St Giles Cathedral

Edinburgh Dungeon
No photos allowed inside so only picture of the entrance.
Would say this is not worth it, it’s pretty much a man-made sight, not as good as it claims.

Entrance Fees Adult: £8.95 Child: £6.95 Concessions: £7.95

Royal Mile

It’s a long street of shops where you can see more traditional looking shops, souvenirs, and shops selling kilts. For more info on royal mile, see here

Next:

Calton Hill

A couple of stairs, slopes and you get quite a good view of the city..  There are also interesting monuments up there like below:

Views from Calton Hill

Would somebody know whether there’s a proper name?

Would recommend this, this is probably not as challenging as going up to Arthur’s seat as there’s a proper path and a good enough view minus the aching… : )

Palace of Holyrood House

The official residence in Scotland of the Queen, stands at the end of Edinburgh’s Royal Mile. It is steps from the Scottish Parliament and sits at the edge of Holyrood Park. Before we reach the gates, we saw an interesting small “building” at the side of the road and it used to be Queen Mary Anne’s bathhouse! how interesting.. hehehe

The palace is grand but a tad gloomy and dark. Again, no photos allowed in the rooms, i wonder if it’s to preserve the furnitures and precious paintings from flashes??

This part of the palace features the remains of its original facade, an abbey. Feels rather serene

Admission prices

Palace of Holyroodhouse
(includes an audio tour)

Adult 9.80
Over 60/Student (with valid ID) 8.80
Under 17  5.80
Under 5 Free
Family (2 adults, 3 under 17s) 25.40

Joint Palace of Holyroodhouse and The Queen’s Gallery

Adult 13.00
Over 60/Student (with valid ID) 11.50
Under 17 7.50
Under 5 Free
Family (2 adults, 3 under 17s) 33.50

Princes Street

The shopping street of edinburgh, you will see Topshop, H&M, Marks & Spencers and lots more shop…  They close rather early at about 6pm except thurs which is until 8pm??

Night views

I wish i could have stayed a few more days and go further out to places like Inverness or Loch ness, or some highlands. Never mind, i shall be back one day!

I must say it’s quite a quiet city… very peaceful, a bit sleepy…

The town itself is entirely explorable on foot. We headed over to Edinburgh Castle and here’s our 1st view of it.. More information can be found here. For a 3D tour of the castle, go here

Castle Entrance

Views from the castle

The castle is real big, they do run complementary tours at intervals which help you understand more about the castle.

Recommended time to spend: 2 hours
Off Peak Tickets (Nov to Feb): Adult 10 pounds, Children 5 – 15: 5 pounds, Senior Citizens: 7 pounds
Can’t find peak season prices, shall update when i see it.

It’s really quite expensive, but then everything else is expensive because of the pounds. I must say the views are pretty impressive! : )

I feel it necessary to share more information about Britrail as i myself have been really confused while researching on this railpass.

The official website gives standard information on costs and the different type of railpass available. You will be amazed by the number of different pass available.

1. BritRail Central Scotland Pass – Valid for use within Edinburgh and Glasgow

2. BritRail Consecutive Pass – Valid for consecutive days travel within England, Scotland and Wales. Available in 4, 8, 15, 22 days and one month. I want to explain consecutive days travel further. Let’s say we take a 4 days pass from say 1st Nov to 4th Nov, that means we can use the railpass everytime within that period, you may choose to not travel on any of the days but it would count as one of the days of travel.

3. BritRail Flexipass- Within England, Scotland and Wales, but the pass can be broken down into different days of travel. Eg. Travel on 1st nov, 2nd day: 8 nov, 3rd day 10 nov, 4th day 11 nov. This pass as the name suggest is more flexible but of course slightly more expensive than BritRail Consecutive pass.

4. BritRail England Consecutive Pass – A consecutive pass within England itself only

5. BritRail England Flexi Pass – Flexi pass within England itself only

6. BritRail London Plus Pass – Flexi pass within London itself with its boundaries extending to Bath, Bristol and Stratford-upon-Avon

7. BritRail Pass + Ireland – Flexi pass that includes Scotland, England, Wales and Ireland

8. BritRail Scottish Freedom Pass – Flexi pass within Scotland

Are you already confused??? hehehe, well i was at that point. Hope the short explanation helps. At this point, it really depends on how extensive you want to travel, one of my most expensive train journeys would be from Manchester to London which costs a minimum of 36 pounds up to 60 pounds per pax! Check out the NationalRail site to get single point to point fares within England so as to compute whether it’s more worth it to get a BritRail or to just go for a point to point ticket.

Another point to mention, if you are travelling in a group of 3 and above, BritRail offers 50% discounted fare from the 3rd pax onwards (it’s called the partypass) which is very good value.  For more details, do go to the official site to check out the pricing in USD.

First or 2nd Class

I say 2nd class will do, as majority of the people travel by 2nd class. The first class carriage are usually lesser probably because of the demand.

Seats Reservation

Seats can be reserved in advanced via the ticket office, seats are then assigned and you get on the train and search for your seats number and you will find a small ticket slot at the back of your seat confirming your reservation. But alas, i found out that it doesn’t really work for short distance train, such as the Liverpool – Manchester leg. Everybody just piled into the train, you will be lucky if you can get a place standing. So in my opinion, you can try your luck with reservations at the ticket office, but don’t spend any money on reservations. If you wish to reserve it from your own country, you will need to pay about 10Euros!

There you have it, really hope this enlightens you rather than further confuse you. Feel free to drop me a note if you have simple questions to ask. If not, you can drop an email at the official site, they do reply emails quite efficiently. : )

]]> http://mytravelchronicles.wordpress.com/2008/11/17/britrail/feed/ 0 mytravelchronicles britrail http://mytravelchronicles.wordpress.com/2008/11/17/which-part-of-europe-its-a-tough-choice/ http://mytravelchronicles.wordpress.com/2008/11/17/which-part-of-europe-its-a-tough-choice/#comments Mon, 17 Nov 2008 09:20:52 +0000 mytravelchronicles http://mytravelchronicles.wordpress.com/?p=40 ]]> Europe itself can be divided into 3 parts

Northern Europe: Finland, Sweden, Iceland, Norway

Why you will want to head over there:

Auroras or northern lightings: This beautiful natural phenemon can only be seen from this part of Europe or the polar regions. See more explanation on auroras over here. Visit Santa Claus village

Western Europe: United Kingdom, France, Ireland, Amsterdam, Belgium

You will want to see iconic sites such as Stonehenge, Big Ben, Tower Bridge, Effiel Towel, Windmills etc

Eastern Europe: Czech, Slovenia, Slovakia, Hungary

A lot of castles, old world charm can be experienced in the likes of Prague

Southern: Spain, Portugal, Greece and etc

These countries enjoyed warmer climates compared to their neighbours and have more seasides or beaches.

Generally, Northern Europe are more expensive and less travelled. Western Europe will be the most common with a mix of cosmopolitian cities, scenic sites and Eastern Europe are emerging favourites with its lower costs of living and old world charms.

It’s a tough choice out there, but of course with the advance of air travel, you still can travel from one country to another via flights.

Making decisions… for myself, my priority is to visit European countries i have not visited yet

I wanna see stonehenge, big ben, sagrada famalia and my hubby wants to visit the land of soccer – England! So it’s decided then, England and Spain… and for some nice scenery we go to Edinburgh

Our itinerary as follows:

Day 1-3  Edinburgh

Day 4-6 Manchester/ Liverpool

Day 6-9 London

Day 10-12 Madrid

Day 12-14 Barcelona

You need to spend hours after hours of time on the internet booking airtickets, planning routes, choosing your accommodation, what attractions, advices from other travellers.

In such a big continent such as Europe, you really need to plan with care..

a) Airtickets are fairly easy to compare and book, costs are straightforward, you just need to check whether your preferred airline flys to your destination.

b) Travelling within Europe – Coach, Rail, Air, you name it, they have it. Europe has a very well connected train network which puts you right in the middle of the city, no arriving 2 hours before check-in, no waiting for your luggage.

I haven’t had experience taking Eurail but i had the pleasure of using BritRail as one of my destination is UK. Shall elaborate more on this as i encountered a number of questions.

c) Planning routes, places to visit

This you would have to rely on the friendly internet. I relied heavily on travellers’ portals such as VirtualTourist and TripAdvisor.

d) Accommodations

This presents the most headache of all because of the budget. Some accommodation site features very nice photos and you look forward to staying there.. so much so you dropped your luggages in horror at the place. Okay, that’s exaggerating…  But the photos can really be misleading, they either take pictures of the best room they have (none of the other rooms looks remotely similar!).

From the high end 5 stars hotel to the 8 bed dorms, you have a lot of choices. Except that, we often have a budget constraint that leaves us looking at 2 star hotels and below.

There are plenty of hotel booking sites around on the internet, but if you are looking at budget stay, i would recommend hostelworld.

Hope this post helps in your research!

I shall start from the planning process and record down as clear as possible the steps and costs involved:

1. Thinking about WHERE and WHOM to go with?

That’s a pretty standard question but we are talking about the vast continent of Europe here. We have limited time but endless choices of places to go, so we have to keep a cool head and choose with care.

The company for the trip is important as well, you have to take into consideration the interest of each individual and come to a consensus about the location.

2. Tour Packages or Free & Easy?

Both choices have its pros and cons.

Tour Packages’ Pros

• Most of the meals are inclusive, save you trouble on searching for places to think
• You don’t have to lug your luggage around, as you will be “transported” in a coach.
• There’s a tour guide on hand to relay information on the attractions you are visiting

Tour Packages’ Cons

• For lazybums, this is a real minus point as you have to wake up real early like 6 to 7am.
• The itinerary can be very rushed and you may not be able to spend more time in places you like.

F& E Pros

• You get to plan your own itinerary, where exactly you want to go, how long you intend to stay at one place, what you want to eat, etc!

F&E Cons

• It can be tiring lugging your luggage all over the local transport from one point to another point. The most horrifying thing that has happened – endless stairs for you to lug up or down your luggage!
• Planning planning planning! You need to plan everything from where to go, where to stay, where to visit and book all the flights, international, domestic etc.

My word of advice:

If your intention is to squeeze in as many sights as possible, then please go for the tour package.

if you want to stay and experience the culture and meet more people, go for free & easy.

End of the day, you decide….

Official currency is MOP$ but Hong Kong Dollars are widely accepted as well. So if you are taking a trip to Hong Kong and Macau, just go for Hong Kong Dollars. One thing to note, they don’t accept HKD 10 dollars coin. They are okay with dollar notes though. And they will hand you your change in MOP$ when you give them HKD.

Weather

June to September: Summer

October to Dec: Fall

Jan to Feb: Winter! Ok, i’m exaggerating

Mar to May: Spring

I went in late January, thinking it’s those cool weather within the range of 12 degrees and above. It’s COLD, the wind blows like nobody’s business and you cant escape the cold except when you are in the casinos! It was probably one of the coldest January Macau has ever experienced, they don’t have indoor heating which explains why most of the shops are still so cold despite the door being closed.

Food

Food is aplenty from Cha Chang Ting to Portuguese Restaurants. Some Cha Chang Tings are open till late like 3am at least.

Must Try Food

Portuguese Egg Tarts – NICE NICE NICE

Pork Bun

Almond Biscuit

Portuguese Food – Mouth watering

All in all, Macau is a very delightful place to go around. Yes, it can’t compare to Hong Kong for its shopping but the vibrant casinos and good food more than make up for it! So please go to Macau if you have a chance.

Useful links for research
www.macautourism.gov.mo
http://www.frommers.com/destinations/macau/1491010002.html

Guia Fortress
A picture of the lighthouse….

Fisherman’s village
This is a tourist attraction divided into several zones of different countries. There’s Rome, Little Holland,
Maybe it’s too cold that day, there was only a few tourists like us braving the cold wind.
Didn’t enjoy it too much as it’s too cold, cant escape the cold even when we are indoors.

Macau Tower

Went up the tower to get a bird eye view of Macau. All the brightly lit casinos catch the eyes!

Taipa Village

I think this place is a pleasant surprise! Macau is divided into 2 main areas, Downtown macau and Taipa. So on the last day of our trip, we went to Taipa to explore. First we visited the Taipa House Museums where they showcased how the Portuguese Chinese live in those days. Everything is preserved perfectly. The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10am to 6pm, and admission is 5 MOP

If you happen to visit Taipa village on a Sunday, there’s a tiny weeny flea market organised by the local people selling knick knacks. I have to warn you, do not go there expecting it to be some shopping paradise or like Bangkok’s Chatuchak, the little stalls sell handicrafts, souvenirs, some clothes and gifts.

and Food! There’s plenty of choices in terms of food, Portuguese Restaurants, Cha Chang Ting, and even McDonalds. If you’ve not bought any foodstuff yet, go along those small little lanes to get those homemade goodies. We happened to chance upon an old lady selling homemade charcoal grilled almond cookies! It’s certainly as good as famous brands like Koi Kee if not better! The price is also cheaper. : )

We visited some casinos

Venetian Macao
As the name suggests, it is a mini Venice… It’s a hotel cum casino cum shopping arcade. There’s canals and gondolas for rides. For a moment you will really think that you are in Venice under a blue blue sky with the boatman singing…

A gorgeous place to visit even if you do not gamble.

Gondola boatman

Location: Near Taipa or Cotai. Free shuttle service from the ferry

Grand Lisboa Casino
An eye-catching building with grand casinos. There’s a mini cabaret show for the public in the gambling hall…

Casino Lisboa
It must have been one of the grandest casino around back in the olden days. It’s a very retro looking casino more for photo-taking…. Still good to visit for a feel of the good old days…

Sands Casino
Didn’t manage to visit this casino… Only took a picture of the outside, it’s near Fisherman Wharf..

Actually, there’s many many more casinos (big & small), so just casino hop around. The bigger casinos such as Sands, Wynn and Venetian Macao all has shuttle services which are convenient.

Happy casino hopping

Food is similar or should i say same as Hong Kong Cafe featuring Milk tea, YuanYang (Coffee mixed with tea), egg and luncheon meat sandwich, instant noodle with egg and luncheon meat… and PORK CHOP BUN… literally a piece of pork chop sandwiched by a mini french loaf (bread varies from stall to stall) this is a must must must try if you go to Macau! you can find it in any eatery or roadside stall…

Forgotten to take a pic of the pork chop bun, and if you guess it right, that’s spaghetti with pork chop for breakfast…

and we took the same route back to St Paul’s ruins… the same buildings you saw in day 1 but in daylight….

A little church right in senado square with pretty colours…

And finally St Paul’s ruins by day…

Notice the Olympic’s Mascot (Fuwa) along the slope leading right up

History of St Paul’s Ruins can be found here

And today though only the facade remains, they have an underground museum where religious relics are exhibited….

and so we continue our journey