rediscover.dusseldorf

although we visit dusseldorf quite often (well, three times in 2010) but there are still enough new discoveries even in japanese town area. since we discovered the japanse town, our eats at dusseldorf always full of yummy japanese food. the german pork knuckle, roasted chicken, sauerkau sausage are no longer on the list!

the day starts with a bowl of hot ramen for lunch...

nothing else more japanese then sitting at the counter near to the kitchen while eating your ramen. i dislike the stench when i walk out from the restaurant after the meal, but i enjoyed the action packed kitchen and how systematically each chef performs their part of procedure in making a bowl of ramen. what a shop floor system...

the kimchi is delicious - not too salty, not too spicy but just full of flavors. my ramen is okay - no wow factor besides the soup base for me and his taste very differently even though both bowls are miso based ramen. i am not a big fan of this ramen restaurant anyway, i prefer the other restaurant more... it's very personal when comes to one's favorite ramen. for me, the other restaurant has a more authentic taste and better noodles.

soba (buckwheat) for dinner...

the restaurant is almost empty when we arrived. if not because i have got a recommendation from the japanese hair dresser about this restaurant, we properly won't step in at all. it's rather empty and quiet by the time we arrived.

when the last customers paid and stepped out, we have the restaurant all for ourselves. some deep fried buckwheat crackers on the house.

our starters come in giant size. my miso glazed grill aubergine and his supersize tamago-yaki (japenese rolled egg) both are delicious and filling...

pouring of warm sake.

warm sake is the jolly drink in the winter, we need the warmth to walk back to our hotel after dinner.

the tempura don is heavenly, those shrimps and vegs are just so tempting...

my warm soba with tempura. same tempura as his, super fresh, crunchy and light! a real delight!

on the next day, just before we leave for home, he is suddenly craving for cold sashimi....

so we didn't go for my favorite ramen store but opt for this. he has a kaisen-jyu, basically some rice top with assorted seafood sashimi. i ask for a simple down to earth tempura don but having tested the freshest tempura from soba-an a night before, these tempuras are great disappoint, they are not bad, but just not fresh due to the oil i guess... but despite of that we are full and are ready to braise the snow to go home for christmas.

another discovery which is not on the food, but on some interior decoratin. i saw this light display at one of the interior shop and fall in love with it...

i can already imagine how i want to use these lights at our home, but the reality is we didn't buy this, so some regrets on retail therapy has no harm. we will try to find this in lowland, if not perhaps just another trip back to dusseldorf...

::home.for.Christmas::

we made it! we made it to the Christmas market and we made it home for Christmas. we are home in time for silent night, holy night.

we are supposed to visit a Christmas market last weekend but the plan was put off by the bad weather. snow storm to be exact. yesterday seems to be a good day to venture east and safe enough to drive on the road and so we departed for dusseldorf, a city just two and half hours drive from where we are. we did many other things among them of course strolling the Christmas market. it's not the biggest one compare to many border german's cities but when you have more than one purpose for a trip, dusseldorf seems to check all the boxes.

scenes at the Christmas market. dusseldorf has three different locations set up for Christmas market and much to our surprise we visited all three of them under the snowy weather condition!!

and who visited a Christmas market without eating curry worst, gluhwein, creamy mushroom, roasted nuts and those many junks goodies that seem perfect for a outdoor weather condition. a mug of warm gluhwein saved our lives, it gave us the warmth and the boost to carry on walking...

and many little things or mechanised items that catch your attention or worth a touch but not enough to take out the money out from your pocket to take them home...

when we are done with all the three Christmas markets and a side track of gourmet shopping... we stopped by k� - k�nigsallee, the famous shopping streets of dusseldorf, to some extends it resembles the omotesando of tokyo.

we suddenly quite enjoy our evening walk despite of the freezing temperature and the snow. never ending snow. the lights at k�nigsallee and the snow actually make the moment very romantic. yes, romantic! it has been awhile since i feel romantic.

even this empty chair, the lamp post, the snow on the ground and the distant background light seems romantic. a moment that we both want to cherish. a moment that we both agreed - it's romantic!

and the reflection of the lights on the canal is quite enchanting and romantic too! by now, i guess romantic is a blessing too as those moments don't come by easily...

back to our hotel, the christmas decoration at the hotel lobby is quite reflective of the ownership of the management of this hotel, we stayed at hotel nikko this time, a japanese hotel just at the main street of the little tokyo.

and needless to say the snow didn't stop when we woke up this morning and here is my piece of super yummy japanese matcha torte as breakfast before we start our journey home.

::home for Christmas::

wherever you are, whatever you do, i wish you a peaceful silent night and a holy night. and with great expectation waiting to celebrate the birth of Jesus, despite of Christmas trees, Christmas lights, Christmas markets or Christmas baking that i much talk about recently, deep in my heart, i know that the only and ultimate reason for this season is the birth of Christ, my Savior.

p/s: i spelled the city dusseldorf wrongly in my photo imprint :)

adrassay.�t.and.beyond

it's just too cold. -10 this morning when i arrived at my project office. i am NOT going to write about the snow and the weather, but something slightly different, to escape from the cold, slippery road and winter traffice. let's go back to summer, this is the second last posts i still have about my summer budapest trip. hmmm... summer.. think of the sun, extra day light, when it is as cold as this, i actually appreciate summer more.

sometime in august

after the opera house, you walk eastbound towards hero square. and you like what you see here. not gucci or prada but the sculptures and the architecture of the buildings, just so refine...

as you walk along andrassy �t, you saw lukas (another famous caf�/pastries shop) and you say to yourself, no you should not go in, you already had new york caf� and muvesz today. after 200m, your inner self ask you to turn back, so you follow your heart, after all you are not sure if you will be back here again.

you are glad you pop in for a visit. although at this stage your eyes are bigger than your stomach. as dutch saying "my eyes are bigger than my stomach", you are full but you still want to eat but there is no more space in your stomach... so you look here and there....

lukas is more parisian and with a modern twists, not like the rustic hungarian and austrian galore that you have tasted so far and not impressed. you can even find macarons here, but you have no more room for cake, so here is the deal, two macarons to take away (lemon and triple sec) , and a two scoops sorbet (peach and apricot), both despite having similar orange colors, taste very differently, natural and good.

and you carry on with your walk along adrassay �t and enjoying the sorbet and whatever scenes that arouse your interest along the way....

more shops and pretty doors and bronze statues...

a broad boulevard with a separate lane for pedestrians...

and boy! these long tall pink ice cream, seems interesting, you wonder if they taste good ... but nope, no more room for ice cream...

with the sugar rush, you decide to walk to hero square instead of taking the metro so that you can burn off the extra energy. you did the right thing! you love the architectures along the avenue, plenty of things to see and keep you busy, not a single sign of boredom!

house of terror, a neo renaissance block stands as a symbol of recent hungarian history as the most dreaded location.

the base for the political police engaged in tracking down opponents of communist regime.

isn't this heavy iron chain speaks for itself...

you wonder about what had once happened in the house of terror? no, this is too heavy to discover the answer, so you walk on further...

and you reach the embassy area...

to some impressive embassy buildings around kadaly izorond

and before you realize you already see hero square is greeting you just some distance away. adrassay �t may seem long but the walk is such a pleasure and could take ages if you hop in to every shop and places of interest. for you, your end goal is hero square and the city park where you know szechenyi thermal is awaiting for you. and that's exactly what you wanted to conclude your last full day in budapest.

szechenyi.thermal.bath

i am actually feeling grumpy right now... besides the fact that i am not really feeling fit (neither am i sick) just at the border line and was woke up twice by his alarm and couldn't go back to sleep again, by the time i dossed off and  woke up, it's way too late to drive to work and my head is bouncing again...  so i looked at my appointments and shift everything to tomorrow. not my day but these things happened...  what i really want now is to soak into a hot spring water and let the heat of the thermal water rejuvenate my body.  since it is not possible to get near to anything like that besides the sauna and steam bath at my gym facility, why not travel back again to my never finish summer travel story?  at least back then it is warm and i am soaking in a hot thermal bath in budapest.

sometime in mid august

it’s almost late afternoon, you are according to plan, you arrive here to rest your sore feet and tired body.  you have walked all the way from andrassay út to here. 

you found the thermal bath complex, you pay and you enter.  this building is even more humongous than gillert thermal bath that you been to a day before. 

no one speak english here, no english instruction either.  you are frustrated because the attendant doesn’t understand you.  you don’t know how things work here; there is no explanation in english. 

but you must admit this place is beautiful, a gem consider this being a swimming pool complex or thermal bath complex. 

you waste time in finding how things operate.  you feel like you are in some sort of communist chamber and under passage and wish you could figure out the hungarian language which is not latin or germanic based.  you are in the tower of babel, and lost in translation. 

you start with the indoor pools, what is called a mud pool is not a pool in murky mud but a pool with a higher content of medicinal water (with strong smell).  I love the thermal bath, it relaxes you especially after a long walk today.  there are about 15 different pools, you are spoilt of choice, you  just hop in and out from one to another, with different temperatures.  the 80 celcius degree sauna also helps release the sweat and you feel really good.  despite the fact that you were not at ease at first, but now you beginning to feel relax.  you jump into a 20 celcius pool after the sauna, and feel your both feet numb and the open pores close immediately, you couldn’t get your whole body into the 20c pool so you switch to a 38c pool and you feel so much better. by now your foot sore, muscle ache has gone with the wind thermal water.

when the indoor pool and complex closed, you go to the outdoor pool, the air is quite fresh but the thermal water keeps you warm. you stay until past 7.30pm, you witness the light up view of szechenyi . the open air pools embraced by the wings of this beautiful old building, the classical roman pool halls and the cavernous sauna. 

you return to the gas chamber like room, take your shower, blow dry your hair and ready to explore this part of the city by night.

you walk out the thermal bath complex, the building is illuminated by now and you still find it amazing that you actually swam in places like this, a fairy tale or a fantasy place.... 

and in reality you are now in cold december with temperature of -2c out there and not feeling well yet without a thermal bath...

a.late.night.and.an.early.morning

it's not ideal, but that happened sometimes... of all the days in the year, we chose the coldest day to have an account wide event. the temperature of -6c which feels like -15c when running on the streets of amsterdam.

on the coldest day of the year, i went for a canal cruise. note the snow on the glass ceilling, once in the boat, we were not affected by the weather though, but i must confessed i didn't pay any attention to the night view of amsterdam, as we just carried away with chatting...

and free flow of drinks, in the boat but also at the bar/cafe where we had the event, nearby to the red light district...

and a boring but necessary presentation, i blur the photo so that you don't see the thing on the presentation

a late and reasonable three course dinner. carpaccio - cod fish - vanilla ice cream. typical but acceptable, nothing to shout about...

and entertained by a rather lame comedy show by an american and a britt.

...

a past cinderalla time by the time i get home.

.....

a short sleep.

...

zzzzzzzzzzzzz

...

an early start

...

driving in the snow, arriving at a breakfast meeting at eight in the morning.

but on the brighter side, we had a scrumptious women's only breakfast waiting for us.

and just one man (important one) listening to what women want...

and a tired me.

thank God tomorrow is friday!