Whirlwind In A Mama's Head

After spending a night in Arconcey, we continued our journey to Paris. When I booked the car, I had arranged so that I could return the car at Orly Airport location just south of Paris. This decision was made because I didn’t want to drive through the city and we were coming from the south. Save gas, save time. And just look at the traffic jam as we got closer to the city!

 On the day we left Valensole, we had a long drive ahead of us. Our overnight stay that day was in Arconcey, where I booked a BnB in a cute little farm. It was towards the end of our trip and I was starting to feel tired of all of the driving, so I wanted more stops in between. The Drive from Valensole to Arconcey was more than 5 hours long so we made stops in three different places, The first one was the Marseille soap factory and museum in Salon de Provence, simply because I wanted to see it. Then our next stop that day was in Avignon.  Avignon actually has several points of interests, but we didn’t really have time to visit many things there considering the amount of driving that we still needed to do that day. We parked the car in a paid parking lot near the old town and explored just the old town, or the shopping streets to me more precise. We had lunch there and simply walked around. 

  Did you know that France is famous for its soap? More specifically, Marseille soap or Saveon de Marseille. These traditional hard soap have been produced in Marseille and Salon de Provence area for 600 years. In the 17th century, Louis XIV introduced a regulation stating that only soaps made with Olive oil can be called Savon de Marseille, but the regulation has since been amended so that soaps made with other vegetable oils can bear the name. 

  One of the main highlights of our trip is the visit to the famous Lavender fields of Provence, France. You know, the rows or purple flowers in photos all over Instagram? The time of our visit was just the right time to see the lavenders in bloom, so I was very excited about it.  In the Provence area, Valensole is one of the most popular village to visit to see the lanvender fields. The fields are actually outside the village, but you can stop in Valensole for meals, shopping, and accommodation. So after our stop in Mandelieu / La Napoule, we continued driving to Valensole. It was close to sunset when we approached Valensole, and just a few minutes before we reached the village we spotted several cars parked on the street side and people walking in the field. It was one of the Lavender fields! Excited, we made the quick decision to follow suit and parked. The lavenders weren’t as purple as I had seen in pictures, but it smelled so good! One thing we realized at that time was ...

 The drive from Ventimiglia Italy to our next main destination was a bit long, so we took two stops on the way. One was Monaco, simply because it was Monaco. The other stop was Mandelieu/La Napoule in France because it was right in between and looked interesting. 

  After we checked out of the agriturismo in Ventimiglia, we continued driving towards France. The French-Italian border was actually just 7 minutes away! We kept driving to our next stop: Monaco! As an Indonesian citizen, the first thing that comes to mind when Monaco is mentioned is the similarity between our flags. They are both red and white, and the only difference is in the ratio between the width and height of the flag. Another trivia info: Poland’s flag is the same colours but with the white on top. In case you are wondering, though very small, Monaco is a country that’s a sovereign state only larger than Vatican. Despite the size, it is also known as one of the wealthiest and most expensive places in the world. It’s a place where the crazy-riches hang out, and you need to have an invitation to live there. One of the most famous person tied to Monaco is Grace of Monaco. Also known as Grace Kelly, the American actress became the Princess of Monaco when she married Prince Rai...

  The town of Finale Ligure is a beach town located between Genoa and Ventimiglia. We made a brief stop here just to look around. We parked in a paid parking lot right by the beach and walked around the old town. The beach was somewhat busy, though I’m sure it will get busier in July. Here we entered St. John The Baptist Basilica, it was beeeautiful inside! Finale Ligure is also famous for their olive oil, specifically the Olio Salvo Finale.

  After spending 2 nights in Parma, we continued our journey towards France, along the Italian Riviera. That day, we left Parma in the morning and started driving towards Ventimiglia, the closest town to France in Italy. Between Parma and Ventimiglia, we made several stops. The first one is Genova, or Genoa. Don’t confuse this with Geneva, as they are two different places :D Genova is a large port town in the Italian Riviera. It’s the capital city of the Liguria area of Italy, and it’s a very busy one, The old town is known for their very narrow lanes, so the buildings looks like they’re almost touching each other. This place is also where the Pesto alla Genovese originates from.  When we arrived in Genova, it was around lunch time. We parked in a paid parking lot (Park and Ride) where my parking skills were put to test. The X5 we rented has an auto parking feature. But either we were not using it right, or it was not able to squeeze itself in to the extra tight parking spot. ...

  Those who know us, know that we love Italian food. Which is why when there is an opportunity to go to Parma we could not pass it up. Because you know what is in Parma… the Parma ham! The whole area is full of distinct products, such as Balsamic Vinegar from the nearby Modena and the Parmigiano Reggiano cheese from an area of the same name. Due to our limited time in Parma, we had to choose between a cheese-making tour or a Parma ham tour. We decided on the latter. There are several salumificio that offer factory tour, but based on distance, time, and price, we chose La Perla Salumificio . Before we talk more about this factory tour, let’s backtrack a bit as we drove from Verona to Parma… I had booked an apartment in Parma for 2 nights via Booking.com. When we reached the apartment, it was already close to dinner time. So we quickly unpack and started walking towards the old town where the restaurant we wanted to have dinner at is located. The Trattoria Corrieri  was recomme...

    Two households, both alike in dignity, In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean ...  — Romeo and Juliet, W. Shakespeare Who has not heard of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Whether you’ve read it or not, you probably know the storyline of the unfortunate young lovers. We’ve had the chance to visit Verona, the setting of this classic play. I’ll tell you more about it, but let’s start with our journey there from the Dolomites. We checked out of our apartment near Lake Braies and followed Google Maps to Val Gardena. After driving through long, winding roads, we found that Google Maps brought us to the middle of nowhere, not in Val Gardena. We traced back a little and found signage, but decided not to go to Val Gardena afterall. Instead, we parked on the roadside and walked for a nice view of the village.

  The Dolomites, known as the Italian Alps, is breathtaking no matter where you turn your heads. When I did my research on what to see and do there, I had a hard time choosing. In the end, I couldn’t decide until we were already there.  We woke up to a beautiful view in front of our window, of the greeneries spread so vast and we watched the morning fog floating down the hill. We had breakfast in our little apartment and soon after we were ready to go explore the mountains (by car).

  We only had one night in Innsbruck, but somehow we managed to pack our time there with the things we wanted to do. Or to be more precise, the things that I decided we wanted to do :D After spending one night, we had our breakfast buffet at the hotel which was included in our room rate. The breakfast was pretty good, we enjoyed it very much. Then, we took the car and found free parking near the station where we wanted to take the funicular train to the top of Innsbruck. The tickets were very affordable, especially when compared to cable car tickets in Switzerland or in Canada.

Innsbruck Old Town It was our last day in Germany! I took the opportunity in the morning to meet up with my highschool friend who recently moved to Munich. She and her hubby were nice enough to meet us at a cafe very close to our hotel. After our quick catch-up, we went to a grocery shop. Yes, I am at the age where shopping abroad involves grocery shopping lol. There was something that I wanted to bring home from Germany: bread flour. I jumped on to the sourdough baking wagon during the pandemic and still continues to bake regularly. One thing I realize is that we can’t really get nice bread flour in Jakarta. At least not at a decent price. Meanwhile I know Europe has a wide variety of strong flour so I wanted to bring some home. I got myself a kilo each of 3 different types of organic flour, and a few packs of dry pasta made from the same flour. We then walked around the neighborhood until it was time to check out of our hotel and pick up our rental car.

  It was the second day and I had had something exciting planned! The Neuschwanstein Castle is world-famous for being the inspiration of Disney’s Cinderella castle. One look at the shape and you’ll see the resemblance. Prior to our travel, I have done my research and decided not to go inside the castle but simply view it from the outside. Marien bridge is one of the best viewing spot but we’ll talk more about it later. That morning, we had breakfast in our room, making use of the ensuite kitchen. We bought the ingredients the day before at the grocery store. Nothing too fancy but tomatoes and sausages do taste a lot better in Europe :D

I <3 Munich sign When we flew to Europe, we actually landed in Frankfurt. However, everyone that I asked about Frankfurt said that there’s nothing to see there and we would be better off going elsewhere immediately.  So we listened and we immediately took the train from the airport to Munich. The German trains are infamous for being tardy, and in our experience while in Germany, it was true. Anyway this first train from Frankfurt to Munich was less than an hour late so it’s not too bad LOL.

  Last summer, we spent about 2 weeks in Western Europe. More specifically Germany, Austria, Northern Italy, and France with a pass through Monaco. This was our first European trip after the pandemic, so we were really looking forward to it! On this post, I will cover the itinerary for the whole trip, and then the following posts will be the usual details and stories from each place. We flew in from Jakarta to Frankfurt and flew out from Paris. Why? Well it was simply because those are the only available promo fares for Europe at that time hahaha.  For Schengen visa, I applied via German Embassy , represented by the VFS in Kuningan City. Note that the German embassy will only accept your application if you are staying there the longest, or if it’s one of the longest and you land there first if that makes sense. It means that even if you enter the EU area via Germany, if you don’t stay there the longest they won’t accept your application. The visa processing took about 3 weeks,...

  The school holiday finally arrived, we and our travelling pants besties planned a trip to the “Land Above the Clouds,” Dieng Plateau. Our 5 families drove in 5 cars to the pet-friendly cabin we rented for 3 nights. The drive itself took about 7-8 hours, with short stops in rest areas. Be careful when you drive to Dieng following Google Maps, because Google Maps will bring you via the fastest route but not necessarily the safest/best route. Check with your accommodation provider for the recommended route to get there.

    There’s never a dull moment no matter where you go with these amazing Transmedicalians. We’ve explored KL and Singapore before the pandemic, Bali in 2023, and this time in 2024 we went to Bangkok!  We tried a lot of food, shopped till we dropped, baked in the sun at the palace, took lots of photos, and we also dressed in Thai traditional dresses at a photo studio!

 Our flight schedule allowed us to have an overnight transit in Taipei, so we took the opportunity to explore the highlight of the city. If you fly China Airlines, there is a special rate for you if you book the Novotel near the airport. That’s what we did. After checking in our hotel in Taipei, we all got our shock when sitting on the toilet. We’ve been spoiled with the Japanese toilet seat warmers! Lol We didn’t have much time in Taipei, but we were able to take the train from the hotel to the iconic Taipei 101 and tried Din Tai Fung there. I was so excited to try the original Din Tai Fung, but we were all disappointed because it was bland to our taste. Even with the pork! Taipei itself was clean, organized, and not too busy. It is actually a nice place, but even with the many Japanese products available there it’s still not Japan. Call me biased, but that’s how it is :D

  Have you ever wondered how the beloved Japanese snack Pocky and Pretz are made? These have been around for a long time, I remember loving them when I was a kid, when the only flavour available were chocolate and strawberry. Fast forward to now, Pocky has so many different flavours, and also factories around the world. I know Indonesia has a factory, and so does Thailand. 

  Totoro Cream Puffs In the previous times I’ve been to Japan, visiting the Shirohige Cream Puff Factory has been on my list. Unfortunately, it had always been pushed back due to other sites we wanted to visit. The cafe is located a little far out and is not close to anything else we had planned so we had to skip. This time, however, I made the time to finally go. We got up early to make it there by the opening time, because they sell out pretty quickly. 

Sakura in Kawagoe  Kawagoe is an excellent day trip destination from Tokyo. It’s not too far, easy access, and there is a pass you can get that covers round trip train rides from Tokyo and bus rides in Kawagoe. The discount passes can be purchased online, or you can get physical tickets at Ikebukuro Station. When got our passes, they also gave us a map of Kawagoe to navigate the points of interest. 

  Shinkyou Bridge in Nikko There are many day trip options when you are staying in Tokyo. This time, we decided to do one to Nikko for several reasons. The Tochigi prefecture where Nikko is, is famous for their strawberries. With a little strawberry lover in our group, we just had to go strawberry picking in Tochigi! The second reason was that we’ve never been to Nikko. And, last but not least, we wanted to experience riding the new Spacia X train! When we were going to Nikko, we couldn’t get tickets for the Spacia X train, but we did go on an old Spacia train. It was good for comparison :) However on the way back to Tokyo we got regular seats on the Spacia X. We would have paid more to be on one of the special seats, but they all sold out. The Spacia X trains have fancy special seats with a little extra fee. Do check it out if you are heading that way.

  Sakura Illumination at Ueno Park We arrived in Tokyo from Nagoya in the evening. This trip, we stayed in a serviced apartment in Tsukiji area. It was nice because it’s affordable and close to the metro station, but unfortunately the access to the metro station doesn’t allow for stroller. At least we didn’t find any access while we were there. We’ve had our ekiben dinner on the shinkansen ride, so when we arrived in the serviced apartment we didn’t do anything else. 

  One of the main reasons I wanted to go to Nagoya is to visit the new Ghibli Park in Aichi, about an hour away by train from Nagoya. We are big anime fans and we’ve watched most of Ghibli movies. Naturally, when they opened this new theme park we want to check it out. The Ghibli Park in Aichi is not to be confused with the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, just outside Tokyo. If you are interested in the Ghibli Museum instead, you can see my post here . Also if you had missed the World of Ghibli Exhibition in Pacific Place Jakarta, you can read about it here . To buy tickets to the Ghibli Park, you can just go directly to their website . Tickets are up for sale two months in advance, and you would want to buy early as they sell out quickly! There are two types of tickets: Premium and Standard. If you buy premium tickets, you will get access to the inside of the buildings like How’s Moving Castle and Mei-Satsuki House. Keep in mind that there are long lineups to enter these houses so if you...

  From Kobe after lunch, we took the Hikari Shinkansen to Nagoya. I booked Via Inn Nagoya for a couple of nights because it’s walking distance from Nagoya Station. We made use of the Ta-Q-Bin services again for our luggages and it did make our life so much easier.