Chekie PaMa Fabulous Holiday 2011: Barcelona (19 - 21 July)

The flight from Berlin to Barcelona was 8.55am, therefore we ordered a taxi to take us from the hotel to Barcelona. Stunning enough it was a lady taxi driver who came picking up at 5ish in the morning. Although she couldn’t speak much English, I felt that she is a nice lady.

After checking in, first thing first was to let my parents ‘eat’, especially my dad. As usual, mom was good enough in helping me to save money, they both had the pot noodles (mom brought them from Malaysia), and I was just having a very thick espresso. I was knackered as not sleeping that well in the Berlin hotel.

We arrived in Barcelona at late morning. And yet again, we took cab from Barcelona airport to Hotel Evenia Rocafort. It was a lovely hotel. Click here for my review to the hotel. I specially giving my appreciation to one of the receptionist, unfortunately I don’t know his name. He was giving me a great hand in helping me to transfer my pictures from my memory stick to the external HD. Most probably there was an issue with my old HD, the transfer just won’t work. Still, big thanks to him. He then directed me to one of the gadget shop just down the road so I can get a new memory stick. Still I didn’t get one until the next day in another shop. Lol.

Caught mom was sleeping while I was busy doing my transfer..

The receptionist reckoned us to walk to the sights instead of taking public transport. Dad was first opened his mouth and told the receptionist that he is old and couldn’t walk that much. The receptionist then asked how old is my dad. My dad said he is 56, and the receptionist said, you don’t consider yourself old in mid fifties. It is like a slap on my dad’s face, then he stopped to complain so much about walking. Of course, both my parents are physically fit.

Stopping for some cakes

Somewhere near the university

Stopping at the Plaça de Catalunya, which is one of the busiest square in Barcelona

Me chasing the pigeons, but the pigeons seemed like very calm..Maybe I am over reacted…lol

La Ramble street.. busiest street in Barcelona, selling all sorts..

Quite a nice art piece

Somewhere near Santa Maria del Mar

A bloke was showing his balloon tricks to the kids near Santa Maria del Mar

Then we stopped by some shops and did some shopping. I got a sling bag in only 4 euros..haha..although it is a ‘Made in China’

After all, we decided to keep walking around, looking at the city and people, with no clear direction in mind. We didn’t have GPS, all we had is a paper map we took from the hotel. As we walked along, we realised that we were not long to Port Vell area. So we kept walking…

Arriving at Port Vell

Me and my dad jiggling

One of my favourite picture near Port Vell


Walking towards the Columbus Monument

Wondering what mom and dad were watching…

Time for some dinner and heading back to La Ramble street..Absolutely love the art piece

Dad wanted Chinese food again…grrr…

One of the famous fruit market in Barcelona

There is a Carrefour supermarket in La Rambla street. So if you are in a budget trip, you can get food and necessities there. We bought some bread, buns and of course still water. Not sure why, I felt that the still water tasted better than the tap water.

Found a Chinese shop in our way back to the hotel. Dad bought some pot noodles for our breakfast next morning. Please note that you have to pay extra for breakfast in most of the hotels in Barcelona..

Click here for more pictures..

To be continued..

Chekie PaMa Fabulous Holiday 2011: Berlin (17 - 19 July)

Daa..lah..After spending four days three nights in the lovely Athens, we moved to our next destination - Berlin.

We arrived there in mid-afternoon. It was raining. I could tell from my dad’s face how happy he was with the weather, at least it was chilling and not as that hot compared to our first two destinations, Rome and Athens.

Again, we took cab from the airport to Hotel Bogota Berlin . Read my review in Trip Advisor here. We couldn't bother to work out the underground route to the hotel for a simple reason, the underground in Berlin was too complicated for us! I could only recognise the U-Bahn and S-Bahn :)

Taxi Rate
Berlin Underground, quite like it though..

After we dropped our stuff in the hotel, we walked around Kurfürstendamm area. First thing first, we were looking for a internet café, so that I could transfer my pictures from the memory stick to the hard drive. As usual, most of the internet cafés blocked massive storage device. I was lucky enough to have the lovely local waitress to help me with her personal laptop. She gave me a hug after helping me without wanting my tip. She was just wondering why we were visiting Berlin.

We took snaps with the United Buddy Bears along the street in Berlin. Look at my dad and mom!

We walked pass by Zoologischer Garten . We didn't get in as the ticket sounded deary for us, plus my parents weren t really interested in animals. Haha!


Anyway, my lovely dad always wanted for either KFC or Chinese food for dinner& grrr& In order to shut his mouth up, haha, I brought him to KFC for dinner. He was delighted!
Look at the KFC behind this picture!


While walking back to hotel, we dropped by to see the Story of Berlin. Basically it was an exhibition hall introducing the Berlin the city.

Before we got back to our room, we took a picture with the reception. He studied mandarin in a school in Beijing before. He spoke better mandarin than I do! Blimey!

As there was no telly nor any type of entertainment in our small room, we trio just sat down and chit chat. Anyway, mom and dad seemed like enjoying themselves : )

After having our breakfast in the hotel, we departed early to see some of the Berlin attractions. Taking the underground was definitely a nightmare for us. I guess we were just not smart enough. We wanted to get to the Brandenburg Gate. Luckily we met with a man in his fifties, probably sixties, err, I don't know..who lead us the way as he was going in the same direction. He spoke very good English and has his own business, pretty tall and with white hair. This is the only details I can remember for now. When we passed by the border, he explained us which site belongs to east, and which site belongs to west by jumping around. It was quite interesting to know& and also, after I got to know more about the city, I felt a bit sad about the history of this city.

We passed by Holocaust Memorial , which is the memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe. I could feel my excitement went down a bit, however, I felt like wanting to know more about the city.

Then we took some snaps at Brandenburg Gate and Reichstag. We would like to get to the dorm, unfortunately we hadn't prebook the ticket.


Me sitting on the torn down Berlin Wall

We bumped into a Berlin free tour . Basically the tour guide is working on tips. It is your choice whether or not to tip after the tour finishes, still this is not nice people will do. The one that we bumped into was about 4 hours tour. Started at 11ish and finished at about 3ish. The tour guide was Sam from Bournemouth, UK. Apparently he is doing his PhD in History in Berlin. I thought he is a very good story teller. I have enjoyed every single bit of his tour. Although I have to translate what he said to my parents afterwards. Lol.

Sam

This is the area where Hitler killed himself. Now it is only a car park

This is the building where used to be Nazis operation centre. After the WW2, it became East German operation centre, and if am not mistaken, it is now a tax building for the Germans. Also, Sam told us that the film Valkyrie was taking most of the scenes here.

The remaining Berlin Wall

You can easily recognise the area if it is East German before the unification, by the traffic light

Trabis the East German car..Imagine how people can squeeze under the small trabis cushion just for the sake to get transported safely to West German..

Charlie Checkpoint, one of the famous checkpoint across the east-west German border

Walked pass by some magnificent buildings and memorial..

This is where Nazis had the book burning ceremony

University of Hamburg

One of the building that East German government proud of

I tipped Sam twenty euros for a wonderful tour. Then we headed to Hackescher Markt.

After that, we went back home resting then having our dinner in a local German pub as my dad was prohibited from having anything Chinese or KFC. He accidentally ordered some cold dish and he said ‘我本来是可以吃到很开心的‘ which means he could have something better but I forced him to try local cuisine..lol.. anyway, mom was happily finishing up his left over!

Me and my dinner

The German government is spending loads every year trying to replenish their historical buildings so they have something for the younger generation to see. This city has been though loads of wars and most of the historical buildings are ruined. Started before the first world war, then world war one and two, followed by the East-West German split. Anyway, what we are seeing now, is a strong German.

We have had a wonderful time in Berlin.

Next stop -Barcelona..

Click here for more pictures in Berlin...