Category: Travel

Posted on

Monday morning/ the M10 and the M12

The M10 and the M12 are two arterial roads running by Cape Town International Airport.  I used them to steer clear of the clogged up freeways to drop Marlien at the airport on Monday morning at 7 am.

I’m at a dead stop in Monday morning traffic at the junction of the M10 and the M12, and was just snapping a picture of the traffic sign (I know – I should not mess with my phone while driving), when I lucked out and caught a departing British Airways flight as well in the frame! (Very likely bound for Johannesburg. The flights to Europe leave later in the day and in the evening).   
Posted on

Sunday/ the V&A Waterfront

My friends Bryan and Dale and I made a quick run out to the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront today. It was very pleasant outside at the Waterfront (25℃/ 75 ℉).

Cheers! San Marcos at the V&A Waterfront. Our beers are from Namibia, mine a Windhoek Light and Bryan’s a Windhoek Lager. (Thanks for snapping the picture, Dale!).
This is one of my favorite buildings in the Waterfront, the Old Port Captain’s Building (1904).
The Victorian Gothic-style Clock Tower was the original Port Captain’s Office, built in 1882. The pointed Gothic windows surrounds the structure with a clock, imported from Edinburgh, as a main feature. The red walls are the same color as they were in the 1800’s, the new paint matched with scrapings of the old.

 

Posted on

Wednesday/ arrival in Cape Town

I made it into Cape Town early on Wednesday afternoon. Summer is showing no sign of slowing down here, with a high of 33 °C (91°F) today, and tomorrow’s forecast at 35 °C (95°F).  In fact, a severe drought has prompted authorities in the Western Cape to impose water restrictions on residents.

This is the first of my three British Airways flights, boarding the Airbus A319 at Frankfurt’s Terminal 2 for London Heathrow.
Flight No 2 – making my way at London Heathrow’s Terminal 5 to the big Airbus A380-800 for the long south-bound flight to Johannesburg. Flight time was 11 hrs and 11 mins.
And here is our flying machine for the third and final leg of my journey from Frankfurt to Cape Town, a Boeing 737-800. We had just landed at Cape Town airport.   No bus!  We had to hoof it over to the arrivals terminal that was close by.  I did not mind: it was great to stretch my legs. 
Posted on

Tuesday/ to LHR, then JNB, CPT

Here’s the tram (we call them street cars in the States) that stops in front of the Marriott Hotel where I stay – very convenient. Tram to the Frankfurt Main Station, then the train to Frankfurt Airport.

 

Alright, on my way to Frankfurt’s Terminal 2.  It is British Airways all the way, but I will make two stops on the way to Cape Town, South Africa : one in London Heathrow and one in Johannesburg.   Since London is still in Europe for now (in the European Union), I will probably get my European Union passport stamp in London – and not here in Frankfurt.

Posted on

Monday/ hello, Heidelberg

It takes about 48 minutes on the Stuttgart-bound train from Frankfurt to Heidelberg.

I took a Deutsche Bahn train to Heidelberg today in the morning, returning to Frankfurt some 4 hours later.  It’s not the best time of year to visit, of course – but Heidelberg has Heidelberg University, founded in the 14th century.  I also wanted to check out Heidelberg Castle, conveniently located on Königstuhl hill right by the Altstadt (old town).

This is Markplatz right next to Heiliggeistkirche (the Holy Ghost Church), off Hauptstrasse. It is chilly – not a lot of people around!
This is the Neckar River that runs through Heidelberg. It is a major tributary to the Rhine. To the right of the sluice gates is a set of locks, elevating the river surface upstream by a few feet.
This is the entrance to the Institute for Translation and Interpreting at the University of Heidelberg, at 52 Hauptstrasse.
This is looking west on Hauptstrasse, with Zum Guldenen Schaf (‘To the Golden Sheep’) tavern on my right.
This is an ornate and very beautiful pair of entrance doors on Universitätsplatz (University Square).
This little square is called Kornmarkt (I think) .. in the background on Königstuhl hill is the redstone buildings and remains of Heidelberg Castle.
Heidelberg has the distinction of having both the oldest and the most modern funicular railways in Germany. The lower portion opened in 1890, and was most recently updated in 2004, giving it the ‘most modern’ title as well.  Here’s the little train car on the funicular railway that goes up Königstuhl hill. There is a walkway up the hill as well (but it’s easier and way more fun to take the little train).
It’s a quick ride up, through some very old tunnel. I am sitting in the last row at the back, and this is the view down.
Alright! Let’s go inside and see what the castle looks like.
This is the back of the best-preserved part of the castle. The front overlooking the city, looks similar. The black and yellow flag on the tower on the right is the City of Heidelberg flag.
Lion’s head detail on the castle wall from the previous picture. Is this a sad lion? Like the one in the Wizard of Oz?
Here’s a zoomed-in view from the city from a vantage point on the castle.  The church towers of the Jesuitenkirche (Jesuit Church) on the left, and the Heiliggeistkirche (Holy Ghost Church) on the right, stand out.   That’s the Neckar River at the top of the picture.

 

Posted on

Sunday/ arrival in Frankfurt

I had just stepped off the airplane on the tarmac, at a wet Keflavik airport. The last few passengers are making their way to the bus.

There was no snow in sight at Keflavik airport (outside Reykjavik, Iceland) at our arrival there this morning; just a steady rain.   We were bussed into the airport terminal and again out to the Iceland Air Boeing 757.    It was some 7 hrs into Reykjavik, and 3 more got me to Frankfurt.

Our Iceland Air 757 from Seattle was named after volcano Dyngjufjöll; Aurora Borealis LED light display inside the cabin; Reykjavik to Frankfurt is 3 hrs.
This is the train that I took from Frankfurt airport to Frankfurt hauptbahnhof (main train station).
Posted on

Saturday/ at Seattle airport

‘Trump against the rest of the world’, says the German magazine Stern. ‘Self-governing, ruthless and unpredictable – how the new US President is fighting democracy’. (This magazine is dated Feb 9 – so well before Trump’s Thursday Feb 16 circus of a press conference and tweets on Friday denouncing all the major newspapers and media outlets as ‘fake news’). Looks like there is no getting away from the Trump coverage .. but at least I will get a break from the barrage of bad news from the cable news channels I watch in the United States (I hope).

I am at Seattle airport, and made it though security into the lounge at the South Terminal.  I have a 40-minutes-only layover at Reykjavik airport, so I have to dash for the gate for Frankfurt’s departure as soon as I step off the plane there.   Usually the connecting flight’s boarding gate is close by, though.

The same magazine had a spread of Valentine’s Day celebrations from around the world. This cute couple is getting married in red and in the garrison chapel on South Africa’s Robben Island (Robben Island is where Nelson Mandela had spent the larger part of 27 years in jail).
Posted on

Friday/ my bags are packed ..

I am starting to make my way to South Africa on Saturday by taking an Iceland Air flight to Frankfurt, with a short stop in Reykjavik.  The airline actually called me this morning to inquire if they can change my flight to the direct flight on Lufthansa : the Iceland Air flight was oversold.  Sure! I said.  Several hours later I finally got the Lufthansa itinerary, and checked in.   But no .. back came an e-mail from  Iceland Air : Lufthansa needed the seat after all; the Lufthansa web site should not have allowed me to check in.   Can I use the original Iceland Air reservation instead?  Man! So I finally got my boarding pass on Iceland Air, back where I started. 

Here are the two Iceland Air flights that will get me to Frankfurt on the first leg of my trip to South Africa. The big white mass is Greenland. As is sometimes said : Iceland is green and Greenland is ice (at least for another few years, before it thaws).
Posted on

Sunday/ more protests against the travel ban

A selfie from someone at San Francisco International airport, that spotted Google co-founder Sergey Brin there. Brin (on the left in the picture) was there in a personal capacity and did not make public comments, but did tell a reporter that ‘I am here because I am a refugee’. His parents brought him to the United States from Russia, when he was 6 years old, in the wake of anti-Semitism against his family. Brin is the 10th richest man in the USA.

There were protests at Seattle airport and several others on Saturday night, and in downtown Seattle on Sunday, against the ban* for travelers/ refugees/ green card holders of the seven countries in Pres. Trump’s executive order.  Lots of confusion.

The Dept of Homeland Security finally clarified that the ban does not apply to green card holders.  What was surprising to me is the relatively low number of international travelers impacted on Saturday; from what I read the number for all of the USA seemed to be no more than 200 or so.  But it’s the principle that matters.  And we don’t know how many people were about to start to travel back and had to cancel their plans at the last minute.  (Also : someone on Twitter pointed out that only 0.75% of Germany’s 1933 population were Jews).

*The ban suspends the entry of all refugees to the United States for 120 days, halts the admission of refugees from Syria indefinitely and bars entry for three months to residents from the predominantly Muslim countries of Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen.

Posted on

Sunday/ Canada turns 150

Check out the gorgeous photos in the annual New York Times article called 52 Places to Go in 2017.   I love the picture of the yak (No 43. Langtang Region, Nepal).

I’m pretty sure I’m not going to make it to Nepal .. but seems I should definitely make plans to visit Canada (No 1. on the list).   It is the 150th anniversary of its confederation (when the original colonies came together as one country).  All of the country’s more than 200 national parks and historic sites are offering free admission through the year, and both Ottawa and Montreal have events throughout the year.

Posted on

Monday night/ home

I loved the rotating globe on the ‘sky map’ display channel on the plane. Honaria is in the Solomon Islands, 18 hrs ahead of Seattle. And New Zealand is away even one time zone more, at 19 hours.
This still is from an anime film I had watched on the plane, called ‘The Place Promised in Our Early Days’.  It is about parallel universes, and war, and worlds that are changing.  Anime films are enormously popular in Japan.  The film ‘Your Name’ that runs there right now, is the second highest grossing movie of all time there. (Most popular was 2001 ‘Spirited Away’ by director Hayao Miyazaki).

I’m home: east, west, (and north south), home best.  With Tokyo 17 hours ahead of Seattle, the 9 hour flight back landed us at Seattle much ‘earlier’ on Monday, than when we had left in Tokyo on Monday.

We had just pulled up to the gate at Seattle’s South Terminal. The sky is crisp and clear and cold, with a little snow still on the airport grounds, left over from New Years evening and New Years day.
Posted on

Monday/ at Narita Airport

My time in Tokyo was finally up on Monday morning.  I got onto the Narita Express at the Shinagawa train station, and made it out to the airport with plenty of time.  That was a good thing : apparently the entire Thailand and China (and some other countries) visited Japan for New Year’s Day, and throngs of people were traveling back.

Here’s the Narita Express at Shinagawa station, traveling in the opposite direction , bound for Yokohama. I almost bought a ticket just for fun, on the shinkansen (bullet train) to Yokohama and back, but was a little pressed for time. Got to leave something to do for the next trip, right?
The Akihabara store at Terminal 1 is always a treat to check into, and they did not disappoint with this giant ceiling ‘light fixture’. I’m afraid I do not know if this is a well-known character or not.
.. and I like to check out the scarves in the window of the Hermes store as well. I love the motifs and colors on this one. ‘Strolling to Versailles’ says the lettering in French.
Posted on

Sunday/ January 1st

A new Gregorian calendar year has hatched, and a few weeks later this year the lunar Year of the Rooster will start.
The image on the left from a store window.

I went to the Yodobashi store in Akihabara again today; nothing big (such as a Seiko watch or a Canon camera lens).  It’s just such an overwhelming spectacle, with the enormous variety of all kinds of products and toys that are on display.  Casio had an interesting scanning-translating pen on display.  It looks like a giant marker. The reader drags it across the text and then the translated text is shown on the display.

 

Rawwr ! The dragon with the goat horns is coming for my camera lens. (I did not note the name of the creature).
This is the platform for the Yamanote line (green on maps) at Kanda station. I love the old exposed iron work with the giant rivets.
I changed hotels for my last night .. the first night I could take advantage of using my Marriott points. It helps a little to keep the expensive hotel costs in Tokyo in check. This ikebana is by the elevator. (The panel lines in the wall in the background, interferes a little with the arrangement!).
Posted on

Saturday/ Tokyo Disneyland

The Keiyō Line, run by Japan Rail East, runs out to Tokyo Bay. (I am close to the Tokyo station, the long bar on the top left). The Disney Resort line is a loop that runs around the Disney premises.

Well – the year is almost out here in the ‘Far East’. (Hey, is there such a concept as the Far West? Shouldn’t there be, if there is a Far East?).

I walked around Shinjuku again today.  Many of the stores closed early for  New Year’s Eve.

Tonight I thought I’d pay my ‘respects’ to American culture by running out to Tokyo Disneyland.  They have a fireworks display at midnight. I thought I might stay for the fireworks at midnight – but in the end I did not.

Here is the beautiful fixtures from the Isetan department store in Shinjuku, considered to be one of the most influential department stores in Japan.
One of several display frames with merchandise inside Isetan .. or is it art? Both, I’m sure. For once, I was not inviting trouble by taking pictures inside the store : there is a sign that says ‘OK to photograph’.
Shinjuku station is nearby, and I went upstairs to look down at it .. and lo and behold, there is the Narita Express (on the right).
Here is the Tokyo Disneyland Station stop. The train runs in a loop, on a monorail, and the windows have mouse-ear silhouettes. (That would be Mickey Mouse, of course).
This is inside the main lobby of the Tokyo Disneyland hotel. I have never seen such an enormous chandelier! Those are hotel rooms in the background.
Posted on

Friday/ Shibuya

Newly-clad copper roof of part of the Meiji shrine. The copper will oxidize and turn green over time.

I made a ran out to the Meiji Shrine in Shibuya ward on Friday .. but found it not as impressive as other shrines I have been to on previous visits. The shrine is dedicated to Emperor Meiji and his wife, Empress Shōken.  The emperor died in 1912, and the shrine was constructed in 1915.

This beautiful building is nearby the Meiji shrine, and houses administrative offices.  (The copper cladding on the entrance canopy has turned green).
This is in Shibuya. The tear-dropped shaped kōban (police box) on the left is unusual. Usually they really are ‘boxes’!
Half-boy, half-bird face on an advertising display panel at the entrance of a Virtual Reality arcade in Shibuya. Judging by the clientele inside, I was wa-ay too old to go in (but I did, anyway).
Inside Shibuya station.
The more mundane platforms on the old Ginza line that I use to get to Kyobashi station by the hotel.
Display panel by the door inside the train car on the Ginza line. The program generating the display not only ‘knows’ which line the train is on, it also knows which CAR of the train it is in, and displays precise directions of connecting lines and how to exit the station.
It was the Year of the Monkey, so the stock market went up and down, said the news reader at the final day of trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. And weatherwise it is not warm, but at least sunny here in Tokyo.  Six days ago there was a massive snowstorm north in Sapporo, trapping hundreds of Hongkongers in Sapporo and sparking violence at the airport that needed police attention.
Posted on

Thursday night/ to Tokyo

The Narita Express is a sleek machine.

My travels to Tokyo went well today. Catching the first available train out at Narita airport was a little tight, though!
Here is a timeline.
8.30 pm: Walking onto Terminal 3 arrivals hall. Made it through passport control, baggage claim and customs.
8.35 pm: Withdraw yen (¥116 to the dollar, great rate) out of the ATM. Head downstairs to buy a ticket for the Narita Express.
8.37 pm: The ticket office lines are long! Let me try the ticket machine, just have to find an ENGLISH button on the screen first.
8.40 pm: Yikes. The next express train is at 8.47 pm, the one after that one almost an hour later. Better get to it. I luck out, pushing the right buttons, then fed it a ¥10,000 bill (that’s US$85! Better not swallow it, machine!).  Out came the ticket (¥4,560/ $39) and change.
8.44 pm: Three minutes to go. Rush downstairs with all my luggage to the platform. No sign of the train.
8.45 pm: Buy a drink from the vending machine on the platform with my coins from the ticket machine.
8.46 pm: Thinking: the train must be late, but just then it slid into the station. Here it is!
8.47 pm: Whoah, slow down fella. We step on board.
8.48 pm: On our way.

An unusual sight (for me, at least) : an Aeroflot Airlines jet (Russian airline) at Hong Kong airport about to taxi out to the runway. The plane is a Boeing 777-300ER.  It is probably on its way to Moscow.
We had just left Hong Kong international airport on Lantau Island, now on our way to Tokyo, a flight of about 4 1/2 hours.
Posted on

Thursday/ the new South Island Line

I read about the new South Island Line’s opening just Wednesday, at breakfast this morning, and thought : Man! I will have to go. I will just have enough time before heading out the airport – and so I did.  Here is the South China Morning Post’s report on the US$2.2 billion expansion, 9 years in the making.  The train has no driver, and the cars are decorated inside with colorful pictures of animals and fishes (one of the stops is at the aquarium at Ocean Park).

There is a red-eyed tree frog on board! (These are actually native to Central America down to Columbia, and not to Hong Kong).
These pictures are from inside the new train cars on the South Island Line. It’s hard for me to say which creature I like best : the panda, the sloth or the kangaroo !

 

Posted on

Wednesday/ more Hong Kong

Here are my pictures from Wednesday’s walkabouts in the city.  I spent some time on the Hong Kong mainland side (Kowloon).  My Marriott Courtyard hotel is on Hong Kong island.

This is the Kowloon train station entrance from the plaza by International Commerce Center (the 108-storey, 484 m skyscraper completed in 2010 in West Kowloon). The ICC is behind me.
This is the base of the International Commerce Centre skyscraper. Besides the international financial services firms, there is a Ritz-Carlton Hotel in the skyscraper as well. (Here’s to hoping that the ‘smartest guys in the room’ in their suits are not brewing up another 2008-style financial crisis for us!).
There is a Christmas tree with Fantastic Mr Fox characters on display inside the ICC. This is Rabbit, one character of many in the Fantastic Mr Fox novel.  (A children’s novel written by British author Roald Dahl, also made into an animated movie in 2009).
Lots of Hong Kong taxis outside the Times Square mall in Causeway Bay. These old Toyota taxis are hanging in there; I don’t see too many Priuses that had replaced them yet.
I cannot leave Hong Kong without a tram ride, I thought .. this is the view from one taking me to Lan Kwai Fong (‘party central’ for the expats in the city). I am sitting upstairs and right up front, and trying not to annoy my fellow passengers ‘too much’ by incessantly taking pictures.
This is the start of a whole series of escalators and stairs that make it easy to go up the hillside to the ‘mid levels’ where more shops and restaurants are.
Check out these gorgeous exterior wall decorations from a building in Wellington Street in Lan Kwai Fong.
Posted on

Tuesday/ Hong Kong at night

Tsim Sha Tsui : still my ‘favorite’ Hong Kong station name. And the new stations does not feature the little mosaic tiles on the walls.
This is inside the Landmark Atrium mall in Central District. Nevermind that Christmas Day has come and gone – the mall is still using its elaborate display to draw shoppers. (The stores are empty, though. I felt sorry for the bored shop assistants).
Bank buildings in the Admiralty district, lit up. From left to right: the Bank of China building, the Cheung Kong Center, the Agricultural Bank of China, the Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) Main Center, the Standard Chartered Bank.
Nearby, the City Hall Public Library was in on the action as well (of lighting up its building with changing colors on the different floors and cells).
And here is a late night photo shoot taking place on the quiet streets in Central District by the designer stores. By day the sidewalks are packed with pedestrians, and the streets filled with buses, cars and trams.

Here are pictures from my late night venture into Central District.  It’s been four years since I have walked around in the city. The city continues to add to its already staggering inventory of skyscrapers, and there seems to be more Starbucks coffee shops around than ever; some of them just hole-in-the-wall take out locations.

One can now get to the Marriott Courtyard a little easier with the westward extension of the Island Line. Ironically, the hotel is right in between two new stops .. so still a good 10 minute walk from either station.   The old street trams are still running, though; some of them now nicely refurbished on the inside with new seats.

 

Posted on

Monday night/ back to Hong Kong

Almost there .. about one more hour of the 7h 45m flight to go to get to Hong Kong.
A picture from our approach into Hong Kong airport.   Another year had gone, and I see the world’s longest bridge, the HongKong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge will now only be completed by Dec 2017 – at the earliest.  This is one of the man-made islands.  The white rectangle in the middle of the island is where the ‘bridge’ actually becomes a tunnel (see next picture).
The three cities that the HongKong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge connect with one another.  The bridge is actually a bridge-tunnel-bridge combination, so that large ships can cross it.
Here’s the inside of an almost-empty Hong Kong metro train car. (At the end of the Island Line, on my way to the hotel). The cars have open gangways, so you can see all the way to the front as it snakes through its tunnel.

On Monday night I started to make my way back to Seattle, but with stay-overs in Hong Kong and in Tokyo.   Our flight out of Perth departed at midnight and brought us into Hong Kong by 7.45 am on Tuesday morning.