Western Europe: Short stop in Luxembourg

I bought my train ticket from Gent to Luxembourg online before departing Melbourne. According to the train  itinerary when I bought the ticket, I only need to do one change of train in Brussels and I would be on my way. When I checked which tram I need to take to get to Gent-St-Pieters, I realised all the trains needed at least 2 transfers including one bus ride.

I took tram #1 towards Gent Flanders Expo earlier so that I have time to re-check the train itinerary at the train station. Ticket machine in Gent unfortunately only take coins and cost €3 for a single ticket. I didn't have enough coins when we first reached Gent and I had to run over to a cafe to change a note into coins. They were really nice about it though. ^^

The Sunday I left Gent was the Pentecost Sunday, a holiday what I was not aware of until then. Pentecost is observed 55 days after Easter and 10 days after Ascension. This day commemorates the coming of the Holy Spirit in the form of flames to the Apostles, as recorded in the New Testament in Acts, 2.

Among the days I wasn't feeling well, I was probably most sick on this long travel day. I started on a coughing marathon when I was in the middle of a conversation with the lady in the train station. Poor lady, she probably thought she was going to contract TB the way I coughed. Lol. I bought a waffle, my last one before I left Belgium as breakfast. As the day passed, when the drugs were losing its effect, I started to increase the layer of my clothes and ended up 2 layers of jackets, a scarf and a beanie while the next guy who walked passed me was in shorts.

I supposed, like Australia, track works are usually scheduled during long weekends. So there was a track work in progress from Gent to Luxembourg. So I had to take a train from Gent-St-Pieters to Liege-Guillemins. Changed to another train to Troisvierges, followed by a bus to Ettelbruck. After that, switched back to a train to Luxembourg.

I was indecisive between Luxembourg or Trier but went with Luxembourg because... I would need a change of train in Luxembourg anyway and it is a different country. Um.. there is no smart logic, in fact now it sounds very shallow.

I had very limited time in Luxembourg, so I could probably only do one thing, at max two. The shortlisted two items were Bock Casemates and The Grund. As I wasn't feeling very well and being cheapskate, so I decided to go with walking around The Grund. Grund is a quarter in central Luxembourg city, it is within walking distance from the train station or you could take a public transport. I was recommended to just walk, so that was what I did.

On the way there one will passed the Notre Dame Cathedral of Luxembourg.

I was quite surprised to see how popular it was with China tour groups.

One could take as much time or as little time to explore the Grund. There are many routes to wander but I only did the most obvious one. As you can see in the photo above, someone was walking on another route, below where I was.

I walked back to the train station with some time to spare so that I could grab a bite and of course, being paranoid of missing my train as I have informed the hotel the time I would arrived.

I saw a Oberweis outlet inside the train station and thought I could grab a sandwich, though I admit the sweets definitely looked more tempting.

I haven't had any thing since the waffle in Gent, I thought I should eat something despite the lack of appetite. So I got myself a ham, cheese, tomato and egg sandwich. It was ok, though I was still unwell so probably not the best judge of any food.

I did feel the little pinch in terms of affordability after the couple of days in Belgium. Despite my usual habit of getting a fridge magnet for my collection, I decided to forgo one from Luxembourg due to the price and nothing jumped out to me that I really wanted. So instead of a physical magnet, I took a photo of them. After going through the whole trip, I have come to terms that Switzerland wins hands down, the most expensive of them all. Haha.

Side note: Masterchef Australia grand final tomorrow.. lol..

Western Europe: Belgium - An unassuming beautiful Gent

Korenlei

Years back when I visited Belgium the first time with my sister, we went to Brussels and Brugge. At that time, I caught up with K in Brugge but she was already living in Gent. Ha! To think that we could've met her in Gent as we had to commute back to Brussels from Brugge anyway. Anyway, I have remedied that as I was in Gent was 3 nights this round as K and M's wedding were held in Gent.

A regular visitor to Gent does not need to spend 3 nights in Gent. I arrived on Thursday but decided to walkabout in Antwerp because none of my friends was going to be in Gent till evening time anyway. Friday was K and M's wedding day and Saturday was to spend time with my friends. That, was the plan but it didn't happened as I was sick again. 3 times in Europe and I was sick all 3 times. -_-" It was only second day of the trip and I was already sick. Not exciting, though, one of my friends is a physician and I was a happy beneficiary of some medications that she brought along. So I pretty much spent Saturday in Gent sleeping except walking out to grab a quick lunch and dinner.

City Hall

I roomed with my friends at NH Gent Belfort, which is across the road from the City Hall to make it easier to get to the wedding venue, Novotel. Novotel was much pricier comparatively so 2 minutes walk had our winning vote.

Gent is a beautiful canal city and charming buildings at almost every street you turned. As you can probably guessed, the only plan I made was to keep my days in Gent free. We walked where we felt like, ate what we fancy.

Gravensteen

I noticed cool street arts around in Gent as well. Like this one which was taken from the bridge.

The ones below were all from a same laneway. I overheard someone telling his friend that to avoid people drawing all over the city, this is the 'designated' laneway to have all the street arts. I don't know if it is true though.

When in Belgium...

Eat waffle

Chocolates! This one is Daskalides but if you are going to try only one posh chocolate, try Neuhaus

Drink beer

And this is Gent's specialty - Cuberdon. There are different flavours on sale but I was told the original is raspberry flavoured one, in purple colour. Word of caution though, they are very sweet so share them!

The two short-listed place by my friend who lived in Gent was Pakhuis and Du Progres. Initially we were going to all go to Du Progres for dinner on Saturday (after the wedding on Friday) but we were not able to make reservation. I can't remember if the reason was Saturday night or we were too big group. So Pakhuis it was. The only reason my friend decided Du Progres initially was because it is cheaper comparatively.

Anyway, we ended up in Du Progres for dinner on Thursday night and bumped into my friend (the bridge) having dinner with her family! Haha. Gent really is quite small.

I shared a mushroom pasta with J in Du Progres, so we have space for waffle later on! Grin.

This was North Sea Fish “Catch of the Day”, skin side down, Tagliatelle “Vongole”, Shii-take and Courgette, Salsa with Tomatoes and Spring Garlic from Pakhuis. We also ordered some starters and chips to share. There were already eaten by the time I was passed to me, so no photos. I was also getting really tired and sleepy to which I suspected I needed more drugs to get me going by then.

Sorry - 1/4 effort on my part of photo taking

Side note: Still missing mussels from Belgium... 

Western Europe: Belgium - A lazy day in Antwerp

I flew out of Melbourne on a Wednesday noon, reaching Amsterdam on a Thursday morning. Aside from a minor delay on my second leg of flight due to thunderstorm in Singapore, it was a pretty good journey. I was impressed with the responsive and efficiency of the flight attendants who worked on board.

The plan was an easy one, reached Amsterdam and took a train to Antwerp where I need to change my train to get to Gent anyway. I've only been to Brugge and Brussels before this, so Antwerp it was, besides my friends were only going to be in Gent later of the day. Initially I wanted to do the comic trail walk that is found on the official website of Visit Antwerpen but I was to meet up with A in Antwerp. She isn't big on comics plus I am open to just walk around, being lazy after a 20+ hour commute.

Upon reaching Antwerp, I headed to the Tourist Information, grabbed a map and dropped my fat backpack in a coin locker just behind the Tourist Information office. There is a coin changer machine at the entrance of a toilet nearby if you don't have or don't have enough coins.

What we ended up doing instead was walking towards the historic centre with as many stops along the way as we like. Haha.

At Grote Markt

There was a nearby castle, short walk from the historic centre if it interest you... 

It was too hot and we were lazy, though we did check out this little laneway.

This laneway nestled in between shops and even looked like a shoplot from the front - 16 Vlaeykensgang. It is a small medieval street, feels like a secret hideway from the bustling historic centre. We were there in the afternoon, so it was rather quiet despite housing some restaurants as it was probably in between service time.

To round it up, don't forget to look at the Antwerp Central station!

Side note: Any recommendations for HK?

Western Europe: From A(ntwerp) to Z(urich)

It was quite an epic holiday, in the sense that the reason for this travel was to attend a dear friend's wedding. Eight of us have known each other since primary school and only one could not make the travel. So after years of leaving school and living in different cities (except A and I are in Melbourne), we met up again in Ghent. The rest commute in from Alor Setar, Singapore, Athens and London.

If you realised from the map, I have put the starting point as Amsterdam because I landed in Schiphol Airport but took a train straight to Antwerp. Sorry Amsterdam I don't have enough time to pay another visit. The rest of my friends planned the wedding in the middle of their holiday but I started my holiday with it. Four of my friends took a train to Amsterdam and spent a few days there after attending the wedding in Gent. I was the problem child and wandered off to Germany by myself. I was with my friends in Belgium but there after I was commuting by myself.

Here's the breakdown of the travel days and a HUGE THANK YOU to Paul who keeps an amazing blog where I pretty much shamelessly copied his itinerary on Germany and Alsace.

On hindsight, if I crossed to Strasbourg from Gengenbach, then down to Colmar before crossing back to Germany (Freiburg), this would save me one trip between Strasbourg and Colmar (instead of a return trip). In addition, trains from Germany to Switzerland are cheaper than from France to Switzerland, at least from where I got on the train.

M = morning, A = afternoon, E = evening

31/05, Day 00 - On flight*
01/06, Day 01 - Antwerp, Gent* (NH Gent Belfort)
02/06, Day 02 - Gent*
03/06, Day 03 - Gent*
04/06, Day 04 - Depart to Alf* but spent a couple of hours in Luxembourg (Burg Arras)
05/06, Day 05 - Depart to Cochem* in the morning. (Weingut Gutsschänke Rademacher)
06/06, Day 06 - Cochem*, day trip to Burg Eltz
07/06, Day 07 - Cochem*, day trip to Bernkastel-Kues, Traben-Trarbach
08/06, Day 08 - Train to Boppard, then boat to Bacharach* (Haus Irmgard Orth)
09/06, Day 09 - Bacharach*, day trip to St Goar, Oberwesel and Koblenz
10/06, Day 10 - Heidelberg* (Steffis Hostel)
11/06, Day 11 - Depart for Gutach* in the morning (Rommelehof)
12/06, Day 12 - Gutach*, day trip to Alpirsbach, Schiltach, Triberg
13/06, Day 13 - Depart for Gengenbach* in the morning (Schwarzwald Villa)
14/06, Day 14 - Gengenbach*, day trip to Baden-Baden but I ended up in Freiburg
15/06, Day 15 - Depart for Freiburg* in the morning (AirBnB)
16/06, Day 16 - Depart for Colmar* in the morning (Maison Martin Jund)
17/06, Day 17 - Colmar*, day trip to Riquewihr, Hunawihr, Ribeauville
18/06, Day 18 - Colmar*, day trip to Strasbourg
19/06, Day 19 - Depart for Luzern* in the morning (Backpackers Luzern)
20/06, Day 20 - Depart to Gimmelwald* in the afternoon (Mountain Hostel Gimmelwald)
21/06, Day 21 - Gimmelwald*
22/06, Day 22 - Interlaken* (Interlaken Youth Hostel)
23/06, Day 23 - Depart for Zurich* in the morning (Courtyard by Marriott)
24/06, Day 24 - Morning flight* out to Melbourne, transit in Singapore
25/06, Day 25 - Landed in Melbourne in the evening.


Side note: I am a creatureof habit!