Eastern Europe Day 5 - Prague --> Krakow (Poland)

Today we are leaving Prague for Krakow Poland. It is a multi faceted city where there are medieval old towns and horse-drawn carts dotting the modern city streets.

On the way to Krakow, we stop over for lunch and had KFC.

Evening we visited Wieliczka salt mine which was an optional tour at 55 Euros per person. IT is one of the largest tourist attractions in Poland, registered on the UNESCO list. Located 135m underground, there's a huge underground salt cathedral where everything is made out of salt. Waiting time to book cathedral venue for wedding is 3 years.

Eastern Europe Day 4 - Prague

We began our morning in Prague with a visit to the Prague Castle, the largest ancient castle in the world, St Vitus Cathedral.

Elbe River where we had our Cruise Lunch Buffet which was delicious.

 inside St Vitus Cathedral

Along Golden Lane, there's a Lobkowicz cafe where we had hot chocolate to warm ourselves and free wifi! The weather can be quite dreadful. At Golden Lane,  I bought this little book of Czech Fairytales for 13.20 euros.

 on our Elbe River Cruise. I really loved the cripsy pork skin on board.

 

 old market in Prague where we bought our fridge magnet.

 Astronomical Clock, where a crowd gathers at the start of every hour to admire the procession of the Apostles and other allegorical figures. We managed to catch the 6pm one outside Hard Rock Cafe whilst waiting for the whole group to gather.

On Charles bridge, the symbol of the old city of Prague and many baroque statues that decorate both sides of the bridge. There were many stalls selling original handicraft items.... albeit pricey but our local tour guide says that they are curated.

Ate a Trdelnik after changing some money! Trdelnik is a traditional Slovak Cake and sweet pastry. It is made from rolled dough that is wrapped around a stick, then grilled and topped with sugar and walnut mix. Reminds me of Aunty Anne's back home.

I did some shopping along the shopping street at H&M. Bought a jacket, 3 cushion covers and a towel.

Eastern Europe Day 3 - Berlin to Dresden to Prague

Good Morning! 

we are getting used to the cold now and the 6 hour difference between Singapore and Germany.

here's the view behind our hotel...there's a pretty river with nice landscape

lunch - pork knuckle with light beer.

i was surprised that my pork knuckle was not baked or fried to crispyness! it was stewed!!! OMG.

luckily our tour manager bought Singlong chilli with him. I ate my pork knuckle with the chilli and i managed to ate more than 3 quarters of it.

beautiful dresden - a retirement home for many

Eastern Europe Day 2 - Berlin

we joined a tour group of 37 people including ourselves by Chan Brothers. The flight was from Singapore to Germany Berlin, transit for 2 hours in Istanbul Turkey. The flight we took was turkish airlines which served very delicious Turkish Delights.

upon arrival, one of tour mates luggages had 2 missing wheels, so time was lost in filing a report. But that was okay cos everyone was really tired from the flight. Nobody was in a rush for anything yet.

Once the report was done, we embarked on a tour of beguiling Berlin, one of the trendiest and most cosmopolitan capitals in the world that is also steeped in a wealth of history and culture.

The first stop was to Potsdamer Platz, which is an important public square lying 1km south of Brandenburg Gate (3rd stop) and Reichstag (German Parliament Building) and close to the southeast corner of Tiergarten park.

This is also where we had our German Lunch! It's right next to a residential building by Richard Rogers.

Next stop was the iconic Berlin Wall at East Side Gallery where you can find many graffiti on it. The Berlin wall divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989. It is an open air museum with a section of the awll covered in approximately 106 paintings from all over the world as a testament for freedom.

my local guide tells us that this is one of the most famous painting - The Kiss

 Checkpoint Charlie - name given by the Western Allies to the best-known Berlin Wall crossing point between East Berlin and West Berlin. It is the third checkpoint (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie), hence the name Charlie is given. 

A "Berliner Mauer 1961-1989" plaque is placed on the floor here to signify where the wall stood.

Bradenburg gate - 18th century neoclassical triumphal arch in Berlin and one of the best known landmarks too. It is built on the site of of a former city gate that marked the start of the road from Berlin to the town of Brandenburg. It was commissioned by King Frederick William II of Prussia as a sign of peace. The gate is now closed to vehicle traffic and has been turned into a cobblestone pedestrian zone.

we also dropped by the Mercedes Benz Arena by JSK Architects with a seating capacity of 17,000.

We can bake!

ho ho ho.

one of our few favourite past times - cooking and baking!

and we made the dough from scratch too with help from our kitchenAid...

dough 

(needs to sit at least 1 hour for it to rise, this gives it more depth in flavour as well as a better crust)

• 2 cups plain flour
• 1 tsp yeast
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 cups warm water 

toppings

(preheat oven to 220 deg celsius and for our oven, the baking time was 10mins)

• pasta sauce
• mozzerella cheese
• salami or ham or other meat
• spinach leaves

xoxo

velle

My $2 Daiso Plant spray