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Brussels, Belgium

The Atomium in Brussels, Belgium

Apologies for the late update. I am currently in Sydney, Australia now and just started with my course at General Assembly. Anyway, here's an update from my trip to Europe. After the short trip to Amsterdam, we were on the road once again and our next destination was Brussels in Belgium.

Our first stop is the Atomium. The Atomium is a building in Brussels originally constructed for Expo 58, the 1958 Brussels World's Fair. It represents iron atoms in their crystal lattice, magnified 165 billion times bigger. Basically it's a museum and considered as one of Europe's most bizarre but amazing buildings.


Few minutes away from the Atomium is the theme park called Mini-Europe.


Mini-Europe is the only park where you can have a whitlestop tour around Europe in a few short hours. Photo from WhatToSeeIn.net.


Spain wasn't part of our Europe itinerary but look I was able to visit Santiago de Compostela, a famous pilgrimage site located in Galicia, situated in the far north-west of Spain.


The Holsten Gate is a city gate marking off the western boundary of the old center of the Hanseatic city of Lübeck in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.


They also featured the Bradenburg Gate and the Berlin Wall of Germany.


Could someone please help me identify this model? I forgot my guidebook in Manila. Hehe. It's so beautiful I hope to visit this place soon. :)


It's all in the details. It probably took thousands of hours to finish this model of the Leaning Tower of Pisa (which is made of marble too!).


We also passed by the Grand Place which is the central square of Brussels. In the top most left of this photo you can see the Brussels Town Hall.

Sadly, we missed the Manneken Pis. We only had a few hours left so we just had lunch and bought last minute pasalubong like Belgian chocolates. I'm not exactly sure which brand to buy but if you happen to be or going to Brussels, don't forget to bring home those cappuccino flavored truffles. THEY ARE DIVINE. ♥♥♥

Heidelberg and Cologne, Germany

One part of the Hiedelberg Castle

Our second to the last stop is one of Germany's romantic places to get married, Hiedelberg. Nestled in the hill 300 feet above the city of Heidelberg stands the breathtaking Heidelberg Castle.

The castle is a combination of several buildings surrounding an inner courtyard, put together with a haphazard look. Each building highlights a different period of German architecture.


To be honest our minds weren't functioning or even paying attention to our tour guide. We liked the place though.


Plus it had an awesome panoramic view of the city. ;)


In a separate part of the castle there's a cafeteria/bar that houses the world's largest wine barrel. The Hiedelberg Tun stands 7 meters high, is 8 1/2 meters wide and holds 220,000 liters (58,124 gallons) of wine.


Speaking of wine, meet Tito Joy and Tito Danny. They're my drinking buddies during the tour where they made me try different kinds of wine. Hehe. Cheers to you both!

 
The last stop in Germany is the city of Cologne famous for having the largest Gothic style church in Northern Europe, the Cologne Cathedral.


According to our local guide, the cathedral covers almost 8,000 square metres of floor space and can hold more than 20,000 people.


The cathedral also has these tall stained-glass windows that are really one of a kind!

 
After the cathedral we were given a few minutes to walk around and check out the stores. We didn't buy anything (reserving all our pocket money for Paris) but according to our group mates the prices were cheap plus the additional tax free discount for tourists was a whopping 16%! I love Germany!

Venezia

Going on a boat ride to the Venezia, Italia

Venice is a city of small islands, enhanced during the Middle Ages by the dredging of soils to raise the marshy ground above the tides. The resulting canals encouraged the flourishing of a nautical culture which proved central to the economy of the city. Today those canals still provide the means for transport of goods and people within the city.



Here we are at Venezia Tronchetto, an artificial island built to provide parking space for large vehicles like tour buses, etc. It also has a passenger terminal where tourists can take waterbuses (boat) to the city. For those with motion sickness, don't forget to pop that pill before leaving. Water was a bit rough that morning and I was silently praying to not feel any headache or so that can ruin my day tour of Venice. One way trip takes about 15-20 minutes. As to how much it costs? I have no idea, it was already paid for by the travel agency.


Upon arrival we met up with our local guide.

 
When in Venice, expect tons of alleys. There's a possibility to get lost too! Hehe. Keep right to prevent human traffic.


Our first stop is San Giorgio dei Greci, the church of the Greek community in Venice. The exterior was designed by Lombardo, Chiona and Longhena from 1539 to 1548.


The church has a wonderful collection of Orthodox icons. Here's the Iconostasis, an altar screen decorated with 46 icons painted on an amazing golden background. Photo grabbed from In-Venice.com.


Going back to the tour. Check out this group of Chinese tourists enjoying the gondola ride around Venice. I'm not exactly sure how much it costs per pax but it's between €30-100.


That's our group at the grounds of Campo Santa Maria Formosa.


Wanted to have my photo taken with one of the gondolier. Para twinsies! LOL.


O, ha! Sinadya ko talaga mag stripes that day. Hehehe.


Say hello to our tour cooridinator from Rakso Travel, Honey Angeles.


Venice is one big maze of canals and bridges, I am telling you now that it's easy to get lost if you don't have map or a tour guide with you.


Rialto Bridge is one of the famous and oldest (built in 1588) bridges built along Venice's Grand Canal.


St. Mark's Basilica (Basilica di San Marco in Italian) is the most famous of the many churches of Venice and one of the finest examples of Byzantine architecture in the world.


Across the Basilica is Piazza San Marco, generally known as "the Piazza". Personally, I think this could very well be the most beautiful square in the world where people can relax, listen to music, drink coffee or enjoy their gelato.

Overall, I love Venice. ;) It was nice to see the canals and piazza in person and not inside casinos in Las Vegas or Macau. Haha. I wish we could have stayed longer but then we needed to continue our European tour going to Austria. Io aomo, Venezia!

Rakso Travel Experience


I just got back from an exhausting trip to Europe and as much as I'd like to blog about it may I just share first my experience of traveling with Rakso Travel? ;)


It all started with the annual Travel Tour Expo back in February 2015 when my mother decided to book me and my sister a trip to Europe with Rakso Travel.

My first encounter with Rakso Travel was back in September 2014 when I met a group of Koreans on a sponsored trip to Batanes by the Department of Tourism. I'm not exactly familiar with travel agencies because I'm more of a DIY traveler. If I ever mention other agencies then it would probably be related to processing visa applications, etc.

Fast forward to 2015, Mama suddenly paid the $500/pax deposit needed to join a European group tour. Bilis noh? Lucky me, lucky us. LOL. Thank you once again to my parents for spoiling us with this trip. This is a once in a lifetime experience so my sister and I are #BLESSED indeed.

Here's a sample copy of the tour we signed up for. Please take note that this is an old file from 2014, rates are different but itinerary remains the same.


For a bigger and clearer copy, click here.

The tour is obviously packed and loaded with sights but believe it or not we still missed some of them due to poor coordination and lack of communication between the local travel coordinator from Rakso and their European counterparts. Here are the pros and cons of our trip:


The tour costs around ₱180,000 per pax exclusive of the mandatory tip for drivers (€1.50/day) and tour guides (€2.50/day). The question is, did we get our money's worth? I think so? There may be hullabaloohs during our trip but the most important would be that we got home safe and sound. ;)


Here's a group photo after our Mt. Titlis tour in Engelberg, Switzerland.
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