It's me again guys. I don't know if you're all still here, but I'm back. I must say that now I officially hate the months of October and November. They always bring me sadness and worry for two years now. Fortunately, things always manage to turn around in December and especially in the new year. I just hope that it won't happen again in this year's October and November.

While I was gone though, I never stopped cooking and trying out new dishes. Some of them I got from the websites of food bloggers that I just tweaked to suit my own taste and the availability of ingredients here in China. I have also discovered some new food and new traditions (at least to me anyway). Well, here they are...

For the past three months, Hubby and I also managed just one trip outside of China (together). He travelled to Indonesia on his own twice (much to my dislike and annoyance) and I travelled back home to the Philippines once. But the only trip we made together was to Hong Kong to celebrate Christmas.

In that trip, we stayed in Hong Kong island (Wan Chai) because our favorite hotel, The Minden, in Tsim Sha Tsui, was already fully-booked. We stayed at The Harbourview Hotel just across the Hong Kong Exhibition Centre. It was a nice hotel but they don't offer free breakfast and free internet. And because all our activities were in Tsim Sha Tsui, we needed to take the subway everyday. Not that bad though because we like the Hong Kong train system.

We still did the same things we always do when in Hong Kong: dine at the Outback Steakhouse more than once and Pho 24, have leisurely coffee breaks at Starbucks, window-shop and shop for real at the iSquare Mall, the Harbour City Mall, H&M and this time at Marks & Spencer. I was also able to hear the Christmas mass at the Rosary Church on Christmas day. One of the new things we did this time was to watch a movie in Hong Kong which we enjoyed and we planned to make it a tradition in every country that we visit from now on. The other one was to try Vietnamese coffee (sorry no picture) and the third was do grocery shopping.

We left Paris early this morning from the Gare du Nord taking the Thalys train back to Cologne. We were reluctant to leave as there are still so many things left to explore. But Hubby said that it's also good to leave some things out so that we still have something to look forward to on our next visit. So instead of saying "goodbye", we said "au revoir Paris!". Until we meet again...

Hello again Cologne! It was raining a bit hard when we reached Cologne at around 11.20am. It was nearing lunch time and Hubby wanted to go back to the Haxenhaus zum Rheingarten because he wanted to enjoy their nice food perhaps for the last time in this trip. So, although the rain could soak us wet and I only have a small umbrella with me, we walked to the Old Town passing by the Cologne Cathedral. Today, I can definitely declare that there are 3 things I will never forget about this church:

1. Its huge size and the special mass I attended here on Sunday
2. Climbing its bell tower and almost fainting
3. Today I slipped and fell butt-first on the wet ground in front of it! (it looked funny but it's painful too)

Finally, with our wet bags and partially wet selves, we reached the Haxenhaus zum Rheingarten. As usual, they were quite full inside and even outside. We wanted to sit at the same table they assigned to us that night because it's a bit private and there would be lots of space for our luggage. But they asked us to sit in the middle instead because there will be a tour group coming later on. It was only then that I realized that this restaurant is really very much a part of Cologne's history and that they are indeed one of the stops for tour groups.

We did not order the pork knuckles anymore. Instead, we ordered the 1/2 meter German sausage with different side dishes. When I first thought about half a meter length of sausage, I thought I wouldn't be able to finish it. But I was too hungry and the dish was too good not to devour all of it.

After lunch, Hubby and I walked back to the Dom Hauptbahnhof. We had already bought train tickets going to the Dusseldorf Airport. I convinced him to get a train instead of a taxi to avoid the traffic and to save on the cost. While waiting for our train, I just stayed in Starbucks while Hubby went back to the church to take more photos. This time it had stopped raining.

The time came for us to board the train. It was just a normal train with no seat numbers. But when we were inside, we found that there's actually a first class section on the second level. We had a problem at first on where to sit, because there was no indication on our tickets if we were first class or economy, but then decided to stay in the economy section for convenience. It was quite scary at first because I didn't know all the stops and I was supposed to be the "leader" in riding trains. All my instincts were telling me though that it was the correct train. And it was.

We reached Dusseldorf Airport station in less than 30 minutes. We encountered another dilemma as to which stop of the "sky train" we were supposed to go down to. There was A&B and C stops. We chose A&B and luckily we were right. I must say though that Dusseldorf Airport has a real "sky train". It was like a short tram suspended in the air sort of like a longer and bigger cable car. Unfortunately, I was not able to take a picture. They also have a nice airport with lots of shops but we went straight to our gate after checking in.

Well, truly this is it! It's the end of our trip to Cologne and Paris for the year 2011. I'm keeping a positive mindset that we will be able to go there again next year or in the years to come. Au revoir!

Time indeed flies when you're having fun! I couldn't believe we've come to our last full day in Paris. And because it's the last one (for this year; I hope next year we can come back), it's jampacked full of activities starting from early morning.

I woke up early today even if we came back late from dinner last night because I wanted to hear mass at the Notre Dame. Last night I checked and found that they have a mass today "in the choirs" at 8AM or 9AM. I couldn't make the 8AM one so I just aimed for the next one. I just walked on the way there. Straight from the hotel and without passing by the Eiffel Tower, it still took me an hour to reach there! The first time we came, I didn't really notice how far it was.

I went inside the church because people were going in but there was no mass inside. I waited for 30 minutes and still none. So I just took pictures of the interiors. When I came out, I found an usher and I asked him where the mass was. It was actually still deep inside the church, perhaps behind the main altar. He said it was already over. It was a quick one which was only around 20 minutes. I was disappointed but there was nothing I can do.

I got out and decided to walk back to the hotel following the river. I thought I could not find my way back following the same route I took earlier on. Just after crossing the small bridge from the church to the other side of the river, I found a subway station and decided to take the train back instead to save time. Unfortunately, I got lost inside the station because of the renovations and the confusing signages. And when I took the first train, I took the wrong direction so I had to go down after two stops and transfer to the other side to get to the right direction. 

When I reached the hotel, there was no more time to have breakfast so Hubby and I just ate the macaroons. It was a fine day with blue skies today. Finally! We walked to the Eiffel Tower and took as much nice photos as we can. We were finally able to produce nice photos with the blue sky as a background. I had also planned to climb the tower today after missing it yesterday. I was firm on doing it today because I had no other choice. Tomorrow, we will leave Paris early in the morning.

Hubby brought me to the queue. I chose the one for the stairs. There were lifts that can take you until the summit but the price is different and stairs are more challenging. At first, Hubby didn't want to climb the tower because he is scared of heights and he thought he might not be able to breathe. But later on he decided to climb it with me, having stood in the queue for so long. We climbed until the second level because the next levels after that were closed for "stair-climbers". I didn't really know the history of the tower or who built it and for what purpose it was built, so it was very educational to find lots of information there while climbing it. I was even surprised to find out that there's a certain connection with the tower and the Philippines because Gustave Eiffel (the man who built it) also designed a bridge in Manila around the time after the tower was built.

On the first level of the tower, there were I think 3 restaurants and on the second level a cinema and some more restaurants. There were also some kiosks selling snacks and drinks on each level. It was good because the climbers would really need something to quench their thirst and satisfy their hunger. It was a big job climbing that one! I didn't count the exact number of steps but Hubby thought it was around 699. The view from the tower was breathtaking! You can almost see the entire city of Paris from there. I was really glad I climbed it and shared it with Hubby.

When we reached the ground, we were already so hungry. So the first thing we did was to look for lunch. We didn't want to walk far anymore after the descent so we grabbed a table at the nearest restaurant we can find. This time it was the Boulangerie de la Tour Eiffel. So far in this trip, they served the best foie gras but unfortunately due to hunger, I forgot to take pictures of it. It was also so good it was gone in an instant. Then the very kind waiter suggested for us to order their special for the day which was "Magret de Canard" (marinated duck breast which was grilled to perfection). It was such a lovely meal and the waiter was so good to us, we ended up hanging in there longer than usual and even ordered coffee.

After lunch, we found a cheap souvenir shop next door. We were actually planning to head back towards the Notre Dame this afternoon to buy souvenirs from the small kiosks on the riverside because they were cheaper than the shops I've seen earlier. But this shop was also cheaper (even cheaper than the riverside) so we just bought all our souvenirs there. Hubby and I were both glad because we didn't have to walk far anymore. 

We walked back to the hotel to keep our purchases there. There were still a few hours left for sightseeing so we went to the La Tour Maubourg station and took the train back to the Latin Quarter. We went down at the Maubert-Mutualite station and walked towards the Pantheon. We reached the left side of the Pantheon but there was a church that caught our attention. It was the St. Etienne Du Mont Church and what's special about it was the design of the main altar and that the remains of famous people were also entombed there including that of St. Genevieve, the Patron Saint of Paris and Blaise Pascal. I knew Pascal from one of my college subjects before (well, he invented the mechanical calculator) and St. Genevieve is a saint so it was such an honor to be inside that church. Hubby and I took pictures in and out of the church until the bell rang for a mass. 

We moved to the Pantheon and admired its size and beauty. It is a burial place for famous French people including Victor Hugo. I had watched some of his literary works: the Les Miserables (play) and the Notre Dame de Paris or known in English as The Hunchback of Notre Dame (movie). It must have been nice to go inside the Pantheon to pay my respects to him but when we reached there it was already about to close for the day. Well again, maybe next time. 

We just went back to the church and attended the 6.45PM mass in French because Hubby wanted to take some more photos inside St. Genevieve's shrine. Finally, after the mass and after taking pictures, we walked back to the hotel once again and this time it's a much longer walk (about 4 to 5 kms). We didn't mind though because we wanted to take in the nighttime view of Paris for the last time on this trip. For dinner, we went back to the first restaurant we had dinner at - the Le Bosquet. I used to think they had the best escargot, but after tasting many escargots in different restaurants, I found that they were actually all just the same.

This morning we were finally able to have a nice sit-down breakfast at a street cafe with a good vantage point somewhere around the Rue Cler area. This area also has a small market with shops selling cheese, fruits, seafood, souvenirs, breads  and plenty of other small restaurants. It was nice to just sit there enjoying our coffee while looking at people doing their weekly grocery shopping. After eating though, we couldn't resist the urge of taking pictures of the lovely shops, so we did this for a while.

Satisfied with our photos, we continued to walk again to the Eiffel Tower. If the Cologne Cathedral was the "magnet" in Cologne, the Eiffel Tower is our "magnet" in Paris. It's still not a fine day but we still took some pictures of the tower once again. We even walked until the other side of the river to the Palais de Chaillot. There's also a nice view of the tower there. On the way there, we found some "tuk-tuks" called "tuk-tuk" on the street! They cater to tourists who wanted to ride them while having a tour of the city. There was even a group of them hired for a wedding. The bride and groom were riding one while the wedding party followed in a series of tuk-tuks. The whole entourage was so lovely to look at.

Luckily, I was able to convince Hubby to walk to the Arc de Triomphe today although it's another long walk from the tower. It is one of the most famous landmarks of Paris and we always see it in movies and is always the culmination point of the Tour de France. From the Palais de Chaillot, we walked up Avenue Kleber until we saw the Arc. It was one of those moments again wherein I couldn't believe I am in Paris. I couldn't wait to take pictures of it that I didn't notice that finally the street I was standing on was already the Champs Elysees!

After taking a lot of photos of the arc, of me and the arc, of Hubby and the arc, of Hubby and me and the arc, we walked down Champs Elysees. When I hear a lot of people say it is the most expensive street in Paris because all the luxury brands are there, it always makes me feel like I have no right to be there.  But there we were and the street was friendly to us. For sure there must be something affordable there!

We didn't have any plans of buying anything there except lunch so this was our main agenda while walking. We got distracted by the Renault showroom and cafe so we went in to have a look at their futuristic car and something called the "Twizy". I really liked the Twizy. If I have lots of money I would definitely buy one or two. In fact, we've discovered a lot of unique forms of transportation in Paris like the motorcycle with 2 front wheels, the motorcycle with a cover, not to mention the classic Vespa motorcycle and of course, the Smart cars. Really, because their streets are small, the French have discovered creative forms of transportation which are works of art by themselves.

When we came out of the Renault shop, we were hungrier than ever! Then we were approached by two mature-aged Chinese women from Shanghai asking us if we can buy some Louis Vuitton bags for them. They said they already bought 2 each but there's a certain limit as to how many pieces a tourist can buy so they will just give us the money and then we can go in and buy for them. Talk about crap! I didn't know what their motives were, but luckily we didn't have lunch yet so we had a good reason to say "no we can't do it".

We found lunch at L'Alsace at 39 Av. des Champs Elysees. At first, I felt like having lunch in an expensive street was a big sin, but we managed to find some nice and reasonably-priced meals inside there. I ordered a lunch set with pan-fried cod fish and Hubby ordered a very special dish called "Choucroute d'oie" which is a confit of goose with goose breast and foie gras on a bed of sauerkraut. Our order must have been so special because moments later, a couple of Spanish girls seated on a table beside us instructed the waitress to give them the same combination as ours. But it was such a big waste for them because they did not eat the foie gras. The waitress was quite disappointed and asked if we wanted to eat it (it's still inside the warm pot , untouched). If we hadn't already eaten our dessert and if we weren't too shy, we would have said "yes". My God, it was like the highlight of the dish!!! Such a shame it was left out!

After our late lunch, we walked the remaining length of the Champs Elysees passing by the Louis Vuitton and Gucci shops. It's amazing that until here in Paris, there's still a long queue of customers outside the LV shop. I thought it's only like that in Hong Kong. We kept on walking until we reached the Louvre museum once again (from the Arc, the Louvre is just one long straight walk down). I gave Hubby the chance of taking pictures outside the Louvre while I sat admiring its beauty until the smokers gathered around me again.

We walked back to the hotel and had dinner again at the La Tour Maubourg Cafe & Brasserie. We were served once again by the handsome waiter (who looked like Tom Cruise if he was French). He remembered us from last night and came by our table to chat with us many times. It's surprising that he actually doesn't like the escargot! He advised us to try to go to some other places farther away from Paris and enjoy cheaper but lovelier food. We may take his advice next time...

Hubby and I realized that there's no time to have a proper sit-down breakfast today having woken up quite late. So on the way towards the Eiffel Tower, we just bought a chocolate croissant for himself at one small but nice pattiserie just around the corner from our hotel. I just ate the one I bought from the Gare du Nord station yesterday.

It's still a very cloudy day and it's not nice to take pictures of the Eiffel Tower because the results would be just like yesterday's. So we just decided to continue walking towards the direction of the Louvre Museum. It's a bit far from the Eiffel Tower (maybe more than 30 minutes walk) but we never noticed the distance because we were enjoying the sights and sounds of Paris on our first full day here.

When we reached the Louvre, the queue at the entrance was already so long so we did not get in right away. It was also nearing lunch time so we just decided to continue further on to the Notre Dame Cathedral. It was only around 15 minutes walk from the Louvre.

There were also so many tourists at the cathedral. I noticed it wasn't as big as the Cologne Cathedral but it's also very unique in itself. I did not go in this time because the queue was also quite long. While Hubby was taking pictures of the cathedral's facade, I also just enjoyed taking pictures of it and of the many small birds resting on the shrubs in the plaza. I was very much entertained by 2 kids holding out biscuits to the birds and then the birds would eat them from the kids' hands.

Finally it's time to eat lunch. We just crossed the main street from the cathedral on the other side of the river and walked towards the Latin Quarter. Inside there we found a maze of restaurants offering anything from French food to Middle-Eastern cuisine. It was confusing as to where we wanted to eat. All of them were offering lunch packages that were so hard to resist and all looked scrumptous. But we must have been very hungry too.

At last, we chose the lunch package at the Le Sainsev' restaurant along Rue St. Severin. After tasting the escargot last night, I got addicted to it so I ordered it again for my starter. Hubby tried the foie gras and it was also very nice and very addicting. For our main meal we ordered beef bourginon. We've always watched this being cooked on TV by professional chefs and by participants of cooking contests so we were very curious as to how it tastes like. We didn't particularly like it due to the very strong wine taste.

After lunch, we walked back to the Louvre and since it was still very cloudy, we decided to brave the queue and get inside to have a look at the Mona Lisa and everything else on display. We were surprised as to how quick the queue moved. In less than 30 minutes, we were already inside the museum. The museum is very big and confusing. It's divided into sections each featuring works of art from different regions of the world. To be very honest with you, I'm not really fond of museums of any kind. But I'm taking advantage of this opportunity to be able to learn many things from this trip and from these places that I may not be able to visit again due to budget constraints (hey, they're quite expensive!).

Hubby and I spent maybe 2 hours inside the Louvre, most of it getting lost inside the Egyptian section. I don't know why, we tried to get out of there and move on to other sections only to end up being inside another part of the Egyptian section once again. LOL! But what disappointed me the most was the Mona Lisa. It was so small!!! It certainly looked bigger in the movie. And you can't go near it because it's encased in a glass covering, guarded by 4 museum guards and the nearest distance you can go is only 2 meters. Of course, it's understandable why this is so but it's still disappointing for me at least.

After the disappointing visit to the Louvre, we walked back to the hotel via the Latin Quarter but we got lost somewhere around the beginning of the 7th arrondisement. Luckily, we found a very swanky grocery called La Grande Epicerie and entertained ourselves with the offerings inside. We wanted to buy foie gras to bring home with us but we couldn't decide if we should get the whole or the block type and which brand is good so we decided to skip buying it today and just do it tomorrow. We bought 6 pieces of different varieties of macaroons instead.

Finally, after a good look at the street map, we found our way back to the hotel. After walking for more than 10 kms in total today, we just decided to have dinner nearby. The restaurant we chose was the La Tour Maubourg Cafe & Brasserie and we were served by a handsome waiter who looked like Tom Cruise. After a taste of the foie gras this afternoon, Hubby ordered it again for his starter while I ordered the escargots (again!). For our main, we both ordered a salad with foie gras. But the star of the night was the warm chocolate cake that melts in the middle served with vanilla ice cream. Heaven on a plate!

Traveling to Paris has always been our dream. It seemed impossible to do before, but thanks to our Cologne trip, it finally happened this year.

I'm very glad we took the train to Paris from Cologne, never mind the 3-hour journey, because the train ride was altogether a totally different experience for Hubby and me. We were really lucky to get reasonably-priced first class tickets although I only bought the tickets 2 days ago.

The Thalys train has very comfortable seats in first class and we also get to be served lunch and afternoon snacks on our seats. We also got access to their free and fast WIFI connection. Although I was tempted to just log in to my Facebook the whole time, I did manage to see the sights outside the window and to take pictures of interesting places. But then, always when you ride trains, you only get to see the "back view" of the places you pass by. I still enjoyed it though. We passed through Belgium's "back view" and we've seen some parts of the countrysides of Germany, Belgium and Paris. Wasn't that lovely indeed! I didn't want the train journey to end, but hey, we needed to be in Paris, right?

No sooner than after dumping our bags in the room, Hubby and I rushed outside the hotel again to pay our first "courtesy visit" to the Eiffel Tower. It's already past 5PM but we will only be spending 3 full days here so we didn't want to waste time.

Our hotel is really in a very strategic location. It's only a 15-20 minute walk to the tower and on the way there, we saw glimpses of it. I couldn't help but pinch myself each time and exclaim, "I can't believe we are here in Paris!". Hubby must have been tired hearing me say it over and over again but I couldn't help it.

When we were really near the tower, all I could say was "Oh my God, oh my God!". It is really soooo lovely. No words can express the happiness I felt when I saw it for the first time in person. It's very captivating in pictures and in the movies but even more so in real life!

Being the main tourist attraction in Paris, the Eiffel Tower has its share of Pro's and Con's. One of the Con's I observed was that the long queue of people wanting to climb the tower and the many groups of tourists wanting to have a view or take pictures of the tower somehow marred the whole view. Another Con was that there were so many people, mostly men, of African or Middle-Eastern or perhaps Indian origin trying to sell souvenirs and flowers to tourists or trying to get signatures for God-knows-what-purpose but only so that they can get money from you. I personally disliked the "flower guys" and the "signature people" because they were very forceful and were hard in taking "no" for an answer. There was even one "flower guy" who gave me a rose and when Hubby and I said "no", he said "no problem". So we thought he just gave us the rose for free. But he kept following us and later asked for 2 Euros. We just returned the rose to him and avoided any other encounter with any of them after that. After this, Hubby discovered a trick on how to avoid them: never look them in the eye. It works with most of them but some are still so stubborn.

We kept taking pictures of the tower until the light faded. After that, we went back to our hotel area to look for dinner. One of the "must-eat" foods that we wanted to try in Paris is the "Escargot" (snails). This was our main agenda while looking for a restaurant. We soon found a restaurant called Le Bosquet along Avenue Bosquet serving the dish. The escargot is usually cooked and served with garlic and parsley butter in its shell. Then they give you a special set of tongs to hold the snail and special knife to remove its meat. Finally, we were able to taste it for the first time and we loved it!

After dinner, we went back to the Eiffel Tower to enjoy its nighttime view and it was again another experience. The tower was fully bathed in yellow light so that it looked like a golden tower and bright shimmering white lights appear all over it (like Christmas tree lights) upon each hour.

The train ride to Paris from Cologne was really an adventure in itself. But so was reaching our hotel from the Gare du Nord station. I did do some prior research to the Paris train network before embarking on this trip but it's really so much different when you are ACTUALLY there. It's easy to imagine things from tourist information websites but your own experience will not always be the same.

We wanted to get a taxi to our hotel from the station but the queue was very long that it might take us another hour before our turn comes. Luckily, I was able to convince Hubby to take the subway instead saying I know which lines to take and where to change lines and which station to go down. He started to lose patience because we could not find where to buy the tickets from. So I told him to wait for me in one place while I go and buy our tickets.

I finally found out that the tickets to the Paris Metro can be purchased via machines in the subway station (underground). I didn't have enough coins at first but there was one very helpful guy on the queue who told me to get change from the shops nearby. And when I approached the machine to buy our tickets, another helpful Parisian lady helped me out. Not bad for my first-hand experience of their hospitality. Before coming here though, we were warned that we might not be treated well since we cannot speak French.

Finally, Hubby and I boarded Line 4 of the Metro with our big luggage and all. One thing we found was that it's actually quite hard to travel via the Metro if we are still holding our big luggages because there are no ramps or lifts. We had to carry the heavy bags via the staircase. We changed to Line 8 at the Saint Denis-Strasbourg station and finally reached the La Tour Maubourg, the nearest station to our hotel. If I remember correctly, travel time took only 30 minutes and the total bill was only 3.40 Euros (1.70 Euros per person). Not bad at all!

Our hotel's name is Les Jardins D'Eiffel and it's located at 8 rue Amelie. It's just a very short walking distance from the station (only 5 minutes of walking) and we were able to check in promptly at 5PM. Everything went very smoothly and the hotel receptionist was very warm, helpful and welcoming. I think he found it amusing at first how we said "bonjour".

Our room was lovely but it doesn't have a full view of the Eiffel Tower. You can only see the top part of the tower from the balcony. I didn't even bother to take any pictures of it because it would look very small in my camera.

Today was our last full day in Cologne because tomorrow at around 12.43PM, we will board the Thalys train to Paris. Despite being here for already 4 days now, I still haven't really done all the recommended tourist activities for Cologne. So my day started early today so that I can cram it all in.

THE SCHOKOLADENMUSEUM

My first agenda of the day was to pay a visit to the Schokoladenmuseum (Chocolate Museum). In order to reach the place, I went down at the Severinstrasse station and walked for about 15 minutes towards the river. The Chocolate Museum is one very big building at one side of the Rhine river. The entrance fee was 7.50 Euros and they give you a free small piece of Lindt chocolate upon payment of the fee.

The museum has several sections all very educational especially to those who really don't know where chocolates come from, how it is produced and how the cacao plant looks like. There's a section which is like a mini-factory where real Lindt chocolates are being produced from the mixing to the packing. They also have displays of the old machines used in producing chocolates in the early days of the 1800s. There's even one mixer (conche) invented by Lindt himself in 1879 but is still operating today. They also have a simulated tropical greenhouse in the front part of the museum where a real cacao plant is growing and bearing fruits together with other very familiar tropical plants like the papaya. But one of the crowd-drawers must be the ever-flowing chocolate fountain flowing with Lindt milk chocolate and the pretty girl beside it dipping plain waffers to the liquid and giving them to the visitors. There's no limit as to how much you can eat. I myself ended up consuming 5 of those. 

The museum also has an open-air rooftop with a very good view of both sides of the Rhine river. I also went up there to snap pictures of Cologne before going down and proceeding with my day's activities. 

From the Chocolate Museum, I just walked by the Rhine river to reach the Old Town. This is a place overlooking the river where old picture-perfect buildings are located. Some of these buildings function as hotels but most of them are restaurants. By the time I reached there, it was already lunch time and I was drawn to one orange-colored building (most of the buildings there are either white or beige) that looks like a very old traditional German restaurant. Most of all, I was also drawn by their lunch special (slices of grilled pork knuckles in Madagascar sause) and their very nice outdoor setting. I decided to have my lunch and coffee there. 

After having the huge pork knuckles for the first time 2 nights ago, I swore not to eat pork for 2 months but here was I today! So after my very heavy lunch, I kept on walking along the riverside until I reached a flight of steps leading to the rear part of the cathedral. The cathedral never stopped to amaze me. It has been like a magnet for me everytime I'm in the city. Today I discovered so much more how dynamic its design is in every angle. When I looked at its "behind" it was as if I was looking at another church because the design there was again different. 

One of the attractions of the cathedral is the climb to its belfry in one of the towers. Some of the girls recommended it and I decided to give it a try today without knowing how high it is or how hard it is to climb. I went in blindly and paid the 3 Euro entrance fee. In my mind I was thinking: "This is just climbing a staircase. I can just rest if I get tired". I was wrong!

The tower stands 157m tall and 533 steps if you really complete the climb and will take you 30 minutes to complete if you never stop to breathe. Sounds easy, doesn't it? The beginning of the climb from the ticket booth (some 23 steps or more) also never looked so intimidating. But when we turned to the corner from there and inside the dark tower, it was altogether a different story...

The staircase became circular with only a meter (maximum) in width and it was used both ways (going up and going down). It was very hard to fit 2 people on both sides of it at once. There were also no railings on the outer part (away from the wall), so if you are not careful, you might come tumbling down until you reach the ground. Another scary thing was that there was nowhere to rest. If I remember correctly, from the ground up, there were only 3 small enclaves on the wall side where only 1 or 2 people can stand on to catch their breaths. Of course, because the staircase is not wide enough for other climbing people to overtake you, you have no choice but to keep going. You don't want to stop everyone else on their tracks just because you want to rest! That was what I did until I felt like I couldn't really breathe anymore. I really thought right then and there I will have a heart attack.

I was just happy when I finally reached the level where the bells are located because I can finally rest for a while. But it was also very deafening in there when the bells ring. I counted 5 bells inside there. I'm not sure exactly how many there are. From there, I continued to climb higher (maybe another 50 or 100 steps) until the final level was reached. And from this level, which I think is already the roof of the tower, you can continue on to climb a wider set of stairs up to the topmost part. I did not do that anymore. I had no more energy to do so and I was starting to get concerned about the way down. I was actually surprised by my smooth way down and I was so much relieved when I was finally back on the ground. I could not believe that I have conquered the tower!