All my pictures on Facebook!

Okay in Cochem there was a lack of Wi-Fi, in Munich on the first night there was EXTREMELY slow internet and now I finally uploaded all my photos I have on Facebook and added captions from Amsterdam to Munich so go see them!

Windsor
Brussels
Brugge
Amsterdam
Cochem
Munich

I don't know if I will post too many pictures here. My computer is really slow and I don't always have hours of internet :( I'll try to write though!

And by the way the Oktoberfest was AMAZING! xxx

Soaking It In

Just this evening, I watched Passport to Europe with Samantha Brown: Berlin. How I wish I could be like, just like her. Not be her, but be able to do what she does. I've been watching her since I was probably a decade old (if she was around then) and I was so fascinated by her being able to travel and explore, and to tell people about the wonderful places she'd see. I've watched the Munich episode a few weeks before, maybe just last year, and I was amazed by the splendor of the Bavarian culture. I'm very much excited to visit Bavaria. Very much. The medieval style, the castle(s), the Black Forest. I want to see them all. In a way, I'm glad I'm going alone. There's no one else I have to consider when I see things, and there's no one to say that they've had too much of Germany, or France, or Romania, and they want to go on. I am going to sit around and just soak in the European-ess of it all.

There are definitely a number of places I want my stays extended, to "soak" in. I shall have to have at least 10 days in it. Two weeks, probably, and more if I want to explore many more cities. Pictures are officially from WikiTravel! These places include:

1. Germany: Nuremberg, Berlin, Dresden, Munich, Cologne

 

The Gothic Cathedral "Dom" in Cologne

2. France: Paris, Bordeaux, Nice, Lourdes, Lyon

The Roman theater in Fourvière, Lyon

3. Czech Republic: Prague, Český Krumlov, Kutná Hora, Telč

 

 Český Krumlov

4. Romania: Bucharest, Braşov, Sibiu, Sighisoara, Cluj-Napoca

Sighişoara Citadel

5. Ireland: Cork, Dublin, Galway, Kilkenny

Kilkenny Castle

These are places I want to extend my stays in. Hopefully I can! I know for one that Ireland is rather expensive. :( I will try and couchsurf to the best of my ability, and at the same time, be hosted and shown around by a local! The idea of making friends just excite me so.

It is now February. 6 months till I leave for London. ;)

The Neues Museum and Nefertiti

The famous 3,300-year-old bust of Queen Nefertiti seen at the "Neues Museum", New Museum, on the so-called Museum Island during a media preview in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2009. Berlin's Neues Museum will be reopened on Friday, Oct. 16, 2009 and welcome back the famed bust of the Egyptian Queen Nefertiti, more than 60 years after World War II bombing left much of the building in ruins. The building will be reopened after a decade of painstaking restoration work, marking a major step forward in a marathon project to revive the German capital's neoclassical Museum Island complex. British architect David Chipperfield reconstructed the remains of the 'Neues Museum', originally built by Friedrich August Stueler between 1843 and 1855. — AP Photo/Markus Schreiber

So just hours back, Queen Nefertiti's bust has returned to the Neues Museum in Berlin, German after a remodeling of the monumental building. How did I find out about this? Let me be honest—I am honestly not a news buff. I actually flicked over to the German channel on my local cable service and watched Deutsche-Welle TV for a while where they talked about the reopening of the Neues Museum. The thing that caught me was the Queen's bust herself. I recognized it immediately and I stopped to listen! Lo and behold, the news was up to date. If I never watched that, I'd never know. What an interesting entry this will be. ;)

Pictures credited to The Associated Press.

Isn't it beautiful, just one of a kind? She's in a bulletproof box, obviously, and one that's 4-meters tall! When I realized this was in Germany, I knew it would be one of the places I definitely HAD to visit regardless. I have checked and its ticket will cost me €10 which equals to approximately SGD$20. Not too bad to see the real life bust of Nefertiti and other amazing Egyptian artifacts, no?

If the ministry overseeing reconstruction is able to square the circle and all goes according to plan, in 2009 the Neues Museum will also become part of the archaeological promenade. The archaeological promenade will be an underground passageway connecting all the buildings on the Museum Island, with the exception of the Alte Nationalgalerie. It will integrate the Neues Museum as an important part of the historical architectural context of the Museum Island. The Neues Museum's restored, expanded, and new galleries will then again offer, as they did before their destruction, a worthy framework for the collections of the Egyptian Museum and the Museum for Pre- and Early History. Finally, the building will at last represent a lasting monument in stone for its first architect, Friedrich August Stüler, who wished that "the whole building should form a center for the highest mental interests of the people, the likes of which no other capital would likely be able to exhibit." — Wikipedia

An archaeological promenade that connects almost all the museums? This has got to be a dream. I would probably die from it . . . and in a good way. I can't wait to spend at least a hundred Singapore dollars on these things! I can imagine if I was actually there, I would be leaving my hand prints at every glass panel there is. Hahaha, kidding. But really, it is amazing. I have always been fascinated by the Ancient Egyptians and I've even written a fictional story or two about it!

 

 

Pictures credited to berlin fan's Flickr.

I believe it looks just as beautiful to you as it does to me. There are a few more pictures where this came from so just click on the credited link above! Come the same time next year, I should have already taken a picture of the famous bust and immersed myself in the wonderful Ancient Egyptian culture and what more at on the Museum Island in Berlin. I'm not a huge museum fan but these are some of the kinds of things I cannot refuse. I love history. Are you huge museum fan?