Fairy Glen and Coral beach

The next morning we decided to start quite late, just enjoying the day. The weather had been not good either for any walking. We went to have lunch in Greshornish restaurant, based on the advertisement inside the information booklet for guest. I was tempted to try this place because in the booklet, there was a sample menu, and they had a seafood platter consisted of lobster, crab, etc. So we went there to give it a try. Most of the restaurant in Isle of Skye required us to make reservation beforehand. So we called to make a lunch reservation the previous day. Unfortunately, there was no mobile signal in our cottage (even outside). So we had to drive to the main road and tried to find a spot where there is signal. The strongest signal is only found in Portsmouth (of course since it is the biggest city in Skye).

Our breakfast: cereals and orange juice!

On the way to Skye ...

We were going to Isle of Skye for 5 days on a self catering cottage in Edinbane. So we decided to rent a car for 5 days as well. Driving to Isle of Skye took around 5 hours, which according to Mr JH, it was tiring. We did stop few times for lunch and took some photos. But it felt forever to reach the place, some more with single lane and steep road.

I took some photos on the road. This interesting yellow things are flowers and at first I thought they were Daffodils, but they weren't. They were this tiny yellow flowers, that I really curious about (since last year), and I had no idea why people breed them. Since there were few large field full of these.

Maybe it's not the time yet ...

I am supposedly in Mykonos Island in Greece by now. Enjoying sunset and fresh seafood. But then, just suddenly there was a volcanic ash (again from Iceland) on top of Scotland. My feeling is just like my basil plant, dry without leaves (I took all the leaves for cooking), and need a good Ben n Jerry ice cream to soothe my disappointment.

Making your own potato chips!

Found a wonderful recipe from Martha Stewart for the roast potato. And it's not a normal chunky  potato, it's a crisp thin slice potato. Making your own potato chips! And it's baked, so healthier. I am enjoying the making of it and also the final taste! Yummm.... My house became so fragrant with the smell of shallot and rosemary. The downfall is just it took 1hr and 15 mins  + another 30 mins to finish it. And my potato was a bit burnt and black, despite that, the taste was so yummy. I think for the first 1hr 15mins, it needed to be covered with aluminium foil and for the last 30 mins, without it to make the edges crisp.

Venice day trip

When I was planning to go to Slovenia, I never thought of visiting Venice. I knew that Italy is just next to Slovenia, but I always thought it would be quite troublesome to go there. But it wasn't. There is a train everyday to Venice from Ljubljana, and it cost 25EUR one way. But because we bought 2 ways, they gave us discount 5EUR for each, so we only paid 20EUR per journey. You could get cheaper ticket for 15EUR, only if you book 1 week in advance. The only problem is the train departure and arrival time, it is in a very odd time. Train departed at 2.50am (if I wasn't wrong) and arrived in Venice at 7-8am in the morning. And it would depart back to Ljubljana at 9-10pm. . So it was like more than 12 hours in Venice! And Ljubljana is a safe city, so no worry to travel to the train station in the middle of the night.

We were planning to get the 12 hours day ticket for the transportation. In Venice, they have different type of transportation: water bus, water taxi and gondola. And you know the cheapest one of course the water bus. And our 12 hour day ticket was for water bus only. And you need to pay extra ticket for your luggage! Lucky, we didn't bring any. And the ferry is quite big and comfy, they have plenty of seats inside. The water bus system is very organize. And they have ferry stop with the schedule displayed in the computerized screen in each stop. And they use real time estimation on the ferry arrival. They have few lines, really like a good train system!

Oh .. and we bought Venice map for 3EUR, since there was a lot of people said that you would definitely got lost in Venice! So map is a must. 

Ljubljana castle

We started the day by walking through the park to have a hot horse burger for lunch, and we found the park was so pretty with all variety of flowers and even tulips! We were thinking, why we need to go to Keukenhof if you could have tulips here as well. But of course the flowers were not as much as the one in Holland, but still pretty.

Slovenia, the city of dragon!

After Holland and France trip, I ended my trip in Slovenia, where Miss Y stayed for her internship. Honestly, I was quite and always confuse to differentiate Slovenia, Yugoslavia, Czech, Slovakia or even Croatia. Those all are small countries and they were came from a breakage of a big country, which I am not sure as well. And I also do not know where it is located.

But when I arrived in this small country, I was totally amazed! I was greeted by beautiful alps with snow! I could see them from the airport. And on the way to city center, I saw beautiful green pasture everywhere. We arrived on Saturday, and that time is the Easter week. So the local bus from airport and city operated only every 2 hours! But do not worry, we had other means of transportation, the shuttle bus, which cost around 5EUR pp.

The city is very quiet and all shops closed. This city had changed, from a communist to an orthodox Christian/Catholic country now. And on the easter week, you could see people went to churches, brought a basket of fresh breads and easter eggs.

And the transportation quality was really good! From the bus stop, you could buy directly an Urbana card from a machine, worked like OV chip / EZ link. And you could top up there too. The bus is new and clean.

Walk, shop, and dine in Paris

We visited Basilica on the first day we arrived in Paris. We were staying in Comfort Inn in Mon Marte area, so it was rather close to Basilica, unfortunately we did not have the time to go to Moulin Rouge and Amelie cafe.

The Basilica is very grand and it is located in a small hill. So from there, the view was amazing, but the light was not too good at that time, so we couldn't take good photos of the view. It is a free entry there, but I was more enjoying the outside architectural of the building. Though, you had to pay if you want to visit the mausoleum underground.

Disneyland-Paris! The Land of my childhood dream

I always want to go to Disneyland since I was a kid, but never had the opportunity. But I did go to my local theme park back in Jakarta, called 'DUFAN', shortened by 'Dunia Fantasi' or Fantasy World in English. At most I would go 2 times a year to there.

So when the time come, I was so excited! Miss Y and I decided to come at the earliest time possible and we were glad we did it. We enjoy it very much and I felt like jumping and running around when we arrived there. The atmosphere was so much fun with music and all the decoration!

We bought entry for 2 parks for a day and it wasn't enough time to do both! So we only enjoyed and played in the Disneyland Park! Most of the attractions are more suitable for kids, only 4-5 games for the adult, and most of them are roller coaster.

We took Metro straightly to the Disneyland, which was around 45mins - 1hr time from the city. The Disneyland consists of 2 main attraction, the Disneyland Park and Disneyland Studio (more like universal studio type). And outside, you could see Disney Village, I think it is like a small city where the hotel is, as well as some restaurants, and malls.

I think most of the interesting place is inside the Disney Park. It was divided into 4 interesting themes: Andventureland, Frontierland, Discoveryland and Fantasyland. And in front, there is the main street, which is full of cute souvenirs of Disney characters!

Definitely we went straight to Fantasyland! The castle and princessy theme.

The land of windmill

And we went to Kinderdijk, the land of windmill. It is a village where the most windmill are still preserved and was one of UNESCO site. The weather was really hot that day, the sun shone brightly, but that made the day even more beautiful with really blue sky. Unfortunately the bus came to this place is very limited. I think there are only 2 buses and the bus frequency is very less.

You can actually rent a bicycle to bike around the place, which make things easier. But I can't bike! So we just walked along the site. We entered for free and it is sooo gorgeous! Your have to visit this place, if you have time! Enjoy the photos!

A day in Amsterdam

We started the day rather late, because of the tiring day before in Keukenhof and Madurodam. So it was actually not a day, but more likely for half a day. We took the train from Delft to Amsterdam for around  1 hour and it cost us EUR 23 for 2 ways, and we got a spring offer, so we paid EUR 22.50 each for free ride the whole day and in first class. It was useless for actually, because we had lost half day, and of course we would spend the rest of the day in Amsterdam, and not going somewhere else. But I love the first class offer though, quiet and definitely you would get a seat.

So we went to Amsterdam and straight to the tourist office, despite the advice of Miss H that the queue would be really long and slow. And that was happened. We queued for almost an hour, just to buy the canal cruise ticket plus Van Gogh museum ticket. It was all because only 1 person serve the customer, and the guy was very young and inexperience. 

The canal cruise lasted for an hour and cost quite a lot, I think around EUR20. I was choosing this activity, just because Mr JH told me that this was a must-do-thing in Amsterdam, and you would see people wave to you along the canal. But not for us, no one waved at our boat. The queue was very long as well when we arrived at the canal cruise 'port', the weather was really hot and people started to be impatient. Especially there was an express queue where people can cut through! But anyway, the experience is quite good, but too expensive I think.

When we were a giant for a day

Den Haag was our next destination to visit the famous Madurodam, miniature land. We started the day with breakfast cum lunch in Ming Kee, own by Singaporean (perhaps name Ming Kee), provided Indonesian-chinese food. It was tasty, especially the Kang Kung Belacan. It was cheap and very popular amongst Indonesian in Den Haag. Our friends met at least 3 of his friend, including the leader of PPI Den Haag. Den Haag has the largest Indonesian society in Holland!

Btw, do you notice the glass there? It was chilli! And it was very very spicy ... But we love it, the spiciest it is, the delicious the food taste.

And here we were in front of Madurodam. We really thought it was a miniature of the world, but it wasn't.

Experimenting using picnik software

Yesterday was a bank holiday due to the labor day fell on Sunday. So we were having quite a productive day walking around the city, with a mission: finding new camera! Before we started, we decided to have lunch in "La Stella". Heard about this restaurant long time ago from few friends, but never have the chance to come and try. So we decided to come by yesterday to give it a try. And lunch menu costs cheaper than evening one. The 2-courses menu cost GBP 16, contain of starter (approx cost GBP 6) and main course (approx GBP 12), so you save around GBP 2.

I love the environment so much, so clean and fresh, although it is a small space. So eventually, you will need to book in advance (for as early 2 weeks) for lunch or dinner. But not in Monday and Tuesday. So we were lucky, we got the table that day, and we were the first guess they had that day.

Random Sunday photo

We were waiting for our weekly bus to go to church in our usual place, and we found that the day was so good and beautiful. Even the graveyard looked pretty too with all the colorful leaves and a cherry blossom tree. I can't resist to make a photo of it!