My Trip To Europe - 28 September to 6 October 2011

Day 1 - 28 Sept

My flight is at 11.45pm and we took British Airway. We reached London Hearthrow Airport at 5.15am (HK time 12.15pm) and took a connecting flight to Rome. We arrived at Rome at 9am (HK time 4pm). So in total, the flight journey is about 16 hours. BA is more comfortable than I expected, I was able to sleep in the plane and did not have to suffer.... thinking of what to do during the long journey. I did not need to utilise my I Pad and I Phone to play games.

Our first destination is to have lunch, at about 12.50pm. We had Chinese food and it taste OK After that at 1.50pm, we went to St. Peter Basilica in Vatican. The church was really nice and large, with a lot of artistic statue worth admiration. However, I am not an artistic person, so don't really know how to appreciate those decorations. We left at bout 3.50pm and went to Colosseum.

We did not go in to the Colosseum and just took pictures outside the Colosseum. We left at 5.10pm and reached Trevi Fontien at 5.40pm.

This is the best part of today's itenerary. There are a lot of shops along the way to Trevi Fontien, selling food, ice-cream and other items. There are LOTS of people taking picture at the fountain and it was so difficult to find a place to take picture without some strange strangers in your picture.We tried the pizza (Euro3.70) here, but it's not as nice as those I tried back home. We tried the ice-cream (Euro5, 2 cups) too, the nutella ice cream is really nice. We went back to hotel at about 6.40pm.

First night hotel is Hotel Aris Garden. Terrible hotel, old and the bathtub and toilet has stains and is rusty. There are only 2 lifts in this 5 floor hotel and we were nearly trapped in one of the lifts. All hotels in Europe does not provide slippers, shower cap, toothbrush and toothpaste. We had dinner in the hotel. However, the food is amazingly nice, especially the lasagne and the potato.

Day 2 - 29 Sept

We left hotel at 7.45am and reach Florence's Michaelangelo Square at 12.10pm. It's a really nice place to take beautiful scenery pictures. We departed at 12.35pm and went for lunch. The first dish was pasta, the portion was large and taste horrible because it is too fry. The 2nd dish was chicken. So so only.

After lunch, we left for Pisa leaning tower at 2.20p and reached there at 3.45pm. This was an additional destination and we had to pay Euro 30 per person to visit. We left at 4.45pm and head towards Venice.

We reached hotel at 8.55pm and stayed at Sheraton Padova hotel tonight. This hotel is much more nicer than yesterday's, however the water in the bath tub is not flowing smoothly. The dinner is not so nice too, pasta was dry and tasteless.

Day 3 - 30 Sept

We left hotel at 8.15am today and reach the pier at 9am. We took the ferry to Venice and stayed there till 1.30pm. The scenery in Venice is really nice and there are a lot of shops selling mask. The mask are so nice and bought 1 for souvenir. We had "octopus sauce" spaghetti for lunch today, again...not nice.

We then departed to Innsbruck and stop by an area to see the historical buildings in that area. We tried the cheese sausage, it's so nice that I bought another one after tasting the first one.

We stayed at a hotel on top of the hill today. The name of the hotel is Hotel Kronenhotel. This is an inn kind of hotel, slightly better than first night's hotel. The dinner in the hotel was buffet style, taste quite good.

Day 4 - 1 Oct


We left at 8.15am to go to Swarovski museum today and reached there at 9am. I bought 2 very nice key chains there. We left at 10.40am and departed to Liechtenstein. We had lunch here at 2.15pm and departed to Luzern at 4.15pm. The lunch was sausage and taste good. Liechtenstein is such a boring place, we had nowhere to go to and ended up looking for a place to sit and played with I Pad games at 3pm.

We reached Luzern at 6.15pm and went to see The Crying Lion Memorial. We went to the hotel after that.

Tour guide brought us to the supermarket at 8.45pm and we bought a lot of chocolates since we will not be going to Belgium and can't buy Godiva chocolates.

Today's hotel is the nicest and newest hotel (newly renovated) and its ideally located near the Luzern lake. The name of the hotel is Hotel Flora Betriebe. We had buffet dinner and food was quite nice.

Day 5 - 2 Oct

We left hotel at 8.30am today and have free and easy time to take pictures and walk along Luzern lake. Very nice scenery.

I bought a watch that I liked very much, but wonder did I buy at an overly expensive price, since I did not survey before on the price in Hong Kong before buying, as I initially didn't have the intention to buy.

We left at 10.30am and reached Mount Titlis at 11.30am. We took the cable car to the hilltop and reached at 12.15pm. We had lunch, this time Chinese food till 1.15pm. The food was ok only. We then had free time to take pictures till 2.15pm. We went to the bus at 3.20pm but tour member was late and we waited till 3.45pm before we can depart to Beaune.

We reached Beaune at 9.45pm and had dinner at the hotel. The food was nice, especially the dessert. Hotel's name is Hotel Novotel Beaune and the hotel is quite nice.

Day 6 - 3 Oct

We left hotel at 8.30am and reached Paris at 12.30pm. We went to 2 places to take pictures, but not sure where it is. We went to Eiffel Tower after that. We then went to a Chinese restaurant for lunch, food was not nice. We reached Muse du Louvre and did not join the optional tour in the museum. We went to eat pasta that taste really bad but cost me Euro 10. We also ate ice-cream and I bought Loccitane body cream. After that, we walked around to take pictures. We left at 6.30pm for dinner at a Chinese restaurant and the food was quite good.

We then went for Paris night cruise and the cruise lasted for 1.15 hour. We reached hotel at 10.30pm.

Today's hotel is the worst, really very old, the whole bathroom is rusty and I had to close my eyes while bathing! I also had to close my eyes when washing my face and brushing my teeth. The room also has a kind of horrible smell, and I have to stay in this hotel for 2 nights.

Day 7 - 4 Oct

Today is shopping day. We went to Lafayette and Printemps for shopping from 8.50am till 6.30pm. We went for lunch at 12.30pm at a "French" restaurant. The food is REALLY HORRIBLE, except for the onion soup. It is also really expensive, cost us Euro60.

The bag I bought

The bag that I liked but didn't buy

The expensive coin pouch that I liked but didn't buy because too expensive

 I bought a Miu Miu bad, after thinking and considering for more than 1 hour. There is another bag that I like but didn't buy because I need to control my spending. There is also a coin pouch that I love very much, but is cost Euro 250, which is crazy so I didn't buy. I helped friends to by Chanel earring and Longchamp. My favourite Dior bad cost Euro 2k+ and wallet cost Euro 550, but I didn't buy. The wallet is about 50% cheaper than Hong Kong. Chanel is a hot favorite among PRC tourist, there's very long queue just to enter the store and almost all wallets are sold out by the time I enter the shop.

We had dinner at a French restaurant and the food is delicious!

Day 8 - 5 Oct


We left hotel at 9am and went to Champs-Elysees. I ate Haagen Daaz here. 3 PRC people asked us to help them to buy LV bags for them while we were walking. We left at 11.10am and had lunch at a Chinese restaurant at 11.30am.

We left at 12.30pm and went to Place De La Concorde, church on the mountain. The scenery on top of the hill is very nice, and there's an area with a lot of artist drawing portraits for tourist.

We left at 1.45pm and reached Paris airport at 2.45pm. We reached HK the following day, 6 October at about 2pm.

Conclusion

This trip is enjoyable, better than expected. The exchange rate when I visited was 10.54 for Euro and 8.67 - 8.73 for CHF.

The tour cost is HKD18,632 per person.