Whirlwind In A Mama's Head

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. 

 On our last morning in Kobe, we got up earlier than usual and headed out to Chinatown. You don’t see too many Chinatowns in Japan, but due to it’s role as an international port hub, Kobe attracted many Chinese merchants and they settled in an area now known as Nankin-Machi, or Chinatown. On the way to Chinatown, we spotted a couple of interesting food store so we stopped to get some snacks to go. The first stop is a BBQ Pork shop, where we got a couple hundred grams of this delicious looking cut. The second one was Boulangerie Isuzu , where we got a long stick of sausage roll just to try. 

  All these times that we've been to Japan, we've never had a kimono experience. This time, however, since Miss Kiki was also willing, we made the appointment and did it! I chose to have it in Himeji because at the time this was planned, the Sakura forecast said that we would catch the full bloom when we were in Himeji. Alas, it got delayed by about a week! Anyhow, the experience had been booked and we went with it anyway.