6th day of #KimGarethEurotrip

This was taken at Vaduz Castle in the tiny country called Liechtenstein.

# – Leg crossed.

image

T-shirt from Treadless. Trousers and shoes from Bangkok. Scarf from don’t know where. Sunglasses from Bazzarro.

=======

The day started out really pleasant. We checked out from our hotel in Karlsruhe and found a gastropub called Vogelbrau.

Had some traditional German brunch of white veal sausages with pretzel and goulash. So, so good.  

# – Brunch!
image

Then we made our way to Neuschwanstein Castle and got stuck in traffic for 4 freaking hours. Honestly,  was shocked by German drivers.

I’d say the driving ethics & standards are pretty similar to Malaysians. They overtake slowly, brake unnecessarily and switch lanes at the last minute. Shocking.

I mean not all were like that but these were the ones that caused the terrible traffic jams.

Anyway, by the time we reached the Castle we realised it was a major tourist trap. It was filled with people! So chaotic and messy, especially when we have experienced nothing but pleasant and calm sightseeing in the past few days.

I didn’t even bother taking pictures.

We continued our jouney into the Swiss Alps, passing Austria and making a pit stop at the tiny, weeny country that is Liechtenstein. The drive was amazing – magnificent mountains and rivers, couldn’t get bored.

Liechtenstein is stunning! So, so, so beautiful.

# – Vaduz Castle from afar.
image

# – Hubs taking a picture. In the background is Vaduz Castle.

image

# – The landscape of Liechtenstein.

image

We then left Liechtenstein and made our way to Switzerland. Stunning landscapes…..pictures could never do justice. You got to be here to understand it.

# – A peek of the Alps. I took this picture when we stopped by the road for a bit.

image

We reached our hotel overlooking the Swiss Alps. Just had dinner in a restaurant down the road – beautiful dinner.

# – Beef tartare, schnitzel & pasta, veal cordon bleu, tomato & orange ravioli soup and Swiss cheese platter. Burp!

image

Great start, tough middle, great finish. That basically sums up our day.

5th day of #KimGarethEurotrip

Taken at some highway rest stop between Belgium and Luxembourg.

# – Leg bent.
image

Shirt from Forever21. Shorts from Bangkok. Scarf from don’t know where. Shoes from Bangkok. Sunglasses from Bazzarro.

=========

After a nice breakfast at Restaurant Sainte Catherine, the one below our hotel in Brussels, we made our way to Luxembourg City in Luxembourg; a 2 hour plus drive.

# – Our simple breakfast.
image

The drive was pleasant and uneventful and we reached Luxembourg in no time.

Such a beautiful country. My pictures can’t do justice to it :(

# – The Passerelle that was built between 1859 and 1861. It is massive!
image

# – A terrible picture of the Aldophe Bridge, built between 1900 and 1903. I blame the direction of the sunlight.

image

# – I wuz there!
image

# – Luxe in Luxembourg.
image

Had some mediocre food….mediocrity probably exacerbated by my teeth, which had decided to move A LOT today #braces

Then we drove to Germany, specifically Karlshure – an intellectual city famed for science and tech. The driving was interesting as Germany has possibly the worst highways we have encountered in our trip so far.

It was scary to drive in the dark as there’s no street lights or adequate reflectors for the entire couple of hours journey. Roads also not that smooth by Britain’s standard.

And cars were going fast on the autobahns. AND we were driving on right side, which is permanently unnerving basically haha.

What a surprise, thought the Germans would make better roads. Maybe it’s just the one we were on.

# – Mercedes taxis. No big deal…
image

# – At Karlshure Central Railway Station. “Hauptbahnhof” means main station. I googled.
image

Speaking of the German language…we were wondering why there were so many roads on the highway going to this curious place called “Ausfahrt”.

Discovered later it means “exit”.

Checked into our hotel which is right next to the main railway station and went to McDonald’s for supper.

# – Porked up, fast food style.
image

They have Mcflurry Bounty, arghhhhh!

Anyway, we are sitting in our hotel lobby, leeching wifi, figuring out the next leg of our journey and of course blogging.

Till next post!

4th day of #KimGarethEurotrip

This was taken at the Market Square in Bruges, Belgium. That’s the Town Hall behind me.

# – Leg bent.

image

Top trifted in Bangkok. Denim minishorts and shoes from Bangkok too. Can’t remember where I got the scarf. Bag from Louis Vuitton. Sunglasses from Bazzarro.

========

We started out by taking the ferry from Dover. It was my first time being on such a posh ferry. There was game arcade, shops and restaurants! 

Instead of having rows and rows of sterile looking seats, there were plush seats arranged like in a restaurant with cocktail tables! Felt like we were on a cruise instead of a ferry.

# – This is not Penang ferry haha.

image

We reached Calais at about 2am and drove to Dunkerque. We took the first hotel we could find. It was basic with a bathroom about the same size as airplane’s T_T

At least it was clean we were only there for a night. Knocked out straight…

Woke up to explore Dunkerque, a seaside town in France.

# – At the beach.

image

We fueled up at a restaurant called Le Steph & Max. Ordered mussels and fries without much expectations….

OH MY GAWD!????

Best damn mussels I have ever had. This meal will forever ruin mussels for me.

So tender…so tender they melted in my mouth and I didn’t know mussels could even do that!

# – 1 kg of local mussels in marinnier sauce.

image

We’re planning to go back there at the last leg of our journey.

After lunch, we walked along the beach. Many locals were out enjoying the sun.

# – Though someone was not that prepared for the sun. LOL.

image

# – It is a long beach, there’s some sand and sea for everyone.

image

We left the beach and headed to town. Saw a marina and a few historical buildings.

# – The marina.

image

After Dunkerque, we drove about an hour to another country – Belgium!

We landed in Bruges. Yeap the same Bruges Colin Farrel landed in.

What a beautiful, beautiful place! It was like something out of a fairytale. 

# – Spire of the Church of our Lady in the background.

image

# – The beautiful Belfry from a distance.

image

# – One of the canals.

image

# – Some random church.

image

Cars are restricted from entering the city central but there were huge, glitzy modern underground carparks available for visitors. And cheap too, around 5 euros for hours!

How about the food? We went to a restaurant that had 17 euros “plat du jour” (set of the day) which scored really badly on Foursquare…a fact we only found out after ordering, lol.

# – Flemish beef stew was nice and tender but flavour somewhat one dimensional, the pate was like eating uncooked spam hahhaah, soup oily and salty, fish waterzooi (local fish stew) was wonderful…I really enjoyed it. The fish was nicely cooked and the broth was really delicious. 1 out of 4 hit…it could be worse.

image

We made it up with a Belgian waffles though. OMG!?

I asked for some topping called speculoospasta after seeing someone commented about it on one of the hub’s instagram pictures.

The shizz was better than nutella. It is like smooth rich peanut butter with a strong honey undernote.

# – Me and Belgian waffle with speculoospasta.  (Bad picture also no choice have to post).

image

We hung around for a bit then made our way to the capital – Brussels, about an hour drive from Bruges.

We were about to check into a hotel we found on Agoda when a man walked in and counter-offered us with his hotel. He kept saying his place was better than the hotel.

Warning bells started ringing in my head. It was almost midnight and there’s a suspicious man trying to stop us from checking into a hotel that I was more familiar with.

And then, the guy working for the hotel also told us to take the man’s offer. He also helped us got the price down from 90 Euros to 75 Euros a night, wtf hahahahahha.

When I asked him whether the man has wifi, hotel guy was like “Yeah, he has everything”.

So husband was like, okay, lets! We followed the man to a restaurant opposite the hotel and I was like, no…….

We went inside the restaurant, made our way to the back and found a really steep, really old staircase. Hurm, fun.

Luckily I had packed a day bag so that we need not move around with our massive check-in luggage.

We climbed two flights of stairs and what greeted us after a long day was a beautiful suite T-T

We lucked out! His place was indeed much better than the hotel we wanted to check in earlier.

# – The bedroom.

image

# – The living room.

image

# – The view.

image

The bathroom even had Grohe fixtures! And of course, solid, steady wifi :)

If you are interested it is called Downtown Residence above Restaurant Sainte-Catherine.

What an awesome day!