Howdy
This weekend I headed to Vienna, or Wien as it's written in German. I was joined by two colleagues from Shanghai, Man-Him and Lau. We couldn't get a decently priced friday afternoon flight so we instead flew out early Saturday morning at some ungodly hour. We went straight to another colleagues house, Sigfried who is also working in Stuttgart but flew home on Friday. He also thought our flight time was ungodly and wasn't exactly awake so much when we knocked on his door around 8am. We later learnt he hadn't got to bed until 5am(ish).
Our first stop was brekky just near Sigi's then off via U-Bahn to Schonbrunn (needs those funny dots over the 'o') Castle. We did a tour of the inside and then walked around the gardens. Very impressive. Next stop was to Belvedere, another castle like structure that also hosted a museum with art by Spiele. Man-Him and Lau wanted to check that out more so they went in while Sigi and I just chilled out in the garden and soaked up the glorius sunny day we were having. We both even got lightly sunburnt which may not seem that big of a deal but given we've just come out of a long cold winter, it was a stark change.
We then went into the main city centre and checked out St Stephen's church and then stopped for ice cream at what seemed to be a very famous ice cream shop judging but the large crowd. Another train saw us back at Sigi's where we grabbed our stuff, left for hotel and got ready for night. We then re-grouped and headed to a wine tavern and drank some wine and got a good feed. We then hit one of Sigi's current favourite spots, the red room and partied the night away.
Sunday was a little slower due to saturday's partying and we headed to the inner circle of Vienna and explored some of the buildings, museums, parks, city hall, opera house and theatres in the area. Given we had a Sunday afternoon flight and that it quickly went from a bright sunny day to raining, we mainly browsed past/through most of these places without really stopping into any to further explore.
Uneventful flight back. Next flight in #30 since I left Perth on February 3rd!
Catchya's
Dave
Happy Easter!
Well, for my weekend, I headed to Paris. Took a Thursday night flight out of Stuttgart direct to Charles de Gaulle airport where I took a train to Gare du Nord then taxi'd to my hotel. My hotel, Hotel Louvre Saint Honore, was, funnily enough, located on Rue de Saint Honore right near the Louvre. Great location and my room was actually pretty large which was a bonus. This weekend I was actually joined by Hayley from A&A Perth who is on secondment to Reading, just outside of London who I went and got at nearly midnight from Gare du Nord.
Friday was our first day in Paris and it was quite a nice day out so we ventured off in the general direction of the Eiffel Tower. After taking in brunch and the sights on the way, we joined a truely massive queue to WALK up the tower. The queue to use the lift was even bigger. We estimated it to be 3hrs long, ours was only 1.5hrs long. After 701 steps we were at level 2, about 1/3rd of the way up. Fortunately for us, they didn't have the stairs open to walk the whole way so we joined a queue to buy more tickets then another to take the lift to the top. 3hrs after we started, we were atop the eiffel tower and rewarded with sensational views of the city. More queues and the same 701 stairs saw us back down. We grabbed a very late lunch/early dinner, headed to the hotel, rested for was seemd like 5mins but was more like 1hr before we headed back to the eiffel tower to meet our tour.
We had pre-organised a night tour of Paris by bike, run by Fat Tire Bike Tours. We had a young bloke from Austin, Texas take us for a tour around Paris centre passing all the major sites, stopping for ice-cream and finishing with a cruise up the Seine with a glass of red. Was fantastic and I recommend it to anyone. It's not strenuous and you feel very European cycling on the old school style push bikes through the streets of Paris.
Saturday we slept in a little then headed to the Louvre. Surprisingly, we were in within 30mins of queueing. Walked around there for a few hours although could have done a whole day easily. It's huge. Saw Mona Lisa in her glass covered glory after pushing my way through the tourists to the front of the pack in front of her. We then grabbed a quick bite and headed for Notre Dame. Walking in and around that, kicked through a few shops then headed back to freshen up. We dolled ourselves up, went up Monematre by Cab and visited Sacre Coeur then had a nice dinner and headed to the highlight of the night, Moulin Rouge. We managed some kick-arse seats, got stuck into the Champagne and took in the show. Spectacular, spectacular is an understatement. Colours, sets, costumes and all the performers, especially the lovely ladies, were just brilliant. Even the fill in acts while the performers takes a 5min break from the show were excellent.
Sunday we again slept in (we didn't get home from Moulin Rouge til nearly 2am due to going to an 11pm show) and then headed out toward the Hotel des Invalidies and the Rodin Jardins. We first visited the Rodin Gardens where we saw the famous statue, "The Thinker" among a few others. We then headed to Hotel des Invalides and took in Napoleon's Tomb and the War Museum. After, we headed to Arc de Triomph and the Champs Elysee. We sat at the Arc for a while and took it all in before strolling back down the Champs Elysee for dinner. We then walked back to the hotel via the Louvre to get some night shots of the city. I should mention that from 8pm, the eiffel tower lights up on the hour for 10mins each hour with lots of glittering lights, like a christmas tree, in addition to its normal lighting. Looks very cool.
Monday, we didn't sleep in as much, packed up, checked out and headed to Musee d'Orsay but didn't go in but rather took the train to Versailles. 35mins later, we arrived a Versailles and made our way to the Chateau de Versailles where we toured the the Chateaux which is rather large. Versailles is actually the political capital of France and the Chateau, the largest palace in Europe. We grabbed lunch after touring the chateau then headed back to Paris, chilled out a bit, walked around for one last time before heading back to the hotel, grabbing our stuff and heading to Gard du Nord. Hayles left me here for the queue for the Eurostar back to London while I headed back to Charles de Gaulle airport for my flight back to Stuttgart.
All in all, a fabulous weekend. Thanks to Hayley for the company, and Paris for being a great host city!
Hope you all had a wonderful easter.
Cheers!
Dave
G'day
Well, Friday night I took off for Monaco which was a journey in itself. Flight to Zurich, layover, flight to Nice, cab to train station, wait, train to Monte-Carlo. Got in around 1:15am and passed out.
Saturday got up, saw 5 Ferrari's in the space of about 15mins and realised this was no ordinary destination. As I approached the main harbour, it became infintely clear that I was the poorest person in the principality by about $5m odd. The yachts, cars, shops, food, cabs, etc are just super expensive and everywhere. If you don't drive your Ferrari/Porsche/Aston Martin/Rolls/Bently/Maseratti down to your yacht which could double as a 500 room hotel, then you don't deserve to be in Monaco. I spent most of my time drooling and picking my jaw up off the pavement.
There isn't a whole lot to actually do in Monaco but what they recommend is going and seeing the Prince's castle, which I did, where I watched the changing of the guard, then I headed to the Aquarium which is supposed to be one of the best in Europe and it was impressive. I then just browsed around past a few museums, througha few parks, up and down the various hills of Monaco and just generally took in the place. Saturday night I headed out for a nice dinner at Lorenzo's which wasn't too bad - 50 Euro then I headed to the Casino. 10 Euro cover charge followed by a 15 Euro Jack's and Coke followed by a 20 Euro series of bets at Roulette and nearly another 50 euro was gone. I actually won the first spin and doubled my money but felt ripped off about stopping there so continued to bet and lost the lot. Oh well.
On the way back to the hotel, I again past an assortment of nice cars. One nightclub has a little car park with the following all parked next to each other: Porsche, porsche, lambo, ferrari, porsche, aston martin, aston martin. Crazy. Accross the road was another lambo, another aston, and two bentlys. Damn.
Sunday I slept in, got up, wandered down to the hotel's private beach (I wasn't exactly slumming it hotel wise) and after a few minutes of mentally building up to it, i through myself into the ocean. It was freezing and I was out within 5 mins of getting in. I then layed on the beach chairs and soaked in the lovely 18 degree sunshine. Not exactly warm but bear in mind, I've had no warmer than 8 odd degrees in the last 2 and a bit months.
Wasted the rest of Sunday walking around, some the Exotic Gardens which was cool then headed back, checked out, and got picked up and taken to my departure location - the Monaco helipad. That's right, I left Monaco the way the players leave, by Helicopter. 80 Euros saw a 6/7 min flight back to Nice airport. Very VIP and very cool.
Countless hours of layovers later and I'm back here in Stuttgart.
Hope you are all well.
Speak to you soon!
Dave
After arriving in Stuttgart on Thursday at 11am local time, I barely got settled/adjusted to the time zone and I soon found myself again in the air. Actually, it started on a train. This weekend I was joined by a senior analyst from Boston named Liz and she and I trained to Frankfurt before taking a flight to Budapest in Hungary. Train was uneventful and the countryside not as pretty as I would have expected. Flight was also uneventful.
Friday night we went and had a nice dinner at Baroka where Liz revealed one of her more unusual habits, she photographs her food. Each to their own but I found it a little weird. We were both quite tired, me particularly so we called an early night and resolved for a big day Saturday. Saturday we got up and basically went about exploring and walking around Budapest. The city is huge and divided into Buda and Pest, a division defined by the Danube river. Buda is the older section and a lot more interesting in my opinion. We hiked up and down hills to see monuments, castles, and other sites of interest. We covered a lot of ground and were both quite tired by the end of the day. Probably the highlights here were the view over the city from the Citadel, Mattias Church, Parliament House and St Stephen’s Basilica.
Saturday night we again headed out for a nice meal, this time at a restaurant called Mokka and we had another great meal but not before more photos were taken. After dinner we decided to check out some of the nightlife in Budapest, well, actually, the Pest side of Budapest and started at a bar called Negro and then migrated to Cactus Juice. Cactus juice was the better of the two bars but the music was circa 1993 which I guess had it charm and a few drinks later, didn’t stop us dancing to it but something a little more modern wouldn’t have gone astray.
Sunday we were again up early and hit the town with the intention of doing a tour of Parliament. Unfortunately the people of Budapest decided to stage some massive political rally of some description and Parliament was closed to the public and there was a massive police presence around the area. Plan B, nice slow brekky, then hit the Jewish Synagogue where I was made, like all males, to wear that silly little hat on my head. The synagogue itself was very nice though.
We then wandered around and took in a few little shops and pedestrian malls. Lunch was eaten in a little sidewalk café and after lunch, we headed to Hero’s square to have a look around that area. There was a nice castle and gardens behind Hero’s square which we also had a bit of a look around before heading back to the hotel, grabbing our stuff and heading out to the airport. Lufthansa actually managed to leave on time and soon we were back in Frankfurt, transferring to the train and heading back to Stuttgart.
As usual, pics have been updated so take a look.
Cheers!
Dave
