Bila marah menguasai....

Tak larat membaca berita2 terkini di tanahair. Hari2 ada saja berita yg mengganggu fikiran, meremukkan hati and makes myself wonder. Tak baca pulak kang mcm x mengikuti perkembangan terkini. Terbaru berita ini....isteri mati ditikam sang suami, dihadapan anak2nya sendiri! Sila baca di sini utk berita lanjut.

Tak tau la apa yg merasuk si suami sampai boleh ditikamnya si isteri sampai mati. Mereka dikatakan bertengkar, mungkin la si isteri ada mengeluarkan kata2 yg x sedap di dengar, dan si suami yg x berapa nak ada iman ni, yg mungkin dah disorak2kan sang iblis, apalagi...dah setan menguasai diri, ditikamnya la kot si bini. Wallahualam....Yg kesiannya anak2 menyaksikan kejadian, tak tau la berapa lama trauma akan menghantui anak2 ini bila melihat bapa sendiri membunuh ibu mereka. Mudah2an mereka mampu membesar dgn normal.

Orang pompuan ni bila marah ke, emosi ke mmg rasa nak ckp mcm2 benda yg x sedap didengar (x semua la but in general pompuan mmg bermulut laser kecuali wanita2 yg solehah) , yg mungkin diri sendiri akan menyesal selepas itu. Bak org kata "terlajak perahu boleh diundur, terlajak kata badan binasa". Org lelaki pulak egonya tinggi, kena yg panas baran, bila berdesing telinga, mau kena cerai si bini. Worst case - dibunuhnya terus mcm kes kat diatas tu!

Adat la dlm rumahtangga ada pertelingkahan dan salah faham. Bak kata P. Ramlee dlm Tiga Abdul "sedangkan lidah lagi tergigit, ini pula suami isteri". Sebab tu la cara terbaik kalau dah gaduh2 tu better la salah satu pihak bawa diri kemana2. Tak kira si suami ke isteri ke, kalau tau yg sorang lagi mmg jenis baran, tak tau bertolak ansur, pandai2 la melarikan diri kemana2 sampai kemarahan sendiri atau si partner ni surut. Kalau dilayan api kemarahan tu mmh boleh membawa keburukan drp kebaikan. Bawa2 la gi jln2 atau jogging - salurkan tenaga kemarahan tu kpd aktiviti yg lebih berfaedah . Sy ckp camni sbb sy penah buat - mulut sy kalau tgh marah boleh tahan sarcasticnya so sebelum sy ckp sesuatu yg boleh dikesalkan dikemudian hari, adalah baik sy pi jogging :P.

Tapi kot gaduh kul 2 pagi tu pi la masuk bilik air, kunci pastu sental2 apa yg patut ye..

The Ash Cloud

Some friends have been asking me how bad the situation is here in Germany with the volcanic ash due to the Iceland volcano eruption last week.

Generally, looking around in my surroundings, things going on as usually...the weather is just general spring weather, sunny with bright blue sky, but the temperature is quite low, at the moment it is 5C. I do not know whether it's the ash that contributes towards the drop of the temperature when last week the temperature is generally above 10C.

What I know, the volcanic ash condition is up above the sky and that is why the air travel system is badly affected. And I know personally some people who get affected by this situation. For example, my friend, Kak Liza and her husband cik dee - both are working in the airport and they dont have to come to work since last Saturday. It may sounds like "yey, holiday!". But Kak Liza said it's not like you can have the break unrecorded, it's actually their minus hours have to be deducted and will affect the annual leave, which Kak Liza doesn't like it because she is planning for long holidays in Malaysia in June. Cik dee, however has resumed his work yesterday as some flights are able to take off and landing.

Then, Kak Liza' daughter, Zurina is now stranded in Singapore. She went there two weeks ago for holidays, and was supposed to be back last Friday. She was hoping the flight crisis would be over by weekend because she has to be at work by Monday. Unfortunately that was not the case and she has frantically looking for solution to get back to Germany. Her flight, Qantas - could only provide a place for her, the latest on 5 May. Yesterday she called her mother, asking for her help to get flight ticket from Egypt Air, and managed to get flight to come back on 27th April. According to her, so many Europeans are stranded in Singapore and all hotels are full. Imagine how much money stranded people have to spend to survive while waiting. Lucky for Zurina, she has free accomodation.

Then another friend I know, Maha the playgroup teacher, also stranded in Malaysia. She went back to Malaysia because her father passed away and was supposed to come back last Saturday. Her husband told me, he too like everyday trying to find way to get Maha back to Germany because she has job to do - she's not only handling the playgroup teaching jobs, she is also a day-care mother. So if she doesn't come back soonest possible, her job is very much affected.

Then, I have a friend who is coming to Germany for holidays. His flight supposed to be tomorrow. Although the Frankfurt airport has resumed the operation yesterday, I don't know whether he could come. I heard the airlines system is giving priorities to those are stranded first.

This is how it is....no matter how advanced the creation and innovation of human beings, when tested by natural disaster, nothing could be avoided. It was a total havoc throughout the globe when Europe sky is not safe for any air travel. No one, even those with money and power, would be able to overcome this problem.

Allah s.w.t is the most powerful and almighty after all.....

Sleeping Arrangement - The Success

Tahun lepas sy penah came out ngan isu sleeping arrangement anak2. Siap tgk Supernanny lagi nak melatih anak2 tido di bilik sendiri (baca di sini). Kaedah Supernanny tu berjaya dipraktikkan setelah struggle bagai nak rak tapi setelah tersilap teknik (diorg tertgk satu cerita seram yg kami pasang waktu kami ada tetamu berkunjung ke rumah), diorg terus refused nak tido kat bilik tido sendiri. Sy pon dah x boleh nak convinced diorg, campur malas nak start all over again (jenuh ye nak buat teknik Supernanny tu). Then came winter, kami pon nak jimat kos heater (sumbat semua org satu bilik), maka kami tangguhkan dulu projek tido bilik asing tu.

Tapi dlm pada masa yg sama kami dok psiko/pujuk/motivate (u name whatever the right term) la sikembar that by next year, abis je winter, diorg kena tido bilik sendiri. Menangis2 la budak berdua tu ckp x mau tapi bila atas katil kami berhimpit2, sorang dok bising rambut dia kena tindih la, sorang lagi dok ckp sempit la....kami pon ckp "hah, pegi la tido kat bilik sendiri"

About 2 weeks ago, we started the mission. Surprisingly, xde la susah sgt nak suruh diorg tido bilik sendiri. Before that mcm2 alasan dan syarat sikembar buat bg membolehkan diorg tido sendiri (Nabihah siap mintak bilik dia dicat kaler pink! Yg ini sy terpaksa la berdiplomasi dgn janji bila balik mesia, diorg akan dpt bilik kaler pink!).

Waktu tido antara pukul 8.30pm -9pm. Just i still have to stay with them for a short while - baca buku, baca doa, then say 'guten nacht', bg salam, kiss n hugs, on lampu tido then I can leave them regardless they are still awake or drifting to sleep.

The first few nights, Nabilah bgn byk kali jugak la, menangis2 dtg bilik kami. Tapi kami suruh dia balik bilik, dia balik dgn rela hati. X payah nak paksa2. Kekadang tu siap Nabihah yg dtg jemput adik dia...hehehe. Makin lama, Nabilah makin kurang bgn tapi ada la sesekali tu out of her habit kot, dia dtg cari ummi, nak kiss katanya. So sweet....

So skrg it seems diorg dah adjusted to the routine. Cuma part baca buku tu semua x leh skip la. Kadang2 sy naik malas jugak, ngelat baca buku nipis2 sbb sekali baca harus diorg mintak 3 buku at least. Tapi it is a good habit actually, so mak dia pon x boleh malas2.

Bila dah buat camni, sy sendiri pon rasa lega. Malam2 i can have time on my own. Kalau dulu, asal nak tidokan diorg aje, sy kena tido sekali, pastu selamat la terbuai sampai kepagi. Paling best, we have more space on our bed. X payah berhimpit2 dah. Xde lagi katil yg penuh ngan extra bantal, selimut, bears, toys, buku....

Rasanya utk anak yg akan dtg, awal2 lagi sy plan nak asingkan tempat tido supaya x perlu lagi struggle lagi mcm dgn sikembar!

Lenka - Trouble Is A Friend

Sy baru je jumpa lagu ni, terdgr kat blog Hantu Makan a.k.a K. Dalia. Probably lagu ni dah lama kot femes tapi being me - x tau sbb selalu x mengikut perkembangan hiburan semasa. Cute n cheeky je dgr lagu ni. And tgk la video clip dia, guna wayang kulit tu....

Perihal Bahasa

Hari tu sy terdgr perbualan antara Nabilah & Dina (anak dara Suharti):

Nabilah: Kakak Dina, tauschen (bahasa german) tu apa?

(being Nabilah, kalau dia tanya camtu bukan dia x tau tapi lebih kpd nak menguji)

Dina: Tauschen tu tukaq

(Dina & family mmg berbahasa melayu loghat utara pekat di rumah diorg)

Nabilah: Bukan la. Tauschen tu TUKAR. Bukan TUKAQ.

Sy tergelak sorang2 kat situ. Ye la, bukannya Nabilah faham yg TUKAR dan TUKAQ tu perkataan yg sama cuma berbeza dr segi pertuturan sahaja.

Haih...lepas ni dia balik KB dan berjumpa sedara mara Kelantan dia, jenuh la nak buat translation kat dia!

Birthdays & Kids Sleepover

Hari Sabtu lepas kami buat makan2 sempena birthday Mat & Kak Liza yg jatuh pd 7&8 April respectively. Nak buat weekdays masing2 keje. Sy masak bihun sup, pizza, kek segera dan muffin strawberi. Liza pulak sediakan asam laksa dan cucuq udang. Kami jemput Suharti sekeluarga. Suharti pulak bawa kuih bakar sbg buah tangan. Weekend ni jugak kami dah planned sleepover utk anak2 dara Suharti dan sikembar. Kesian kat budak2 tu, selalunya kalau diorg dtg rumah, mcm x puas aje bermain. Dah lama dah planned utk sleepover ni dan memandangkan suharti sekeluarga akan pulang ke Malaysia for good end of this month, maka weekend ni la paling sesuai nak buat sleepover. Tapi cuma Dina & Alia saja yg stay utk bermlm, Hanan si bongsu, kata mama dia ada jugak hajat di hati nak bermlm disini tapi memandangkan tiap2 mlm dia mmg tido ngan mama dia, Suharti risau lak nanti mlm2 dia terjaga cari mama dia pulak!

Makan time...

Antara menu yg terhidang

Budak2...

Waktu nak tido...menurut paparazzi, aksi membaca buku oleh semua anak2 dara ini adalah lakonan semata2 kerna sewaktu dia masuk nak amik gambar, masing2 tgh melompat bagai nak rak. Nampak ja kamera, masing2 kelam kabut capai buku dan berlakon...hehehe

Esok paginya, sesudah breakfast, sy angkut budak2 masuk hutan belakang rumah ni. Hutan ni sy baru discover bulan lepas. Baru tahu dlm hutan ni ada kandang rusa, babi hutan dan haiwan2 lain (blom discover sepenuhnya). Juga ada playground yg best. Kira mcm hutan rekreasi la. Kak Liza kata ada lombong utk mandi-manda. Tunggu la summer nanti nak teroka habis hutan ni.

Girls in action

Walaubagaimanapun, cuma sempat bawa budak2 main kat playgroud saja. Sebabnya tgh syok2 main playground, dtg lak angin ribut campur hujan. Kitorg pon berkejar la balik rumah. Nak tgk rusa2 pon x sempat. Petang lak, Suharti & Ijat bersama Hanan dah dtg menjemput Dina & Alia. Kata Suharti, Hanan dah rindu kakak2nya.

Walaupun diorg sekeluarga akan pulang ke Malaysia x lama lagi, harap2 kami akan bertemu lagi...

Day 7: Keukenhof & Kinderdijk

Ini merupakan hari terakhir kembara Europe ni (cam segan nak ckp kembara Europe sebenarnya sbb bukannya byk pon negara yg dijelajahi).

Tahun ni berkesempatan ke Keukenhof lagi. Hotel yg kami duduk terletak kira2 5 minit by driving dr Keukenhof. Tapi yg x bestnya bunga2 baru nak naik. Keukenhof pon baru dua hari dibuka. Tapi since kak Ti dah request nak kesini eversince tgk gambar2 Keukenhof kami thn lepas, maka pegi la jugak walaupun tahu Keukenhof belum seindah mana. Tahun lepas kami pegi masa kemuncak spring...mmg mengasyikkan layan berjenis2 bunga disana sini. Tapi yg x bestnya org terlalu ramai, so kami x masuk pon indoor exhibition. Kali ni since kat outdoor pon xde apa sgt yg boleh ditengok, kami amik masa layan bunga2 yg dipamer dlm indoor exhibition.

Bunga2 baru nak naik...

Thn lepas x jumpa pon tempat haiwan ni, thn ni siap lepak2 bg mkn kambeng lagi!

Walau bunga x byk lagi, Keukenhof masih indah dipandangan mata

Minah biru tu kan actually x pakai baju hokeh! Dia tutup part2 sulit ngan bunga2 saja ye...

Bunga2 di indoor exhibtion

Kami dok dlm Keukenhof ada la dlm 3-4 jam kot sbb pastu kena rushing nak ke Kinderdijk (nak tgk windmills) pastu nak terus berangkat pulang ke Frankfurt. Masa nak keluar dr Keukenhof, kami yg ladies dpt sejambak bunga tulip dr management Keukenhof dan masa nak keluar dr parking pon, the officer yg jaga siap interview lagi samada kami enjoy ke x our time in Keukenhof. Dia siap apologized lagi sbb bunga x byk lagi. Dia kata this year winter this year lama sgt, that was why bunga2 pon byk x naik lagi. Ye la, betul la tu...mmg winter this year lama. Tapi sgt terharu sbb diorg siap compensate ngan bg bunga, pastu siap apologize. Mmg betul2 ada courtesy.

Destinasi seterusnya adalah Kinderdijk. Kinderdijk ni sebuah kampung kecil yg terkenal dgn jumlah windmills yg byk dibina sekitar 1740. Since tempat ni pon terletak dah on the way balik ke Frankfurt, maka kami masukkan dlm destinasi perjalanan. Yg x sangkanya, laluan kami utk sampai ke Kinderdijk ni, kena naik feri kecik utk cross sungai. Merasa naik feri kat Holland...hehehe.

Feri nun diseberang sungai

Feri approaching

Waktu kami sampai kat Kinderdijk dah pukul 4.30pm. Cuaca pon mendung, hujan turun renyai2 gitu. Walau Kinderdijk ni area perlancongan, tp kami saja kot yg pelancongnya diwaktu itu. Ada la 2-3 org tempatan yg jalan2 bawa anjing sambil amik angin. Tempat windmills ni sgt nyaman gitu...suasana kekampungan Belanda habis....seronok betul jalan2...ngan angin sepoi2 bahasa (hujan dah berenti dah time ni), ngan canal yg ada itik berenang2, ngan suasana sunset, rasa begitu tenang tempat ni. Kat sini, cuma aktiviti amik gambar saja la. Windmills ni sebenarnya dibuka utk pelancong utk masuk tp hanya dibuka mulai April sehingga October je kot kalau x silap.

Pukul 6 pm, kami bergerak pulang ke Frankfurt. Perjalanan sepatutnya makan masa cuma 4 jam sahaja tp jln2 di Holland byk la pulak traffic jam. Campur ngan berenti utk minyak dan gas, kami sampai di Raunheim kira2 pukul 11 mlm. Liza dan Mat sgt baik, siap suh kami singgah amik dinner menu kambing grill, nasi mentega dan salad. Sgt terharu hokeh!

Maka dgn ini, tamat sudah cerita kembara Europe...yey!!!

Day 6 : Amsterdam

Sebelum bergerak ke Amsterdam, kami sempat menikmati sarapan di restoran hotel. Actually masa booking online, I was informed that the room price offered would not include breakfast, which I didn't really mind because the price offered was the cheapest I could get online for a decent hotel like this. But not only did we get breakfast for two adult, the kids got the breakfast for free too! I really like this hotel....the staffs were friendly, the room was lovely and clean and free Wifi was provided too. For the price I've paid, I think it was really worth it.

Bilik hotel yg sgt memuaskan hati

Breakfast time...not much though - typical European breakfast - breads, jam, cheeses tp kopi super sedap!

From Lisse to Amsterdam, it was supposed to take half an hour by driving but unfortunately, our route as suggested by Garmin was interrupted when one of the road was closed by police and we were directed to use another route. Tapi si Garmin ni asik suggest suh buat U-turn utk ikut the original route. So kami terpaksa buat our own decision, just follow the heavy traffic (with assumption semua org nak pegi Amsterdam!) sampai la at last Garmin recalculated the route plan. Akhirnya sampai ke destinasi yg dituju 1 jam kemudian.

Dari awal lagi, sy dah buat plan mmg x nak drive masuk Amsterdam City tapi sebaliknya park kereta kat satu P&R (Park & Ride) yg terletak di pinggir kota Amsterdam. Sebabnya sy baca dr Internet, pelancong amat la tidak digalakkan drive di dlm city due to many reasons. Besides, when you park at P&R, you'll be provided with a travelling ticket to the city which valid for 5 people at 6 Euro. I thought at first the tickets and the parking cost was two different things, but later found out that the 6 Euro includes a 24-hour parking time and the travelling tickets as well! Isn't it so cheap?

From this P&R we travelled to Amsterdam Centraal Station by train. It only took us 10 minutes. I was so glad that the train station provides free tourist information booklet. Kat Paris satu info booklet pon x nampak. Sampai Centraal Station, kami simply wandered around. It says, Amsterdam tourist attractions all located within walking distance from the Centraal so kami pon belasah je la jln ikut suka.

Looking at the traffic conditions, lega sgt rasanya kami buat decision utk tidak drive masuk city. Jalan2 Amsterdam adalah kecil dan kebanyakan jalan adalah jenis sehala. Parking pon sgt limited. Yg ada pon, sgt mencabar nak parking. Betul2 tepi canal! Kalau I yg parking, harus la selamat masuk canal kot!

Kereta kecik camni mmg sgt praktikal di Amsterdam!

Tgk la...mencabar ke x parking disini?

Amsterdam mmg terkenal dgn canal boat ride nya. Dr mula kami keluar dr Centraal, mana2 pon boleh nampak signboard Canal Boat Ride. Ada pelbagai pakej dan harga disediakan. At first, we thought we should get the boat ride later, but then when we saw some more cheaper price offered, we couldn´t wait anymore, hence we bought the ticket. The price of ticket for one-hour ride was 8€/adult.

The canal boat ride was quite interesting. We travelled along the canal where we could see Amsterdam´s famous landmarks and the boat captain gave English narration about the landmarks throughout the journey. The twins got excited at first but then became bored and fell asleep...which was good! I didn´t have to answer a lot of questions. Then we completed the 1-hour boat ride, the moment we stepped out from the boat, we saw all the passengers´postcard-like-photos pasted on a board . The photos looked so nice, that most passengers bought it including us. It was a bit pricey (3€/piece) but heck, the memory is priceless, isn´t it?

Us...on the boat

Some of the views from the boat

After the boat ride, we walked along the streets and got excited with the city´s panorama and the souvenirs shops. I found Amsterdam is really a tourist-friendly city. The souvenirs are much cheaper here than anywhere places in Europe than I´ve been to. Then all the local people I´ve met not only able to speak English but were so friendly. There was this one time, I was taking photo of my family when suddenly this one old lady greeted me and offered to take our family photo. I would want to say ´no, thank you´but seeing her so friendly, smiling all the way and because she was so sweet to offer, I accepted her offer. She even asked her friend to hold her handbag and stick (ye, ini makcik jalan pakai tongkat ye...how could u want to say NO?) while she´s taking our photo. And after she was done, she even insisted to see the photo, whether it looked nice or not. Oh yes, it was lovely.

Gambar yg makcik tu snapped!

We saw Madame Tussaud too. It is located the Dam Square. At first we thought of going in, but we were not sure whether we had enough time to venture Amsterdam later on. I insisted Kak Ti and Abg Lan to go in, because I was thinking, maybe I could go to Madame Tussaud in London or in Berlin (mungkin je la...berangan2 saja la dulu ye!) But then they also decided not to go in because venturing around Amsterdam was more tempting.

Dam Square....depan Madame Tussaud

Amsterdam shopping walkway

Few things about Amsterdam: selain dr canal merata2, basikal juga terlalu byk. U can see bikes everywhere u go. Diorg angkut brg2 pon pakai basikal. I was so amazed when I saw this one lady, dia bawa baby dlm umur below 6 months (i guess), letak kat depan dia, then belakang dia ada toddler dlm umur 2 thn gitu, dah tu pulak pompuan ni kayuh basikal laju2 di celah2 org ramai. Fuh...confident sungguh! Then byk coffee shops, only thing is these coffee shops are not selling coffee the drink, but they sell drugs - which is legal in Holland! Nasib baik I knew about this long ago, so xde la kes tersilap masuk kedai nak order kopi....hehehehe.

Kedai Kopi? NOT............

Kami actually berangan2 nak makan nasi padang kat Amsterdam. So berpandukan Garmin, kami cari satu restoran Indonesia ni but then bila sampai, restoran tu dah tutup for good. Aiseh! Sbb dah lapar sgt, kami makan kat satu restoran kebab yg halal yg sebaris dgn restoran yg ditutup tu. Tapi kebab dia x sedap mcm kat Jerman punya.

Makan kebab....

Lepas makan, kami pegi Flower Markt. Oh, lagi best tgk souvenirs kat sini. Tapi sy x beli byk pon, again setakat 2-3 benda utk kenangan di masa depan. Lepas tu ronda2 lagi. Dalam dok jalan2 tu kami nampak satu lagi restoran Indonesia. Kebetulan pulak ada menu diletak kat luar restoran. So sy saja2 la pi tgk. Bukan nak makan pon. Semua menu dlm bahasa Indonesia so syok la tgk. Dlm dok browsing menu tu sekali nampak "BABI KETJCAP". There you go...walau indonesia, x semestinya halal ye! Kak Ti kata even kat Indonesia itself pon kena berhati2. She went to Indonesia couple of times, so give it Bali ka, Bandung ka, Jakarta ka, better la check for the halal confirmation.

At Flower Market

At 5pm, kami pon dah penat dan it was time to end our Amsterdam day trip sbb nak balik hotel nak kejar waktu solat. But then since it was time org2 balik keje, train sgt penuh and jalan jam sama je mcm kat KL, maka kami sampai hotel pon dah kul 7pm.

Last episode: Keukenhof & Kinderdijk

Day 5: Throughout Belgium

It was the day Kak Ngoh had to end her holiday with us and flying back to Ireland to resume her life as a student. We left Varredes at 6am (the only time we managed to follow the itinerary schedule! selalunya behind the schedule aje...hehehe) and headed to Tille, where the low cost Paris Beauvais airport located. Bukan dekat ye, amik masa 1 1/2 jam juga nak sampai. But fortunately kami x sesat lagi. So by the time we arrived, it was just the nice time for Kak Ngoh to check-in and we all can sit down for coffee and breakfast.

Twins sgt sedih bila tau kak ngoh dah nak kena balik Ireland....

Coffee at the airport was amazingly expensive. For a small cup and only half of it filled with coffee, the price was 1.50 Euro. I wonder how is it in Charles de Gaulle international airport. Luckily I managed to make some sandwiches before we left our mobile home.

After Kak Ngoh had boarded her flight, we started our journey to Brussels, Belgium. We arrived at Atomium at 12.30 noon and had our packed lunch and then took photos around the big monuments until we got bored after half an hour. We didn't take the tour inside the Atomium because we must leave for Lisse in Holland by 3.30pm. I booked a hotel there and since I did't book using credit card, the condition for our hotel room to be confirmed, I must reach the hotel by 6.00 pm. Brussels was just a stopping point.

If you wonder what is Atomium is all about, here some info i extracted from Wikipedia:

The Atomium [1] is a monument built for Expo '58, the 1958 Brussels World's Fair. Designed by André Waterkeyn, it is 102-metres (335 ft) tall, with nine steel spheres connected so that the whole forms the shape of a unit cell of an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times.

Tubes which connect the spheres along the 12 edges of the cube and all eight vertices to the centre enclose escalators connecting the spheres which contain exhibit halls and other public spaces. The top sphere provides a panoramic view of Brussels. Each sphere is 18 metres in diameter. Three spheres are currently (2008) closed to visitors, others are easily reachable with escalator. The vertical vertex contains a lift which was considered very fast and advanced at the time of building (the speed is 5 m/s)^[1].

Twins @ Atomium Park

But we still had a couple of hours, so we decided to get to some other tourist attractions in Brussels. During my planning, I only considered Atomium and I didn't include other places in Brussels as I thought about the time constraint. So I really did not have any idea where we should go. We only wanted to get some Brussels souvenirs and the ones in Atomium were not impressive. I did ask some passers-by where the places to get the souvenirs and they told me it was far away from the Atomium.

So we used Garmin. Garmin has this facility that can indicate to you the shopping places, fuel station, tourist attractions and some others in the vicinity. So we checked under the tourist attractions and noted this particular place called Grote Markt - located some 22km away from the Atomium. I did remember during my research of this place called Grote Markt in Brussels. So I believed this must be the place where we could buy some souvenirs.

So off we went there. As we moving away along the highway, I had this kind of feeling that we were not going to the right place because all the signboards showed we were leaving Brussels. But I was still optimist.

Then we arrived to this town area. We were surprised to note that the area was rather quiet than the hassle-and-bussle the normal big city would have or the tourist-area-look. Finding a car park also was very easy. The twins were sleeping at the time, so since we only wanted to get some fridge magnets and Belgium chocolate, my BIL said he would wait in the van to watch them while Kak Ti, cik HB and I go check out the place.

The area no doubt was surrounded with historical buildings but then it seemed like we were the only foreigners there. People were looking at us and the look were not friendly, I tell you! I greeted (because I wanted to ask for info) some passers-by with "Bonjour" and they ignored me. I thought they speak French because in Atomium, it seemed they do. But then I realized that all the signboards are in Dutch and then I remembered from my internet reading that some part of Belgium speak French, some Dutch and some Deutsch. Oh my....no wonder I was being ignored!

Fortunately, we saw a small signboard "Tourist Information Office" on one of the historical buildings. So we went to the office and met this one lady who spoke good English and very friendly (surely they do, they deal with the tourists, right?). So we told her our situation and then found out that we were no longer in Brussels. We were actually in this small town called Aalt. She told us to get to Grote Markt in Brussels. And I told her that our navigator told us that the Grote Markt located here. She checked Garmin and noticed that the Grote Markt in Brussels is called by different name in this navigator. Haih.....

Kak Ti & I @ Aalt

So we couldn't get to buy any fridge magnets or Belgium chocolates. Kak Ti managed to get herself some beautiful postcards of Aalts at the tourist office. We definitely couldn't get back to Brussels because we had to start travelling to Holland. So forget Brussels!

Then as we were leaving Aalts, we encountered another problem. Cik HB wanted to reload fuel but all the fuel stations we found, had no attendants and you have to use either your debit card or credit card. CikHB tried his German debit card but was not valid. Then he tried his credit card but then the machine asked for PIN number. The problem was, he couldn't remember his credit card's PIN . In fact none of four of us who have credit card knew our PIN. In Malaysia you can always use credit card for fueling or anything without having to use the PIN number except when you want to withdraw cash from ATM machine, no? It just never occurred to us that we would ever need to get cash using credit card, that was why we couldnt be bothered to remember. Bad..bad habit!

Anyway, after travelling quite sometime looking for fuel station that would accept cash (and worrying whether there was enough fuel to go around before we succeed), we saw this one fuel station with attendants. And she accepted cash after finding out our problem. Fuh!!! Lega....

I like houses in Belgium....so clean, so nice-looking...

In the meantime, I called the hotel and told them we couldn't make it on time and will be late about an hour or so but still want them to secure our rooms. Ok, they said....lega lagi. So we didn't rush. Couldn't actually...with the drive speed limit and traffic jams. Holland's highway were packed at the time ok! We arrived in Lisse at 7.30pm and glad to find that the hotel was nice and the staffs were friendly.

Next episode: Amsterdam

Day 4: Disneyland Paris

Yey!! It's Disneyland day!!!

The day we planned for Disneyland was such a beautiful day....the weather was very nice. It took half an hour from our rented mobile home in Varredes to Disneyland. We reached there at 10 am, the exact time of the opening. There were no hassle at all buying the entrance ticket (which I heard would be a long queue to get to the counter in summer). Entrance ticket for adult is 52 Euro and child is 44 Euro.

Entrance to parking zone

I decided to rent strollers for the twins to reduce level of crankiness due to exhaustion for that day. The rental rate was acceptable, 7.90 Euro for a stroller. It was a good decision.... the strollers were not only functioning as a child carrier but our bags carrier as well. We did not have to carry all our backpacks whenever we got on a ride, we just simply left it on the strollers. But of course we didn't leave anything valuable there. It seemed everybody also comfortably leaving their bags and strollers outside every ride and there were these Disneyland staffs who would go around helping to park the strollers in the right manner.

We had a chance to watch a live performance of Sleeping Beauty musical show. After the show, the parents fought the crowd to get their kids photographed with Sleeping Beauty character. We did too, we were so closed but then she walked to another side so we decided to give up. Nabihah was disappointed of course but we coaxed her into riding the carousel and several other rides.

And here some parts of the Sleeping Beauty show we managed to record:

Check out below the video cik HB recorded during our ride:

The good thing about coming to Disneyland at this time (early spring), is the park was not so crowded. There were still many people around but yet you don't have to queue very long to get a ride. We even rode twice this one boat ride where I feel like being in a set of Charlie & The Chocolate Factory. I heard that starting April and the whole summer, Disneyland would be so packed that one has to queue such a long time for a ride.

I didn't check the price of food stuffs in Disneyland but I guess everything was pricey. We brought our own food for lunch and drink/snacks. However, we did buy Disneyland lollipops at price of 3.90 Euro for 3 sticks and some souvenirs, just Disney T-shirt for the twins and 1 fridge magnet for myself.

We decided to end our day in Disneyland at 5.30pm, right after the Disney Parade ended. Though the park is closed at 7pm, most rides end their operation at 6pm. And we too had solat time to catch. Even though we spent like the whole day in there, we actually only managed to cover 1/3 of the Disney Park. There were so much more rides to enjoy but we just didn't have the time!

Ok dah! Jom balik..

On the way back to our accommodation, we stopped at Carrefour and shopped some groceries. I was really impressed with the Carrefour as it has a halal section. Anyway, things were again very pricey. It's Paris ya!

That night, instead of canned food, we had a fresh prawn meal for the dinner and enjoying our last night in Paris.

Next episode: Belgium