Cool scenery on the way to Verona, Italy (another 5 hours driving) after staying overnight @ B&B Motel along A9 Autobahn, somewhere before reaching Munich, towards Innsbruck. The building is a church and most of them have minarets like this one in this part of the world.
Also tepi highway in Austria on a hill overlooking the town of Innsbruck.VERONA
Romeo...Romeo..wherefore art thou Romeo...? This is Juliet's house siap with the balcony where she tragically called out to Romeo. Nobody knows whether the lovers really existed or not but VERONA holds the claim to having the houses of the greatest lovers in history. The bronze statue in front in the courtyard is supposedly that of Juliet. The most in-thing to do when visiting the statue is to rub its right breast, konon nyer will bring good luck. Sebab tu la the right side of the bronze Juliet nampak macam bersinar-sinar dari yang sebelah lagi! And kecik sikit kut sebab dah haus...selalu sangat kena rub-a-dub-dub.....
Hundreds of notes proclaiming love, stuck by visitors on the wall near the entrance to Juliet's house. Yang sedang hangat bercinta, semua proclaim cinta sejati Romeo & Juliet. Lekat la satu note "I Lap U" kat situ.
Venice is built on an archipelago of 177 islands formed by 177 canals in a shallow lagoon.
Piazza San Marco, Venice. We opted for a walking tour on our own rather than taking the water taxis as it enabled us to get sesat here and there while simultaneously discovering the area on a more personal basis. Bukan nyer jauh pun to get from one end to the other. Very old buildings, small walkways, bridges across canals, quaint shops including those yang tourist traps yang mencekik darah selling souvenirs from keychains, masks right up to Murano glass and hand made lace (konon hand made by the locals but heard that many were conned into buying mass produced versions from China), cobbled streets, sounds of water lapping up the walls, deep green lumut kat dinding, gondolas passing by along the smaller canals.....haihhhhh...so enchanting... rasa tamau balik worrr....
An Arab brother solat right there tepi canal and depan museum (Gereja), tak yah lapik pun. No excuses for not praying, di mana ajer anda berada, boleh belaka, tepuk dada, tanya Iman...
Such great view from the pier at Piazza San Marco overlooking the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute
Dapat jugak naik gondola after much haggling. Mula2x dia letak €120, we say €50...dia kata kalau nak €50 kayuh sendiri daaa....last2x agreed at €70 for the 5 of us. Ok lahhhhh....
This halal pizzeria is where Mama panicked when Angah went missing. Tengah sedap makan pizza and doner kebab he rushed out kata nak pergi toilet. Belum sempat pesan apa-apa, dah hilang. Minah Italian tu dah siap masak 2 gigantic pizzas yang dia tengah sodok dalam gambar ni. Tunggu punya tunggu tak jugak muncul, sampai almost 45 minit. Mama dah rasa seram sejuk, phasing up and down the alley, heart felt as if it dropped down the pit of her stomach. Abah seperti biasa cool jer...tak macho ler panic2x ni. Thousand and one permutations going in Mama's head...maybe he took a wrong turn and got lost in the maze of alleys....kena kidnap dik Mafia (ada Mafia ke kat Venice?...selalu dalam TV kat US tu ada la...) and dibawak depa lari naik water taxi. Seriously, memang senang nak hilang kat situ coz the alleys all look the same and the bridges across the many small canals will lead you to a totally different direction. Satu hal lagi macam mana nak cakap kat polis...we know only a smattering of Italian...prego, uno, due..and Italians ni sangat susah nak cari yang boleh berbahasa Inggeris. Kalau pun dah cakap kat polis, bukan nyer polis boleh pakai hailer and call out..."Alif Roziaedy...please come to the counter, your Mama dah pengsan with worry". He could be on one of the many islets. So...not knowing what to do, Mama with air mata bergenang sat on one of the bridges and doa kat Allah SWT supaya pelihara anak Mama tu. Tak lama lepas tu, selamba jer dia jalan towards us. Biasa la kebanyakan orang Melayu, tadi anak hilang menangih, dah jumpa kena marah ler, nasib baik tak sekeh kepala tu. Dia boleh cakap..."aper Mama risau, chill la. Angah tau jalan la....lagi pun rupa Angah kan ke macam Italian" . Hishhhh....suruh pegang bucu baju Mama bila jalan nanti baru tau yer....
LEANING TOWER OF PISA
Bad weather when we were in Pisa....drove 3 hours from Venice just for Abah to tahan tower ni with his hands dari torgolek....we were in awe masa mula2x sampai, like watching a life-sized postcard of the leaning tower. Most people took shots with hands up in the air konon2x menahan tower ni. In this pic Abah panjat atas batu just so that he "tahan" the middle part.
Ada rupa Italian boy ke?
LAKE GARDA
Lake Garda is one of northern Italy's popular tourist destination. Since the lake is huge and we were on a "touch-and-go" kinda trip, we had to pick and choose certain areas only. We were at Sirmione, salah satu dari Lake Garda's most popular sights. One of its major landmark, Scaleger Castle was built towards the end of the 12th century as part of a defensive network surrounding Verona.
BERNINA EXPRESS : TIRINO, ITALY -ST MORITZ, SWISS
The Bernina Express also called the Red Train chugs along the Unesco World Heritage Line at 30 km/h. It is one of the most spectacular ways to cross the Alps, taking tourists from Chur (the oldest town in Switzerland) to the village of Tirano (Italy) going through 55 tunnels and 196 bridges. It is the highest alpine tranversal in Europe and one of the steepest railway dalam dunia passing through mighty glaciers and highest mountains. We didn't take the full route sebab teramat mahal tiker nyer untuk 5 orang so we opted for a section of the full journey, from Tirano to St Moritz rather than up to Chur. 2-hour journey up so enough for us to go ooohhh...and ahhhhh...Being the skiing playground for the rich and famous, St Moritz itself tak der anything interesting apart from the skiing activities and the breath taking sceneries.
ST MORITZ
Jaja was here for her semester break recently. After landing at Schipol Airport, Amsterdam, bawak Jaja pergi tengok bunga around Keukenhof tapi tak masuk sebab we were rushing to Paris. We stopped by some of the ladang2x bunga near Keukenhof which were abundant with tulips and such when were there end-April, now tengok-tengok dah tak banyak coz the season is nearing its end. Ada la several ladang yang masih bersaki-baki tulips so we kuatkan semangat, parked the car by the roadside and redah ambik gambar. Jaja was a reluctant accomplice but Mama and Syirah dragged her for her photo shoot. Tapi tak boleh lelama and posing ala Hindustan as we were considered trespassing into private property. Dalam pada posing and jeling-jeling takut security guard halau some workers saw us and jerit-jerit marah so...cha...alif...but...la we ran back to the car. Syirah siap boleh jerit balik lagi...
We just lepak-lepak depan the tower as tersangat panjang queue untuk beli entrance ticket., berelit-belit line dia Since Mama, Abah and Jaja dah pernah naik dulu, this time we gave it a miss, lagi pun hari dah nak malam although still cerah. Ada rezeki, next time Angah, Syirah and Hakeem boleh naik, lepas Subuh kena queue kat situ. After that we walked along River Seine and balik apartment, everybody exhausted after a day walking and hopping on-off the Metro trying to capture as much of Paris in a day. Paris is truly romantic and enchanting. Try experiencing Paris by night, lagi lomantic worrrr....especially for couples in love.
Yayyy...Disneyland. Although Jaja dah pernah pergi masa trip with Opah Yang way back in 1997, she said she couldn't recall any of the rides so since adik2x dia tak pernah datang we spent a whole day here. Ticket teramat mahal, 1-day 1-park ticket costs €68 sorang, ada 2 parks there, Disneyland Park and Movie World, so 2 parks will set you back by more than €100 sorang. Since we were rushing anyway, we took the 1-day 2-park ticket. Time limited la sebab kena cover 2 parks in one day. Cost is around €60, itu pun dapat discount sebab buy through internet. Kalau convert RM300 seorang satu ticket harus tak masuk kut sebab kalau 5 orang dah RM1,500. Dah masuk and dah nak balik, the kids said..."Ma, rasa macam Movie World kat Gold Coast lagi best la". Ye ke...
Mama naik kiddy rides with Hakeem, konon2x nak teman Hakeem tapi sebenarnya tak berani naik the more adventurous and exciting ones. Jaja, Angah and Syirah enjoyed themselves the most, naik the thrilling rides more than once after getting the Fast Pass tickets. Their favourite ride is the Twilight Zone....lift yang naik up to the top of this hotel tower and then drop down...one could hear the screams from outside. Abah tukang jaga bag makanan while reading his book. Never thought it would happen but he seems to have caught the reading bug from Mama and her girls. Abah's into Dan Brown sekarang.
The kids had a blast peluk2x cium Mickey.
Snow White was so popular and so pretty too, tak dapat nak get her personal autograph and take photos with her.
Berkelah at one of the gazebos. Food is so very expensive kat dalam park so tapau nasi lemak bungkus daun pisang and some titbits bought at Carrefour near our apartment. Mama kena la wake up early to prepare the food, siap layor daun pisang atas the electric plate. Abah also solat kat gazebo ni.
Au revoir....till we meet again...nak datang lagi ke? With the expensive tickets, Disneyland Paris tak la kut but Disneyland LA or Miami mungkin...insyaAllah kalau ada rezeki.
Minnie Mouse keletihan....nak jalan balik pergi kereta pun dah tak larat.
