California

We travelled from San Francisco down to Mexico. In the journey, we stopped at a few places.

Half Moon Bay

Disney Downtown

Hollywood Walk of Frame

Standford University

Chinatown, Los Angeles

While in Los Angeles, we stopped at Chinatown.

Griffith Observatory

Ipswich and other places

I arrived in London Luton Airport from Paris and stayed in the Aylesbury area for one night. The next day, I took the tube (train) to London (about 35 minutes) and stayed for 2 days. I took another tube to Ipswich, which is in Suffolk, for another 2 days.  

While I was travelling in the tube, I heard multiple announcements that transport workers going on strike on the coming Sunday. Passengers were advised to make their own alternative transport arrangement. As my flight was on the strike day, I decided to take the airport bus from Ipswich station to Stanstead airport. In fact, I took the earlier bus (2 hours earlier) and reached the airport 4 hours before the flight. I flew with the budget airline, Ryan Air, to Berlin, Germany.

Vatican City  梵蒂冈城

The Vatican City is in Rome. It is the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church. This is the world’s smallest independent nation-state, with 44 hectares in size. You just need to take about an hour to walk through the whole country.

You could climb to the top and have a nice aerial view.

You could walk into the city for free. However, you will have to pay to enter the Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museums. I went inside the both of them and recommend that you should also go inside. At the end of the route, you could see the paintings of Michelangelo on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. It was so beautiful that I just want to stay there as long as I could.

London 伦敦

I was thinking of taking the Euro train from Paris to London. Because of my hesitation, I have to take the plane instead. It would be cheaper if I get the train ticket online while I was in Singapore as the price of the ticket keeps on increasing till I found that it is cheaper to take the domestic flight.

From Chinatown, I took a slow walk to the British Museum with my 65 litre backpack behind my back and a green haversack in front of me. The entrance to the museum is free but I was being denied entry at the gate by the guard because of my big and heavy backpack.

South France

It took me about 2 hours to travel from Brussel to the Burgundy region in South of France. This is the countryside and there is no shopping centres or fast food restaurants. The place is every peaceful and I even camp near the river for a night.

Pont Canal De Briare

The Castle

There was a market near the castle.

I visited a museum.

There were people fishing and playing along the lake.

Château de Guédelon

I  have to pay 9 Euro to enter Chateau de Guedelo. This is a construction site where a team of people is trying to build a castle using the techniques and materials used in the old days (without the help of technology). The daily work stops after sunset as there is no electricity. The project began in 1997 and is scheduled to complete in 25 years.

Each year hundreds of people visited the site and this place is now a popular tourist spot. According to the information I have gathered while I was there, the authority has already collected enough money from the entrance fee to build the castle. Now they are trying to slow down the work so that more money can be collected. What a good business strategy!