Skip to main content

Reflections on a 10th anniversary in Europe

More than a month has passed since our trip to Europe. The story of the trip is written on allrite@, but now I wish to sort out my impressions of the journey. After the excitement of the journey itself what you are left with is your memories, the ultimate souvenirs of your holiday.

Highlights for me were the sight of the Malaysian Airlines 747 waiting like an old liner in dock to carry us on an adventure. The red Australian desert and the dry but snow capped mountains of Afghanistan, mysterious lands with few inhabitants but many stories to tell. A relaxing transit hotel at Kuala Lumpur's International Airport that was just what I wanted and modern and spacious accommodation near Paddington station.




Standing atop Het Gravensteen castle and gazing across the amazing historic skyline of Ghent in Belgium. Belgian chocolates, waffles and fries. Eating a continental breakfast in our deluxe sleeper compartment while outside the pretty villages of the Elbe Valley rolled past outside. The look of joy on Alex's face as he discovered the toy grotto in Aparthotel City 5 in Prague. Likewise when he found the toy box in the A-Train hotel room in Amsterdam.


Our wonderful apartment in Paris, the fresh food market outside, the restaurants, the chocolate cake on Alex's birthday and the views of the Eiffel Tower from out the window. Ascending to the top of the tower and the amazing views of Paris. Memories as we climbed up to the Place du Terte in the Montmartre.



Schipol airport, possibly my favourite.

Drinking Milo ais at a hawker stall in Kuala Lumpur, watching the black storm clouds approach. Sharing my mee suah with Alex in a kopitiam, as Malaysian as it gets.



The were some disappointments too. The changes to the Novotel Brighton Beach and the very ordinary service and facilities on Malaysia Airlines. Rail service issues, breakdowns and queues in London. Leaving a bag behind in Belgium, B getting motion sick on the sleeper trains. Waste of money on a rail pass due to ticket printing issues and a lack of onwards travel in France. Not seeing much of Amsterdam. Hype of substance in Kuala Lumpur and being stuck for an hour by a tropical downpour.

Overall, a fantastic trip. But I do find myself reevaluating some of my travel dreams in light of this last trip. Many were laid down by our original honeymoon ten years ago. I'm not sure that the Novotel Brighton Beach is quite my dream hotel and the late afternoon 747 flight into the northwest wasn't quite the one that I imagined on my walks back from work. I wonder if I am so used to Japan flights that they consume my dreams now. I wonder what I'll dream of ten years from now.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Asagaya and heading home

How can I be happy? I am about to return to a country where the toilets have at most two buttons and no seat warmers. But the tickets are booked and there are no cyclones, typhoons or other disasters standing in our way. It's almost time to go back to my first home. First B wants to do some "local shopping". So we catch the Chuo Line up a few stations to Asagaya, a residential area with a number of Shotengai, covered and uncovered arcades leading away from the station and narrow alleys lined with bars. It is an interesting area for a wander around. We are mainly looking, do some shopping for toothbrushes and sweets from Seiyu, a Wal-Mart owned supermarket/minor department store. We skipped breakfast and lunch is ramen and gyoza at a small restaurant near the entrance to the Pearl Centre shotengai. With the help of a staff member, I manage to purchase tickets at a branch of Lawson to the Ghibli Museum for a friend travelling to Japan in May. There are some...
Post a Comment
Read more

IKEA Museum

We have a packed itinerary today. Flat packed and assembled with an Allen key. There are patches of snow on the ground that weren't there the previous evening. We are a bit sad to leave the Duxiana after the comfy beds and the breakfast of cold cuts, fruits and hot waffles. I tried the Swedish caviar on my boiled egg. It was... Interesting. I was very disappointed to realise that, after talking it up for months, I had forgotten the Disgusting Foods Museum in Malmö yesterday. Too late now. We catch another Oresundstag train, for a bit over an hour. Past yesterday's Lund, past increasingly white fields and towns to Älmhult, home of IKEA. The conductor warns us that the train will split in two so we have to move carriages forward. Unfortunately, there we no spare sets of chairs for all of us. The IKEA Museum showcases the history of the furniture company, along with temporary exhibitions. One of these was "Hacking IKEA," about using IKEA ob...
Post a Comment
Read more

To Melbourne on the XPT sleeper

Excited by the prospect of reliving the experience of seeing my very first movie and hearing the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra perform it I bought tickets to The Empire Strikes Back in Concert in Melbourne back in February. Then I did nothing about actually getting there. Much as I love Melbourne, due to family commitments I didn't want to spend more than the Sunday away. Flights there and back made sense, but  my flight down to Melbourne in late October reiterated the fact that I usually don't enjoy descending into the city. And the concert was in December, a season of summer storms. I really didn't feel like driving the whole route alone and in a hurry, so that left one choice. The train. My very first trip up to Sydney from Melbourne was aboard the luxury Southern Aurora. Or it was supposed to be luxury. I wouldn't know because I spent the whole ride up very sick with the flu lying in the top bunk, unable to stay awake for my whole of night vigil. Now only...
Post a Comment
Read more