Travel Tour

Today's Straits Times carries an interview with Mr Anthony Chan, Managing Director of Chan Brother Travel. In the article, it is mentioned that Chan Brother will be growing its exotic and unique tourism package industry via its subsidary called Chan's World Holidays. I always enjoy travelling with Chan Brothers. In fact, the Europe tours I blogged about in this blog have been tours with Chan Brothers. Chan Brothers offer a very good experience for my wife and I as well as the rest of the tour group during our 2 weeks tour in Europe.

Travel Tour : I have decided to rename this blog to Travel Tour instead of the original name: World Holidays Tour as I find the new name more meaningful. In the meantime, please visit my Travel Tour blog regularly for news on travel, holidays and more!

NATAS Fair 2011 is here again! NATAS Fair 2011 will be held from 26 to 28 Aug at the Singapore Expo. For Singaporeans who love to travel, NATAS Travel Fair is not to be missed as tour packages are often at their most attractive in this tour fair!

After breakfast, our tour group set off for the 315km journey from DJohn to Paris. Along the coach ride, we were greeted with the lovely sights of mustard. It was already noon when we reached Paris. We settled down for lunch before proceeding for a Paris City Tour. We got up and down the coach several times for the tour of Paris, taking photos of the beautiful buildings of Paris City and of course the Eiffel Tower. The tour of Paris was conducted mainly via a coach where a lady tour guide briefed us on the fine details of the Paris buildings and sights.

Today, our tour group was headed for Geneva for the morning instalment of our tour, which is known to be the hub for many World Organizations. From Lucerne, we travelled for 4 straight hours before reaching Geneva. We alighted from our coach and took photos at the United Nation Organization headquarters. There was a large structure of a chair which was an interesting sight. “Broken Chair” is constructed of 5.5 tons of wood and is 12 metres (39 feet) high. It symbolises opposition to land mines and cluster bombs, and acts as a reminder to politicians and others visiting Geneva. It was another hot day and thereafter we proceeded to dine at a Thai Chinese restaurant. Thanks to the arrangement of the tour agency, throughout the tour, we had a sprinkling of Asian cuisine here and then throughout our Europe tour.

This morning, after a hearty breakfast (but the food fare was still as salty as ever from Italy to Switzerland), our tour group proceeded for a city tour of Lucerne. It was a walking city tour, led by our tour manager. From Hotel Monopol where our tour group was putting up, we walked to the Chapel Bridge, just a stone’s throw away. The Chapel Bridge was the icon of Lucerne which was restored after a fire. There were swans swimming in the lake under the bridge.

Finally, after the cable rides up the breathtaking scenery, my Dear and I, together with the rest of the tour group reached the top of Mount Titlis! When we stepped out of the cable car, we proceeded directly into a storey in Mount Titlis building. My Dear and I felt giddy. This was understandable as we were 3,000 m above sea level. We took the lift down to have our lunch at a restaurant. We gobbled up the large hot dogs (the largest we had ever eaten) and the spaghetti. After lunch, we felt giddy still but we proceeded to the top of the building to do what we were here in Switzerland for: that is right, to play with snow!

  After a hearty breakfast, it was time to bid farewell to Milan and to Italy after spending 4 days visiting Rome, Vatican City, Pisa, Florence, Venice and Milan. This morning, we would be heading to Switzerland and the first stop of the itinery was to play with snow at Mount Titlis in Engelberg! Mount Titlis was the highlight of our Europe Tour in Switzerland! To prepare for what the tour manager told us to anticipate on Mount Titlis, my wife and I spent days prior to our tour, purchasing good leather good, leather jackets and other winter ware.

After our Venice tour in the morning, it was already late afternoon when we arrived at Milan. My wife and I have already heard how Paris, New York and Milan are the fashion capitals of the world. We reached Lombardy and visited Duomo di Milano. The cathedral is dedicated to Santa Maria Nascente. Our tour group was amazed at the Gothic Cathedral which took nearly 600 years to complete and is the 4th largest cathedral in the world and the largest in Italy. The architecture and the interior design is truly amazing and intricate! On the top of each high point of the church is a god or an angel. We were told that the church is the highest building in the vicinity of a locality and hence it seems to me that Italy is a city of gods and angels with the gods and angels looking after the thousands of people living below them in the cities.

I have been sharing my travel to Florence. I embed great travel video on traveling to Florence for you to enjoy!:

Today is the 5th day of our Europe tour in Italy. Our tour group proceeded to Venice, the second last destination in Italy. I have also been wanting to visit Venice- a city which is sinking! Since young, I have knew about Venice the unique city and hence it is with great excitement that we embarked on our journey to Venice. We went to a pier after alighting from coach and boarded a cruise to Piazza San Marco of Venice. Upon setting foot on St Mark's Square, the St Mark's Campanile,  the bell tower of St Mark's Basilica struck a great impression on me!

On this last day of our Europe tour, the morning call came at 9am, not the usual 6.30 or 7 am as on this day, we would just need to concentrate on the 20++ hours to fly back to Turkey and to Singapore. My wife and I woke up early at 730am, ate breakfast, back to hotel to pack up and rest. Lunch was on our own and my wife and I ventured to a Chinese café called Veng Heng where we saw the tour guide there eating. His presence told us the food must be nice there and hence we ate there. The pork chops were fantastic and prompted my wife to ask the cook whether there is any special recipe.

Moulin rouge reminded me of the show by Nicole Kidman. Hence I was keenly looking forward to the Moulin rouge show which our mini coach is headed. The tour group spent the time on coach trying our best to absorb in the sights and sounds of Paris as it was our last day in Paris. We learnt from our tour guide that Moulin Rouge show is situated near France’s red light district and along the way, he signalled us to look at the women of the night if there are any.

France is a romantic city where one can see couples kissing openly in the public. We were always on our guard too in a foreign city. I was appalled to see a man without 4 limbs begging, there were only a woman begging with her child and a man with his dog. We returned to Lafayette and I bought a bag for my mum at Longchamps after long waiting (the crowds has began to form then). As my wife would want to buy a Geok shoe, we went around looking for a Geox shop. Our thrill at finding one quickly turned to disappointment after learning it was just a Geox office. We spent the day walking around the shopping centre. At Printemp shopping centre, my wife bought a Prada wallet. We hid in the shopping centre as it was too hot outside. We then loaded up on water from a water cooler in Printemp outside a toilet and we sat on a bench outside the toilet for 2 to 3 hours, resting and passing the time. We were feeling quite parched and thirsty and did not have energy to go to the Lourves Musuem....

After showing us the location for tax redemption and the place to meet for pick-up to the Moulin Rouge show, it was free and easy for the tour group. As it was early, the shopping centre was not crowded, after the cue was given, the ladies and women, including my wife, sped off to locate their favourite bag shops! And the men, including me, were seen catching fast behind their wives, ready to take out our wallets!

Today was the last day of our Europe tour before the departure back to Singapore tomorrow. As much as my Dear and I missed home, the home food and the hot and humid weather, we still were a bit sad that today would be the last day of our Europe tour. Today was our second and last day in France and the tour itinery for today was Free and Easy, with the much looked-forward shopping trip at Lafayette and then there were recommendations from the tour guide to visit the Louvres Museum as well as the grand show Moulin Rouge. The whole tour group, except for a family of 4 females and a pair of Malaysian aunties chose to watch the Moulin Rouge Show and the tour manager was kind enough to charter a bus for this purpose.

After our soul-enriching tour of the beautiful Florence City, our tour group headed towards San Gimignano. San Gimignano was not initally in our travel itinery, it was an optional tour which the whole of the tour group agreed to visit, paying around 20 Euros each. San Gimignano is a small walled medieval hill town in the province of Siena, Tuscany, north-central Italy. It is mainly famous for its medieval architecture, especially its towers, which may be seen from several kilometres outside the town. Before we entered into San Gimignano after walking up a long flight of stairs, we were awed by the show-stopping scenary:

After Ponte Vecchio, our tour group came to t he Palazzo Vecchio ("Old Palace") which is the town hall of the city. This massive, Romanesque, crenellated fortress-palace is among the most impressive town halls of Tuscany. Overlooking the square with its copy of Michelangelo's David statue as well the gallery of statues in the adjacent Loggia dei Lanzi, it is one of the most significant public places in Italy, and it host cultural points and museums. Next, we moved onto the Loggia dei Lanzi gallery on the edge of the Piazza della Signoria. Here all the legendary heros came alive! We took photos and photos of these statues. I could recognize only a few of these legendary figures from the story books I read during primary school days. I could no longer knew whether they are Greece, Italian folklore, nevertheless indulging in such historic perspective at this beautiful town on this great day is simply a luxury of life:

After visiting the grand Basilica, our tour group headed to visit Ponte Vecchio . Ponte Vecchio. The Ponte Vecchio ("Old Bridge") is a medieval bridge over the Arno River in Florence, Italy, famous for still having shops built along it, as was common.  At the heart of Ponte Vecchio, we saw a statue of Benvenuto Cellini who was an Italian goldsmith, sculptor, painter, soldier and musician, and he also wrote a famous autobiography. He was one of the most important artists of Mannerism. But the tour group was more interested in the splendid views of the Arno River around the statue as well as the Lovers' Locks around the statue. Legend has it that if you and your loved one attach a padlock to any surface of the famous bridge and then throw away the key into the Arno River below, your love will last forever. Millions of couples have come to the Ponte Vecchio for expressly this reason, to lock in their love and throw away the key for eternity.

This morning, our tour group headed for a relaxing tour of the city of Florence! First, we headed to The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore ! The aforementioned church as well as our city tour are located in Piazza del Duomo,  located in the heart of the historic center of Florence, (Tuscany - Italy), where one can find the Florence Cathedral with the Cupola del Brunelleschi, the Giotto's Campanile, the Florence Baptistery, the Loggia del Bigallo, the Opera del Duomo Museum, and the Arcivescovile and Canonici's palace. The west zone of this square is called San Giovanni square.