A long awaited trip to Germany

One week or so, after Australia closed its international borders in 2020 (due to the pandemic), my husband and I were to have gone on a month long trip to Germany with some cousins and extended Mirtschin family members to visit the towns and villages where their ancestors had come from. Visits to some of the major cities and tourist attractions were also to be included. Not knowing when the borders would open again, we rolled our money over in order to travel in the following twelve months. However, borders remained closed. Three years later, the trip became a reality.

Our first destination was Hamburg where so many of the German family emigrants left from – on barges from the Elde River. We flew from Melbourne to Hamburg with Emirates and were met at the airport by our tour guide.

We were given 10 minutes to freshen up after our 24 hours of flying and wait time in Dubai! Once back on the bus, we drove around the Michaelplatz area of Hamburg where many of our ancestors would have spent time waiting for their ship to travel to Australia. Fortunately, local people were often willing to off them accommodation until that time came. But the emigrants were only allowed to stay in the area closest to the river port. St Michaels church was a landmark in this area and we had a quick walk around and look inside the church. It was then on to the River Port area. The fittest members of our group climbed the many steps up on the nearby hill area to get a good view of the Elbe and associated port. We were given a short city tour of Hamburg before settling into a dinner at a nearby restaurant to the hotel where we had our first taste of a German menu and food.

Cyprus during the pandemic

Traditional house in Armou Village

From Australia, we flew with Emirates via Dubai to Larnaca. Our son, who lives in London, but was holidaying in Paphos, picked us up from the airport. We stopped at a local bakery to get some Greek pastries and treats for lunch. Approximately 1.5 hours later we arrived in Armou Village approximately 15 minutes drive from Paphos. Our daughter-in-law’s parents have built a house in this lovely village, as her Dad is a Greek Cypriot who now lives in London but returns several times a year to Cyprus.

Views from Argia Varvara Church

The views from the two story house are just wonderful – taking in vistas across hills and onward to the city of Paphos and the ocean beyond. We took a number of pleasant walks around the village, most of which involved steep climbs up the hill especially to the village square. The village square features a restaurant, local council chambers and an old olive press. Argia Varvara is a beautiful church located high on the hill, again with magnificent views across the countryside.

As it was 2 weeks before the Orthodox Easter, Easter decorations were decorating the village.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Global travelling as the world opens up during a pandemic

After 2 years of closed international borders, the world is gradually opening up.  International travel has only opened up since December 2021 for Australians. After not seeing our son and his family from London for nearly three years, it was with some excitement but also some nervousness that we booked tickets to see him (when the Australian borders opened). It was unknown whether we would or could cath COVID just prior to the flight or on any of the flights. However, we were comforted by the fact that our son and his family were with us at all times and that we were only staying in their home in London and their parents-in-law’s home in Cyprus. My husband and I were both triple vaccinated. It also appeared that the current version of COVID – Omicron was less severe.

As he and his family were going to Cyprus, we booked multi city tickets to Larnaca Cyprus with Qantas and then home from London. This meant travelling with Emirates, via Dubai to Cyprus and then a direct flight from London to Darwin Australia, with a domestic leg from Darwin to Melbourne. Initially it was to be via Perth but when the tickets were booked in January, Western Australia had still closed its borders to Australia.

The destination country determines what conditions must be met when departing a country during the COVID-19 pandemic. Qantas regularly updated us through its app and reminded us to keep checking Smart Traveller At the time of flying (approx 5 weeks ago), Cyprus required us to be double vaccinated and to carry a hard copy of our International Vaccination certificates. A Safe Travel Pass for Cyprus also had to completed 48 hours before we departed Australia. This was completed online, a copy was saved and then printed off. We printed off multiple copies of each certificate and carried one of each with us. The Safe Travel Pass only had to be shown when checking in for the flight, then again when in transit in Dubai and once more as we went through Immigration in Cyprus.

Masks had to be worn at all times whilst in any airports and when on planes. The only time they could be removed was when we were eating or drinking on the plane. I wore an N95 mask which had a bit more breathing room. The airlines had spare masks and Emirates provided a small pack with a mask and small tube of hand sanitiser. Qantas had masks available before you got on the actual plane.

Our flights from Melbourne to Dubai and then Dubai to Cyprus were full. However, the Qantas flight home was approximately 3/4 full and I had a spare seat beside me in the middle row which gave us more leg room.

Cyprus required us to show our vaccination certificates to enter shops, restaurants and indoor cafes. Masks had to be worn indoors. There were no qr codes for checking in at all. Reminder messages to allow 1.5 metres between us were still evident in Cyprus. This was in comparison to Victorians as we no longer needed to wear masks except on public transport and in hospitals and other health clinics. QR code checkins were no longer necessay and we were starting to live with COVID.

London had opened up completely and there were no rules regarding COVID except that if you were sick, stay home. We did take RAT tests with us but did not use them as we remained healthy and well.

Two days before we returned to Australia, compulsory PCR testing to re-enter Australia was scrapped (to our relief). However, we had to download the Digital Passenger Declaration app on our phones and complete that within 48 hours of flying. This was reasonably complex and time consuming as it required us taking photos of our photo passport page, scanning the chip in our passport and taking a selfie. It did not recognize our qantas direct flight from London, but kept saying it was a domestic flight from Darwin to Melbourne, so I had to manually enter the flight details. A screen shot of the final screen on the app had to be taken and saved to our photos on our phones. This DPD had to be shown as we went to checkin at Heathrow and was also spot checked on arrival in Melbourne.

However, it is so exciting to be able to fly again and travel once more.

Tower Hill – a firm family favourite

Restrictions imposed due to COVID19 mean that overseas travel is no longer possible for Australians and not even in the foreseeable future as Australia has blocked its international borders. Stage 3 restrictions have been recently lifted in Victoria, so this means that most of our National Parks are now open again for visitors. We can go out in public in groups of 10 people. Tower Hill Reserve has always been a favourite central meeting place for our family. (on of our children lives in Warrnambool and another in Port Fairy). Tower Hill is an inactive volcano situated between Warrnambool and Port Fairy. It features a crater lake, a number of cones and a peak.

It was decided to pack a picnic afternoon tea and enjoy it in the picnic area of the reserve. There are quite a few picnic tables and even several gas barbecues for those who with to use them for lunch or tea. Emus can nearly always be seen especially when tourists have food. Care needs to be taken that they do not take the food. There were three koalas to be seen and we watched with fascination one young koala climb nearby tree.

There is a lovely natural history centre that also sells goods especially souveneirs etc. Many walks can be taken around the reserve. We decided to climb the Peak rather than do the board walk around the wetlands which is an easy walk to do with children. Birds, frogs and snakes can often be seen on this walk as can koalas. There is a bird hide.

The Peak climb is quite strenuous steep climb but offers stunning views of the surrounding countryside, the nearby ocean, the crater lake and the rim. Volcanic cones can also be seen on this walk. Black wallabies (small kangaroos) were near the track and yellow wattles were in full bloom. Tower is a must to visit if you come to Warrnambool or Port Fairy, both towns being on the Great Ocean Road.

Kuala Lumpur – always fun!

From Ipoh, we caught the train for a 2.5 hour ride to Kuala Lumpur. As we caught the train in the late afternoon, much of the journey was in darkness. There was no wifi access. However, our seats were comfortable enough. There is a small canteen that had very limited goods for sale. Some hot foods were available but they did not look very appetizing. This service is about to introduce a business class option soon.

We pulled into Central station and followed the crowds to the exit. As we were staying in China Town and as we were tired, we decided to catch a taxi to our accommodation.Close to the exit is a booking office where people prepay the taxi fare. This worked well and was quite cheap. It was approximately $5 aud.

Our accommodation was cheap, clean and new in China Town. China Town is always busy and colourful. Hawker stalls set up from 10 am in the morning and get really busy in the evening when many tourists c come to explore. Goods can be cheap but are not always of high quality.

There are many street foods stalls with some really interesting food options for purchase. I liked the national dish Nasi Lemak and found a stall in the wet market of China Town that served up a delicious version. We sat inside one of the rooms of her house to eat the dish. Meals could be purchased at the food halls for $2-5 Australian dollars. Another food hall dished up tasty pork noodles. An elderly Chinese couple cooked and served up this tasty dish, with a recipe that has probably been handed down over many generations. On our last day we discovered another food market to the side of the actual wet market. This was a really busy place and it looked like it was well attended by the locals. Many were buying food to take away. Tables and chairs were available for those who ate in.

English was not widely spoken here so we had no idea what we were ordering. However they did understand “not spicy”. I think we ended up with pork noodle soup, which was extremely tasty. (and not spicy)! Another buffet stall had busy queues, numerous workers and were constantly preparing and cooking fresh food. I joined the queue to try it out and chose some of the fried offerings (not knowing what they were). I said we wanted to eat it there. The person who served me brought over a bowl of broth with some interesting contents as well as the other food items that I had chosen. It was absolutely delicious. Even Bruce tried it all!! Customers need to sit at the appropriate tables for each stall.

Most of our time was spent looking around the many market stalls, shops and food stalls, surrounding China Town. Central Market was nearby and an interesting place to wander through. KL offers a GoKL bus that is free and stops by many of the major tourist attractions and major hotels. It is like a hop on hop off bus and comes approximately every 15 mins. We never had to wait long. Maps are usually available at the hotels. However, the stops are not well marked. We wanted to get off at the Petronas Towers and thought we must be near them after 1 hour on the bus, but then to our consternation, found that we had returned to China Town. So, we sat on the bus for another circuit and worked out where we had to change buses to get to the Towers. These towers are always a magnificent sight and it is interesting to wander through the department stores,m up market shops and food halls. There are lovely gardens to wander through, complete with a lake and mangrove trees at the front of the towers.

At night China Town comes alive with all market stalls in action. However, we experienced a severe thunderstorm so it was an earlier night for us. Our flight the next day was later in the evening. Rather than catch the train, which would have required, dragging our cases to the nearest metro station, then swapping at Central Station, we chose to get a shuttle service from out hotel which worked out cheaper than the train anyway. It was a comfortable ride and we were the only passengers! The trip only took about 45 mins.

Unfortunately despite our research and double checking our tickets, we had got off at the wrong airport. We went to KLIA but as our flight back to Singapore was with Jetstar Asia which flies out of KLIIA2. This required us catching a train for 2 ringits each or a free shuttle bus. It was easier to find the train, so we hopped on that. It only took 10 mins or so and arrived at KLIA2.

 

Ipoh, Malaysia – so much to see and do!

Our flight landed in KLIA, Kuala Lumpur. We caught the bus from the airport to Ipoh. Fortunately we had booked tickets on line for the bus as our flight was 10 minutes late getting in and a long queue in Immigration meant that we were also held up there. Our luggage had already been taken off the carousel and was waiting on the ground nearby. We had only allowed 50 mins between our flight arrival and leaving on the bus. The next bus would have got us into Ipoh at quite a late hour. Uncertain as to where to catch the bus, we had to quickly ask ground staff where to go. The inter-city buses leave from a separate building now and signage was not easily seen. We had to run, take the lift to the bottom floor of the airport, cross a road and enter the bus building. Ticketing queues were slow and long and by this stage we had 5 minutes to find and catch our bus. As we did not have access to a printer, I had screen shotted a photo of our online tickets. Fortunately there was an information centre just past the ticketing counter. I asked where the bus was to leave from and they kindly looked up the booking number and printed off our tickets.

By this time we had 1 minute to get to our bus. We used YoYo bus lines as they were recommended for being more modern and comfortable than the Star Bus. There were only 3 seats across the bus, so single passengers could have their own seat and double passengers could sit together. There was no wifi or charging points. We made a 10 minute stop along the way for a rest stop and to buy food at a large petrol station with a separate bakery. However, the bakery had a long queue and there was not enough time to buy food there. The Ipoh stop is at the Bus Terminal.

Ipoh is surrounded by beautiful limestone cliffs and has a rich Chinese and colonial history. There is much to see and do both in Ipoh and the surrounding areas. Ipoh is well know for its wonderful food.  Our hosts, Veronica and Silene picked us up and took us to the old Town and the night markets. We tried their famous chicken and bean shoots dish. Chicken feet soup was also one of the dishes tried!!!

We walked around the night markets where the prices looked reasonable but the quality questionable. From there we proceeded to Selene’s house, in Ipoh Gardens South close to Downtown, where we were to stay for the 3 nights.

It is wonderful to be able to stay with residents of a country. Tourists get an idea what homes are like, what foods are eaten, the culture and nature of life in a country. If ever we have a choice, we would choose to stay with residents. Her home was large by Malay standards with 2 bedrooms upstairs and large living areas down stairs.

The Farmers Market, Ipoh Stadium Area

This market is held every Saturday from 7am until 11am. It comprises a mix of clothing, food, fresh fruits and vegetables, meat and handicrafts stalls.

Breakfast was at the Stadium Food Court, close to the farmers’ markets, where many traditional Chinese, Malay and Indian foods on offer. We tasted pork noodles, curry chicken noodles, wanton mee, fish and pork paste, pork patties, Soya bean three in one, (soya bean, soya bean custard, glutinous rice balls). Drinks included coffee, juice, sugar cane boiled with water chestnuts, pandan flavoured soya bean milk.

At the market, we tried sour sob juice, pineapple juice, akok kueh made from flour and eggs, jack fruit fried in batter, dates, dukong fruit. We sawjars of native honey, fresh , smoked and dried fish, cuts of beef, dressed chicken and other parts of chicken eg feet, heads etc, We also bought peanuts from the Kacang Puteh stall. We saw ginger flowers, lemon grass, tasted a sample of lemon grass and ginger drink. We bought a jackfruit to taste.

This was fun and gave us a wonderful introduction to the wide variety of fruits, vegetables and other foods on offer in Ipoh.

Lunch was organized at the Flower Drum. A number of Veronica’s friends and fellow teachers also joined us. Three of these people had stayed on our farm in December last year, for one night. Another variety of foods was enjoyed. From there we drove to a coastal village, Tua Pek Kong Temple, Pasir Panjang, Sitiawan, to enjoy wonderful sunset views from the mangrove swamps. A tall Chinese Pagoda was part of a large Chinese temple complex. A variety of beautiful statues, imported from China told traditional Chinese stories. These statues were outside the temple area and allowed views across to the ocean.

After capturing stunning photos of the sunset (about 6:30pm), we walked around the inside of the temple complex.

Again statues, the pagoda water features, small temples, large temples and a large stone Chinese dragon could be seen.  The Chinese dragon was hollow and people could walk through it  and admire the beautiful decorations with ceramic images depicting the after life – what would happen if you were good and what would happen if you were bad!

As it was late when we left the temple complex – approximately 7:30pm so we travelled to another small village where a famous Chinese seafood restaurant had been suggested to us. When a restaurant is busy with patrons, then you know It is good. It was busy and quite a large restaurant open to the outside. I enjoyed a coconut juice from a coconut. We tried a  coconut type of gin and again another tasty selection of foods was brought to us.

It took approximately 2 hours to return home by car.

Getting around Singapore

We are classified as a senior couple and we love to travel. As such, we try to organize our travel as this is usually cheaper.  The following information shares information on how we worked our way around Singapore on a two night stopover.

From the airport

Our flight landed us in Singapore at 10:30pm at night. Going through Immigration and Customs was a relatively easy and quick procedure. There were e-terminals to enter our details. We had to fill in an entry card.  There were no queues at Immigration.

Our options to get from Changi Airport were taxi, shuttle bus or MRT trains However, as the MRT trains stop around midnight, and as we had to walk a few blocks to get to the Ibis Bencoolen, we decided to catch a shuttle bus. Clear signage led us to the area where we could both book and catch the shuttle bus. It cost $9 for each of us. When checking the cost of taxis online,  most people said they could cost from $30 -$40 or more. As it was late, there may have been a surcharge.

The shuttle bus takes people to more than 400 hotels in central areas and close to central. The journey took approx. 30 mins and there was only one other drop off before us, so our journey did not take long.

Around Singapore

As we had one full day for sightseeing, we decided to purchase a one day tourist ticket. These could be purchased at Bugis or Chinatown, both of which were close to our accommodation. They are not available at all MRT stations. This link will show where you can buy tourist cards. The one day pass cost $10 per person, with a $10 deposit on each card which was refundable when we left – again at certain MRT stations or the airport. This card covered us for all MRT trains and buses. (a 2 day pass was $16 SGD and a 3 day pass was also available).

The MRT is clearly marked with coloured lines taking you to the appropriate destination. Exits are marked A, B, C etc and well sign posted. However, it took us some of the morning to get used to reading our maps, following the cues and getting to the right destinations!  We ended up in huge shopping centres and office blocks when we looking for the seaside bays. People are extremely kind and helpful and would often come up and offer their valuable assistance and advice.

The Bencoolen MRT was the most convenient to use near where we stayed. It was a quiet station with friendly customer assistance. Bugis was much busier but gave the option of more MRT lines. The MRT trains came nearly every 2 to 5 mins so we never had to wait long. Would highly recommend this form of travel although it did require quite a bit of walking, at times, to get to the exit and then the tourist destination. The Singapore Botanical gardes and Gardens by the Bay were only a short walk from the MRT. The Merlion, however was quite a walk from either Raffles Place or City Hall.

To the airport

As our departure flight was at 1:20pm, we had plenty of time to find our way to the airport. So, we chose to catch an MRT from Bugis, an MRT station close to our hotel. This took us nearly all the way to the airport. Close to the end of the line, airport passgengers have to swap trains.  This on the other side of the platform from where we alighted. The trip to Changi airport took approximately 45 mins. It cost $2.50 SGD each, which was cheap! There is only one stop at Changi.From there, we caught airport trains to Terrminal 2. However, we had time to visit Jewel which could be walked to from the MRT stop.  It was certainly worth checking out the new shopping centre and magnificent waterfall and tropical gardens. Note, you need to go there before going through Immigration.

 

 

Singapore

Having stayed in Singapore on 2 previous occasions, we decided to look at some different tourist attractions and experience as much of local life as we could.

We purchased a one day tourist card for 10 Singapore Dollars and caught the efficient MRT trains, using a tourist card, to visit the following:-

China Town – a beautifully restored area, that was clean and interesting to walk around. There were street stalls lining the street just outside the MRT station.

Singapore Botanical Gardens – the entrance was quite close to the MRT Station exit. The bougainvilleas were in flower and gave a beautiful splash of colour. There were seating areas for relaxing and getting out of the hot sun. We also looked at the Foliage Garden and the Trellis Garden. The nearby lake was nearly dry. As many of the other botanical attractions were more than a kilometer away, and as it was so hot and humid, we decided to look at them another time.

The Albert Food Hall – this was close to our accommodation in Bencoolen and accessible by either Bugis or Bencoolen MRT. It was a huge hall of a variety of stalls. Tripadvisor forums had suggested trying those stalls that had queues as this indicated tasty and popular food dishes. I followed this advice and often had no idea what I was queuing for, but always came away with a tasty meal. Often the person in front would help me. There were refreshing fruit juice stalls, bakeries and stalls still cooking food according to their family tradition. It was open for breakfast right through to evening meals although the types of stalls that were open varied according to the time of the day. This comes highly recommended. Main courses cost from $2.90 to $6 Singapore dollars, so it was cheap. We always got a seat and table.

The Merlion – We caught the MRT to Raffles Place and walked across a modern covered walkway, lined with shops that crossed the busy road below, past a beautiful historic hotel and on to a lookout that gave great views of Marina Bay Sands, the lotus buildings and the bay. A pleasant walk along the promenade took us to the newly restored Merlion, where many tourists were gathered to take photos. There was seating for resting and enjoying the views. We caught the City Hall MRT back to Bugis.

Gardens by the Bay – As everything took us longer than expected, we caught the MRT to arrive in time for the 8:45pm light show, but actually caught the last bit of the 7:45pm night show as well. As we had walked many kilometres that day, we decided to sit on the steps where others were gathered, closer to the MRT and watch it from there. However thousands of tourists crossed the over bridge to go into the actual gardens and watch from there. These views were sufficient to hear the music and to see some of the trees that changed colour regularly and in rather spectacular style.

Airport – On our second day in Singapore, it was time for us to fly to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. We decided to catch the MRT to the airport which was only $2.50 Singapore Dollar each. It was quick and effective, required one simple change and dropped us off close to an entrance to Jewel. We wheeled our cases into this area an got great views of the Jewel waterfall.

Final Stop New York City

Our return flight tickets from Australia were from New York City. We caught an Air Canada flight from Toronto to NYC. We passed Immigration and Security on the Canadian side which made our exit at La Guardia airport quite speedy. From there we caught a taxi to our accommodation in New York.

We had about 20 hours to spend there and stayed over night at a hotel, Arlo Nomad, a few blocks from the Flat Iron building, one of our favourite areas. The hotel was new, had small bedrooms but offered a number of spacious relaxing spaces including a library, foyer, bar and lounge areas. It was eco friendly, nicely furnished a close to some great restaurants. It had a rooftop bar with great views of NYC. There was a happy hour with free wines on offer and nibbles.

As usual, we get disoriented in the Northern Hemisphere but retraced our steps to visit the Flat Iron and Madison gardens on our first afternoon there. The weather was hot but it was cool enjoying the shade of the gardens. Of course icecream from nearby Eaterly was first on the menu.

The following morning, and as I really enjoy the foods from the food carts, we walked to Madison Square Park, near Penn station for a coffee and muffin/bagel. It was then on to another of our favourite parts of NYC – Bryant Park which is adjacent to the NYC Library. Once lunch time had arrived, it was time to make our way to JFK airport for our return trip home.
Severe weather conditions were being experienced in many US states, which meant our flight was delayed for more than 2 hours, then rerouted around the storms. Unfortunately, we then missed our connecting flight to Melbourne and had to return to Australia via Sydney. we arrived home 7 hours later than planned.

Niagara Falls Day Trip from Toronto

As we had booked accommodation through airbnb, tourist attractions and tours would come up on the feed when looking at our bookings. One interesting tour provided was for a small group to take a day trip to Niagara Falls, which also included a maple syrup farm visit, Ice Wine tasting and visits to other waterfalls. However, he was booked out for the days we wanted but suggested I try his friend Lenka, of Travelling Chicken, as she also provided similar tours. We booked a trip with her.

There were three pickup points around Toronto and we caught a taxi to the closest one. We were to be there by 7:45 am for pickup. There was only one other passenger, a guy from Mexico, as three people had cancelled the day before. It took approximately 2 hours to drive to Niagara Falls along the freeway. We visited Niagara Falls first as it was peak tourist time, was July 4th and Lenka felt it might be quieter in the morning.

We walked past the bridge which was the Immigration point for USA and Canada. Cars were lined up waiting to go through. Once at the Falls, we joined the queues but did not have to wait very long as the boats could take many passengers. Those who did the boat ride from the Canadian side wore red raincoats, those from the USA side wore blue. The boats tooks us past one lot of falls, into the heart of the biggest falls. Everyeone got soaked but it was fun and a worthwhile experience to witness them so close up. We caught the fernicular back to the top and walked along the promenade towards the shopping centres and the top of the one set of falls. Views were stunning along the way and there were a number of photography points.

Niagara itself, is very commercialized with casinos and theme parks nearby the Falls. However, the promenade along the Falls is beautiful and well maintained. We met up with Lenka who decided it would be better to get a meal in Downtown Niagara which we did. We chose and American diner complete with hamburgers, fries and old fashioned milk shakes.

It was then on to the beautiful town Niagara on the Lake. Gorgeous old houses, tree lined streets and beautiful gardens could be seen. We stopped at the Lake and could look across to the USA. People were swimming, relaxing and simply enjoying the fresh air. The township had a wonderful array of shops, souveneirs, art galleries and a famous Cows icecream shop. The queues were long, but we waited patiently for one of their delicious icecreams.

Another stop was made at the floral clock. It was then on to the Maple Syrup Farm where we were given an interesting talk and demonstration on harvesting and processing maple syrup. A well stocked shop sold a wide variety of maple syrup goods. The countryside was pretty and we drove through farmlands. A winery was visited and it produced the Ice Wine. We sampled 4 different wines including the Ice Wine and could then make purchases. The owner was entertaining and informative.

Finally, we made our way to Balls Falls. A 15 minute walk from the carpark took us to these pretty falls where there was only a handful of other tourists to be seen. Our trip back to Niagara took a lot longer as the traffic was heavy. We had a great day and this tour is highly recommended.

Lenka was caring and very flexible in all things.