Our Germany Adventure - First Stop Hannover

We had both individually been to Germany before, but this was our first trip together. Considering I learned to speak German growing up, it was assumed that I'd be the one doing all the communicating on this trip as well... the sad reality was that my language skills were rather rusty so not to be counted on. Though the more immersed we were and towards the end of the trip, I felt my abilities were coming back even though I didn't really get the confidence to try and hold a long conversation with anyone. It did come in handy at one point in the trip where we had an issue with a train, but more on that a bit later. 

After a bit of a last minute kerfuffle on departure morning where my seat changed and had me sitting in another part of the plane, we boarded our overnight flight that brought us into Frankfurt fairly early in the morning. Z being an amazing gentleman, let me take his more comfortable seat instead. Not too long before our journey to Germany, Europe introduced a new electronic entry/exit system and we had read enough nightmare stories of people missing flights that we made sure to give us enough time upon arrival to make it through immigration before we needed to catch our train to Hamburg. What we didn't anticipate when we booked this trip was that Europe would be undergoing an extreme heat wave and we ended up arriving on one of the hottest days of the summer at that point in time and with a lack of air conditioning in general, it made for a pretty warm and stuffy wait in the immigration line. When we arrived, we went through the new electronic entry system, which didn't actually work very well and we were directed towards the line up for immigration regardless, except that we had to get into a line up for the line up and realized this would take hours! We could have skipped trying out the new system but we still would have had to wait hours to make it through. Thankfully though after waiting maybe 10 minutes tops, an airport worker announced to those in this back up line up to follow him as he would take us to another area of the airport to go through immigration there.... these four agents had no one waiting for them until our big group showed up and it was a bit chaotic at first to get into proper lines. It still took a descent amount of time to get through as the agents really didn't have any sense of urgency to move people through. Eventually our turn came and we were through and then had a couple hours to kill before we needed to catch our train. Now with the immense heat wave, little did we know the impact it would have on the train system, so when we arrived at Frankfurt am Main we discovered that our train was delayed. With no air conditioning, breeze or real air flow at the train station, this eventually became uncomfortable for me. We did find some relief in the food court which had fans blowing the hot air around, so at least we could sit there while we waited out the delay. Now while the heat wave was the cause of our arrival day train delay, we discovered that the train system is no longer as on time and reliable as I remembered it or has historically always been thought to be. We took the Deutsche Bahn ICE train direct which took about 2 hour 15 minutes. The train ride itself was pleasant once we got going... we had preselected seats, but didn't realize they were in a train cabin with four other seats. There were three others on the train and by the time we got on the luggage storage areas were mostly taken, so thankfully we didn't have anyone beside us and we could put one of our suitcases on the seat with the other on the floor, cramming Z's leg space somewhat. From the Hannover Central Station we boarded the local tram which brought us to our hotel, the Sheraton Hannover Pelikan Hotel. This hotel is located in the restored former Pelikan fountain pen factory and blends its unique history with modern day decor. The hotel is a short walk from the tram station which was fantastic for getting around. We stayed in a deluxe room which had a large separate living room and bedroom with air conditioning - which was much needed to escape from the heat. The room had really high ceilings with very large tall windows as well. The room decor was all writing themed with a quote from Mark Twain over the bed "Writing is easy, you just have to leave out the wrong words". It was a very comfortable stay to get us into the Germany zone. The hotel had a lovely breakfast buffet that we were also able to enjoy. 

On the evening of our arrival we met up with our friends who had recently moved to Hannover for a milestone birthday dinner for one of them. This was actually the reason for our trip. For the next couple of days we played tourists with them in their new home town. We strolled through the old town marvelling at the beautiful architecture of all the buildings, including the neo-classical Opera House. It was a mix of colourful half-timbered houses and red brick buildings. The streets were mostly cobblestone and were lined with shops, cafes and restaurants. The old town was quite quaint and cozy and easy to get around on foot or on the tram system. 

We stopped in at the new town hall for a bit of a reprieve from the heat - when you first step in you are taken aback by the 38-metre high main hall with beautifully carved stone walls. In the main foyer you'll find four miniature town models that depict Hannover in 1689, 1939, 1945, and present day. It's fascinating to see how the city evolved over that time span and the destruction that took place in two world wars. Walking around the city you could also notice the striking differences in architecture from buildings that were bombed during the war and those that were spared/missed right next door. While seeing the town models was a highlight of this visit, the real highlight was the 360 viewpoint of the city from the dome. To get there you have to take a unique inclined elevator; one of a kind in Europe. The elevator has a transparent floor and roof which allows you to see the angle while going up and down. The lift was built in 1913. It starts vertically before shifting sideways by over 8 meters along the irregular 17-degree parabolic curve of the dome while it travels up 43 metres tilting the cabin as it rises to reach the 97.7 metre high viewing platform. It was a pretty strange sensation riding the lift hoping it would make the 2 minute journey up and down without any issue because it's pretty crammed quarters fitting only six people total with little room to move. It was very worth it though because the views from the top were stunning and we were lucky with having a very clear day. 

The Aegidienkirche is a church built in the 12th century and destroyed in 1943 during the war. The church was never rebuilt and the ruins remain there today as a somber reminder of the tragedy of the war. The Peace Bell which hangs in the tower entrance of the bombed-out church was donated in 1985 by Hiroshima, Japan, which is a sister city of Hannover as a symbol of peace and international reconciliation. 

We spent some time exploring Kröpcke which is the main pedestrian square and the social and commercial heart of the city. This is also where our friends currently live. So it was cool to see their neighbourhood and check out the shops, restaurants and cafes and the general vibe. The Kröpcke clock is an iconic landmark and popular meeting point. The U-Bahn transit hub is located here underground as well. 

Herrenhausen Gardens are a beautiful and peaceful, 50 hect
ares of sprawling botanical gardens that are worth a visit. These gardens date back more than 300 years and were originally planted for the royal court for their summer palace grounds. The gardens are beautifully manicured and are designed in quadrants with a fountain in the centre. Statues line different parts of the garden, including an area filled with golden statues. 

The city also has a lot of green space and about 500kms of bike lanes making it a very beautiful and livable city. Apparently there is a city rule that says from every place you need to have a 10 minute walk max to a park.  

FIFA World Cup was going on while we were touring around Germany and there was no shortage of places to catch any game. The best place though was watching games at the local beer garden for a true Germany football experience. There were a few games that we were all interested in while we were in Hannover, so we may have spent quite a few hours at Lister Turm Biergarten over a couple days... we never missed our home team play. Given the hot weather, the outdoor beer garden was perfect. The atmosphere was amazing, everyone was there to have a great time and watch some great football matches. 

Grand Prix weekend - Montréal

After getting into following F1 for awhile now, one of our once in a lifetime experience trips was to go see a Grand Prix weekend live. Spurring this on as well was our track experience at Abu Dhabi and a bike tour in Singapore where we ended up riding part of the track there. Heading to the Canadian Grand Prix in Montréal wasn't that difficult of a trip. We thought getting tickets to the actual race weekend was also going to be a bit more difficult than it ended up being, but we found a good set of tickets and went all in with tickets for the entire weekend. 

We flew to Montréal one day before the weekend festivities started. Our flight arrived a bit later in the evening and we noticed the taxi line up was ridiculous so we made our way to try and catch an Uber instead. This line we discovered was just as ridiculous and after waiting for an hour we learned that the system was so overloaded that despite being in line and having a pick up code, the system was no longer working and no Ubers were arriving. We slowly started seeing others who hadn't waited for any length of time start catching their Ubers which really started to annoy those who had waited in the queue. Eventually we figured out that the system was starting to slowly accept new bookings but those of us in the queue were a bit screwed because our booking code was not working. We ended up heading back to the taxi queue which by the time we decided to shift over no longer had anyone waiting, but we had just wasted just over an hour of time waiting for Uber. Lesson learned.

We arrived at the Delta Montréal and got all checked in without any further issues. You could see the F1 atmosphere all throughout the city. Hotels and restaurants were all decorated for the event. When we got into our room we noticed two F1 welcome packages as well which included. a bag, seat cushion, key chain and a couple other trinkets. It was a nice and well thought out gift, especially the seat cushions. We had brought our own which was a good decision because sitting on the metal seats for hours would have felt horrible. While the Delta is an older hotel that could use a refresh, we did have a lovely, rather large room with balcony. It was conveniently located near the metro station that took us to the metro station to access the track grounds, and was also within close walking distance to McGill University, shopping and lots of restaurants. 

Montréal has a great food scene and we explored a few different places outside of the food options at the track. A couple of our favourites were Dunn's Famous - first opened in 1927 - this restaurant is known for its smoked meats and poutine, including more varieties of poutine than I ever knew existed. We shared an order of the General Tao poutine - which came with flavourful chicken tenders and was absolutely amazing, and the Louisiana soup - a cream of potato; and Poulet Rouge - a quick service customizable grilled chicken bowl restaurant- a very flavourable, and healthy option. The track also had some really good foot options including pulled pork poutine!! 

While we did explore Montréal a bit on foot and took in a Canadiens playoff game at a local pub with one of Z's cousins, the main attraction of this trip was race weekend. We went all in and got the full weekend pass along with one of the concert evenings as well. The overall atmosphere was electric, and you could just feel the excitement throughout the city, not only at the track. 

Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve is located on an island just off old town Montréal and best accessible by metro. Friday was practice day and while it felt busy with crowds of spectators, the crowds were nothing compared to Sunday race day. We took advantage of it not being overly busy to walk around the grounds and check out the various food options, the fan zone and other areas of the grounds around the track. Our seats were located in the Lance Stroll grand stand by the hairpin turn which provided for lots of exciting viewing as the drivers came full speed into the hairpin forcing a major slow down only to accelerate back out again. We got to see quiet a few great overturns here. I did at time feel like I was watching a tennis match though with my head going left to right to left again as they came through the hairpin. During the warm up to practice some of the drivers would slow right down in front of our grandstand so that we could take a proper picture of them in their cars, which I thought was pretty cool. Lewis Hamilton was the best at doing that. It was quite the exhilarating experience seeing and hearing the cars so close and smelling the burning rubber tyres. It's a bit indescribable but certainly was a once in a lifetime experience. 

As we had the three day pass, we could have spent morning to night at the track, but we did choose which events we attended. We made sure to obviously watch the main F1 practice, qualifying, sprint race and main race. We also watched the F1 academy race (women's racing) and the F2 race. Both having quite impressive and talented drivers. We wanted to make the most of the entire experience so we also decided to attend the Bryan Adams concert on the Saturday night. Opening for Bryan Adams was another Canadian musician, Dean Brody. Both were great and we thoroughly enjoyed the concert experience. 

Sunday race day was full of excitement and anticipation. The weather was looking a bit iffy with the threat of rain, which thankfully never turned into full on rain, but there was some drizzy at the start of the race which kept the race interesting as the track was a little wet. Everywhere was packed full of people (weekend attendance was 360,000), it was difficult to navigate the grounds anywhere quickly and there were line ups everywhere, you just had to force your way through at times. Mercedes started off strong with the front row 1/2 and the battle between Russell and Antonelli from the start was thrilling. They were intensely battling for first for the longest time until an engine failure took Russell out of the race and basically handed Antonelli the win with Hamilton and Verstappen rounding out the top three. It was insane race to watch, absolutely thrilling! It was an amazing weekend to remember and well worth the trip! 

To travel is to live... until next time. Life is good! 

Warsaw

 After a slight kerfuffle at the Budapest airport for our flight to Warsaw, which we thankfully managed to sort out with little difficulty, we had an uneventful one-ish hour flight back to Warsaw. We arrived mid evening and made our way to our hotel which was conveniently located in the old part of Warsaw. As we arrived in the old town we noticed a heavy police presence and tried to figure out whether it was just normal for a Friday night. We stayed at Hotel Verte, a boutique hotel set within the historic walls of a restored baroque palace with over 250 years of history. We had a very beautifully appointed, and spacious room facing the inner courtyard. We only had a short time in Warsaw, so we tried to make the most of it. The evening of our arrival, we found a lovely restaurant nearby that had only been open for about a year and we enjoyed a lovely Italian meal. After supper we decided to explore the old town a bit taking in the beauty of the "old" buildings and evening light. As we were walking around, we stumbled across a large crowd and what appeared to be a protest, which then made the heavy police presence make more sense. I was a bit hesitant to get too close, Z on the other hand was very curious and felt it was peaceful enough for us to approach the gathering. Given we don't speak Polish we really didn't understand what was being said or going on for that matter, but it all felt very important. We learned later it was a demonstration and remembrance of an international incident with another country where several politicians and their spouses were killed in an airplane crash with the offending country not allowing access to the crash site or remains. Turns out the leader of the political opposition party was speaking at this demonstration and that his brother was one of the deceased. It really was a peaceful demonstration marking a very terrible tragedy. 

The following morning, we joined walking tour that led us through the streets of the old town and we learned that Warsaw was pretty much wiped out during WWII and the "old" buildings we saw in the old town were reconstructed and only 40-50 years old but made to look like the original. We also learned about the 1944 uprising, Polish culture and cuisine. It was a very informative tour and afterwards we stopped in at Bar Mleczny, one of Poland's most popular and best milk bars for a traditional Polish lunch. Milk bars are known for their low cost, no frills traditional Polish dishes. We dined on a few different dishes and very thoroughly satisfied and full afterwards. It was a great way to end our trip in Poland. After lunch we were off to the airport to head home. 

All in all, while this was a quick trip, we managed to pack in a lot seeing not only Krakow, but also making it to Budapest and back to finish in Warsaw. We learned so much of the rich history of both countries, including the atrocities of WWII. We enjoyed the beautiful architecture in all three cities, dined on way to much good food and discovered some really good wines. What a great opportunity we had to experience this adventure. 

Until next time... to live is to travel... life is good! 

Budapest

Budapest wasn't originally in the plan, but after some pondering of what we wanted to do and seeing Budapest featured in a stop of the Amazing Race, we quickly decided to figure out how to incorporate it into our trip. We had a couple options on getting there, an 8-hour train - not the most efficient use of our short time, or a 1-hour flight back to Warsaw and then another 1 hour 15 min flight to Budapest. So plane it was. Our flight into Budapest landed later afternoon, which turned out to be great as there was an international delegation that arrived in the morning that shut down the airport and several metro lines for a few hours. Thankfully we missed all that and landed with no issues. And because we were flying within Europe didn't have to clear immigration. We made our way to the airport/city bus station and managed to just catch the bus that was leaving. The Budapest Go app we discovered gave us access to buses and the metro and using this method of transport was cheaper than using a cab or Uber. The airport/city bus took us directly to the metro line which would stop a short walk from our hotel. 

We stayed at the Dorothea Hotel situated a couple blocks from the Danube River and in a vibrant part of downtown Budapest. We found the location to be perfect for our few days in Budapest because we could walk to many of the sites such as St. Stephen's Basilica and the Parliament buildings. There were plenty of restaurant options and shopping close by, along with easy access to the metro. The hotel was fairly recently renovated and provided a very contemporary, yet elegant atmosphere. We had a very nicely appointed, large modern room with a seating area that was elevated behind the sleeping area accessible by a couple of stairs. We had a lovely stay here, with an expansive buffet breakfast included each morning. The hotel also had a great spa with a swimming pool, sauna and steam rooms, along with an impressively well equipped gym.

Our time in Budapest was short, only three days, so we packed as much as we could in that time. We ended up doing two different walking tours; one on the Pest side and one on the Buda side. Both were very informative on Budapest's history, including stories about WWII and the Cold War, everyday current life, the current political state - particularly given the pending election, and the general economic condition of the country. We discovered that Hungary has a fairly large wine industry, but that they do not export their products so we decided to do an evening wine tasting at the Tasting Table, a quaint wine shop. We learned about the 22 diverse wine regions and got to taste seven different wines and snack on some locally produced cheeses and charcuterie. We found that, similar to Polish wines, we really enjoyed Hungarian wines as well; really wished they exported. We had a lovely experience and afterwards made our way to Szimpla Kert Ruin Bar a short walk away. Visiting Budapest's ruin bars is an experience in itself. The concept of ruin bars is that these bars take over buildings falling in ruin, decorate them with found eclectic items, artwork and spray paint and turn them into a gathering place operating as a bar. Given the state of the buildings, it's best to do research on the safety before visiting a particular ruin bar. Szimpla is one of the original ruin bars in Budapest and also the most touristy. It used to be an apartment building and comprises of two floors. Each room has a unique theme and it's fascinating walking throughout the building to see the eclectic decor. We found live music in one packed room so we stood just outside the doorway enjoying the tunes. The walls were all graffitied with people leaving their mark to commemorate their visit. So we added our names to the wall marking the date of our visit. Perhaps one day we'll go back to see if it's still there and we can find our marking. On a different evening we enjoyed a cruise down the Danube and enjoyed seeing the lights of the city's buildings. 

Budapest is known as the spa capital of the world. While we originally weren't sure whether we'd have time to fit in a visit to the spa, we ended up booking a 4-hour visit at the iconic Szechenyi Thermal Bath - one of the largest spas in Europe with 15 indoor baths, saunas and steam rooms, and 3 large outdoor pools. Our visit was right at opening so the pools were not that busy to begin, but got busy quickly as the morning progressed. Our visit included a private room where we could change and relax along with a 30 minute massage. It made for a very relaxing start to the day and was definitely worth the experience. 

One of the other highlights of our visit was the Parliament tour we did. We did have to reschedule our tour due to that international delegation that we did not know at the time of booking would be there. Thankfully it all worked out, however we had to pay a change fee so that was a bit annoying given the reason for the change was outside our control. The parliament building is an impressive building located on the Danube River. The interior is equally impressive with intricate and ornate finishings, frescoes on the ceiling, and a grand ornamental stairway. It remains an active government building though the presidential palace, Sandor Palace is actually located on the Buda side of the Danube located by the Buda Castle in the ancient castle district - this area was covered on one of our walking tours. Thankfully parliament was not in session during our visit seeing as the election was to be held 2 days later, and so we were able to view the parliamentary chambers. 

We found Budapest to be a lovely city, fairly walkable in the downtown centre and with good public transportation options for further away sites like the general market where we bought a few different types of paprika. The vibe of the city was lively with a optimism in the air. We enjoyed the really great food scene in the city as well. Our visit was well worth rejigging our itinerary on this trip so we could make this visit happen. I think it's safe to say that if we can, we'll be back one day. 

From Budapest we flew back to Warsaw as we came to an end of our Central Europe adventure.

From Krakow to Budapest to Warsaw

We decided to spend a week over Easter exploring Krakow, Budapest, and Warsaw; places neither of us had been before. After an overnight flight to Warsaw, and after about an hour queue at immigration, we made our way to the train station via the metro to catch a 3 hour train to Krakow. One joke we heard in Krakow was "what is the best thing to do in Warsaw? Take the train to Krakow", so it would seem we covered that off without even realizing it! We grabbed some takeaway salads at the train station so we wouldn't be super hungry when we arrived. We had reserved seating and found our seats in a 6 seater compartment which wasn't quite what the seating map looked like when we booked... what can you do? The trip took us through the countryside with not too much interesting to look at. We arrive in Krakow around 6:30pm local time. The train station was a short walk to our hotel and which took us through a nice park area. We stayed at the Garmond, a boutique hotel situated on a quiet street away from all the hustle and bustle of the main tourist areas. This hotel has a unique history, dating back to 1938 that once housed the editorial offices of one of Poland's most popular daily newspapers. The decor around the hotel is inspired by its history, like typewriters hanging on the wall by the entrance and an old style telephone by reception. Our room was a lovely, decently sized room for Europe. We had a corner room with lots of windows that opened with views of the surrounding nearby park. It was nicely decorated in an art-deco style with a "king" sized bed that was actually two doubles pushed together (typical for Europe). At checkin we were told the restaurant had live jazz music that evening so after we settled in, we decided to check it out as we were somewhat tired and thought a relaxing light dinner with some live music was in order. The musicians were amazing; a pianist and a singer. It was a wonderful way to start our adventure in Krakow, on Good Friday of the Easter weekend. Being a fairly religious country we were intrigued to learn how big Easter is in Poland and had heard that Krakow was the place to be... thus our decision to head here first. 

We spent the next four days exploring the sights and food of Krakow. Over the Easter weekend we made sure to visit the Easter market located at the historic Main Market Square, which, similar to an European Christmas market, had countless festive stalls selling trinkets, souvenirs, art, ceramics, and wooden made crafts including hand-painted ornately decorated Easter eggs, call pisanki. There were plenty of local delicacies to try as well. We learned that on the Saturday, locals bring a small wicker basket lined with lace clothes and filled with foods - such as decorated eggs, bread, sausage, and salt - to their local church to be blessed by a priest. Krakow is home to over 120 Roman Catholic churches; fun fact you'll find a church every 200-300 metres and government taxes help to fund the ongoing operations. On Easter Sunday we decided to check out mass at St. Mary's Basilicia - a Gothic style cathedral located prominently in the Main Square. We didn't understand a single word, but enjoyed the experience nonetheless. 

We took two different walking tours while in Krakow which gave us a very good overview of the history of the city, the country's forced involvement in WWII, and the atrocities that came with its occupation. Additionally, we learned that Poland's history is full of various invasions and occupations including a period of time when Poland effectively ceased to exist for 120 years. Despite a history of invasions and upheaval Poland has established itself as a strong, sovereign democratic republic since the end of the Cold War. During Poland's history as a monarchy, which lasted up until the end of the 18th century, kings were elected by the country's nobles. Walking through the city, you see the different influences left behind by the many occupations in the architecture and even the organization of the buildings in the main square. 

Given our time there was over the Easter weekend, we discovered that many of the museums were closed. We did find out though that the Schindler's Factory museum was open on Easter Monday and that admission was free that day, opening at 10am. We got there at just before 9am and joined the already very long queue of people who had the same idea as us. It took us a good 2 hours waiting in line before we were able to get in. The museum was nicely organized with artifacts and exhibits and personal stories of the people, bringing that part of history alive. It was very informative and sombering at the same time, and gave us a good sense of what happened during that period of history and how Oskar Schindler used his factory to save the Jewish labourers whom he employed. 

On the morning of our last day before flying to Budapest, we toured the grounds of Wawal Castle, a historic and culturally important site in Poland, along with the 1st floor interior of the castle which is adorned with furniture and tapestries from all over the world along magnificent artwork. This castle is where Poland's kings resided for centuries. 

The food scene is heavily influenced by different ethnicities' occupation... with a prominent German influence present. We really enjoyed the food, but did find it a bit "heavy" and usually felt like needing a nap about an hour after eating. We had the best pierogies at a small, cozy cafe off the beaten track, called Pieromir pierogi & tosty. We both tried a variety of the different fillings and thoroughly enjoyed our meals and found the overall cost fairly inexpensive. The desserts and pastries were all very tempting and delicious as were the Obwarzanek Krakowski - a common street food Polish pretzel bagel. We also found enjoyed a couple other ethnic dinners dining at a Lebanese restaurant one evening and an Indian on another. Turns out, Polish wines are also quite good and we really enjoyed tasting several different varieties during our time there. 

Manila

From our resort in Sabang we took an hour and a half transfer to Puerto Princesa airport so we could catch our late evening flight to Manila for our final stop on this amazing adventure. Our flight landed in Manila at just before midnight and by the time be deplane and got our lunch it was well on our way to 1am. Our hotel thankfully is right by the airport and we found we could walk there by taking Runway Manila over the busy roadway beside the airport and then walking about 5 minutes to the hotel. While the sidewalks weren’t in the best of conditions and have limited accessibly ramps at the curbs we managed our way to the hotel fairly easily. 

We stayed at the Sheraton Manila Hotel at Newport World Resorts. We were upgrades to a large and extremely nice king suite with a view of the airport. The suite had a living room and eating area along with a powder room. The bedroom lead into a large walk through wardrobe into the large bathroom with double vanity, soaker tub and rain shower and the toilets were Toto toilets with heated seats!! We could watch plans taking off and landing from our bed. We finally got to sleep around 2am after settling in for a bit  and we both had somewhat of a broken sleep with the noise from the airport and roadway. 

After breakfast we ordered a Grab to take us to the Venice Mall Grand Canal - a Venice, Italy themed mall. As we approached the mall, I spotted a giant Tim Hortons cup and lo and behold we found a Timmies in Manila!! While we didn’t buy anything we did go in to see what it was like. They had a much smaller donut selection but had a couple unique flavours not found back home like a Venetian and another with coconut. We found this mall to have many of the western and American brands and restaurant chains including Dairy Queen which had a couple different unique flavours that we couldn’t resist but to try; mango for me and avocado Oreo for Z. 

From here we walked to the Manila American Military cemetery. I know a strange place to think about visiting however at noon their main memorial tower they play a chime and have a military helicopter fly over. The whole memorial is quite nicely built and a nice resting place for 77,000 souls lost in the battle of the Pacific during WWII. The visitor centre plays a very informative documentary on how the Filipinos and Americans banded together to reclaim Philippines from the Japanese. 

From here we continued our walk to the BCG (Bonifacio Global City) district where we started off with lunch at Manam. We shared a few different dishes here and once again really found each dish full of exploding flavour. The BCG district is a modern newish area of Manila. You can find countless modern high rises here along with retail shops, restaurants, other commercial and malls. All over the Philippines, places and streets still had their Christmas decorations and this area was no different with very elaborately decorated Christmas trees and other decor including gingerbread men. There is a pedestrian shopping street called Bonifacio High Street where we found many interesting shops including a French patisserie which I could resist going in to browse their pastries and ended up getting a pistachio macaroon. Gentle Monster is a high end Korean eyewear store that is also known for its artwork throughout their stores. This location has a gigantic human like sitting man statue in its entrance. The likeness to real was uncanny. A couple other stops along the street included afternoon coffee at Harlan + Holden Coffee, a minimalist coffee store front serving high quality drinks; some standard coffee drinks but also a lot of different varieties and flavours like a peanut butter flat white which I had to try! And lastly we stopped in at Fully Booked, a multi-floor bookstore geared towards any sort of bookworm. In the middle of the main floor they have a magnificent art piece mural made entirely of books. 

All in all, while we only had a day in Manila, we filled our day with a good amount of sightseeing and activities to give us a descent feel for the city. Overall we had such an amazing time in the Philippines. We got to create some really great memories, enjoyed some really unique experiences and saw such beautiful landscape and beaches. The people were incredibly friendly and genuine. We enjoyed way too much good food and indulged in a lot of fresh mango shakes, yellow watermelon, and calamansi drinks. We met several interesting and friendly fellow travellers along the way… the German couple in El Nido, the Swiss couple on Flower Island, and an English couple (originally from Portugal and Brazil) in Sabang. The Philippines is definitely on the return one day list!! 

To travel is to live… until next time. Life is good!

Flower Island and Sabang

Flower Island Resort was our home for the next three nights. This private island oasis resort is nestled in the waters of Palawan. We received a friendly welcome from the staff and were adorned with a seashell necklace and provided a refreshing calamansi welcome drink. The resort only has 20 bungalow villas making it a private and secluded affair for their guests. We stayed in a beach view villa adorned with Balinese-inspired touches, a large veranda with a hammock and an open-air private bathroom. The island resort is an ideal location to relax, recharge and connect with nature. There are plenty of water activities to partake in such as snorkelling, kayaking, diving, and SUPing. There is limited connectivity with wifi only available by the bar and the restaurant. The intent of staying here is to shut off and enjoy the surroundings and the activities it has to offer. During our stay the resort was at half occupancy with the majority of guests (18) from a German family. We met a lovely Swiss couple, the husband was a diver a spoke highly of his diving experience that he convinced Z to sign up for a dive. On our last evening we met a family from Tunisia whom Z could speak French and Arabic with. The resort offers a buffet breakfast, lunch, and dinner and all guests dine at the same predetermined times. The beach bar did have al la carte options and we opted to eat there for lunch instead of three buffet meals a day. All the meals were incredibly delicious, so full of flavours, and mostly Filipino inspired cuisine; we learned the chef has been working at the resort for 20 years. The staff on the island double in many different roles and all live on the island, with their accommodations somewhat hidden away behind the restaurant. 

The whole island takes about 30 minutes to walk around and you can take a path up to the lighthouse where you can see 360 degree panoramic views of the island and the surrounding other islands. Just slightly off the island is another small island, accessible during low tide only with a covered seating area that was great for reading in peace. 

Jack, the owner of Flower Island Resort is  present on the island and interacts with the guests during meals and other times. He greeted us our first night there and reminisced about time he spent working in our home town long ago when he learned where we were from. Jack also owns and operates a bunch of pearl farms around the island which we had no idea was such a big thing in Palawan. A resident friendly chocolate lab dog that roams around the island and comes to visit guests often during meals and on our second to last day we noticed the island  is also home to a peacock who seemed to really have taken a liking to our neighbour’s villa and was found hanging around on their roof and front deck. 

The reason we added this stop in our itinerary was because the island is surrounded by a reef and so snorkelling is supposed to be really good. Unfortunately about a month and half before we were there the island was hit by two back to back pretty bad typhoons which significantly damaged the coral reef. We still managed to see quite a large amount of different fish including a stingray. A bit further out to where the reef ends and drops into open ocean, we were able to see a bit of coral life.  The resort offers many different tours and we ended up taking the coral island snorkelling tour which is basically the only area that wasn’t severely damaged by the recent typhoons because it is further out in the West Philippine Sea. We found the resort does a great job with their tours and given they were only at half capacity availability was abundant and it was only Z and I on this tour. We had the boat to ourselves and had the dive master Che act as our snorkel guide and had another dive master with us trailing as a safety. The coral at the spot was vibrant and alive. We saw countless clams, mostly turquoise or purple in colour, and an abundance of different variety of fish. The tour lasted about an hour in the water, probably the longest single snorkelling stretch I’ve done without getting out of the water. This tour was certainly a highlight. Z went diving one afternoon with dive master Che to ‘The Middle of Nowhere’. He was the only one on the tour and had both the dive master and a safety diver all to himself. He came back from that tour very satisfied having seen all sorts of fish, coral, stingray and blue spotted rays. 

This stay lived up to the experience of relaxing and recharging, and after three nights it was time to move on for New Year’s Eve. The hotel helped arrange a more direct transfer route to our next location Puerto Princesea than we had originally booked. Instead of a seven hour drive after a 40 minute boat ride, the hotel suggested we take an hour boat ride to TayTay Pier and then take a four hour drive to our hotel. This suited Z much better given his tendency to get car sick if he’s not the driver. While it often felt to me like our booking requests wouldn’t actually get arranged, like clock work on departure day, the cleaning staff were waiting outside our room right at our departure time, another staff was there to bring our luggage to our boat transfer and our boat was waiting for us while we settled our bill. And after a few corrections to our bill we were on the boat ready to leave when one of the staff came running up the pier with my glasses in hand. I had forgotten them in the room and had they not noticed in time, that would have been disastrous for me. As we left the pier we had a lovely dancing send off from the staff on shore. This resort really is great at its hospitality and guest experience. 

We arrived at TayTay Poet just over an hour after departing Flower Island and our van transport was already waiting at the dock. Our driver was really good, cautious when needed but also speedy. We had a couple stops along the way for bathroom breaks and for lunch. All in all the journey with stops was about four and a half hours. 

Our next stop was in Sabang staying at the Four Points Sheraton. We arrived around 3pm and our upgraded room was ready. We stayed in a well appointed, modern junior suite with a garden/pool view. The room was very spacious with a large rain shower and separate soaker tub in the bathroom, a king sized bed and a couch and chair with table in the seating area along with a coffee/tea station and plenty of space to unpack our stuff. It was New Year’s Eve when we arrived and our stay included going to the Gatsby themed New Years celebration that evening. We had ordered some stuff to help dress up for the part but unfortunately it arrived a couple days after we left on our trip so our back up garb was going to have to suffice; which it more than did. A lot of guests didn’t dress up at all. We even ended up buying Z a hat in El Nido to compliment his outfit. The evening included a buffet dinner with a carving station that included roast beef, fish, a whole roasted pig - head included, chicken and turkey. By far the pork and chicken were the best of the meats. There was a cook to order seafood station, pasta station, veggies, salads, and so much more food than you could imagine.  The desserts were unreal and they had shaped the cakes into 2026. During dinner there was live music and as the party continued through to midnight, a DJ took over to get guests dancing. We ended up winning a 30 minute  spa massage as a door prize. And as the clock struck midnight we rang in 2026 along with all the other fellow travellers from all over the world. 

Aside from being here for the New Years celebration, we spent a good amount of time just relaxing. The resort is located right on the pristine Sabang beach with its fine white sand and crystal clear water. It is surrounded by lush tropical forests and towering limestone cliffs. It’s a good beach for swimming with varying waves and no real undertow. 

Just a short boat ride from Sabang beach is the Underground River, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the new Seven Wonders of Nature. The underground river is truly an impressive experience. The river is 8.2kms flowing through a complex limestone cave system directly into the sea. The guided tour takes you along the first 2km of the river with an audio guide explaining different aspects of the cave system, the biodiversity including numerous bat species and birds, the discovery of many different minerals, and the dramatic limestone formations of stalactites and stalagmites. The boat is steered by a local who wore a headlight so we could see within the darkness of the cave. At one point he turned it off for a few seconds and you are in complete and utter darkness. This tour was  worth doing and getting to experience something so unique and natural was really special.