Hello everyone and welcome back to my blog. Today I will be explaining and showing some highlights of my trip. The countries I went to included the UAE, the UK, France, Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Italy. I will be telling you something interesting I have done in each of these countries.
The UAE (United Arab Emirates)
So in order to get to London, I had to lay over in Dubai, a desert city but very modern and futuristic. We stayed there for about 3 nights at the world famous Palm Jumeriah. It was a really cool place, and our hotel staff were very welcoming people. Some stuff we did in Dubai was go to the Largest Waterpark, Inside the Burj Khalifa, and we went to a cool show in the middle of the desert, with a tourist company called Arabian Adventures.
The UK (United Kingdom)
We went on the plane from Dubai to London which took 9 hours. In London, we went to a tourist group and visited Windsor Castle, The Roman Baths and Stonehenge. Our tour guy was such a vibey guy, and was nice to get along with. While we were in London, I also catched up with my cousin, he took us to see Buckingham Palace and Camden town. It was nice to see him after a very long time.
France
After London, we decided to go on the train from London to Paris, on the famous Eurostar train. The train goes in a tunnel under the English Channel, and goes 300km. We stayed at the Hilton in La Defense, which was inside a great big shopping mall. While staying in the mall, we also had acsess to the La Defense Tube Station, which was easy to use. We went to the Eiffel Tower and went to the most hghest part where tourists are allowed to go. After La Defense, we stayed at the Marvel themed Disneyland hotel, which was very cool, and had easy acsess to the park. Disneyland was awesome and had so many cool and iconic rides.
Austria
I was sad to say goodbye to Paris, but we had to continue on the trip. Our next destination was Vienna, Austria. I was excited because I was about to go on an airline that I have always wanted to be on as a kid, Air France. When we landed in Vienna, we got a taxi to our hotel. Something cool about the Aiport Taxis in Vienna is that they are either Mercedes or Lexus branded cars and vans. If I am going to be honest, me and dad basically did nothing in Vienna, besides go to the bar downstairs of our hotel. But the girls got to go to the Zoo.
Germany.
Luckily, our travel agent booked us a hotel right in front of the main train station, which we were going to take to get to Munich. Unlike London, there wasn’t a P.A telling us our train have arrived, so we had to head to the platform early in order to see when the train arrives. We found our train, got on it, and started training to Munich. In Munich we hardly did anything, but walk through the streets and go on a hop on hop off tour bus. Anyways afterwards we were going on another train to Switzerland.
Switzerland
When we were in Switzerland, surprisingly it was warmer than what I thought. In Switzerland, we took a tour bus to the Rhine Falls, which is apparently the biggest waterfall in the European continent. We also walked around and shopped in the streets. Something cool about the Maccas in Switzerland, is that they have prawns on their menu!
Italy
In Italy, we decided to drive from Milan to Rome, which we found out was a stupid and dumb idea. In fact, when we were trying to get out of this really narrow street in Pisa, we started a really big traffic jam, we blame this car who parked right on the turn. We went on a train from Zurich to Milan, which was such a scenic route, we even got bumped to first class on the train because we missed our original train. Anyways whilst in Milan, all we did was go inside of the Duomo Cathedral and shop around it. We even went to Venice for a tiny bit while we were staying in Milan, it was really cool, but the water was very dirty. On the road trip to our next destination, Florence, we went to Pisa, where we saw the leaning tower, and one big traffic jam. To be honest the reason why we went to Florence is to take a break from driving. Anyways we continued our journey to Rome which was a terror. I say that because we missed so many turns and exits, but we made it eventually. Our hotel was amazing because it was a walking distance to the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps. In Rome, I also took this tour where we are riding a horse that goes from the Spanish Steps, Parliament Square, Trevi Fountain and the Colosseum.
The way back
On the way to the airport, we had Emirates pick us up in a van for the luggage and us. It took somewhere around 40 minutes to get from the hotel to the airport. At the airport, we checked in, went through security and headed to the lounge. The Emirates lounge in Rome was cool because they had a selection of food and drinks. We also hopped on our plane from the lounge. When we landed in Dubai, we also went to their lounge, which was 10 times bigger than Rome. All I really did was sleep, but there was many places to eat for free. Just like Rome, we could hop on the plane from the lounge. Our plane to Christchurch stopped in Sydney, so we went through transit and went to the lounge, hopped on the plane, and headed back to Christchurch. When we landed in Christchurch, we had Emirates pick us up again and was really cool.
I enjoyed my travelling experience and learnt many things.