It was such a LONG stories for this 14D13N trips. So, I would briefly go through the journey and highlight the interesting part during the trip. Check out more photos of the trip in my FB albums! Hope u all enjoy this! =)
We finished our final paper on the 8th of Sept and started to do our packing for the trip. We were required to take all our stuffs along as we had to check-out from Opal 1, our accommodation since we landed in UK. On the 9th of Sept, we cooked and cleared 70% of the food left in our accommodation. Spaghetti, rice, poultry, vegetables, spices, sauces, and more. 25% was the cookies, cereals, and others which we brought along for our trip so that we can clear them during the trip. The remaining 5% of the food was announced to be "waste" because we really couldn't manage to clear it all. Felt disgusted when we look at our food.
Our luggage and bags were damn heavy, I mean mine. Luckily I was strong enough to carry them =)
Our coach departed from our accommodation at around 7.30pm and headed to the Calais where our coach was then crossed over to France by ferry. When we reached Calais, we met our tour guide, Mike.
We reached France at early morning with our zombies look as we spent the whole night sleeping in the bus, did not really have enough rest as we have to wake up randomly as our tour guide was announcing some important notices, most of all, sleeping in the bus is damn uncomfortable! Anyway, we reached France safely & met our handsome & cool Dutch bus driver, Orjan.=D Luckily he was strong enough to carry all our "Stone" baggage.
We headed to Paris, our first city! Our coach drove around Paris and Mike explaining the histories about the buildings, towers, and roads as we passed by each of them. We took pictures from our windows as it was our 1st day of trip & everything looked new to us. LOL
The symbol of Paris: Eiffel Tower! We had the chance to view the day & night views of it on the same day! It's just so lovely at night!
Day 2: 11th of Sept
Woke up in early morning & had our continental breakfast before we headed to Disneyland of Paris. I LOVE our accommodation,
Residhome Apparthotel, as it was luxurious, spacious & cozy! It was the BEST hostel of all (whole trip)!
Disneyland, we played roller coasters and also games with high speed & 360 degree turns! THRILLING! Unfortunately, Blue & I was dropped from the group and couldn't find the rest as the Disneyland was so BIG. Both of us walked and took photos while waiting for the meeting time at the end of the day. Anyway, we met up with them an hour before the meeting time & we bought some food for our dinner that night.
Day 3: 12th of Sept
We were brought around
Paris until it was lunch time. We had 3-course French Cuisine for lunch, served with red wine!! The meal was lovely.
Love the environment of the restaurant & so was the food.=) We were then traveled for 7 hours journey to our
Mulhouse hotel! It was because we wanted to reach our destination earlier the next day.
Day 4: 13th of Sept
Our 4th stop was
Switzerland!! It wasn't as cold as it supposed to be as all the snow were melted halfway.
We were also brought to a small town near Switzerland, called
Lucerne.
Walked around the relaxing town with Wei Jiann, Ritchie, & Bee Yean as others went for shopping.
Day 5: 14th of Sept
We were in 2 country in 1 day. First was Monaco, a small Tax-Free town with loads of cool sport cars! I was not a fan of sport cars so it didn't made me crazy.
Next, we reached
Nice in the evening. After putting our luggage into our rooms, Mike guided us around for a while and then we were free to go anywhere we want for our dinner. Blue, Ritchie & I didn't want to have Chinese Cuisine, as all my other friends went for. We walked around the town to find some local meals. We dine-in at
La Petite Biche Restaurant which served French Cuisine. We ordered 2 sets and shared among 3 people.
I LOVE THE FOOD & ENVIRONMENT!! The weather was cooling (around 23-26
°C), & having a person playing music with Accordion made the surrounding lovely and relaxing to dine-in at. We were then had a small walk around the city before we headed back to our hotel.
Day 6: 15th of Sept We went to
Frogonard Perfume Factory where there was a lady explaining the Perfume-making process and some basic knowledge of perfume for us.
The next stop was the well-known
Pisa Tower.
Day 7: 16th of Sept
It was a
LooooooooNG WALKING TOUR in
ROME. We were asked to use the whisperer given by our travel agent, Tong Hang. It was where we can hear our tour guide even if he was further away from us.
Day 8: 17th of Sept
We had a small walk around
Florence City of Italy.
Then it was another "bus-traveling" day. Hate it!
All of us (AEMs) bought I ♥ Italy T-shirts for tomorrow!=D
On the way to our hotel, we had a birthday surprise for Catherine on the coach.
Happy Birthday, Catherine.=)
Day 9: 18th of Sept
We were
"I ♥ Italy" team!! We visited
Venezia! We had a ride on
Grande Canal which floated around Venezia City.
Catherine & I got the chance to eat the World's Best Tiramisu, treated by Mike! He treated 5 people, including Cat & I as we were the "September-babies"!! We shared our Tiramisu with other AEMians too. LOVE it!!
Thanks again, Mike! =)
Day 10: 19th of Sept
We had small walk around
Verona City by our Tour Guide and we were then headed to Innsbruck!
On the way to
Innsbruck, it was snowing at the hill of Austria!!! Our driver stopped at the resting area & let us play in the snow!!! It was so great!!!!! It was not my first time seeing snow, but the feeling was different, as I could play snowball fight with all my friends! I was freezing after the snowball fights because I only have my Nike sport jacket around. Mike handed me his windbreaker jacket and it instantly warmed me up. Thanks Mike!
At that night, we had
Pork Knuckle for dinner in our hotel's restaurant!! Yum!!
Day 11: 20th of Sept
Germany: We went to
New Swan Castle & Heidelberg city.
Day 12: 21st of Sept
Belgium: Luxembourg & Brussels.
The Atomium Building
It was the day where our handsome bus driver left. He couldn't continue to work with the tour as a driver have to rest in every 12 days of working (that's the rule). That night, he drove us to our hotel, helped us to carry all the bags out from the coach and said goodbye to us. He was such a strong, kind, & disciplined driver & no one can replace him. The best thing about him was he didn't smoke & drink, which all other drivers do. The driver that came the next day was totally useless, as we have to carry our luggage ourselves every time.
Day 13: 22nd of Sept
We had
Holland tour for the whole day. We visited
Gassan Diamonds, Red light District, and the cottage where they made the
Dutch Wood Clogs and
cheese. We also took photos with the Holland Wind Mill and went for a dinner before we left to Calais, where we were going back to UK.
Day 14: 23rd of Sept
We reached the border in the morning & it was Farewell time. Members in our coach were divided into different other coaches for different places that they wanted to go. Group picture of the
Coach D. Gonna miss u all!! =)
That ends my Europe Trip! Visited 10 different countries with different cultures, environments, and weather.
Overall, I love cool weather and relaxing environment places like Lucerne, Nice, Venezia, Heidelberg, & Luxembourg. Hope that I'll have another chance to travel around these countries again=)
