TRAVEL DIARY: FIGUERES About a 40 minute bus ride from Girona took us to Figueres, the home town of Salvador Dali. “I want my museum to be a single block, a labyrinth, a great surrealist object. It will be [a] totally theatrical museum. The people who come to see it will leave with the sensation…
Category: TRAVEL DIARY
Day tripping to Medieval Girona
TRAVEL DIARY: GIRONA Left our hotel early for Barcelona Nord. I organised this day trip via Get Your Guide. Met our guide at platform 17/18, left at 8:30 and arrived in Girona, Spain, in about an hour. Explored Girona with a local guide, who shared Game of Thrones Season 6 details which was shot there….
Park Guell: a fairytale-like experience
TRAVEL DIARY: BARCELONA DAY 3 Another place not to be missed when visiting Barcelona is Park Güell: it’s a fairytale-like experience featuring whimsical architecture, vibrant mosaics, and lush gardens meticulously crafted by Antoni Gaudí. Took an Uber to the Carretera del Carmel entrance of Park Güell. We chose the earliest available slot, I factored in…
Exploring the Wonders Within and Beyond Sagrada Familia
TRAVEL DIARY: BARCELONA DAY 2 It is not unusual to walk down the streets of Barcelona and not see art in whichever way or form. From Casa Batllo we walked about 10 minutes and we reached another of Gaudi’s masterpieces, Casa Mila, more popularly known as La Pedrera (meaning stone quarry in Catalan). We didn’t…
A walk through Casa Batllo
TRAVEL DIARY: BARCELONA DAY 1 After tiring our legs out in Paris for four days, hubby and I opted for a more leisurely pace in Barcelona. Our plan: two key attractions at the most daily, with the rest of the time dedicated to leisurely strolls around the city. Walked approximately 25 minutes from our hotel…
Parisian Art Exploration
TRAVEL DIARY: PARIS DAY 4 On our final day in Paris, October 11th, we aimed to explore as many Art attractions as we could before leaving. Initially, our plan was to visit Sainte Chapelle, but without a prebooking, the lengthy queue stalled our progress for 30 minutes. We opted to change course and explore another…
Strolling Through the City: A Parisian Adventure
TRAVEL DIARY: PARIS DAY 3 On October 10th, we embarked on the Batobus, eager to explore multiple stops with the flexibility of hopping on and off. Linked to Jo’s Monday Walk First stop: Jardin des Plantes. Walked by without going in—hubby and I weren’t too interested. Went past the Botanical Gardens… This is the stop…
A day in Montmartre
TRAVEL DIARY: PARIS, MONTMARTRE DAY 2 9th of October, our day started off early with breakfast at our hotel at 8 am. It wasn’t the usual buffet breakfast but wow was it so yum and healthy-ish. Great start of the day. Went on the metro just a 1 minute walk from our hotel. Emerged from…
Paris, here we come…
TRAVEL DIARY: PARIS DAY 1 We took the Eurostar from London to Paris on the 8th of October. The moment we emerged from the bustling Gare du Nord station in Paris we were greeted by a spectacular view and sunshine. The hotel we reserved on Belleville turned out to be small, but it wasn’t as…
Finsbury Park doors
TRAVEL DIARY: LONDON Departed Melbourne on October 4th, I endured a challenging 25-hour flight (including stopovers and layovers), finally reaching Heathrow Airport in the early morning. Upon our early arrival in London at my son’s place, I resisted the urge to nap, aiming to maintain my sleep schedule. Instead, I took a stroll around my…
Back in Ilocos Sur
(Road Trip Part 4) TRAVEL DIARY: VIGAN The last time we were here was in October of 2016. This is the UNESCO World Heritage City of Vigan, Established in the 16th century, this is the best-preserved Spanish colonial town in Asia. Calle Crisologo, the main street that is only open to pedestrians and horse drawn…
Last Day in Santiago
(Road Trip Part 3) TRAVEL DIARY: SANTIAGO 3 It is our last day in Santiago, Ilocos Sur so I wanted to have a time all to myself for a change. I wandered off around the grounds of Vitalis Villas before breakfast and savoured the sun, the wind and the sky. I didn’t realise it but…
Along the Seaside
(Road Trip part 2) TRAVEL DIARY: SANTIAGO 2 On our second day in Ilocos Sur, only three of us went for our walk bright and early to catch the sunrise, while the others were still fast asleep. The ambiance of the place may be very different from my previous post but it is owned by…
Santorini of the North
(Road Trip part 1) TRAVEL DIARY: SANTIAGO 1 I haven’t been to Greece so when my sister and nephew suggested that we go for a few days in this place said to be the Santorini of the North, then I didn’t hesitate on agreeing to go. This is quite a new experience for all of…
BGC Mural Walk
TRAVEL DIARY: BGC Bonifacio Global City also known as BGC is known for its stunning skyscrapers, its many restaurants catering to all types if cuisines, its colourful surroundings, and now for its many instagrammable murals dotting the city. BGC is a financial district in Taguig, Metro Manila, Philippines. It is located 11 km south-east of…
Museum Street in Angono
TRAVEL DIARY: ANGONO 2 Our Art road trip to Angono continues to Doña Aurora Street in Barangay Poblacion Itaas. It is home to the late National Artist Carlos “Botong” V. Francisco.. As a tribute, murals made of cement were installed on the walls that lined the street. These concrete murals were based on the actual…
The Orlina Museum in Tagaytay
TRAVEL DIARY: TAGAYTAY Modern indoor and outdoor museum featuring the works of internationally-acclaimed glass sculptor Ramon Orlina. The museum has four levels of exhibit area. The plus factor is that there’s some spectacular view of the famous Taal Lake from most window views of the museum. I really enjoyed the sculpture garden and the roof…
Road Trip to Angono
TRAVEL DIARY: ANGONO 1 Angono, Rizal is said to be the art capital of the Philippines. It is about an hours drive from Makati CBD (depending on the traffic… which I know is very unpredictable). The town traces its artistic roots to Angono Petroglyphs in Binangonan, the oldest rock art in the Philippines, with over…
Philippines Diary
And as a Filipino OPM (Original Pilipino Music) by Hotdog song goes: ManilaI keep coming back to ManilaSimply no place like ManilaManila I’m coming home TRAVEL DIARY: PHILIPPINES I should say that there are things that I don’t miss in the Philippines… the corrupt government is on top of my list. The sticky feeling that…
A rainy day in Budapest
“I told them they’d see me walking in the rain in Budapest.” – Mary Chapin Carpenter’ TRAVEL DIARY: BUDAPEST DAY 3 Our fifth and last day in Budapest was very cold and wet but that didn’t stop hubby and I to make the most of our day. We decided to go back to those places…
The quaint little town of Szentendre
“It is always sad to leave a place to which one knows one will never return. Such are the melancolies du Voyage: perhaps they are one of the most rewarding things about travelling.” – unknown TRAVEL DIARY: SZENTENDRE On the 17th of November, 2018 we went on a day trip to Szentendre (St Andrews), just…
A day in BUDApest
“Europe’s most underrated big city, Budapest can be as challenging as it is enchanting.” – Rick Steves TRAVEL DIARY: BUDAPEST DAY 2 It was a wonderful morning in November of 2018 and this was the view from the hotel where we stayed. Budapest, Hungary’s capital, is divided into two parts by the River Danube. The…
Budapest is Glowing
‘They said that, of course, Budapest is beautiful. But it is in fact almost ludicrously beautiful.’ – Anthony Bourdain TRAVEL DIARY: BUDAPEST DAY 1 It was dark when we got to Budapest. I wanted to freshen up a bit before going on our dinner cruise when I decided to just look out of our bedroom…
Esztergom
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” – Lao Tzu TRAVEL DIARY: ESZTERGOM Our Trafalgar tour was on its way to Budapest and we stopped by this lovely city on a hill…Esztergom! We just stayed there for a few hours to look at the scenery but oh my gosh…the view was…
Last Day in Vienna
“You need some reason why Beethoven, Mozart, and Haydn in the 18th century all flocked to Vienna. What was it about Vienna? They must have known on some level that that is where they would flourish. It’s what biologists call selective migration.” – Eric Weiner TRAVEL DIARY: VIENNA DAY 4 Situated in the very heart…
Sightseeing in Vienna
“Adventure is allowing the unexpected to happen to you. Exploration is experiencing what you have not experienced before.” – Richard Aldington TRAVEL DIARY: VIENNA DAY 3 It was the 13th of November 2018 and it was foggy, cold and raining when we went for our first breakfast in Vienna. Beautiful and calming scenery from the…
KunstHaus Wien
TRAVEL DIARY: VIENNA DAY 2 I am posting this for Ludwig’s Monday Windows and for Xingfumama’s Pull Up a Seat Challenge The KunstHausWien is a museum in Vienna, designed by the artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser. This museum houses the world’s only permanent exhibition of Hundertwasser’s works but it also hosts regular temporary exhibitions of other artists….
Quirky side of Vienna
“Dream on, but don’t imagine they’ll all come true. When will you realize… Vienna waits for you.” – Billy Joel (November 2018) After Bratislava, next stop was Vienna. TRAVEL DIARY: VIENNA DAY 1 It was already a bit dark when we got there but we managed to stroll around the grounds of the Hilton Vienna…
Bratislava
“To move, to breath, to fly, to float, To gain all while you give, To roam the roads of land remote, To travel is to live.” – Hans Christian Anderson TRAVEL DIARY: BRATISLAVA After Prague, our tour group passed by Bratislava for a few hours before continuing on to Vienna. Bratislava is a small city…
Last Day in Prague (Part 2)
“Prague never lets you go. This dear little mother has sharp claws.” – Franz Kafka TRAVEL DIARY: PRAGUE DAY 4 (Part 2) After our amazing pre breakfast walk, we went back to our hotel to have breakfast and to freshen up. Next in our itinerary was to go to Petrin Hill My husband and I…