Western Europe

We stayed in London for three more nights after returning from Paris. My husband and I decided to book a different hotel because we wanted to be in another section of the city for the sake of variety. The previous hotel we stayed in at the beginning of the tour near the Marble Arch area was excellent, but we already explored the Marble Arch neighborhood as well as Oxford Street and part of Hyde Park. This other hotel is situated in the south banks of the River Thames and is c

The city of Bath got its name from the Roman Baths, its famous landmark and one of the ancient world's most renowned religious spas. The people of Roman Britain built this around 2,000 years ago and regularly visited the site to worship the goddess Sulis Minerva (the original Roman name of this place was Aquae Sulis ) and bathe in the natural thermal springs, which were believed to have healing properties. As Roman authority faded from Britain in the early 5th century, the ba

We did not want to leave England without visiting Bath, one of England's prettiest cities. Sitting on a landscape of rolling hills astride the Avon River, it is both charming and elegant, exuding an air of small-town simplicity, yet oozing with sophistication. Located in the ceremonial county of Somerset in southwest England, Bath is a historic Roman and Georgian spa city. It is famous for its hot springs, stately Georgian architecture, medieval heritage buildings, and of cou

We booked an outing to Stonehenge, which is about 90 miles west from London. This needs no introduction. I suppose everybody knows what Stonehenge is, though nobody is absolutely sure what it is for. I have read so much about this prehistoric monument but have not formed an opinion yet as to what its purpose is. The myriad of studies, research, analyses, theories, speculations, assumptions, and even conclusions on the Stonehenge have contributed to its mystery. I had long dre

Salisbury is a cathedral city in Wiltshire. Situated in southern England's rural heartland near the edge of the Salisbury Plain, its history dates back over 5,000 years. I had always wanted to see this place, so we booked a day trip from London. It took us about an hour and a half to get there from downtown. Along the way, I enjoyed the countryside view and even nudged my husband from his bus nap (he always falls asleep on bus, train, plane, and car rides) to tell him about t

A fun Parisian experience would include a cabaret night. France is known for its cabarets and the legendary can-can dance - a highly spirited performance characterized by high kicks, splits, and even cartwheels to the tune of raunchy music. It brings images of a chorus line of female dancers in ruffled skirts and frilly petticoats. This dance was born in Paris in the 1830s and became synonymous with La Belle Époque (Beautiful Age) , an era "characterized by optimism, regional

Paris boasts of over 150 museums, with the The Louvre, Musée d'Orsay, Musée de l'Orangerie, Musée Rodin, and Centre Pompidou as some of the most popular ones. However, The Louvre topbills the list…well, specifically my own list of “must-visit” museums in Europe. The Louvre is one of the most awe-inspiring museums in the world, with its 73,000-square meter exhibition space featuring 70 rooms of magnificent artwork. A visit there is akin to taking a crash course in history and

We were scheduled to go up the Eiffel Tower in the morning (as if we did not have enough by seeing it from the bus and the boat in the daytime, as well as from a park at nighttime the previous day). But I was told that this is another unique way of experiencing the tower. In fact, its creator, French engineer Gustav Eiffel, believed that this is the best way to see his work. My husband was still unwell when he woke up in the morning, so I had to cancel his booking. We were al

We knew we were approaching Paris as the traffic got heavier. This was typical, according to our Tour Director. We arrived at our hotel a little after lunch time and were given time to rest before our late afternoon tour and evening river cruise. My husband and I scoured the neighborhood to look for fresh bread. And since this was France, there was a plethora of boulangeries and patisseries along our street alone. Our hotel is located in the 14th arrondissement, in the Montpa

I woke up that morning feeling a little better, but still heavy in the head and sniffling like a bunny in the cold. This did not deter me from going ahead with that day's adventure line-up. It began with a horse-drawn carriage ride up the mountains to visit a rural community. The local farmers took us on a delightful countryside tour after which, homemade snacks and drinks were served in a 17th-century barn. It was like being a part of a scene from a fairy tale book. But the

It was a pity that I was not feeling well. Lucerne is so beautiful and there was so much to see and explore, but that time, all I wanted to do was lie down and sleep. After our rooftop cocktail hour, my husband and I just took a stroll around the city for a bit until sundown, then I told him he could just walk me back to the hotel. I would take a nap, and he could continue exploring on his own. When he's back, he could wake me up and we could have late dinner at one of the ho

We had a long drive to Switzerland from Italy, and this time, I joined the mad cacophony of sniffling and nose-blowing on the bus. But I didn’t let my minor affliction dampen my spirits, for it was a very scenic ride. We traveled through farmlands as we crossed the border from northern Italy. We caught a glimpse of the beautiful Italian Lake District, which I definitely would like to visit when I go back to this part of Europe. And as we continued into the heart of the Swiss

We had some down time in Burano, another popular island in the Venetian lagoon, around seven kilometers from Venice by boat. It was a good idea to get away from the crowd in Venice and we enjoyed a very early and very heavy fisherman's dinner consisting of various fresh seafood caught in the lagoon at the Trattoria da Romano, said to be one of the best, if not the best place to eat on the island. The trattoria (told you...in Italy, there are many different eatery categories.

After a tranquil night in Venice the previous night, we took a vaporetto (water taxi) and sailed back from our Lido Island hotel to join the rest of the crowd in exploring Venice. The Grand Canal certainly had a different vibe in the daytime compared to its more subdued version the night before. As the main traffic corridor in the city, it was teeming with gondolas, motor boats, and other vaporettos filled with tourists like us. The ride was like a trip across time, from the

From the Lido, we boarded a small private launch to go to Venice for a little night of music after an early dinner at our hotel. We sailed down the Grand Canal at dusk, and as the sun was setting, we passed by grand mansions with facades in richly toned plaster work, glided along palazzos illuminated with twinkling chandeliers from the grand ballrooms inside, and went under Venice's iconic bridges. It was a most romantic ride...making us feel we were in a sepia-toned film as

After leaving Verona, we passed by Padua to head to another romantic Italian city – Venice. But we only got a glimpse of it at this time. We took a ferry from Tronchetto in Venice to San Nicolo on Lido Island, an 11-kilometre-long barrier island in the Venetian Lagoon, where our hotel was located. Along the way, we caught sight of bustling Venice from the Giudecca Canal side. I thought it was a good idea to stay a bit further away from tourist-laden Venice. The Lido was only

We headed to the shopping streets of Via Mazzini, where the expensive brand-name stores are located, and the Corso Porta Borsari, where the more regular shops are lined up. We didn’t really buy anything. We just checked out what was available and passed by the costumed street performers around the corner. One thing I noticed was the shiny, coppery-rose marble on the pavements of the most expensive streets. Our guide said this is called Rosso di Verona , a locally-quarried mar

Our first stop in Italy was Verona, made famous by Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet . But apart from being the setting of a most-tragic love story, Verona was a Roman city with many ruins that have been preserved, most notably, The Arena, an enormous amphitheater that is almost like a smaller version of The Colosseum in Rome. Our guided tour took us around the centre of the city, which used to be an old Roman military settlement. We walked around the maze of elegant squares wit

First, a bridge, then a mountain pass, then a jagged mountain range...this was not your regular long drive. Our trip from Innsbruck, Austria to Verona, Italy was indeed thrilling. We traversed the Europabrücke (Europa Bridge). At 192 meters above ground, it is one of the highest bridges in Europe. It is 777 meters long, stretching across the 657-meter Wipp Valley above the Sill River. The views below and around were amazing, though some older members of our tour group closed

We had a nice schnitzel and spätzle lunch, which we enjoyed leisurely with ice-cold drinks – lemonade for me, and Austrian beer for my husband. He grew up eating his mom's made-from-scratch schnitzels (slice of meat thinned by pounding with a meat tenderizer, breaded, and fried) and spätzle (egg noodles), so he is always on the lookout for these. And of course, he believes that the best beers come from Bavaria, Austria, and the Czech Republic (in that order). Some of my tour