Two more busy days

Our plan for yesterday was to visit the aquarium (largest in Japan) and Osaka castle. But our plans had a slight change when we went to meet up with some of the other travelers and one of them was lost. Kevin's dad had gone out for a walk over two hours earlier and hadn't returned. So, Wayne, EDP, Kevin's brother and Kevin's sister-in-law set out to find him. We looked for quite some time with no luck. However, on one of our trips back to Kevin's house, there was a police car in front of the building. Lou had gotten himself turned around but found a police station and they helped him home. Needless to say, he got some ribbing about getting lost but everyone was happy he had made it home.

After that bit of excitement, we headed to the aquarium, which was really cool. Unfortunately, I didn't find Nemo but I did find penguins and turtles and a whale shark and tonnes of other cool stuff. It was a really enjoyable couple of hours. Then, we headed off to Osaka castle where Wayne and Kevin were mobbed by school children playing "country bingo" - they had to speak to people from various countries and get them to sign their paper. At least, that's what we think was going on. They may have thought Wayne was Justin Bieber. After the castle, we all went to Aya's (the bride's) parents' home for dinner. It was a really enjoyable evening and the food was delicious!!

Today was a much less busy day. Wayne, EDP, and I went to visit Himeji castle, one of the largest castles in Japan. It and its grounds were absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately, the main keep is under renovations so we couldn't see it but they have put up an observation building so you can see some of the renovations up close. It was really neat to see that. We also toured through some beautiful Japanese gardens that had several koi ponds. We caught feeding time at the pond and it was amazing to see 250 koi going nuts trying to get at the food.

Oh, but the best part of the entire day was definitely having hot chocolate at the Hello Kitty Cafe. They made our drinks look like Hello Kitty on top! And FYI, it was EDP who wanted to stop there.

A day in Kyoto

Today, we went up to Kyoto. It was just a short train ride away and soon, we had bus tickets and were headed up to the Golden Pavilion. When we were heading in, we got stopped by a group of students who had some questions and wanted to have their photo taken with us. There's a chance the kids were playing dumb with us about not understanding us so we may end up as stars of a viral video making fun of us.

The Golden Pavilion was quite lovely. It's covered in gold leaf so it really is gold! The guidebook claims it the world's most ostentatious retirement cottage since it was built by the shogun in 1393 as a place to live when he left politics. From there, we walked down to Ninna-ji temple, which had an amazing 5 story pagoda and a palace that was really very beautiful. After that, it was time for lunch and then a bus ride over to Ginkaku-ji, another temple with lovely grounds that we toured through. Once we were done there, we followed the Philosopher's Path, which follows beside an old canal and has numerous temples and shrines along the route. Then, I got a chance to check out a rather fancy department store before we grabbed some dinner and headed back to Osaka.

Tomorrow, we're planning on checking out Osaka castle and the aquarium. It should be a nice day in the city!

In Japan now

So after all the last-minute-ness of getting ready on Sunday, we headed to the airport and flew to Tokyo. From Tokyo, we caught a connecting flight to Osaka and now we're here.

Kevin and Wayne, friends of EDP's, met us at the airport and after a short bus ride, we got checked in at our hotel and then headed to Kevin and Aya's house for some visiting with them and Kevin's parents, who also arrived before us. Then it was back to the hotel to get a good night's sleep after a long, long day.

The plan for today was to have a fun day out at Porto Europa, an amusement park, have a BBQ and go orange picking with Kevin, Aya, Wayne, Kevin's parents, Aya's parents, and Aya's friend. Unfortunately, it rained for most of the day so only one ride was operating at the park (a water ride) so we could only wander around. We did get to see a really big tuna get filleted, which was interesting. After lunch, the rain let up for while so we went to the orchard and got to eat as many mandarins as we could, right off the tree. EDP definitely had an advantage due to height and was able to reach the highest mandarins on the tree but I still found some tasty ones. We also got to each take a little bag of mandarins with us so now we have some delicious fruit for breakfast!

Tomorrow, Wayne and EDP and I are headed to Kyoto. Let's hope for better weather than today.

I have never been so unprepared for a trip in my entire life

We leave in 56 minutes and I'm only setting up my travel blog now.  I only packed this morning.  Our plan for what to do consists of a post-it.  I'm not even sure if I told anyone I was going to Japan!!

What is wrong with me?!  Normally, I set my blog up months in advance, have a budget spreadsheet, an itinerary, advance tickets purchased, packed a week early, guidebook thoroughly digested.  None of that has happened.  I did manage to tell my parents about Japan so at least the dog was taken care of.

Anyway.  We're going to Japan.  It's now 54 minutes until we leave.

The main reason we're going is for a wedding in Osaka.  One of EDP's long-time friends is getting married and we were invited.  I think.  I never actually saw an invitation.  They know we're coming and have sent us the plan for the days leading up to the wedding so we won't be the only ones with egg on our face if we get there and it turns out we're not invited.  We're also going to get some sight-seeing in - Kyoto, Kobo, a couple of castles, an aquarium and this super long walking trail I need to research.

We're now leaving in 51 minutes and my to-do list is still lengthy so I'd better get to it.  But I'll leave you with this delightful Japanese song.

Home again

Shhh.... Be quiet, it's not even 5:00 am yet. But I'm home and ready to blog about the last few details of our trip.

We had a nice sleep in on Monday morning, meeting Wayne for breakfast later than usual. It was nice not to have to set an alarm, especially knowing how early we'd have to get up the next morning. We went for one last breakfast and then Wayne collected his bag and we walked down to the train station. After putting Wayne on the train, we decided to head back down to the oldest part of Vienna for a bit of shopping. Neither of us bought anything.

After that, we headed back to the room to relax/pack for a bit and then head out for one last meal of schnitzel and strudel. The schnitzel was delicious but the strudel wasn't. Sad. Once we were back at the hotel, we got all packed up and headed to bed early.

Our 4:00 am alarm went off VERY early and we got the last of the packing done, checked out and were on our way to the airport by 4:30. Everything was closed so we didn't get a chance to eat anything before our first flight, which didn't have service on it since it was only a short flight to Brussels. The flight was smooth, though, I did have a gentleman beside me who got rather cranky when the flight attendant told him he had to put his tray up for landing. Once in the Brussels airport, we had to cross from one end of the airport to another, going through customs & security without boarding passes as the flight hadn't opened up for the check-in lady in Brussels to print them. We had seats but no passes - which seemed odd. Our baggage tickets and printed itinerary were enough and we got to our gate about 10 minutes before boarding. We got our boarding passes and then had to talk to security for a few minutes. It looked like everyone picking up boarding passes was being questioned and ours was far less inquisitive than some of the others. Then, we sat to wait for the 9:15 boarding call. Which never came, they just started boarding! So onto the plane we went and despite our boarding passes saying boarding would only go until 9:50, the plane kept boarding until our take-off time of 10:15.

This flight was also smooth, in the sense that there wasn't much turbulence but it sucked enough in other ways that I probably won't want to fly Jet Airways again unless I have to. All of our flights were booked on Brussels airways but both coming and going, the Toronto to Brussels leg was operated by Jet Airways, an Indian airline. They served drinks & a snack very quickly. I have no idea what the snack was supposed to be but it was spicy enough I thought I would be breathing fire. Neither EDP or I could eat it, which was sad because we were both starving (though, I had grabbed a Twix from the vending machine just before boarding.) Our first meal came shortly after and it was, without a doubt, the worst meal I've ever had on an airplane. It was supposed to be chicken with couscous. The couscous was completely inedible and the chicken was rather sausage-like in shape & colour so I wasn't even trying that. Even the salad was awful. And the dessert. I ended up eating my roll & water. We didn't get offered anything else to drink and the coffee cart zoomed right by us, too.

Then the crying started. There was a set of twins on the plane. Either one or both were crying the ENTIRE flight. Their parents were doing their best and they moved around the plane so that it wasn't just us that got tortured but it was still so frustrating. Oh, and one of the babies was right behind me and whenever it stopped crying and was put in its car seat, it thumped the back of my chair (hard enough that EDP chair was moving, too.)

Closer to Toronto, we got another meal - quiche with a bit of pasta. It was edible but certainly isn't considered good, even for airplane food. It was followed up with ice cream, which salvaged the flight for me but aside from that, there was nothing good about the flight.

Once we landed, we got through customs quickly & easily. EDP's friend, Bry, was picking us up and he was already waiting for us on the other side of customs. Our bags took a long time to appear - there was some kind of jam in the baggage room and they couldn't get them onto the belt quickly. Ours didn't take too long to appear, once they started arriving. We found Bry, headed to the car, and drove home.

Overall, it was an amazing, fantastic trip. I loved Prague - even though we feel like we saw everything, I'd go back in a heartbeat. Vienna was also lovely but definitely had that big-city, Toronto-like feel to it. I'd go back to Austria, for sure, but I wouldn't spend much time in Vienna. I think the highlight of the trip, for me, was Durnstein (the kingdom far, far away) and it would be the first thing I recommended to anyone who was planning a trip to the area.

Now, it's time for a cup of tea and back to regular life. When's the next trip?

A kingdom far, far away

Today we had success. We booked a car last night and picked it up with no issues this morning. It was a little white two-door Mini that served its purpose well.

We took a longer route, keeping us off the major highways so that we could see all the little towns between Vienna and our destinations and it quickly paid off. Close to Krems, our first town, we started seeing vineyards all along the road. We stopped at what appeared to be a winery and had a glass of wine on a patio that overlooked the Danube. The wine was delicious and we would have bought some but only the restaurant was open, the store was closed because it was Sunday. There was also a very friendly dog at the restaurant - I scratched her ears for just a second and she was laying down and rolling onto her back for a belly rub, which I happily gave her. When I stopped, her eyes widened and she nuzzled at me to keep going, so I did. It was very cute. I would have loved to take her with us for the rest of the day.

After that, we got into Krems, the first of our three stops. Again, it was Sunday so all of the shops were closed. We enjoyed wandering the cobblestone streets, though, and there was some kind of festival or celebration going on outside one of the churches. We never figured out what it was and when Wayne realized he didn't have the car key on him, our wandering was cut short to head back to the car to find the key. Luckily, it was in the ignition. Even more luckily, the car and all our stuff was still there. We decided to continue on at that point and headed towards Durnstein.

I was looking forward to Durnstein the most - it's rumoured to have inspired the Brothers Grimm's kingdom far, far away in their fairy tales. There's also the ruins of a old castle where Richard the Lionhearted was kept prisoner for quite some time during the crusades. We arrived and managed to park and then headed towards the old town. And yes, you could tell just by looking at it that it was the perfect setting for a fairy tale. We found the path up to the castle and hiked up the steep, steep hill to get to the top. It didn't take too long but it was a warm day and I was huffing & puffing the entire way. The ruins were incredible and the views from them were almost indescribable. It was so beautiful - you could see the town and the country side with the Danube flowing through it all. So, so beautiful.

Then it was time for a bit of shopping in the town while the boys got some lunch. I wasn't too hungry and I was more interested in the shops so we split ways for a little while. I got to meander in and out of all the stores, buying some of the local wine and an apricot-flavoured soda, ice cream & grapes from the vines. It was fantastic. After meeting up with EDP & Wayne again, we headed to Melk.

Melk is famous for their abbey. And if I was understanding correctly, it was founded by a monk who was unimpressed with the opulent ways of Rome. So he founded the abbey at Melk and welcomed monks with the characteristics he admired. And compared to Italy & the Vatican, the abbey was very toned down. The library was INCREDIBLE. Somewhere around 100,000 books going back to the 1300s. Many of these books would be original copies, written out by the monks themselves. It was overwhelming. Then, we moved into the church. And to me, it seemed just as decorated and opulent as the churches we saw in Italy. After that, we wandered the abbey's gardens and headed down into the Old Town for an ice cream and a walk around before heading back to the car for the drive back to Vienna.

After dropping off the car and dropping our stuff at the hotel, we headed out for dinner, landing at an Italian place where we all really enjoyed our dinners. Now, we're back in the hotel room, heading off to bed. Wayne heads back to Germany tomorrow and then EDP and I will be heading back to Toronto very early on Tuesday morning. Hard to believe our trip is almost over :(