duck restaurant that has been around since the Qing dynasty in 1864 CE.

The best part of the roast duck, the skin!

Other parts of the duck is chopped up with meat, they will take the bones in exchange for duck bone soup (or you can bring the bones home to make your own soup)

Yummy, nice white sheets to wrap the duck in, they also give you a card stating the duck number served to you since 1894 CE. No one knows if it's an accurate number.

After dinner, we walked to Tiananmen, and the huge people's square in front of it. It is the entrance to the Forbidden Palace.

It was here that Mao gave his famous speech proclaiming the People's Republic.

I think this is the legislative assembley building.

Monument to the People's Heroes, with Mao Zedong's Mausoleum behind it, all in a straight line with the Tiananmen, the Forbidden Palace, and finally with the Olympic Complex

On the way back we walked into one of the side streets in Wangfujing.

Live scorpions and seahorses on a stick. Now I wouldn't eat those. I don't see any locals eating it either.

Here's the place to bargain for cheap souvenirs!

We finally returned to our hotel exhausted from the walking. The attractions here are huge compared to most places. The Summer Palace, will easily take up 4 hours to visit most of the main parts. Tomorrow, we will visit the Forbidden Palace, the seat of power of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. It will be another long visit.

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Nokia sucks

2010-09-01T23:31:00.004+08:00

It sucks. They shouldn't exists. Hardware fail. Software fail. Glued together parts falling apart. Where in the world do you make such nonsense?

China 2009 Day 11 & 12 - Beijing - Temple of the Earth (地坛, Dìtán) & Olympic Complex

2010-08-31T21:31:00.004+08:00

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08 Jun 2009

Our flight to Beijing was brought forward due to flight cancellations by Air China. This was unfortunate. We were supposed to visit the Tu people's (土族) cultural village where they are renowed liquor producers. According to our guide, 3 is an important number for them. When entering a Tu house, first one will smell the sweet smell of liquor before having to drink 3 servings at the start, 3 in the middle, and 3 before leaving. Furthermore, they have a culture of not snacking with their drinks.

Departing our Hotel in Xining

On the way to the airport, our guide shows us local handiwork by the Tu people. It's made of some thread that is tightly woven together. Shades are used to create a blur effect.

Meals on board our Air China flight. Thanks to them our trip was cut short.

Arrival at our hotel in Beijing after doing some shopping

Nice and clean rooms

Dinner time at our hotel

Trying out some of the local beer

09 Jun 2009

After breakfast, we headed to the Temple of the Earth (地坛, Dìtán). Built in 1530 CE during the Ming Dynasty, it is the earthern counter-part to the more well-known UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Temple of Heaven (天坛, Tiāntán).

Breakfast, an interesting orange tart-like thing

The entrance to the temple

Unlike the Temple of Heaven, the Temple of Earth consists of gardens and a small structures with a large open altar in the middle for ceremonies.

One of the building housing some old artifacts

Fu Lu Shou stone, it is said to be good to rub your palm across the words etched on this stone

Incense pots

The ceremonial altar

Fake sacrificed animals

This tiger looks cute, I'm not sure what it holds

We get to watch a mock up ceremony

Here comes the officials and right at the end, the Manchu Emperor

"Long live the Emperor!"

"Down with the Manchu invaders!"

Perhaps this is the Cabinet

You can get up close and personal with the Emperor

Visiting the loo before leaving

Next, we visited the 2008 Summer Olympic Complex. Heard that this is a very expensive hotel, shaped like a Dragon. Looks more like a Dragon Boat to me.

The swimming complex

The Bird's Nest Stadium

Some arty icons are spaced out around the complex

Panorama of the Olympic Complex . Note the huge street lamps.

A tall tower, I'm not sure what it is.

After visiting the complex, the rest of our tour group departed for their flight home. Still having another night in Beijing, we decided to visit the renowed Summer Palace after lunch. Little did we know the size of it ...

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China 2009 Day 10 - Sights Around Qinghai & The Qinghai Lake (青海湖)

2010-07-24T17:14:00.004+08:00

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07 Jun 2009

Today we will be spending the entire day in and around Xining, spanning the local museum to the fabled Qinghai Lake. First up early in the morning was a visit to the museum located at the city square.

A component of breakfast in the morning, porridge of a yellow grain.

The Xining Museum. We arrived so early, it wasn't opened yet.

Xining dwellers doing their morning exercise.

Morning calligraphy practice with a big brush and a pail of water.

A Tangka - The Tibetan method of painting (powdered gem and gold mixed with bile) is applied onto a fabric.

Tangka is a Nepalese art said to be introduced by Princess Bhrikuti who married into Tibet.

The Tangka usually features some deity or buddha and is used for prayers at home. It is preferred as it can be rolled up and kept if unable to be displayed appropriately.

After the museum we were headed out of Xining to the Sun and Moon mountain (日月山). It is said that the Tang Princess, Wencheng, passed here on her journey to Lhasa to marry the Tibetan Emperor, Songtsän Gampo in 640 CE.

Approaching the mountain, a statue of Wencheng stands in white, small pavilions are on each peak.

Entering a pavilion

Inside, a pictures of Wencheng's journey adorn the walls and a tablet with script about the journey.

The ornate roof

The pavilion on the other peak

A white yak lazing around. It can be ridden for a fee

"Sun" "Moon" "Mountain"

Continuing our ride to Qinghai lake, but first we are stopping at 151 quay (I think it's because it's 151km from Xining) for lunch. This road is known as the highway to heaven. Out on the large plateau here the visible end of the highway is the sky.

Our lunch place. It is said there's a yellow fish that grows extremely slowly -- 450g in 10 years. It is illegal to fish it but the locals find their way around it and restaurants secretly serve it to familiar customers.

Lunch!

After lunch, we continued to Qinghai Lake, also known in Chinese mythology as the Western Sea, it is the highest altitude salt water lake in the world. Due to sand storms and drought, the lake has shrunk considerably over the years.

Arriving at the bus park, we had to take one of these to bring us next to the lake.

Along the way, we pass tents of some Mongolian communities.

Finally we arrived, looks like a seaside beach

This little spot next to Qinghai Lake with horse and dune buggy rides is said to be set up by a Taiwanese business

Riding around on a buggy

Yak milk by the beach, it was very fragrant and smooth

Someone riding a horse around the lake

Panorama of the Qinghai Lake

The lake from the top.

You get to ride on a horse for a fee too

Blocked by sheep on our way from Qinghai Lake to our next location. The next stop is the "gold silver beach (金沙滩)", nearby is the atomic city. The place that we visited is basically a nice patch of grass on this plateau, but it's a privately owned patch of land.

The sign says Atomic City. Behind was where the Chinese developed the nuclear bomb indigenously.

The so called Gold Silver Beach, a privately owned nice patch of grass for photo opportunities.

More horses

What looks like a sky burial site.

The local yoghurt here was delicious

Finally, we returned from our entire day trip to Xining for dinner at a local Halal restaurant. Tomorrow we will be flying to Beijing for the last part of our trip, where we found traces of Tibetan culture present as well.

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