Pompeii is historically rich town and is best known for being buried in hot volcanic ash and mud when Mt Vesuvius erupted nearly 2,000 years ago. The town and its townsfolk were literally buried alive and thanks to a discovery in the 16th century has undergone a series of excavations (work is still ongoing) to reveal ancient Rome as it was back then. Thanks to the burial the detail of the ancient city has been maintained in exquisite detail. Therefore aside from the ruins you can also see people, animals, and houseware also frozen in time.

Pompeii is about half an hour’s drive from the centre of Naples. We had opted to take a guided tour of the place because, although you can walk it yourself and there is a more than adequate map that can be bought for a few euro, nothing brings history alive like a live telling. And lets face it these days I have a very short attention span!

Some of the more interesting sites included:
– the large ampitheatre,
– the Forum (public marketplace)
– Via dei Sepolcri (one of the main thoroughfares where you can see the ruts worn in by the horse carts. Clearly this was not a walking city but there are raised stone blocks to help people get across the street though apparently they also functioned as old-fashioned speed bumps)
– Lupanar (an ancient brothel. Watch out for the pornographic frescoes which showed what you would get in the respective rooms)

The other things in detail to watch out for as you’re walking around in Pompeii are:
– the small tiles in the grounds which reflect the moon light or candle light to aid people when walking at night
– the ph@lluses carved into the stones of the walls or in frescoes. Though you may think that they signified fertility and of course s3x (often pointing the way to the nearest brothel) depending on how it was presented it could also be a sign for good luck.

You could easily spend a whole day at Pompeii which is stunningly rich in history but its hot (our tour guide came prepared with her oriental umbrella) and there is hardly any shelter so it could get tiring very quickly. Walking around is not very easy either on the dusty cobblestones which are surprisingly exhausting to navigate. Not to mention the threat that Mt Vesuvius could blow again without warning! Ha ha.

First impressions are lasting impressions and I’m afraid my first one of Naples was not great. Walking out of the train station you are confronted with an area which his … to put it delicately … a little undesirable. Though the buildings themselves were quite magnificent. It just felt seedy and there were some not very nice looking people hanging around the place. Plus the fact the area seemed to be a giant car park with cars absolutely everywhere was hardly encouraging.

Oh and by the way – crossing the streets of Naples is done at the pedestrian’s risk. We’ve found that generally cars will not stop for you and with no pedestrian traffic lights to help you out you really have to move quickly to get across the road.

We had come to Naples from Rome (a nearly 90 minute trip on an express train) because of a Pompeii/Mt Vesuvius tour that we were supposed to be taking with Viator. It wasn’t until we were picked up by the driver that we were told that we wouldn’t be visiting Mt Vesuvius. This made us a little angry because if we’d know about this earlier (when we arrived in Rome a couple of days ago we’d had to call to confirm the tour – they could have told us then) we would have tried to re-arrange or at least pick a different tour. Apparently the reason we couldn’t do the Mt Vesuvius part was because of the Giro d’Italia (the Italian answer to the Tour de France.) How annoying.

So, we did the Pompeii tour (this it the next write-up) and within a couple of hours were back in Naples in time for lunch. Honestly we were both a bit grumpy at lunch time as we were frustrated with cancellation of part the tour. Nevertheless by the time we’d both had a Naples pizza (mine a rather salty broccoli and local sausage pizza) we were both ready to make the most of our free afternoon. We played a game over lunch of seeing if we could spot the mafia …

With only a few hours left of the afternoon our best bet for seeing the most of Naples was the Hop On Hop Off bus (but we weren’t planning on hopping off) but unfortunately we only had time to do one route – the one that took us up and down the coastline. The afternoon was quite a nice one so the bus ride was rather pleasant. Naples struck me as the kind of place which didn’t have too many things to do except to relax and soak up the relaxed atmosphere. The buildings are quite beautiful and being at the top of the bus helped bring us closer to the facades.

Naples doesn’t have much of a beach along the Gulf and instead there are large white rocks which people used to full advantage to soak up the sun. Graffiti artists also apparently find them quite a good canvas to demonstrate their art.

Thankfully, the centre of Naples and the coast by the Gulf of Naples was much nicer than what we’d glimpsed of the city in the morning by the train station so our visit to Naples wasn’t an entire waste of time and I walked away with an improved first impression. In fact Teesh had so revised her feeling on Naples that she even said that her next European trip would include an extended stay in Naples for rest …

Venice is really the City of Love (I’ll ignore the “And Death” part for the purposes of this write-up I think!) There are few cities where you get an immediate feel for the place upon stepping outside of the airport or the main train station. Venice is one of them. Perhaps it was the timing of my arrival (sunset) combined with the glorious warm weather but I couldn’t have arrived into a more romantic mood. From Venice airport I took the Alilaguna water bus and for the whole 50 minute plus ride in to San Marco I had the gorgeous sunset hovering over the calm waters of the Adriatic Sea out my window. It really set the scene for a fantastic 3-4 day stay.

Photos, Photos, Photos.

When?	Mid May 2009
Why Go?	Oh my god the romance and I don’t just mean from a partner point of view! Its such a beautiful city and so different from anywhere you’ve ever been before. You could understand why so many poets and artists found inspiration in this lovely city. The greatest thing about Venice was the fact you could walk two or three blocks from Piazza San Marco (tourist central) and aside from being absolutely lost (heh heh) you’ll find yourself absolutely alone. It never failed us and it was great to have the peace from all those tourists. 🙂
Weather	Fantastically hot and just a bit humid (the 19-25 degrees felt soooo much hotter than it sounds.)
Hint	– When they say travel light – believe them! You will be walking over a lot of bridges to get to your accommodation with most not having ramps so you’ll have to lug your luggage up those stairs and then also lug them up the floors you’ll no doubt have to climb to get to your room.
	– You will get lost. There is no avoiding it. You can have the best map in the world of Venice and it will still not have every street on there. But that’s half the charm of discovering Venice. I remember one time late at night I was leading Teesh down an alley and we emerged into this very small square, where there happened to be a buzzing café, and I went to walk down another alley to get out of the square wondering out loud what was at the end of it. I got a cheeky response from one of the guys at the café saying there I would find a pool and sure enough all before me was water.
	We had a pretty good map, supplied by our B&B, but even with that we got lost so many times it wasn’t funny. However, somehow we always found our way to where we needed to get (even if it did take an extra 30 mins …) Much to our great amusement, one of the couples staying in our B&B brought their GPS around with them. Losers! (Sorry – that was a bit uncalled for but we didn’t really like them because they were rather snobby!)
	The best bet for getting around is to pick up landmarks near where you’re trying to get to and just keep asking everyone you see to point you in the right direction. After all, someone is always going to know where Piazza San Marco or the Rialto is!
	– Gondolas are EVERYWHERE so shop around and see if you can bargain the price down. If you are traveling on your own or as a couple and want to save a few euro consider hooking up with strangers to share the cost.

Our visit to Venice was both relaxing and busy. We easily found enough sights and attractions to keep us occupied during our short stay. Teesh also picked up an American guy who we spent the day and dinner with us (and who we split a Gondola ride with) so it was mostly a tourist visit but also a sit back and relax and soak up the atmosphere visit. The American guy wasn’t the only one to show an interest in Teesh – the owner of our B&B, Ricardo, was also interested in some “activity” with Teesh. Rather amusing that she didn’t quite pick up the clues from him … Aside from this awkward situation though the B&B was really nice. It was only a couple of blocks away from most sights, we had a large lovely room with big bathroom and Ricardo was very friendly (I mean, beyond trying to pick Teesh up) and helpful pointing out good local restaurants to go to etc.

The Experience

A little planning is recommended for Venice to ensure that you don’t miss out anything that you want to do (such as visiting the island of Murano to watch the glass-blowing in the glass factories – visits are best scheduled for weekday mornings.) Also, travelling in Italy at this time of year it helps to pre-book some tours because they tend to get booked out or suddenly aren’t available for the day you want them. One tour we booked in advance was the Doge’s Palace “Secret Itineraries” Tour (Itinerari Segreti del Palazzo Ducale) which I would well recommend.

Doge’s Palace

The Doge’s Palace is a beautiful building in the Piazza which used to be home of the elected leader of Venice, the Doge. It was from here that the city was run. Not only was the Palace the political heart of Venice it also now holds may amazing pieces of art including Tintoretto’s Vision of Paradise. (I was soon to find out that Italy has so many pieces of art that every piece you come across is great or amazing for on reason or another.)

The “Secret Itineraries” tour not only allows you to skip the giant line for entry into the Doge’s Palace (you are free to wander after the tour has finished) but you get to follow in the footsteps of former leaders of Venice through secret passages and concealed doors. You’ll also find out about Casanova’s, “the world’s greatest lover”, incarceration and subsequent escape from his gaol. Hearing stories about the Torture Room was a bit creepy though from what I understand just the threat of torture seemed enough to get people talking. Look out also for the golden staircase, Scala d’oro, which you will climb to get up to the apartments – its hard to miss golden stucco decorated vault above your head.

At the end of your visit to the Palace you will have access to the infamous Bridge of Sighs a bridge so named by Lord Byron at the suggestion that the prisoners would sigh at their final view of Venice out the window before walking across the bridge and down to their cells.

Gondola Ride

As I said at the start there are gondolas absolutely everywhere so you can shop around to find the best bargain but also the best route. We took a gondola ride around the canals so it was sort of a bit more inland than, e.g., out on the waters of the Grand Canal. It was very nice and peaceful . We bargained our guy down in price but I’m pretty sure he also chopped out about 15 minutes of the trip to reflect the cut down price! At first our guy was asking for 60 or 80 euro and I think we ended up paying something like 45 or 60 euro (I can’t remember exactly) for 30 minutes. He was a nice enough guy but spoke limited English and so didn’t say much during our ride. From other gondolas passing us we heard the gondolier giving them a sort of tour guide, or pointing out important buildings at least, so it may be worth checking if that service is available.

A gondola ride is one of the must-do things in Venice and it is very lovely but it is pricey so you’ll have to buck it up and live with the price. Oh! You can also go and see the gondolas being built!

Basilica di San Marco (St Mark’s Basilica)

Lots of gold and mosaics in this basilica. A visit to view the interior is free (though women must be dressed appropriately (knees and shoulders should be covered) and you can climb to the Galleria for more views across the Piazza and out to the lagoon to San Giorgio and access to the museum. From here you can also get a better view of the interior. The highlight up here is the up close view of the four bronze horses.

Campanile di San Marco, or Belltower of St. Mark’s

Getting up early to hit the tourist sights is what most guide books advise you so you can avoid the queues. However this rule didn’t seem to apply in Venice. Could be an anomaly but every morning we went into the Piazza San Marco there were huge queues for the Belltower, the Palace and the Basilica but come just after lunch the queues seemed to fade away to more manageable levels.

Every city or town I visit I must go to a spot which sits high above the city for panoramic views and the Bell Tower is it for Venice. The line wasn’t huge to go up but by the time we emerged at the top there were quite a few people there so it was very crowded and spots by the windows were hard to come by. Good timing or bad timing we also got to the top just as the bells started ringing. There are five bells up there and they are massive and loud. I must admit feeling a bit nervous standing under them as they swung because I thought they might fall down on me!

The views from the Belltower are unparalleled and if its clear enough you can see absolutely everywhere though as usual you will have to put up with the rude tourists intent on getting their shot out the window.

Piazza San Marco

The Piazza San Marco is tourist central as this is where everyone seems to come (if they’re not at The Rialto Bridge that is ..) If you’re meeting people in the Piazza be sure to pick a point that is not outside the Basilica because this is where everyone, including giant tour groups, congregate and seeing each other in the sea of people will not be easy. You could easily spend an hour or two people watching in the Piazza but there are also cafes which line it if you want to take a seat. However, sitting down in any of the cafes in Piazza San Marco is going to cost you a bundle as you are paying a premium for the prime position and also the orchestra who entertain day and night. If you want to soak up the atmosphere you can simply stand around and watch. But sitting down in the Piazza, if not at the café, is strictly not allowed and if you do you will soon be asked to get up or the police will be called!

The Piazza is also sometimes hosts to re-enactments of the olden times when the King used to come down and be entertained by jesters, by sword fights etc. and we were lucky to see this one day. I was a bit scared though by one of his entourage – he was a big, no giant!, scary knight!

Vaporetto Rides

Vaporetto’s are basically Venice’s buses on the water and there is no better way then to get a picture of Venice than to take one of these on the Grand Canal. I think the No. 2 travels between Piazza San Marco and the railway station and along the way takes you up the Grand Canal taking in sites including the Rialto Bridge and the artistic area of Galleria dell’ Accademia. Plus out on the water you can see how busy it really gets with all those other “vehicles” on the water. Best place on the vaporetto is out the back for open-air views however also be aware that these rides get very crowded!

Other Distractions

Harry’s Bar

If ever there was a tourist trap then Harry’s Bar is it. However, everyone MUST come to Harry’s Bar to indulge in at least one bellini (peach juice and prosecco.) One bellini (served in a very small glass) will set you back at least 12 euro so its likely that’s all you’ll be able to afford but nevertheless it is interesting to come here and people watch and hope to catch a celeb. There are only 14 tables so it’s a rather snug restaurant and you’re most likely to be sat at the bar.

When Teesh and I went in an American couple were sitting next to us. I don’t know if the woman was drunk but she was VERY giggly and talkative. She was enormously entertaining especially when she kept wiggling her eyebrows at me when she was trying to emphasise a particular point, such as the fact that many of the people in the bar, the clientele that is, had had plastic surgery at one stage or another and when I discretely had a peak – she was right!

Note the dress code for men.

Murano

Venice’s glasswork is known around the world and if you went to get the genuine stuff then make sure it comes from Murano, being the island where all the glass making factories are. Note also that the vaporetta ride which takes you out to Murano passes by Isola di San Michele which is worth a visit in its own right. Known colloquially as The Island of the Dead it is one of the most beautiful cemeteries I’ve come across. Flowers seemed to freshened daily as most plots had nice fresh ones laid across them.

We ventured out to Murano early one morning hoping to catch some of the glass blowing demonstrations at the factories. Blatantly put on for tourists the factory we went to charged a small fee (a couple of euro) for the demonstration. It was money well spent. The first guy took about 15 minutes to shape this vase then the second guy, after shaping another vase in about 5 minutes, amazed us by whipping up a glass horse in like 5 twitches of his plier.

Lido

A short vaporetto ride away from Venice is Lido, an 11km sandbar and beach. We kind of left going to Lido a bit late in the day so, though we didn’t sit on the beach and catch some rays, it was still warm enough at 5pm in the afternoon to enjoy a nearly two hour stroll. It’s a huge beach and though the main area off the main strip was very busy a 5-minute stroll in either direction up or down the beach brings you to less busy surrounds. Its not the most beautiful beach I’ve seen but on a hot summer day I don’t see too many people refusing to go down there.

The Food

After one average experience at a tourist trap (serving typical pizza and pasta only) I really got into the food of Venice. Particular highlight included a tasty risotto nero (a seafood risotto tinted black by the ink of cuttlefish), a starter sarde in saor (sardines in a sauce of onion, vinegar, pine nuts, and raisins) and actually my final meal in Venice fegato alla veneziana (calves’ liver with onions Venetian style.) Mmmm …. all typically Venetian I understand.

One of our lunches was also quite memorable and involved indulging in cicchetti (tapas style snacks) which was quite good simply because we could eat what we want and as many of them as we wanted. It was surprisingly cheap too! In fact, a pub crawl in search of cicchetti is one of the perfect ways to fill your stomach at budget pries.

More simple pleasures including the numerous cones of gelati we indulged in (though often it was a race between the hot weather melting the ice cream and me being able to lick it all up) and the slices of pizza from a local pizza joint.

Last Words

I couldn’t get over the fact that there were no cars at all on Venice. The buses were boats, the ambulances were boats, the rubbish trucks were boats, and the police had boats. It was actually quite welcome and soothing.

As small as Venice is and as many visitors as it gets you would think that Venice would be overrun by the tourists but somehow it isn’t. The magic of Venice lies in the pockets of quiet that you can find dotted just steps away from the main thoroughfares. I could think of a better city to get lost in.

“The Great Castle Journey” as Teesh and I have affectionately named this part of our trip was a looooong time planning. Considering the fact that it consisted of one day out of a total of 31 days that I had with Teesh during her trip over here we spent a very disproportionate amount of the last six months planning for it – I would say at least 50% of our emails and phone conversations were about “The Great Castle Journey”!! I can’t even begin to think how many discussion boards we read or internet sites we hit. Ordinarily this trip wouldn’t have been to hard to plan except that we only had one day in which to carry it off and that one day was going to be cut short by the fact I had to get to the airport in time to catch a plane back to London. So, there were all sorts of factors to take into consideration such as whether we’d be able to make a five minute connection between trains, how long exactly it would take us to move between the two castles that we wanted to visit etc. Teesh thought it would be a relatively achievable journey from Munich and in the end we made it with plenty of time to spare, though we certainly spent a fair amount of time on buses and trains getting there.

Germany is known for its great and many castles and the most famous one surely has to be Neuschwanstein Castle in Hohenschwangau. I didn’t realise it until we started planning but there are actually two castles at Hohenschwangau: Neuschwanstein Castle and Hohenschwangau Castle with the former being the more well-known. The tourism council at Hohenschwangau are obviously quite crafty as they offer a combo King’s ticket that allows you to visit both castles for a slightly discounted price (a €1 saving.)

Hohenschwangau Castle was built by King Ludwig II’s father, King Maximilian II, from the ruins of another castle. I guess King Ludwig’s inspiration for Neuschwanstein came from his father as Hohenschwangau is where he actually grew up and King Maximilian II definitely had an eye for the fairytale. It’s a shame that you’re not allowed pictures inside of either castle – though of course that didn’t stop other cheeky people taking some snaps.

Neuschwanstein Castle is the fairytale castle which was the inspiration behind the Walt Disney signature castle that first featured in Cinderella. The castle was built by King Ludwig II (‘Mad King Ludwig’) as a homage to Richard Wagner. Building began in 1869 but the castle was never finished and in fact King Ludwig II himself only stayed in the castle for half a year. Prior to completion King Ludwig II was declared insane and then not long after this was found drowned in a lake. The mystery of his death has never been solved – whether it was death by murder, suicide or accident no one has a clue.

Entry into castles is strictly managed and you are expected to take timed visits as part of a group on a tour to visit the interior. During peak times I would highly recommend pre-booking your tickets to the castle(s) as this not only assures you that you get the times you prefer but also saves you wasting time in the long queues consisting of all the walk-ins .. of which there are many! It’s a few euro extra but definitely worth it in time saved. This is what we did as we thought that the success of our mission really depended on us getting exactly the trains and exactly the entry times at the castles that we’d planned for. The only annoying condition is that you have to pick up your tickets one hour before your first castle entry … annoying if you are relying on public transport to get there on time!

This is what we hoped would happen:

– 7.51am: Catch the train departing Mϋnchen Hbf and arriving at Buchloe at 8.41am
– 8.46am: Cross the platform to catch the train departing for Fϋssen Bahnhof to arrive at 9.57am
– 10.00am: Take a taxi from Fϋssen to the town of Hohenschwangau (10 to 15 mins). We could have also caught the bus but weren’t sure how often they departed and how long it would take
– 10.20am: Pick up our tickets and walk to first castle (10-20 min walk/climb)
– 11.20am: Hohenschwangau Castle tour (35-40 minutes)
– 12.00pm: Make way to Neuschwanstein Castle via Mary’s Bridge (Marien Brϋcke) 15 min bus ride to Marien Brϋcke, some time to take photos from the Bridge as it is the best place for pictures of Neuschwanstein Castle, then 15 min walk to the castle from the bridge.
– 13.25pm: Neuschwanstein Castle tour (35-40 minutes)
– 2.00pm: Take horse-carriage back down to the centre of town
– 2.44pm: Take the bus back to Fϋssen
– 3.07pm: Catch the direct train back to Mϋnchen Hbf arrive 17.07pm
– 5.10pm: Pick up my back pack previously stored in a left-luggage locker
– 6.05pm: Catch s-bahn to airport arriving at 6.46pm.
– 7.15pm: Check-in for flight back to London.

A pretty tight schedule! We arrived in Munich from Innsbruck early on Saturday evening (its only a two hour train journey between Innsbruck and Germany) to find that the weather was going to be postcard perfect for “The Great Castle Journey”:

Upon arrival in Munich we only had time for a quick visit to the train station to confirm our trains for “The Great Castle Journey” and a meal at one of the beer halls. It was lucky that we checked the trains because we found out that there were ENGINEERING WORKS! I couldn’t believe it – I thought I’d left that kind of thing back in London!! This put a major kink in our plans because instead of getting a train from Buchloe to Fϋssen we had to rely on a shuttle bus to get there and there was no guarantee we’d make it in time to pick up or tickets.

Well, all that worry was for nothing! We made it in plenty of time to pick up our tickets for our original booking and it all went off without a hitch. In fact, even though both the tours of the castles went for a bit longer than expected we still had more than enough time to see both castles and the surrounds. I would have appreciated a bit more time to climb the peak near Marien Brϋcke because apparently that’s where all the classic pics of the Neuschwanstein Castle come from but I was happy with the ones we took. As it was the Castle was covered in scaffolding anyway.

The insides of both castles were pretty cool and fantastically imaginative. If you only have time for one castle I would think that Hohenschwangau Castle is the better one to tour simply because Neuschwanstein Castle was only party finished. After all, you can still see Neuschwanstein Castle from the outside and the exterior is really what its most famous for.

My favourite part of the day was probably standing on Marien Brϋcke and looking out at Neuschwanstein Castle and the amazing vista. Despite the millions of tourists buzzing around me I felt such a sense of peace – probably from the fact we actually made it there to see this wonderful castle and also from the fact it was such a brilliant day weather-wise. Simply picture perfect.

When I got home, as in back to London, I realised that I’d taken all sorts of public transport today: German train, German bus, Horse & Carriage, Plane, London train and London tube. The only thing missing really was to drive myself in a car or ride a bike …

The train from Zurich to Innsbruck is a 3 hour and 40 minute journey and we spent over half of it talking to this old lady who, probably upon hearing us chat about our upcoming plans, felt like helping us out by giving us tips of where to stay, where to eat etc. Teesh, who has so far not had any problems talking with anyone who shows the slightest bit of interest in us, was strangely suspicious of the woman. I guess she was asking for a fair bit of detail from us like where we were staying, how long we were going to be there for etc. but I thought it was more to give her an idea of what advice to give us than as part of some underhanded scheme to commit some crime against us.

So, anyhow, now that we’ve started to travel about on trains – it brought to my mind the question of what is proper train etiquette. I’ve always wondered – is there ever a point in the journey where its too early to start a conversation with a fellow passenger? Take our conversation with this woman – she started talking to us about 20 minutes into our journey which left nearly another whole 3.5 hours where we didn’t know whether she expected us to keep chatting to her, or whether it was okay for Teesh and I to hold our own conversation? Plus Teesh’s oddly standoff-ish behaviour was sending me mixed signals about whether I should engage with the woman or not. Also, could I then effectively ignore the old woman and read my book?

Photos, Photos, Photos.

The Experience

By the time we reached Innsbruck it was getting on nearly early evening. After settling into our hotel, Hotel Weisses Kreuz where Mozart stayed in 1769 which was conveniently located in the old town and only steps away from the action so to speak, we took a stroll around the centre of town. Its not that big to be honest and as it was after 5pm we were kind of hard pressed to find much going on or open in terms of things to see or do. So, we settled down in a bustling café for a few drinks and a bite to eat (wine for Teesh, milkshakes and toasted open cheese sandwiches for me – heh heh) and some people watching for the evening. I’ve come to learn that there is NOTHING that Teesh loves more than sitting in a café or bar and people watching with her wine and cigarettes. I think she’s loving the fact that in Europe you can still smoke pretty much everywhere – even at your table! Though Teesh does her best not to let the smoke come my way I always seem to choose the seat where the wind directly blows! Ha ha. I don’t mind it too much though I have noticed the start of a sore throat from being around her smoking constantly. Ah well. The joys of traveling with a smoker! I’m just not used to it I guess as I know absolutely no one who has the nasty habit. But to each their own.

We kind of hadn’t done much research on what we wanted to see in Innsbruck except that Teesh desperately wanted to visit the Alpine Zoo. We basically had about a day and a half to fill so we thought our best option was to pick up the Innsbruck Card. The 48 hour card was 30 euro (25 euro for 24 hours) and in that time we had full access to hop on hop off bus, to public transport, to a walking City Tour, to all the museums and sights in the region, a return trip on the Nordpark Cable Railway and free entrance to Swarovski Kristallwelten.

Before I go on I must mention just how gorgeous Innsbruck, well the old town, is. With the Alps looming over it the town is so beautiful. We mainly hung around the pedestrianised district in the old town and by the river. Its very much a winter town, known best for hosting the Winter Olympics twice, but I’m sure the mountains make it a very active place in the summer too. To maintain its beauty the town planners apparently ensure that any new builds are in harmony with the architectural style which is a mix of gothic, renaissance, and baroque.

Here are some of the highlights we saw:

Nordpark Cable Railway.

This journey actually consisted of three separate climbs starting with the Hungerburg cable funicular (Section I Hungerburgbahn.) The funicular departs from the funky “Goldenes Dachl” (Golden Roof) at Congress station which is only minutes from the heart of the old town. It only takes about 20 minutes to climb the 300 or so metres up to Hungerburg. Here you change for the Panorama cable car (Section II) which takes you up another 1,037m to Seegrube station. All of the sudden we were hit by how peaceful it was up here. While you wait for the final cable car to take you to the final stop you can step outside to gaze up at the mountain. We were lucky enough to witness some crazy skiers, with those really short half skis, coming down the mountain to join us. The drop looked quite sheer and we could see that half of them were really tumbling around. We were so into watching the skiers that we missed our cable car coming in so had to wait another 15 minutes for the next one.

Finally we were on to Section III which took us to the final station Hafelekar. At 2,256m we were very high up and it was fricken cold. We hadn’t exactly dressed for being on top of a mountain today. Fantastic view though and well worth my frozen nose and wind burn to get the pics. You can walk around at the top (just ignore the signs shouting ACHTUNG! At you) but it was very very windy and very very cold so we didn’t stay out for long. The funniest thing that happened was that I got talking to this Brazilian couple and when we got to Hafelekar we ran into another group of Brazilians! What are the chances! I also met a guy from Malaysia – he must have really felt the cold!

Alpine Zoo

Supposedly the Alpine Zoo is Europe’s highest elevated zoo so its supposed to specialise in high altitude animals. We saw loads of birds, amphibians and the like. The farm animals were cute. Big ticket animals included bison (who were absolutely massive), wolves, two sleeping brown bears, a beard vulture, and moose. Unfortunately we didn’t see any deer nor the lynx (to Teesh’s disappointment as she is a huge cat person.)

I was expecting more from the zoo but I guess it was okay for a couple of hours entertainment. Oh! We did see an eagle as well – and we got to see it in action catching and tearing apart a mouse!

Swarovski Kristallwelten

I wasn’t sure what to expect from the Swarovski Crystal Worlds – all the brochures were suitably ambiguous and featuring this woman with loads of crystals and wacky make-up and a light blue lycra body suit. Well, the brochure looked more attractive than I’m probably making it sound. So I wondered was it going to be a factory, a gallery of crystals or what? Well, it was kind of like an art gallery with some very loose themes linking to crystals.

There are 14 rooms/features in total. There were some rooms which I really liked – such as the Crystal Dome (imitates what its like to be inside a crystal with 590 mirrors covering the walls and constantly changing light), the Crystal Theatre (fairy tale type scenes featuring crystals of course), the Ice Passage (a long hallway intriguingly lit and once you step on the floor you leave behind an impression), and Reflections (can’t really explain this room except to show the picture below!) One room which featured dummies and cut off robotic legs was just inexplicable.

It was actually kind of exciting but the hordes of tour groups which pass through are quite off-putting. We were lucky to be one of the first people into Crystal Worlds but eventually even we got swamped by impatient uninterested groups. We found that strangely the older Italian people were the aggressive. Teesh even got pushed over at one point.

The D-Cube was huge – to celebrate the life of Daniel Swarovski, the creator and founder of the Swarovski empire, his portrait was placed inside the largest crystal ever cut by Swarovski – 410mm square and weighing 225kg there was no way it was going to fit in my handbag. For shame.

The shop was nearly larger than the gallery itself. If you go you must make sure to also visit the toilets (high tech things sure had the old people confused about which door to enter and how to get the water to run and the paper out to dry your hands!) but also make sure to go outside – there was heaps of art to be found nestled into the grass and also a lookout point and a maze!

The Hofkirche (Court Church)

Although a lovely church in its own right the fascinating aspect of this church are the 28 large bronze statues which surround the cenotaph in the centre of the church. Although the cenotaph of Emperor Maximilian, an ornate black marble monument, lies in the middle to draw your attention you can’t help but be entranced by the life-like statues that look on. What makes the statues remarkable are the incredible detail in the build. You could probably study each and every statue for days and not notice all the details.

City Tower

Great for panoramic views.

The Rest

We also did the city walking tour which was quite an informative tour around the city. However it was a combo English/German tour so it was a bit disruptive and as always with those kinds of tour you never know if the other language is getting more information than you! We also ate some ice-cream in the lovely Hofgarten which apparently used to be a rough vegetable garden for the imperial court but was later developed into the English style garden it is today. Loved the yellow benches! Look out also for the naked Jesus in the middle of one of the bridges going over the river. Apparently when the sculpture was first put up some anti-porn groups were going to protest it. But its not the first time this group’s sensibilities were offended, prior to that it was a portrait of a naked Mozart which stirred them up …

Finally, I also ate some interesting things in Innsbruck not the least being my Foal Goulash with Bacon. Its not every day you can say you’ve eaten horse (although by that stage I really could have eaten a horse as I was sooo hungry! Ha ha) And before you ask no it doesn’t take like chicken – it was more like beef. For all I know it was actually beef!

Last Words

We only had probably just over a day and half in Innsbruck and we found that this really was probably just enough time to get around and see the main highlights. The main disappointment was that we didn’t get to go up to the Olympic ski jump because they had some gun shooting competition going on. Otherwise we had a lovely time and enjoyed what is a very picture postcard city.

We were traveling to Innsbruck today but, since we were traveling through Zurich to get to Innsbruck, Teesh wanted to stop for a quick visit.

As I mentioned in my previous post I visited Zurich just over two years ago and I actually still remembered parts of the city (there wasn’t a whole lot to do.)

Today all Teesh and I really had time for was to walk down one side of the river and walk up the other side!

Rather than do a whole big write-up on our rather exciting two hour stroll I thought I would instead share pics of some of the quirkier sights:

and some more traditional ones:

So two weeks ago Teesh arrived to the start her trip of a lifetime. She left London about a week ago to do a bit of Europe without me (Belgium, Amsterdam and Berlin) as I’d already visited those cities. It was time for me to meet up with her for leg one of my trip with her. We are going to cover a few cities which include Lucerne, Zurich, Innsbruck and Munich.

I actually visited Lucerne (and Zurich) just over two years ago. Lucerne was part of a larger day trip from Zurich but I was there for literally an hour on that occasion. Back then I thought it was a charming place but planning for this trip I wasn’t sure that it could actually entertain us for the two days and three nights we had planned on being here. I needn’t have worried because we didn’t end up spending that much time in Lucerne itself and instead used it as base for visiting the nearby peaks and lakes. Lucerne is a gorgeous city – I mean, it lies right by a beautiful lake, Lake Lucerne, has mountains such as Mt Pilatus for a backdrop and has a really cute medieval feel to the old town. What makes it pleasant for the traveller is the ease of getting around. Though there is public transport we were able to walk everywhere we needed to and we found that most “sights” were probably only ever within a 15-20 minute walk away.

Photos, Photos, Photos.

The Experience

I arrived in Lucerne on Monday evening after catching an early afternoon flight out of London City Airport. I had my choice of airports to fly out of and since I’ve never flown out of City Airport I made sure to give it a go this time. It was fun! The runway is so short that the pilots really have to rev up the plane before letting go the brake to make sure we had enough juice to take off.

So, anyway our first task for the evening was to find somewhere for dinner. We made a promise to ourselves that no matter what country or city we were in we would try to eat the local food as much as possible. It was admittedly rather late by the time we decided to go out and get dinner but all that seemed to be open for food business were Italian restaurants! I’ve kind of gotten used to there being places to eat no matter what time of day it is in London so I was expecting the same sort of thing in Lucerne. Not sure why I felt like that! At any rate we hunted for what felt like hours and guess what we ended up eating? Lasagne! It was delicious but hardly Swiss food …

I mentioned before that we were mainly using Lucerne as a base for daily excursions. We only had two days so decided to split our time between Jungfraujoch and the Golden Round Trip to Mt Pilatus.

Jungfraujoch

Jungfraujoch, or the “Top of Europe”, is known for being the highest railway station in Europe at an elevation of 3,454m. Its one of the most popular tourist destinations in Europe and one not to be missed … unless the weather does not look clear and then you may want to reconsider your 180CHF (that’s right – it ain’t cheap!) getting up there.

Jungfraujoch is not just a destination (though its one heck of a destination) so like all other trips in Switzerland just getting to Jungfraujoch is a journey to savour:

– We started our journey bitterly early (we had to get up at nearly 5am! which was a struggle since we only got to bed at about 1am …) to take a train from the main station in Lucerne to Interlaken Ost. This was a two hour trip. The weather wasn’t perfect but the beauty of the landscape surrounding us was still enchanting. I can’t remember exactly what stations we passed through but we had views of all sorts of farm land (land is sooo green), lakes and mountains along the way. We even saw some fighter jets taking off! Truly the photos just don’t capture how lovely it all was.

– At Interlaken Ost we had ten minutes to hop on to 20 minute regional train to take us to Lauterbrunnen where we had another 15 minutes to hop on to a rather cute and cosy train to take us to Kleine Scheidegg. At this stage the trains were still fairly comfortably filled and Teesh and I could afford to hog a couple seats by the windows (the sides, of course, being chosen according to research done by Teesh for the best side.) It was on this leg that we started to see the snow around us (though clearly we’d seen in on the top of the mountains previously.

Finally after a further 45 minutes travel we arrived at Kleine Scheidegg (altitude 2061m) which is the start of the start of the Jungfrau Railway (a modern cogwheel.) This journey, of which part of it includes tunneling straight through Eiger, took approximately another 50+ minutes but included two five minute stops inside the tunnel to give us a closer view of the infamous Eiger North Face. Interestingly it is known as ‘murder wall’ for the 64 climbers who have died trying to climb it since 1935. By this time the train was absolutely packed and many people chose not to even get off the train at the five minute stops just to preserve their seats. I almost don’t blame them – the climb is rather steep and puts a lot of pressure on you when you’re standing and trying to keep your footing. Interestingly the toilets inside the tunnel don’t have running water and in place of taps you have a towelette dispenser!

And finally, after nearly 4.5 hours travel from Lucerne train station we arrived at the “Top of Europe”!

You first emerge in an Ice Palace or Gateway or something which was basically, a large room with a couple of tunnels all encased in ice with ice sculptures in ice caves. It was a lot of fun trying to slip and slide around the place. Loved all the ice sculptures but to be honest the large hordes of tourists, yes I know I’m one of them, put me off a bit so we shortly left this place to head up and outside to see the snow.

And wasn’t Teesh just excited! She’s never seen snow before but it was BLOWING a giant gale outside and she’s not very comfortable with heights at all. To give her credit she didn’t hesitate too much getting outside and didn’t freak out too much but at one stage it got so windy that we could barely see our hands in front of us and at that stage she fell to hug the ground for fear of being blown off the top of the mountain. Heh heh. I don’t blame her – it was very very windy. I was surprised to see that it was only -2.3 degrees celcius. With the wind it definitely felt much colder.

On a nicer, more calmer, day there are a few things you could do like ride a husky dog sleigh (we had to settle for seeing them jumping around inside and then pretending to drive a dog sleigh …), hiking, ski and snowboarding, ride a zip line, or ride a snow disk down but all those activities were on hold.

After we’d exhausted ourselves going out to various view points and standing in a blizzard – yes it was that windy and cold – we had some lunch before heading back down the mountain. The air is noticeably thinner at the top of the mountain, not a surprise, and combined with my lack of sleep the previous week I felt quite dizzy at times though not enough, thankfully, to make me loose my balance or feel too short of breath. Teesh felt it a bit but then she’s a smoker so I would expect that.

Our trip down this time took us through Grindelwald (rather than Lauterbrunnen) which is down another side of the mountain. Equally beautifull but lots more houses.

On the way back to Lucerne we had some time to take a short walk through Interlaken. I’ve also previously visited it but its very small and there’s not really that much to see there. Very pretty, like many Swiss villages.

Golden Round Trip to Mt Pilatus

There are clearly many ways to travel up a mountain and in the Golden Round Trip you get to experience a few methods of transportation you probably don’t normally encounter in your every day life. It starts with a lake steamer over Lake Lucerne from Lucerne to Alpnachstad. This is an extremely relaxing 90 minute cruise around the bottom of Mt Pilatus.

At Alpnachstad you catch the world’s steepest cogwheel railway up to the peak of Mt Pilatus (2132m.) This 40 minute ride is even steeper than the one in Hong Kong I think – well I guess its not called the world’s steepest cogwheel railway for nothing. Heh heh. Along the way you’ll have some lovely views and if you’re lucky a clear day will mean those breathtaking views will continue once you reach the peak.

At the top of Mt Pilatus there are five hiking paths you can take to various peaks of the mountain. They were all pretty gentle and take between 10-35 minutes to walk. However, one I thought was a bit more strenuous mainly for the nearly directly climb upwards for a steady 10 minutes. It was worth it though for the 360 degree views from the top. Again, Teesh was a trooper, and though the railways sure got a work out from her at no point did she refuse to do the walks or climbs.

You could probably spend a few hours at the top of Mt Pilatus and maybe more if you were interested in having some lunch up there. We were pretty quick actually spending only a couple hours at the top purely because we were trying to get back to Lucerne for a lovely lunch somewhere. However, those plans were foiled when we discovered the toboggan run!

On one of our last walks around the top of Mt Pilatus I had spotted something silvery snaking its way down a bit of a slope. I worked out that it appeared to be people riding sledge type things and it turned out to be a giant toboggan ride. I was actually pretty scared of tipping off the toboggan so was a bit hesitant at going for a ride but I figured it may be my one chance to do the course. First we had to get on the aerial cableway to climb partly down the mountain. This ride only ended up taking 5 minutes! so all the way down in the cablecar I was eyeing the course thinking should I or shouldn’t I? Teesh was adamant she would not do it so she was no help. Ha ha. By the time I got to the bottom I decided I had to do it so off I went and I don’t regret it for a minute! After my first run the guy was like – go again? And I would have except Teesh was waiting for me and I couldn’t leave her alone to do the run again. Turns out that, after seeing that I’d survived and had so much fun, that she wanted to do it too! However, she was still a bit frightened and it took her about 45 minutes to decide to eventually take the plunge! The two deciding factors I think was 1. being able to tell the story later on and 2. the (middle-age) couple who went after me and were teasing her for being a chicken. LOL.

By the time Teesh was done we were both starving so we hustled to catch the gondola back down to Kriens (a 30 minute trip) where we finally caught a bus (15 mins) to take us back to our start in Lucerne. And thus, ended our Golden Round Trip. It was a lovely trip and actually, to our pleasure, didn’t take all day (we got back to Lucerne about 3.30) so after a late lunch we still had some of the late afternoon, early evening to explore a bit.

A Shocking Flash Storm

What we didn’t count on was a flash storm!

We were innocently heading around to some of Lucerne’s sights such as the old town walls and views from the watch towers before trying to get to the Lion Monument (a sculpture of a giant lion commemorating the Swiss Guards who were massacred in 1792 during the French Revolution) when the heavens opened on us. For probably 20 minutes it rained, it poured, it thundered, it lightninged (not a word but you know what I mean) and it hailed! We were lucky to find some cover but even then we were under threat from the flooding waters! One of the restaurants near us had their kitchen flooded in that 20 minutes and the chefs/kitchen workers all came running out with their trousers all folded up past their knees to avoid the flood! It was crazy! Customers in another restaurant could only watch us and laugh. As quickly as it came it disappeared and then we were rewarded with a nearly complete rainbow. Just beautiful.

Last Words

I am truly stunned by the absolute beauty we experienced in Lucerne. I’ve probably used the word breath-taking about a million times in this write-up but there’s no other way to describe the spectacular scenery. It’s the kind of scenery that you want to enjoy but then you also want to take a picture of every second you are looking at it. As a city Lucerne may not have a lot to keep you busy as a city in its own right, but as a base for visiting the surrounding areas you couldn’t find a nicer location.

We headed to Kyoto after a satisfying eight days in Osaka. In actually fact Kyoto is only about a 25-40 minute train ride away from Osaka but it made sense to move base to give us time to explore Kyoto properly. They say that if you only visit one city in Japan that Kyoto should be it. Its apparently the only major Japanese city that wasn’t bombed in World War II and as a result many temples, shrines, and palaces from them exist today. And there are a LOT of temples, shrines and palaces to see. I have to admit that after seeing the first few we got a bit over seeing them because, beautiful as they were, I’m ashamed to say that they all started to look the same to me.

As the frommers travel guide rightly point out if you arrive at the high tech Kyoto Station, surrounded too by the modern hotels and the giant Kyoto Tower (looking like some sort of alien spaceship,) you may wonder where all the typically Japanese images you have in your head have come from. That is, the gorgeous green bamboo groves, the pebble zen gardens, golden temples and bright orange gates? The answer is uncovered when you start your exploration and move away from this central ring. Then you will uncover all of the beautiful treasures of Kyoto.

Photos, Photos, Photos.

When?	Early March 2009
Why Go?	As you may have picked up from my introduction Kyoto is probably Japan’s most historically significant city and its most beautiful. After Mt Fuji most of the pictures filling typical postcards of Japan have probably come from Kyoto. Like Osaka it is also a great base for day trips to places such as Nara, Himeji, and Kobe.
Weather	No real change in weather from that in Osaka – glorious sunny days and grim rainy days. Temps ranged from 5-15 during the day to 0-5 at night.
Hint	– Ensure you pick up a couple of copies of the Kyoto bus network which is an invaluable tool for getting planning your itinerary.
	– From the sheer number of historical attractions (according to Lonely Planet: 17 Unesco World Heritage sites, more than 1,600 Buddhist temples and over 400 Shintō shrines) it doesn’t take much to be overwhelmed from hitting attraction after attraction. Don’t try to fit too many into one day and rather than going to see EVERY temple and EVERY shrine choose a few key of the more spectacular ones. These are likely to be the ones that most tourists visit so choosing few off the beaten path attractions is rewarding as well. The peace and quiet at these attractions I thought made our visit a bit more fulfilling.
	– The best advice is to take the off the beaten path. Rather than walking the main road try choosing one that runs parallel to it – you never know what treasure you’ll discover.

The Experience

What I didn’t expect from Kyoto was just how large the city was. Many of the sights I had highlighted for interest seemed to be spread out in all corners of the city and whilst we could have taken the conveniently placed subways and JR trains to get to the sights it turned out that the bus was the best way to get around at a moderate price (Y500 for an all day pass as compared with Y220 per bus trip or Y210 as a starting point for the subway.) There is an excellent bus map you can pick up from Kyoto Station which shows you all the relevant bus routes and is an invaluable tool for planning your travel around the city.

Highlights

Like Osaka its impossible to describe our whole trip as Kyoto is just so rich in experiences so here are some of the things we saw.

Kyoto Station.

You’d be surprised that I should think that Kyoto Station should be your first port of all. Not only is it a great place to get information to plan your stay but it is also interesting architecturally, has a department store, hotel, and shopping malls, is a great place to find food (hundreds of restaurants/stalls), has a rooftop observatory and open air garden and it even has a movie theatre!

As an example that you never know where taking the off the beaten path will take you we stumbled across this water fountain one night at the station when we were looking for somewhere to have dinner (I’ve doubled the speed of it):

Pretty awesome!

Oh, when you’re at the observatory see if you can a starfish kind of marking on the side of a hill. Its actually the Japanese character for big, “Dai”. Actually we saw it a couple of times including from Kinkakuji-cho in North Kyoto.

Fushimi-Inari-Taisha

Visiting this shrine had to have been one of my favourite experiences in Kyoto. At first I thought we wouldn’t make it there as I took us on some bus route that dropped us in the vicinity of the shrine then had to find our way there on foot with no map to help us. I had to employ some of my rusty Japanese skills to speak with some of the Japanese people to get us going in the general direction. Its actually quite straight forward to get to if you take the JR line straight out of Kyoto Station for those interested.

So, what makes this shrine so cool? Well, basically, the miles of bright vermillion (orange) torii gates that line the path between the shrines. Inari is the Shinto god of rice and foxes are thought to be its messengers so in addition to the torii gates you will find lots of stone foxes dotted around the shrines. The torii gates are offered by the worshippers so you’ll find that most of them are covered in inscriptions. Apparently the whole hike takes about two hours so though we didn’t get to do the whole trail (it was just nearing sun down by the time we got there) we saw enough for me to really like it.

Kinkaku-ji

Kinkaku-ji, or the Golden Pavilion Temple, is second only to Mt Fuji as the most photographed attraction in Japan. You can understand why when you walk up the path and suddenly this gorgeous gold leaf covered pavilion is revealed to you. The number of tourists surrounding the pavilion is very understandable. We took so many photos of the pavilion from all different angles but even the camera can’t capture just how breathtakingly beautiful it is. Even on a day when the sky was gray it was a truly magnificent sight to withhold. I think it also helped that it is set in a calm pond with gorgeous Japanese greenery surrounding it.

Ryōan-ji

The Temple of the Peaceful Dragon is a Zen temple located near the Kinkaku-ji and is therefore often the tourists you see at one sight will also appear at the other. The temple probably know best for its karesansui (dry landscape) rock garden which is supposedly the most celebrated rock garden in Japan. This is the description from wikipedia: “The garden consists of raked gravel and fifteen moss-covered boulders, which are placed so that, when looking at the garden from any angle (other than from above) only fourteen of the boulders are visible at one time. It is traditionally said that only through attaining enlightenment would one be able to view the fifteenth boulder. Also, if facing the garden from the far right and about 8 feet back a person of about 1.82m(6ft) in height can see all 15 boulders, though the small boulder farthest to the left appears to be part of the much larger boulder immediately next to it).” I wish I’d known this before I visited as I certainly would have tried to attain enlightment by trying to view all 15 boulders at once. As it turns out I couldn’t even fit the whole garden into my photo no matter where I stood. Maybe that too was part of the challenge! I only JUST managed to fit all of the miniature replica into a shot!

After gazing at the rock garden and giving it the proper respect I felt a lot respect for the people who could read such deep meaning into the garden. I do admit it did give me a sense of peace just looking at it.

On your walk through the temple look out for the “Tsukubai” a stone-wash basin with its unique inscription “I learn only to be contented.” I really like the sentiments of the basin which basically means that once you learn to be contented you will be spiritually rich, but the person who doesn’t will always be spiritually poor even if materially rich. A very zen concept and one I truly believe in (though let’s face it even I admit having a bit of dosh does give you a certain amount of freedom to reach that path of contentment.) The temple gardens on the way out of the place were also pretty and we were pleased to find that some of the cherry trees had blossomed. Stunning.

Daitoku-ji but specifically Kōtō-in

Daitoku-ji is actually a collection of 24 zen sub-temples so you could really choose at pleasure which ones you want to see. When we visited I was pleased to see very few people about and actually this was one of those moments which made Kyoto even dearer to me as it felt like we had the place to ourselves and it was the most at peace I’ve felt for most the of the trip. As there were way too many sub-temples to visit in one session we targeted the Kōtō-in. It was certainly worth taking the time to hunt it out. The garden is located within a very cool bamboo grove. Following the moss-lined path you reach a small garden filled with moss, maple trees and bamboo. Following the advice of the lonely planet guide we took some time out on the veranda to just sit and be still. Enchanting!

Arashiyama

Arashiyama is an extremely tourist area located on the outskirts of Kyoto. There were quite a few things to see in Arashiyama but the two things on the top of my list were the famed bamboo groves found just behind the behind Tenryuji Temple and the Monkey Park! I know I know – everyone has seen monkeys in the wild before but it was still kind of cool to climb to the top of the mountain (a fairly steep 15-20 minute hike) with your fellow cousins playing around you. Amazingly we didn’t have any other tourists making the climb with us so that made it quite a special visit.

The top of the mountain not only gives you a great look out point but you can also feed the monkeys. Ironically it’s the humans who are caged for this exercise! I liked feeding the monkeys who, after screaming at you to get your attention, actually weren’t too rough when taking the peanuts or chestnuts from your hands.

The walk through the bamboo groves was quite lovely. It all felt quite Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon!

Tetsugaku-no-michi and Ginkaku-ji

Tetsugaku-no-michi, or the Path of Philosophy or the Philosopher’s Walk, is a walk along a cherry-tree-lined canal in Kyoto, between Ginkaku-ji and Nyakuōji-jinja. The route is named for a Kyoto University philosophy professor, Nishida Kitaro, who is thought to have used it for daily meditation. Its one of the more beautiful walks in all of Kyoto. Even, as it turned out for us, on a day of rain. Just a shame that the cherry trees hadn’t quite blossomed during our walk.

We briefly dropped in to visit Ginkaku-ji which was supposed to be the Temple of the Silver Pavilion. Unfortunately it was under wraps and being renovated so we didn’t actually get to see the temple itself. I don’t think its actually silver but I think got its name because initially it was supposed to be covered in silver foil (to emulate Kinkaku-ji – the Golden Pavilion) and the name has stuck. We did find another zen stone garden which was cool and a truly beautiful garden. I really love the Japanese gardens which are clearly balanced and structured. There is nothing excessive in them and the result is a vision truly pleasing to the eye. In all honesty I could have stayed in the garden all day.

Nishiki Market

Nishiki-kōji Ichiba is the place to be if you really want to sample the delights of Kyoto cooking and eating. It’s a rather narrow, but covered, street where you can see all sorts of fresh, cooked and processed foods. Its just under half a kilometer long and you can easily make your way up the street and sampling to make up your lunch though it really comes alive in the morning apparently. You can find fish, meat, dried stuff, fried stuff, steamed stuff and Kyoto vegetables. I especially liked these soya donuts that my brother found. Surprisingly delicious on its own and fantastic fresh out of the fryer.

Kyoto Imperial Palace

The Kyoto Imperial Palace is where the imperial family lived for over 500 years from the 1330s. The grounds are absolutely massive and hosts numerous huge buildings. I think every tourist has this on their hit list when coming to Kyoto. Tours are conducted twice a day during the week and are the only way to access the Palace (plus you have to first get “permission” to go on the tour which basically involves turning up before hand with your passport in hand.)

You aren’t taken inside of any of the buildings but there are some interesting facts imparted during the tour. Interestingly the tour guide whips you around fairly quickly though I think many on the tour did their best to go slow and take a million plus photos of the grounds and buildings. My favourite part of the palace had to be the private garden. Typically Japanese it was very beautiful and serene, when I could ignore the presence of the other tourists on the tour that is!

The Others

We did see a few more things around the place including:

– two massive temple compounds, Nishi-Honganji and Higashi-Honganji, which are located near to Kyoto Station. The first is a good example of Buddhist architecture wheras the second is Kyoto’s largest wooden structure. Both seemed to be under renovation when we went though that didn’t stop us being allowed to go in and check them out. One of the strangest things I saw was the Hair Rope at Higashi-Honganji. Apparently when they were building part of the complex existing ropes weren’t strong enough to lift heavy pieces of wood. As a result all the female followers cut off their hair to make a giant rope (called Kezuna.) The one we saw was 69m, 30cm circumference and weighed 375kg. The largest rope made was apparently 110m long, with a circumference of 40cm and weighed about a tonne!
– Pontocho at night. Its supposedly Kyoto’s most famous street for going out and loads of bars and restaurants. It seemed fairly quiet when we were walking the streets (still relatively early at 8pm I think.) Though at one stage I accidentally made eye contact with one of the “ladies of the night” – we found ourselves on one street where it seemed that buying “cigarettes” meant you were interested in being “entertained”. Yes, I know, what’s up with my quotation marks. Lets just say that we had a glimpse of some ladies in a state of undress and leave it there!

Last Words

I didn’t really have last words in my last post because it was quite long already so I’ll say it here. If you add any country to your itinerary Japan has surely got to be it. You will marvel at this beautiful country where, I’m glad, so much of history is so intact. You will also marvel at the food and the generosity, politeness and helpfulness of its people, despite the language barrier. There’s no snobbery here and you’ll feel more than welcome when you come visit its shores. Take this example. I was at the bus stop trying desperately to break into my onigiri (triangle rice ball) and this little old lady obviously couldn’t stand me not being able to get into it so she hustled over and showed me the trick behind opening the thing! I couldn’t help but giggle at her but it was an action so typical of all the Japanese I’d encountered during my travels. Another time a waitress came running out of the restaurant to return my chopsticks to me. By running I mean she was about to break out into a sprint before she saw we were still standing at the corner.

Kind of as a substitute to Pat and I going back to Oz for a visit (for me I normally go at least once a year) someone came up with the brilliant idea that we could have a family reunion at a mid-way point instead. The fact that we had frequent flyer points to give to my parents to use was a bonus and so we set Japan up for the reunion. A pretty cool plan, though with our indirect flight to Japan I almost feel like we’d practically flown to Oz anyway! Ha ha.

The plan was for us to all meet in Osaka, where we spent most of our trip before moving on to Kyoto where we would part ways with Pat and I flying back to London and Dad, Mum and Stephen traveling to Tokyo (to spend a few days including meeting up with an aunt on my Mum’s side before flying back to Oz.) It all actually really worked out well and I have to give Stephen a lot of credit for sorting out our accommodation for us. It was a bit complicated with lots of checking in and out but in the end I think saved us a bundle on what would otherwise be very expensive accommodation (especially in light of recent weaknesses in the pound and aussie dollar against the yen!)

Most of my travel in recent times has been to mostly Western type countries (that is, European or American) and therefore I’d forgotten what it was like to arrive in a country which was truly culturally different from my usual experiences. That’s not to say that the cultures of Spain, Greece, Germany and England, for example, are exactly the same, but Japan is just something else. I can’t really pin-point what it is but it just feels that extra bit more exotic I guess? One of the most striking differences to me was the relative indifference that the Japanese have to those around them (not in a bad way.) For the most part people kept to themselves and didn’t express the intense curiosity in other people that I seem to feel everywhere else. I guess to some extent we fit in a bit with our Asian looks but even so I’m fairly sure our bearing gave away the fact we were tourists (in particular when we whipped out our cameras or attempted to talk very broken Japanese with what must sound like a god awful accent!)

Photos, Photos, Photos.

When?	Early March 2009
Why Go?	As the international gateway to Japan you should come to Osaka for its food (its known as the gourmet capital of Japan), castles and underground shopping arcades and just shopping centres in general. Great also as a base for day trips to places such as Nara, Kyoto, Himeji, and Kobe.
Weather	The last chills of winter easing into the tendrils of spring we had glorious sunny days and grim rainy days. Temps ranged from 5-15 during the day to 0-5 at night.
Hint	– English is not widely spoken though most people have basic knowledge. Therefore, if you have the chance, learn a few basic phrases (or bring a phrasebook.) Also handy is having key phrases or the name of your destination/food/thing you want written down in Japanese or even English is sometimes helpful.
	– To find something/some place. Rather than relying on street names and streets actually being marked (we didn’t see too many streets with names!) make sure to take note of key landmarks in the vicinity of your destination to help find whatever you’re looking for. If near any sort of station (subway or train) when in doubt you can always head underground and use the underground maps and numerous exits to at least get you in the general direction. Also as Japanese people are quite helpful, even if they can’t speak English, don’t be afraid to ask for help, especially from younger adult females who are more likely to speak English.
	– If you ever need somewhere to have a meal and cannot think of where to go always try the food and restaurant floors of departments stores or the underground areas around train and subway stations. You’ll be surprised at the wide variety of reasonably priced venues you’ll find.
	– Osaka Unlimited Pass. Good for one day (Y2,000) or two (Y2,700) the pass not only allows you unlimited use of the subway, trams and buses for the period of validity (the one day pass also gives you use train lines) but gives you free entry into 27 attractions! Granted you won’t be able to hit all the attractions during the one or two days but you can more than get value out of the pass if used and planned wisely. For example, if entry prices from the guide are to be believed, if you plan to visit the Floating Garden Observatory (Y700), Osaka Castle Museum (Y600), Osaka Science Museum (Y400) plus subway rides (which are an average of Y200-Y230) you’re covered.
	– Closing times. If an attraction is due to be closed at certain time bear in mind that last entry is normally at least 30 minutes before closing. We found that out the hard way!

The Flight Over

I had no real complaints about my Finnair flight except that they didn’t have individual video screens on the plane for our long leg between Helsinki and Osaka. I know we are now spoiled with these things but when you can’t sleep (which I couldn’t) having the screens and video on demand really helps pass the time. They had one big screen which, at least, we were only one row away from but nothing beats having your own. Otherwise the plane trips between London and Helsinki and then Helsinki went quite smoothly. What I do like is that the monitors broadcast the “pilot’s” view out the front of the air plane as we taxied off and then the view from the bottom of the plane below us as we got into the air and when we landed. Food was quite good though interestingly the airline only offers one option which presumes that those with special dietary requirements had to order them pre-boarding or miss out. At least this made service pretty quick.

Hilariously both legs of our flight we had little kids around us. Not sure if the kids were restless or not but kids on the two separate flights couldn’t help but play with us through the gaps in the seat (they especially seemed to like my coat!) and one little girl got especially excited and often popped her head over the seat and at one stage actually came around to stand near us!

Both Pat and I were a bit buggered by the lack of sleep once we got to Osaka as by the time we arrived in the morning in Osaka we’d basically been awake for nearly 24 hours. I must admit we needed a bit of a kip at about 4pm on our first day just to get through the rest of the night. Walking around on we were nearly ready to pass out!

The Experience

Pat and I had a few days to ourselves in Osaka before Dad, Mum and Stephen arrived. It was good to have this time to orient ourselves and get to know Osaka a bit though it did make it difficult in the sense that we didn’t really want to be repeating experiences too much so we had to try and work out what we could do that maybe Dad, Mum and Stephen weren’t necessarily in. I’m glad we had the time though because what is normally missing in my holidays is the time spent sitting back and absorbing the culture. Normally I’m in a mad rush to get around and see the “sights” when some of the most valuable experiences could be had just being. Okay – sorry about that – I’m clearly feeling a bit philosophical at the moment!

For the first couple of days Pat and I pretty much ate, walked and explored, ate more, played in the gaming parlours, walked and explored more, ate some more, slept, walked and explored again and played some more games! This kind of took us between the South (Minami as represented by Namba and Shinsaibashi) and the North districts (Kita as represented mainly by Umeda.) I wish I’d taken my pedometer on this trip as we did a LOT of walking. It’s a visually arresting place so there’s lots to see and observe.

It was quite interesting to just observe the people of Osaka – the Japanese are truly quirky sometimes! The thing that surprised me (though I guess it shouldn’t) was that for the most part people seemed to really dress to impress. I didn’t see one person who dressed sloppily – not one. And the hair! Lots of time spent with a hairdryer and hair gel – and that’s just the guys.

Highlights

Its impossible to describe everything we experienced, though from the length of this post you’ll probably think I have!, so some of the highlights were;

Food.

This has to come at the top of the list because it felt like we were constantly eating. We had loads of sushi, katsu, curry, omuraisu (omelette rice), ramen, soba, okonomiyaki (Japanese pancake – a particular speciality of Osaka), takoyaki (octopus dumplings – also a particular specialty of Osaka), don (on top of rice), and of course bakery stuff. I love the fact that in Japan they have these wonderful bakeries that produce the softest breads filled or topped with the most delicious fillings/toppings. Great as a snack or for a light breakfast I swear we went into every bakery we saw (even if we didn’t always buy anything it was always fun too look!) The only non-Japanese meal in Osaka was the burger I had at this Hawaiian place – I couldn’t resist because of its name: Kua A’ina. It was like I was eating at my family restaurant. Heh heh.

Not speaking or reading Japanese is not that much of a problem with food because for the most part there will be the well-known plastic food displays outside the restaurant. Really great also if you just don’t know what you feel like eating! The food quality in Osaka never let us down. No matter where we went the quality was perfect.

My mouth is watering just thinking of all the things we had! Yum! However, I’m glad Pat and I brought our chopsticks too – I like think we saved a tree or two from not using the disposable chopsticks. 🙂

Gaming Parlours.

You couldn’t walk ten steps without running into one of these things. Whether its pachinko slots, or “casinos, or floors of grabby-machines, or floors of electronic games you will find it within 20 metres of wherever you’re standing. We probably went into most of the ones we saw as we always found them to be inordinately entertaining (if slightly money-sucking – ha ha). The Japanese clearly also agree because the parlours, no matter the time of day or night, were always quite busy. Mainly with young Japanese men but some things (like the grabby-machines) or the Japanese (and more sophisticated version of the 2p machine) attracted couples. Kind of like a way to pass the time. One of the parlours even had a fake sky reminiscent of Las Vegas casinos to encourage people to lose track of time in there!

Most of the time the parlours had deep loud pounding music which I think we got accustomed to over time. My only regret was not playing pachinko which really is a very strange game indeed. Technically speaking I don’t think its legal to gamble in Japan but through pachinko and “casinos” (where you basically swap balls/tokens for “gifts” which you exchange at another venue for money) it happens. Because of the language barrier we didn’t really spend too much time trying to make wealth though I did blow Y10,000 yen in about 5 minutes one of the 2p machines. Its easy to do – trust me!

6.30pm in Umeda.

There is a particular street in Umeda (can’t quite remember what it was called but we somehow stumbled upon it) where if you hit it at the right time (sort of 5.30-7pm) you can see all the Geisha heading swiftly up and down the street to wherever they needed to be. They were really beautiful though I was amazed they could move so quickly in their tightly wrapped kimonos and socked feet in slippers! I did try and take a couple of photos but they didn’t really turn out and I didn’t want to really make the geisha feel like an animal in a zoo or that I was papping them!

Shopping.

If you love shopping then Osaka is the place for you. I couldn’t even begin to name how many shopping arcades there are in Osaka but there are plenty including three department stores, Hep Five (complete with its own Ferris wheel and the infamous Sega Joypolis taking up the top two floors), Namba Parks, Umeda Shopping Arcade, and the Shinsaibashi-suji (a covered shopping street that stretches for miles) just to name a few. There are also the miles of spacious underground malls and if you follow one passageway you never know here you’ll end up. As I was walking around In wondered how the current economic climate could sustain such a life!

Minami district.

This area is kind of like the Times Square of Osaka with lots of brightly lit panels on walls etc. and a very lively atmosphere. Dontonbori is the street to be in at night. Its lined with heaps of restaurant and features the famous giant mechanical crab. Sadly the clown-restaurant which I’d been looking forward to Cui-Daore had shut the apparently about eight months ago so we didn’t get to experience it. Basically it was eight floors of Osakan cuisine! Still, the area made for a great people-watching vantage point and we picked up a few snacks from the vendors lining the street (mainly serving takoyaki!)

100 Yen stores.

Okay as much as I rib my Dad for loving the 100-yen stores you could easily spend a half a day in these places (especially the ones that stretch over a few floors.) For the equivalent of a measly 70p you can get all sorts of goodies in the stores from food, to hair accessories, to make-up, stationery, kitchen appliances and storage, bathroom goods, and clothing just to name a few items. The quality of the items is also surprisingly decent. If you weren’t paying attention you could easily walk out of the stores with bags and bags of stuff before realising there is no way any of is going to fit into your luggage!

Observatories.

The Floating Garden Observatory in Umeda (173m) and the WTC Cosmo Tower Observation Deck in the Bay Area (256m) are both wonderful observatories and give stunning views. When we went to both towers we were lucky that it wasn’t overly crowded so we could afford to enjoy the vantage points in a relaxed manner. Both have seating areas where you can spend a few hours if you want to admiring the sights.

The Floating Garden Observatory is especially targeted for romantic interludes with a few special features such as the Lumi Deck on the rooftop (where couples can sit down and holding hands whilst touching the domes adjacent will project the state of their hearts on the square tiles surrounding them), love benches (similar concept where the pressure on the seat changes the light around you) and “cabins” suitable for couples to cuddle up and watch the city lights. The Umeda Sky Building (where the Observatory) itself is an attractive building in its own manner.

Some other attractions

Worth mentioning are
– Osaka Castle Museum (a lovely castle though nothing compared to Himeji castle, it is one of the most famous in Japan. It has an 8th floor observation platform but for the most part the building is a museum, interestingly using uses videos and holograms as well, to describe the life and times of Toyotomi Hideyoshi and the history of the castle. Unfortunately most of it is in Japanese so you won’t too much time here. Good for a laugh is the chance to try on some samurai helmets/outfits and kimonos for a small fee. Fun to watch Dad and Mum have a go at it!)

– Osaka MariTime Museum (good for about 45 minutes – fun just to walk “under water” to get to the main exhibition space in a glass dome which seems to sit in the middle of the water with no obvious way of getting there),

– Osaka Science Museum (who doesn’t love a museum you can actually interact with – this museum has heaps of hand-on stuff to play around with), and the

– Osaka Bay Cruise “Santa Maria” (lasting 50 minutes, is a nice way to take in the Osaka Bay area on a lovely day, though at Y1,600 may be a little pricey is a steal when coupled with the Osaka Pass.)

We didn’t get around to some of the more typical attractions such as Universal Studios (done it in the US and though it may have been amusing to hear it in Japanese probably not a good use of our yen!) and the Aquarium (again – I’ve done aquariums aplenty in many countries and we couldn’t justify the Y2,000 price tag on entry in the limited time we had.)

Next to exploring Osaka we also took a few half-day and full-day trips out to nearby areas.

Instant Ramen Museum

The Instant Ramen Museum is a Y260 yen and 40 minute train ride out to Ikeda from Umeda. We ended up in a 7-11 having to ask for directions to get to the museum after we left the train station though I’m pretty sure it is fairly well-signed so we must have just got distracted by something else (like another bakery!) In August 1958 Momofuku Ando invented the first instant noodle product – “Chicken Ramen” and it turned out to be one of the most important revolutionary products in food as we know it as I’m sure everyone has had some sort of instant noodle in their lifetime. The museum takes you through the history of the product including a funny presentation in the Cup Noodle Drama Theater. I think it was mostly in Japanese so won’t take too long to get through the museum but the fun bit is the “My Cup Noodle Factory” where you get to design your own cup (you draw on it with felt-tip pens), choose your soup flavour (original, curry or seafood), choose your ingredients and, after having the cup shrink-wrapped, then you get to put the noodle into an “air package” which you pump up yourself. Great fun for Y300 and so funny to watch these middle-age men in their business suits really getting into it. If you plan far enough in advance you can participate in the “Handmade Chicken Ramen Hands-On Workshop” where you can make the noodles from scratch (that is from flour!) For Y500 this sounded like (and looked like) a fun thing to do though instructions are in Japanese and it is likely to be booked out in advance by various school groups.

Suntory Yamazaki Distillery.

The whisky distillery is located in Yamazaki, which is a Y450 yen and about 45 minute train ride from Umeda in the direction of Kyoto, and if you’re into your whisky worth a visit in the way that the Guiness Factory in Dublin is worth a visit. The distillery is a bit of a walk from the station though the path is clearly signed and you can’t really miss the big distillery once it does come into your view. The location of the distillery is due to the River Yodo (formed actually where three rivers.) The water in this area is famous for its good rating and the quality it lends to the distilling process. Tours are given (for free) on the hour so best to time your visit accordingly. Unfortunately the tour is given in Japanese however headsets are provided in English at least which give you information at key points of the tour. At the end you’re given a free tasting of one each of the single malt whiskies – that is, The Yamazaki Single Malt and the Hakushu Single Malt.

Nara

Nara is apparently Japan’s first real capital and is a perfect way to spend a day. Its about 35-50 minutes from Namba costing about Y450-540. The city apparently has eight Unesco World Heritage sites! so its very rich in cultural heritage. Its only a small place but the most rewarding spot, when on limited time, is Nara-kōen or Nara Park. The first thing you’ll notice about the park is the over 1,200 wild sika deer roaming about and normally hanging around the tourists who are feeding them with the deer biscuits that you can buy for Y150. There are signs all over the place, admittedly in Japanese, which I think warn tourists off from feeding deer with anything other than the deer biscuits but, even more funny, are the signs which warn tourists off from eating the deer biscuits! The deer were extremely charming and surprisingly smart. They seemed to know when you had food, headbutting you to get your attention (thank goodness their horns had been shaved down) but giving up as soon as you threw your hands up in the air. This was something I experienced first hand. Deer seemed to be accepted everywhere even being allowed into stores!

There are heaps of attractions in the park next to the deer but the two highlights for me were the Tōdai-ji and the Kasuga-Yama Hill Primeval Forest. The Tōdai-ji is a Bhuddist temple complex. Its large Daibutsu-den Hall, the largest wooden building in the world, and the enormous bronze Buddha image, the largest of the Buddha Vairocana in the world, are the main highlights within the complex. Its is definitely worth a visit and whilst you’ve paid your Y500 entry you can see if the Yakushi Nyorai Buddha by the right of the entrance to the Hall can heal you (touch it then touch the relevant body part) or you can try for enlightenment by trying to squeeze through a small hole located in a wooden column just near by souvenir area.

Walking through the Primeval Forest is both peaceful and refreshing.

Himeji.

Himeji, which can be reached in less than one hour from Osaka, is most famous for the beautiful and postcard perfect Himeji Castle which is probably Japan’s most beautiful surviving feudal castle. The castle is, as you can imagine, designated both a national treasure and a UNESCO world heritage site. My tip for visiting Himeji is that for those who don’t have a JR railpass and are planning on getting one is to consider getting the JR West Rail Pass (Kansai Area Pass.) This pass costs Y2,000 and you can only get it once on your entire trip in Japan (they stamp your passport to demonstrate you’ve bought one) but is better than paying a return fare of Y2,900.

It will take probably a couple of hours to explore the castle but best to do it on a tour if you can get on to one. The tours are free and given by volunteers and I think generally given only once a day. Ours started at 11am and its definitely worth making the effort to get on one as it will give your visit to the castle much more meaning. When you’re moving about the castle also watch out for ninjas. Once again these are volunteers (normally actors) and make a great photo opportunity should you not feel too embarrassed to pose with them! We had this Californian girl on our tour who was more than prepared to get into character to pose with them. It’s a truly beautiful castle and as our tour guide was explaining all the defensive measures of the castle it struck me as funny that it has never actually been used? It would have been interesting to see whether any of the defensive measures, which included hidden rooms, confusing entrances and exits, several gun holes, and stone throwing holes, would have worked. You’ll get other tidbits too like how one of the tatami rooms was initially made of 42 tatamis but as the Japanese pronunciation of 42 (shi-ni) means death in Japanese one of the tatamis was cut in half to make it 41.5 tatamis instead and like how many of the stones used in the walls were effectively re-cycled from such things as coffins!

Kobe.

After spending the day in Himeji we stopped into Kobe on the way back to Osaka to see what the city had to over. I was surprised at how very cosmopolitan it felt with some very interesting and attractive buildings. Of course Kobe is probably most well remember for the great earthquake almost 15 years ago which leveled many areas and killed over 6,000 people. Seeing the city today you’d hardly realise that such a tragedy had occurred in its past. I think the city is the kind of place to spend an evening out with lots of attractive restaurants and bars. We spent a lot time near the harbour which was very attractive – the Harborland is a shopping and entertainment district along the waterfront (complete, of course, with a ferris wheel!)

Just when you thought it was over

Just when you thought the post was practically over I just wanted to make some funny observations about Osaka, which I guess is probably applicable across the whole of Japan,

– Although practically everyone had their mobile phones out and visible I never heard one go off in public and I hardly ever heard anyone speaking on their phone. Amazing!
-In contrast, things I expected not to speak actually did, and that was the toilets, escalators and trucks!
-The Japanese are highly efficient in many things they do to lining up for the subway or train, to efficient police services (I lost my wallet early on during the trip and I was pleased to find that the visit the police station to report it lost/stolen went off without a hitch, even if no-one spoke English), to delivery of services (all Japanese seem to move in a very quick manner – its enthralling to see their energy.)
-Many restaurant buildings are seemingly multi-functional so what you seen on the ground floor is not usually representative of what is going on above. Normally there are several floors of restaurants, entertainment, or whatever so when in Osaka you should always look up and see what’s going on above you.
-Impressively there is none, or very limited, rubbish on the ground or anywhere. I say it is impressive because I was hard pressed to find a bin most of the time! They must be disciplined enough to take the rubbish with them. In addition I didn’t see one cigarette butt on the ground. This disgusting habit of throwing the butt on the ground is obviously not acceptable in Japan (or they have some very quick street cleaners out there!) I didn’t see many places to dispose of the butts so I imagine the smokers, and quite a few Japanese smoke, must carry around portable ash trays (they do exist!)
-Many people ride bikes or walk in Osaka to get from place to place but despite the crowds and despite the fact the bike riders ride very quickly there was hardly ever a crash. Somehow people just don’t seem to run into each other so when it did happen it was more the exception than the rule. I also noted that no one really gets angry either if you do happen to get in their way people will just wait patiently for you to get out of it!

-Toilets. Oh my goodness the toilets are amazing. From ones that automatically start up with mood music (to cover toilet sounds), to warmed seats, to bidets and “showers”- I liked them so much I started taking photos of them. Most were pretty good quality as well no matter how public though be prepared to encounter toilet paper that isn’t particularly soft and also the occasional squatting toilet.

I have had a great time in Osaka. It’s a beautiful city and I cannot say enough about the Japanese people I’ve talked to and encountered on my trip. Always ready with a polite smile and kind words I can’t remember the last time I’ve had such an agreeable visit! I’d definitely put Osaka, or any place in Japan really, on anyone’s travel itinerary.

Got a quick stopover in Helsinki on the way to Osaka. What a beautiful view out the window of the plane!