We visited the Augustiner Brau Mulln for dinner which was founded in 1621 by Augustinian monks. It operates the oldest continuously active brewery and Austria’s largest beer tavern. The beer is still traditionally drawn from wooden barrels and served in stone steins. Visiting the tavern is a unique, self-service experience that operates on centuries-old tradition. You grab a stone stein from the shelf yourself and … Continue reading Dining like Monks
The temperature has dropped a bit overnight and I think we are over the worst of the heat wave (for now) and the maximum today is only meant to be 30 degrees. Our tour guide met us in the hotel at 9 and we started on a walking tour of the city. Salzburg is famous for a few different things – birthplace of Mozart, it’s … Continue reading Day 10 – Music, Movies and Motorsports
Its our last morning in Vienna and we packed up our bags and headed down to reception after breakfast. Our car arrived at 10.30 to take us to the train station. It took us a little time to figure out where on the platform we needed to stand as there were a couple of trains travelling through Salzburg at similar times. Once we knew where … Continue reading Day 9 – Travel to Salsburg
We went to Schweizerhaus for dinner which is a huge beer garden that had been in existence since 1776. The beer garden is divided into smaller sections named after the different districts in Vienna. We were seated in District 23. The beer garden can cater to 2,400 patrons and they have a speciality beer which is served on tap. The assembly line for pouring and … Continue reading Ultimate Beer Garden
The mercury is expected to touch 40 degrees today which is not something I ever expected to experience in Austria. By 7 am when we awoke the sun was already beating down on the windows and you could sense how hot it was going to get. Our itinerary for today includes a tour of Naschmarkt, the city’s largest and most popular open-air food market, stretching … Continue reading Day 8 – Culinary Creations
I had booked dinner at a Rollercoaster restaurant which seemed like a fun thing to do with the kids. We decided to take the train there as our hotel was adjacent to a station. We bought the tickets at the station and found that there is no requirement to scan the tickets on boarding or disembarking. Even though it was 6pm on a Friday the … Continue reading Rollercoaster Dinner
We had a walking tour booked for today which would have been perfect had the temperature not expected to get to 38 degrees. Fortunately the guide contacted me overnight and we decided to do the walking bit first thing in the morning and then do have a car drive us to other key locations in the afternoon. We started at the Volksgarten park which is … Continue reading Day 7 – Kings (& Queens) and Palaces
We landed in Vienna at about 5.30 in the morning and everyone was immediately surprised with how bright the sun already was – it felt like it should be about 9.30 in the morning instead. There is a severe heat warning in place as the temperatures are expected to get up to 34 degrees today. We had been worried about the new immigration system in … Continue reading Day 6 – Arrival into Vienna
And just like that its our final day in Bangkok. We didn’t have an early start and hence had a “lazier” morning which gave us a chance to start repacking for our onward journey. After breakfast we took a “Grab” to the Jurassic World Experience. Set up on multiple levels, combining videos with animatronics, it realistically simulates the atmosphere of the famous movies. We started … Continue reading Day 5 – Jurassic Experience
One of the things we look forward to the most is a food tour wherever we visit – especially ones that take us to local eateries rather than tourist destinations. We end up going to places where you would never otherwise frequent. We had a similar tour booked for tonight, which also included getting around the city in a tuk-tuk. Not only was it a … Continue reading Food Tour in a Tuk Tuk
We started the day with a visit to the Golden Buddha temple. It is the largest Golden Buddha in the world measuring over 15ft high and weighing over 5 tons. History had it that it was covered in plaster to protect it from the invading Chinese. Its value and worth was forgotten and it was left in the fields for decades till after the temple … Continue reading Day 4 – Pansies, Palaces and Prayers
Our guide met us at our hotel bright and early at 9 this morning. Our itinerary for today is to visit the train markets followed by the floating markets. I hadn’t realised that the Maeklong train markets were over an hour away from where we are staying. Fortunately we were in a private Toyota van which was all decked out for a party. The kids … Continue reading Day 3 – Trains, Boats and Elephant Rides
Originally I was going to add our dinner excursion as part of the overall post for Day 2, however given the experience we had it deserved a post in its own right. I had planned for us to visit a restaurant called “Mocking Tales” which is themed on Harry Potter and has strong wizarding world vibes. As Uber isn’t prevalent in Thailand I downloaded the … Continue reading Dinner, Show and Drama
We all seemed to have slept quite well and no one got up too early in the morning. Hopefully keeping everyone awake till a normal bedtime last night helped us acclimatize to the change in time zones. We headed down to breakfast and were suitably impressed by the expansive buffet. I couldn’t go past a Masala Dosa followed by dumplings, while the kids tried a … Continue reading Day 2 – The Ancient City
We left home yesterday after school and drove up to Sydney for the bought as we had an earlier departure today. Coincidentally Ben had the night off work and so he came down from Newcastle to join us for dinner. We visited our regular Japanese restaurant which has become a bit of a staple before it trips. It was a rushed morning and we were … Continue reading Day 1 – Getting to Bangkok
Today we had a much more leisurely start than yesterday. We only had to be up by 0900 with a muster time of 0950. We were given the opportunity to visit Palantir, who do not normally accept visitors, as well as have lunch with a couple of their engineers. Our wakeup was later than the day before which we thanked the stars for. After breakfast … Continue reading Day Four – Its a Secret!
Today was the first day of company visits. It started with an earlier morning than the day before with an 8:00 mark off and a 9:45 muster in the lobby. Jake and I were still experimenting with our breakfast, however, and we ended up with rice, pork patties, toast and tater tots. We had also added some yoghurt with fruit, though jake experimented with some … Continue reading Day Two – Here We Come!
Yesterday we were told to be downstairs at breakfast by 8:00 sharp, not a second later. I was woken by my roommate at 7:52 in the morning. We made it out the door fully dressed at 7:55 and down a breakfast at 7:56. All in all not a bad effort. We had a quick breakfast of sausages, rice and tater-tots with some yoghurt and coffee … Continue reading Day One – Tourism Central!
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