amsterdam - part 1

finally, its time to bid cologne good-bye and move on to the next leg of our trip ~ amsterdam!

amsterdam is around 2hr 45mins from cologne via ICE.

there are 2 time slots almost daily - 8+am & 1+pm.

naturally, we took the earlier train.

light breakfast at the central train station before boarding the train

it was before noon when we reached a drizzling amsterdam - brrrrr.

with some quick asking around, i sprinted over to the tourist centre to get our iamsterdam tourist cards and we were good to go!

free public transport comes with the card.

so we boarded the local tram line 1 to make our way to our hotel which is near the museum area.

left: our hotel - santa de filosoof

right: waiting for our room to be ready in the waiting area

In general, amsterdam's accomodations are not really in abundance.
so, to get decent accommodations during the peak season in jun is really not that easy, not to mentioned expensive!
i've settled on this 3 star hotel which is easily the most expensive accommodation for our whole trip....
but upon reaching, it does has its quirky details and quaint atmosphere as highlighted in the travel guide book.

random shots in the hotel while waiting for our room ~ glad that they got it ready in 15mins time

after unpacking and freshening up, we left for the market square!

market square with overcast sky - threatening to drizzle!

left: outside new church

right: interior of new church

1st stop was to the neue church located at the heart of the market square.

per our understanding, it is no longer a functioning church but more like a cultural exchange where different performances/exhibitions are held there.

during the time we were there, there were a performance put up by tibetian monks who were composing a beautiful work using colored powder and some iron/steel funnels.

quite impressive.

monks at work

then its shopping time around the main shopping areas around market square and the famous 9straats next to it.

pancakes is pretty common over here and unsurprisingly, we scheduled a pancake tea-break time!

left: tea break @ pancakes amsterdam!

right: lemon sugar and chocolate pancakes

next up, we went to a boathouse museum to see how it's like living on water.

in amsterdam, there are still a number of such houses around though getting lesser over time. 

left: boathouse museum

right: about to enter the boathouse

left: a kiddy section in it

living area

this boathouse that we were in is surprisingly spacious once you are inside.

it is ard 1100+ sq ft, similar to a normal 4 bedroom HDB flat.

just that you have to accommodate to a lower ceiling, rectangular floor plan and the very slight bobbling motion when in it.

tons of canals here!

we happened to walk past the anne frank museum which is originally not on my itinerary.

because i was not that keen to bring yz to a place that is closely associated with the holocaust. :(

still, when we walked past it, there was barely a queue so we made the impromptu decision to visit it.

(perhaps its near to its closing time of 6pm for the next day when we did our canal cruise and came by the same spot, the queue was snaking long!)

being so close to such a sad part of history is never my preferred cup of tea.

though not as bad as compared to the time hubbi and me did the tour at the auschwitz camp @ krakow, the cramped spaces in the secret hideout place here do give us a feel on how stressed and fearful the conditions were back then. 

to yz, its just like a fun excursion where he got to climb steep narrow stairs and explore tiny rooms. @_@

but i do think its important to keep such museums going on to remind everyone how war can be senseless and how human spirit can thrive even in the worst conditions.

sigh.

still, its more depressing than educating to me when it comes to such history.

after that, its time for dinner.

for amsterdam, ive researched for a restaurant with good reviews before the trip and per the advice online, its best to make reservations!

so i did for a slot at 630pm.

but when i reached the restaurant, it was empty. @_@

so much for reservations. still, i offered my name in order not to keep them waiting for me.

which is a good thing for people started streaming in after us from 7pm onwards and we overheard that the place was fully booked for the night!

so we saw people who walked in got turned away due to no reservations made...

so how was the food!?

it was actually pretty decent. not gastronomically sumptious but really good for its pricing.

it was around $50+ per head without wine.

hubbi had angus beef while i had ravioli + a side of potato balls (which is very nice) + rose wine for myself.

and with that, we concluded a long day and slowly bring our aching bodies back to the hotel for, you guess it, a match + movies showing on cable. 
ahhhh... life.

dusseldorf - great day trip

while based in Cologne, we decided to go a day trip to Dusseldorf given its proximity ~ just 30mins away by train.
So we woke up bright and early by 7+am (really, the glaring sun just makes it very hard to laze in bed past 8am!) and did a slow leisure walk to the central train station from our hotel.

@ Cologne central train station which is just next to the DOM anyway

on board the regional train which has slightly different seating arrangement compared to the long distance ICE trains

before long, we have reached dusseldorf.

first thing first, a quick clarification with the info counter at the train station to get the local metro map and which line to the city centre!

and by then, we have figured out how to buy subway tickets from all those automated ticket machine.

ahh, we love germany and its efficiency. :)

in another 15mins, we were right smacked in the city centre, ready to explore!

 

a very very nice kids store which sells quality toys! they have a branch in HK, so be sure to check it out next time.

dusseldorf is famous for its Rhine promenade so we took a slow walk down by the Rhine river.

the water current seems very strong....*shivers*

alot of restaurants along the river

before we know it, its time for lunch.
this time round, online research has shown that this local restaurant is worth trying so off we went to search for it!
and found it in a jiffy, thanks to my good topo skills. :P

but the experience was quite a letdown.
stemming more from our inability to read the menu right. :(
and trying to be adventurous with food...

very happy with his minute maid apple juice!

it didnt say on the menu but the pork knuckle we ordered is not fried/baked!

it looked v scary when they put it on our table, like totally not cooked.

though its actually v tasty but the 卖相 really turn us off abit.

and that purplish thing in front of me? its called the black pudding - dusseldorf local delight.

its actually made of pig blood! @_@.

i took a big bite and almost gagged.. the taste is so overwhelming not unlike how foie gas can do to your tastebuds.

argh. determined not to waste food, i ate abit more with bread.. but only manged 1/3 before i surrendered. :(

hubbi just took 1 bite and refused it totally.

only yz's schnitzel is yummy and we polished it off. ha.

after lunchie, its shopping time for mummy!

dusseldorf has quite a good selection of big brands and they are all located on kognisalle street.

so off we go!

by mid afternoon, we were making our way back to Cologne once more.

and for our last evening here, we made our way down to another museum - Wallraf Richartz Museum.

which is surprisingly not as good as ludwig museum.

for once, i raced through most of the works.

maybe, i was tired.

maybe, i just want to go for early dinner and go back to our hotel for the 845pm match (yes, we watched euro12 matches almost every night during the trip!).

oh well. 

but this rodin's work left an impression on me. 

his expression looks really very shiok!

the story goes that when rodin reveals this for the 1st time to public, it created a scandal as people did not believe that he did this from scratch but accused him of making it from live model castings.

cant blame them, this work is v life-like!

over the weekend, the ng family spent most of their time in the house.
papa, mummy and yz were missing the house alot from the recent trip. same goes for little nut who has been staying at gramps place all this while.

wearing their new clothings from H&M brought during the trip!

got this inflatable ball set for them during the trip too.

now it stands in our balcony. ha.

Koln. Cologne.

onwards we go! to cologne now!

again, rothenburg being a little out of place, the journey to cologne needs 3 connections (though its less than 3 hours as well)!!

but the transfer between them range from just a mere 5 to 20 mins so it could be a lot worse, i guess. 

left: no more struggling with our luggage through the cobblestone streets to the train station!

we called a cab and a mercs cab came. and look! the back seat can be adjusted to become an elevated child booster seat!

how cool.

right: waiting for the next train at a small local unsheltered platform. *brrr* very cold with the wind blowing at us. 

finally, seek refuge in warm ICE train. :)

its a good thing our mecure hotel is just a 3mins walk from the subway station. we were feeling most hungry by the time we checked in ard noon time!
first thing first, even before all of us bath, i ordered room service for our lunch!
the best thing i like about accor hotels is that you can more or less trust their food standards.
we've tried the room service/restaurants for sofitel, mecure, novotel, ibis alike and all is either acceptable or delicious.

yz happy to just laze around in bed after hours on rail.

pork schnitzel with pommes + salad for the little one!

it was very nice and v affordable ~ euro 14 for room service i feel.

after settling the tummies, it's time to venture out to this city which seems to have nothing to offer but its dom.

so is that true? we shall go find out.

tada! the dom is a 10mins walk from our hotel so we took a leisure walk there and it was pretty exciting to see it emerging as we walked closer to it.

really pretty gothic facade with intricate spires and steeples.

interior of the cathedral is airy and gives a good sense of space and serene to those in it.

but due to the cathedral being completed in stages over the centuries, the interior is no doubt more modern than that of its facade.

and i have a thing for old churches not old one...

oh well.

after the church, time for mummy's museum time! :P

one of the attractions in cologne is its ludwig museum. given its name, i would presume it's one which houses the old grandmasters but no, its actually a rather good collection of modern art.

it boasted of having a rather extensive collection of picasso's pieces but i was not really impressed.

given the sheer volume of art pieces the artist produced over his lifetime, he has sooo many pieces scattered round the world that any given museum can easily have >100s of his works in it.

what i was impressed with is that the museum has some interesting pieces of expressionism and surrealism. 

left: they have some really nice pieces from Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. this is women with hats

right: Max Ernst's The Virgin Chastises the infant Jesus before Three Witnesses: André Breton, Paul Éluard, and the Painter

this is done before his works got more and more "surreal", similar to those typical of Dali.

i like how the buttock is a little reddish from the spanking. ha.

dali's the railway station at perpignan:

this work is rather fascinating to view. more and more details surface as you scrutinise further.

the four sides of the painting were decorated with mainly humble peasants at work.

the first thing that you'll see in natural light is the rather obvious cross in the middle of the painting.

only upon stepping further away then you can make out the faint jesus overlapping with the cross.

in fact, i didnt realise that until i saw the "cut"and thinking how much it resembles the one on christ's right ribcage.

so only when i stepped backwards, then i noticed the bigger fainter figure.

i used the camera to take a photo and the apparition became more apparant.

though the "shock" factor is nowhere near those classics of his housed in madrid's reina sofia museum, it is still one that pulls you in and gets you pondering.

after the "cultural" time, its time to stroll aimlessly along cologne's "orchard road" and see if there is any retail opportunities. ha.

we chanced upon an authentic lego shop and the husband was very happy to see the destroyer and R2D2 on display.

so much so that he requested a photogragh with them..... @_@

the pricing is definitely much cheaper for all the sets compared to sg even if there is 20% sale going on here (which is rare by the way).

more for myself than for the boy, i finally got my hands on the black pearl set that i've been eyeing for the past so many years until its no longer easily available in sg.....

jack sparrow's ship!

still, i think this would be a great project for hubbi, yz and myself to spend time completing it.

after its done, then yr will smash part of it im sure. LOL.

Rothenburg ob der tauber

we headed to Rothenburg ob der tauber from Munich today!

it was a one of the better preserved medieval town along the Romantic Road, making it a very picturesque place to visit.

we stayed over for a night to break up the journey between Munich and Cologne and it was a right choice after all.

after the hordes of tourists left the town for their day trip, we got a rather quiet town to walk around in in the evening.

the journey to here is not that simple though.

there is no direct connection between here and munich. it took us 2 transfers and almost 3 hours to reach here!

but due to the transfers in between breaking the journey up, it seems to be faster than we thought.

finally, reaching in the late morning!

left: at one of the few entrances of the town. there is a city wall surrounding almost the whole of it

right: we can climb up to walk around the perimeter of the city wall



it was all very exciting to stroll into the town taking all the fabulous sights...

BUT, the hard work comes when trying to pull/push our heavy-ass luggage on the cobblestone streets. @_@

doesnt help that our hotel is located almost 1km from the entrance....zzzzz

hubbi said his arms' muscles were all toned up by the "vibrations". LOL

the market square!

left: pretty pretty medieval town!

right: posing with a big nutcracker 

left: they were very happy with all the swords, crossbows etc

right: happy boy 

we had lunch at one of those super commercialised restaurant at market square.

surprisingly, the food was good and prices reasonable

right: local delight - sorta like shortbread coated with sugar, chocolate powder etc

  

left: posing with knight on the street

right: posing with knight at our hotel lobby

For Rothenburg, I have read rave reviews on this restaurant there so i was rather determined to dine there for the night. 

after some searching (which was pretty fast given the size of the town, ha!), we found the restaurant!

left: our restaurant looking very unassuming on the outside - Zull Holl!

dont be fooled by how bright it was, it was almost 7pm by then! europe summer days are crazily bright, yah?

right: the boy doesnt like the mascot devil for the restaurant.

i had to turn the table cloth away from him before he was ok to sit down. @_@

we had one of the best dinners for the trip here.

for soup, we had white garlic soup. you must be wondering what the... like me but trust me it was thick and good.

and the owner of the restaurant told us its not the traditional garlic if that's what we were thinking about.

rather, white garlic is some plants they grew in their back garden.....

for mains, we settled for spare ribs and prawn pasta in white garlic sauce.

they were really good. even for person like me who dont like spare ribs normally.

juicy and tender in the inside while crispy on the outside. yum yum.

with happy bellies, we made our way slowly back to our hotel and call it a day!