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withabackpackandcamera · 5 months

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August 23rd, 2023

Day 8: Last Day Errands and One Last Family Meet-Up

On our last morning, we tried to visit the Shepard's Bush Market but we arrived too early and they were closed...

After skipping out on the market, we bussed down to Putney to run some last minute errands, like buy a notebook for Cynthia and purchase some confections and goodies from Waitrose to bring back home.

While walking over to Fulham, we ran into our recently-arrived aunt and uncle, Vi's parents, Di Trang and Bac Nhuong, who had just arrived from Georgia to visit her for a couple of weeks. After hanging out at Vi's apartment for a little, we strolled over to Mabelle's Cafe for brunch with the family. The cafe restaurant had a cute interior and a nice outdoor patio area where sat and enjoyed some good brunch that we shared: Egg Mushrooms and Chickpea Shashouka. Because we were running a bit late with brunch, we had to really limit how much we were going to eat because we had another reservation right around the corner.

Trained to Kensington and went bakery hopping in the area for some baked goods to bring home before arriving at Dishoom for our lunch reservation. We definitely weren't hungry by the time we sat down but ordered a ton of food to enjoy and take home anyways. Some yummy Ruby Chicken, a Paneer Roll, Garlic Naan, and rice. And I was given a surprise birthday complimentary dessert, birthday chocolate pudding with chili ice cream. Strange, but I'll take free any day!

Picked up some pastries from Gail's Bakery before taking the train home to clean up, shower, and check out.

Trained to the airport and arrived early enough to enjoy a short break in the Priority Pass Lounge. Lots of snacks, food and drinks there but we were too full to enjoy too much...

What a whirlwind trip to London! It was fun! But jetlag is definitely getting worse and worse as I get older... and all the work I've been doing at the hospital really has weighed on me. Whew, what a tiring trip. But very glad we did it!

5 Things I Learned/Observed Today:

Waitrose is definitely the nicer market of many of the markets we visited, like Lidl, Tesco, and Sainsbury.

Unlike way back when, probably pre-pandemic, you can no longer return your Oyster Card at your final destination (usually at the airport) for a refund of the card's cost. So now, you just lose it. Maybe this is a reason to not do the Oyster Card and just tap your credit card for everything. Lame.

There are two Tube lines to the airport: the Piccadilly Line and the Elizabeth Line.

Virgin Atlantic definitely does not do complimentary upgrades. But they're nice enough to offer a glass of champagne for honeymoon goers on their flight.

The origin of English afternoon tea: In 1840, Anna Russell, the 7th Duchess of Bedford, couldn’t bear the wait until the next meal and was particular hungry and in need of food between lunch and dinner. So she started ordering tea and bread during that time and invited people to join her and made it a social occasion. English afternoon tea time was the result. Essentially, this lady got hangry and made afternoon tea time a thing that we still do today.

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huyphan8990 · 2 years

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October 21st, 2021

Day 20: Burning Through Bern In Half A Day’s Time

With one almost-full day to explore Bern, we started off the day with brunch at Becanto Kaffee and Bar. The cafe was not very close to where we were staying so it took a while to get there by bus and then on foot but we eventually made it. At first, we weren’t sure what we were getting into because the cafe was randomly located in a faraway neighborhood. However, after ordering from the menu and getting our food, we confirmed that this cafe was definitely the right choice for brunch. For brunch we thoroughly enjoyed their waffles with berries and whipped cream and toast with avocado, bacon, fried egg, sprouts, and hollandaise sauce. So good and totally worth the trip! Once we were done with brunch, we were off and running! With so little time to see Bern, we had a lot of ground to cover. And even though I’d already been to Bern once, way back in 2013, it was a blur of a visit and Cynthia wasn’t around then either. So, there was much to see today in the capital of Switzerland!

From our brunch location, we took the city tram and then bus to the Bern Rosengarten, one of the city’s famous and most beautiful parks, located on the top of a hill overlooking old town Bern. Because the Rosengarten was the farthest location we planned to visit, we wanted to start there first and slowly make our way back into the city.

And it ended up being a perfect starting point. The park was beautiful. Not only did it have wonderful views of the city below, it also had trees covered with leaves that had been taken over by the fall. We walked around the park until we reached the side of the park with the views of the city. There, while enduring the morning’s strong winds, we stood and enjoyed the panoramic view of old town Bern and its autumn landscape as the scattered clouds floated through the sky above. This is what fall should look like! Not like what we see in Los Angeles…

After enjoying the fall colors, we walked down to our next location, the Bear Pit, where we spotted two big brown bears hanging out in their enclosed park space next to the river. It took a while before the bears came out of hiding but they eventually did. And for Cynthia, the Bear Pit was heaven! Her love for animals made this a perfect next stop. We stayed and watched the bears doing their thing for a while. It was fun to just stand there and observe these curious animals doing their normal, everyday things. For example, we observed the big male bear walking in circles around his park area. Over and over again. We weren’t sure whether it was his exercise routine for the day or something else but we had a fun time watching him and commenting on his actions.

It took a while but we eventually peeled ourselves away from the Bear Pit and continued on into Old Town as we slowly worked our way back toward home via Gerechtigkeitsgasse, the main street through town. Some highlights we saw on our walk included tons of unique and colorful fountains (something that Bern is known for), the Zytglogge, Bundesplatz, The Berner Munster, and Munsterplattform Park. Once we were back in midtown, we took a short break at an outside table in front of Coffee Fellows to enjoy our apple pie we had purchased earlier at the brunch cafe and a matcha latte. It was nice to find an opportunity to slow down and take it easy.

It wasn’t long before we got going again and wandered over to see the last park of the day at Kleine Schanze. Funny enough, as we walked over, some of my memories of Bern came back to me and I recognized the park as one I similarly walked to and through way back when! No wonder it felt and looked so familiar! We walked along the back side of the park and briefly enjoyed the view of the fall colors and orange rooftops below before we turned back and strolled through the park to see the Universal Post Monument, our last Bern stop. It was mid-afternoon by this point and because we had to get to Zurich at a reasonable time, we returned to the AirBnB to clean up and grab our stuff before heading back to the train station to grab the next train to Zurich.

The train ride was pretty short so we arrived in Zurich about an hour later with plenty of time to spare. Because the train station in Zurich was huge, it took some time to figure out where we were going but we eventually found our way to our nearby hotel, Hotel Josef, where we checked in for the last few nights of our trip.

The rest of the evening was pretty quiet and laid back. Since it was dark and cold and we had two full days to see Zurich, we thought it’d be smart to just take it easy tonight. We hung out and rested in our hotel before wandering over to Restaurant Khujug, a Chinese restaurant in a trendy neighborhood close to our hotel, for dinner. There, we ordered the beef with black pepper sauce with rice and the fried egg noodles with tofu. It was pretty good, and it definitely helped satiate our Asian food cravings we’d been having more frequently these last few days.

With nothing planned for the evening, we headed back to the hotel and called it a day. Wow,

we’re finally in Zurich, our last leg of the trip! Crazy to think how much we’ve seen and done to get to this point. And how smoothly things have been going for us this trip! How fortunate we’ve been so far. Can’t wait to explore the culture-rich Zurich over the next and last two days of our travels!

5 Things I Learned/Observed Today:

The bear plays an important role in the history of Bern. It all started with the legend that the city was named after a bear with the bear serving as Bern’s emblem after it was the first animal to be hunted in the surrounding woods of the city by the city founder, the Duke of Zahringen. As a result, the bear is very important to Bern and that is why there are bears kept in town at the Bear Pit generation after generation.

Supposedly, as winter nears, bears can feast on some 200,000 berries a day in preparation for the long winter hibernation. Wow!

Munsterplattform is Bocce Ball Plaza, the place where people congregate to get in a friend game of bocce ball against other random people or bocce ball friends.

The Zytglogge in Bern was built around 1218-1220 to serve as the gate tower of Bern’s western fortifications. Since its construction, it has served as a guard tower, a prison, a clock tower, and a civil memorial. At the top of every hour, there is a little show by the clock’s mechanizations that is actually a lot less interesting than I thought it’d be…

In Switzerland, I’ve noticed that old Swiss people prefer using hiking poles as their walking aides instead of the more commonly-used canes or walkers. That’s so very like and representative of them! And probably says a lot about their preferred activities now and when they were young and sprightly.

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withabackpackandcamera · 5 months

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August 22nd, 2023

Day 7: Doing All Sorts of Things on Our Last Day in London

Met with Minh and Vi at Proud Mary's for breakfast before Minh had to leave for his flight home. Cynthia and I shared an English Breakfast with crispy onion potatoes. Delicious breakfast with great family company!

After saying our goodbyes, we split from the family and trained all the way over to the Hill Garden and Pergola. A really cool outdoor garden area that belongs to a rich property (now owned by the local government I believe) in Hampstead Heath that was a great location for fun photos and would be a great location for wedding photos and other photo shoots.

After a brief stop in Hampstead on the way back into the city, we eventually made it to the very controversial British Museum of stolen world artifacts. A super huge museum with all sorts of artifacts and historical items from all over the world. Super crowded with tons of people. Super hot with tons of people. But lots of information from all types of world history that I never knew or learned. Very interesting to see so much history all in one place but again, very controversial. Spent about 2-3 hours there (until closing time). The coolest things I saw: The Rosetta Stone and the ancient sculptures and man-made stuff from Ancient Mesopotamia.

We stopped by the Mercato Mayfair for dinner. A unique church-turned-food-hall. Had some dumplings at Steamy and Co while enjoying the views of the church from the inside. And had ice cream too, courtesy of Cynthia's cravings.

Ended the day with a stroll through the Mayfair neighborhood and a walk up and down shoppy Oxford Street.

5 Things I Learned/Observed Today:

Handheld fans on the train are clutch. In order to survive the heat of the old subway cars, you have to have a fan.

The Rosetta Stone was an ancient artifact that was founded by some French military people and was used to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics. Supposedly, it was given to the English as a part of a peace deal/surrender deal between the English and the French back in the day.

Cyprus sculptures look like Asian-influenced Greek sculptures. WIth a tad of Middle Eastern-ness.

Farming arrived in Britain in 4000 B.C. and brought new technology like pottery, stoke axes, crops like corn, and the first domesticated animals in the U.K. area.

Oxford Street is the shopping street of the city.

#withabackpackandcamera #huyphan8990 #travelblog #travel #blog #London #England #UnitedKingdom #Britain #Summer #August #2023 #Europe #BritishMuseum #TheHillandPergola #ProudMarys #Brunch #worldtravels #summerescape

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withabackpackandcamera · 5 months

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August 21st, 2023

Day 6: To Cambridge We Go!

Arrived early to King's Cross Station for our train ride to Cambridge. Tried to wait in line for a photo op with Harry Potter's Platform 9 3/4 but the line was WAY too long.

Our first stop in Cambridge as we meandered our way into town was Fitzbillies, a bakery chain, where we stopped to buy quick breakfast pastries to try. Of course, we had to try their "famous" Chelsea Buns. Not bad. Not sure why they're so famous though.

Walked around Cambridge town and the University of Cambridge and took in the spectacular architecture all around town and campus. Got a glimpse into some of the colleges at the University of Cambridge: King's College, Trinity College, St. Catharine's College, Corpus Christi College, etc.

After strolling around the campus for a bit, we went back to Fitzbillies for an affordable Afternoon Tea experience. It was OK. You definitely pay for what you get.

Afternoon Tea was followed by punting on the River Cam via the punting company Let's Go Punting with our young tour guide Joe. A fun experience of sitting on a boat and touring the the University of Cambridge by river. Very relaxing as well to sit and not walk around. All-in-all, a great experience!

With a couple of hours until our scheduled train ride back, we continued our exploration of Cambridge and stopped by and walked into a couple of colleges (Emmanuel College and Downing College) on the way out (since they were open to visitors walking through). Nice to see what each individual college looked like from the inside of its campus walls.

Sat around and hung out at Parker's Piece Park before heading back to the train station for the ride home.

Once we were back in London, Cynthia, Minh, and I walked to the Carnaby area in SoHo for dinner at Mother Mash since we wanted to try some pies. Cynthia and I shared the Steak and Blackheart Stout Pie with Champ Mash and Farmers Gravy and the Chicken and Bacon Pie with Sweet Potato Mash and Onion Gravy. Yum! Of course, we had to finish it off with an Apple Crumble Pie with Ice Cream.

After a post-dinner stroll through SoHo, we concluded the busy day with a disrupted train ride (where our rail line was closed indefinitely after an incident). So, we had to walk a bit between a couple of train stops before taking the bus all the way back home. On our walk, we met and chatted with a nice girl from Argentina named Julietta on the way back.

5 Things I Learned/Observed Today:

So, Platform 9 3/4. Interestingly enough, it looks like that area is actually controlled and maybe owned by the Harry Potter movie studios and/or company. And they are really trying to monetize the area and make it profitable. When people visit the platform, man do they spend a lot of time there. And it's partially because there is a photographer and assistant there to help dramatize your photos (especially with the swaying scarf lol). And of course, a little store next door to sell HP gifts.

There are 31 colleges at the University of Cambridge. Some of these 31 colleges were added over time, with the last college, Robinson College, added in 1977. The way the college system works is similar to what the house system was in Harry Potter. Simply put, it's a glorified dormitory ecosystem. Where people can live and hangout with each other.

The University of Cambridge is the second oldest university in the UK and was founded in 1209 as a result of some murder. The university has 13k undergrads and 7.5k grads. Supposedly, Oxford is harder to get into than Cambridge... But Stanford is harder to get into than all of them. :) Go Card!

Supposedly, Trinity College is flashiest, most expensive, and most-endowed of Cambridge's colleges. Trinity College has cranked out more Nobel Prize winners than all of Oxford's colleges combined. Trinity College is the 4th largest land owner in the UK. Famous people who were a part of Trinity College who are still alive and well-known in today's society: the current King Charles (who supposedly wasn't the sharpest tool in the tool shed in school lol) and Eddie Redmayne. Another famous figure in Cambridge's history is Stephen Hawking, who completed his graduate studies at Cambridge.

The bridges built over the River Cam that you float under on the punting tour have all sorts of stories and histories behind them. Punting is definitely a must-do for tourists in the area.

#withabackpackandcamera #huyphan8990 #travelblog #travel #blog #Cambridge #London #UniversityofCambridge #England #UnitedKingdom #Europe #Summer #August #2023 #punting #college #afternoontea #siteseeing #HarryPotter

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withabackpackandcamera · 6 months

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August 20th, 2023

Day 5: Sundays are for Flowers, World Cup Finals, and Cool London Things

Started off the morning by joining Minh, Vi, and Minh's Friend Janae (sp?) at the Columbia Street Flower Market in East London. A really colorful, vibrant place with lots of Sunday morning energy! A tons of cool street photo ops!

The flower market was followed by the FIFA Women's World Cup Final: England vs. Spain. We watched the early part of the match through a bar window and eventually meandered our way to Old George Brewery in Bethnal Green where we found comfortable spots to stand in and watch the entirety of the game. An entertaining match that ultimately left the English fans all around us disappointed in the end. 1-0 Spain.

Enjoyed an Asian lunch at Mum Likes Thai Food in Bethnal Green.

Trained back to the touristy and central part of town where we wandered through Borough Market and across London Bridge a couple of times.

Finally found St. Dunstan in the East, the church ruin that we were looking for a few days prior. It was a neat little scene to see. Great for photos.

Stopped by and hung out at The Alchemist, a creative cocktail bar with really cool drinks that, when made, look like cool science experiments! With the use of lots of dry ice and science-y lab equipment.

Once Vi and Janae peeled off, Cynthia, Minh, and I walked around the Tower Bridge area again for funsies before meeting Vi in Putney Bridge for dinner. The original idea was to find English pies for dinner but the restaurant we found in Putney Bridge for pies was closed by the time we got there. Instead, we opted for delicious Lebanese food at Bosa Lounge (located right next door to that other restaurant) instead to end the night. Really yummy!

5 Things I Learned/Observed Today:

Women's soccer has some supporters but it's nothing like the support the men get here in London.

Bank Station's exit from the underground train is slightly odd. And a little unlike the other stations. So don’t get caught going... not out.

In London, don't expect to be served at a restaurant if you're cutting it close and arriving within 30-60 minutes of closing time. It's not like in America where they will seat you even if they close in 10 minutes.

Instead of buying London's Oyster Card for certain unlimited periods of train and bus fares, if you just tap your credit card every time you enter or exit the public transportation system, you'll eventually be charged a cumulative charge at the end of the day after all the charges are processed for each individual ride. But this end-of-day charge is capped at some amount. So, if you're going to a ton of different places and riding public transportation to get to those places, in all likelihood, you'll get the bang for your buck since you'll cap out at some point early on and likely be able to ride the public trans a ton without additional charges as the day goes on. Not sure what the point of an Oyster Card is then... Maybe it's antiquated.

Supposedly, in London, people are really into flowers and are really friendly to dogs. People are always finding opportunities to buy flowers that are cheaper than their floral counterparts in the U.S. And restaurants and other places are really kind and welcoming of dogs, always bringing water or treats out for them.

#withabackpackandcamera #huyphan8990 #travelblog #travel #blog #London #England #United Kingdom #Europe #Summer #August #2023 #WWC2023 #markets

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withabackpackandcamera · 6 months

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August 19th, 2023

Day 4: Borough Hopping Through London

First stop of the day was the borough of Chelsea. Before starting our wandering, we stopped by B Bagel Fulham for some breakfast bagels and a smoothie. My bagel was a BIT heavy...

Strolled through Chelsea and its main street lined with shops and stores.

Took a little detour through the Saturday Fine Food Market at Duke of York Square in Chelsea. Lots of vendors here selling a bunch of things (like a farmer's market) and a nice oval field to lounge and hang out on.

People-watched and took a breather and rehydration break in an area of Chelsea near Sloane Square called Pavilion Road.

After a quick break at home, we took a combination of trains and buses to Little Venice in West London. There, we walked along the canals and took in the waterway scenes as we traversed the area toward Paddington. A really nice waterside stroll.

Walked through Paddington along the water and had a mid-afternoon souvlaki snack at Torelli Pitta Souvlaki. What a delicious choice. Also checked out a cool bar/club/eatery area that was poppin'.

Trained to Marylebone via new Elizabeth Line to check out the nice and fancy neighborhood before meeting up with Minh and Vi for dinner.

Walk to dinner at East Street by Tampopo Fitzrovia for an Asian-inspired dinner with Vi and Minh after their fun day at their British Bake Off baking competition. Met some fun waitresses at the restaurant and shared some of Vi and Minh's cake with them, haha.

Strolled around the SoHo area for a little before training home for the night after a long 12 hours out!

5 Things I Learned/Observed Today:

Lots of fast food Japanese food places in London. Two major chains are Wasabi and Itsu.

The Marble Arch stop is in the Lebanese part of town. And through that area is Edgware Road, which is lined with Middle Eastern restaurants, stores, and markets. Middle Eastern-Central!

Cynthia loves halloumi (a type of Middle Eastern cheese frequently seen here in London)

Chelsea is one of the fancy boroughs of London where rich people, monarchs, and famous authors used to and still live.

Oxford Street is full of shopping.

#withabackpackandcamera #huyphan8990 #travelblog #travel #blog #London #England #UnitedKingdom #Europe #August #Summer #2023 #vacation #LondonBoroughs #shotoniphone #photoblog #worldtraveler

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withabackpackandcamera · 6 months

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August 18th, 2023

Day 3: Strolling and Eating in London

Revisited Notting Hill and Portobello Road Market on a morning when there was slightly more time to stroll and some drizzle to experience.

Picked up a Pistachio and Rose Lemon Cake and some coffee for Cynthia from the English-chain bakery, Gail's Artisan Bakery.

Bussed to Kensington to meet up with Minh and Vi for lunch at Dishoom, a very famous and popular Indian-fusion restaurant in London. Supposedly, it was designed to look like the old Irani cafes back in old-time Mumbai. We ordered the Chilli Chicken, Paneer Roll, Garlic Naan, Masala Prawns, Pau Bhaji, Chicken Biryani, and a Mango Lassi for me. Super yummy and super flavorful! On the slightly pricey side but well worth the experience and local hype!

Took a post-lunch siesta back at the AirBnB to recharge since we were still jet-lagged and tired.

Revisited Spitalfields and Leadenhall Markets and walked around SoHo with Minh's grad school friend.

Had an evening dim sum dinner at Wan Chai Corner in Chinatown and then dropped by Chin Chin for dessert.

Because it was still relatively early after Cynthia and I left everyone, we took a joyride on the train up to Camden Town and strolled around and explored the neighborhood as it started to rain before heading back home for the night.

5 Things I Learned/Observed Today:

Reading newspapers on the train is still a thing in London. You'll find people grabbing the free newspaper at the train station and perusing it while on the train to their next stop. Old school.

London's trains can get REALLY hot in the summer, especially during a heat wave, because only some of the trains (the new lines) have A/C on the line. So the Central Line is old and hot and muggy. But the Elizabeth Line is new and niceeeeeeee! And its stations look like the nice stations in Japan and Taiwan.

In London's main financial district stands a building called the Lloyd's Building. It really stands out because of its strange architecture, based on the architectural style call bowellism, where its insides are displayed on the outside of the building. Per Wikipedia, "the style consists of services for the building, such as ducts, sewage pipes, and lifts, being located on the exterior to maximise space in the interior". Reminds me a little bit of the buildings in Naruto in the Village of the Hidden Rain, aka Amegakure.

London's different boroughs all have different vibes. Notting Hill is one of the nicest ones and definitely exudes that fancy, rich feel.

In many places in London, there are dine-in and dine-out prices. Where dine-in prices are more expensive. Maybe to cover for the cost of eating in (workers, rent, etc)?

#withabackpackandcamera #huyphan8990 #travelblog #travel #blog #london #england #unitedkingdom #europe #NottingHill #markets #Dishoom #worldtravels #summer #2023 #august #shotoniphone

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withabackpackandcamera · 6 months

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August 17th, 2023

Day 2: Exploring London's Neighborhoods

Brunch at Farm Girl in Notting Hill. Our brunch: Ripe Cherry Pancakes and Korean Kimchi Eggs.

Walked along Portobello Road and caught glimpses of the unique antique shops lined up along the road.

Trained over to SoHo area so that Cynthia could meet up with a friend. Meanwhile, while waiting for Cynthia, I roamed around the area and through the cute streets and alleyways until I found myself meandering into Regents Park. A massive park and area of greenery with open fields, gardens, statues, gates, and lots of shaded and unshaded places to sit.

Met up with Cynthia for lunch at a cute Italian restaurant called Circolo Popolare. Super snazzy and cozy inside with shelves of colorful bottles used as decor and hanging lights from the ceiling. For lunch, we shared a Calabrian Flame Pizza (San Marzano tomato, mozzarella fior di latte, spicy spianata, 'nduja and ricotta cream, paprika). Yum!

Walked into SoHo and to the Seven Dials Neighborhood. Met up with Minh and checked out Neal's Yard and Seven Dials Market and some stores and shops along the way.

Strolled through Seven Dials Neighborhood and Trafalgar Square and made our way to the House of MinaLima, a storefront for the design studio best known for its artistic influence on Harry Potter. Cool store with lots of their unique graphics and prints and books.

Walked ALL the way to a church Minh wanted to see on the other side of town that ended up not being the right church. Along the way, we stopped and looked around Covent Garden and its market and shopping mall.

Trained to briefly re-check out the most tourist-y area of town, Westminster, where we finally got to see Big Ben, all renovated and new looking with the scaffolding we saw last time, and Westminster Abbey and the London Eye. Hung out on the green lawn just behind Big Ben for a little, enjoying the views right before sunset.

The final stop of the night was dinner in Fulham. Trained To Fulham to meet up with my cousin Vi for dinner at her favorite local fish and chips restaurant, Fishers. We ordered some Butterfly King Prawns and two white-fish fish and chips plates. So yummy!

5 Things I Learned/Observed Today:

In the summer, spending time outside under the cool shade of a tree in a London public park seems to be the popular thing to do.

One should stand on the right side when not walking or running up or down the escalator to the subways and trains. On the other hand, there is no rhyme or reason to which side people choose to walk on when walking down sidewalks or streets. In crowded areas, it's totally random where people walk so be careful!

MinaLima is the design and graphics studio that helped bring Harry Potter to life. They designed a lot of the popular and iconic graphics associated with the Harry Potter franchise.

Back in the day, the Seven Dials neighborhood played an important role in commercial trade and commerce. There were many markets in this area and at that time, a lot of the buildings were used to store a bunch of imported tropical fruits and vegetables. The building in which Seven Dials Market sits used to house a bunch of bananas. Other storehouses in the area held cucumbers and pineapples among other things. Until this era of imported fruits at the beginning of the 1900s, British people only knew of apples, pears, and homegrown fruits.

London has a rich history and tradition of food markets. There are many many food markets around town. The oldest food market in London is Borough Market, dating back to 1014, and the newest food market is Seven Dials Market.

#withabackpackandcamera #huyphan8990 #travelblog #travel #blog #London #England #UnitedKingdom #Summer #August #2023 #shotoniphone #neighborhoodsofLondon #foodmarkets #SoHo #NottingHill #SevenDials #Fulham #worldtravels

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withabackpackandcamera · 6 months

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August 16th, 2023

Day 1: Severe Jet-Lagged and First Day Strolls

Barely any sleep was had on the red-eye flight from LAX to LHR. And unfortunately, I spend hours and hours and hours playing this puzzle game on the flight and ALMOST beat the entire game in my sleepy slumbering state. Got to level 38/40 and the flight landed...

Met up with my brother Minh at LHR and took a combination of trains and buses to the Shepherd's Bush neighborhood where Cynthia and I would be staying for the week

Strolled from Shepherd's Bush to Kensington in nice, cool summer weather and enjoyed the fresh new scenes, like Kensington Gardens and the streets and neighborhoods of Kensington

Tired and hungry, we opted to pick a restaurant that was good and familiar for dinner: Nando's

5 Things I Learned/Observed Today:

London Burbs look like kinda like Boston haha. And Kensington Gardens kinda remind me of like the Boston Commons.

There can be cool, pleasant, non-rainy days in London in the summer. And when the sun is out and the skies are clear, you get sunlight all the way up to 9pm in mid-August.

Everyone hates flying into London Heathrow in the same way everyone hates flying into LAX.

There are signs and arrows on the ground around town that will help you not get run over by cars and bikes in London.

It really is possible to pass 10 hours of flight time playing an airplane game... Sad that I know this now.

#withabackpackandcamera #huyphan8990 #travelblog #travel #blog #London #England #august #2023 #journal #travelphotography #shotoniphone #Europe #UnitedKingdom #Summer

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withabackpackandcamera · 6 months

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A Very Brief Summer Escape To London (August 2023)

It's been a while, Tumblr Travel Blog! And life has been pretty busy since the last international trip we took back in October 2021 to Italy and Switzerland. Starting full-time work (and moonlighting a ton on top of that), accruing and saving vacation days, going to a ton of friends' weddings over the last 1.5 years, planning our own wedding, and doctoring through the pandemic really made it hard to find time to get out and see the world! Not to mention that my wife Cynthia was busy working on figuring our her next career steps throughout this whole crazy life period.

Fast forward through all of these past few months and through a bunch of life events (i.e. getting married in May 2023 and mini-mooning in Los Cabos the same week), and we finally found a small window of opportunity to get out of the U.S. once again in August 2023. My brother was planning to visit London to see my cousin Vi since she was spending a couple months there doing remote work. Because my work scheduled hadn't been released yet and Cynthia was itching to get out and do something to break up the monotony of remote work at home and flights were cheap, we decided to give it a go. A quick 8-day trip to London.

Because we were so tired from work and life and still recovering from wedding planning and wedding stuff, we went into the 8-day escape understanding that this would be a low-key trip that we'd take in stride and not plan too crazily for. There'd be no crazy amounts of cross-country driving. There'd be little planning. There'd be little to no goal-oriented photography on my DSLR. And there'd be very little activities requiring us to wake up at sunrise or expend a ton of the little energy we had going. Because, really, all we wanted was to get out and not work for a few days.

So here starts a brief series of short, to-the-point posts about our whirlwind trip to London in August 2023!

#withabackpackandcamera #huyphan8990 #travelblog #travel #blog #journal #Europe #august #2023 #London #England #shotoniphone #worldtravels

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withabackpackandcamera · 2 years

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October 17th, 2021

Day 16: Living In The Fairy Tale That Is Switzerland

After another delicious home-cooked breakfast this morning, Cynthia and I caught a bus and regional train out to Lauterbrunnen, a fairy-tale-like town nestled in the valley between two rocky cliff faces and mountains. When we arrived in Lauterbrunnen, the cliffs were still blocking the sun’s rays from reaching town so it was bitterly cold. Even though it was cold and blue-hued this morning, the views of the sunlight creeping over the mountains and Staubbach Falls flowing over Lauterbrunnen as we walked into town were still picturesque though difficult to photograph. The town was still sleepy and quiet as we looked around but as we walked through, some shops started to open and tourists started to show up. Because most places were still closed, we didn’t make many stops and instead just kept strolling along the town’s main street until it became a walking path that slowly wound its way through the valley floor.

After walking past Staubbach Falls and deciding not to immediately hike up to the waterfall, we continued to stroll with the small crowds of people. We weren’t sure where the path would lead us but because it was early in the morning, we decided to just keep exploring the valley on foot. As we walked through, we constantly found ourselves looking up at the paragliders gliding through the sky and the sun as it slowly lit up the shady valley below. We walked past lots of farms where cows were enjoying their grassy breakfast with their cowbells ringing loudly in the crisp morning air. We also took in the views of the fall colors peeking through the mostly green valley as well as the waterfalls that cascaded down the cliffs as we walked by.

Before we knew it, we had walked a couple of kilometers in the cold and were about halfway between towns. Because of the length of time that we spent in the shade, Cynthia was starting to feel very cold. But given how far we had walked, it made the most sense to just keep walking another couple kilometers until we reached the small town of Stechelberg. So we did that. Along the way, Cynthia ran into some nice cows who she ended up spending some time petting and conversing with. Yes, I travel with an amateur Doctor Dolittle. Eventually, as we reached Stechelberg, the valley finally started to light up from the morning sun and it got significantly warmer. Cynthia was saved. There wasn't much to see in Stechelberg so while waiting for the bus, we walked back toward Schilthorn, where we stopped and watched as paragliders landed one after another. Darn, I wish I had known and booked a paragliding adventure! It looks so fun! Maybe next time.

Once the bus arrived in Schilthorn, we took it back to Lauterbrunnen where we spent the rest of the morning. We hiked through Lauterbrunnen to a picturesque viewpoint of town and took some photos there before walking back up. By this point, Cynthia was tired and wanted to do her own thing. So I dropped her off at Airtime Cafe so that she could rest and enjoy a cinnamon roll and matcha latte in her happy place and instead, went on my own to hike up to Staubbach Falls.

The hike up to Staubbach Falls was actually steeper and higher than I thought so it took a little time to get to the top. But it wasn’t anything crazy and I eventually made it there, enjoyed the view of town from the falls, and hiked back down and into town to meet up with Cynthia. We chilled at the cafe for a bit after I returned so that we could rest our legs and plan the latter half of the day before we walked back to the train station to catch the train back to Interlaken. The plan once we got to Interlaken was to take the last lake cruise of the day to Brienz.

We were lucky that we arrived in Interlaken at the perfect time to catch the last lake cruise because otherwise, we would have had to train to Brienz and miss out on being on the lake one last time (especially because our schedule for the day was shifted later due to our adventures in Lauterbrunnen). But we made it happen and made the most of our opportunity to enjoy Lake Brienz on our last full day in the area. And luckily, the afternoon weather turned beautifully, just perfect for our ride across to Brienz.

The boat ride was nice but definitely not nearly as magical the second time around. But regardless, the scenery around the lake was still pretty to see and it was still nice to chill on a boat and expend little effort seeing things. After several stops, we finally reached Brienz. Because it was getting late, we didn’t spend much time there (because the places we wanted to see were way too far to get to in the limited time that we had) before jumping on another train to Meirengen. The whole point of our visit to Meirengen, which was located further out than we thought, was to see the Sherlock Holmes Museum before it closed for the day. We got there with plenty of time to see the entire museum and follow along with an audio guide. It was pretty cool to learn about the epic adventures of the fictional Sherlock Holmes and how his story influenced the world and captivated audiences all around it.

After our visit to the Sherlock Holmes Museum, we strolled around the quiet and small Meirengen until it was time to catch our train back to Interlaken. Once we were back, it was another night of simple but delicious burgers at the apartment for dinner. Our night ended with us moving down to another unit in the same apartment building because of the lingering hot water issue. Moving units made us pack our stuff early which was actually a good thing since we were scheduled to leave Interlaken tomorrow. That’ll give us more time to do other things tomorrow before we leave!

5 Things I Learned/Observed Today:

1. It is really cold in Lauterbrunnen valley early in the morning in the fall until maybe 11am or so at which time the sun finally breaches the mountains and cliffs and shines on the valley floor.

2. Lauterbrunnen valley is a glacial valley that formed with the erosion of rocks in the area due to the movement and melting of an ancient glacier there. The wearing away of rocks at the sides of the glacier resulted in almost-vertical valley sides that in turn lead to the typical U-shaped glacial valley you see at Lauterbrunnen valley today.

3. In regards to how the waterfalls in Lauterbrunnen valley were formed… They were formed as a result of the steep steps that formed between the hanging valleys that were carved by the flow of smaller glaciers and streams and Lauterbrunnen valley.

4. The highest waterfall in Switzerland is Murrenbach Falls, a freefalling, non-cascading waterfall that stands at 417 meters tall.

5. Meiringen’s claim to fame came from its role in the story of the famous English detective Sherlock Holmes. Supposedly, it was the last town that Sherlock Holmes stayed in before his fateful and almost fatal encounter in the mountains with his infamous archnemesis.

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withabackpackandcamera · 2 years

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October 14th, 2021

Day 13: A Day Full of Castles and Museum

This morning, the only reason we woke up earlier than 10am was because we wanted to make it to the hotel breakfast. Otherwise, we would’ve just slept in to recharge our very low batteries despite all the plans we had made to wake up early to get an early start. Sometimes, waking up early when you’re weary is just not realistic. Anyhow, the hotel breakfast this morning was OK. It was a continental breakfast with a little more variety and stuff than usual. Once we were done at breakfast, we headed out for the train station to buy our Swiss Travel Flex Pass for use on 8 nonconsecutive days.

Once we had purchased our passes, we changed the plans we had originally settled on yesterday evening. Instead of taking the Gornergratbahn today to the top of the mountains and hiking, we decided to get out of Zermatt and explore another nearby town and its museums to make the most of our train pass for the day. The original plan was to visit Sion and see all of the museums there that offered free admission with our Swiss Travel Pass. But because it was a nice day and we had unlimited free train rides today and Cynthia really wanted to check out the Chateau de Chillon (even though we had originally decided to skip Chateau de Chillon because of how far it was from the places we were planning to go), we changed our mind and took the train far past Sion to Veytaux to see Chateau de Chillon, the picturesque medieval castle sitting on the edge of Lake Geneva.

It was funny that I found myself back at Chateau de Chillon because it was actually my second time seeing this castle. The first time I saw the castle was back in 2013 when I was backpacking through Switzerland as I made my way through Europe. At the time, I didn’t have money I was willing to spend on a castle visit so I never entered and, instead, looked around the outside castle walls and took photos of the picturesque dock right outside of the castle (a photo that now hangs on my apartment wall as a canvas). So it was nice to return to Chateau de Chillon and actually enjoy the experience of exploring the castle, its architecture, and its history. And it was awesome roaming through the halls and staircases of the surprisingly large castle for a good two hours and reading all about its history, its tenants, and its importance to the area.

We could’ve spent much more time at the castle but because we still wanted to make it to Sion in time to see some museums there, we rushed through the end of our castle tour in order to catch one of the infrequent trains back to Sion. We arrived in Sion around 4pm. With the museums that we wanted to visit set to close around 5pm, we ran from the train station through town to the nature museum first because it was the closest of the museums. Because all of the infographics and information placards were in French (and because I didn’t realize that I had been handed an English pamphlet translating all of that information), we breezed through the museum and its different animal exhibits in about 15 minutes, giving us plenty of time to hit up the art museum located right around the corner. Again, with very little time (about 30 minutes to be exact), we sped through the 8 or so different floors and exhibits of art, taking some time every now and then to enjoy and appreciate the art installations and paintings. Whew, what whirlwind museum stops today! But luckily, we saw what we needed to see and made the most of an activated travel pass day!

After the museum visits, we strolled through the streets of downtown Sion and enjoyed how different this town looked and felt compared to Zermatt. A nice addition to the day’s random itinerary. Before long, we got very hungry. We walked around looking for affordable places for dinner and ultimately stopped at La Regal’ette Creperie Bretonne. Though expensive, the crepes we ordered (the Crepe Armen (scrambled eggs, cheese, ham, and mushrooms) and Crepe Bigoudene (mozzarella, spicy salami, tomatoes, and basil)) were pretty good.

The rest of the evening was spent taking the train back into Zermatt. Once we were home, we called it a night with plans to get up at a reasonable hour tomorrow to give ourselves enough time to enjoy some mountain adventures.

5 Things I Learned/Observed Today:

1. During the Savoyard epoch, the Chillon region was rich and populated. The local population would pay the lord at the castle taxes and dues and usually these taxes were paid in the way of food items and drinks, especially wine. Because of its great and strategic location, the castle itself served as a crossing point and trading post for many. For example, it was an important tollgate on the route between Lombardy (in northern Italy) and France. Many merchants would cross through this area and pay their tolls and taxes in order to transport their goods, which consisted of anything from wool and linens to metal and wax objects to dried herring and salt.

2. In Chillon Castle and other medieval castles, the primary function of latrines was for the disposal of human excrement and other waste matter. At Chillon Castle, there were two types of latrines: latrines with an internal outlet and bay-window latrines. Each had its advantages and disadvantages in case of an attack on the castle. Latrines with an internal outlet had the advantage of being completely concealed within the thickness of the wall and only offered minimum weak points for assailants; however, its disadvantage came from the possibility of it being used as a means of entry for enemies who were brave enough to climb through poop and waste to get into the castle (Chillon Castle didn’t have this issue since the outlets led right into the lake waters). As for bay-window latrines, their advantages came from its usefulness in providing a firing position for those within the castle; however, it was also a weak point in the castle’s defense system because it provided enemies with a foothold for climbing the castle walls and made for an obvious target for bombardment.

3. Different types of body protection and armor for soldiers changed with time based on what people were hit or shot at with. For example, chain mail armor and mail hauberk were helpful against arrows and sharp-edged weapons but became obsolete once people figured out how to fire stuff at you with gunpowder. Yeah, I can see how gunpowder could spark a change in fighting fashion.

4. For the Swiss Travel Pass, in order to get free admission into the museums that allow free entry with the Swiss Travel Pass, you must go to the museums on a validated or confirmed travel day. So if you plan to use it on a day you don’t plan to travel around, you either can’t go to the museum for free or you’ll use up a travel day. Be careful with your planning so that you can maximize your dedicated travel days without wasting any opportunities.

5. Sometimes, the train guy (maybe he’s the conductor?) stamps holes into the date you wrote down for designated travel. That’s probably how they keep track of what days you’ve used on your Swiss Travel Pass if you have a non-electronic, paper ticket.

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withabackpackandcamera · 2 years

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October 7th, 2021

Day 6: The Fairy Tale Landscapes of the Dolomites

The first stop this very early morning was Alpe di Siusi, also known as Seiser Alm, a unique UNESCO World Heritage Site known as the largest high-altitude alpine meadow in all of Europe. Getting there was a pain because there are restrictions that don’t allow private cars to drive into the area during most of the day (10:00am-5:00pm) and restrictions preventing outsiders (people not staying in hotels there) from driving in.

So, to visit Alpe di Siusi as outsiders for sunrise, we had to wake up at the ungodly hour of 5:30am and get out by 6:00am. It took around 30 minutes to get to Parking Lot #2 in Compatsch (free access and parking before 9:00am) where we left our car and completed the trip to the meadow on foot. It was pretty cold and windy as we hiked in the dark alongside some other photographers to Alpe di Siusi. The hike to the meadow took much longer than I expected, around 45-60 minutes, likely because I was carrying my camera gear and because there was some uphill hiking involved. And because we were tired.

By the time we arrived at the meadow viewpoint, the slightly cloudy skies had become cloudy, snowy skies. Snow flurries were flying around us and it was pretty cold. In the hour that I spent up there (with Cynthia spending a little less there because she was cold), it was heavily cloudy with a brief period of partially clearing skies. But the sun never really peeked out from the clouds. And the picturesque fog never really rolled through. As a result, I had to work with suboptimal conditions to try and make the most of the photos of the otherwise gorgeous scene in front of me. Because Cynthia was cold and because she wanted to make it back to the hotel for a hot breakfast, I didn’t spend too much time up at Alpe di Siusi. And it was a good thing I didn’t because the weather continued to worsen as I hiked back to the car. Before, of course, it started to get better. Sighs.

I got back to the car around 9:15am, at which time we started our rush back to the hotel. And we were lucky to get there in time to be the last ones seated for a delicious hot breakfast. Score! Always a treat to begin the morning with a big, free hot breakfast on any trip! The spread had everything from delicious croissants to other breads to fruits, yogurt, milk, eggs, bacon, cereal, etc. So good! And so good that we had a food coma after the meal and found ourselves napping for a good two hours before waking up, much more refreshed than we were before the nap.

It took a while for us to finally get going again after our much-needed post-breakfast nap. While slowly getting up from our comfortably warm bed, we started making plans for the day. We also spent time making changes to the plans we had previously made for the trip to accommodate the nice weather forecasted for the next couple of days. So we mixed-and-matched parts of the itinerary we already had and moved things around to make the most of the beautiful mountain weather. And even made a last second decision to stay an extra day in the Dolomites and add on an extra rental car day. Of course, with these decisions, we had to spend more money than intended (pay extra for a new AirBnB rental, lose money on one night of a reservation in Florence, and pay for one more day of a car rental, which was actually pretty cheap at 37 Euros). But I definitely think that it will all be worth it in the end.

Once we had figured out the extra day we would be staying in the mountains, we then figured out how we wanted to spend the rest of the afternoon and evening today. Instead of doing Seceda this afternoon (because the weather was cloudy and suboptimal and because it was a bit late to start exploring up there), we decided to check out the gorgeous Val di Funes instead. It took a little longer than expected to drive out to Val di Funes but once we got there, parking was pretty easy and it was then a matter of hiking to the two main attractions in the area: the picturesque and lonely Chiesetta di San Giovanni and the beautiful Santa Maddalena village and church nestled beneath the epic Odle Group peaks.

We didn’t stay long at Chiesetta di San Giovanni once we hiked there because there wasn’t much to see. It’s a neat little church in the middle of a big field with the mountains towering over it from behind. Cool to see but hard to get a unique photo from the observation platform. Once we were done, we hiked back to where we came from and toward the panoramic viewpoint of Santa Maddalena church, where I found a spot to set up for sunset. It was pretty cloudy but for a moment, all the other photographers and I had a little hope that the sun would come out from behind the clouds and create a colorful spectacle. Eventually, the sun did come out and create a beautiful sky… except it was on the wrong side of the sky, the part of the sky that wasn’t hovering over the mountain and village. Sighs. So much for that. But despite the lack of a perfectly placed sunset, the view was still really pretty.

After sunset, we drove back to Ortisei and dropped off our stuff at our room before finding dinner nearby. We decided on trying the highly-rated Mauriz Keller Restaurant and Pizzeria located just across the way from our hotel. The restaurant was in an old cellar and was very warm and welcoming. A really neat atmosphere. It took a while to order something because we were so hungry and there were so many delicious items on the menu. We ultimately ordered the Linguine with Lobster, the Margherita Pizza with Ham, and a glass of Chardonnay white wine. My goodness, this was an amazing meal! SO SO good! The lobster pasta was excellent and so was the pizza! And adding the Chardonnay was a nice little touch. We were ABOUT to order their dessert to finish off our nice dinner experience but they had just run out of good options so we said nevermind.

We took a short post-dinner stroll around town after dinner to work off the calories we had just ingested. Because we were tired, the walk didn’t last long before we turned back toward the hotel. What a nice day today was. The weather held up, for the most part, and the sights we saw were so pretty. Can’t wait to check out some more tomorrow now that we have an extra day in the mountains!

5 Things I Learned/Observed Today:

1. When you zoom out and really look at it, Alpe di Siusi kind of looks like a giant golf course with all of its green patches interspersed with trees and forests. Kinda cool.

2. In the Dolomites mountain region, there are, oftentimes, two names for places. One is an Italian name and one is a German name. This all stems from the extensive history of the Dolomites and the groups of people who have lived in this region over the centuries. In some places, the primary language spoken and primary language on signs is German.

3. The cows here in the Dolomites have large bells tied around their necks even though they are fenced in. I wonder why…

4. Everything in the Dolomites, from fields to buildings to homes, are so clean in appearance. Everything looks like something you’d see in a miniature model of a town or countryside village. Spotless. Model-like. Like everything was just recently built and painted. And not to mention the pretty and well-taken-care-of flowers that accompany many of the windows of these beautiful buildings. So pretty and so clean.

5. Pizza in Italy is never cut into slices. So strange and so very annoying!

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withabackpackandcamera · 2 years

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Reflecting On Our 22 Days in Italy and Switzerland

I can’t believe how quickly our amazing three weeks in Europe flew by! Even though several weeks have passed since we made it back home and hit the ground running, the trip still lingers in our minds and memories as we sift through our photos and share our stories and adventures with family and friends. Looking back, our trip to Italy and Switzerland was perfectly timed given all that was going on in our lives. I was (and still am) working hard part-time, picking up as many hospital and urgent care shifts as my body and mind could handle. Cynthia was between jobs and needed a relaxing way to recharge before hitting the job search once again. The trip was the perfect escape to get away from everything and take a deep breath of fresh air. It was the perfect way to relax a little and to do some new things to break up the monotony of our pandemic lives in Los Angeles. And it was the perfect destination for the long escape we had been dreaming of and planning for for the last two years (and delayed due to COVID). To be able to escape during a lull in the pandemic really was a blessing.

Reflecting on our trip, our country choices of Italy and Switzerland were perfect. Both places were scenic and easy to travel around because of the well-maintained roads, the trains, and the fact that the two countries were conveniently located right next to each other. Additionally, the contrasting experiences in each country made the trip more enjoyable. Not only were the buildings and architecture very different, the foods were different and so were the cultural aspects of each country. It’s always better to see more variety than to see too many similar things. Europe can sometimes get dull if you visit too many cities or churches or old towns because after some time, they all start to look the same or very similar to each other. Luckily, these countries were different in many ways and they provided that variety we sought in our long trip.

Besides the decision to travel to Italy and Switzerland, I think there were a ton of choices that we made that made the trip awesome. Driving in Italy was definitely needed and definitely worth it because it gave us both flexibility and access. Having a car provided us with the flexibility to do whatever we wanted and to see whatever we wanted without having to necessarily commit to things that we previously thought might be set in stone from prior planning. Having a car also provided us with access to sights and scenes that we would’ve never had a chance to easily visit by bus or public transportation. It’s always nice to have the luxury of a car because you just have more independence and you don’t have to lug all your luggage around.

Another great decision we made was to purchase a Swiss Travel Flex Pass and take public transportation around Switzerland. The Swiss Travel Pass gave us lots of flexibility to travel anywhere we wanted and to make last minute changes. With it, we could “wing it” whenever we wanted and travel like real backpackers, with maximum flexibility and less constraint and worry. By having the pass, we were able to frequently change our schedules to fit the needs and opportunities of each day. With the pass, we were also able to take advantage of museums and learn a ton about Switzerland and its history. And after all of that cross-country driving in Italy, it was nice to sit back and relax and let someone else do the work. As the designated driver on most trips, I have experienced how tiring and draining driving can be when you do it too often. This trip was no different. Early mornings and late evenings really take their toll. So it was nice to just sit around, chill, and even nap on the trains while it moved closer and closer to our next destination without much continuous effort on my end. And even though we had to carry our stuff everywhere once we were traveling by bus and train, it was totally worth not having to constantly drive, find parking, sit in traffic, deal with driving in tight, crowded spaces, etc.

And to list off a bunch of other great decisions… Spending an extra night in the Dolomites to take advantage of great weekend weather. Visiting Venice once again (for me, at least). Seeing Seceda at sunset despite the hike down in pitch darkness. Not driving once we got back to Florence. Not doing as many sunrise hikes as I had planned (because it would’ve really drained me and Cynthia if we had kept waking up after short nights of sleep). Spending more than two nights in any location. Making last minute, impromptu decisions to visit Chateau de Chillon and Sion. Taking advantage of lake cruises. Autumn biking around Interlaken. Visiting Bern (again) and seeing a UEFA Champions League match there. Visiting the Swiss National Museum. Cooking and saving money. And trying out all the different and yummy foods in both countries.

On the other hand, when looking back, there were definitely things I would’ve changed about the trip or advised others to do differently if they were to embark on a similar trip to Switzerland and/or Italy within a similar time frame. The first thing I’d change or advise would be to spend more time in each country, whether that means choosing to visit one country for three weeks or to lengthen the overall duration of the vacation. The reason is that three weeks to see two very popular countries with tons of tourist attractions is doing an injustice to both countries. Because there is just so much to see and do in Switzerland and Italy. For example, by the time we left Italy, we felt like we had barely scratched the surface of the country’s pearls and treasures. And even though we had eight days to train around Switzerland with our Swiss Travel Pass, we still missed out on a ton of places worth visiting that we just couldn’t fit into our time there.

Even though we did a ton in the limited time we spent in each country, for parts of the trip, we still felt rushed. And tired. And sleep-deprived. Looking back, maybe it would’ve been better to slow it down and space things out a little bit more so that we had more time to spend in different cities and towns and didn’t have to drive and commute so much and so frequently from one place to another. Sure, our trip was super packed and productive because there were so many places to see but also we lost out on enjoying a ton of places we wanted to visit just because of time constraints.

In Italy, because we did a bad job planning the first couple of days (due to my mistake timing the first day that resulted in a rushed first 48-72 hours of the trip), we didn’t get to enjoy many places like we wanted to. The plan to drive out to Cinque Terre on a shortened first day after a sleep-deprived flight wasn’t a great idea when put into play. Putting aside a humid half day to see Cinque Terre was a bad idea. Because of our time constraints, we had to skip out on the famous Cinque Terre hike and two of the five seaside towns in Cinque Terre. Then, we rushed through Tuscany and Val d’Orcia in a little over a day and missed out on a bunch of cute towns, like San Gimignano and Montepulciano, and photo opportunities around Tuscany. Lastly, it would’ve been better to spend more time in the mountains so that we could take it easy and enjoy the cute mountain towns and landscapes of the Dolomites region. Thinking back, it would’ve been good to spend three to four weeks in Italy and, of those weeks, spend at least two days in Cinque Terre, four to five days in Tuscany, two days in Venice, and five to seven days in the Dolomites.

In Switzerland, travel pacing wasn’t the greatest either. It would've been good to spend less time in Zermatt and more time exploring some of the other scenic mountain towns around the country. Spending a few more nights at our Interlaken AirBnB so that we could more leisurely explore Interlaken by bike would’ve been nice. Extra time in Interlaken would’ve also given us more time to explore the nearby mountain and lake towns like Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald (which we didn’t have time for). And more time may have even provided me with an opportunity to do something crazy like paragliding! But even with all the things we could’ve changed about our time in Switzerland, we still did a little better and rushed less there than we did in Italy. Because we were traveling by train, we ended up slowing down enough in Switzerland that we felt that, for the most part, we had enough time to spend in the Swiss towns we visited (except the ones mentioned above).

All in all, despite the trip’s shortcomings, it was a fantastic vacation that really satiated our travel appetites. At the end of the day, we had lots of fun and made a ton of memories to share with others back home. We had a really smooth trip without many mishaps and had perfect weather for most of it. Very fortunate. By the time we were done with the trip, we were happy with what we had experienced and accomplished in three weeks and were ready to fly back home and lay low for some time before figuring out our next international adventure, whenever that may be (because who knows what the future holds with COVID and the Omicron variant still making its way through the world). In the end, we were just glad that we were able to make this trip happen after all the delays and travel uncertainties we’ve faced over the last two years. And man was it nice to travel with some extra cash and not travel so poorly like I did in 2013. So nice!

Anyhow, I hope you enjoyed our three-week adventure! Can’t wait to figure out where we’ll go next when the time comes! Maybe Southeast Asia? Africa? Central America? Who knows! But until then! Ciao!

Trip Superlatives

Best Restaurant Brunches:

1. Avocado Toast and Waffles with Berries at Becanto Kaffee and Bar in Bern

2. ‘nduja Chilli Eggs and A Cinnamon Roll at Melaleuca Bakery and Bistrot in Florence

3. Eggs Benedict and French Toast at Cafe Elena in Zurich

4. Our Homemade Brunch in Interlaken

Best Hotel Breakfasts:

1. Breakfast at Classic Hotel am Stetteneck in Ortisei

2. Breakfast at Hotel Ghironi in La Spezia

3. Breakfast at Antico Sosta in San Quirico d’Orcia

4. Breakfast at Hotel Alpina in Zermatt

5. Breakfast at Residenza Castiglioni in Florence

Best Meal:

1. Pizza and Linguine with Lobster with a Glass of Chardonnay at Mauriz Keller Restaurant and Pizzeria in Ortisei

2. Wienerschnitzel with Rosti and Veggies at Restaurant Zeughauskeller in Zurich

3. Noodles with Scallops and Caprese Salad at Antica Trattoria Alla Ferrata in Venice

4. Florentine Steak at Antica Trattoria da Tito dal 1913 in Florence

5. Spaghetti Carbonara and Baked Sea Bass at Ristorante Pizzeria Sabatini in Milan

Best Pizza:

1. Pizza at Al Parlamento in Venice

2. Pizza at Mauriz Keller Restaurant and Pizzeria in Ortisei

3. Pizza at Pizzeria Ristorante Molino Zermatt in Zermatt

Best Asian Food:

1. Chinese Food at Restaurant Ach’i in Zurich

2. Chinese Food at Restaurant Khujug in Zurich

3. Thai Food at Oh Wow! Thai Take Away in Bern

4. Chinese Food at Asian Bistrot in Milan

5. Korean Food at Aare Korean BBQ in Interlaken

Best Dessert:

1. Apple Strudel with Vanilla Sauce at Restaurant Zeughauskeller in Zurich

2. Tiramisu at Antica Trattoria da Tito dal 1913 in Florence

3. Gelato at Gelato Fantasy in Venice

4. Hazelnut Eclair at Pascal et Katy in Zurich

Best Pasta:

1. Linguine with Lobster at Mauriz Keller Restaurant and Pizzeria in Ortisei

2. Noodles with Scallops at Antica Trattoria Alla Ferrata in Venice

3. Spaghetti Carbonara at Ristorante Pizzeria Sabatini in Milan

4. Spaghetti with Meat Sauce and Homemade Ravioli at Ristorante Lamm in Val Gardena

5. To-Go Tagliatelle Pasta with Mushrooms and Sausage and Penne Pasta with Tomato Sauce at Ristorante Pizzeria Il Ponte in Cortina d’Ampezzo

Best Hotel/AirBnB Stays/Experiences:

1. AirBnB in Interlaken

2. Antica Sosta in San Quirico d’Orcia

3. Hotel Alpina in Zermatt

4. AirBnB in Venice

Most Picturesque Places:

1. Seceda Mountain

2. Tre Cime di Lavaredo Nature Park

3. The Matterhorn, the Gornergrat, and the Surrounding Mountain Landscape

4. Alpe di Siusi

5. The Countryside and Farmhouses of Tuscany

Favorite Town/City:

1. Interlaken

2. Florence

3. Venice

4. Lauterbrunnen

5. Bern

Best Experiences:

1. Our Dolomites Adventure

2. Photographing Seceda at Sunset

3. Autumn Biking through Interlaken

4. First Lake Day on Lake Thun in Interlaken

5. Venice During A Pandemic

6. BSC Young Boys vs. Villarreal CF UEFA Champions League Match

7. Being Educated at the Swiss National Museum

Favorite Hikes:

1. Tre Cime di Lavaredo Hike

2. Gornergrat Down-Mountain Hike

3. Cadini Di Misurina Hike

4. Seceda Hike

5. Alpe di Siusi Hike

Favorite Boat Ride/Lake Experience:

1. Cruising on Lake Thun

2. Cruising on Lake Brienz

3. Cruising on Lake Lucerne

4. Cruising on Lake Zurich

Best Cultural/Museum Experience:

1. Swiss National Museum in Zurich

2. Zermatlantis in Zermatt

3. Château de Chillon in Veytaux

4. Oberhofen Castle in Oberhofen am Thunersee

Most Picturesque Small Towns:

1. Pienza

2. Santa Maddalena

3. Lauterbrunnen

4. Interlaken

5. Pitigliano

Best Decisions Made:

1. The Last Minute Decision to Stay in the Dolomites an Extra Day

2. Buying and Using The Swiss Travel Flex Pass

3. Slowing Down and Not Driving in Switzerland

4. Booking Hotels with Free Breakfast

5. Home Cooking in Interlaken

Worst Decisions Made:

1. Failed Attempts to Visit San Gimignano at Night After Long Travel Days

2. Sleep-Deprived Driving from Tuscany to Venice

3. Not Staying in Tuscany Long Enough

4. Not Staying in the Dolomites Long Enough

5. Briefly Stopping in Milan

Worst Driving Decisions:

1. Driving Sleep-Deprived from Tuscany to Venice

2. Driving Lost around and in San Gimignano at Night

3. Driving through Old Downtown Florence Trying to Find Our Hotel

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withabackpackandcamera · 2 years

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October 22nd, 2021

Day 21: A Rainy Day In Zurich

Today started with a relatively bad-weathered morning, meaning it wasn’t as bad as I thought it could’ve been but it was definitely worse than sunny weather. We woke up this morning after the rain had come through during the night. By the time we left to walk to brunch at a restaurant closeby, it was still cold and drizzly outside. This was only our second day of bad weather on this trip. It’s crazy to think that we made it this far without very many bad-weathered days. So fortunate!

Anyhow, we braved the less-than-ideal morning weather and walked over to Cafe Elena for brunch. The cafe is what many would call “cute” and you could tell how popular it was amongst the “cute” crowd when you walked in and realized that 95% of the diners in the cafe were female, haha. But I guess it was popular for a reason. It took a while to get seated but we finally got a table and ordered their Eggs Benedict Bagel, French Toast, and Matcha Latte. The food was pretty good! Not the absolute best this trip but not too bad.

After brunch, we walked through the slight drizzle to the Swiss National Museum located right down the road from the cafe in a large castle-like building. The museum, one of the major museums in Switzerland, was humongous so it ended up being our big stop of the day. Because the museum was so huge and its exhibits equally big and detailed, we spent a good four hours there looking at all the exhibits and reading up on everything there. At first, we thought that the museum only had two main exhibits. Because of that, we spent most of our time exploring the first two exhibits we saw, only to be greeted by many more intricate and detailed exhibits further into the museum.

The first exhibit we visited was about famous and influential Swiss figures of the past. The second exhibit was about these ancient stone slab artifacts found throughout Europe called stelae. We spent more than half our time at these first two exhibits because there were so many cool things to see and learn about, and there were also tons of cool interactive stations to explore as well! Craziness!

After we spent a couple of hours at the first two exhibits, we moved further into the museum and checked out the different exhibits featuring collections of random Swiss items from the past to present, like handkerchiefs, clocks, clothing, etc. It was really neat to see all these collections and see how things changed and evolved over time. We then stopped by anthropology exhibits showcasing the aspects of human life as it related to daily living, war, farming, etc. And lastly, before the museum closed at 5pm, we rushed through the interactive exhibit for kids, the rings exhibit and the stained glass exhibit and saw the colorful museum pieces displayed there.

Wow, what a museum experience! Everything about it was so cool and so magical! The exhibits were so modern and interactive, with iPads and iPhones displaying all sorts of cool things and infographics in all sorts of languages. There was so much variety in the museum too! And the building that housed the museum was in and of itself pretty awesome as well. Definitely four hours well spent. And not to mention our long museum stay allowed the weather plenty of time to clear up. It ended up being the perfect way to kill two birds with one stone.

Once we exited the museum, we were greeted with cool weather with almost-clear afternoon skies. We dropped by the hotel briefly before taking the tram into Old Town to first grab eclairs from Pascal et Katy. Cynthia had been craving European eclairs for days but we hadn’t had any luck until we found this place. There, we grabbed a hazelnut eclair to enjoy on a bench beside the river.

Because sunset was quickly approaching, we finished our eclair and spent the rest of the daylight strolling along the river and through Old Town Zurich, seeing whatever sights we could see before it got too dark. We saw some churches, like the Church of St. Peter and the Grossmunster, and walked through the old town streets before eventually finding Lindenhof city park, where we enjoyed the beautiful city views at sunset. We slowly made random turns here and there while walking and eventually found ourselves in the shopping area of town. We windowshopped and walked along the city streets until we got hungry, at which time we turned around and hopped on a train to get back to the hotel to figure out dinner.

It took some time to figure out what food options we had near the hotel and what type of food we were craving. After a longer-than-intended search, we whittled our options down to Chinese food at a highly-rated, reasonably priced restaurant called Restaurant Ach’i that was located in the next neighborhood over. We walked over, and once we got there, we saw how crowded and busy it was! Luckily, we didn’t have to wait too long before we were seated at a communal table. But wow was it crazy busy tonight! After looking through their menu, we ordered their Kung Pao chicken, fried potstickers, and shrimp fried rice. And wow, this was probably the best and most authentic Asian food we’ve had this trip! So good and so affordable! That’s probably the reason why it was so popular and so crowded! Definitely a great dinner choice.

As we’d be doing on this trip, we ended the night with a leisurely post-dinner stroll through the nightlife district of town and eventually made it back to our hotel. It’s been so nice to stroll around and see new places after dinner during this trip after a whole year of pandemic strolling around our neighborhood in L.A. The things you recognize that you take for granted when you travel.

Wow, to think that tomorrow is our very last full day in Europe and that our trip is finally coming to an end soon! How time flies no matter how long you’re traveling! Hoping to make it a productive and memorable last day before boarding our long flight back to reality.

5 Things I Learned/Observed Today:

1. William Tell is a folk hero of Switzerland and was an expert marksman with the crossbow. His story dates back to the 1300s and he is a folk hero because of his assassination of a corrupt and tyrannical duke and ruler in the area that people hated back in the day. Ba-da-dum ba-da-dum ba-da-Dum-Dum-Dum!

2. Two interesting facts about Switzerland! The first fact is that there are four national languages in Switzerland: French, German, Italian, and Romansh. Of those, German is the one that a majority of the Swiss speak and use day-to-day. The second fact is that within Europe, Switzerland is among the countries with the fewest public holidays for its people. How sad for those hardworking Swiss.

3. Henry Dunant was the first Nobel Peace Prize winner and is known as the Father of the Red Cross because his book “Un Souvenir de Solferino” (“A Memory of Solferino”) laid the foundation for the establishment of the International Committee of the Red Cross and international humanitarian law. The book was about his observations of a battle/war and his critical observations of how the wounded were cared for. The book also expressed his thoughts and appeals for the establishment of international relief organizations to help the wounded in times of need.

4. Stelae are anthropomorphized stone slab artifacts that were created for many reasons, of which one main reason was to serve as a gravestone for people thousands of years ago. Supposedly, they were first designed and erected all the way back around 4000-5000 B.C. Many of these ancient stelae have been found in the areas around the Black Sea and in southern France. There are many mysteries to these stelae, and there have been many guesses as to what they represent, who they represented, etc. Some scientists believe that the stelae may represent living people, dead people, or even mythological people. Because of how special they were, some people back in the day would carve or drill holes or cups or indentations into the stelae, extracting the resultant stone powder and either ingesting it as a magical curative powder or keeping the powder as a memento. Whenever there was a ritual destruction or desecration of a stela, it represented the loss of power or death of the individual that is represented by the stela. When looking at these stelae, it’s actually really, really difficult to tell what the different carvings on the stone represent and what symbolizes what. It’s actually quite amazing that scientists can look at the subtle characteristics and carvings on a stone and interpret it. Crazy!

5. Helvetia is a goddess-appearing woman who is the personification of Switzerland. She has been used in tons of different marketing material and graphics over the centuries to represent Switzerland. And in the Swiss National Museum, don’t get fooled by the very real-looking lady standing with a long staff next to her in the corner of the first exhibit room. It’s actually a creepy, very-real-appearing wax figure of Helvetia!

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withabackpackandcamera · 2 years

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October 18th, 2021

Day 17: A Fall Bike Ride Through Interlaken And An Introductory Stroll Through Lucerne

This morning was our last morning in beautiful and serene Interlaken. Because we had gotten permission from the host to stay at the AirBnB until mid-afternoon, we took our time eating, cleaning up, and packing. It was great that the host was so responsive and so flexible with us. It made the experience in Interlaken so much better despite the hiccups that we encountered. Also, this AirBnB was really awesome because not only was it located in a pretty and convenient area of town and looked pretty on the inside, the rental also included bikes that we could freely use while there. A pretty sweet deal and something we definitely wanted to take advantage of before we left town! It wasn’t until around 11am that we were finally ready to leave the apartment for our nice, leisurely fall bike ride around Interlaken.

After checking out the bikes and helmets in the garage and picking the right ones for each of us, we hopped on and were on our way through Interlaken. Wow, it felt great to finally cruise around on a bike again! It’d been so long since I had an opportunity to ride a bike around for fun. Interlaken was the perfect place to ride because the roads were relatively quiet and riding around was a good way to see the scenic city. Not to mention that the weather was perfectly crisp for fall riding today.

We leisurely biked around for a while since we knew we had until the early afternoon to get back for lunch before catching the train out to Lucerne. At first, the plan was to ride in a big circle around the east Interlaken area so that we could see everything we missed over the last couple of days. But we ended up extending our biking trip and riding out past Interlaken Ost Station and toward the shores of Lake Brienz. We rode our bikes beneath the changing fall colors and through quiet neighborhoods as we made our way toward the lake. We eventually made it to the lake area right outside of Boningen town. We hung out next to the lake for a few minutes and took in the beautiful views from there before biking through Boningen as we circled our way back toward Interlaken. Back in Interlaken, we biked through the old downtown area of the city and watched as paragliders landed in the park fields. We eventually took a couple turns here and there and ended up along the Aare River. Biking along the river was really nice too since the morning light made for beautiful town reflections on the quiet river surface that we enjoyed seeing the entire ride home.

Once we were back in our neighborhood, we made a quick pit stop to pick up some groceries before returning home to cook the last of the burgers for lunch. It was great planning on our part to finish up all of our groceries by the time we left town. So glad we made the decision to cook at home in Interlaken because it worked out super well and saved us a ton of money.

After lunch, we cleaned everything up and rushed out of the door because we didn’t realize how late it had gotten and how much time we would waste if we missed the train we had originally intended on taking to Lucerne. So we grabbed our bags and ran. We eventually caught the bus we needed to catch (because it had been delayed, giving us some time to actually get to the stop) and eventually made it on the train with a few moments to spare. Whew. We made it and saved ourselves from wasting another hour in Interlaken!

The train ride to Lucerne on the panoramic IR Interlaken-Luzern Express was great and super scenic because it took you up and through the mountains with views of pretty lakeside towns, like Lundgren, and mountains along the way. After a relatively short ride, we finally arrived in Lucerne, where we took a bus and did some walking to get to our hotel, Hotel Nozomi, for the next couple of nights.

We checked in and recharged for a little bit before we left to make the most of the remaining daylight in Lucerne. With evening quickly approaching, we quickly strolled through old town Lucerne and walked along the cobblestoned streets toward the water. There, we found the famous Chapel Bridge. We briefly checked it out and then rushed over to the lake to see the moon rise. After the moon was up and in the sky, we took a detour to see Hofkirche St. Leodegar and stayed until it closed before walking back into town to find dinner. We ultimately decided to eat cheap at Oh Wow! Thai Take Away. The food there was relatively affordable for the portions they gave us of Sweet and Sour Chicken and Tofu Pad Thai. And it was pretty good too! We chowed it all down with nothing left to spare and then took a post-meal evening stroll through old town again before calling it a night.

What a nice, chill day (except for the part where we had to run to the bus stop in Interlaken). On the schedule for tomorrow: Lucerne and its museums.

5 Things I Learned/Observed Today:

1. These panoramic train lines and lake cruises that people talk about and sell you on are, in actuality, just normal trains and boats running their normal, everyday routes but marketed as panoramic train rides or a special cruise adventures of some sort (like a brunch cruise or dinner cruise because they have food served during those times). It’s just a marketing thing it seems so don’t get too confused.

2. Based on what we’ve seen on this trip, it seems that if you’re looking for the fall colors in Switzerland, the best time to go is probably the latter half of October. Of course, that can change from year to year or from location to location. But overall, it seems like a safe bet to aim for the latter half of the month if you want to have success catching the oranges, yellows, and greens of autumn.

3. “Ost” means “East” in German.

4. When you get close to the wooden bridges and water in Lucerne, for some reason there are a ton of little flying bugs swarming around the area. I have no idea why they’re there or what they are but they’re everywhere. Hold your breath when walking through!

5. Lake Lucerne’s real name: Vier Waldstättersee.

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