Ending of Summer - Home Sweet Home

Last Sunday was the hottest day recorded for the year in Holland. At 32 DegC it was unusual as this Summer has been relatively mild with temperatures well below 22 DegC.

That Sunday the Dutch (and lots of Germans as well) thronged Schevenigen, a long stretch of beach in the Hague, in huge numbers, estimated to be around 290,000 people, creating massive traffic jams around the Hague. This picture was taken back in April when it was less crowded - imagine nearly the whole population of Brunei now sitting in there.

It has been exactly a year since we arrived here. This tuesday we will fly home for a 3-week stay.

Covered 4000 km in 10 days

Alhamdulillah, the 10-day tour went well. The biggest worry was whether the 7 kids in the group could cope with the journey. The 10-day tour totalled up to 2775 km of driving and about a thousand km on the train. There were also considerable milage on foot especially on the many city walks - some up to 4 km a day.

If there have been no traffic jam, total time driving should have been some 31 hours. But easily we ended up driving up to 45 hours.

In terms of fuel consumption, it was about 300 Euro per car. Hotel costs for 2 rooms for 9 nights per family amounted to about 1300 Euro.

Innsbruck - the Winter Sport Capital

This is one of the most beautiful city in Europe with its location between high mountains. The mountains also serve as an ideal place for skiing in winter with several ski resorts around Innsbruck itself. This is definitely worth a visit during winter time.

Just to prove the point, the Olympic Winter Games have been held twice here. From Innsbruck we stayed overnight in Munich before heading back to Holland. From Munich, its a distance of just over 800km taking about 10 hours to reach home.

Passing through Austrian Alps

The journey from Mestre to Innsbruck was supposed to take 3 hours. Because of traffic jams, it took 6 hours. It seems a lot of people were also heading home from holiday. This route through the Alps is more scenic than the one through Switzerland.

We noticed the motorways have comparatively more uphill and downhill driving and less tunnels to go through.

It Rains in Venice

Piazza San Marco, or known as St Mark's Square, is the main square of Venice, extremely popular with tourists, photographers and pigeons. A remark often attributed the Piazza "the drawing room of Europe".

During the late 13th century, Venice was the most prosperous city in all of Europe. At the peak of its power and wealth, it had 36,000 sailors operating 3,300 ships, dominating Mediterranean commerce. Venice traded with the Byzantine Empire and the Muslim world extensively. During this time, Venice's leading families vied with each other to build the grandest palaces and support the work of the greatest and most talented artists.

Romantic City of Venice

We never realised that Venice is actually located on an island. Venice is world-famous for its canals. The islands on which the city is built are connected by about 400 bridge. One of the most elegant way to travel along the canal is to use gandola - a bit too extensive though!

A boat ride from the bus station to the Piazza San Marco which is the main converging point for visitors costs 6 Euro. It takes you on a ride along the main canal, giving excellent views of the buildings lining up the canal.

Hotel Venezia

From Rome we went back by train to Milan and picked our cars. From there we drove eastward to Venice. The journey took us 4 hours, delayed by a number of traffic jams along the way.

We stayed in the city of Mestre on the mainland - the city of Venice is located on an island within the lagoon in front of Mestre. Venice is connected by a 5-km causeway to Mestre. We stayed in a hotel called Hotel Venezia, a lot cheaper than staying in Venice. There is also free parking. It costs 1 euro for a 20 minutes bus ride from the hotel to Venice.

World's Most Colourful Army

The Swiss Guard functions more for ceremonial purposes than anything else. They must be the most photographed army in the world.

Originally in the 15th century are Swiss mercenary soldiers who served as guards. But nowadays as long as you have a baby face and can stand up for a few hours should make you eligible to be recruited as one of them.

St Peter Square

Vatican City is located within the city of Rome, at 109 acres is the smallest independent state in the world. It is dominated by St Peter Square where a tall obelisk is located at the centre. It is said the obelisk dates back to the 13th century BC in Egypt before been moved to Rome.

In front of the square is the Basilica of Saint Peter, the most prominent building inside the Vatican. It is said to be the largest church building in the world and can holds over 60,000 people. Inside however is swamped with tourists.

Colosseum in Rome

Recently, this structure was included as one of the New 7 Wonders of the World. According to the info, the Colosseum was built in 72 AD dedicated to gladiatorial combats. Its hard to imagine that this structure once holds up to 55,000 spectators, that's like Old Trafford a couple of years ago. However the structure did not last the test of time with a number of calamities like earthquakes continuously threathening the structure.

In a way it was quite disappointing to see what is left to be seen inside.

Hot Summer

This beautiful fountain, located infront of the Milan Castle or known as Castello Sforzesco, is a nice place to relax and cool down in the simmering summer heat thats hitting Southern Europe right now.

While Northern Europe is experiencing a wet (too wet in UK) and pretty cold summer, Southern Europe is experiencing a heat wave with forest fires everyway. Temperature in Milan was 36 DegC. In Hollad it was hovering on average between 15 to 20 DegC in July.

This is WAGS territory

This is one of the landmark not to be missed in Milan called the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele in the Piazza Duomo, claimed to be the world's oldest shopping mall.

Completed in 1877, the covered double arcade, named after the first king of united Italy, is actually a street covered over by an arching glass and steel roof, typical of the design for nineteenth-century shopping malls. Nowadays famous brand shops like Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Ferragamo line up the 'street'.

TomTom brought us to Milan

With TomTom which is a GPS car navigation system, it is quite easy nowadays to travel. All you need is set your destination and TomTom come up with the optimum road journey for you.

In Milan we stayed in a hotel close to the Central Train Station and left our cars in a nearby garage which charges around 18 euro per day. There are at least a couple of halal restaurant around the station. You can also take a metro to reach the city centre.

From Milan we took a fast train (EuroStar) down south to Rome, costing about 40 euro each way. It takes about 5 hours to reach Rome.

The City of Fashion

Switzerland and Milan are world apart. It is as if every morning the ladies in Switzerland sweep their land and dump the dust in northern Italy. Milan is just that - dusty and a bit run down - apart from the high streets selling all the famous brands.

In fact Milan is also renown as one of the world capitals of design and fashion.

Driving through the Alps

After spending a night in Ibis hotel just outside Zurich (city hotels are expensive!), we set off driving through the Alps on the way to Milan. It took about 4 hours. We also passed through a number of lakes such as this one where the city of Lucerne lies on the bank.

The drives along the winding road along the mountain valleys are really scenic. What also helps is the number of tunnels built to make the roads safe and easy to drive. In all we passed through 47 tunnels before reaching Milan - the longest was called St Bernard tunnel which is 17 km long!

Zurich

Next stop is Zurich. It took about 4 hours to reach from Strasbourg. You have to pay for road tax to enter Switzerland and costs about 27 Euro.

Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland, slightly larger than the whole population of Brunei. Zurich like all the cities in Switzerland is famous for branded watches. Interestingly watches here are cheaper than what we found in Holland, contrary to what we have always been told.

Strasbourg

Strasbourg is the seat of several European institutions including the European Parliment. The city is clean and infrastructures like the tram are quite modern.

One of the most stunning view is the Central Station when viewed from our hotel at night. This is an excellent infusion of modern structure to lightened up old building.

European Summer Tour

On 26th July, we (2 families)set off in 2 cars for a 10-day holiday by road southward to Italy. The journey brought us to 8 countries - Belgium, Luxemburg, France, Switzerland, Italy, Vatican, Austria and Germany.

The first day we drove through Belgium and Luxemburg before reaching the European City of Strasbourg in NE of France. The jouney took about 7 hours including a stop. Strasbourg is situated on the Ill River, where it flows into the Rhine. The city is located near to the Vosges Mountains and the famous Black Forest. As this is the holiday season, there were significant number of Dutch cars on the road heading to sunny south - as if the whole country is emptying.

Stuck in Traffic Jam

Summer in Holland is synonymous with long traffic jam on the motorways. This is the period when serious road repair and expansion works are carried out.

Two weeks ago it took us 4 hours to reach Roermond which normally takes 2 hours. First we got stranded along A12 on the way to Utretch due to a road accident. The four-lane motorway was reduced to the hard shoulder (see photo) and car had to be diverted back. Passing the A20 from Utretch to Rotterdam, the traffic jam had already built up to 15 Km long after just one hour!

The next one was the A2 - comletely closed because of repair. This time we had to devise ways around town and country road to get us through.

Hair Braids

The Summer Food Fair is not only about food.

The large Nigerian community here has a stall where the ladies display their skill in making beautiful hair braids.

There were also various games. In all the food fair was well organised, well attended and lasted for 4 hours.

Summer Food Fair

We have been busy the last month. And so the reason for not putting any blog news lately.

The schools have been in celebratory and excursion mode during this period. Exams have long been gone. One of the events was the summer fair held at the Vlaaskamp school ground. Various food stalls were put on by the various nationalities representing the school to raise money for the school and other causes. The obvious favourites are the Malaysian stall where Nasi Lemak and Satay were snapped up quickly.

Cricket a Boring Game

In between lectures, we took our break outside and watched students play cricket. Sports is really a big thing in Cambridge. The are lots of open playing fields and so much greenery around you. One could see people having discussions in the open space while others were seen enjoying all sort of activities.

Back to cricket, I could never understand this game properly. Much prefer football.

Scene from Harry Potter film

Punting along River Cam we were given a guided tour of the university history and explanation on the many buildings on the river bank. This one is said to have featured in one of Harry Potter's movie. Not sure which college this building belongs to but it is an awesome sight.

Its June. Students were seen to be preparing for the main event in their calendar year - the May Ball. Despite the name, is a ball held in June at the end of the academic year. They are traditionally formal affairs, requiring evening dress, with ticket prices of around £65 to £160. The balls are held in the college gardens, lasting from around 9 p.m. until well after dawn.

Punting in River Cam

Punting refers to boating in a punt. Punt is a flat-bottomed boat. The punter generally propels the punt by pushing against the river bed with a pole.

The tradition in Cambridge is to do punting on the River Cam which flows through the Cambridge town. The banks on either side of the river belong to various university colleges. It was quite a soaky experience as the weather has not been too kind when we did the punting. Nonetheless it was an enjoyable trip.

The Mathematical Bridge

There are many popular myths associated with the University of Cambridge.

One famous myth relates to the so-called Mathematical Bridge. Supposedly constructed by Sir Isaac Newton, it reportedly held itself together without any bolts or screws.

The City of Nerds

Went to Cambridge to attend training at the Judge Business School. Riding in a taxi from the train station, I really felt at awe looking at all the youngsters walking by who supposely are brilliant undergrads or postgrads at the University. Well after all Cambridge has a reputation as one of the world's most prestigious universities.

Founded way back in the 1200 AD, the University of Cambridge currently has 31 colleges tucked within this small town of just over 100 thousands people. There are so much history in this place. The more famous colleges are King's, Christ's, Trinity, St John etc. They all somehow or rather started by church or monks.

Its Officially Summer!

Summer starts on the 1st June. The weather has been very pleasant - dry and temperature hovering around 22 to 25 DegC. The lawn has now finally been mowed and time for setting up our mini badminton court. The kids been imprving their recquet skill and kicking ball almost every day after school. Who can blame them. Its only becoming dark after 10pm. Maghrib is at 10pm, Isya at 12pm and Suboh is between 3 and 5.20 am!

Its now 10 months since we arrived in Holland. Time really flies. Back home people seems to be busy with what Brunei is best for - endless preparations and celebrations. I do hope Brunei also do its best on other fronts. Otherwise its like a luxury liner, people inside living in utopia and the ship burning its fuels as it happily sails, knowing the fuel will dry up eventually and the ship ending up in the middle of nowhere.

View of the Shopper's Street

Oxford Street nowadays offers good value-for-money for shopping. Primark, though not everyones favourite, has their largest store here and offers real bargains. It does bring a different variety to the normal brands along this largest shopping street in the world.

Obviously one could not resist going to Marks and Spenser - obviously for the biscuits, Topshop and Clarks. But also to avoid those rediculous shops like Selfridges. Other non starters are HMV, Debenhams and House of Frasers. For Bruneian, the Woolworths store along Edgware road is always something they could not resist not visiting if happened to be in London - a nostalgic trip back to bygone student days.

Chocolate Fondue

Hey look at this! Chocolate flowing like a fountain creating a chocolate waterfall. Its best to dip with strawberries or marshmallows.

But first the chocolate has to be heated up in the basin at the bottom to make it into liquid. Then it is transported up to the top of the fountain from where it will flow down. It does look very messy at the end. But worth having a go.

Bicester Village

On the way back to London we passed Oxfordshire and stopped over at a well known shopping outlet called the Bicester Village.

This factory outlet got about 100 stores offering high-end brands more familiar to those living in UK. It was raining and at 10 degC is unusually cold for the month of May.

It tool another hour to drive back to London.

Shakespeare Lived Here

William Shakespeare lived well in the 15th Century in what could be described as a grand house. His father, John Shakespeare was a successful glove maker and so could afford to live somewhat affluently. This house has now been turned into a musem and one could go on a tour with a guide explaining on the details of the house and how people lived in those days.

Much Ado About Nothing

On Sunday we went to Stratfordshire, the birthplace of William Shakespeare. This greatest of English writer was born in the 15th Century in this now famous town in Uk. Stratford-upon-Avon is one of the 20 must visit places in UK. Its nearly 2 hours drive from London along M40 just before reaching Conventry and Birmingham. Unfortunately the weather during the weekend was quite wet and windy. Otherwise it would have been one of the busiest bank holiday weekend in UK.

Back to Shakespeare, I remember I took English Literature as a subject and that covered Shakespeare's work such as A Midsummer Night's dream, The Tempest, Much Ado About Nothing, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar and Macbeth. I flopped.

Sunset

What do you do if you are stuck in your car for 6 hours. Watch the sunset go down as you realise precious time has been wasted on the road. The traffic jam was quite weird. At one section you could ride at 135 km/hr. Then after a few km, the whole traffic stands to a halt.

In Holland the maximum speed on the motorway is 120km/hr. There is another 7% allowance given before you get fined for speeding. So in theory you could go as fast as 128km/hr before you start to flout the law. In France the maximum speed is 130km/hr , meaning you can go as fast as 139km/hr. In Germany, the car floor is the only limit.

Jamming like Bob Marley does best

Another long weekend with the last public holiday before Christmas. We went to London again (macam keMiri saja) because the kids really love to go there again. This time we thought we were smart, leaving early at 3.30 pm on Friday. But what a trip.

We already got stuck before Rotterdam. Apparently lots of people have the same mind as us. Then we got stuck for an hour in Antwerpen before the Kennedy Tunnel (see photo). And lastly a huge delay along the motorway between Gent and Brugge. All in all it took us 6 hours to drive 336 km in what was supposed to take 3.5 hours on a normal day. We reached London at around 11.30 pm UK time.

Brain Drain

It sounds like utter desperation. In Borneo Bull yesterday Bruneian are told not to hesitate seeking employment overseas. This is because of current high unemployment amongst graduates. It does sounds like somebody finally throwing the towel on trying to create enough jobs albeit the country being small and still rich. With unemployment, social impacts are bound to be felt more and more.

So living and travelling in places like UK does bring your mind away from these issues. This is even more if you happen to live near Baker and Spice where you can spend Sunday morning having breakfast while watching the world happily revolve around you.

Brunei Hospitality

Visiting London is always enjoyable. Ask any Bruneian. Our HM just spent the last 2-3 weeks there.

For two nights we were invited for dinner by our cousins who live in Camden and Queens Park just a few miles north of Paddington. Surprisingly those places are quite nice areas to live with plenty of local shops and within travelling distance to Central London. They are also near to Finchley, Willesden and Kilburn. Houses are renting at 2000 pounds per month - pretty expensive. Its worst in Central London where Brunei Embassy pays around 6000 pounds for its staff. On the bright side, government schools are free. In Uk there is no charge for attending both Primary and Secondary schools. Don't get confuse this with public school. In England the term "public school" refers to fee-charging independent schools.

Stonehenge

There are many theories regarding how Stonehenge came about. My favourite one is that it is a British conspiracy to build something odd just to attract tourist. What ever it is, archaeologist think that it was built around 3200 BC. I don't really care and don't surprise me a big deal. In Egypt, mega structures were already built as far back as 5000 BC. So this is like building a small garden shed in the backgarden for the ancient Egyptian.

According to Wiki this site and its surroundings were added to the UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites. Again another conspiracy to boost tourism.

What's across the Fence

Stonehenge is located at Salisbury. Unfortunately the gate was already closed by the time we reached there at 7.30pm. We were not alone as many others were also dissapointed.

But at least we have been there and seen it. Well ...actually only seeing it behind the fence. At least the 8 kids in our entourage seemed to be enjoying the day trip.

Car Convoy

From Bath, we set off to Salisbury. Its about an hour drive through the country side.

The road goes up and down the many valleys in this part of the world.

The positive side is that the scenery around you looks very beautiful. This is what is better known as the famous English countryside scenery.

Roman Bath

On Saturday, on FA Cup Final day, we drove westwards from London to Bath. The journey took 2 hours. We went for park-and-ride meaning you park your car just outside the city and then take a ride on a bus to go into the city. Its very convenient and save you all the hassle of trying to find parking spot within the city.

Bath is in South West England and is most famous for its Romans baths fed by three hot springs. The Romans built an extensive building complex around the hot springs, this is now Bath's main tourist attraction. The city is also a lively place with the main shopping street lined up by all the famous High Street shops.

Where's the Big Whale

The Natural History Museum is one of three large museums along Cromwell Road in South Kensington. This place is worth a visit for both adult and children alike. And its free!

The museum is home to some 70 million items of life and earth science specimens. Split into 4 zones - the Blue Zone houses the dinasours and mammals, Green Zone for the birds, plants and so on, the Red Zone houses the Earth exhibitions and the Orange Zone for Darwin and wildlife gardens.

We only toured the Red and the Blue. Unfortunately the Big Whale section was closed, apparently the big whale was being washed.

The Prime Minister in the House

From the London Eye, one can directly see the Downing Street, the official residences of the UK Prime Minister (No. 10) and the Chancellor of the Exchequer (No. 11).

Downing Street is within a walking distance from the House of Parliment and the ground of the Buckingham Palace is just right at the end of the street.

In the past there were plans to build a more modern building in the Downing Street. Again British being very conservative, the plans never took off.

House of Parliment

From the London Eye, one can easily see and recognise many famous landmarks. Across the River Thames is this building where the two Houses of the UK Parliment (the House of Lords and the House of Commons) are located. The building is actually called the Palace of Westminster.

The complex has been built in bits and pieces stretching back to 10th Century. At one side of the building is the clock tower which houses the famous bell 'Big Ben'.

The World's Biggest Bicycle Spoke

The best place to start viewing London is by going up in one of the 32 capsules of the London Eye, also known as the Millennium Wheel.

It is currently the largest in the world to be beaten by Singapore in a couple of years time. Each capsule holds about 25 people and takes about 30 minutes to complete a revolution.

It is a gigantic structure, when at the top it easily towers all the building around it.

Titchborne Row

This is the place we stayed, near to Edgware Road and about 100m from Hyde Park. Hotels in London may cost you an arm and a leg, so consider yourself lucky if you happen to have close relatives or families in London. This place is also conveniently located near to many restaurants along Edgware Road and of course within a walking distance to Oxford Street.

London has not changed much, the only difference I noticed is the increase in traffic so driving is not recommended. We parked our car in the basement park and rather used the Tube to travel around during daytime.

London via Euro Tunnel

Its a long 4-days weekend and this time we headed to London. The last time we were there was 9 years ago in 1998. Such a long time ago! At that time we also drove from Holland. The whole car journey took about 7 hours.

It takes about 3.5 hours from The Hague to reach Calais in France before going on the shuttle train into the Channel Tunnel to reach UK. It takes about 35 minutes to cross under the English Channel, costing between 90 to 140 Euro depending on when you book the ticket. The Channel Tunnel is some 50 km long and started to be used in 1994.

Bookworm in the House

This is what happened if there is a bookworm in the house. Fiz been reading all of these in the last 8 months and slowly piling them up. This doesn’t include those books that she borrowed from the school library.

English books can be found in a couple of English bookstores in The Hague. The biggest is the American Bookstore which has a wide selection and also gives 10% discounts for members. There is an even bigger bookshop (can’t remember the name) along Amsterdam main shopping street – Kalverstraat.

Shop ‘Til You Drop

Fiz has been keeping all her shopping receipts and organized them in bundles. She has been doing well with her shopping apparently. This must be a new found hobby amongst teens now days. It is a good sign that teens nowdays are more conversant when it comes to money matter.

Bruneian needs to be prepared for the inevitable when the county’s economy no longer can rely on the exploitation of its current fast dwindling reserves of petroleum and natural gas. Weekend’s news that the Methanol project finally got its financing sorted out is good news. But that still rely on our precious gas reserves. It won’t be a surprise when reality sags in the near future that we did not do enough to prepare for the future. Philippine used to be the most developed economy in Asia but has degenerated to oblivion.

Across the Bridge

This photo was taken while we were in Giethoorn two weekends ago. A draw bridge, a bride that can be retracted to allow boat to pass through, is common sight in Holland. The process can be quick – less than 5 minutes, depending of course how many boats are passing through.

The alternative is to build a short underpass below the canal or river. Again this can be found in many locations here.

Football is a Funny Game

In the old days, we used to call our favourite playground as 'Wembley'. Nowadays that name has disappeared and I struggle to find a nice name for our little practice ground in the backyard.

Watched the two Champions League semis this midweek - what a difference. The first game between Liverpool and Chelsea was all about true passions for the game shown at all levels - the players, the managers and the supporters. The second between AC Milan and Man U was a complete mismatch - with only one team showing the initiative while Man U being lethargic and played like a third-tier league team. Blaming tiredness might be valid but football is all about passion, the appetite to win must be there.

So in three weeks time 2005 final repeats itself - Liverpool vs AC Milan. Who will win?