Destination: Japan, Germany & Singapore
Duration: 13 Days 12 Nights (Feb 22~Mar 07, 2014)
Day 7: Transit in Abu Dhabi & Heart Attack in
Frankfurt!!!
Woke up in the morning by the smell of breakfast – flight
attendants were starting to serve either egg omelet or rice porridge. I ordered
the omelet this time and it actually tasted better than I thought it would. =)
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| Etihad Omelet Breakfast Set |
The plane landed in Abu Dhabi Airport in the wee morning
of 5am and we had to wait until 9am for our connecting flight to Frankfurt. The
transit hall was basically a circle and really small with some shops opening.
There was basically nothing to do there. *bored* Just Imagine I was so bored
until I started to write part of the blog entry in the airport. Hhaa….
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| Boarding a Bus to get to the Terminal |
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| Nice Ceiling at Abu Dhabi Airport |
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| Basically is just a Circle... |
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| Selling some Items |
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| Waiting for Departure |
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| Abu Dhabi Airport Model |
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| More Models |
I thought the transit hall was small until we queued and
got into the departure gate – darn! It was really really SMALL and barely had
any seats! It was just like a circle with the space smaller than Gurney Plaza
atrium! Not to mention the custom at luggage scanning there were extremely rude
until I was wondering whether we were prisoner rather than traveler. They threw
you a basket and told you to take off everything fast when you were still in
the long queue without any table nearby for you to put your stuff! Normally you
only do that when you are near the scanning area with table for you to put/move
your stuff right? If you did not do it fast enough in the queue, the guard just
kept saying FAST FAST FAST!!! Lots of tourists there were simply eyeballing
him. COME ON! We had so many stuffs on our hand, together with the basket you
threw to us, how would we manage to move anything into the basket without any
table or even extra space! BOOO!!!!
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| The Tiny Little Departure Gate |
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| A Purple Plane |
Our flight from Abu Dhabi to Frankfurt was delayed for
30mins++ but I didn’t really expect much anyway especially after experiencing
their ‘hospitality’ in the airport. Lunch was beef goulash, chicken biryani or
Eggplant Tortellini so I chose the beef goulash. Thank God their food was far
superior than their service and the beef was actually yummy!
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| Sammy & the Menu! |
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| Sammy & Snacks & Beers! |
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| Biscuit! |
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| SF's Eggplant Tortellini |
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| My Beef Goulash Set! Yummy! |
Before landed in Frankfurt, we were served cheese or
turkey sandwich which was quite common.
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| Cheese Sandwich! FAT!!! |
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| Turkey Sandwich |
The plane finally landed and we managed to take our hotel
shuttle to Steigenberger Hotel in Langen. The hotel was located in an
industrial area (think FIZ in Penang) so we were basically in the middle of
nowhere!!! *cry*
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| Waiting outside the Frankfurt International Airport for Shuttle |
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| All the Hotel Shuttle Bus Listing |
It was almost 4pm when we try to get to Frankfurt –
unlike Japan, it was really difficult to find map or train information in
internet. Not to mention the hotel free internet was HORRENDOUS!!!! My ‘turtle’
P1 can actually consider SUPERFAST is compared to this….. THING (for lack of
word and not to put any swear word in this blog *facepalm*).
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| Bathroom Area |
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| No Bathtub though |
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| Big Bed |
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| Finally TV with English Channel after a week in Japan! |
We finally got a taxi from the hotel and off we went to Frankfurt
city. The whole trip was really exhilarating - all thanks to the taxi meter!!! The
meter was jumping so crazily fast and our poor hearts were jumping along with
it!!! We thought we were going to get a heart attack right then! It cost us around
EUR43 for the trip! GOSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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| The Meter is on the Rear Mirror |
The upside was the driver was extremely friendly and he
even opened the cover of roof window for us to look through transparent roof to
have a great view of the city. He even guided us into the Main Tower to ensure
that we were at the right place. Thumbs up!!!
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| Main Tower in Frankfurt |
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| A Sign in the Tower |
The Main Tower is the only skyscraper in Frankfurt with a
public viewing observatory so off we went to look at Frankfurt from above.
Frankfurt of course is totally different from Japan in term of city
architectures but it does have its own charm. =)
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| Yay! Entry Ticket! |
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| Cute Dog!!! |
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| A View from the Top |
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| Romerberg & Main River from the Top - Iron Bridge is there too! |
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| Skyscrapers in Financial District |
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| Another Area from the Tower |
After Main Tower, we walked toward the Main River to take
a stroll before turning into the Iron Bridge (Eiserner Steg) which was already
over 100 years old. But that was not the main point! The attraction of the
bridge? Tons of lovers’ locks embedded along the bridge! My friend told me it
was featured in a HK pilot drama ‘Triumph in the Sky” and she was so excited to
walk on it. Hehhee…
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| Walking towards the Riverside |
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| I think that's the Frankfurt Main Train Station |
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| Here we are at the Main River |
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| A Panoramic View |
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| Iron Bridge along with Church & Old Buildings |
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| Yet another Panoramic View |
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| Sammy is Happy!!! |
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| The Customs Tower & Historisches Museum from afar |
We crossed the bridge back to Romerberg area – the big
bummer was some of the building was under renovation so we did not have a
chance to see them. We simply love all the old style building there! We managed
to see the Customs Tower & Historisches Museum from the outside before we
walked towards Romerberg! Happy!!!
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| Finally! The Iron Bridge aka Eiserner Steg! |
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| Lots of Lovers Locks! |
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| Is Sammy going to find a wife? |
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| Nice Deco huh? |
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| The Bridge & Me |
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| A Church Across the River |
Apparently there would be some festival tomorrow so they
were setting up some stages. We managed to see the Wertheim House - the only
Timber-framed Building that survived the war. The Old Nikolai Church was also
there – it was the chapel of the Imperial Court from 1290 until 14th
century.
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| Wertheim House |
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| Old Nikolai Church |
Then there was Fountain of Justice – I heard last time
not only water flowed out but also WINE when am emperor was crowned last time! Then
there was Romer which basically was the Banquet Feast was held for the emperor.
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| Romerberg with Fountain of Justice! |
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| Romer |
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| Romerberg Old Buildings |
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| Street Food in Romerberg! Sausages! |
After Romerberg, we walked through the renovation site of
the Archaeological Garden to get to the Frankfurt Cathedral. It was a really
amazing piece of architecture which dated back to year 852. I heard it was
opened for visitor to climb up its tower between April & October so we didn’t
have the luck… *cry*
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| The Cathedral |
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| Beautiful Interior |
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| More Pictures |
Then we crossed the road and saw St. Paul’s Church and
some amazing old buildings at the left and lots of shops on the right.
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| St. Paul's Church |
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| The Street with lots of Shops |
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| Towards the Left |
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| Lots of Old Buildings there too! |
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| Another nice Building |
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| Sammy makes an Appearance with Romer Nordbau |
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| Another Church? |
We walked straight before reaching Zeil Shopping Street which of course had tons of shops. We grabbed a quick dinner at a street stall for German Curry Sausages with Pommes (fries!) and sat outside. The portion was HUGE!
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| Zeil Shopping Street |
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| A Shopping Mall in Zeil |
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| A Street Stall! |
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| Giant Sausages! |
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| Gosh! Look at this!!! |
We planned to walk to the river side again but got kind
of lost…hahaha.. the serendipity was we accidentally stumbled upon the famous
Old Opera House (Alte Oper). We finally got to the riverside again after getting
some stuffs from a grocery store. It was serene and quick and lots of couples
were walking along the promenade.
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| Leaving Zeil |
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| Old Opera House |
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| Another Nice Building when we were LOST.. :p |
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| A Hotel! |
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| Main River at Night |
We finally called it a night and grabbed another taxi to
start our heart-stopping journey back to the hotel. This time it cost around EUR52!
*facepalm* What a way to end our adventure in Frankfurt!
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| Another Heart Attack! |
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| Alcohol & Snacks! Haha... |
Next Day (Rothenburg & Neuschwantein Castle - A Day of Fairy Tale Land)
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