Vacation in Germany & Norway

Greetings ......!  I'm home from my holidays in Germany and Norway.  It has been fun despite the weather !

 

It was a nice and relaxing holiday.  Weather has been unbelievable ... hot and rainy in Germany, sunshine all day long in Norway.  In fact the sun never sets during our week in Norway! The birds were chirping away in the garden at 4am ! Gosh! A wake-up call!!!

We took a long-haul KLM flight from Singapore to Paderborn in Germany (via Amsterdam and Frankfurt).  We had a 3 hour stopover in Amsterdam - crossing the custom takes a long time as there were only one counter for "other passports" (other than the EU countries).  In Frankfurt, we had about an hour and a half to get ourselves to the next Terminal since we were on a different airlines. It was rather stressful as we had to locate the other Terminal which was a distance away. Our luggages were offloaded in Frankfurt Main Airport and we had to lug them to the Lufthansa counter in the other Terminal and check-in again (within an hour) before our flight to Paderborn.  Glad that all went smooth.  It was an unforgettable experience!  The people we asked for directions were quite helpful.

Kim & Mathias picked us up from Paderborn airport - a small airport. We had less than 15 people on the plane. Paderborn is a nice interesting city.  We managed to explore the city during our few days there.

After the weekend in Paderborn, we rented a car (driven by Kim) and our journey to Berlin starts.  We spent 3 nights in Berlin exploring the beautiful city.  We explore the city on foot, taking the underground.  We visited the Berlin Zoo and Aquarium - hoping to catch a glimpse of Knut (the famous orphaned Polar Bear).  We queued for an hour before giving up. The queue never moved! Gosh, it wasn't a well-organised event (to see Knut).  The Aquarium has fishes and reptiles as well.  There weren't much information given on the fishes except their names and species.   I saw the tank of big Arowanas (these fishes are very popular in Singapore and Malaysia - as the fishes brings good luck to the owners).

We also spent a few hours visiting the Concentration Camp and Museum.  It was full of students on study trips.
After Berlin, we drove over 6 hours to Frankfurt Hahn Airport to pick up Mary (who travelled from Norway to join us).  The B&B (in Frankfurt) was just across the road from the Airport Arrival Hall.  The hotel room was tiny but very cosy - equipped with a flat-screen LCD TV. The hotel shower though small, was superb.

We woke up early the next day.  After breakfast in the B&B - we travelled towards Trier, Moselle Valley, Koblenz.  We stayed one night in Koblenz.

Mathias and his parents were our hosts for the weekend in Detmold.  We had a BBQ dinner and a BBQ lunch the next day.  We returned to Paderborn for 2 nights stay before leaving for Hamburg and Bremen.  We explored the city of Hamburg for a few hours.  We spent a night in Bremen.  During our walk in the city centre, we saw the "Musicians of Bremen" statues.  Yep, I took a lot of photos!! :o)

On 6 June, we left for Norway from Bremen airport.  We had a relaxing stay in Larvik (home of Mary, Kim and Belinda).  We had a few mahjong sessions too !  It was fun.

We celebrated Mary's 60th birthday with 30 of her friends (all ladies).  There were about 15 nationalities - from Singapore, Norway, Canada, New Calendonia, Trinidad, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Denmark, England, etc.  Everyone had fun.  There were different variety of food cooked by Mary and friends - Ngoh Hiang, prawns, chicken drumsticks, curry, fish, potato salad, Norwegien cakes & delicacies.  Line-dancing was the popular dance item.   Mary's friends performed a hawaiian hula dance, a flamenco and a samba dance.  We were treated to songs, dance and jokes as well.  Everyone had a great time.

It's a pity the holiday has ended.  Now it's back to Singapore and work work work !!!