We woke up a little late because of our long day the day before. We just crossed the street again to take the MTR going to the Airport. Howell has to withdraw some money as we don’t have enough Euros left. We bought breakfast at the terminal for take out so we have something to eat at the airport.

As soon as we arrived at the airport, I looked for the Tax refund counter to file the tax refund for the bags that I bought. I followed the long queue only to find out that they can’t accept my forms there as it is the counter for goods purchased that will be checked-in. Since I will be hand carrying my items (since I don’t want to risk checking in the Chanel bag of Jacqui. LOL), I have to line up at the Tax Refund counter after I checked in. But looks like we have no luck that day as the checked in counter opened late because they are having some problems because of flight delays so in short, I had no time left to file my tax refund after we checked in (sorry guys, but I really tried my best. LOL).

The flight left on time but when we reached Dubai, it was announced that our flight will be delayed for like two hours. Our flight from Dubai to Manila was full so there are a lot of Filipinos waiting at the waiting area so I was not able to get some sleep while waiting for our flight. And besides, the seats are really not comfortable for sleeping and I guess I am too much excited already and can’t wait to land in Manila to see Bela. There was also a mixed up because they change our seating assignment when we are already ready to board which leaves me and Howell several rows and seats apart. I was really pissed and the crew was really not helpful with our problem. This made me swear that I will not use Gulf Air again. Thank goodness that the fourth flight attendant that I talked to was able to sort things out and Howell and I got a seat beside each other.

When we arrived in Manila, Bela and my parents are already waiting for us. Bela was so excited upon seeing us that she wanted to jump out of the window as soon as she sees us. We went to Dampa for merienda as Howell and I are really craving for real food. LOL. Then we went to Duty Free for some pasalubong shopping and more toy shopping for Bela then we went home.

We are almost at the final stretch of our Europe tour. This is our last whole day in Paris. I feel exhausted already and at the same time excited that in just two days, I will see my baby again. It was a fun trip and I am glad that I get to experience this with my husband and I wish that someday we will be able to bring Bela to the places that we have been to Europe.

After all the travelling, I feel that I need to get an adult acne treatment as soon as I get home because my acne has worsen while I was on trip.
During our entire trip, we are always late for our bus ride, train ride and we barely made it for our flight to Paris. So I told Howell that no more running this time and we have to be at the station early. We went to Paris EST HGV station first to check the station on where we will ride our train late in the afternoon. We asked around to make sure that we are at the right station. Then we went to Long Champ store for more bag shopping for Jody, Kelly, my sister and I also exchange my bag again for the second time from the regular Le Pliage to the limited edition Le Pliage in blue. We also met a Filipino who worked at the Long Champ store in Paris and we chatted for a bit and she gave us her calling card. We went back to the Notre Dame area for some souvenir shopping before going back to our hotel to check out. Then we went to Port Newt and to the Pantheon. I was so tired already that I told Howell that I will just wait for him outside while I watch for movies on my Iphone. Then we decided to go back to our hotel to pick up our things so we can proceed to the train station and just wait for our train ride there.

We were an hour early at the station so we were able to rest and relax for a bit. We are taking DB Bahn from Paris to Frankfurt. I like DB bahn because their trains are really clean and it has a big leg room. There was a technical problem though while we are in the middle of our trip so we stopped for like twenty minutes while they fix the problem but that is no problem since we are seated comfortably inside the train.

We arrived a little past 1 AM in Frankfurt and we are lucky because that hotel (Hotel Continental) that we booked is just across the train station in Frankfurt and we are already familiar with the area because Frankfurt is our entry point in Europe. We immediately dozed off to sleep as soon as we are checked in.

You can view more pictures here.

We had a very long day the day before and so we started our day late again on our second to the last day in Paris. We arranged our luggage to prepare for our departure the next day for Frankfurt before leaving our hotel. We left the hotel around 11 PM and took the MTR to go to Versailles (which is a city outside Paris).

We saw a Mc Donald’s restaurant when we arrived and so we deiced to have our lunch first since it was already close to 12 nn. There was already a long queue when we entered the castle and the heat of the sun was so draining that is why when he heard the announcement that they are offering guided tours so we can skip the line, we decided to just take it. It turns out, there are a lot of people who did the same thing as what we did and so the earliest schedule that was given to us was at 2:30 PM.


We were so tired and lazy already and so instead of touring the garden first (since we have more than an hour to wait) while waiting for the tour to start, we just decided to stay at the waiting room. The guided tour does not cover the entire castle (I can’t remember exactly, but I think the tour includes the outer part of the castle where the extension rooms were built and it also includes the tour of the chapel inside the castle) and there are some parts of the castle that we can just explore on our own using the free audio guide. Since we saw the Schronbrunn Palace first in Vienna, we find the Versailles palace a little simple compared to Schronbrunn. The highligth of the palace was the Wall of Mirrors. It is a big hall surrounded by mirrors and it is indeed grand. I think the castle is only open until 6 PM and so when it is time already for us to explore the other parts of the castle, we only have 1.5 hour left and so we were already in a hurry so we can finish touring the entire castle.

After the tour of the castle, we went inside the garden. We were not able to watch the fountain show but the garden is so amazing. Would you believe it, it has an amphitheater and a makeshift grand canal where you can ride a canoe. The garden is open until 8 PM (and the sun is still up by that time), so we stayed there until it closes.

After Versailles, we head straight to our hotel and ate again at the nearby Chinese Restaurant (where there is rice) and call it a day. You can view more pictures here.

I was checking the pictures of my friend of their recent family vacation when they tried outer banks vacation rentals. If only I can travel and if only we have the budget for it, I would have packed my bags and ride a plane for another family vacation.

But we are still recuperating from the expenses that we incurred from our last Europe trip and I was even advised to have a complete bed rest so I don’t think an out of country vacation would be possible for us in the next coming months (or even years).

So for now, I will just have to finish my chronicles of our last Europe trip and I am now on our Day 17 in Europe.

Day 17: Paris, France

Shopping malls and outlets in Europe have weird opening schedule and they are close on a Sunday and are open only until 6 PM from Monday to Saturday so we decided to go shopping for the bilins of our friends before we start with our IT for the day.

Chanel store and the flagship store of Long Champ in Paris is just a couple of blocks from our hotel but since we have unlimited MTR pass, we decided to take the MTR to go there. Howell already reviewed the map so he knows already where to find the store. We first went to Chanel and bought the Grand shopping bag of Jacqui and then went to Long Champ to buy the bag of Jody. The price of Long Champ bags were so hard to resist so I end up buying two bags for myself too (the limited Edition Le Pliage and a chocolate brown bag).

After shopping, we went to check out Notre Dame. After seeing other churches, particularly the one in Rome, I was really surprised to see that the famous Notre Dame was not as grand as I imagined it. I decided to use my chocolate brown bag and I find it too big and I asked hubby if we can go back to the Long Champ store after lunch to exchange it to the smaller size Le Pliage and just skip the free tour of Notre Dame as what we originally planned. After I had my bag changed, we went to Basilica Sacre Coeur, which is a church overlooking Paris. Unfortunately there was a demonstration going on and so we were not able to go inside the Basilica but the view outside was really breathtaking and so it was still worth the trip. We had our merienda at the shops near the Basilica and we also did some souvenir shopping there. Then we went to the famous Moulin Rouge and then we decided to go to Disneyland Paris. We did not went inside as it is already almost 5 PM when we arrived and we thought that it would be no fun to experience Disneyland without Bela but it looks really big. We just had some picture taking at the entrance and then we went to Disney Village and bought souvenirs and toys for Bela.

Then we head home after our short trip to Disneyland (Disneyland was like an hour from our hotel via MTR) then we just had dinner at a Chinese restaurant which is just near our hotel and then we called it a day.

You can view more pictures here.

Since we had a very long day on our first day at Paris, we started our second day late. We left the hotel around 10 AM and we took the metro to go to the Louvre. The Louvre is just two stations away from our hotel. There were still not much people on queue at the ticket booth when we arrived so we were able to get in right away.


We decided to have early lunch at the cafeteria there since we haven’t had breakfast yet before we start to explore the Louvre. The Louvre has three galleries which has three floors each. It is a very big museum so what we did is we just got a map at the Information Center and we just checked out the list of “Not to Miss” art pieces per floor per gallery.

We first went to see Mona Lisa of course and then followed the list in the map from there. We explored the Louvre from 11 AM to 6:30 PM and there are still a lot of art pieces that we miss but we were able to cover all the recommended art pieces to check out from their list.

We had dinner at the Louvre and then we went back to the Eiffel Tower so we can have a picture of it at night. There is also a light show every hour which we were only able to see while we were at the top of the tower and so we wanted to watch it from below where we can have a good view of the tower.

Then we went souvenir at the small store near the tower and we called it a day after that.

You can view more pictures here.

We woke up early and left the hotel at 7 AM to get to Anangnini Station to catch the bus that will take us to the airport. The bus that arrived as soon as we reached Anangnini station doesn’t pass to the airport (I miss this detail when I checked the bus schedule the day before) and the next bus arrives at 8 AM and we have to be at the airport at 8:15 the latest to make it before the check-in window closes.

I saw that there are cabs waiting near the bus station and so I told Howell that we should just take the cab to make it to our flight on time. We saw a couple approached one of the cab but decided to just take the bus instead. I talked to them and asked them if they are heading to the airport also so we can share the cab (the beauty of watching Amazing Race. LOL). So we shared the cab with the couple and we end up paying Euro 10 instead of Euro 20. We made it just in time for our 8:55 AM flight.

We are taking Easy Jet from Rome to Paris and since it is a budget airline, they only allow one luggage per passenger. Since Howell bought his Ferrari car in Venice, we have one extra luggage. Howell wanted to try to squeeze everything in one bag but I told him I don’t want to be under stress since the plane is ready to leave so we just paid the extra Euro 20 for the extra luggage.

The flight was on time and we arrived at Paris before lunch. We bought 5 day unlimited pass that covers all sectors at the airport so we can take the airport express that connects the airport train to city train. I had instructions from the hotel on how to get to the station where their hotel is located from the airport but we had a hard time looking for the hotel itself. I booked the hotel (Hotel Saint Honore) from booking.com and the reason why I booked this hotel is that according to reviews, the location is good because it is near the tourist spots, the shopping district and near the MTR station. But I was really disappointed with the hotel. It is not really a hotel (the apartments that I see from MyNewPlace.com is even better). The hotel has no air conditioning system, no elevator (and we are staying at the 5/F), the room is small, and it looks old that is why I hate the bathroom. But the rate is really affordable considering it is located in District I (which is the best district in Paris according to my friend who lives in Paris). There is also free wifi and the receptionist is really very helpful and friendly.


After Howell went up and down the flight of stairs to bring all our luggage up, we left the hotel and had lunch at the nearby mall. Then we went and explore the city. We checked out Place dela Concorde, Champs d’ Elysee, Arch de Triomphe, and Jardin de Tuillens. We were also able to watch the ceremony at the Arch de Triomphe every 6 PM honoring the soldiers. Then we went shopping at the stores along Champs Elysee and bought toys for Bela at the Disney store there.

Then we went to the Eiffel Tower and Howell suggested that we go up to the tower since the sun is still up even tough it is already past 7 PM. I think we queued up for less than an hour before we were able to go up. I was really scared while riding the elevator going up since unlike the Empire Tower and Macau Tower, where the elevator is enclosed so I can’t see the view outside. But with the Eiffel Tower, I can see that we are going so high up as we ride the elevator.

We were only able to reach the 2nd level because the 3rd level is close that time. But I am okay with that because I think that I might get really scared once I am at the topmost level. But the view was really nice up. Howell went around all the four corners of the tower to take pictures and we have quite a lot of pictures.

We had dinner at the café at the 2nd level of the tower. I just bought crepes and sandwiches then we bought souvenirs at the souvenir shop then we call it a day after that.

You can view more pictures here.

Now that I am almost finish blogging about our Europe adventure, let me post here some of my favorite highlights of our Europe tour:

1. Frankfurt, Germany: When we were able to sign the condolence book of our late President Corazon Aquino who died from Colon Cancer. This really reminded me that I should start reading about colon cleanse reviews so we can get protected from colon cancer. Also, before I left I tried to go to Intramuros to pay my last respect to our former President but the weather is really bad and the line was really long, we were not able to go inside Manila Cathedral. So I did not really expect that I will have the chance to sign the Condolence book of Corazon Aquino in Frankfurt.
2. Prague, Czech Republic: Everything about Prague is very memorable to me. In fact, it tops my list of my favorite places in Europe. It is the best for me, better than Paris.
3. Vienna, Austria: Our visit of the Schronbrunn Palace. It was a great experience to be able to see what kind of life the royal families have during those times.
4. Venice, Italy: One of my favorite also (actually Prague and Venice ties on the number 1 spot for my top Europe destination). But the most memorable part of our Venice trip is being able to enjoy the Grand Canal while riding a Gondola because it is a dream come true for me.
5. Rome, Italy: The Papal Audience and be able to see and hear Pope Benedict speak to us up close. It was a great opportunity to be blessed by God’s representative on earth. Side Kwento: I met my neighbor on our second day in Rome. She is from Milan and it is her last day in Rome and she is inviting us to take a plane and fly to Milan with her. But I am glad that we passed her invitation and still chose the Papal Audience. It was really a priceless experience.
6. Paris, France: To be able to go inside the Colosseo and go up the Eiffel Tower.

Up next, our 5 day adventure in Paris.

I can’t believe that this is our last whole day in Rome (Imagine, I was just looking for free insurance quotes for our travel insurance and now I am already blogging about our last day in Rome).


We woke up early because we need to line up early for the Papal Audience. August is a holiday month in Rome so they are not providing tickets for the Papal Audience. It is on a first come-first served basis so we have to be really early.

Fr. Lito asked his friend Angelo if he can drive us there since Fr. Lito only has a small car and his mom, Meg, Kuya Danny and Kuya Chito will be riding with him. So we went with Angelo and Fr. Jessie and left Fr. Lito’s house at 8:30 AM. We went around the Castel first while waiting for the siblings and Fr. Lito. We also went inside the chapel inside the Castel and we also had a picture by the lake.

By 9:30, they started to let people in and we were so happy when all of us we’re able to make it inside. The Papal audience started at 10:30 AM it was really an experience. I cried as soon as I saw the Pope waving at us, all smiles and he has really this unique presence and aura, he really looks Holy. I cried even more when I saw Howell crying too. And I was really touched when the Pope said that he is extending his blessings to all our family and friends whom we left at home. I feel so really blessed after the audience and I will not trade this experience for anything else.

We were lucky because Papal Audience is usually held at St. Peter’s Square which is a really big venue. But since it is summer, Pope Benedict is staying at his summer house in Castel Gandolfo and the audience was held at the garden which is just a small venue so it was like an intimate meeting with the Pope.

After the audience, we drive back to downtown Rome and had lunch at a Chinese Resto near the Vatican. After lunch, we went to St. Peter’s Basilica and Fr. Lito gave us a personal tour of the Basilica while he shares stories and history of the Basilica to us. After a visit to the Basilica, we parted ways and we were emotional. Even though we’ve only known each other for just a few days, we all felt that we have developed a deeper friendship and we vowed to see each other when we are all back in Manila.

Fr. Jesie and Angelo drove us back to our hotel so Howell and I can freshen up then Howell and I explored Rome by ourselves. We visited Piazza del Popolo, Villa Borghese, San Giovanni, St. John Lutteran and went back to the Colloseo and Arch of Constantine to have a picture of it at night. Then we called it a day as we have to pack our things for our early flight to Paris the next day.

You can view more pictures here.

We chatted with Bela again before going down for breakfast. We left the hotel around 10 AM, took the metro to go to the Vatican Museum which is just a few stations away from our hotel. We lined up around 10:30 AM to go inside the museum. It took us 30 minutes to line up to go inside, then another 30 minutes to buy tickets and get audio guides.

The museum was really huge and all the pieces there were really amazing and jaw dropping. We were inside exploring everything for the whole day. Our last stop is the Sistine Chapel which is also inside the Vatican Museum compound. We are not allowed to take pictures so we just enjoyed the moment and we really felt greatful that we were able to visit the Sistine Chapel. After the tour of the Vatican Museum, we went to St. Peter’s Basilica which is just walking distance from the Museum.

While inside the Basilica, we saw our neighbor (Vicky) who is now in Milan and is having a vacation in Rome. She is with her cousin who lives in Rome so they offered to give us a tour of Rome. We went to Castel d’ Saint Angelo and Piazza Navona. Before we knew it was time for us to part ways because we have to take the metro because we will be meeting with Fr. Lito at the Ananini station at 7 PM to have dinner at his house and meet up again with Meg, Kuya Danny, Kuya Chito and mommy whom we met at Venice.

At Fr. Lito’s house, we met Fr. Edison, Angelo and Fr. Jessie who are all residing in Rome. We really enjoyed dinner since they prepared Filipino food which we have been missing already since we are gone for almost two weeks now. Just like in Venice, we all had fun again talking about anything that we canthink of. Fr. Lito suggested that we spend the night there since his house is close to the Pope’s Summer house for the Papal Audience the next day.

You can view more pictures here.

We arrived in Rome around 7 AM then we went down the subway to check the map so we can find our way to our hotel. Our hotel is just a few stations away from where we are at and it is on the same line so we don’t have to change trains (which we are really thankful because we are carrying big luggage).
Our room is already available when we arrived so we we’re able to check in right away. We just left our luggage, took a bath, and had breakfast at the hotel and walk to the Colloseum as it is just walking distance from our hotel. It was already around 10 AM when we reached the Colloseum and there was already a long queue to go inside so we just decided to join a group tour to skip the line. The cost of the tour is Euro 20 per person and the tour includes a tour guide and entrance to the Colloseum, Palatine Hill, and Roman Forum.

I enjoyed the tour of the Colloseum though it was really hot inside (I think it was 33 degrees when we were there). We took lots of pictures and I even wanted to stay longer but we have to go out already to continue with the tour of the Palatine Hill and Roman Forum which is just at the opposite street of the Colloseum.

After the tour, we just bought sandwiches at the small shops near the Colloseum and we walked again to go to Bocca de Vereta (Mouth of Truth) then we rest at the Bocca de Vereta Plaza.

Then we took the subway to go to the Trevi Fountain. It was the most beautiful fountain I have ever seen. No wonder tourists kept going here and you really have to wait so you can go closer to the fountain for a picture. There are also souvenir shops near the Trevi Fountain and we did some souvenir shopping here.

After the Trevi Fountain, we walked to the Pantheon and got audio guides for our tour. Then we went to the Spanish Steps and we were so tired already that we decided not to go up to the top. We had dinner at Mc Do near the Trevi Fountain then we decided to go back to Trevi Fountain after dinner to take pictures of it at night. It was already past 9 PM when we decided to call it a day and head back to our hotel.

You can view more pictures here.

I am really falling in love with Venice and I can’t get enough of it. So for our second day in Venice, we explored the same places that we visited on the first day as soon as we are finish eating our breakfast.

On our way to Plaza de San Marco, we drop by at the Rialto Bridge again and at the Rialto Market for some souvenir shopping. I was able to buy a lot from the market like murano glass necklaces for my cousins, my in-laws, my colleagues and Bela’s teachers. I also bought Ciao Bella shirt for me, Howell, Bela and my dad.


Then we drop by at the Ferrari store also as it was close already when we saw it the other day. I convinced Howell to buy something from the store as his souvenir and he decided to buy a Ferraro die cast toy which he said is 3x cheaper compared to the price here in Manila. He is one happy camper after his shopping trip at the Ferrari store.

Then we join the tour of the Dodge Palace. The palace was so big that I was so tired after hours of touring and exploration in the palace. Then we had lunch in one of the pizza shops that we found in the small streets near the Plaza de San Marco. Then we spend the whole afternoon resting at the Plaza and near the Grand Canal.

While making “tambay” along the Grand Canal, we met a group of Filipinos who are also tourist in Venice. One of them was a priest assigned in Rome and he is touring his mother in Venice who travelled together with siblings Meg, Danny (who are from Manila) and Kuya Chito from Denmark. They invited us for coffee and we also had dinner we them. We immediately hit it off and it was like we have known each other for a very long time already. We had so much fun that it was already 20 minutes before our schedule train ride going to Rome that we parted ways with them. Howell and I are running again to the train station. Howell left me at the train station with our other stuff while he run and pick up our luggage from the hotel. We barely made it again to our train ride.

It was a long and tiring day and I was expecting a decent train ride but I was so disappointed. We took the TrenItalia train and it was so hideous. The aircon was not working, there is limited leg room as they fit 6 seats in one cabins so my knees are already touching Howell’s and there is no room for us to stretch, then they accepted walk-in passengers even if there are no more seats available so those passengers are standing outside along the corridor. Since it is an overnight train ride, I thought that I will be able to sleep but the noise created by those passengers standing along the corridor and the limited leg room, I was almost awake the entire night. So never, never use TrenItalia especially if it is a long distance ride.

You can view more pictures here.

There was free wifi at the hotel where we were staying and so we were able to talk to Bela again via Yahoo Messenger before heading to Venice. Our reservations also come with free breakfast so we had breakfast first at the hotel before finally checking out to catch the train going to Venice.


The train station was just walking distance from our hotel and by 10:30, we are already riding the train going to Venice. As soon as we get off the train and went out of the station, we were greeted by the Grand Canal. It was the best view I have ever seen so far and I was like “Wohhh.” I got really excited and I immediately asked hubby that we go look for our hotel so we can drop our things and explore Venice.

We were so lucky that the hotel that we booked is also walking distance from the train station and so we didn’t have to navigate the small and confusing streets of Venice to look for our hotel. The room that we reserved is still not ready so we just left our luggage at the concierge and we immediately went out to explore Venice.

We decided to explore Venice by foot as they say that this is the best way to enjoy the city. We went to Rialto Bridge, Rialto Market, went inside St. Mark’s Basilica and pass time at Plaza San Marco. We also decided to try the Gondola ride as it is just 4 PM and we have nothing else to do. We really saved up for the Gondola as I told hubby that we can’t leave Venice without riding one. The ride cost Euro 80 for two persons good for 45 minutes. After our gondola ride, we just stayed in Plaza San Marco to enjoy the view and had some more pictorial sessions. Then by 8 PM, we moved to the Rialto Bridge and stayed there until 9 PM to wait for the sunset.

When it was already dark, we walked again to our hotel. We had dinner first at Break Ristorante (one of the restos near our hotel) before finally being able to check in to our room. I love our room. It was big and clean and it has a grand view of the Grand Canal.

You can view our pictures here.