Itinerary

Saturday 1st June 2024

Canberra to Melbourne VA268 13:55-15:05

Melbourne to Brisbane VA337 16:10-18:20

Brisbane to Singapore SQ246 23:50-05:45+1day

Sunday 2nd June 2024

Singapore to Frankfurt SQ326 11:15-18:00

Frankfurt

Monday 3rd June 2024

Frankfurt

Tuesday 4th June 2024

Frankfurt

Wednesday 5th June 2024

Frankfurt

Thursday 6th June 2024

Frankfurt

Friday 7th June 2024

Frankfurt

Saturday 8th June 2024

Train Frankfurt to Antwerp

Sunday 9th June 2024

Antwerp

Monday 10th June 2024

Antwerp

Tuesday 11th June 2024

Antwerp

Wednesday 12th June 2024

Antwerp

Thursday 13th June 2024

Antwerp

Friday 14th June 2024

Train Antwerp to Lyon

Saturday 15th June 2024

Lyon

Sunday 16th June 2024

Lyon

Monday 17th June 2024

Lyon

Tuesday 17th June 2024

Lyon

Wednesday 18th June 2024

Lyon

Thursday 20th June 2024

Train Lyon to Zurich

Friday 21st June 2024

Zurich

Saturday 22nd June 2024

Zurich

Sunday 23rd June 2024

Zurich

Monday 24th June 2024

Zurich

Tuesday 25th June 2024

Zurich

Wednesday 26th June 2024

Zurich to Singapore

Thursday 27th June 2024

Singapore

Friday 28th June 2024

Singapore

Saturday 29th June 2024

Singapore

Sunday 30th June 2024

Singapore to Melbourne

1st July 2024

Melbourne to Canberra

The Journey Begins

Lunch time Saturday and the first of 4 flights begins.

Check in at Canberra for a flight to Melbourne. Then a quick turn around to Brisbane. This may seem crazy but with limited flights from Canberra to Brisbane it was a case of picking to best option to get me to Brisbane early but not too early for my flight, and selecting the preferred aircraft.

First Flight Delayed

Ten Years in the Making

This trip is literally ten years in the making. I planned and saved frequent flyers points for five years to cover business class fares to Europe. Add to the that a last minute (well 3 days actually) cancellation due to picking up a highly contagious stomach bug (I suspect it was from a Melbourne hotel). Then lockdowns, job changes and moving residences meant this is the first time I have been able to schedule the trip again.

The trip is basically the same as it was five years ago, land in Europe, catch fast rains in basically a loop, then fly out.

Having said that, I don’t really know what I will do when I eventually arrive in. Europe.

Above the Clouds

Seriously, flying above the clouds is like a different world.

Airbus A350

As a plane enthusiast (plane spotter) is was a small thrill to fly for the first time in the Airbus A350.

The ceiling seemed quite high, I guess mostly compared to last couple of hundreds flights on a B737.

The windows were larger and easier to see out (no scratches and clearer than on other planes).

Heavenly Wang

Someone is bragging.

Singapore Changi Airport

This airport is like a city, it is huge. You can even get your weekly fix for ukulele music.

Four Flights in a Row

What was I thinking?

To get it over with I guess.

By the time I takeoff on flight 4 I will have spent more time waiting fo the next flight, then actually flying somewhere.

When I went to USA many years ago I chose multi leg flights for something fun.

I decided never again.

NEVER AGAIN!

And yet here I am doing 4 flights to get to me starting destination for my holiday.

I don’t know if what I dislike so much is the boredom, the feeling that time is slowing down, or lack of sleep.

Regardless, I mean it this time, NEVER AGAIN!

The Germans

Last time I went to Europe, on every flight within Europe there were 2 Germans that never stopped talking the whole flight.

I don’t think they were the same 2 Germans but I don’t rule it out either.

Now I am flying into Germany, in an Airbus A380 and it seems nearly everyone of the passengers Singapore to Frankfurt, are German.

Yikes.

A380

Does that look like a face to you?

A380 Arrival into Frankfurt

We had a 14 hour flight from Singapore to Frankfurt.

Fairly uneventful, but as it was my fourth flight it was LONG AND BORING!

I had a nap before takeoff, had a meal \240listened to a podcast and had another sleep amd it was only 3 hours intro the flight.

Argh.

I had very good and very friendly flight attendants I have to say.

From my Singapore Airlines flight BNE-SIN and SIN-FRA I noticed a few things about Singapore Airlines flight attendants compare to other airlines.

The female flight attendants are all Asian, no whities, they are all on the slim side, and very rare to see any that could possibly by over 40 years of age.

I even saw something I had never seen before, with a food cart in the aisle, a flight attendant squeezed past it.

After recent incidents with turbulence, every time the plane hit the smallest pocket of turbulence the seat belt sign was put on and the service was postponed.

It also meant you should go the toilet as soon as you feel the need, otherwise you may not be able to for quite some time.

The A380 was very quiet upstairs, and extremely smooth.

I started watching a few movies:

Napoleon - I got an hour in before stopping in frustration. Napoleon was characterised like a 5 year old.

Hungar Games latest instalment- 10 mins in before stopping in frustration on how the characters acted.

Relax, I’m from the future - I watched the first half, fell asleep and saw the ending. I spent the whole time trying to work out who the lead actor is. Turns out he was in Flight of the Conchords, as Murray. As I fell asleep part way thru I need to watch the rest of the movie on my next flight.

German Taxis

From my experience and also talking to other visitors to Germany, the taxi drivers are a bit dodgy.

They should take credit card but they say they only take cash.

My fare was €40.60, so I gave the driver a €50 note. He gave back €5.

I thought he was giving me a €10, in Australia the taxi driver would round down, but in Germany they round up.

Notice in the photo he has 4 mobile phones.

The 2 good things about the trip were the taxi was a Mercedes Benz, and at one stage he was driving 156 km/hr.

Old Town - Frankfurt by Foot

First full day in Europe and it is Frankfurt by Foot Tour.

This is a walking tour of old town basically.

Old town tours are common in Europe, though unknown in Australia as we don’t really have “old town” regions, or at least it is hard to find.

It wasn’t till the last minute I wondered if the tour would be in English, it was (I am the worst travel agent ever).

I go for a walk around the block after breakfast but before the tour and realise I \240am the only person in the city in shorts, and get changed into jeans for the tour.

Perhaps I was starry eyed about the Europe Summer coming from the freezing conditions in Canberra.

The tour guide is Jo, an American who has been in Frankfurt for quite a long time.

The tour is mostly couples, mostly Americans, mostly older than me.

As Frankfurt was extensively bombed and destroyed during WWII, the old town is mostly a recreation.

The area is amazing to look at and walk through and our tour guide is educating us on Frankfurt, its history and WWII as we go along.

Although I loved the tour, 1 hour in and my jet lag started to kick in, only 3 more hours to go.

Rhine Valley Tour

Spoiler Alert - boats don’t run when the river is flooded

Today I booked a Rhine River cruise and a visit to a castle.

I had heard there was recently flooding around and checking tour websites and river cruise websites that had.no notices or warnings provided false comfort to me.

This was a day I had planned to take ChatGPT advice and catch a train to Rüdesheim walk around the town, catch a boat along the river and explore a castle then catch a train home.

On investigation the time between cruises seem problematic and the whole planning seemed like to much drama.

Plan B and I jump onto TripAdvisor and book a tour.

Easier if the tour does everything but seems pricey to me at AUD$247.

I head off early to see where I need to go and head down to the water.

General observations of Germany

As Frankfurt is the main airport hub in Europe, it is a central city, it has always been a market city, my guess and understanding it would be the most diverse city in Germany, like London, New York or Sydney.

However, it is not that diverse.

There are small pockets of streets without any white people, then nearly everywhere else I walk around Frankfurt it is 99.9% white.

There are almost no asians, except for I suspect tourists.

It is quite different to Australian cities like Sydney where the diverse backgrounds are visible in every suburb.

Dress style:

Germans dress well, in either a neat casual, dress casual or smart casual style.

All the men wear long pants, you don’t see shorts very often.

Men 95% of the time wear sneakers with long pants.

You don’t see a lot of the traditional suit or suit and tie, and this is the banking city for Europe.

The woman’s style is similar I would say although I don’t know how to describe it as well as the men’s style.

You see very little leg or décolletage on women.

Also the women are much more natural looking than Aussie women.

It also means they are unique looking rather than cookie cutter or same same you see often in Australia.

Weight or BMI

Men and women are 99.9% below obese levels.

Nearly everyone would be in the healthy BMI range.

This is a far cry from Australia and USA.

Language

Everyone speaks German to me, I am not sure if I look German, but at over 6 feet tall and white, probably contributes.

FYI my background is Celtic (Irish, Scottish).

They partially accommodate for English speakers and I would say their usuage and/or understanding of English can be less than best.

I had to say Atlantic Salmon five times till the woman understood me.

I almost did a fish dance cause interpretive dance is always the solution.

Smoking

Smoking is compulsory.

That’s was a joke.

I guess I shouldn’t joke as I am in Germany.

Smoking is extremely common, so common on every block there is someone standing on the footpath smoking.

Day at the Museums

Today was an exploration day around Frankfurt and a couple of museums.

There was a forecast of rain for the day so I was taking it cautiously setting out this morning.

Across the river form the CBD the area is quite stylish and feels very safe.

The change in the feel of areas in Frankfurt is quite sharp compared other cities.

Across the river there is quite nice apartment buildings and also known for the museums.

Hercules

Today I did the Kassel run in 3 hours.

Okay, poor Star Wars reference.

One of the pre-arrival plans was to travel outside of Frankfurt to a small town to explore something different to the big city of Frankfurt.

Something I did not know back in Australia nor when I arrived in Germany that there have been 1 in 100 year floods throughout the country recently.

This has meant some towns are probably best not visited at the moment.

Also, the floods are to the south mostly, which restricted my plans to what is to the north.

I found the town of Kassel which is along the fast train line from Frankfurt to Hamburg.

Kassel had a good recommendation so I decided to book a train ticket for the day and find out.

Today all the intercity trains were running late by up to an hour, and fog covered the countryside until mid morning.

Not a great start to the trip.

There were are a few places on the itinerary for Kassel but after the first stop I surrended.

At the top of the hill just outside Kassel is a castle.

I don’t know the story but it is now a wonderful park to walk around and explore.

Easy Day

Today the plan was to take it easy.

After a big day yesterday walking up the hill in Kassel, the plan was a visit to the Zoo.

I walked to the Zoo which was a few neighbourhoods over, which allowed me to see a big shopping area and new streets of Frankfurt.

The Zoo in Frankfurt is located in the city so not surprisingly it is not that large in terms of its footprint.

It was nice and relaxing to walk around the zoo.

It might seem strange to visit a zoo when overseas but it allows for relaxation of the body and mind which I feel is a benefit for a holiday.

Anyway, the Frankfurt Zoo reminded me of a small Noah’s Ark.

I mean the animals are in pairs mostly, you rarely see more than two of any type.

And small as a lot of the animals are small, like a lot of mouse like animals, which makes sense when space is a premium.

After the zoo I headed back to the Film Museum and watched two hours of the film that had screening on four screens simultaneously.

It is a Montague of many films highlighting film techniques.

Despite the plan for an easy day I walked more steps today than yesterday, though not up a hill so not a strenuous day.

Travel Day

Today did not go as planned.

Recent issues I had had experienced with German trains peaked this morning with my train to Belgium cancelled.

As all the trains were basically full before this happened, this was a big problem.

I was already concerned about transporting luggage on the German trains as storage was very limited and difficult for suitcases on these particular train layouts.

So I swapped the train for this leg to a plane.

The only issue was the flight was late afternoon and I was packed and ready to leave the hotel in the morning.

So I ended up spending 6 hours at Frankfurt airport.

Antwerp

I decided to change my location from Antwerp to Brussels as most of the day tours leave from Brussels.

I still wanted to see Antwerp so my first full day in Brussels I went to Antwerp and did a walking tour of the old town.

Great tour to see the city and understand the city.

Some of the streets were clean and amazing to look at, and some other streets had road works and looked like a war zone.

The city feels like an okay place to visit and live but it falls short in terms of livability in many ways.

Ghent and Bruges

Today was a bus tour of two towns on Belgium, Ghent and Bruges.

The tour guide was a friendly old man, but it was like his first time as a tour guide, it was extremely disorganised.

First stop was Ghent which seemed like a nice town to visit though it was pouring rain, and as it rains all the time in Belgium the tour goes on.

We had a bit of a walking tour followed by free time.

The meeting point after the greet time was out in the open, a lot of people suggested we meet under cover as it is was pouring, which the tour guide thought was a good idea.

I got a Belgium Waffle with strawberries and cream to eat on my free time, and they give you the smallest fork in the world.

Apparently the Belgium Waffle is meant to be ordered plain, as it is already sweet, and you hold it in a piece of paper.

We get to the meeting point then head to the bus and fine we are three people short.

The three people also had their luggage under the bus as they were leaving the tour after Bruges.

We wait 30 minutes and eventually one of three rings the tour guide to see where he is.

They eventually get to the bus and the tour guide encourages us to make fun of the late comers.

We get to Bruges and it is dry thankfully.

It is interesting to walk around Bruges and we took a boat at one stage but where we were was just 100% touristy.

It was nice but it didn’t feel real or something, just a tourist trap.

They other weird thing is you would walk down a street then all of a sudden you enter a new area and there were no tourists and all the shops were closed.

Perhaps it is early summer and the season gets busier in coming months but it was weird so many tourist cafes were not even open for business.

This was not unique to Bruge either.

Missing entries

I just logged in and a few days disappeared before my eyes.

Argh.

I will attempt to recreate the entries when I can.

I find I often fall asleep mid sentence.

Luxembourg

Today was a bus trip to Luxembourg with a tour guide who was a delightful old man.

Every tour is interesting with different perspectives told and many of the Belgium facts (white lies or complete falsehoods) told to help understand the modern history of Belgium and this part of Europe.

Seems Belgium love to tell stories and often they may not resemble the truth at all.

Luxembourg is amazing city in so many ways.

Extremely clean, I only saw graffiti on two or three locations.

I only saw one building that had damage to its wall that needed repair.

There were no roadworks I could see.

The city basically has two levels in the centre, the ground level and the lower level.

It is amazing to see the different levels, which I never knew existed.

It was like a scene from a movie where they digitally created a fake city.

Although, I would have added some waterfalls for effect.

The city is posh and less touristy despite the high number of tourist buses I saw.

It reminded me of Cannes in some ways and felt very safe.

On the way back to Brussels we stopped at a small town of Dinant.

It is quite small town but quite nice to walk around for 15-20 minutes.

It is famous for multiple times enemies have killed all the men in the town, and for Adolphe Sax who invented the Saxophone.

Worth the visit and possibly a place I would go back to just to explore more of the city.

Brussels Beer and Chocolate Tour

This was a half day walking tour around Central Brussels and extremely enjoyable.

They started with the Chocolate part where we went to three different chocolatiers and learnt about the history and making of chocolate.

There was also general history of Belgium and Brussels thrown in throughout.

The second half was the beer portion of the tour where we went to three different places, the second one we thankfully got some food to eat.

We learnt a bit about beer and one of the local beers that uses bacteria from the air in Brussels (weird hey).

Our first beer was a light beer at 6%, and our final beer for the day was a quadruple at over 11% alcohol.

Yikes.

Enjoyable tour overall and would

Lipton - Gunpowder Flavour

Is this real?

It is on the side of a legit shop.

Rant

I am trying to be positive on this trip but something really shocked me.

I won’t say how I feel just tell you what I saw.

At breakfast in Brussels a woman came into the restaurant pushing a pram with a child perhaps one years old.

The woman gets plate after plate of food and fills her little table in the restaurant with different offerings from the buffet breakfast.

Too much for one person to consume.

Then the woman gets a tray and loads the tray with all the food she has accumulated on her table.

The woman then takes the tray away from the restaurant and goes back upstairs (in the lift) I guess to her husband.

She left her one year baby in the restaurant while she took all this food back to her room.

She left her one year baby.

Explore Brussels Day

Today was a personal day to explore Brussels.

I walked from my hotel around the top of town and through the main park.

The park was a relaxing place and a very good city park.

I took some time to recharge and take in the serenity.

The top of town, as I call it, is where the big old fancy buildings are located.

I knew one was a palace, one a church, not sure what the others were.

Certainly fancier than nearly everything built in Australia.

Yes, I didn’t know the exact purpose of a building, but it didn’t stop me admiring the architecture.

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

Check out this video of the mirror in the hotel room in Brussels.

Travel Day

Today was a travel day from Brussels to Lyon in France.

My train carriage initially only had a few passengers.

One guy near me was eating, what I can only assume was celery, based on how loud it seemed in the silence.

During the trip we were joined by a woman who could be described as having Tourette’s.

Although my napping on the trip was constantly ended due to the sound of my own snoring.

The seats were comfortable enough but you still (I do at least) get a sore bum from sitting for so long.

I long for the days of the Zeppelin.

Travel Tips, Tricks and Hiccups

This will be a mix of helpful advice and personal anecdotes.

Suitcases

I have a Samsonite hard shell suitcase that has served me well for years, maybe 10 or 15 I am not sure.

I have used it maybe a hundred times so it’s cost per use is quite low.

I noticed before this trip to Europe there was a small crack in the shell which meant it was no longer waterproof.

Shouldn’t be an issue and I didn’t worry about it.

When packing my bag one the internal straps in the suitcase broke, no big issue.

I think if I had noticed 6 months ago I might have shopped around for a new suitcase, but too late the week before travelling.

Backpacks

I took two backpacks, one a traditional backpack and other a single shoulder thing where you keep you valuables on your chest rather than back.

I ended up never using the single shoulder thing as it does not store enough.

I am not sure of the best place, time or situation I might use it.

The backpack is something I have had for many years and is designed specifically to be hard to break into.

The zips are on the inside and no pockets that can be easily accessed.

I bought it many years ago when I started travelling for work.

It is a great bag in terms of safety though it does not store much.

One of the straps is almost broken off I noticed just before going on holidays.

I figured I should be able to get one last trip out if it, even if that trip was a month long.

Having the backpack has meant any purchases can be stored in the bag. As well as a jumper or umbrella.

Charger

My best belonging I brought along has been a portable battery charger.

This has allowed me to charge my phone multiple times a day if needed (I have not needed more than a single charge on the go).

The device has allowed for multiple devices to be charged using multiple connectors, all charged simultaneously.

At night time I would plug in the charger to be recharged, then plug in my phone and the cable for my Apple Watch so only one wall connector was necessary.

Lights

Not sure how I feel about the red lights in the bathroom, it is stylish and not at the same time.

I guess colours is interesting.

Laundry Day

Today is laundry day.

I have tried to limit the times I have had to do laundry as much as possible but it must be done.

Macarons

When in France, enjoy the food.

Annacy

Today I took a train ride to Annacy France.

It is a beautiful town/city which is much like some Swiss towns or Lake Como.

It had a lot of tourists but it wasn’t touristy.

Either walking around the narrow streets, or along the flowing water, or looking at the lake, there is a lot to take in.

Annacy was clean and interesting, and a place that would be great to visit again, stay or live.

Walking Tour of Lyon Old Town

Lyon is quite large and has many different areas with their own unique style.

Most areas of what I saw were quite nice to walk thru.

The city is quite old and has a significant old town area with an interesting history.

Today was a walking tour with a free guide (you pay Viator a booking fee and he asks for tips).

He was a Hollander living in France for many years.

The tour was interesting and filling with interesting pieces of fact (and possibly myth).

Missing pieces of the outside of the Catholic Churches were from issues with the Protestants.

There are/were many Michelin stars in Lyon.

Lyon was called the Gastronical Capita of the world (by a French man who had never left France).

Silk was an extremely important industry for Lyon until cheap imports from Asia a hundred years ago.

Food Tour of Lyon Old Town

This was a tour with just five of us, a family of four from America and myself.

The guide explained some of the history of Lyon, the food scene, and we got to taste some local food and wine.

We went to a couple of places and ended up in basements or hidden rooms.

Pork is a common food historically in Lyon and we tried some cured meats including pork’s butt (we found out after trying it) called the Rosette, named cause the pigs bum…

We also tried some cow and goat cheeses and some wine as well as syrup.

Some of the food in Lyon is coloured red from the syrup, it’s their own style.

I may explain this wrong but they candy almonds in this red sugary syrup then use the candied almonds in breads.

I enjoyed the experience and would probably do other food tours in other cities in future.

Top of Lyon

Above the old town, is a raised plateau that was the town in Roman times and afterwards.

The area is peacefully and totally liveable.

There is a new(ish) Catholic Church that absolutely amazing when you pay attention.

Many of the colours are dark and if you don’t pay attention it looks either old or blends in to each other.

If you pay attention each element of the church is exquisite.

Film and Miniture Museum

Filling in time today before the food tour I went through the Film and Miniture Museum.

It was focused on the props and was interesting to see if only to fill in time.

Random stuff from Lyon

Wine tour

Wine was very important in history as water was unclean so a low alcohol wine served as a clean drinking alternative until less than a hundred years ago.

Back when I was in Brussels they talked about low alcohol wine to school kids, in school into this century.

In France we set off for our wine tour from Lyon to the Beaujolais region, which is literally the Chardonnay region of France.

The wine from this region has a low reputation as you would expect, but it was still good to learn new things and see the process in France first hand.

Travel day to Zurich

Not much to say about today but I wouldn’t mind opening a French Patisserie.

So many amazing foods I tried in France including a Cannele de Bordeaux.

Its ingredients are like a cake but it tastes so unique, or at least the one I had.

Lake Lucerne & Mt Pilatus

On the tour bus today and off to Lucerne and Mt Pilatus.

Rain has mostly stayed away for me during this Europe trip but it not something I can avoid in Switzerland.

We head to Lucerne and have a short while to explore but as it is raining I head inside for a meal and wait a while.

Eventually I head out and see the Jesuit Church in the city which is exquisite.

Unlike the church in Lyon I saw, there is lots of white and it is absolutely stunning to gaze upon.

Due to the rain I didn’t venture any further around the town but it is a beautiful place and worth a stroll around.

Before leaving for Europe everyone said Zürich is not great, which I agree with to a certain degree, but everywhere else I have seen in Switzerland is stunning to look at and walk around.

Not being a fan of heights or cable cars the next part of the trip was blah, but the view from the top of Mt Pilatus was magnificent.

There was a bit of ice on the ground here and there, and the weather was good at the top of the mountain.

I call Switzerland the land of the giants, the land is out of proportion large wherever you look.

The trip down was via cog train with the steepest (47 degrees) cog train in the world.

I swear that every time I catch a cog train train in different parts of the world they all have their own world record for something, oldest, longest, highest, steepest.

Down at the bottom of the mountain we take a leisurely boat ride back to Lucerne and the bus.

The boat was relaxing and calm seas (lake) as we cruise for an hour or so back. \240

I was surprised the lake had housing pretty much all the way around the lake.

Despite the bad weather a good day and worth the visit to Mt Pilatus and perhaps one day I will return to explore more of Lucerne.

Do you want to build a snowman?

Booking day tours on holidays, for me at least on this trip, was a bit like throwing darts at a dartboard while blindfolded.

Today I was headed to Interlaken and Grindelwald.

Both places seemed interesting but I really didn’t know what I would be in for.

The tour bus had three groups with varying levels of guided tour for the day.

The first group, my group, would be dropped off in two different towns to do their own thing.

The second group was taken on ones train ride then they do their own thing.

The third group was going to the top of the mountain, literally.

I paid $180 CHF extra went for the whole hog.

We had as well as the bus trip, three cog train rides and a cable car ride for the day.

Our main destination was Jungfrau or the location of the highest train station in the world.

Not the highest peak in Europe but highest train station.

Everything needs its own record.

Added to this trip was a quite unique tour guide who was the centre of attention for the day, partially in a good way.

He annoyed many passengers by his actions by doing things like taking their camera and taking photos of passengers for them.

That annoyed some passengers while others like myself just went along with it.

He was the most vocal tour guide I had, particularly when it came to pointing out the sites coming up for photo opportunities.

The destination of Jungfrau was the star of the day though, and I got to walk on ice/snow and actually experience snow fall while I was there, not bad for Summertime.

Heidiland and Liechtenstein

After yesterday, today was a bit of a chill day, only 8 hours on the bus and gentle stroll in three different places.

Everyday I have seen something I had not seen before, and today was no different.

The houses and landscape continue to amaze me.

The day was not super exciting but it was different.

First stop for lunch was a little place called Ra

Waterfalls

The sea was angry that day my friends.

Like an old man trying to send back soup in a deli.