There is a time to start and a time to end. This story has to be finished and for those of you who were reading it during the company hour, you've got to get back to work :-). Those who took a break from their study, you better get back to your thesis work :-). Well my friends, I told you earlier that we loved Milan. Actually, after we had the time to digest all our experiences in the 5 European cities we visited this time, we loved them all. Each city was unique and brought good memories, including the 'free tour' to Murano :-). It was compounded by our 'luck' that we met C and H in Zurich who offered us to stay at their apartment on our last night in Europe after we arrived back from Salzburg. Imagine if we had to go to Camping Seebuch and endured the hassle of just one night camping. I might not be able to smile back to all the Singapore Airlines stewardesses on our Zurich-Singapore flight :-).
Our train from Salzburg, after passing many beautiful and scenic places around the border of Austria and Switzerland, arrived around noon on May 21. Knowing Zurich well then, we stored our backpacks at the train station and we took advantage of our Eurailpass. Its holder was entitled to a free Lake Zurich tour. However, because of the time, we took the shorter (one hour) version of the tour. It turned out that we were on the public boat (not an exclusive tour boat) that stopped at many places. Eventually getting bored as that lake was nothing special, we got out at a place called Kirchberg. The idea was to visit Lindt chocolate factory near there. Bad luck this time because the tour was only in the morning. Lonely Planet misguided us again when it said that visitors would get ample sample of free Lindt chocolate. It was a lie, cause we were offered only ONE small piece of Lindt chocolate. It was even smaller in size and less in quantity than those we gave to our neighbours' kids at Halloween time :-). No wonder Switzerland is a rich country :-).
I was kidding of course because C who was so generous with her time and everything else for us, picked us up at the station after we returned from our do-it-yourself tour. We had dinner together and continued chatting till the evening with her and her husband. I enjoyed talking to H because he has a hobby to visit hot countries like Indonesia and Kenya (safari). When I asked what is his favourite place in Indonesia, he said Bangka (island). I was alarmed and of course demanded a justification :-). He had been there several times and he said, the beaches were perfect. I didn't want to argue with my host, of course. But later on, without H knowing I verified his statement with my Bangka island relative who swore without the bible that H was right :-). Since my wife doesn't like hot places too much, I doubt that I will ever visit Bangka island. C showed us an exemplary generosity of an Indonesian, not only by driving us to the airport, but walked together to the departure gate on our last day in Europe, May 22. She could do so because she worked for Garuda Indonesia (airline) office in Zurich and thus has special privileges.
I have many friends and some of you guys do not believe in God which is fine with me. After all, in my birth country called Indonesia, it seems that the more people believe in God, the more determined they are to kill one another. So, whatever you believe in, the canoe "god", the cycling "deity", they all must have worked together with the God that I believe in making our European trip such a wonderful experience. Whether you gave us your blessings and prayed for us or you just said farewell, I thank you again for your prayers and your best wishes. It is Cecilia's belief and I had to agree with her if I still want to win in Scrabble :-) that it was more than just luck, we had Divine Providence. To our "sponsors" of this trip, our family and friends, danke schoen noch einmal, grazie mille, terima kasih berat. Please pray again for our next Australia and New Zealand trips, to start on June the 14th. :-) Greetings from Jakarta, bye for now.
Read More......

Friday May 17 was a perfect day. I woke up quite early, 5:30 AM and by 7 AM, after a filling breakfast of super-bihun (Indonesian rice noodle) we went to the train station. We were a bit fortunate that the train to Salzburg started from West Bahnhof and stopped at Huetteldorf, the station where our bus from the campground ended. Thus, we were able to catch an early train and by 11 AM already arrived at the Salzburg train station. We knew where to go, Camping Kasern but we did not know which bus (number) to take. After asking a couple bus drivers, we were told to take bus number 33 first and changed to 15 later on. The number 33 driver was quite helpful. When he stopped at the two routes intersection, he told us where we had to wait. Danke schoen, thanks in German went a long way, compounded by the fact that we were carrying two big packs plus one more day pack pour moi. It made people really wanting to help :-).

The camping fee in Salzburg was cheaper than in Vienna, in fact very cheap, only 12 Euros per night. The campground was not as nice as Wien West but quite OK. Actually, it was quite scenic because it was at the outskirt of the city and has an ice-cap mountain as a background. Salzburg was pretty hot on that day and the day after so that we had to put sun-screen lotion. Knowing that this was another place we could stay long, we bought the 72 hours Salzburg card that entitled us to go to major tourist attractions plus free public transportation.
On the Saturday, we cooked our last 'Indomie goreng' (Indonesian instant fried noodle) for breakfast. It was our saviour in helping us to manage the cost. Imagine if we had to eat breakfast in the restaurant every morning. For 10 Euros you might still be hungry. We couldn't wait to go to downtown and checked famous places like Mozart Wohnhaus (residence), Festung or an old castle-fortress, Marionetten or puppet on a string, and some others. I calculated at the end of the day, had we had to pay individually, all those visits would have cost us 26 Euros. So in just one day, we almost broke even the cost of the Salzburg 3 days card, 32 Euros. Actually if I added the transportation cost, we already won :-).
Just when we were finished preparing supper, our friends from Stuttgart, Germany, J and L came over. We already made a plan since Cecilia and I were in Toronto, to travel near Salzburg on the Sunday with them. They stayed at a nice 3-star hotel but quite far from Salzburg, in a small town called Puch. They already had dinner so we ate by ourselves and offered our nice soup to J who likes to eat :-). Yes, she is the chef of her own restaurant in Stuttgart, a small Indonesian cafe. We chatted with them over beer by the reception office, a distance from our tent. When it got dark, also since they already travelled for about 5 hours from Stuttgart on that day, J and L left and we returned to our tent.
I haven't told you yet that since morning, a young couple from Germany (easy to see from their car) pitched their tent next to us. The girl was quite voluptuous, you know what I mean. Her hair was blonde and I named her 'Marylin Monroe' :-). Well my dear friends, you know that Cecilia and I like to go camping. We have been to numerous campground in Ontario, some of them like Algonquin, Grundy Lake and Bon Echo Provincial Park, about 10 times each. But never in our lifetime, did we ever hear sounds like what was coming from 'Marylin' and her partner when we approached our tent, next to them. It was undescribable, even an X-rated movie didn't come near :-). That's why I said the camping fee of 12 Euros was very cheap. Now we know why in all the campgrounds we had stayed while we were in Europe, almost everybody had a camping van.
In terms of weather, Sunday May 19 was not the best. It was cloudy and from time to time we got rain shower. It didn't matter though cause we were travelling in a car with J and L to a resort area near Salzburg. I had to say that the views were quite fantastic around the three lakes we went, Wolfgang See, Attersee and Mond See. To top that, as we have a German chef with us, the food choices at lunch and dinner time were excellent. They surpassed continental meals at our last cruise trip :-). We were lucky that the two restaurants we went had excellent chefs. The cost was very reasonable too, 60 and 50 Euros including drinks and tips for the lunch and dinner respectively. Yes, that's the difference between small town and big European cities.
Monday was still a holiday in Austria, Pentecost. As we skipped the Mass on Sunday, we were determined to go to a church, Fransiskanen Kirche where the day earlier I saw would have Mass with Mozart music at 9 AM. We left early from the campground as I knew we would be lost finding it :-). There are so many churches near the area called the Dom (cathedral) in Salzburg. Saying "Wo ist die Fransiskanen Kirche?," where is the church, to a stranger caused us to meet our 'guardian angel'. He said in perfect English to follow him because he knew it was not easy to give direction. When we chatted with him on the way to the church, it turned out that he was married in that same church 37 years ago. No wonder.
We continued our self-tour around Salzburg after the Mass by going to Mozart's Geburthaus (birthplace), Residenz (the palace) and a few others. If you have ever seen 'The Sound of Music', all the shooting for that movie was done in or near Salzburg. Through a tourist promotion booklet for the movie fans, we knew where else was each scene shot or taken and we checked a few. By the time we finished our tour and went back to our campsite, "Marylin" and her partner had already left, so Cecilia and I killed our evening by playing Scrabble :-). In the next episode, I will end this mini-series after we had to return to Zurich again and left for Asia. Till then, bye for now.


Read More......

If you love history, Vienna is one the cities in Europe you wouldn't want to miss because it is so rich in history. You name any profession, any specific subject, Vienna has a museum for that. When I was working at the Lab, we developed the PL/I compiler for the S/38, predecessor of AS/400, now called i-Series. We had two assignees from Vienna because the IBM Lab there already developed the PL/I compiler for another system, the 8100. One of them was a bachelor and the other had kids. That was the first time I knew that Vienna's native is crazy about classical music. He was in my team and his very first question was where he could buy or rent a good piano for his kids. Perhaps in the deal with IBM Toronto Lab, cost of musical lesson and quality piano rental for the kids was included because he didn't care much about cost. Now I understand it much better why he was so 'crazy' about music. They are all like that :-). You would also understand if you know that waltz was invented in Vienna.
I am not that keen in learning or knowing about history but one interesting observation was about churches in Swiss and Austria, neighbouring countries. Cecilia and I checked a couple famous churches in Zurich and they looked bare because they had become Protestant churches. Yes, Zwingli was a native of Zurich. You go to churches in Vienna and they would still look 'catholic' :-). If you are Christians I am sure you know what I mean. You go to a Catholic Mass and if the homily or preaching is boring, there are so many other things that you could enjoy :-). The stained glasses, the sculptures and the statues, the painted ceilings, the hundreds of 'dust catchers', oops ornaments. Now you know why Catholics like to go to Mass :-).
May 15, Wednesday, was our second day in Vienna. After taking the free shower, feeling so happy, I prepared breakfast. We brought the instant-coffee, Nestle's three-in-one, from Toronto and this also lasted till we were in Salzburg. I cooked fried rice a la Vienna, left-over rice from dinner the day before with egg and sausages. BTW, Austrian sausages are delicious. Cecilia joined me or woke up as soon as breakfast was ready :-). Don't tell me she is smart. With the Indonesian style or rice breakfast, our energy for the day was enough to do the city tour ourselves, hopping from trains and buses to trams, vice-versa. At around lunch time, having spotted a Chinese restaurant near our campground, we decided we would treat ourselves with oriental dishes a la Vienna before our siesta. The cost of that buffet luncheon was not that bad. Including beer and tips, it cost only 18 Euros for both of us. "The food?," you asked. It was heavenly, compared to my 'Indomie goreng' or instant fried noodle we brought from Toronto.
We had a small surprise when we came back in the evening after a whole day sight-seeing. There was another small tent at one side of the campground. When we arrived and I was ready to prepare for supper, an oriental looking lad approached us. He introduced himself as 'Tony' and asked whether there was kitchen facility. I said I didn't know, it didn't seem so because the guy at the reception office didn't tell us about it. I told him that if he needed to warm-up food or did small cooking he could use my stove. He told me he was going to cook pasta. I said, I was going to prepare dinner and will share some with him. So we chatted while Cecilia and I cooked. He was a student at U. of Victoria in B.C. and was touring Europe. When he told us his itinerary, we thought he was a millionaire or a relative of Korean President Kim Dae Yung. He planned to travel Europe for 70 days! He explained to us however, that he was using the cheapest fare one can tour Europe, a student bus package fare to some number of countries, I believe less than 200 Euros. He had just finished his under-graduate study at U. Vic. and will be returning to Seoul, Korea. If we admired his guts, looking at how young we were and knowing that I just retired, he also became our fans. Knowing we had two children, this Korean boy dared asking if any of them is a girl :-). Indeed, I and him exchanged a few jokes with me making fun of his politicians. I forgot to tell you that as soon as he learned we are Canadians, he moved his tent next to us, only a feet or two apart :-).
We woke up quite early the next day because we wanted to secure the free bike that visitor to Vienna could get. They were scattered in some number of places inside the inner (old) city. After making some effort, we were fortunate to get two bikes in perfect condition, one had a pink colour and the other blue. They perfectly matched our cycling outfits. I didn't know how many people in Vienna that saw us on that day bought Nokia cell-phones. Yes, at the back of the bike, covering the whole rear-wheel on both sides, was a big advertisement of Nokia. After about an hour cycling and checking whether it was worth it to visit Sigmund Freud's museum (pricey :-)), we took a break in Sigmund Freud's Park near Votivkirche. Lo and behold, we saw Tony approaching us from a distance. He probably didn't believe that we do not have any daughter :-). He was amazed seeing us, either he couldn't believe that we were being employed by Nokia or he didn't understand how we could get matching bikes and outfits. :-) Till the next episode where I will share with you the experience of a lifetime when we camped in Salzburg.
Read More......

Image via Wikipedia

Many years ago, when I was much younger I read a book entitled "Europe in 50 $ a day". It was not a Canadian book, therefore the currency was in US dollars. The author did not mention camping ground at all but highlight places where one could eat decent meals and stayed at budget hotels. I knew before I went backpacking to Europe that it would be impossible these days to budget 50 dollars per day in Europe unless you are still young and healthy, thus can carry your "food and lodge" in your backpack. That was what we, Cecilia and I did, starting our journey of a lifetime, May 5, 2002 from Toronto to Zurich, Switzerland.

Knowing I could still portage a canoe (don't tell people that it is a Kevlar one :-)), I know I can put our three-season tent, sleeping bag, Therm-a-rest (for non-camper readers: it is a sleeping pad), cooking set, stove, eating utensils, and most important, FOOD in my backpack. At the end of our European trip on May 22, when I did the final calculation of our expenses, we spent an average of US$ 80 per day. We didn't really 'live miserably', we were only cautious in our expenses. If we had to spend, like celebrating our 27th wedding anniversary in Milan (Father Kusmaryanto can testify) we didn't hesitate to eat in a fancy restaurant :-). When it was our belief that it was worth it to buy a package deal like the Salzburg 3 days card for visiting all the museums and other major tourist attractions, we bought the 32 Euro ticket. Yes, we didn't spend $ 500 on a La Scala opera ticket in Milan but we had free musical symphony concert in the famous and beautiful cathedral (called Duomo).

We didn't enter Europe through the front door nor did we go through the back door or the cheapest way but rather we came through the side door. Hence, it will be my story's title of our journey of the spring time of Anno Domini 2002 in Europe. Sit tight my friends, this story will be as exciting as Mr. Lantern Coleman's one if not more :-). Because of my love for my Canadian and native English speaker friends that I am writing this story in my second language despite the fact that I am a better writer in Indonesian :-). Let me begin with sharing our trip planning a bit with you.

As you all know, because I am a retiree now and Cecilia is her own boss at home, we have a lot of flexibility in our trip length. However, being a devout Catholic my wife wanted to come back to Toronto before the World Youth Day 2002 event so that she can meet the Pope again. We met or rather saw him last on May 10, 2000 when we were in Rome celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary. We also knew we wanted to stay for about a month in Indonesia so that we would have enough time to meet our families and friends. Thus, we planned to be around (but not more than) 3 weeks in Europe and later on around 2 weeks in Australia and New Zealand. This would leave about a month in Indonesia, our birthplaces.

After reading about 10 Lonely Planet books on Europe, also having been to some other countries, we picked Switzerland, Italy and Austria as the 3 countries and chose Zurich, Milan, Venice, Vienna and Salzburg as the 5 cities we would be staying. Yes, this way we (started to) saved on the Eurailpass ticket because there was a special fare of visiting 3 countries in 5 days train travel. It was also a good deal because the ticket was first class fare. If your age is beyond 50 like ours :-), we recommend first class fare Eurorail ticket rather than a second class. It was much worth it, especially when we took the night train from Venice to Vienna (I will tell you more about this). So, our schedule in Europe was quite set. We intentionally left it open as to how many days we would spend in each of the 5 cities. The Canadians say, let's play by the ear or rather as it turned out by the cost of the enjoyment :-).

That's for now. In the next episode I will share with you our Zurich camping experiences. If you recall or are aware of, Cecilia and I fought before we went. In my opinion she was sissy, not willing to walk 4 km from Zurich train station to the campsite. In her opinion, of course I was wrong :-). Wait how this battle turned out to be :-).

next

Read More......