The Cube

Pre-travel
Breakdown of travel days and links to accommodations.


Belgium: Antwerp
Day 1: Lazing my day away in Antwerp before ending the night in Gent


Belgium: Gent
Day 2: Walkabout Gent before attending K&M's wedding
Day 3: Slept my day away but woke up for lunch and dinner... food is important.


Luxembourg / Germany
Day 4: A walk in the Grund and spending the night in a castle on Mosel.


Germany: Mosel
Day 5: First day in Cochem and a day trip to Beilstein
Day 6: Cabbing to Burg Eltz and hiking back
Day 7: The story book like Bernkastel-Kues and ended with Traben-Trarbach


Germany: Rhine
Day 8: On a Rhine River cruise from Boppard to Bacharach
Day 9: Day trip to St Goar, Oberwesel and Koblenz


Germany: Heidelberg
Day 10: A 'stopover' at Heidelberg


Germany: Black Forest
Day 11: First stop in Black Forest - Gutach
Day 12: Charming towns in Black Forest - Alpirsbach, Schiltach and Triberg
Day 13: Another amazing town in Black Forest - Gengenbach
Day 14: Unfruitful commute to Baden-Baden and Germany's sunniest city, Freiburg
Day 15: The two lakes around Black Forest - Titisee and Schluchsee


France: Alsace
Day 16: Enjoying the beautiful Colmar
Day 17: Riquewihr, Hunawihr and Ribeauvillé on the Route des Vins d'Alsace
Day 18: Strasbourg on a Sunday


Switzerland
Day 19: Luzern in a day
Day 20: Classic Rigi Round Trip and travelling to Gimmelwald
Day 21: Jungfraujoch, the top of Europe
Day 22: Gimmelwald, Mürren and Lauterbrunnen plus Zermatt
[Note: Gimmelwald, Mürren and Lauterbrunnen were done across day 20 to day 22]
Day 23: Last day in Zürich plus Rheinfall



Side note: Hey Europe, thank you for being awesome. May we meet again soon. :)

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..

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!