Salam peeps. Happy to say that Jaja is here with us since 19 Dec and we are all one happy family although the thot of her having to go back sometime early January makes me sad. Having scored First Class for her trials SPM she is entitled to apply for Skim Pelajar Cemerlang, the options being Petronas Uni (UTP), Medic Russia or Engineering Australia. I would have liked her to pick the overseas ones but she has set her heart on UTP so I'm behind her all the way. If she is successful in her application, she has to start by mid Jan 2010 which is like 2 weeks away.
So, to make the best of the short time that we have, upon her arrival, we pushed off to the small village of Rust in Southern Germany, very close to the borders of Switzerland and France. That way we could cover 3 countries at one go from our base at a small but cosy 1 bedroom 7 bedded apartment in Rust. It was quite cheap by European standards, costing us 450 Euro for the 4 nights and we could save on outside meals as the apartment came with a fully equipped kitchen. We picked the wrong day to travel with temperature down to -14 degrees...a normal journey of 5 hours turned into 8 hours complete with blizzard and snow everywhere, even on the road. If not for the lori yang cleared the snow, the road would have been impassable. Suspen jugak especially when it got dark so early these days and the car wiper bekerja keras trying to clear the screen and hubby trying to see ahead. But syukur Alhamdulillah kami selamat sampai ke destinasi.
First day pergi Europa Park, kinda like a smaller version of Disneyland. The setting and theme at the park was of course winter wonderland befitting the current season. Kena pulak memang it was snowing at that time. Jaja, Imran and Syirah naik all the thrilling rides again and again sebab orang tak ramai and tak payah queue. As for me, most of the time temankan Hakeem on the kiddy rider jer. Then tetiba teringin jugak nak naik one ride with a thrill factor of 3 yang looked like not too terrifying. Tanya Jaja takut tak...dia kata tak der. So off I went with them on their 3rd ride. Menyesal tak sudah bila dah naik....pejam mata, pegang topi takut melayang sambil jerit I'm so gonna get Jaja after that. Should have known better than ask Jaja!
Second day we crossed over to Switzerland. Mula-mula to Luzern which is about 2 hours away. Nice and picturesque town so we snap gambar sini sana, beli jam Swatch for the kids (bukan murah sangat with prices about the same as kat Msia but since dah ke situ where they are made beli la jugak buat kenangan), had lunch at Doner kebab joint and pushed off to Zurich. Sampai Zurich dah dekat malam so tak dapat tengok banyak benda sangat. Sampai apartment, cooked dinner and off to dreamland.
Third day went seeking for a ski station somewhere in France. We purposely cari one which is not too commercialised as we're on a tight budget. Kalau go to places like Titlis and such be prepared to spend a bomb. So with 2 members ie Syirah and Ami Ziad yang boleh speak a smattering of French we found our way to La Schnepfenried, a small ulu ski station near the small town of Munster in France. It was worth the getting sesat and driving the car uphill sampai jalan tutup not knowing that we took the wrong turn. The scene at the place we sesat tu was magical, ala-ala scenes in The Chronicles of Narnia. When we reached the right destination having backtracked and taking the right turn, the scenes were SubhanAllah....breathtaking. After renting snow board for Imran and 2 snow bobs to be shared amongst the rest, we had loads of fun playing. I must say Imran is a natural at snow boarding having spent a lot of time skate boarding in Malaysia. I just luv to watch him cooly zooming past us.
Our next stop is the town of Colmar. Yes...this is the town that the resort Colmar Tropicale in Bukit Tinggi is mirrored after I think. Very picturesque town with pretty, old quaint buildings and the existence of the Christmas Market lends added charm to the whole atmosphere. Pusing-pusing exploring the town on foot, balik nak cari kereta sesat lagiiii....of course la led by hubby yang memang baran and hard headed tak nak dengar cakap orang...menonong-nonong macam confident but last-last mengaku kalah after walking in circles. Same thing happened in Berlin when he took us including Tok Ma and Atuk on a marathon, mentang-mentang la masa tu ada Berlin International Marathon, we had a marathon of our own!
On the last day tu we made a short stop in Strasbourg, another French town bordering Germany. Not nearly as pretty as Colmar but enough for us to take a short walk around the town centre and snap a few photos. Lepas tu off we went on our journey back home. It rained throughout half of the journey but Alhamdulillah after Frankfurt the weather improved and we reached home safely that night. All in all we had a wonderful time and got to start saving from now for the next vacation especilly with many people asking us to join them on their jalan-jalan Europe next year.
