Austria & Germany - Vacation (last part)

INNSBRUCK, AUSTRIA

Finally, I have reached the final part of my Europe blog.

So, we finally arrived in Austria. When our coach crossed the border from Italy, it's already dark and I could barely see anything outside. I'm not sure whether it's the cold winter or the laid back lifestyle as I can hardly see any shops open when we arrive at about 6.30pm.

Checked in to the hotel after dinner, turned on the telly realised everything are in german, austrian, whatever. wtf. *sleep*
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Next morning.........


snow !!!! hehehehe !! yes....I could make ice kacang on the spot if I got some syrup and ground peanuts with me. happy happy happy !
This is the hotel we stayed for the night. Very cozy.


Ski jump stadium. Innsbruck is one of the most popular winter sport centres in Central Europe.



Triumphal Arch.
The cold and dry weather caused my hair to stick out like chicken feather. The crazy hair situation was worst when I woke up in the morning, like 'crazy chicken' and I managed to tame it a bit by slapping it down with cold water.


Innsbruck is the home to Swarovski Crystal. You can get all your swarovski here. Ah Siong is not a swarovski fan but I think he fell in love with all the animal shaped crystal. Everything is so pretty here. The shop is so friendly, they even allow you to take all the photos you want here.



Beautiful and richly-couloured buildings can be seen everywhere in the city.


Mozart stayed here briefly when he was a teenager


Alps at the background.



MUNICH, GERMANY

Germany wasn't on our itenary and me being me. Since, our itinerary is less hectic here, our tour leader offered to bring us to Munich. Being the super "kaki bunga" I got really excited. He would even consider brining us to Slovakia, if everyone agrees. At that point, I wanted to jump up and said "I want I want I want". But of course, everyone must agree on the de tour. I silently hope everyone would.

So when voting time arrive, everyone have no objection and I was over the moon. I almost wanted to put-up my feet if I need to to garner more votes.

We all paid 30 euros each, but it money well spent.

So we left Innsbruck and took a detour to Munich.
We spent the rest of the day in Munich and reached Salzburg, Austria for dinner the same day.

City of Munich.

Marienplatz ( St. Mary's Square). Behind is The New Town Hall. Very gothic looking.
The strong wind over here numb my nose and fingers, I had to hid behind the pillar and spilled mustard on my glove while eating german sausage with my gloves on.



Bicycles !

So, I finally decided to get me a LV here. Coming all the way here and didn't get one seemed like almost unforgivable and with the Value Added Tax (VAT), I might not forgive myself when Ireturn.


SALZSBURG

This city is soooooo pretty and the scenery here are almost poscard perfect.


view of Festung Hohensalsburg Fotress taken from Mirabell Gardens. the biggest and most fully-preserved fortress in europe.


Salzburg is sooo breathtakingly beautiful. This is one of my favourite shot.





Mirabell Gardens.

Mirabell Gardens at the other end.


Easter In Salzburg ! Thousands of brightly coloured easter eggs for sale.

I mean thousands all stacked up. They are all so pretty !


Getreidegasse. Austria's most beautiful shopping centre.

We stayed at Renaissance Hotel, Salzburg. This is the best hotel we stayed throughout our trip.


VIENNA

Schonbrunn Summer Palace in Hapsburg, Vienna.

At the palace compound

Inside the palace private gardens


Belvedere Palace


Rauthaus. Vienna's City Hall. If only our city hall looks a bit like this.

Hofburg Imperial Palace.
Used to be the Habsburg's winter Palace, but currently serves as the official residence of President of Austria.


Palace compount all covered in snow....breathtaking !

At the compound in front of Schonbrunn Palace and it's snowing. Weeeeee !!!


Status of Marie Antoinette


Snow covered bench at the palace compound



Breakfast at the hotel in Vienna


Outside the hotel ready to depart to the airport.
With a layer of thermal cloth and my muffler, I still managed to take few more photos.

Verona - Vacation Part 5

This is our final stop before we cross the border to Austria. And I couldn't be more excited !
I can already hear Maria sing DOE a deer a female deer, RAY a drop of golden sun, ME a name I call myself......

Arena amphitheater - famous open-air opera venue.


Casa di Giulietta (Juliet's house) and this is Juliet's Balcony.


Touch Juliet's right breast for good luck. wtf.
Romeo and Juliet is a fiction and didn't they both died at the end?


cute puppy.

Venice - Vacation Part 4

Inside the waterboat to Venice...the "City of Bridges"

The bell tower of St. Mark's Square.

We were lucky as the "high-water" subsided when we arrived, otherwise everyone would have to walk on these platforms.


Bridge of Sighs. One of the many bridges in Venice. The enclosed bridge (as you can see above our heads) are made of white limestone and it connects the old prison.
Prisoners would "sigh" at their final view of beautiful venice out of the window before being taken down to their cells.


Piazza San Marco.

St. Mark's Basilica in the background.

Gondolas, anyone????

Florence - Vacation part 3

Reached Pisa at at 8.30am. Weather got colder each day we travelled up north.
And I'm not complaining a bit.....and I still got excited being able to see my breath as I inhale and talk.

Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Square of Miracles.

Breathtaking view of Florence from hilltop Piazza Michelangelo.


Status of David. This is a replica. The original one, sculpted by Michelangelo is so perfect you can see his muscles and veins.


Another replica of David statue at Palazzo Vecchia, Florence.

Gelato is Italy can be a bit overrated as it cost and taste the same in KL.
They may have more varieties and more exotic flavours.


Basilica of Santa Croce.
Inside are Michelangelo's, Galileo's and Machiavelli 's tomb.

Rome - Vacation Part 2

The journey from Doha to Rome took about 6 hrs.
By now, I'm already sick or flying even for another hour, let alone another agonizing 6 hours.
Though I felt like a living dead, I can't sleep. And the economy class seat is not helping a bit.

So I decided to watch Hollywood Chihuahua, followed by The Duchess.

2 more hours to arrive Rome. Damn ! head spinning, butt aching, legs cramped, tired of my movie marathon by now.
I thought to myself, travelling to Europe is literally a pain in the ass.
I turned to hubby, and said "I don't want to travel like this anymore already."
What did he answered ? "Yes, that's the spirit."
I thought again, USA is definately not in my vacation list.

Arrived Rome Fiumicino Airport at about 6pm, and its already dark.
By now, I'm already a certified zombie.

The next morning, we were the 1st to arrive at the breasfast table. Everything was peaceful and calm till the arrival of a group of chinese tourist.
They are like "tornadoes" sweeping up food like there's no tomorrow and with no consideration to the people behind them.
Being a Malaysian Chinese, I felt embarassed for them.


VATICAN CITY



St. Peter's Basilica.
I did not know that Vatican City is a country. In fact, it is the smallest country in the world with population of only 900 people ! It's territory consist of walled enclaved within the city of Rome.

Inside St. Peter's Basilica. Huge and very unique collection of masterpieces.

ROME


The Roman Colosseum - used for gladiatorial games, contest and public spectacles.

Fountain Trevi - fountain at a junction of three roads ("tre vie")
Throw 1 coin - for good luck
Throw 2 coins - for new romance
Throw 3 coins - if you want a divorce
So, be careful how many coins you throw.

At the top of the Spanish Steps, the longest and widest staircase in all Europe.


Column of the Immacolata.

Rome as an astonighing Grafiti problem. You see them everywhere. On elegant buildings, trains, highway walls, car parks, shop houses walls, windows and even doors !
I also noticed that the Italians hardly (or never) wash their cars.
Dirt can be seen piled up at the bottom of their car doors.

A series of Unfortunate Incidents

Hubby went to Penang for a 2 days business trip today.
So I decided to take the public transport home instead of driving as I didn't want to wake up early to beat the jam.
Reached Kelana Jaya bus stop at 6.25pm.
20 minutes later the feeder bus to Bandar Utama arrived, but I decided to wait for the one to Kota Damansara instead.

Why?

Bandar Utama bus = 10 mins walking distance.
Kota Damansara Bus = 5 mins walking distance.

15 mins of waiting and the $%^# bus still haven't arrive.
It's actually 25 mins late already !
Malaysian public transportation sucks.
And it's started to drizzle a little bit and I ain't got an umbrella with me.

Regretted that I did't take the earlier bus, otherwise I would have had my shower already.

So I decided to take a cab instead of wasting anymore time waiting for the unreliable public transport.
Inside the taxi guy request to pay him in small notes cos he has used up his last small notes on his last passenger.
"Ada duit kecil? Tadi semua orang kasi I sepuluh ringgit, I sudah tak ade duit kecil?"
I dig my purse and only found 4 pieces of RM1 and some coins and the rest are RM10 and RM50.
so how? If he ain't got change, it's either he give me discount or he keep the change.
Of course, I prefer the former la. Not my fault, right.

Anyway, I just kept quiet.

When we're almost reaching my apartment, about 500m away, his taxi engine stopped.....

Holy Mother of $%@#%$# !!!!!!!

He switched off his aircon tried to restart his engine and failed.
Cars behind honking away, and his car engine was totally flat out, he can't even switch on the hazard light.
"Sori ah cik, you kena jalan kaki la"
This statement still haunts me till now.

wtf. We're right at the side of the LDP highway at peak hours and it's still drizzling.

I didn't have to pay him the 5 bucks, cos he didn't get me to my destination and worst I have to walk like 500m under the rain to my apartment !
But I paid him anyway, out of pity. Poor guy earning a living with his
"state of the art" taxi.

Tomorrow I'm driving to work !!!

Vacation (part I)

This is my 1st CNY I did not celebrate with my dear mom, dad and ah meng in Penang.
Instead, after reunion dinner at my in-law's house and we are on our way for our honeymoon !
In actual fact, I would not consider this as an ideal honeymoon trip.
As I proceed to explain further, you will understand why.
Nevertheless, its fun fun fun all the way........

My former college lecturer would classify this sorta trip as "chau lan" tour or "Refugee" tour in direct translation. She was an ex-tour leader and I do not quite understand her at that time, but now I do !

Journey to Doha was surprisingly long....about 7 hours. I barely slept through the entire 7 hours.
Arrived Doha at about 6am. Weather was rather chilly at about 16 degree celsius and I was still feelin' drowsy by the total lack of sleep and the still undigested breakfast.

Our transit time at Doha is about 8 hours and I was rather excited by the city tour, but our local tour guide will only come and pick us up at 7.30am.
1 1/2 hrs to explore the airport smaller than our Pg International Airport. Great !



When we arrived at the camel farm, I was overpowered by the pungent smell of urine.
Imagine, 10 people urinated in the toilet and the toilet is not flushed and cleaned for 2 days.
Stinks like shit. Yes, that's how it smelt.
I think this is my first time seeing a live camel. The camels over here only has 1 hump.

Camels for auction. This man saw a bus load of Malaysian tourist as potential buyers.


Roofless house along the main road.
We were lucky to arrive here during the cold season. Temperature can get very hot at almost 50 degree. That's why the people here usually start work early at 7am and finnish work early to avoid the heat.
Our local guide told us it rained yesterday. I wondered, "so?". Hehe.....it hardly rained over here.


All imported fruits and veggies. You can't grow your own cabbages and tomatoes, so you import them la. Very expensive.

Doha was the host for the 2006 Asian Games. Behind us is where the torch was lit and the main stadium.

Equestrian Park. Pampered horses inside their air-conditioned stables.

Pampered horses getting their early morning swim. Swimming pool specially designed for these horses.


Breathtaking view of Qatar skyline.


The world's biggest oyster. Why am I not excited?

My Market Outlook (very humble opinion nia...)

I don't usually blog about politics or the economic, but I'm gonna right now.

Our Central Bank cuts Overnight Policy Rate (OPR) by 75 basis point to 2.5%.
In my very humble opinion this is a HUGE cut !
Great news for people with borrowings cause Bank loan is gonna be cheap, and I mean dirt cheap.
Base Lending Rate (BLR) was adjusted to 6.5% on 1 Dec 2008 from 6.75%. Banks are currently lending at BLR - 2%, which means borrowers only pay 4.5% pa !!!
Back track, 15 years ago......Lending rate was like more than 10% !!!!!! insane.
With the further cut in OPR, we are gonna see further drop in lending rate.

Sad news for FD depositors, as the interest rate gonna be a real 'kacang putih'.
So kacang putih, your interest ain't getting you anywhere, you might as take put your cash and go for a holiday.

I'm happy that I bought my Euros and USD on time before the announcement.