Den Haag

This entry should be entered long long time ago. I thought I lost the pictures, but in fact it is there, in my external hard disk, never went anywhere. Sigh.

The trip that we made to Den Haag (Dutch)/ The Hague (English) was together with our long tour which started with Italy and ended with Brussels, somewhere during the last spring. Den Haag is what I called as the town of Europe investment centre (we have some informal rule of thumb regarding investment - follow what is Den Haag or Brussels are investing at, then prosperity is at your doorstep) but my husband see it as a doorway to oil and gas expert industry. I agreed with him as most of our family and friends who involved in the industry must have been there many times for training.

The stadthuys (municipal hall) and library

The church

Zara met a friend who was willing to teach her how to skateboarding

The mosque that put us close to tear

The information

A cafe -luxury cafe on top of a designer lot

An entry where you can almost everything with famous signature

Side walk cafes

Physically,  Den Haag reminds me of Vienna. Not because of the architecture, but because most of shops are lining up designers brand, American, British, European, Italy or French from Burberry, Tommy, LV, YSL, you name it. Yet the most touching part of the visit was we found an old mosque which had history of Jewish synagogue. What a beautiful moment as if we were struck by lightning and bolts but standing tall, felt nothing.

Berlin: A family reunion

Family vacation! I met my parents after nearly 3 years not seeing them. I was happy, delighted, crazy, and every emotions surged in me when they came out from the arrival hall. My daughter seen one side of her grandparents for the first time. I took little attention to the places we were visiting (which was totally not me). Luckily Kak Akma´s Berlin handbook was with us. Thanks Kak!

Zara and Coca Cola!

In front of Hilton and the opposite is one of Berlin´s landmark

Germans tribute to the first anniversary of Michael Jackson´s death.

Berlin´s City Tour bus

Burdenburger Tor

At Alexanderplatz´s fountain

It is not grandpa dragging his grandchild but more to tried to keep up with her!

A self potrait

World cup fever in Germany

Crazy pose in front of Germany´s parliament building

My parents at the `Reich´ (is it spell like this?) monument 

Lunch time! Lamb, lamb and more lamb!

Berlin Wall 

Family potrait at Berlin Wall

Jumping at Berlin Wall 

Saving the last wall from falling

An attempt to climb the wall

Writing on the floor

At Berlin Wall museum

With my significant half beside the quay of Berlin river cruise

Ibu, Hummer and I

Abah and the classic BMW

Geneva: The UN headquarters

We don´t know what to expect in Geneva except for good watches. So off we flew without any intention to buy one. Later,  we learned that Geneva is out of the ordinary places that attract us except for one thing - the fact that is is the location for many of UN offices.

Everything in Geneva is expensive, from transportation cost, food, clothes and almost everything. The people speak French and little English despite that the town homed many foreigners.

The scenery is beautiful, with mountains and hills, that look up to the famous Lake Geneva - which means we spent most time at the park and let Zara explored her surroundings.

We found antique pairs of barometer and thermometer at a square near to the quay.

Surprisingly, during the last days of spring, the wind is still cold and sent shivers so I had to wrapped Zara in one of her  `kain bedung´ but that was not enough. She caught cold immediately that night.

My significant half managed to get himself a Swiss Army cap with Swiss flag branded on it.

Also, we realized that Swiss flag is square instead of rectangular like normal flags do.

I think they are filthy rich due to the fact that they are famous with Swiss bank, so it was not a surprise, they printed their flag on a garbage bag. Wished we can bring that bag home (of course an empty one- duh)

And I also wished we can spent our day just being lazy at the lake. 

A beautiful old church right in the middle of the town.

Can you see our Jalur Gemilang?

Daydreamed that one day we would have the chance to serve UN for the sake of humanity...

I like the uniqueness of the `sculpture ´ at the back, wondering what it tries to represent. I should google for it, but at the moment, time is luxury commodity that scarce to me.

We left the town happily, and we were happier to head for the next destination as finally Zara had the opportunity to meet one of her grandparents for the first time.