Sunday, June 27, 2010

First Time in Europe

In May 2010, I finally made it to Europe! I was planning to travel to Europe in 2004 when the SARS outbreak came about and I had to cancel the trip. It has been six long years before I finally fulfilled my dream of travelling to Europe. Although I only visited Germany (Munich and Frankfurt), Austria (Salzburg) and Switzerland (Basel, Bern, Interlaken, Zurich), I really enjoyed the scenery and the experience of free-and-easy travelling.

When in Germany, I attended a wonderful wedding of Julia and Dominique Walter in Munich and stayed with a friend, Christina and her wonderful family, in Freigericht. Christina and her boyfriend, Sebastian, are very kind to spend their precious weekend bringing us sightseeing, shopping and to taste the local specialty food! They are the BEST tour guide one could hope for!

Christina's parents (Fred and Melitta Bayer) are very kind too. They not only let us stay in their lovely home, every morning we get a big breakfast too! There are variety of bread, sausages, and homemade jam! Christina also has a wonderful Oma (grandmother)! When she saw my jacket is torn, she insisted on mending it for me 11pm plus! She is very creative too, she showed us how to make paper carrier bag the wonderful Christmas cards she made over the years. I’m sure people who received her cards would be very delighted. The warm hospitality of Christina's family gave me a "home-away-from-home" feeling! I hope one day, I will be able to go back to visit Christina’s family again!

Switzerland is a country with lots of beautiful scenery. I travelled through Basel, Bern, Interlaken and Zurich and the scenery never failed to impress me! During my stay in Grindelwald, I lived in a Jungfrau Lodge and right outside my window I have a spectacular view of the majestic mountain ranges! How I wished I could live there forever! The only problem in Switzerland is the cost of living, everything is so expensive. A plate of roast pork rice cost $23.00 Swiss Franc! For that price, I could eat at least seven or eight plates of roast pork rice at hawker centers in Singapore! Well, I guess that is the price to pay for living in such a beautiful place.

It is coming to a month since I returned to Singapore and I only managed to edit 4 days of pictures and upload it on my Facebook. There are still eleven more days of photos to edit. Here are a few pictures taken on the first four days of my Europe trip.