My Jotter: Kenangan Europe Tour

Yeay! .. Going to Europe for our holidays!

Faiz & I at Penang Airport

Farid, Yasmin & Firdaus

Boarding pass dah dapat ni.. JOM??!!

Tiba di Frankfurt.

Frankfurt Airport

Lawatan ringkas sekitar Frankfurt.

Seterusnya bertolak ke Heidelberg di mana terdapatnya Istana Heidelberg.

.. dah start menggigil ni..

"Frozen Smiles"! Look at Farid... cold and miserable..hehehe. Hidung Firdaus dah macam strawberry.

Cik Yasmin asyik gelakkan kitorang .. she's always in high spirits!

Bertolak ke Viernheim dan bermalam at this hotel...

Tengok tu... satu manusia pun tak der. Macam ghost town.. Yang ada, makhluk berdua ni ..

..(dan tiga lagi behind this camera) dok melilau kat jalan .. pegi cari makan. Had Tuna Sandwich at Subway.

Oleh sebab serik kesejukan masa melawat kat istana Heidelberg, sebelum keluar dari bilik hotel, bungkus dulu. Jangan tak bungkus!!

Ninja Malaysia

.. felt better ..

The next day, we went to Schaffhausen. Masak nasi untuk bawa bekalan to lunch at Titisee. Wah! saljinya tebal kat sini, the pathways were slippery.. tensionnya saya!

My children seemed to be enjoying themselves with the snow.. siap lawan baling snowballs lagi! Pastu bila stokin basah, kasut basah ... haa.. mula la nak kacau kita!

Seterusnya bertolak ke Lucerne yang terkenal dengan Pergunungan Alps dan bermalam di sana. Selepas sarapan, we went to Gunung Titlis dengan menaiki cable car. Ketinggiannya 3020 meter dan mempunyai salji sepanjang tahun.

Pada petangnya lawatan ke Chapel Bridge. Its the oldest bridge in Switzerland. Near to Chapel Bridge is a popular shopping zone untuk jam berjenama Swiss, jewelleries, souvenir shops and chocolate.

Dinding bangunan-bangunan di sini mempunyai lukisan dan historynya yang tersendiri.

Next morning, off to Paris. It's 486km from Lucerne. Itu lebih kurang macam Penang nak pi KL, which would usually take us 3jam setengah to 4 hours drive. Tapi this bus actually took 7 hours! Uih! patuhnya pada diorang punya speed limits! Dah la tu, on the way, we were caught in the snow blizzard. It was on the news that the blizzard was the worst in 10years! Mana taknya, masa kitorang kena ribut salji tu, we were just about 2km away from reaching our hotel in Paris, tapi perjalanan 2km tu memakan masa 5 jam trapped in the bus!!! Aduih! Lapar pun ada, nak termuntah pun ada, nak terkencing pun ada ... Sampai hotel jer, I terus tido. Faiz took over cooking for the family and had their dinner.. hmmm.. pandai-pandai korang la.. Tak kuasa dah saya nak masak ke, nak makan ke, apa ke!

Pada keesokan hari, kitorang di bawa mengelilingi kota Paris, ke Eiffel Tower and acara yang ditunggu-tunggu oleh semua - SHOPPING! Ada yang nak beli perfume, yang nak beli handbag berjenama and other branded items.

I was only interested in one thing, FOOD! The tour guide had told us earlier in the morning that we would be having a choice of Briyani Lamb or Chicken for lunch, and I was eagerly anticipating my Briyani Lamb! Haish... some things never change, tak kira la ada kat benua mana pun!

Memang betullah pepatah Melayu "Gendang gendut tali kecapi, kenyang perut senang hati!"

Lewat petang, we were taken to Seine River for a boatride. All of them went except for Yasmin and I. Yasmin was showing signs of getting asthma and I didnt want to take the risk of exposing her to the freezing cold night atmosphere. Itu la.. yesterday bukan main lagi berguling-guling tido atas salji di Pergunungan Alps and playing with snow. hmm...

7th day of our tour - Left Paris for Amsterdam. Another long journey. We saw big huge windmills as we entered Netherlands.

Amsterdam terkenal dengan pengangkutan air and boat-houses di sungai-sungainya. We were taken for a “Canal Cruise” sambil menghayati keunikan bangunan dan kesan peninggalan sejarah.

Later, we visited a diamond factory, perkampungan nelayan Volendam, Damrak Square, dan kilang keju, kilang kasut kayu Clog di Perkampungan Windmill Zaanese Schans.

Keesokan harinya, kami bertolak ke Brussels, Belgium. Di situ, kami cuma bersiar-siar dan berhenti sekejap untuk membeli souvenirs dan chocolates sebelum menaiki keretapi Eurostar untuk ke London. A member from our group was not permitted to enter UK and board the train due to some misunderstandings. But thankfully, the problem was later solved and he boarded the next available train to join us at our hotel - The Holiday Villa.

Upon reaching the hotel, I felt a sense of relief when the first thing I saw was the Malaysian Restaurant next to hotel lobby. Malam tu, we had rice with kangkong belacan, prawn tomyam and daging merah... burp!!! kenyang ... Alhamdulillah, legaaa..

Encik Wan A. Hulaimi, the London-based tourguide, gave a splendid tour of London dan bercerita tentang tempat-tempat bersejarah yang kami lawati.