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Malaysia and Vietnam 2022 – Part 2

  • Jan 13, 2023
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Pictures from this trip are here!

It is a very short flight from Kuala Lumpur to Ho Chi Minh City – just over an hour, and so we arrived in the airport a little after lunchtime. I had prepared and paid for my online visa for Vietnam (not required for Japanese but definitely for Americans) and despite printing out the form the immigration officer ignored it and stamped my passport without comment.

I changed some of my Japanese yen into Vietnamese dong and became an instant millionaire. There are a lot more zeroes in Vietnamese money, and pretty much no coins. Since we usually eat street food cash is handy, though.

After getting our suitcases we once again used Grab and caught a ride into town with a very friendly Japanese-speaking driver. He seemed eager to practice his Japanese so that let me have a chance to relax and let Kuniko handle the conversation. One thing we did hear about from the driver was that there were no fireworks for the New Year’s countdown, so that was a minor bummer.

It had been a long time since I had been in Vietnam but it seemed similar – especially all the scooters. We drove along the streets surrounded by scooters weaving around us, with everyone honking their horns almost constantly. Eventually we arrived at the shopping center that housed our hotel – it was strange that a hotel was inside a shopping mall, but the hotel was quite upscale and once we figured out the location we could check right in.

As we were checking in some other residents, a group of young Australian (?) men and women were trying to organize gym passes, supermarket locations and most importantly a source of hard liquor together with a slightly overwhelmed desk clerk. Part of the fun of travel for us is trying to figure all that out ourselves, but these guys wanted to have the hotel staff do the legwork for them – it shows you that there are all kinds of different ways to travel.

Our room in the hotel was really nice – a big room with windows looking over the city on the 23rd floor. The minibar was completely free (including beer!) and the big king-size bed was nice to spread out on. They even had a cool Bluetooth speaker we could use to play music from our devices – a very stylish touch. Once we settled in we went out to look for some food.

The hotel’s location was prime – we just had to cross the street to get to a big indoor market with plenty of food stalls. The staff were sometimes physically pulling us to their stands, and although the prices were a little higher than elsewhere, it was still much cheaper than anywhere we had been so far on this trip.

After eating some fried spring rolls and noodle soup we walked around town to see what it was like – it had been a few years since Kuniko had been here with a school trip. She said that there were quite a few changes, so COVID must have had some serious effects. Here in Vietnam masking was much less common, except for the scooter riders who wore them to keep their mouth and throat clean from pollution. We spent most of our time in Vietnam maskless.

One thing we had to re-learn was how to cross the streets in Vietnam with confidence. Signals were sometimes available on big streets but they are really just suggestions and it is much better to keep your eyes open and slowly and consistently walk across while making eye contact with oncoming scooters. It took a few hours but soon we were crossing like locals.

We spent the next few days enjoying food all over the city – bahn mi, grilled meat bun cha, and some dishes we’d never seen before like “com tam” meat and rice dish, but the rice is only made up of the broken grains that aren’t suitable for regular rice packaging. Noodles were great – we had pho bo hue once but we concentrated on other noodle dishes (mainly dry noodles) and also we particularly liked bahn bot loc la – a banana leaf wrapped around clear tapioca wrapped around grilled salty shrimp. Wow! At that shop the staff introduced her Japanese friend who was trying to start a business selling coffee. He wanted to give us free samples but we turned him down because we were so full of hot food. Strangely his coffee beans were from Africa and South America – we came to Vietnam to drink Vietnamese coffee!

We certainly drank our fill of coffee – it is quite intense in Vietnam and sometimes dripped over condensed milk to balance the flavor. It was great to have access to so much good coffee both hot and iced. Alcohol was cheap and plentiful here, too.

Soon enough it was New Year’s Eve, and since there were no fireworks we decided to avoid the crowds and have a mini-party in our room. The day before there were big music events down on the streets on temporary stages, and it seemed like it was going to be a crowded, rowdy night. The hotel room party idea was particularly fitting since we were already inside a shopping center, and in the basement there was a big gourmet grocery store that accepted credit cards. We stocked up on cheese, wine, bubbles, cut fruits, and enjoyed some music in our room as we awaited midnight.

At midnight we toasted the new year while looking out over the city and were surprised to see fireworks off in the distance. Then we heard some even closer, and it turned out that they were firing them off after all. So much for our taxi driver’s local information! We watched them from a distance, and then called it a night soon after.

The next day it was back to the airport, and after bowls of pho and some fruit juices outside on plastic tables we had another brief meal and some cocktails at the airport bar (which was much nicer than we expected). The flight back to Kuala Lumpur was just an hour. The immigration line was a bit longer this time. Some guys in front of us were having trouble with their passports – they seemed nervous and let us go ahead of them. Hopefully everything worked out for them.

Our Grab driver needed to refuel on the way back to the city and we caught a little traffic so by the time we arrived at our last hotel of the trip it was late. We had cocktails at a sweets bar near the lobby, but the restaurants were closed. We gave up and went up the elevator but pushed the wrong button for our floor, causing a delay for the (thankfully) understanding couple sharing the ride. In the end we ordered room service – noodles and satay – in our very comfortable room. The hotel was older but very nice and again we had a big room with a nice view of Central KL.

The last day or two was just crossing off the last things we wanted to eat, and do shopping for souvenirs for students and coworkers. We made the journey to Mansion Tea Stall to eat roti canai (worth the wait!), we tried to get mango susu from a place we tried last time but the day seemed to be some kind of holiday and the restaurants were re-set to a sort of family-style buffet system. We walked all over the Central KL area, burning calories in preparation for our next meal and using the subway system when the distance seemed too far.

We spent time in a shopping center that brought back memories from our previous trip – this time we tried new things. One was a spicy noodle dish with lamb and cumin that was tasty – a guy sitting next to us introduced us to the shop and seemed like he was a big fan. Another new thing was an ornate shaved ice with coconut milk, black jelly, peanuts and corn(!). Kuniko rejected corn as a topping for iced confections, and I’ll admit it was a little weird. The supermarket there was called “Cold Storage” and they had lots of interesting stuff. As we checked out a strange old lady put her stuff next to ours on the checkout counter – we had to explain that we didn’t know who she was. A lonely bunch of broccoli even made an appearance next to the waiting line in a cooler – what was the story there?

It was nice to revisit some of the places we liked last time, and the hotel location was perfect for shopping for our return home. Each morning we had breakfast at the impressive hotel buffet, full of western and local foods. Once we figured out the coffee system we were set. We spent time at the hotel pool swimming and sipping cocktails that took more than 30 minutes to arrive – but it was nice to just relax poolside in the warm weather.

On our final day we walked around the park under the Petronas Towers. We ate and drank at a cafe nearby – salted egg yolk fried chicken, cocktails and some decadent desserts really filled out the calorie load for the day.

We left early for the airport and it was a lucky thing as there were sudden thunderstorms and huge traffic jams due to a football match later that evening. It was good we weren’t cutting it too close for our flight. After one last round of salted egg lava buns at Din Tai Fung we took our overnight flight back to Osaka, and we both managed to sleep a bit on the way back.

There was a new system in place at Kansai Airport for entering Japan. The old MySOS system was eliminated soon after the PCR testing requirement was abolished, but now they had some strange new system that wasn’t explained very well. At 5 am the hallway was lined with staff who tried to explain how to register our emails on the new system and it seemed like a colossal waste of time and money. Plus we were tired and grouchy from just waking up – I hope this system is also eliminated soon.

It was great to get out there and travel some more, and we’re looking forward to visiting some new places in the future. This year will have us going to the USA to visit my parents in July, and hopefully some other travels in summer, autumn and/or winter. For now we’re getting back into the swing of things at work… back to the salt mines!

Malaysia and Vietnam 2022

  • Jan 12, 2023
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Photos from this trip are here!

Except for a trip in August to see my folks in the USA we’ve been largely cooped up in Japan thanks to COVID restrictions. While Asia is still (even today) straining against those restrictions we felt like the time was right to get back on the road for some much needed R&R.

At first we hadn’t planned on going anywhere – just lock ourselves in our house with a lot of wine and gourmet foods and come out in January weighing a few more kilograms – but eventually the call of warm Southeast Asia was too much. We booked some cheap flights on Malaysian Airlines and left Japan on Christmas Eve.

We booked an early flight out from Kansai Airport and so that meant the first train on Saturday morning from Okubo. It was tricky to dress warmly for the morning but also to be ready for a couple of weeks of warm days near the equator. When we got to Sannomiya and had to wait for 10-15 minutes for the bus to the airport we were shivering in line. We splurged for two hot drinks from the vending machine to use as hand warmers until the bus came.

It was great to be back at Kansai Airport! It is always the departure point for our travel adventures and despite mostly being under construction (they tried to squeeze in a lot of renovation during the pandemic lull) it felt good to walk around and see how things were looking.

Check-in and security were a little busy but we made it to the gate with plenty of time to spare as usual, and then we were off just as the sun was rising. We booked two seats in the exit row, and so there was plenty of leg room for the 7 hour flight. Our meals were OK but nothing special – Kuniko ordered fish and got miso saba – which felt weird since we were leaving Japan.

During take off and landing we sat across from a flight attendant who was Japanese – she talked to us as we arrived and warned us of huge lines at immigration in Kuala Lumpur Airport. She was curious about us and asked about our lives in Japan. She made lots of smiley faces and nice comments and it was only later that we discovered that I had some spilled food on the front of my shirt. Such a cool guy!

Once we got into the airport it was a long trip to immigration. They had shut down some trams and so we had to ride a bus part of the way, and we certainly got some steps in that day. Despite what the flight attendant had said immigration was a ghost town and we flew right through.

After leaving immigration and customs the first thing we did was turn around and go back into the airport arrivals area to hit Din Tai Fung – a Taiwanese restaurant that serves consistently delicious salted egg lava buns. For some reason they are hard to find in Japan – even Din Tai Fung in Osaka doesn’t carry them – but I imagine they would go over really well. We can’t get enough and during this trip we stopped at this airport restaurant three times for salted egg lava buns and some noodles/wontons on the side.

We used the e-hailing app Grab and got a quick ride into the city. Using e-hailing apps has really changed how we feel about traveling (especially in SE Asia). Some of our best travel stories have been about crazy taxi rides or drivers ripping us off, and while they make good memories they are always stressful at the time. Now all that worry is gone. The apps we use set the price at the beginning, no cash changes hands, and we don’t need to try to explain the destination in another language. It’s almost too easy!

There were a few reasons why we chose Kuala Lumpur for our main destination this time: it was the last foreign city we had visited before COVID so it made a fitting bookend to the (hopefully) end of the pandemic. Also we had pretty much done all the sightseeing a few years ago so it was a place to relax and focus on food, and finally the familiarity of the city would make it that much more stress-free.

That sense of familiarity was a surprisingly positive emotion. I know that I felt a similar feeling in Cairo when we went back to the Al Doqi area of the city after staying somewhere else on our return from Luxor. Some places that should look foreign and unfamiliar are instead welcoming – you know how things work and where you can go to find what you need, in an otherwise unknown country. We got that same feeling this trip.

So we were eagerly looking around the center of Kuala Lumpur when we arrived. We wanted to see what things had changed in the three years since we (and COVID) had been there.

We stayed at one of the hotels that we used last time – it was in a great spot near a very popular street food destination, a huge shopping district, and an underground food court right next door that was our hangout for most mornings.

After dropping off our bags we went right outside and walked across the busy Bukit Bintang area, crossing the busy streets filled with tourists. It seemed like about 60% of people were masked, compared to Japan which still is about 99.5% masked.

We found Jalan Alor – a street food hotspot just five minutes walk from our hotel, and it looked almost exactly the way we left it in 2020. We even went to the end of the street and found the same satay cook, grilling up satay skewers of lamb, beef and chicken amid clouds of billowing smoke. We managed to find half a table and pushed aside some dirty dishes to eke out a space to enjoy. Drinking cold beer and satay with peanut sauce on a hot tropical night in Southeast Asia is a pretty good feeling.

While many things were familiar there were some things we noticed for the first time. I know that Malaysia is an Islamic country, but I didn’t really notice until this trip that the price of alcohol is quite high. Since there is little domestic demand the tourists are expected to pay more for the privilege of drinking, and so when we had drinks they were similar in price to back home in Japan or sometimes a little higher. We didn’t stop drinking while there, but it did cost more than I had expected. Kuniko discovered lychee martinis (and we bought the ingredients for them as soon as we got home), and I drank various beers, mostly Tiger. But it did give us the opportunity to drink the fruit juices that are available everywhere, blended and served in old-fashioned glasses.

Kuniko made sure that every hotel during this trip had a swimming pool, and I appreciated taking a dip almost every day. The poolside bar at the hotel had a “pool guy” who tried to get us to refill our drinks as much as possible – he was ripe with cologne and spent time with his smartphone until our drinks started getting low and then he was, “Hey boss, need another beer?” I can still smell the guy!

We spent almost every morning in the next door food court – a place we discovered on our previous trip. The main attraction (for me) was the Penang Secret Cafe, which served Penang’s (and Malaysia’s?) signature dish, char kway teow. It is made of rice noodles, shrimp, oysters, duck egg, shaved sweet Chinese sausages, and some mysterious (but mild) spices that make this dish magical. I went nuts for this dish last trip and it was just as good this time.

At the Penang Secret Cafe they fend off customers (even after opening time) until everything is just how they like it, and then they accept the first customer and a line forms. You pay, get a paper with a number, and then you need to stand back while the next person orders. The cooks throw the ingredients into a huge wok, and make the char kway teow two portions at a time. They put the completed dishes on a shelf with a matching number tag, and if your number matches you can take the dish back to your seat and dig in.

As it was a popular restaurant there were 5-6 people waiting around for their order, and I soon discovered that some guys (usually Chinese) would just take the first dish that matched their order and run off, whether the number was correct or not. That meant that I (and other rule-following people) would be standing around waiting for a number that already came up. You had to show your paper to the busy cook who would stop what he was doing, look around, shake his head, and then give you the next dish out of the wok. A very disorganized system.

We didn’t just eat char kway teow – there were so many dishes to try at the food court and each restaurant was in reality a special branch of another actual restaurant somewhere in Malaysia – so this place gathered some of the best food in the country in one place. We went heavily for noodles but there were plenty of other options, sweet and savory.

So we settled into a nice routine – wake up when we wake up, have some coffee, head over to the food court to try some new dishes around 10 am, come back to relax by the pool or read books, get out there for some lunch somewhere else, maybe another lunch, an early dinner, maybe another dinner… and so on. We were always keeping our eyes open for good food and coming back later when we were hungrier.

There were lots of good memories from this trip to KL: getting caught in the rain while eating dinner on Jalan Alor… every shop had table umbrellas ready to go up and even a unique system to prevent leaking between adjacent umbrellas. Enterprising locals showed up soon after selling plastic umbrellas – we bought one and managed to stop the rain moments later. I had a boba tea from Oja Tea, a newly opened shop that had exceptionally friendly staff. Just as we left the chubby owner and his family (all in regular clothes) came and conducted a surprise inspection while the poor staff tried to keep serving customers.

Our return to Chinatown was interesting – the shortcut that we used so many times when we were there last was gated up and I was glad we didn’t stay at the previous hotel – it would have made the walk to Chinatown much farther. The roti jalla was even better than I remembered the first time – with a rich soup and big chunks of meat. Most shops started to use QR code menus, which while somewhat annoying when you are in your own country, are quite useful when dealing with language barriers in another country.

After almost a week of eating well we were ready to move on to Ho Chi Minh City, so once again we went to the airport and ate some more salted egg lava buns at Din Tai Fung. While walking through the check-in area of Kuala Lumpur International Airport we came across a large group (200+?) of prisoners, being led in chains and handcuffs across the terminal area. It was a shock to see – I’ve never seen anything like it in a public place. The prisoners were dressed in regular clothes, and it was about 70% men and 30% women. My best guess was that they were being deported as illegal immigrants. We walked past one of the groups and they watched us just as much as we were watching them. It was a strange reminder that there are always people willing to take risks to find a better place no matter where you are.

While waiting to board the flight to Vietnam there were other groups walking around, and these people were not chained up. It seemed like they were going somewhere in China for work, and I wondered what kind of work it was that China was bringing in more people from developing countries to help with it.

Then we caught our afternoon flight out, and I’ll write more about our short visit to Ho Chi Minh City and the rest of our trip in the next entry.

Geneva and Home

  • Aug 20, 2010
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Pictures from this day can be found here.

We woke up very early this morning (around 5:45 am) and then checked out of our hotel as the sun was starting to rise. The clerk was very nice and apologized for not having breakfast ready – she offered coffee, but we had limited time to get to the station to catch our train. I would have liked one more cup of that coffee – good stuff.

At the station I bought a ticket for the train for both of us. The total was 30 Swiss francs, so I put in a 50 franc bill. Unfortunately all I got back was an IC card that was charged with the balance. Not very useful – so I have a 20 franc souvenir. Kuniko and I laughed at that for a long time – live and learn, I guess. Our train took us to Chateau St. Denis, and there a nice passenger told us that we had to catch a bus because of some construction, so we managed to get on board a bus to Palevieux, and then we caught a high-speed train to Geneva through Lucerne. We had just enough time to buy tickets at the station before the train came. There were a lot of people on the platform going to work, so we bought first class tickets this time hoping that there would be less people. As it turned out first class was far, far away from our position on the platform, so we had to hustle down the platform a ways, and then get on the train and keep walking through the train to find our section. It was pretty full, though – we managed to get a couple of seats next to a sleeping businessman.

Once we reached Lucerne many people got off, so we got some seats to ourselves for the last leg to Geneva. Arrival in Geneva was at 9 am, and there was some light rain and clouds. We went looking for our hotel, and I led us in the wrong direction. By the time I figured out that I had screwed up we were near a department store/restaurant that we had seen before in Zurich, so we went in to get breakfast and plan our next move. I was hoping for some hot eggs for breakfast, but unfortunately the server said that breakfast wasn’t served until eleven o’clock. Hmm… we settled for a sandwich and a chocolate-filled croissant.

After breakfast we looked around the store for some souvenirs. We got some good ideas, but didn’t buy anything yet – we had all day to shop, so no rush. Finally, we found our hotel back near the station. We were even able to check in early – they had plenty of rooms, so we put our stuff away, emptied out one of the backpacks, and took it with us out for some shopping and sightseeing.

The first priority for me was to get some business shoes that fit. Shoes are a big challenge in Japan, so I was hoping to get a couple of pairs of decent shoes, as that is pretty much all I wear at work. We scored twice in two different stores, and then we went out to see the Jet L’eau – a huge stream of water sprayed straight up in the air. At the time it was still cloudy and a little rainy, so it wasn’t very impressive.

We walked around town looking at buildings, churches and cathedrals, and finally decided to sit down at a café for coffee. The owner kicked us out, however, because she said we needed to buy food. We ended up walking across the street to Starbucks, of all places, just to get something hot to drink without any hassle. I wonder how much money the owner has lost to Starbucks this way…

Finally we did some souvenir shopping and loaded up on stuff to bring back to Japan. Chocolate is big in Switzerland, so that was the natural choice. We’ll have to be careful to stay in air-conditioned environments on the way home, though. Along the way I made a reservation at Alliance Gourmand, a restaurant that was recommended in one of our guidebooks. They were open for lunch, but a 6:30 dinner reservation was pretty early for them, and it took some convincing for them to agree to it.

Back at the hotel we stayed out of the drizzle – I took a nap and Kuniko sat around doing sudoku, and when I woke up outside was sunny and beautiful. It was our chance to do some more sightseeing in a better environment, so we hiked out to the United Nations building. The neighborhoods around the UN were filled with dormitories and pre-fab houses. It seemed to me that there were more than a few refugees living in the area, but it could have been my imagination. In front of the building was a huge crowd of Sri Lankans protesting, and it didn’t seem like a good place for us to hang out too long. We left and went back to the lakeside, and the scenery was much more beautiful.

After killing time at the lake we went out for a couple of beers sitting out front of a Middle Eastern restaurant called EGE restaurant. There were really a lot of ethnic restaurants in Geneva. Just about any country you could think of had a restaurant there – talk about a city with a lot of choices. I saw Libyan, Mexican, Iranian and even a Nigerian restaurant while we were walking around. The beer went down very well in the increasingly warm temperatures, and afterwards we slowly walked to Alliance Gourmand for dinner.

The place was in principle a Spanish restaurant, but the menu was more a combination of European flavors – almost California style. The waitress that took my reservation at lunch translated our orders for the owner of the restaurant, who went back to prepare everything. The waitress was really nice – she was apparently the only worker there who spoke English. Unfortunately nobody spoke Spanish or else I could have taken care of the ordering myself.

Due to the French menu what Kuniko thought was foie gras ended up being pork with a foie gras sauce. It was good, but not quite what she had expected. I had two beef filets with a delicious risotto, and we polished off a Spanish wine with our meal.

Afterwards we went back to our hotel to pack everything up and get ready for our departure the next day. The return trip was pretty uneventful – we just slept now and then, and I read two Lee Child books on the way back. Our first flight was a short one from Geneva back to Frankfurt, and in Frankfurt I waited in line for 40 minutes at Burger King to get a double Whopper. That’s how much I miss Burger King, I guess – it hasn’t come to western Japan yet.

On the next leg from Frankfurt to Beijing the guy sitting behind me snored big time. More than annoying – it was like he had some serious medical condition. Other people kept looking over, and Kuniko and I were exchanging laughs the whole way back.

In Beijing we had a little misunderstanding with the procedure for international transfer passengers. Although the instructional video on the plane gave us one procedure, the actual procedure was completely different, which was a little frustrating. The officials at the airport were not helpful at all, and gave us a bad impression of the airport. We’ve been through Beijing airport before, and although it is quite beautiful on the surface, the workers there have a long way to go in the hospitality department.

Anyway, finally we pulled into Osaka, flew through customs without a hitch, and managed to get our chocolate back unmelted to our home. Everything was in order back at the homestead, and it was nice to sleep in our own bed after so many hotels.

Gruyeres

  • Aug 19, 2010
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Pictures from this day can be found here.

Despite being totally full of high calorie food last night, we were at the hotel breakfast table again trying out some local dairy products. We experimented with two kinds of yogurt made from Gruyeres milk. Kuniko had blueberry and I had chocolate, which turned out to be so-so, but an intriguing experience nonetheless. The coffee was really good, too. They serve a hot pot of coffee at your table, and they also give you a hot pot of milk, so it is up to you to set the ratio that you like. The milk is hot and frothy, and fresh from a cow, so it made for some very good morning drinking.

Our goal on this day was to take a tour of the local dairy, and relax the rest of the day. We managed most of it, with the exception of a little problem that we ran into. The dairy was back at the train station, so we geared up and went down the hill to check it out. Already there were some tours arriving in a bus to look around, and we ended up behind a big tour. It was a very simple tour, with some (excuse me) cheesy audio commentary, but pretty impressive to see the operation. They were making cheese while we were there, although the process was a little too long for us to sit around and see the whole thing. As part of the tour they gave you three samples of cheese – Gruyeres cheese aged for six months, ten months and twelve months. It was interesting, although when we tasted them it seemed like maybe they had made a mistake in packaging – the ten month cheese was very smooth, but the other two were still quite salty.

In the gift shop we bought some cheese as souvenirs, as well as our very own mini-raclette maker to experiment with back in Japan. Afterwards it was back up the hill to tour the Gruyeres castle. There was a huge international group there while we were touring, and they set up a big lunch party that we would have liked to join. The castle turned out to be much bigger than I had previously thought, and we spent a lot of time exploring it. Once we finished touring the castle we walked around town a bit, and then I made a fateful decision to walk five kilometers to the next town, as they also have a dairy that you can tour.

We set off from Gruyeres and walked down the hill to the train station, and then began walking towards the next town, called Moleson Village. At first the walk was very pleasant – along a river and through a small town filled with interesting houses and friendly people. However after half an hour of walking the sidewalk disappeared, and the road suddenly started going up a long steep hill. As we continued up the hill we passed a sign warning of a 12% grade ahead, and cars started passing us at dangerous speeds. It was a warm day, and so I was sweating pretty good, Kuniko was nervous about walking on the shoulder, and we were torn on whether to continue on or go back. We walked another twenty minutes or so, and then finally gave up. There was no end in sight, and the visit to the town was kind of arbitrary anyway, so we turned around and walked all the way back to Gruyeres. There we stopped at the first restaurant we could find and sat down on the patio to drink beers in the shade and rest up. I felt good after the exercise (especially considering last night’s dessert) and the beer was refreshing. We went ahead and ordered a slice of cheese quiche to go along with our beers, and it was excellent – they know how to do cheese around here.

In keeping with our goal to relax we went back to the hotel in the afternoon and took a long nap with the window open and the mountains surrounding the town in the distance – very relaxing. Now and then a horsefly would wander into the room from outside, but soon enough it would buzz right back out again, so a good environment to relax.

We woke up with a tiny bit of an appetite, so dinner was back in town at another restaurant. This time we ordered fondue (again) along with a raclette. The raclette burner they had here was a little different, but the results were the same – delicious melted cheese… yum. We also had a pretty good Swiss Pinot Noir with dinner. While we ate we noticed that the other patrons of the restaurant weren’t being served, and we had gotten our food almost right away. We were the center of attention as a lot of hungry people watched us pig out, but we didn’t mind. I’m used to getting a lot of attention when I go out in public.

We even had room for a cup of ice cream from the local grocery store before heading back and falling asleep. Despite the mountain hike it was a pretty relaxing day, but the calories keep on coming, and we were starting to get worried about our long-term health… two weeks of delicious foods is sure to cause some problems, right?

Zermatt to Gruyeres

  • Aug 18, 2010
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Pictures from this day can be found here.

Once again we took advantage of the free breakfast at the hotel, and found some yummy items. The bread was not bad but they had a creamy milk honey to spread on it – no need for butter. It was a high-energy start to our day. We checked out of our hotel but stashed our bags in a “kids playroom” while we went to go check out the Klein Matterhorn.

Near the end of the same street our hotel was on we found the bottom of the lift to the “Matterhorn Glacier Paradise”. We went up to buy tickets and noticed that there was no price posted anywhere. Anyway, it was something we really wanted to do, so we bought two tickets, and they turned out to be nearly 8000 yen each. Wow! Still, it’s only money – how many times in your life can you stand on top of the Swiss Alps?

We caught a gondola on a ropeway system that was the most complex I’ve ever seen. It was divided into stages, but you never had to leave the gondola until the last stage. We kept going higher and higher, and people that paid less had to get out earlier. We just kept going – each stage we thought was the last, but it continued up and up. The temperature dropped rapidly outside, the wind picked up, and I was starting to think that a T-shirt with a fleece top over it wasn’t going to be enough protection.

Finally we reached the top (or so we thought) and got out of the gondola. The summit was rocky with some patches of snow, a few small lakes of melted snow a couple of restaurants, and a gift shop inside a cement complex that looked more like a bunker than a tourist destination. But as it turned out, we kept on going through the bunker to the other side, and there was waiting an even larger gondola – something out of a James Bond movie. We packed inside with a bunch of people wearing ski and climbing gear, and then the doors closed and we started up to the very top peak – the Klein Matterhorn.

By now we were well over 10,000 feet, and snow was everywhere. It was bright and I could feel the sun burning my cheeks already. Kuniko was a trouper – she is not big on cold places, but she knew I was into this trip and she stayed with it. As we got closer to the actual summit you could start to see the other gondola station. It was actually built into the side of the mountain, and after docking we walked into a man-made cave the led through the mountain to the other side. Inside the cave it was like a sci-fi movie – supplies lying around everywhere, construction equipment and cold wind blowing through made it seem like we were settling on another planet.

At the end of the tunnel was a gift shop/pizza restaurant. After walking inside a suddenly warm restaurant full of cheesy souvenir gifts it felt even more strange. Beyond the restaurant skiers and hikers could hit the slopes, and back in the hallway was an elevator leading to the very top of the peak where they had built an observation platform. We took a ride to the top, and enjoyed a spectacular 360 panoramic view of the area. The temperature was sub-zero, but we were lucky that the winds had subsided, so it was OK to stick around for a while in our light clothes. We took lots of pictures, looked across the mountain into an Italian town just down the hill, and we could see far back into Switzerland. Across the way you could see the tiny dots of climbers traversing crevasses on the way to climb a distant peak – just incredible views up there. After talking a Japanese guy into taking our picture together we headed back to the elevator, and then caught the gondola back down the hill. It was certainly worth the money after seeing that view.

The trip to the top and back was about two hours, and it was probably the best sightseeing spot of the trip for me. I was still snapping pictures on the way down, too. It’ll take a while to sort through all the images I collected.

Next stop was back to the hotel to collect our bags and then we went over to the station and caught a train out of Zermatt. The next destination was the dairy town of Gruyeres, and there were quite a few transfers and train changes to get there. First was the town of Visp, where we caught another train to Montreaux. Between Visp and Montreaux you could see just how many terraced mountain vineyards there were in the area – thousands of acres – I had no idea that they produced so much wine. I’ll definitely be on the lookout for more Swiss wines in the future.

Montreaux turned out to be a nice town on the edge of Lake Geneva, and there we caught an old fashioned three car train that left the station and starting winding up back and forth up a mountain, giving us more impressive views of the region as we went. The tiny towns we traveled past seemed remote but they commanded an incredible view of the lake and surrounding mountains. The small town of Chamby impressed me as well – it looked like a nice place to get away and spend some relaxing time.

We kept on going and we started wondering if we were on the right track (so to speak) but finally we came through a tunnel and emerged in rolling green hills, pastures and farm animals. Then we knew we were headed the right way. Not long after we arrived at our final transfer point, Montbovon. We caught our last train there and went about five stops before arriving at a Gruyeres’ small train station.

The hotel people had told me that it was easy enough to find the hotel. Just walk uphill about 10 minutes and you will see the building. The trouble was that there were several hills. We decided to follow the signs to the town of Gruyeres as there wasn’t much else around, and it turns out that it was the right decision.

As we crested a small hill we could see the town of Gruyeres up ahead. High on a hilltop it had a small castle behind it, and looked kind of like a walled city. The closer we got the more tourists and buses we could see, and I kind of had a sinking feeling, but once we arrived and looked around we started to enjoy it. On the surface the town is like a small tourist trap – with shops selling typical souvenirs and quite a few restaurants on cobblestone streets. But I think the longer I was there the more I enjoyed the slow pace of things there. Despite the tourists you could go just one street down and avoid them, and there was plenty of things to explore in the countryside.

Despite assurances, however, the location of our hotel eluded us, and after consulting with the tourist office we found it fifty steps out of town. That turned out to be a good thing, as we were away from the hustle and bustle during the tourist rush, and we could spend plenty of quiet time relaxing. That was the original purpose of stopping in Gruyeres for a couple nights – food and rest after our Alps adventure.

The hotel was nice enough. Although a little dark, the rooms were spacious and very comfortable. As usual, we settled into the hotel and then went out in search of sights and food. We chose the Chalet de Gruyeres in the center of town and ordered up a pot of fondue along with a cheese platter – because we like cheese a lot. Fondue was great, and the big surprise was how good dried meats are when dipped in cheese. Pickles and pickled onions were also a big hit – somehow you can always eat more pickled things. We drank Cardinal beer and tried lots of new cheeses, and finally Kuniko ordered dessert. The most diabolically unhealthy dessert I have ever eaten. It was hard sweet meringue, with two scoops of ice cream on top and a big cup of thick heavy cream to pour over the top. By the time we managed to finish it off I was sure I could hear my heart starting to slow down.

We walked around town a little more afterwards to burn a calorie or two before heading back to the hotel and bed. I wasn’t sure if I would survive the night, actually. Figured I’d have a heart attack at some point, but apparently my body is more resilient than I thought.

St Moritz to Zermatt

  • Aug 17, 2010
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Pictures from this day can be found here.

After a no-frills breakfast at the hotel we checked out and then headed back to the station, walking around the lake in the sun to find the Glacier Express train lined up and ready to go. People were posing outside for pictures, and it was officially a big deal with the passengers. We were no exception, and once onboard in our seats we took quite a few photos ourselves. The train itself was much more modern than I had envisioned. With huge windows on the side and above it was easy to take in all the scenery. Once the train left the station we went back down the same track we came in the day before. People around us jumped up to take pictures at every turn, but they soon discovered what I had found yesterday on the way in – the windows and sunlight made lots of reflections, and these pretty much screwed up the pictures taken from inside the train.

Still, it was good for Kuniko to see all the scenery that she slept through the day before, and with much better weather to boot. In keeping with the spirit of the affair I ordered a half bottle of champagne that we shared while taking in the sights from our seats. As we changed to a new train line and started the trip up the mountains the scenery grew more and more majestic, and by lunchtime we could see vast meadows between mountains, rivers and green grass everywhere. In the distance snow was covering the tops of the Alps, and I just put the camera away and let it all soak in. Lunch was a three course affair that was better than expected – a swiss chicken dish with vegetables, and pasta. Pretty tasty for being served on a train. With lunch we had a bottle of red wine, and so life was pretty good for us.

The downside of huge windows all over the train was that there were no shades, so with the sunlight pouring in and lots of wine in our bodies it was tough to stay awake. After a while dramatic mountains became a little more familiar, and I thought maybe it was time to doze off. Most of the other passengers had already nodded off, but Kuniko and I fought it to the bitter end. We managed to stay conscious all the way up the hill to Zermatt, and pulled into the Zermatt station at 5 p.m. pretty tired but alert.

Zermatt was touristy, packed with people, and a little ritzy, but had a quaint feeling that I ended up liking – more personality and homey than St. Moritz. The town has no cars, but instead is full of little electric mini-cars that act as taxis, delivery trucks, and what-not. All the Japanese tourists were a bit of a turn-off for Kuniko, but I enjoyed walking through town. We had no problem finding our hotel (Hotel Bristol). Our room had a very nice view of the Matterhorn, and I was very happy with the view while Kuniko was not so impressed. The room was very comfortable, and after we unpacked a bit we went back out into town to sightsee and catch dinner.

We had our first raclette at the Stockhorn – a restaurant/grill right down the street from our hotel. It turns out a raclette is just a pile of melted cheese eaten with pickled onions, pickles, and sliced mini-potatoes. It was really good, and at 7 francs per plate it was a great deal. Kuniko had a plate of veal sausage grilled inside the restaurant, and we sat right next to a couple of Japanese guys trying to figure out how fondue worked. The waitress at the place was really friendly, and she introduced us to Swiss beer – called Cardinal. Good stuff, and headed back to our hotel and bed after the delicious meal.

Zurich to St Moritz

  • Aug 16, 2010
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Pictures from this day can be found here.

Monday morning our only plan was to get to St. Moritz in southeastern Switzerland, so we took our time in Zurich before we left. We were still full from last night’s dinner so we did a little shopping in town from the stores that were closed the day before. Sunday in Zurich means a holiday, and pretty much everything was closed the day before, so we hit a couple of stores and then went off to the station. At the station we looked for a couple of sandwiches to take with us for lunch, but unfortunately we couldn’t find anything that looked appetizing. In the end we walked into the “American Bakery” that ended up having some pretty delicious bagel sandwiches. We were pleasantly surprised that the cheesiest store had the best food.

Once on the train it was a long trip up the mountains to St. Moritz. Despite the rain the scenery was gorgeous – huge mountains with waterfalls cascading down the side, cloud-topped rock faces and tiny towns nestled around a church in the middle of nowhere. Kuniko slept through most of it – there is something about riding trains and my wife – it is pretty tough for her to stay awake.

We arrived in the ritzy moutain resort town of St. Moritz around 3 p.m. The weather was still crappy, and quite a bit colder due to the elevation of 1800 meters. We walked around the lake that dominated the town until we reached to low-rent area where our hotel was. On the hill above the station was the upscale stuff, and it was very upscale. A little snobby for me, but Kuniko liked the town well enough. Once we found the cheaper area of town we kind of accidentally stumbled on our hotel (Hotel Sonne). We checked in and promptly couldn’t figure out the door to our room. I think the lock was stuck because of disuse, but once we got the hotel clerk up there she opened it right away. The building was a little old, the hallway smelled vaguely of cat litter, but once inside our room it was clean and smelled fine. I was relieved that the room was OK, because our options for affordable accomodation were pretty limited in that town.

After dropping off our bags the weather turned quite nice and the sun came out, so we walked around the high-rent part of town taking in the sights, snapping pics of the surrounding snow-capped mountains and doing some shopping. Since we didn’t really feel like eating out that night we bought some goodies at the local Coop store (our new favorite grocery store in Switzerland) and brought them back to our room just as the temperature really started dropping. We had a small party in our room, and opened a couple of bottles of wine, ate lots of Swiss cheese, along with some peppered salami and had a good time. We conked out a little early in anticipation of our trip on the Glacier Express the next day.

Zurich

  • Aug 15, 2010
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Pictures from this day can be found here.

Roger wisely arranged for a meetup on Sunday at noon, thinking that either he or we would be out late partying so it would be best to get a late start. Turned out to be a good idea. We woke up around 9 a.m. and lounged around the hotel room resting our legs (and stomaches). Outside it was sprinkling rain, but we decided to make a go of it and walk around town to do some sightseeing on our own instead of waiting around in the hotel room.

Zurich is an interesting town as it straddles a river flowing directly from Lake Zurich, and so it provides a lot of views involving water. The town is very well off, and the money shows. The financial district and shopping district are ritzy affairs, but other areas are well-maintained and very attractive to walk through. Kuniko and I spent a couple of hours walking around and exploring the town. They already had cleaned up a lot of the mess from the previous day, and sometimes I realized we were in the same spot as the previous day – I just hadn’t originally recognized it because of lack of people around.

We finished our morning walk with a breakfast at a different hotel, and enjoyed a typical Swiss breakfast – loads of bread and croissants, omelettes and cheese. I was very interested in the coffee, and our waitress was very friendly and patient with our ordering. She was even more patient when a group of what appeared to be off-duty porn stars came in and started ordering in three different languages. These women looked like they had worked all night, and I did my best to keep my eyes on my breakfast.

After breakfast we went back to our hotel and met up with Roger in the lobby. He had some big ideas for the day, and so we sat down at a nearby cafe (that turned out to be quite famous) down the street to sip alcoholic coffees and hot chocolates and plan out the day. When I realized that we were actually in the famous cafe that I had hoped to visit, Roger was surprised that I even knew about it. Then I showed him my Lonely Planet guidebook that I had installed on my iPhone, and he saw that most of the destinations for the day were there. He half-jokingly asked me just what we needed him for – we had all the info we needed already. I was a little bit afraid that we hurt his feelings, but we didn’t know him quite well enough at that time to realize that he was kidding.

With the weather turning to blue skies, Roger proceeded to give us a guided tour of Zurich that was entertaining, comprehensive and humorous – he was a great tour guide. We went to the top of churches, examined stained glass windows, posed for pictures for Nancy, hit bars, saw a steamboat, and just about covered every major sight in town. We ate macaroons at a historic wall overlooking the city, where city elders had dressed women as soldiers to give the enemy the idea there were more fighting men available than really were. The spot provided an excellent view, and it was a great place to relax in the sun. Before the last stop of the tour, a panoramic bar at the top of a historic downtown building, we gave him the present we had bought in Germany, a bottle of wine from Rudelsheim, the wine town that we had visited on the first leg of our trip. Turns out he is a big wine fan, so we were happy to get him something (a little) rare in Zurich.

Roger’s plan for dinner was originally to drive us to his favorite restaurant outside the city on the hillside above Lake Zurich. He was a little worried about whether he should drive or not considering we were hitting bars and having drinks now and then during the day. We managed to convince him to share a taxi with us, saying that we would pay the bill. The taxi fare was almost 70 Francs to the restaurant, and before we could pay Roger beat us to it. We were paying for dinner, so we let it slide after some protest.

The location of the restaurant, perched on the hills above the lake, was pretty dramatic. We had a cocktail out on the terrace and enjoyed the scenery. There was absolutely no pollution or smog above the city in the distance, and the deep blue color of the lake really contrasted with the bright green of the hillsides. It was a beautiful location, and we drank it in until it started to get cold. We went inside and grabbed a big table in the dining room and set to ordering. Roger knows the owner, chef and staff very well – he’s a regular – so he kept asking for dishes that weren’t on the menu, and he was good enough to translate the menu items that we couldn’t figure out. It was a rare experience for us to travel and understand the whole menu – and so we took advantage and ordered some things that were very Swiss.

Loads of delicious food began arriving at our table – we did a rotation of three appetizers, and then a rotation of three main dishes. Finally a rotation of three desserts, and that pretty much did us in. We managed to drink two bottles of very delicious Swiss wine (Swiss wine – who knew?). As the night wore on other customers left, and the staff came over and sat at our table talking with us. Roger translated what we were saying, and we felt like we were regulars ourselves.

The owner Maya came over and held court for a while, telling us a couple of dirty jokes (faithfully translated by Roger) and entertaining us while we finished off our meal. Some of the cooks came in and sat down, too, so it was a full table. Maya gave Kuniko and me some Toblerone chocolate bars to take home with us, as well as some postcards showing the restaurant – she was a very kind woman. During the commotion Roger snuck over and paid the bill before we could get to it, and no amount of complaining or threatening could get him to let us help pay the bill. Too nice.

Also late in the evening Roger’s roommate Johnny came by. He had to go to a business dinner so couldn’t join us for dinner, but he stopped by afterwards, and we got to meet him. He was a cool guy, too – and after the evening wrapped up he drove us all back into town.

The dinner was definitely the highlight of the trip – something that we couldn’t ever do on our own, and something we’ll always remember. Sorry, Lonely Planet.

We said our farewells to Roger and Johnny on the sidewalk and then headed back to our hotel for our last night in Zurich. Roger turned out to be a great guy – and we’re hoping he’ll have the chance to visit Asia sometime in the future so we can return his hospitality.

Munich to Zurich

  • Aug 14, 2010
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Pictures from this day can be found here.

Up early again, this time to catch a train from Munich to Zurich. We checked out of our comfy hotel room, and caught an early express train out of Munich. There was no need for reservations and we got good seats in first class. We were a little worried because Roger said that there was some kind of street festival going on in Zurich today, but as it turned out there weren’t many people on the train.

I had the munchies so a really nice cook in the kitchen car set us up with a plate of cheese and prosciutto to snack on during the long ride. The train actually traveled through Austria at one point, so the ticket checker made us pay an extra fee, since our rail passes were only valid in Belgium/Luxemborg, Germany and Switzerland. So we paid 18 Euros for both of us to pass through yet another country. Truth be told, the part of Austria we passed through looked pretty much like Switzerland and Germany to me. At first the scenery along the way was just the same track that we had used the day before on the way to Fussen, but soon after turning towards Austria things changed pretty quickly. The hills here were much more rolling and green, and the skies turned blue and bright with the sun. Nice to have good weather for sightseeing from the train.

The train arrived in Zurich at noon, and so after changing our Euros to Swiss Francs we went south from the packed station to find Café 0815 – our designated meeting place with Roger. Unfortunately we were two hours early, so Kuniko and I had a mini-fight over how to spend the next two hours. We ended up checking into our hotel (Hotel Alexander) and then going back to 0815 at 2 p.m. We didn’t know what Roger looked like, so we weren’t sure what to do. After about ten minutes, I noticed that there was a single guy inside the café, so I went inside and asked him in English, “Are you Roger?” Unfortunately, he just shook his head and looked at me like I was crazy. I explained that we were waiting for a guy named Roger, but it was one of those situations where the more explaining you do the crazier you seem, so I just waved my apologies and headed back outside the café to wait with Kuniko. And after another few minutes, Roger strolled up and sat beside us and said hello.

This was our first time to meet Roger, as we had been connected through my aunt Nancy’s email correspondence. He lives in Zurich and has spent some time in California where he met Nancy, and so she put us together in Zurich so he could show us around a bit. He was a really nice guy with great English, so we had a drink with him and introduced ourselves. We felt comfortable with him right away, and so after we paid our tab we left with him to go check out the street festival on the lakeshore.

On the way we stopped to try some of Roger’s beer. He works for a brewery/restaurant outside of Zurich, and so we stopped in at a grocery store where he persuaded the manager to chill down three bottles with the wine chilling machine they had. After about five minutes the bottles were cold and we were out the door, popping the tops off, and enjoying a Zurich microbrew. Excellent beer – and it hit the spot after a long morning of traveling.

As we walked with the crowd it got more and more bizarre as people in costumes, scantily clad, or barely clad, and just regular folks congregated at the side of the lake to listen to dance music and dance like crazy all night. When planning our trip I had no idea that this event was happening, but since it was going on and it was free, we decided to check it out.

And it was total chaos. It was such a huge crowd of people that it was difficult to walk. Everybody danced in place as big rigs carrying dancing people, DJs, and sound systems drove slowly through the crowd. Alcohol, weed, smiles, dancing, and broken glass everywhere – it was tricky just to stay together through all the madness. After a couple of trucks went by we found a restaurant nearby selling Roger’s beer on tap, and with each beer you bought you got a free ticket to use their (clean) bathrooms. Nice selling point – clean bathrooms were hard to find there.

We drank and talked and watched the crazy costumes – people watching has rarely been better. Roger was a good guy and really took care of us, and even made a restaurant reservation for the two of us for later that evening. We moved around a bit to see some of the stationary stages, and after watching Mustard Pimp for a while we headed back to civilization and we cut Roger loose to meet up with his friends. Kuniko and I were still buzzing pretty good from the beer and second hand smoke so we decided to get a taxi to the restaurant just to be safe, since we were in a new city. The taxi driver took us where we wanted to go, and sorted out our money for us (and took a pretty good tip on top of it) and then we were at the entrance of the restaurant.

The place was a little out of the way, and kind of looked like someone’s house more than a restaurant. It was called Klein 6, and inside it looked a lot like the upscale restaurants that are so popular in the California wine country. We settled down at our table, and they brought a hand-written menu full of pretty contemporary fare. We were still slightly drunk from the street party, but managed to order our food and wine without a problem. I had grilled tiger shrimp on rice, and Kuniko had basil raviolis in a cream sauce. The food turned out to be excellent, and despite flinging a couple of my tomatoes from the dinner salad off the table I think we didn’t look too out of control. After all that drinking on (basically) an empty stomach the food hit the spot.

After dinner we begged off and walked back to the hotel to save some money and get some exercise. Kuniko navigated us home very easily, and we even tried something that I had been wanting to check out since we arrived in Germany – Curryworst. Kuniko bought it and brought it to our hotel room, and it was really good. Cut up sausage floating in a thick curry sauce, with a side of bread. I think I was most excited about the bread simply for the absorption potential. I think I will try to make something similar back in Japan.

That night we slept soundly, but in the distance noise from the all night party could still be heard. Also we discovered we were quite close to a church, and the bells going off every hour added to the feeling that we were really in Europe.

Fussen

  • Aug 13, 2010
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Pictures from this day can be found here.

Had to wake up in the middle of the night and took the last and only Japanese antacid that I brought on the trip – and it seemed to help immediately. From now on we are working without a net…

We headed to the station around 8:30 in the morning to catch a 9 o’clock train to Fussen. Right away there was some confusion about which train to take, and a station worker suggested a train which was completely different from the one suggested the day before by the ticket desk clerk. We tried to buy a saver pass, but I ended up buying the wrong one, and so we lost out on about 12 Euros. Overall, the pass we did get probably saved us about 12 Euros, so it probably ended up being a wash. But as we boarded the train we were a little worried about the expedition because of all the uncertainty.

The style of train that we took out of Munich was pretty cool, though. It was a lot like the Hogwarts Express Рa long hallway on the side with several small rooms/compartments that sat around six people tightly or four people comfortably. We shared a compartment not with Emma Watson or Daniel Radcliffe but with two Korean guys who looked like they were headed to the same destination. They slept most of the way, however, and when we reached a certain station we got off to wait for another connecting train and they stayed there sleeping. We had some time to kill at the station so we walked over to a small caf̩ and got some coffees and a Danish to go. Always with the eating.

Finally the train came, and we traveled deep into the countryside on a single train track. Sheltered on the mountainside was Neuschwanstein Castle. Even from the train from far away it was a dramatic sight – the white color in stark contrast to the dark forest surrounding it. Behind it the cloudy skies and mist really set a mysterious atmosphere. We got out of the train and headed to the buses waiting nearby, and then took a 15 minute ride to the area just under the castle.

Upon arrival we found that we weren’t the only ones who came to see the castle. In fact, the place was swamped with tourists, buses, and more tourists. We walked up the hill a short way and found huge lines of people – something like what you’d expect at Disneyland – and no clear instructions on what to do next. This was still at the very base of the hill, long before we even got to the castle. I made a judgment call and decided that we should ignore the huge lines and go straight up to the castle.

We started hiking up the hill, and made really good time. They had horses and carriages taking people up for a fee, otherwise you could walk up on your own. Most people were walking, and the horses left plenty of landmines to avoid while traveling the pathway. It was a little smelly, and now and then it sprinkled, but nothing worth pulling out the umbrella for. After a very speedy 20 minute hike uphill, we arrived at the castle.

It was very impressive, and we walked around the outside taking pictures and trying to figure out what the procedure was for going in. We around the side and found that they were calling out numbers of groups of people, and the only way in was to have a ticket with that number. And the tickets were available for sale. All the way back at the base of the mountain. Where the thousands of people were lined up. Whoops.

Since we were already up there we decided to take a short hike to a pedestrian bridge spanning a gorge a little ways off, and we got some good pictures while we were there. Finally we walked back to the castle, and kind of mutually decided to skip the tour inside. The time we would spend going down the hill, getting in line and waiting, buying a ticket, and then climbing the hill and taking the tour, it just seemed like too much. On top of that the skies looked threatening, and if we were stuck in line in a rainstorm that wouldn’t be much fun. I felt bad that we couldn’t go in, because the castle was one of the things that Kuniko really wanted to see, but she seemed satisfied with seeing just the outside. So we walked down the hill in good spirits.

As we waited for a bus back into town it started raining just a little bit, and then when the bus arrived it started to really come down. We got on the bus just in time, and I couldn’t help but think that we made the right decision – it would have sucked to be waiting in the rain.

Back in Fussen we had about an hour to kill before the train returning to Munich arrived, so we took the umbrella out and forged our way out to a hotel that we had seen featured on a Japanese television show. It turned out they were closed, so we couldn’t really explore, so we went back and found the main street of Fussen, and had some beers in a bar while we waited out of the rain. On the way back we saw an interesting fast food place that was selling bratwurst, so we split a double bratwurst sandwich, and then went back to catch a train out of there.

Again on the way back we had to deal with the construction, and the railroad pretty much just gave up on moving people through there by train, so we went over and caught a bus that moved us past the construction zone, and then we caught a completely different train that took us back to Munich station.

We were pretty tired after the adventure, and a little wet and scraggly-looking, but we decided to go to another beer restaurant, Spaten Munich, that my student had recommended for dinner. Turns out that this place was just a bit upscale, and we felt a little out of place in our adventure clothes, but the waiter didn’t blink an eye, and sat us down right in the middle of the dining room despite not having a reservation.

Food at Spaten was excellent – Kuniko had veal meatballs with an excellent cognac pepper sauce and I had some very cheesy spaetzel. Most of the other patrons were a little bit older, and I caught a few of them watching us wolf down our meals. I smiled and nodded at an older woman who was watching us carefully, and she smiled and nodded back, but continued to watch. Not sure what was going on, but the food was great, and we would happily go back – good place.

Afterwards we bought a small present for Roger in Zurich, since that was our next destination, and then dragged our tired bodies back to the hotel to head to bed.

Munich

  • Aug 12, 2010
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Pictures from this day can be found here.

It was a little tough getting up after such a heavy meal the previous day, and we decided to forgo the hotel breakfast (although the price was a factor – 21 Euros each – no way…). Instead we went to the station and bought a vegetarian sandwich and an orange juice to split. We took the sandwich with us as we found the right train, and bought a one-day pass for travel within Munich for 9.40 Euros. It turned out to be a good deal. We also saw a guy freaking out with frustration at one of the ticket machines. We felt the same way sometimes with the European train ticket machines, but weren’t quite ready to be driven to madness. The guy ran screaming up the stairs and out of the station, and I don’t know what ever happened to him after that.

We started our day at the BMW museum because of the rainy weather. The idea was to avoid the rain inside at the museum, and then later see some outdoor sights with the hopes that the weather would improve. The BMW museum was recommended by one of my students, so after eating our vegetarian sandwich (again, great bread!) we walked in and started looking around. The exhibits were well-designed, and it was fun to look around. There wasn’t a whole lot to do besides interact with the exhibits, and unfortunately the factory was closed for the summer holiday, but we did get to see some rare cars and have a cup of coffee at the café. Another bonus was free Wi-Fi, so I wrote a few emails in the hopes of making some plans for Zurich with Roger.

After the museum the weather seemed to be letting up, so we took the train back to the center of town, and another tram on to Schloss Nymphenberg. A huge garden surrounded the castle and we walked through the castle to the “back yard” which stretched as far as we could see. It was nice to leisurely stroll around and wonder how many groundskeepers they might have. Very impressive, and we were lucky with the weather to avoid the rain.

We came back to downtown Munich by tram, and then headed to the Hofbrau House, the defacto beer hall in Munich. The place was lively at lunchtime, but we managed to squeeze into a table opposite a friendly looking German couple. Kuniko took another crack at ordering in German from the menu, and we ordered some beers. I just ordered a beer and received one liter of beer in a monster mug. Kuniko wisely asked for a small size, and ended up with 500 ml. Behind us they had a traditional German band playing songs, and the servers were wearing the traditional outfits with the scoop necks. Quite the experience.

Once the food arrived we found out just what we were in for. The pork dish that Kuniko ordered was a huge joint of pork meat on the bone, with two round dumplings soaked in sauce. I had ordered a mixed sausage platter with sauerkraut, and so it looked like we had just about enough beer to kill off the food. It was the first time that I had to carve the lunch before eating it – the pork on the bone was so tender and delicious, but it took some good knife work to get the meat off the bone. Maybe my favorite dish of the trip – so good.

One thing led to another and the atmosphere had me ordering another liter of beer to go with all the great food, and we staggered out of there after lunch pretty well lubricated. Back to the hotel, and it wasn’t long before I passed out on the bed snoring while Kuniko patiently did sudoku waiting for me to wake up. A couple hours later I did, and we headed out for a little research at the train station to figure out the best timetable to use for a trip to Fussen the next day.

They had a special line at the station for English speakers, so we lined up and had to wait a LONG time to ask a pretty basic question. The clerk there told us that it might be tough to get to Fussen the next day because of a lot of construction on a section of track, so we should be flexible with our plans. After taking his advice we bought some simple things for dinner – a sandwich for Kuniko and a chicken curry calzone for me, and then a couple of beers at the supermarket before taking them all back to eat in our hotel room. Our strategy of a big lunch and small dinner paid off, but it is hard to believe how much food we are eating on this trip compared to what we eat in Japan.

Brussels to Munich

  • Aug 11, 2010
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Picture from this day can be found here.

We got up early the next day and checked out of our hotel, and headed out on foot for the Brussels train station. There we caught an Inter-City Express (ICE) train for Cologne, and then on to Frankfurt. We changed trains at Franfurt, and then continued the journey on to Munich. The train ride was very comfortable – the ICE trains are very modern, and we had first class seats so there was food service, so we had hot coffee and hot chocolate at our seats while we traveled.

They had a restaurant car as well, but we had prepared for the trip by shopping for food at Carrefour Express, so we set up a little picnic at our seats. We did much the same thing the last time we were in Europe – it is a good way to save money and also enjoy some local foods. This time we had a big block of stinky cheese, roasted turkey, and crackers to enjoy. We weren’t prepared with a knife, though, so we used a wine opener that we brought with us to slice pieces of cheese onto crackers. Yum.

A guy down the way had completely passed out while taking the train, and at the time we thought it was the loudest that we had heard anyone snore. But that was before our flight home two weeks later. He stayed on for most of the journey, and I think he would have been embarrassed to hear how loud he was snoring.

Finally, after about four hours we pulled into Munich station, and from there it was an easy walk across the street to our hotel (NH Hotel Deutsch Kaiser Munich). The hotel’s close proximity to the station had me worried while planning that perhaps it would be noisy, but our room was on the eighth floor, and absolutely silent – so silent I had to strain to hear any noise at all. The room was very nice as well, maybe the best hotel room of the trip.

After dropping off our gear we set out to explore the old town part of Munich, and I’ll admit that I was at first a little disappointed that there were so many people and so many shops. It felt like walking through an American shopping mall. Towards the end of the street in Marienplatz things got a little better, however. More cathedrals, more historical buildings, and more people. We shared a little table in front of a streetside restaurant with some German people and ordered some beers from the menu, and after a little practice, Kuniko ordered some white sausages in German. The couple cheered his efforts speaking in German, and it was pretty impressive. She is really good at picking up languages, and she really did well with the pronunciation. The sausages were great, although we ate them with the skin on, which I found out later is a faux pas. Locals apparently eat them by skinning them first. Oh well… they were still delicious.

After beer we walked around some more and took in lots of sights. It really is a beautiful city once you get away from the touristy areas. Dinner was at a traditional German restaurant that Kuniko’s guidebook recommended. It was a little bit of an early dinner, actually. The dinner was pretty traditional as well – sausages, pretzels, sauerkraut, beer, beef and pork. Not light at all. Very delicious, but we retired to our hotel completely full.

Brussels

  • Aug 10, 2010
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Pictures from this day can be found here.

Today we slept in a little bit, and then headed downstairs to try out the (included) hotel breakfast. This breakfast was better attended by the guests of the hotel, and they had a much bigger selection of foods. We ate a pretty big breakfast, and then set out to explore the city.

First stop was across town to see the Grand Palace, situated in old town. The route to get there was a little tricky, mainly because we didn’t spend much time looking at maps, and also because the design of the city hides the Grand Palace until the last minute, creating a dramatic discovery. It was quite effective, too. We spent some time kicking around the palace taking pictures and watching the preparations for some kind of festival in the square, and then went south looking for Mannekin Pis. Mannekin Pis is kind of the symbol of Brussels (or so the guidebook said) – the little boy peeing into the fountain. It certainly is a frequently seen symbol around Japan, and so we thought we ought to check it out. When we finally saw it, well, it was smaller than we expected. But I’ll bet he hears that a lot. For such a popular landmark we were one of only about four people that turned out to see it at that hour. Just early-risers, I guess.

The weather continued to cooperate with our travel plans, and we had clear skies while we explored Old Town and the surrounding areas. St. Michel Cathedral was especially impressive, as well as the European Union’s new headquarters. After a couple hours of sightseeing we were getting tired and ready to take a break, so we followed a guidebook suggestion and found a restaurant/brasserie called Le Atomme near our hotel. The place was well decorated, it had young, friendly staff that spoke English (and even translated the menu for us) and a wide(!) selection of Belgian beers. We tried a couple of new ones with lunch – Kuniko had a rabbit stew, and I had a beef one. Both were excellent, but the Kuniko’s soup was really good – definitely a taste that I’ve never experienced before.

Back on the sightseeing trail we used the free Wi-Fi at McDonald’s to check some messages and organize a plan to meet my aunt Nancy’s friend Roger in Zurich, as well as have a Belgian waffle for dessert. We even made a stop at one of the many chocolate shops in town to have some intense chocolate truffles. We also hit one of the Carrefour Express convenience stores to stock up on supplies for the next day’s long train trip to Munich. Carrefour Express was great – lots of interesting stuff, and as usual, the wine, cheese and dried meats were ridiculously cheap. Why can’t somebody in Japan do something like this?

All this walking around, drinking and eating was pretty tiring, so next stop was a long nap in our hotel room, with the window wide open to hear the sounds of the city. It was one of the highlights of the trip for me – the view from our room was great, and the breeze blowing in the strange sounds and smells made for a very relaxing nap.

We got organized and headed out once again to Mannekin Pis, because someone I know had recommended a bar across the street with a good beer list, and I was looking forward to trying more Belgian beers. We found Mannekin Pis completely swamped by tourists this time, and we settled into a bar across the street to watch the mayhem and sip our beers. It was a little tricky ordering beer because I was just shooting in the dark. The bartender wasn’t too helpful – I sensed that he was teasing me a little with a regular sitting at the bar. Still, I would probably do the same if the roles are reversed, and it is enjoyable to make fun of tourists. I used to do that a lot in California.

For dinner we found a place called Taverne du Passage, which was in a touristy area but had friendly enough staff and a traditional Belgian food menu. Not knowing much about Belgian food we wanted to at least try something local, but as we discovered Belgian food draws a heavy influence from France. Not that it is a bad thing, but we wanted to try something uniquely Belgian. The answer was what Kuniko ordered – waterzooi. A cream-based chicken stew, it was a little light on flavor, but it made up for it in volume. Not bad. I was craving eggs for some reason, so had a ham omelet that was simple, salty, but quite good. We dodged some raindrops on the way back to our hotel, but managed to avoid some heavier rain that began after we got back.

Koblenz to Brussels

  • Aug 09, 2010
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Pictures from this day can be found here.

Waking up was a little tough after such a long start to our trip, but we weren’t on any tight schedules so we could sleep in a bit and enjoy the comfortable beds. We had breakfast at the hotel because it was included in the price, and they put on quite a feast. There weren’t many people staying at the hotel to enjoy it, but Kuniko and I certainly did. Again the breads were great, and they also had lots of variation of yogurt and cereal. Sometimes they were combined already, so it was a bit of an adventure to try some new things.

We checked out of the hotel and then went on foot to the station. On the way we found a couple of supermarkets, and so we stopped to buy some shampoo and conditioner (because you can never be sure if hotels will have them) as well as some other supplies. The supermarket was much different from Japanese ones – about 60% meat, 30% cheese, and 10% everything else. I bought some ibuprofen on my own using an app that I downloaded for my iphone that led me to a pharmacy, and another app that told me how to say “Can I buy something for a headache?” in German. The iphone was very useful on the trip, but there were some drawbacks. I turned off data roaming and 3G to avoid big charges to my account, so that effectively turned off my GPS – I couldn’t really use the GPS to navigate unless I happened to be near a Wi-Fi spot. Luckily there were plenty of wi-fi spots around, it is just a pain to take time out of your vacation to go look for one. So the iphone was a mixed success.

We caught a train to Brussels that passed through Luxembourg. The scenery on the way was very nice, mainly following the river. Once we arrived in Luxembourg we passed a huge building on a hillside, overlooking some other smaller places down below in a river valley – we went by so fast we had no time to take a picture but it was one of the more dramatic things we saw during the trip and we had no time to really go and check it out. More research is necessary to figure out what it was.

We had about an hour to kill transferring in Luxembourg, so we went out into the town to get some sandwiches and drinks to take on the next leg of the train trip. Big surprise that shouldn’t have been – everybody there spoke French. I was just getting used to speaking German and now it was all French. That caught us off-guard, but all in all my French is probably better than my German, and both of them are extremely limited anyway. There was always English to fall back on, and I admit that we did that quite a bit this trip.

On to Brussels, and we arrived after another couple of hours on the train. I spent the time dozing off, watching the scenery, writing in my journal, and enjoying not having to do much of anything. It was a good way to travel.

My first impressions of Brussels – very old, but liberal. The city was fun to walk around in, and the people around us seemed to be slightly more eccentric than what we found in Koblenz. I liked the feel of the city, but it was very crowded and there were a lot of cars like any big city, and that kind of detracted from the old feeling I got.

From Brussels station we walked across town to find our hotel (NH Hotel Brussels City Center), after a few wrong turns. It was in a good location, and also very clean. The staff were a little flaky, though, and they couldn’t figure out how to process my credit card correctly. Turned out that the machine was out of paper… huh. We unloaded our stuff and went to look for something easy to eat close by. Ended up on a touristy street eating at a restaurant called Montenegro. Eastern European food that was nothing special, but the beer was good and the atmosphere of eating on the street was fun. Some street entertainers walked by now and then and included transvestite magicians and a sax player. How’s that for liberal?

We headed back to our room and enjoyed one of the bottles of wine from Rudelsheim, and then crashed out. Another day, another two countries.

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