This is rather speed post as I decided to merged 2 days into 1 post. 

On schedule, we will be driving to Rhineland and stop by to Cologne or Koln in German, to visit their infamous cathedral. Lives up to it's name, the word cologne we used now for perfumes originated from here.  Did Eau de Cologne ( pronounced as O(eau) di (de) kolon (cologne) ) or Eau de Parfum rings any bell? 

Most people I've met here would end up buying original cologne either for personal use, giveaway or just as souvenirs as it was not sell anywhere else but here. We didn't buy though. Honestly, I just don't like the smell heheh..

:: Pics from wikipedia ::

We also managed to drop by at the famous old cathedral here called Cologne Cathedral. This historic building was under going major cleaning up process. Being exposed to nature factor like winds, snow and rain for few hundred years seems to be taken it's toll on it's sculpture and outer part of the church and turned the original stones outer colour into blackish. Therefore, the major refurbishment was being planned out to restore the original state of this old building and for that, they being using the sand blasting technique. This process, as we're told,  might take years or perhaps more than a decade to finish blasting the whole huge cathedral.

:: The whitish or rather yellowish part in this pic means the sand blasting is done on them but the blackish part, mainly the trickier curve, latch and holes clearly took longer time to restore ::

:: You can see the uneven tone of the stones in this. Some part done and some part haven't! Specially the complicated sculptures ::

:: Thing to take note while in here ( and most prayer place regardless of the religion) is you cannot wear anything that cover your head, for a guy like cap or hats. For ladies, just keep your clothing decent. Other than that, you also need to respect other people's prayer place as much as you want people to respect yours. Use your common sense like no running, keep your voice low especially on Sunday when there's a mass going on ::

We were given couple of hours here for souvenirs, sight seeing around the square and also for lunch break. Clearly, couple of hours was not enough! It was Sunday, weekend for Germany so everywhere was quite busy with locals and also tourist going out and about. Therefore, almost all shops were full to the brim. There's a never ending spiral in Mc Donald and the other eating place is the worst. Being a fast food chain as it deemed,  normally this place is a perfect choice should you were on the go and need quick lunch/food but from the way I see it, there's a food alright but am not sure about "fast". Waiting in line is indeed very nerve-wrecking and it really doesn't help when our tour manager kept popping in and out the entrance and emphasizing that we're running out of time. Urghhhhh.. As if  he didn't make it obvious enough. Welllll.. yeahhh, we knew that already! You don't have to keep sticking your face right under our nose *rolls eyes*. Sighhh..

Sure enough, everyone's mood is spoiled alright and we started to realized which bit in this group tour that doesn't really work for us. For every tourist spot we stopped, the moment we hopped off the bus, usually we were given 2-3 hours max to roam around, get our souvenirs, photos and let's not forgetting that lunch break usually included in this time frame too. It sounded fine so far. The only issue is, our tour guide will made us tailing him around because he wanted to give some briefing and little introductions about the places we were visiting to which we have no problem at all. It's his job anyway and we wouldn't enrolled ourselves in group tour package in the first place if we wanted to be independent travelers. 

"I'm sorry Mr Mohan should you read this and felt like we badmouthed you, but I'm just stating the truth! "

Problem rose when he went overboard, tend to drag the briefing and it usually became lengthy and tad too "educational". Little background history, official language spoken, economy wise or whatnot is fine by us. However, when I said overboard, I meant, he even lectured us on the type of bricks used for the pavements and seldom throw pop quizzes to us and should we answer wrongly or un-accurately, he would give us ultimatum on how ignorant we were and recklessly commented on our lack of general knowledge. At times, I felt like we were on school field trip! 

He wouldn't let us took photo, he's tad too controlling, he forced us to keep up to his pace, which is super fast for a 70 years old man, he nagged us in an inappropriate way and he sorta didn't allowed us to do normal touristy thing but to listen and only listen to him. One or two things he failed to understand despite his super long tour-guiding experience is we came with small kids and kids have limited stamina so pushing them to their max will only produced a bunch of cranky kids. And also, there's no two photos the same. Even if we're going to come back to the same spot and can actually took the photo later, the environments, the peoples around the area, even our moods and sometimes, the weather might change. 

After he's done with his not-so-little briefing, 45 minutes or even an hour have passed and we were left with only an hours or so to do above mentioned touristy stuffs. How lar we don't get furious like this?

Anyway, we concluded that this small hiccup were not to spoil our trip, therefore, we sent out two big daddies ( Mr Muddy and Mr Yuzly ) to have a heart to heart talk with our tour manager to discuss our conditions and to offer solutions which we have agreed upon during discussion among us. We were going to be together for the next 2 weeks so any small issue should not be held inside but to be overcome immediately to avoid it from became bigger. Plus, the last thing we want is to be on his bad side.

Thus, the arrangement that was agreed by majority is, from that day onwards, we will listen to what we want to listen, should the briefing were too draggy to our opinion, we will excuse ourselves and continue the tour by ourselves. We will showed ourselves around, our way and he just need to tell us what time we need to gather and where the bus will wait and we'll find our own way. We have his phone number after all, we could always called him should we got lost, which is never happened, Alhamdullilah. 

Sure enough, he agreed despite being hesitated and of course after several reminders and warnings. He had to agree lah kan ha ha ha. We're, above all, his paying customer. I guess, he never had rebellious group like us before this. The arrangement started by our group of 11 initially but after the rest of the peoples saw what we're been up to, they slowly follow suits. Talking about bad influence hehehe. And luckily, this newly implemented arrangement worked perfectly for everybody. Win win for everyone, yeayyyy....

Next location after Cologne is Boppard in Rhine where we were taken on a cruise to enjoy the very picturesque view along Rhine River. The cruise was so relaxing, scenic and everyone started to calm down and positive energy is kicked in and sorta changed the ambiance.

:: Rhineland ::

:: Our cruise is coming. The fees is included in the package so we don't have to pay any additional charges. This cruise have small bar selling snacks, ice cream, sodas and waters located in it's first floor should you get hungry or thirsty ::

:: If you must know, Rhineland is famous for abundance number of old abandoned castles and vineyards along their river stretch ::

:: Houses by the river. Seronok jugak rumah tepi sungai nih ::

:: Weii orang sebelah, nak pinjam garam skit blehhh? ::

:: Rhineland river ::

:: It's a bit chilly in the morning and during the cruise but coming to the end, the sun shone brightly and it's getting warmer and toasty so everyone had their jacket off ::

:: Erin became the most favorite girl among PRC's tourist I wonder why. They kept pestering her and asked to take photo with her which she doesn't really mind ::

:: Heading back to bus ::

On our way to hotel, we made a stop at Heidelberg old city or famously known as City of Learning mainly due to a famous university which located here. The Heidelberg community consists of university students, lecturers and university workers and you'll find buildings in this city was conquered by either lecture hall or dormitory.

:: Rowing is the most popular sport here hence you can see rowers practicing daily in this part of the city while being watched by onlookers ::

:: Door led to someone basement that I found interesting I just had to get my husband snap a photo of it ::

:: The moment my eyes laid on "them" I just knew I was in the wrong group. Why didn't somebody tell me this kinda group is ever exist? Why why whyyy?? ::

:: Merenung masa depan yang mendatang ::

:: Group photo ::

:: Revisited back street boys era he he he. Yg dua org kat belakang tu memang tak payah ajar bab bab nih ::

:: Puss in boots Malaysia's version ::

:: This is Macaroon, Heidelberg's original version. If you wondering how it's taste, I am not sure of it myself ha ha ha. Looks tempting but didn't buy this. Am pretty sure they tasted delicious ::

Most of the places we've been, we stuck to fridge magnet and shot glass for souvenirs because we don't have the luxury to buy big bulky momentos as I have to considered the luggage limitation and the length of our trip altogether. I mean, we still have at least 14 days to go with so many interesting places ahead and not to mentioned, Disneyland as our closing. Let's save up some place for later is what I had in mind. We encountered one shop selling so many interesting postcards. 2-3 postcards won't do that much damages I was thinking but I just couldn't bring myself to buy it because they were just too... euwwwwwwwww. Ha ha ha ha...

:: My mom might disowned me should I presented her with this card as souvenir from Heidelberg, so I resorted to magnet then, just to be on the safe side he he he ::

We had dinner after Heidelberg. As usual, indian style and adjourned to hotel. This time, we stayed at Hotel Arcade, Luzern, Sins, Switzerland.

:: The hotel was just a 3 star hotel located in the Swiss countryside but the condition, the room's interior, the facilities just WOW me, definitely bypassed my expectation. Kalah 4 star hotel ::

:: Less is more. Simplicity at it's best ::

:: Spotless clean toilet and room overall. Am a very satisfied guest ::

:: I was most amazed by the blind system they installed. When we first enter the room, I wanted to look for the view outside the window but failed to work on how to open the blind. I tried every latch, it doesn't moved an inch.I looked for tali, u know most blind came with tali to pull it up or release it down but to no avail. Until my husband unintentionally pressed one button on the wall then I figured it out. It was motorized blind rooopanyer. Jakun wehhh. Canggih canggih.. Bleh pasang in future home ::

:: Blind is folded up slowly and soundly. Berkenan tul makcik dengan blind nih ha ha ha ::

:: Tadaaa. Model blind yang riang. Barulah luas mata memandang. It was around 9:30 pm when this picture was taken it's almost maghrib ::

We were looking for the aircond controller next. Room got quite stuffy after a while. Found the controller plugged onto wall, put on full blast but doesn't seem to work. The room still warm. It turned out that all hotels in Switzerland doesn't built in with aircond since the weather was naturally is cold enough without aircond. Unfortunately, we came during summer so it ain't "that" cold. The controller that we thought as aircond is embarrassingly, was heater ha ha ha and since it's summer, the hotel switched off the heater system centrally. As a result, we slept that night with our window wide open just like above picture.

The following morning, we woke up to a bright and refreshing day. Gotten ready and headed down for breakfast. We were super psyched to starts this much awaited day. It stand to reason that our day today, compared to the last 4 days reckon to be fun-filled with exciting bits. Today we will visit Cuckoo Clock's nest in  Drubba and also be spending our entire evening with snow in our first Siwtzerland mountain Insya Allah. Above all, the thought of touching the Switzerland's soil alone is more than enough to make me thrilled. Geez you have no idea how long I've been waiting for this.

:: Local housing around the hotel ::

:: Peculiar choice of Swedish in decorating their houses ::

:: Self service fuel pump which paid using coins ::

:: Self service car wash ::

:: Scary road sign. Until now I can't figure out what does it said ::

:: Camouflaged army bunker in the middle of the field ::

Our first destination is Black Forest, Drubba. The journey that we had to make was simply breathtaking dan menginsafkan. It doesn't seems real to me, more like painting or portrait you always saw in TV, internet or at some gallery. It is after all is real live portrait, huge one indeed sketched and painted by Allah s.w.t The Mighty. Subhanallah.

:: Many many different green hues in one snap.I don't mean to be ungrateful but I have this feeling that sky is blue-er and grass is green-er here. I think you guys have to agree with me on this ::\

Black Forest, if you didn't know already, got it's name from the pines and firs that are so dense that at any time, the ground looks black and dark. During winter, all the tree top pines will be white capped due to heavy snowfalls and this is where Black Forest Cake gets it's name. Got it?

:: The famous Black Forest ::

We were here for one and only reason. To visit Cuckoo Clock's factory. The shop itself is in a form of cuckoo clock. We used to have a cuckoo clock at home since I was a child but the clock was soo old it stops working for awhile now and the bird stops cuckoo-ing, hence this trip is bringing back my old memories.

:: Every hour the window at the top will open and the cuckoo bird comes out and cuckoos and the dancers will dance ::

:: Conventional style water pipe ::

They also provided demonstration on the making of authentic cuckoo clock from scratch, one tedious step after another and as the person described some of the clocks's design, which is many, we just couldn't stop gawking and wow-ing. Some clocks definitely need intricate wood carving and just by looking at the end product gives me dizzy. One among many eye opening experience for me and the rest of us.

The prices is vary.  The more figurines installed and the more mechanism involved, more expensive the price can get. The most complicated design could reached to a whopping thousands bucks.

Besides cuckoo clock, there's another a MUST thing you need to get if you were ever to Swiss Swiss Knife! Apart from their tourism and railway technology, Switzerland was also famous for it's high precision tools technology and they are among the major export for pharmaceutical industries world wide. Husband managed to bought a few pieces for him, each come with different functions. Some of the knifes even came with tooth pick. Talking about multi-functional. 

After done feasting our eyes, it's our stomach time. They had canteen-like diner located on the ground floor. It is where we had our lunch that day. They offered rice with various of side dish and also western style lunch like nuggets, burgers, sausages, fries, salad and whatnot. They also had vegetarian options available too and to respect muslims and other religion, they had separate kitchen for pork from other meat. We ate what is allowed to eat which is basically vegetarian. I was tempted to try their black forest cake from the dessert counter but managed to restraint myself as I heard cake here contained rum.

After a simple lunch, we proceed to drive on to Swiss region called Lungern. 

:: Swiss border. In the picture, Mr Mohan was headed to custom office to submit our paperwork ::

:: Pretty and picturesque Swiss ::

We're going to have dinner on top of the mountain call Mt. Cox & Kings. As I've mentioned earlier, our group package was under Cox & Kings. Lives up to their reputation of being the oldest tour and travel agent in Europe, they went extra miles. I've heard about people bought land, or buildings or even an island. This is the first time I heard about people rented a mountain and named the mountain after their name. Talking about over achiever ehh..

We arrived around 3 pm and we had the whole evening for ourselves at the mountain. In order to go to the top, we need to rode 2 types of cable car. 1st one was the big type buggy that can fit up to 40 person at one time. The second is smaller albeit scarier. I am not one to get easily scared when it come to adventurous stuffs and height, but my heart did skipped a bit while riding our second cable car.

You see, the other cable car comes with glass cover like above picture. Unfortunately or rather fortunately, ours was without one. Unfortunately because my husband and Alis is scared of height, therefore being exposed unwillingly like that was a very unpleasant experience for them. Fortunately, because we only have sky above our head, we managed to snapped many pretty, jaw dropping views which can't be done with the glass cover disturbing our view and lens.

:: First station before our joyride ::

:: Wehuuuuuuu.. Thankfully the nervousness was momentary. You can't be possibly stay nervous with a view like this before your eyes. I kept thinking that what we saw here is already amazingly beautiful, can't imagine how Jannah will looks like as Jannah is thing where no eye has seen, no ear has heard and no human mind has perceived ::

:: Melting snow which performed small river between the mountain gap ::

:: What seems to be left over of last winter ::

:: Last station aka the highest. Mountain top station ::

:: Wall of fame of one mountain hunter ::

We were greeted by a warm milk tea and steaming hot "cekodok". It's dhal fritter actually he he he.. After resting and warming ourselves a bit, Mr Mohan give a green light for the kids to start exploring outside and to get up close and personal with snow. Most of the fluffy snow had melted as it's already entering mid summer, but this doesn't stop us apparently. Consider this as warm up session as we'll be meeting real thick snow that'll make you shivering to your core tomorrow. Ooohhhh can't wait!

:: Another sign of aging. I'd conquered Mt Kinabalu in my younger days and yet I was panting like mad climbing this not even 50 metres of slopes. Other peoples were started making their way down when I reached kah kah kah ::

:: Umi and mummy ::

After almost an hour or so, we were called up for dinner made specially by Cox & Kings cook. Indian style of course lah kan ha ha ha with desserts and snacks.

:: Inside the cabin, at the dining area ::

:: All chair here was carved with names. Out of curiosity, I asked Mr Mohan whose names are those and he replied that he didn't know. Interesting, unique and sorta inspired me this idea of applying it at "my future home". We can get each family names engraved/carved to our dining chair, to added special and personal touch. Abes sume menda lah ko plan nak tiru kan pompuan ha ha ha. Buat nye belom tentu. Eh menda baik kite tiru, menda buruk buat sempadan :) ::

The dinner went by leisurely with no pressure, no rushing. Everybody just enjoying dinners while chatting. The main dinner was okay and edible but the winner of the night must be this chocolaty and cheesy fondue treat.

:: Hot melted cheese to be dip with bread ::

:: Fondue sticks ::

:: The winner! Swiss chocolate fondue ::

:: Mine. Arghhh to die for. I am not a big fan of chocolate. Of course I love them, who doesn't but am not obsessed so I'm not sure whether my opinion is counted. However, I hereby declared that Belgian and Swiss chocolate is the best chocolate in the world I've tasted through out my 33 years of my life. Period! ::

Once done, we hang around outside and let the kids playing while we sipping on a hot tea from close distance.

:: Maria Mariana photo shoot hiihih ::

:: Our transporter, Mr Yanos relaxing close-by ::

Around 6-7 pm, Mr Mohan announced that it's time to headed down. I managed to captured this step by step on how to  ride the cable car incase you guys wondering and nope, the car did not stop so your timing had to be precise and yess, you need to move fast. Of course there's a staff on duty nearby to guide you and will stop the car manually should anything goes wrong. Pelakon pelakon dalam scene ini tidak dibayar dan melakukan nyer secara sukarela

:: Adjust what needed to be adjust. Your bum's placing for example he he he, your bags, your camera and your other stuff you carry with you. You wanted to be as comfortable as you can since once the car moved from the green carpeted area, there's no more chance. Kot tersenget duduk ke ape, remain lah into that position sampai bawah heheh unless you dare to change your position while hanging high up There's not even place to step on for that matters ::

:: Off you go. Bye girls, all the best and istighfar banyak banyak ::

:: On our way up, husband hold the camera, on our way down, it's my turn therefore no picture of me. We don't dare to play pass baton while riding. Buat nye terlepas, nyesal tak sudah. This time, we had the covered car so no photo. I did snap fews but the outcome was dissapointing. The glass was way too thick for my lens and dirty too  ::

Once we're off our cable car, we strolled by the mountain cliff slowly while waiting for the rest of the group to arrive and we make few new friends in the process.

:: Meet friend number 2. Swiss born lintah bulan ::

:: Old wooden tire that is beautiful by just being there ::

:: Used snow board turned bench in the middle of our path way ::

We retired the day after dinner to the same hotel as last night. We'd be moving to another hotel tomorrow. 

Well, tomorrow is the optional excursion. You can choose to join and paid some amount extra or you can have whole free and easy day to yourself. We already made our decision to join and paid when we signed up for the package and same goes to everyone on board. There's two optional excursion offered in this trip in overall, the Jungfrau excursion and Illumination Tour in Paris on last day of our trip. We chose Jungfrau but decided not to join the Illumination Tour for few various reasons. I'll elaborate about it later. In fact, none of our group members actually signed up for the Illumination Tour.

So, it's the end of Day 4 and 5. There's no each day passed by without us feeling extremely exhausted and worn mentally and psychically but there's also no day passed by without leaving us feeling grateful for able to making new memories together with our loved ones, seeing new things, trying new stuffs and pushing us to the extent where we ourselves didn't realized that we can achieve. 

Therefore thank you Allah for everything that has happened till now.

See you in Jungfrau post :)