Easter Break 29.03.18 – 02.04.18

Easter Break!! So I am currently working in Italy on a primary school tour. And have just had my Easter Break. I decided to go to Switzerland. I stayed at Hotel Alpha, Luzern (Lucerne) in the middle of Switzerland. It was amazingly beautiful.

Thursday 29th March

I travelled from Torino, Italy to Milano Centrale, which took me roughly an hour and a half. From there I switched on to my train to take me to Switzerland. Travelling from Milano Centrale to Luzern took approximately 3 hours 20 mins.

One of the first things that confused me was the language. I heard people speaking what I could identify as German and French. Now, maybe this was a little naive of me, but I have a friend who is part Swiss and he speaks Swiss French. From this, I think I automatically assumed, wrongly, that the whole of Switzerland spoke French. But soon realised, after googling it, that the area I was in spoke their own version of German. Having been living in Italy roughly 5 weeks prior to Switzerland my mind was in Italian mode, so quickly tried to cobble together the little amount of German I knew.

Leaving the station I walked to my hotel first going the wrong way! But soon realised and altered my path. Once at the hotel I was greeted by a friendly lady, who got me to fill in a form for my stay, got the keys, then I was up to the top floor. A few days later the lady told me that, apparently, I had the best single bedroom in the whole hotel. I mean I don’t think she was wrong. I had a balcony, the room was super clean, and the view I discovered several days later once the fog had cleared was just stunning. Back to the Thursday though. Once at my hotel I needed a bit of a nap cause I was feeling exhausted, from the travel yes, but mostly from work. After, I grabbed a shower and felt slightly more refreshed. Then off I went into the city, I just started meandering about, finishing up at the place that I had picked out for dinner, based on an article online.

Wirtshaus Galliker is the place I’d chosen to eat. Now having spent a fair bit of time in Germany, the restaurant seemed to me very German in its nature. When I first arrived there were only 2 other people in the restaurant, and the lady sat me on the same table as them. First off I chose a beef broth with egg to start, which came with bread, and I ordered myself a beer. Main course, I went for the one recommended in the article, the best way I can describe it is a veal pie with a creamy, slightly mushroomy sauce, and I had that with vegetables. It was delicious. For dessert I had a fruit cake, the fruit of the day was plum, and that came with cream. The whole meal was delicious, however I did feel a little out of my depth with the language, the lady did understand English, but I wanted to make an effort. After my scrummy meal I was so very full, I went back to my hotel room, and chilled out for the rest of the night, deciding where to go the following day.

My Dinner

Friday 30th March

Breakfast was just lush! Happy days. I had oats, with some seeds, raisins and yogurt. Bread with blackcurrant jam. A mini muffin. Orange. Juice. And a Green Tea. Which set me up very nicely for the day ahead.

My Bern Day Out!

Yes Friday I ventured to Bern. The train takes 1 hour from Luzern via Olten. The train via Landau takes slightly longer at roughly an hour and a half, which was the train I got on the way back.

It was incredibly foggy when I first arrived in Bern, a mist seemed to have descended on the whole city, and it was very quiet with not many people about. First place I wanted to go to was the Historical Museum, which also houses the Albert Einstein exhibit. On my way I passed parliament buildings and took a few pictures. Arriving at the museum, which kind of looks like a castle, I spotted a bench, where a sculpture of Albert Einstein sits, and a kind lady offered to take a picture of me sat next to Albert.

The full name of the museum is Bernisches Historisches Museum. The museum costs 13 CHF for the history of Bern, but if you want to see the Albert Einstein exhibit like I did, then it costs you 18 CHF for both parts. And on a Friday morning at 11am there is a free tour called ‘Bern in 57 minutes’. I decided to join the tour and learnt a bit about the history of Bern and a few of the famous people that have lived or come from there. I would definitely recommend the tour, the historian Ben was very friendly and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Once the tour was over I was free to discover the rest of the museum. The majority of my time spent was learning about the life and work of Albert Einstein, as I knew very little, I learnt rather a lot. The exhibit is laid out really well, and there is a huge amount of information to absorb, I did skip a tiny part of the exhibit as I felt my brain had information overload, and needed to get out in the fresh air.

I left the museum and wandered along the river, River Aare, to go and see the Barengraben. Where 3 bears currently live. It was amazing to see bears that close up, they were a beautiful shade of coppery brown in the sunlight. As the weather was so nice I decided now is the time for ice cream. I got ice cream from the Eiswerkstatt at the Altes Tramdepot, just behind where the bears live. I went for a medium sized pot which cost me 6 or 7 euros, and I got three flavors, all were utterly delicious. Money well spent. I sat and ate my ice cream down by the river.

I moved on more into the centre of the city and just had a wander around. There are many buildings to see as well as statues, the weirdest one being the statue of a man / jester eating a baby with other babies around him, most odd. I wandered past the Einstein Haus, and decided to go in my ticket was 6 euros. It was nice to go in, pretty small, and to be honest most of the information I read I already knew from the museum earlier on in the day. Definitely one to visit if you have less time on your hands. After this I had a further little wander, then decided I’d done my exploring for one day. Grabbed myself a falafel pretzel sandwich, and got my train back to Luzern.

A View of Bern

Saturday 31st March

Today I got up and walked around the city of Luzern. I decided to walk a way I’d not wandered yet. I walked up to the old city wall, along the wall and up a couple of the towers along the way. From the wall there was a beautiful view of Lake Luzern, which I hadn’t properly seen yet on my visit. It is definitely worth a trip up the wall and the towers for the view alone. I believe there are still 9 towers, if I’m remembering correctly, still standing. After this I decided to get some food at another place I’d read about online called Mill’Feuille. It is a very busy cafe / restaurant by the river. When I went in the lady said there was a 5-10min wait as all the tables were full and I said that was fine, and this was at roughly 3pm. It didn’t take at all long to be seated and I was in no rush. I ordered a latte macchiato, water, and a burger. I’d seen someone else’s burger and thought it looked great, the burger itself was good but I’m not overly a fan of sauerkraut or horseradish, and should probably have read what relish was on the burger before I ordered it. After the burger I ordered the waffle with chocolate cherries and vanilla ice cream. It was delicious, it made me very happy indeed.

On leaving Mill’Feuille I walked through the town and made my way to the Lowendenkmal, Lion Monument. I had seen pictures, and assumed it wouldn’t be that big. It was a lot bigger than I imagined, I thought it was impressive, and I was luckily there when there were not too many other tourists so managed to get a few decent photographs of it, and with it selfie style. I started my journey back and saw a church I thought was pretty impressive, and I decided to go in and have a look. The church is called Hofkirche St. Leodegar. It had a beautiful looking organ on the balcony, which I managed to get a photo of. I didn’t spend long in the church before wandering around the lake, which I hadn’t yet done. I decided to wander around the lake one to be in nature  and second of all I felt so full from my food earlier that I needed to walk it off. After my wander, back to the hotel I went.

View from the Tower & Lowendenkmal

Sunday 1st April – Easter Sunday

Today I had another jolly good breakfast. I had booked myself on a walking tour and had to be at the Tourist Information centre at the train station at 9.45 I arrived and that morning I think there were roughly 15- 20 of us on the tour, which I felt was a nice number. First we were taken to outside the KKL, which is the concert hall. The lady, who was our tour guide, showed us a picture of the inside and it looked incredible. If I ever get the chance I definitely want to see a concert there, or at the very least have a tour. From there we went on to the Chapel Bridge, which was an octagonal water tank by it. The lady shared a lot of the history of Luzern with us, and feel it’s a very worthwhile tour, it lasted 2 hours, and took us through many of the squares in the city. Also she took us into the church, Jesuitenkirche, unfortunately she couldn’t explain to us the inside of the church as an Easter service was taking place. However I am so glad we got to go inside firstly cause the inside of the church is stunning and secondly it was great to experience even a small amount of the service that was taking place. Our tour guide, who unfortunately I cannot remember the name of, had incredible knowledge, any extra questions anyone had she could answer at the drop of a hat, a truly knowledgeable lady. The price of the walking tour is 18 CHF for an adult. If you have a Gaste Card, which you get when you stay at any of the hotels in the city, the price is 14,10 CHF.

After the tour as it was so darn cold I went back to me hotel to warm up. I headed back out again just after lunch and went on a one hour boat trip on the lake at 2pm. With a Gaste Card, it costs 20,50 CHF. The full adult ticket price costs 27 CHF. Within the ticket price there is a free audio guide which you pick up once you are on board. I chose to take a seat on the upper deck and although pretty breezy it wasn’t too cold. It was a little overcast but I managed to get some great pictures of the lake and the surrounding mountains. The audio guide was quite informative as well, about different things to look out for and the history of the mountains. I think this too was value for money. I definitely very much  enjoyed being out on the lake surrounded by nature.

After this I was a tad on the hungry side, I’d decided earlier that day that I wanted to try Raclette, a typical Swiss cheese dish. I decided to go to Zunfthausrestaurant Pfistern, the outside of the building is just beaut, the inside to me was still nice, but didn’t quite reflect the outside. I ordered a Luzerner Bier, and the Druerlei Raclette, which was a couple of different types of cheese, with potatoes, silverskin onions, and sliced gherkin. To melt the cheese you put it on the slab which was above the heat, when it was melted you could tilt the slab, and use the scraper to get the melted cheese on to the food you have on your plate. I feel my description is not the best so I will insert a picture below. It was really rather delicious but a little too much for one person, I was stuffed and didn’t quite manage it all. The service I received was okay, the location was good, and I got to sit at one of the window seats, where I could see the river which I enjoyed.

Once dinner was complete I took myself on an Easter Sunday stroll around part of the lake. And that was my Easter Sunday.

View Of Luzern / On the Boat / Dinner

Monday 2nd April

Time to go. I got up and the view from my balcony, was the clearest it had been my whole stay. I woke up to sunshine and bright blue skies. I took myself off to breakfast, followed by a final stroll by the river and a little around the town. As it was such a lush day I sat at an outside table at Des Alpes, and ordered a latte macchiato, with which they also bought me a cup of water. The view was lush, the sunshine warm. I drank my coffee and read a bit of my book, as well as people watching, whilst admiring the view. Once I’d paid I meandered back to my hotel to pick up the rest of my luggage, then headed for the station. As I was a little early I went into Bachmann and bought a strawberry tart. Then hopped on my train.

View from my balcony / View of Luzern

And that was the end of my Easter break Switzerland adventure!

Beijing, China

First stop on my working tour of China was Beijing. Even though I was away to work we had rather a lot of time to explore and I wanted to see of much of China as possible. We were to stay in Beijing for 3 weeks. We stayed in a hostel for those weeks and each had our own rooms. As Beijing is so massive it took rather a long time to get anywhere, we mainly travelled by Metro, but sometimes by taxi or uber. I walked sometimes too – as a hutongs shopping area was about a 45 minute walk away. Near the hutongs was a place called the Houhai lake, and surrounding the lake are many bars and places to eat. And we went there a few times during our stay in Beijing.

Beijing is great for the historical and cultural aspects of the Chinese culture. And I managed to go to quite a lot of amazing places and do quite a lot of things. The places we visited, in order, were The Forbidden City, Jingshan Park, Peking Opera, Tiananmen Square, The Great Wall, Temple of Heaven, The Summer Palace, and a Kung Fu show. We also ate at quite a few different restaurants whilst out and about also. Below I’ll give you more details of the places and experiences I had :

The Forbidden City or The Palace Museum

The Forbidden City is absolutely huge! When we went we mostly walked through the centre, but there are also extra sections on both sides of the main body of the city. The buildings are all of green, red, blue and gold in colour. There are halls and temples, all great architectural structures. I especially like the dragon heads which appear out of the wall on the bottom picture above. I mainly couldn’t get over how big it was!

Jingshan Park

I loved Jingshan Park, it was beautiful. We walked up to the top where the temple stood. I met a man at the top who was talking to us about the temple and he said that the Emperor used to walk from the Forbidden City to this temple with his concubines to come and pray to the Buddha within the temple. From the temple you can see just how big the Forbidden City actually is. Within the park there are many groups who are stood around singing, and many groups playing different games. It was just a really lovely peaceful place.

Peking Opera

Peking Opera was a very unique experience. It sounds nothing like opera as we know it. The female is very high pitched with a unique tone. And it isn’t so much about singing but more about the storytelling and physical aspects of the show, at least that’s how I felt. I cannot say that I necessarily liked Peking Opera, but it was definitely great to experience.

Tiananmen Square

On the day I went to Tiananmen Square I went on a solo adventure. I got off at a Metro stop that it said was nearby on line and got quite lost, but I did eventually make it to Tiananmen Square as you can see by the pictures above. I guess getting lost was all part of the adventure really! When I made it to the square it was a lot bigger than I imagined. I had a great day wondering around looking at the buildings taking photos, and finally going to the Museum. The museum was another task in itself. I got my ticket, queued up, got my ticket punched and walked inside. In China there is rather a lot of security and the museum was no different, I did not realise you were not allowed selfie sticks and they told me I had to take it to the cloakroom. It took me absolutely ages to find. I dropped off my selfie stick and luckily was allowed straight back in as my ticket was hole punched. Once inside my bag had to go through the scanner again. Once that was done there is then a full body check, once that is done you can then enjoy the museum til your hearts content. And I did have a great time once I’d got through the security.

The Great Wall

The Great Wall was amazing!! I loved it. The wall was not as high as I expected, as it is built on top of mountains, I guess I had this picture in my head, and I didn’t get it quite right, but I loved it all the same. The wall is very steep in some parts and a lot of the steps are not the same height or depth. It definitely was a task to climb, my legs ached so much, and it proved I was pretty unfit. We walked 7 towers along and back again, on the way I almost stopped at the 6th as I was shattered but I am glad to say I carried on til the 7th. It was a wonderful experience and the views were just beautiful.

Temple of Heaven

I visited the Temple of Heaven on a particularly sunny day! The temple was just stunning. It is circular in structure and very tall. It is just beautiful, especially the way the sunlight was reflecting off the gold of the building, it was stunning. There is a park within the grounds of the temple also, and again there were people playing games, we were invited to join in on one, it was a kicking game, I forget the name. But the item you kick is weighted and has feathers sticking out of it. It’s rather tricky to play so I bought one so I could practice, and I can safely say I think it will take me quite some time to get good. It was such a lovely day.

Summer Palace

Another beautiful day in Beijing was when I went to the Summer Palace with a couple of the people I worked with. The Summer Palace was absolutely huge and because we arrived there in the afternoon we didn’t get to explore the whole thing, but a fair bit none the less. We went up to the Buddha temple, where we climbed many stairs to get to the top. Both the Buddha and the view from being up so high were definitely worth it. The sun was setting and it cast some great light over many of the buildings and the lake. This is one of my favourite places to visit in Beijing, and urge anyone travelling there to go.

Kung Fu show

The Kung Fu show was at the Red Theatre. It was a great show to experience. I’m not sure quite what I expected, but the show we saw had a story to it. So the action of the Kung Fu was interlaced with storytelling. I enjoyed the show, and it was great to see Kung Fu first hand.

I loved my time in Beijing very much, I loved it from the moment I arrived, at least I felt at home straight away. I really enjoyed all the places I visited but my favourites have to be Jingshan Park, The Great Wall and The Summer Palace. I can take away great memories from Beijing and I’m sure I’ll remember my time there for many years to come.

Christmas Time

Christmas is now coming to a close… I still feel superly Christmassy. I love Christmas, and this Christmas has been, I think, one of the best. I love my friends and family a super amount.

Spending time with friends and family at Christmas time is wonderful. I love seeing them at any time of year, but at Christmas time it just feels that bit more special.

Over the last almost year and a half I’ve been away from home more than I’ve been here. So this Christmas has been great as I’ve seen the majority of people that I wanted to see and I have loved it!

Christmas in my family goes a little like this. Mum, Dad, me and my brother spend the daytime together. We open presents. Dad cooks the Christmas dinner, every year it is delicious, this year he got the roast potatoes spot on! Later on in the afternoon usually around 4 or 5pm we go to my Grandma and Grandads, my brother stays for a couple of hours and then goes to his girlfriends. A bit later we have buffet dinner and watch the Strictly Christmas Special. This year we arrived back home about 10pm as I was showing my Grandparents photos from China. Once home the kettle goes on for a nice cuppa and then we slowly all drift off to bed.

Our Boxing Day tradition is to go to the seaside for fish and chips at Hunstanton. Once we’d eaten we went for a long walk down by the seaside, to blow the cobwebs away as my mum always says. I had such a lovely time.

Later on I nipped out to see some of my friends. We had a good chit chat, and played some games. Was lovely to catch up. Then once again I returned home. Boxing Day complete ❤️

Frankfurt in Photographs

Leading on from my Frankfurt post last week. I just wanted to share all of the photos I took on my trip 🙂