Trip to Mount Titlis from Lucerne

Guten Morgen from Lucerne! The sun has risen and it is a new day to continue our day trip to Mount Titlis from Lucerne. Thank goodness we have a clear blue sky today. This will be very important for our activity in Mount Titlis later on. 

Passng by the beautiful Chapel Bridge along the way. The bridge looks quite majestic under the sunlight. This iconic landmark of Lucerne is the oldest wooden bridge in Switzerland dating back to the middle of the 14th century. 

There is a big post office located at the end of the road after the passing by the Chapel Bridge. The building looks somewhat cool to us. I suppose this kind of architecture is normal in Europe. 

Save up to 25% on your hotel in Switzerland & see millions of reviews.

Oh right, I have not told you about our destination yet, haven't I? As I mentioned earlier, today we are going to see some snow at the top of Mount Titlis. Our tour has included Mount Titlis as part of its itinerary so we just needed to hop into our tour bus and made our way to Mount Titlis. Since we stayed at Lucerne, our journey to Mount Titlis only took us around 50 - 60 minutes. The view between Lucerne and Mount Titlis is very breathtaking and camera-worthy. 

Oh my goodness, I really love the mountainous view of the Swiss Alps. The route in the Swiss Alps offers one of the most beautiful trips possible. You must not fall asleep when you are travelling through the Swiss Alps route. Suddenly I remember the story of Heidi, girl of the Alps. #throwback

By the way, this is the view which I took when I visited the Swiss Alps in the summer. I am sure the view is also breathtaking in the winter times too. 

Read More

Lucerne City at Night Time

I was so surprised to find out that the hotel which I stayed back then in 2011, NH Hotel, has now changed its name to Ibis Styles Lucerne. Some reviews over at Tripadvisor mentions that the hotel has changed names at least three times. Not sure what's wrong with the hotel management but anyway...

After having dinner at the hotel, we wander out to see Lucerne city at night time. Our hotel is within walking distance to the city centre area where you can see the world-famous sights in Lucerne, the Chapel Bridge and the octagonal Water Tower. The night lights on the bridge are reflected nicely on the lake. 

There are not much things to see around 8PM so our tour guide brought us to the train station to see what store still opens at this timing. As expected, the train station feels so void. It is really different pace from the Asian culture, whereby the train stations in Asia are still bustling mad at 8PM. Okay, to be honest, the business of Asian train stations last until the last train near midnight. So, this is new to me. Hahaha. 

Saw a funny advert about lottery. Why the advert mentions the word "lose" at the bottom? Wondering if this means to stop people from gambling because they can lose whatever they earn anytime. 

Save up to 25% on your hotel in Lucerne & see millions of reviews.

Thankfully, there is one mini market which was still opened in the train station. When you are in Switzerland, you must buy a lot of chocolates. So many limited edition chocolate from Switzerland's famous chocolate brands like Lindt. Even the Ritter Sport looks different in Switzerland. I have never seen this flavor called Stracciatella before. Mind you, all these chocolates are bought in the normal train station mini market. 

Other than the chocolates, we also tried different kind of biscuits and cookies. All of them looks quite interesting and yummy. 

All the other stores apart from the mini market have closed so we wandered back to our hotel. One last picture of the Chapel Bridge before we wrapped up the day. 

Read More

Welcome to Lucerne, Switzerland

After spending two days in Paris, it was time for us to bid farewell to this beautiful city. We continued our journey to the next country in our list, Switzerland. We did not go to the capital of Zurich. Instead we are going to a lake city of Lucerne. The weather was kinda gloomy that day during the drive from Paris to Lucerne but let's not feel under the weather. After all, this is a leisure trip. Can't wait to welcome you, the readers, to Lucerne, Switzerland. ^^

The distance from Paris to Lucerne is pretty far. It took us nearly 7 hours to reach Lucerne. After I don't know how many kilometres of dull view beside the highway, we knew that we have entered Switzerland when the scenery around us has turned into a scenery which we often see in the postcards. 

There are a lot of lakes along the road and all of them are amazingly beautiful and picturesque. Although I may not be able to stay here for good (quietness everyday will make me crazy), but I still daydream about living a life surrounded by nature like this sometimes. #idontknowwhatiwant

Save up to 25% on your hotel in Lucerne & see millions of reviews.

We finally reached the city of Lucerne around dinner time. Thankfully it was summer time and hence the sun took its own sweet time to set. A lot of passerby are still around around 6pm walking around the city. Lucerne is the most populous city in the surrounding district. A lot of its citizens are speaking German here but they are able to speak in English too. After all, Lucerne is also a tourist popular destination in Switzerland. Oh right, welcome to Lucerne! 

While our bus driver is busy trying to locate our hotel in Lucerne, it is time to have another "view-from-my-bus-window" sightseeing. Okay, this part seems to be an office area in Lucerne. On second look, it was probably a mixture of office and flat houses. Not really sure here. 

A lively hotel called Hotel Monopol is spotted along the way. But this is not our hotel. You may want to consider staying in Hotel Monopol too if you prefer to be nearer to the city centre. And it has Starbucks right in front of the hotel.  

Are we gonna be able to find our hotel soon? I hope so because I am getting hungry *growl*.

Read More

Viewing Paris from Along the River Seine

If sightseeing on foot or by bus is too boring for you, there is another way to view the beauty of the city of Paris. You may consider viewing Paris from along the river Seine. There are a lot of boats operators in Paris offering boat excursion to view Paris from along the river Seine. Depending on your choice, most boat operators offer lunch and dinner on the cruise as well. When we were in Paris, we rode the boat provided by well-known boat company, Bateaux Mouches. 

The name "Bateaux Mouches" translates literally into "fly boats" ("fly" here is referring to the insect). However, Wikipedia said that the name arose because they were originally manufactured in boatyard situated in the Mouche area of Lyon. Since the river Seine is centrally situated in Paris, the boat tour covers a great deal of the city. Both the left bank (rive gauche) and the right bank (rive droite) are visible from the boat. The boat is also offering the best view of Pont Alexandre III, which is the most extravagant bridge in the city of Paris.

Pont Alexandre III connects the Champs-Elysees quarter with Invalides and Eiffel Tower area. When you are passing the bridge, you can see clearly there is a relief at the centre of the bridge. It is named the "Nymphs of the Seine". 

Save up to 25% on your hotel in Paris & see millions of reviews.

A lot of Parisians are spotted enjoying their evening stroll and having a chit chat session along the river bank. We do not have this luxury in Jakarta especially since the river is so dirty, it's brown in color and there are a lot of illegal settlements alongside the river banks. 

Another famous landmark in Paris which can be seen from the boat is the Notre Dame Cathedral. The cathedral is considered one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture and it is among the largest and most well-known church buildings in the world. 

Last but not least, tourists will be able to see Eiffel Tower clearly from the boat as well. Despite seeing it for numerous times, one can't help but to feel amazed by the tower. 

The cruise trips last around one hour and it costs Eur 13.50 for an adult, without meal. If you are interested in finding out the complete details of the price, you can check it out at their website. 

Read More

Walk on the Avenue des Champs-Elysees

The Avenue des Champs-Elyssees is a boulevard which is famous amongst tourists who come to visit Paris. The boulevard runs between the Place de la Concorde and the Place Charles de Gaulle, where the Arc de Triomphe is located. The boulevard is full with theatres, cafes and luxury stores. Talking about the luxury stores, the ladies on the bus gasped immediately when they saw a huge Louis Vuitton store. Other than LV, the Champs Elysees is also home for luxury brands such as Guerlain, Lancel and Hugo Boss.

You can also find souvenir store along the Avenue des Champs Elysees too. If you do not know where to find, simply go for the store who has I <3 Paris words for a banner. A lot of high street fashion stores can be spotted on the Avenue des Champs-Elysees too such as Zara, H&M, and Gap. The international make up store, Sephora also has its store here. 

Save up to 25% on your hotel & see millions of reviews

Our tour bus dropped us off at the other end which is nearer to the Arc de Triomphe. We could see the boulevard sign on the fence. Avenue des Champs-Elysees has been a favorite venue for a lot of national events such as military parade and tour-de-France. 

Every year, the largest military parade in France passes down the Champs-Elysees on Bastille Day on 14 July. In addition, the last stage of the Tour de France has finished on the Champs-Elysees. This is really one awesome road to walk on. 

At the end of Champs-Elysees, we can see the Arc de Triomphe, a monument honouring those who fought and died for France in the French Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars. Wikipedia states that the names of all French victories and generals inscribed on its inner and outer surfaces. 

"In the sun, under the rain

At noon or at midnight

There is everything you want

at the Champs-Elysees."

Read More

Yummy Macarons at Galeries Lafayette, Paris

Whenever you are joining a tour group from Indonesia, one thing is certain, the itinerary will include a lot of shopping. And our tour to West Europe is not an exception and hence, here we are at Galeries Lafayette. Galeries Lafayette is an upmarket French department store chain. We visited the main store of Galeries Lafayette but it seems that it has a lot of branches both in France and outside France.

If you are a Longchamp lover, you should come to Galeries Lafayette and join the queue line to enter the store. Yes, I am not kidding. A lot of queue is formed outside the branded store inside Galeries Lafayette including Louis Vuitton and Chanel. This is because most visitors to this department store come from China and they are known to come in big groups. Galeries Lafayette even has a special tax refund counter to cater for Chinese customers. 

I did not really have budget for any bags so after my mum bought her Longchamp, we just walked around and settled down at McDonald's upstairs. Time for me to drink my Les Frappes. 

My mum and I got bored after 45 minutes waiting for the other tour members at McD, so we decided to look for whatever we can try. I am not talking about fashion or bags though. I am talking about food. And since we are in Paris, it is just right to try one of the famous Parisian dessert named Macarons. This is the first time I bought 10 macarons at one time, even the lady behind the counter was shocked. She double checked the order with me to make sure she heard correctly. Does the Parisian never order macarons in such a big quantity? 

The above macarons which we bought for no-name store (okay, it's probably has a name but I did not really pay attention to the name) is so good. The texture just right, the taste is not so sweet and yet, delicious. We love it! 

Save up to 25% on your hotel in Paris & see millions of reviews

And just like that, we bought a box of macarons from another store but this store is apparently Pierre Herme's. He is a French pastry chef who is famous for his creation of macarons. We bought a box of 7 macarons. The box is so cute!

The macarons sold at Pierre Hermes are very unique in terms of color and taste. I mean, it has macarons with purple color, for goodness sake. 

The funny thing is, we prefer the macarons from the unknown store. We probably prefer the simpler taste of macarons because Pierre Herme like to mix a various taste (which is good, I never say it's bad) into his macarons. 

Read More

Discover Landmarks in Paris

I can't have enough of Paris, everytime I see outside my window eyes I see a lot of things that I have to take picture of. With various awesome landmarks and buildings, Paris is really a city to fall in love with. So with that being aside, shall we continue our adventure to discover landmarks in Paris?

First of all, we circled around Hotel Ritz Paris, the hotel where Princess Diana stayed before she died in the accident. The 117-year-old Ritz Paris, has closed its doors three years ago for a 200 million euro renovation. This picture was taken before the renovation. Hotel Ritz Paris is now back in business and starts to accept reservation, with the earliest in March 2016. Starting rates per night is 900 euro. 

On the way, we also passed by the headquarter of the national airline, Air France. Air France is now a subsidiary of the Air France-KLM Group and a founding member of the SkyTeam global airline alliance. I seldom take Air France though because the route between Singapore and Jakarta is limited to one timing, which is rather inconvenient. And yeah, I seldom travel anywhere else. XD

The next landmark to see is the Grand Palais, which is a large historic site, an exhibition hall and a museum complex located at the Champs-Elysees. In the basement of the Grand Palais, there is a major police station which helps protect the exhibits on show in the galleries. Do check out its official website to see what kind of exhibitions it has at the moment. 

Save up to 25% on your hotel in Paris & see millions of reviews. 

Whenever we made a circle on the road, we often passed by a lot of monuments which are decorated with beautiful details. Lovely to see. 

We are now back at the main square near Place de la Concorde. This time, I managed to take a better shot of Les Invalides. Everywhere I go, I seriously can't help but taking picture in Paris. 

Read More

Architecture City Sightseeing in Paris

Paris is a city full of architecture marvels. It is probably due to its history that Paris has a lot of buildings designed in different style. It is a good thing that most of these historical buildings and statues still remain until this day for us to take an architecture city sightseeing in Paris. Thanks goodness, it was such a good day back then. 

First, we passed by La Madeleine, a Roman Catholic church which was historically designed as a temple to the glory of Napoleon's army. After the fall of Napoleon, King Louis XVIII decided for the structure to be used as a church, dedicated to Mary Magdalene. Chopin's funeral was held here. Although interestingly the funeral was delayed almost two weeks because prior to his death, Chopin has requested that Mozart's Requiem be sung. The Requiem had major parts for female voices but La Madeleine had never permitted female singers in its choir. The church finally relented on condition that female singers remain behind a black velvet curtain.

Save up to 25% on your hotel in Paris & see millions of reviews

The next architecture wonder that we saw is named Academie Nationale de Musique. The building was used to be Palais Garnier, a 1,979-seat opera house which was built from the year 1861 to 1875. This opera is probably the most famous opera house in the world due to its use as the setting for Gaston Leroux's 1910 novel "The Phantom of the Oepra" and, the novel's subsequent adaptations in films and Andrew Lloyd Webber's popular 1986 musical.

When we are making a turn at the corner, we saw a big Lancel store. I first made my Lancel purchase in this trip to Paris without knowing what kind of brand is this. Well, Lancel is not as popular as the other high class brands like Chanel and Dior in Singapore and hence, I totally never know about its existence until I visited Paris. If you don't know how famous Lancel is, well it is apparently an excellent brand in France. From a French's point of view, Lancel's class is somewhere above Longchamp and below Chanel and Dior.

I am quite happy with my purple canvas bag which I bought from Lancel. And I am not gonna be copies by other people in Singapore because most of them are wearing Longchamp anyway. LOL.

Read More

Place de la Concorde, A Major Public Square in Paris

During the history class in high school, our history teacher taught us about the years of French Revolution. The storming of the Bastille was the turning point for the French Revolution as Bastille served as a symbol of the abuses of the monarch, who reigned in those days. Other than the historical storming of Bastille, another historical event during the French Revolution is the execution of the King Louis XVI and other prominent figures like the Queen Marie Antoinette by the guillotine. Place de la Concorde was the spot of the execution. 

With that kind of bleak history, I cannot help but feel some kind of eerie vibe from otherwise, a bustling public square. Tour buses usually stop by at the area opposite the giant Egyptian obelisk. The obelisk of Luxor was given by the Egyptian government in the 19th century. It is decorated with hieroglyphics exalting the reign of the pharaoh Ramesses II. 

It is best to visit Place de la Concorde in the morning as there are not many tourists visiting the square yet. Behind me lies the Fountain of River Commerce and Navigation. There are actually two fountains at the Place de la Concorde and both of them are built in the same period. 

Save up to 25% on your hotel & see millions of reviews

When you are looking to the North from the Place de la Concorde, you will notice that there are two identical stone buildings, separated by the Rue Royale. The eastern one is the headquarter of the French Naval Ministry while the western one is the historic luxury hotel named Hotel de Crillon. A lot of high political figures had stayed in Hotel de Crillon over the history. Benjamin Franklin is one of those people.

Hotel de Crillon has just been undergoing a major renovation and it is now managed by Rosewood Hotels & Resorts. This picture was taken back in 2011 so if you are interested in checking out the new look of Hotel de Crillon, you should go to its website here.

Read More

Les Invalides, the best photo spot to shoot the Eiffel Tower

Bonjour! Hope you guys having a great sleep (if you happen to just wake up from your dream, it is). If you are not, well, hello anyway. Let's continue our adventure in Paris, shall we? After having nice breakfast over at Hotel Mercure, we hopped on our bus and ready to go to see the one and only Eiffel Tower. Since our hotel is only 5km away, our journey did not take very long. For now, let's wave hello to the river Seine once again. We will see a lot of Seine later on. 

Right, every tourists in Paris will definitely go to the Eiffel Tower with one objective in mind, to take picture of the whole tower. But we did not have to be a math genius to figure out that it is impossible to take picture of the whole tower if we stand too close to the tower. With that theory in mind, where is the best photo spot to shoot the Eiffel Tower then?

While we were thinking about that question, our bus driver has stopped to let us alight at Les Invalides. Les Invalides is a complex of buildings in Paris which consist of museums and monuments, all relating to the military history of France, as well as a hospital and a retirement home for war veterans, which is the building's original purpose. Okay, I took the whole thing from Wikipedia so I guess the fact should be pretty accurate. Our tour guide also mentions that the building is also served as a national institution for disabled war veterans. The famous Napoleon Bonaparte, a French military leader, is also buried here.

Save up to 25% on your hotel & see millions of reviews

 The complex itself is huge so we did not have time to enter the building. Sigh. One thing about joining a tour group is the inflexibility. But I suppose we have to live with it. When we visited Les Invalides, the yard was used for some photoshoot or filming project. Quite a happening event. 

Oh right, of course I have not forgotten about the Eiffel Tower. Les Invalides which is located just across the Eiffel Tower, is happened to be the best photo spot to shoot the Eiffel Tower. Don't believe me? Ta-dah! Whole levels of the Eiffel Tower captured in one shot with the blue sky and white clouds as an added bonus. =P

Access to the second floor of Eiffel Tower is available for sales (full rates are available here) to tourists. However, a lot of travellers comment that the queue for the tickets (or the lifts, I am not very sure) can take at least 2 to 3 hours. So, do plan your time wisely if you want to include climbing up the Eiffel Tower as part of your itinerary. 

Read More