Europe Hotels Review

Europe Grand Hotel
Location: Luzern (Lucern), Switzerland
Website: http://www.europe-luzern.ch/index.php?langId=2
Review: Simple, Clean and Comfortable, would be the 3 best words to describe this hotel. This is a hotel with a touch of European design and seasonal flowers as decoration which brings out the natural beauty. According to their website the building was built in 1872, no wonder it has the classic look. The room was quite good, bathroom was nicely designed. The exterior of the hotel is full of different type of flowers, very well maintained, and very fascinating. I kept taking photos of the hotel exterior. Dinner was delicious too- Western food. I would definately go back to this hotel.

NH Mannheim Viernheim
Location: Viernheim, Germany
Website: http://www.nh-hotels.com/nh/en/hotels/germany/viernheim/nh-mannheim-viernheim.html
Review: The hotel is clean, flat screen TV, very large room, mine was 3 beds in a room. The bathroom was ok. Breakfast was good. Lots of selection, they even have cute jam bottles. Overall, quite good.
Tip: This htoel is surrounded by business area. Walk around the corner or ask the reception for help on how to get to the nearest supermarket. You can get quite lots of things from there.

Holiday Inn Amsterdam Schipol
Location: Lijinden, Netherlands
Website: http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/hi/1/en/hotel/amssc
Review: As you know Holiday Inn hotels, no complaint at all, because of the standard. This hotel look like a new hotel. It is quite a distance from town. The hotel lobby very spacious and has a modern design. The rooms is small comparing to other rooms that I have stayed before.Breakfast was awesome, looks like we were having a feast. From all different types of bread, ham to muesli and salad, they have such a variety.
Facinating Point: In order to use the elevator of the hotel, you have to put in your hotel card. For me it was: Wow! So high tech and tight security. Maybe for those who stayed in 5 star hotels like this before, would feel that is no big deal, maybe you can call me "ULU" but this is the first time that I'm staying in Holiday Inn a 5 star hotel. What can I say, the best hotel during the whole trip and a class above the rest.

Chao Chow Palace
Location: Brussels, Belgium
Website: http://www.agoda.com/europe/belgium/brussels/chao_chow_palace_hotel.html
Review: Hmm...Maybe it was after the stay in Holiday Inn, the review above, a 5 star hotel & now to Chao Chow Palace. A real decline in standard. It wasn't a comfortable night.I'm sorry to say but it is not properly mantained. Everything- showed sign of "old age". The room looks a bit dark. The bed, the way of making the bed,old school, they use yellow, brownish comforter. They provided limited choices for breakfast. Most probably would not stay there again, if my budget allows. Not recommended.


Mecure Paris Orly Rungis
Location:Rungis,France
Website: http://www.mercure.com/gb/hotel-1298-mercure-paris-orly-rungis/room.shtml
Review: Not bad, nice hotel. The rooms were clean. There is a bus nearby that takes you to the nearest supermarket. Just one thing that I didn't like, Breakfast was limited. I think there was a tour group before us and they took all the food, just a few pieces of bread left. The hotel did not refill fast enough. So there were a few people waiting for the food.


Quality Hotel Slough Windsor
Location: Slough,London
Website: http://www.qualityheathrow.com/
Review: This hotel is quite a distance from town. It is nearer to the Heathrow airport. I would say it takes about 1hour plus by bus and Tube.The staff was very kind,friendly and very helpful. We needed direction and information on Tube and buses into town, they gave us lots of information. The breakfast was quite good. The room was a bit small, but it is alright. I would recommend this hotel,if you would like to stay near the airport. I would say this is the place to say. If you are like to do lots of sightseeing in town, maybe it is better to stay in town, save lots of time.

Europe Trip

June, last year, I joined Mayflower Tour for their 10 Days Europe Popular Tour. I have compared with other tour agency but decided that Mayflower would be a better company to join. Our itinerary included tour to 6 countries, Switzerland, Germany, Holland, Belgium, France and England. You must be thinking 6 countries, 10 days? What do you see? Well, truthfully speaking, it would be more of travelling time, crossing from one country to another. I guess all tours are almost the same. You get a glimpse of each country. Mayflower included almost all the meals. So it saved us lots of money, as food can be quite expensive because of the exchange rate. Mostly our meals were chinese or you can say Asian meals. We only had western on a few days. My guess, it must be cheaper providing chinese meals. If you are out there to try authentic food or local food, this may not be the right tour for you. (This is just some details of the places we went or things that really impressed me or things that I really loved about the trip. There are many other places that we visited that I might not have written it down.)

On the first day we reached Zurich and travel straight to Mt Titlis, I have blog about that on another post. Because I really love Switzerland a lot. Oh not included in my last post, was that I visited Rhinefalls, the largest waterfall in Western Europe. We were told by the tour guide that Movenpick ice-cream is famous in Europe. So we tried it. There is one flavour that we tried it was really good. Can't remember now...Ha ha! I will put the review of the hotels that we stayed in on another post.

Willkommen in Deutschland means Welcome to Germany! We went to see Lake Titisee and the Cuckoo Clock Centre.

Had the famous Pork Knuckle for lunch and Black Forrest Cake for dessert. It is very different from our black forest cake at home as this cake has wine in it. Our tour guide recommended us to buy Giotto- it is a type of chocolate much similar to the famous Ferrero Rocher, just much smaller and cuter.You can buy it from the petrol station or any supermarket.



I really wanted to see tulips in Holland. After hearing how beautiful tulips are, and seeing photos of pretty tulips garden. The tulip season was in April - May, I thought that if I go in June, I will still be able to see tulips. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a single tulip...not even one, when I asked the tour guide, she said that you can't see any at all... I was so sad to hear that....Sob, Sob... but coming to Europe is already my dream holiday, am already happy about that...

We went to the fishing village at Volendam and ate fish and chips.

Windmills the trademark of Holland, I felt that it is a must to take a photo with the windmills. If not it feels like you haven't been there at all.


Belgium... What is belgium famous for? CHOCOLATE!!!! Who can resist chocolate? Chocolate, chocolate is Belgium is so so good, so so delicious! The mouth watering chocolate, MUST TRY OH! Especially the handmade chocolate, WOW, they make really good handmade chocolate. The small cute chocolate, can't make you stop eating, you just want more. There was a type of homemade chocolate that I was hooked on. The chocolate has some crispy bits inside, so when you eat it, it is really crunchy. There are so many different types. A tip that I would like to share is that: When on tour, we found that it is much cheaper to buy famous chocolate bars from the supermarket.

Next stop: Paris! What is the most famous building? Yes, Eiffel tower, We went up Eiffel Tower. The toilets there were horrible, I thought that Malaysian toliet was bad enough, didn't know that the toliet in Paris, near Eiffel tower, was so bad! Correct me, if the situation has changed for the better. We went up Eiffel tower, in the afternoon. Here's a picture of the famous Eiffel Tower.

If possible, if you are able to get the picture from this angle(look at the picture above), if you get a shot like that,you will be able to get a picture of the whole Eiffel tower, with you in it. It is really a memorable picture! Well, I compared my picture with another friend who was there during the night time or sunset. Her pictures was lovely. I loved her night pictures of Eiffel tower, I felt that it was much more beautiful. All those on honeymoon, if you want a romantic scenery of the Eiffel tower as remembrance, it would be best to go during sunset or at night.

Arriving in London through Eurostar, the famous train. We visited the famous landmarks of London Eg: Tower Bridge& Tower of London, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, Parliament Houses, Buckingham Palace...etc. The next day we were able to travel on our own. We took the Tube to see the British Museum, you could spend the whole day there, if you are interested in history, it is way 10 times way better than our national museum. The tube is a convenient way to travel around England. They offer tourist a Day Travelcard, if you are using it for that 24hours, you might want to consider getting this card, as you can make as many journeys as you like. We visited Camden Town as it is well know for the street markets. If you like scenery, i would recommend visiting the Gardens or Park in England. If you like chips, I would recommend, the Walkers chips. The salt and vinegar chips is not as salty as Lay's chips, the flavour is just right and yummy! It is quite reasonably price at the big supermarket.

Note: Cheese Lovers, Don't forget to try the cheese over there. I bought smoked cheese with herbs, it tastes really good and it is really expensive to get it in Malaysia. Another very delicious food is the Swiss Sausage. Try it!

Switzerland- Mt Titlis

I joined the tour group to Switzerland last year. The country is very very beautiful. The people there were friendly, the weather is cooling and the air is very fresh and clean. Whenever I travel, I like to visit places with full of natural beauty. Switzerland is included in this category. First of all, I went to Mt. Titilis, board the revolving Titlis rotair cable car to the summit.

When I arrived to the summit or even before that we were freezing because we were not prepared for -1 Celsius. When we reached the top, WOW!!! It was snowing and for the first time in my life... I touched and felt snow... WOW!!! Really enjoyed it! (This is a picture to show how thick the snow was.)

Next we took the Ice Flyer Chairlift. We took a picture of the sign but didn't notice that it said a Glacier Park, which is like a fun park to play a few snow games. Unfortunately, we didn't go down to the Glacier Park. Later when we were told about it, you can imagine how dissapointed we were... All those in our group that went for the Glacier Park, came back with happy faces and related to us how fun it was down there... Sob sob... Anyone who want to go to Mt. Titlis, don't forget to go to the Glacier Park, and to bring enough clothing to keep yourselves warm...

We adjourned to the restaurant and ate cheese fondue, a must try in Switzerland.

Besides that there is an small ice cave that you can go in to have a look and take pictures.

Overall, we enjoyed ourselves at Mt.Titlis- A picturesque mountain covered with white snow~

Starting...

I'm just starting this...Hope I can add more things to this blog like travel details and beautiful scenery and restaurant reviews.... Please wait for more things & information to come...