The Dotted Route http://www.dottedroute.com Connecting the bits and pieces of my worldwide travel Sun, 30 Oct 2011 21:51:51 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Würzburg, Germany: The Residenz http://www.dottedroute.com/2011/08/wurzburg-germany-the-residenz/ http://www.dottedroute.com/2011/08/wurzburg-germany-the-residenz/#comments Mon, 15 Aug 2011 20:34:26 +0000 John http://www.dottedroute.com/?p=2103

Hauptbahnhof

Trip Taken: 2005

On a gray cloudy summer day in Bavaria, our group of intrepid travelers arrived at the northwestern tip of Bavaria and into a town called Würzburg. This city is an important transfer point for a lot of rail traffic in Germany and our transfer stop from Rothenburg to Stuttgart. However, it was planned that we would take a few hours to look around the city before heading back to our temporary German homes. We only had time for one sight and we chose to go see the Residenz, the UNESCO designated World Heritage site.

Residenz

Back Entrance to the Residenz

 

The reason the Residenz was painstakingly rebuilt after it was almost destroyed during the bombings in World War 2. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site because it is a great example of Baroque architecture and design. I will say that the grand staircase in the entrance hall is pretty magnificent. The tour we took in English was pretty good. The tour guide is pretty informative and was willing to answer any questions we had. She did tell us often to not touch the marble as the oils on our skin will erode the marble.

Garden

Beautiful walkway in the gardens

 

After the tour, most people were tired and wanted to go home. However, I was able to coerce.. I mean persuade them to take a look around the gardens. For me, it was defintely worth the extra hour we spent here. The gardens are beautiful and manicured like a French garden. We spent the hour taking pictures, walking along the different vine-covered pathways, and sitting on benches to eat our snacks. I wished I got to spend a whole day in Würzburg and I hope I get the chance to do it one day.

Parting Words

I did come back to this city once for a transfer to Copenhagen. We were here for about an hour before taking the train to go further north. One thing that I saw that night that I would have loved to do was to eat at this restaurant right by the Main River. There was a little patio

Picture Gallery

]]> http://www.dottedroute.com/2011/08/wurzburg-germany-the-residenz/feed/ 1 49.7942543 9.9274893 Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany: The Medieval Town http://www.dottedroute.com/2011/08/rothenburg-ob-der-tauber-germany-the-medieval-town/ http://www.dottedroute.com/2011/08/rothenburg-ob-der-tauber-germany-the-medieval-town/#comments Wed, 10 Aug 2011 20:56:38 +0000 John http://www.dottedroute.com/?p=2095

View from the Belltower

Trip Taken: 2005

Rothenburg ob der Tauber was one of the towns that was very high on the list of places I wanted to visit while I was still in Germany. Rothenburg is one of those towns in the middle of the Bavarian tourist trap known as the Romantic Road. It is one of the best preserved towns in Europe because it was never bombed during World War 2. Supposedly, an American military officer petitioned to know blow up the little town, at least, according to the the story by a tour guide. Kitsch is one word that could be used to describe this town, but I still asked several of my intern friends to join me and eventually we had a huge group caravaning to Rothenburg.

Medieval Crime Museum

I've been bad.

 

A strange little museum that is pretty cheap to visit is the medieval criminal museum. It is the first time I have ever seen an Iron Maiden in person. There were plenty of implements of torture on display in the museum. In fact, I think they should just change the name to the Museum of Torture. There was a quartering rack and different prods showcased. It is a little disconcerting for me because I get really grossed out by torture. It makes my skin crawl. It’s probably why I can’t watch the Saw movies. Before we left the museum, my sister and I took a picture at the stockades. Those were torturous as well since it hurt just to pose in those holes.

City Walls

I'm on a wall

 

One of the greatest things about the town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber is the well-preserved city walls. It is open for the public to walk on and it circles the entire little town. By the time I got to the walls, there wasn’t enough time to do an actual circle around the town. We had to meet everyone for the tour we were going to go on. But the little section we did do was very cool. Different parts of the wall gave different views. Some gave views into the town and some gave views to the surrounding nature.

Christmas Market and the Cathedral

Christmas decorations galore!

 

In the very center of town, like every German town, is the main cathedral for the town. It was a fairly pretty cathedral. Not the most impressive German cathedral, but not because it’s not beautiful. The standard for cathedrals is so high in Europe that good is just not good enough. Although, I will say that the views of the city from the top of the tower is well worth the price of admission.

Now to the main event. If there is one thing Rothenburg is famous for, then it is the Christmas market. If anybody loves Christmas as a holiday, this store would be a pilgrimage. It’s an entire building with two stories of just Christmas stuff. Decorations, trees, bears, and what have you all related to Christmas. There were dozens of different types of trees decorated within the store. Rows and rows of baubles to buy if you were so inclined. Even though it was fairly mild summer day, I could feel the spirit just walking through this store.

At night, I had dinner with my sister at a very dimly-lit restaurant that consisted of schnitzel and chutney. It was very yummy and the decor seemed like it came from an inn straight out of the dark ages. Some of the night time activities that the group partook in were drinking and running through the city walls. It was definitely a fun trip.

Parting Words

One of the coolest things about Rothenburg is the night time tour of the town. The tour guide dresses up like a medieval watch guard and guides the group by lantern. Also, there’s another Rothenburg that’s close to the check border. I’m not sure how fabulous that place is but make sure you go to the right one.

Picture Gallery

]]> http://www.dottedroute.com/2011/08/rothenburg-ob-der-tauber-germany-the-medieval-town/feed/ 0 49.3805046 10.1785288 One Minute Travel Videos http://www.dottedroute.com/2011/08/one-minute-travel-videos/ http://www.dottedroute.com/2011/08/one-minute-travel-videos/#comments Mon, 08 Aug 2011 19:13:22 +0000 John http://www.dottedroute.com/?p=2086

I love anything that can really say about travel that I can’t in an entire essay.  Rick Mereki made these incredible one minute shorts about three essential actions: move, learn, eat.  That is exactly what any person who is traveling should be doing.  My hat goes off to Mr. Mereki and his crew.  To say that the video inspired more than a little be of travel envy would be an understatement. Watch these videos below and inspire yourself to travel.

Move

Learn

Eat

]]> http://www.dottedroute.com/2011/08/one-minute-travel-videos/feed/ 0 New York, New York: Nyonya Malaysian Cuisine http://www.dottedroute.com/2011/08/new-york-new-york-nyonya-malaysian-cuisine/ http://www.dottedroute.com/2011/08/new-york-new-york-nyonya-malaysian-cuisine/#comments Wed, 03 Aug 2011 22:18:52 +0000 John http://www.dottedroute.com/?p=1994

Laksa

Trip Taken: 2010

Sitting on top of Rockefeller Center, I met a very cool Malaysian family from Australia. They were very friendly and even suggested a very good Malaysian place they said that I must try. It was called Nyonya and it was in Chinatown. Based on their advice, I headed south into Chinatown. Walking around Chinatown, everything actually looked close and I couldn’t tell the distinction between Little Italy and Chinatown. Maybe it was just the route I took to Nyonya. The restaurant was filled with people and that’s usually a very good sign.

Roti, Laksa, ABC

Roti with curry

 

My meal started with roti. Roti is a dish that I fell in love with in Malaysia. It is the perfect breakfast food where ever you are in Malaysia. The roti at Nyonya didn’t disappoint at all. It is thinner than naan but it is oh so good dipped in curry. The dish here was more expensive than in Malaysia, but hey, I’m in the US and in New York City. The main dish I ordered was a seafood laksa. It was pretty good and was actually exceedingly spicy. The fish paste wrapped in chili really packed a punch. The last thing I ordered was ABC. It’s dessert served in Southeast Asia. I think I got this mixed up with Cendol because I did not like ABC. It had this weird spice paste all over ice. It was not very pleasant. Overall, the meal was really good except for the last note. It was pretty cheap for New York (under $15).

Parting Words

If I were to go back to Nyonya I would probably get the fried Ker Tew. It’s like a rice noodle in the shape of rectangles. It was really good from the look of it on the table of other diners.

Picture Gallery

]]> http://www.dottedroute.com/2011/08/new-york-new-york-nyonya-malaysian-cuisine/feed/ 0 40.7164917 -73.9962540 New York, New York: Top of the Rock http://www.dottedroute.com/2011/08/new-york-new-york-top-of-the-rock/ http://www.dottedroute.com/2011/08/new-york-new-york-top-of-the-rock/#comments Mon, 01 Aug 2011 19:05:31 +0000 John http://www.dottedroute.com/?p=1992

30 Rock

Trip Taken: 2010

Rockefeller Plaza is where one of my favorite shows takes place, ’30 Rock’ on NBC. Though I don’t think I would want to bump into Liz Lemon in real life. Maybe to look at the train wreck from a far but never be caught in the maelstrom. If I bumped into Tina Fey, it would be like when Troy met Levar Burton. I only want a picture. (Okay enough with the obscure US pop culture references.) None of that happened and I walked around the plaza to explore the shops and to see where to Christmas tree would be if it were the holiday season. Then, I took myself into Rockefeller center for the elevator to the top.

View of Central Park

No, not to Jack Donaghy’s office (Had to throw one more reference in there). To the Top of the Rock I went. On our way there, I saw some of the NBC interns and thought ‘Wouldn’t this be a neat job to have?’. Not in this lifetime I’m guessing. After passing the interns, I got to top of the building and it has an absolutely spectacular view of Central Park and all of Manhattan. It might even have a better vantage point than the Empire State Building. But that’s just my opinion. I met a nice Malaysian-Australian family up there. I recommended the bakery downstairs and they recommended this great Malaysian restaurant called Nyonya. They went on their way and I stayed up there to do a little sketching. Time kind of slipped by, but the view was worth the hour or so I stayed up there.

View of Central Park

Parting Words

Go to Top of the Rock. It is well worth it and it wasn’t even on my list of things to do in New York. Rockefeller Center itself has overpriced merchandise (Unless you’re a big fan of the NBC shows). Actually, I would probably by a Community mug. In particular, the ‘Troy and Abed in the Morning’ mug.

Picture Gallery

]]> http://www.dottedroute.com/2011/08/new-york-new-york-top-of-the-rock/feed/ 0 40.7589340 -73.9800491 New York, New York: Museum of Natural History http://www.dottedroute.com/2011/07/new-york-new-york-museum-of-natural-history/ http://www.dottedroute.com/2011/07/new-york-new-york-museum-of-natural-history/#comments Fri, 29 Jul 2011 18:07:18 +0000 John http://www.dottedroute.com/?p=1990

Subway stop

Trip Taken: 2010

The third, but no less important, museum I wanted to visit in New York was the American Museum of Natural History. It is kind of funny to me that this museum is on the Upper West Side and the The Met is on the Upper East Side. I wonder if there is a little rivalry between the residents of the two sides of Central Park on which museum is better. Getting to this museum took a little bit of coordinating with the subway stops. After several stops, I finally got to the west part of Central Park and the museum. Good thing I got to the museum before the rain started to really come down.

Space

Space Rock

For some reason the name Neil Tyson Degrasse comes to mind when I visited the space wing. It probably has to do with the fact that he is the director of the planetarium. Of course, the first thing I did was to see the planetarium show. It was a very good show and I beat the crowds since I went early. The show takes a minute look to a large view of the entire universe. The really cool thing during the show was the zoom out from earth to the solar system to the galaxy to the galaxy cluster and further. After the show, I visited some of the exhibits and the meteor stones. One of the great things about this wing was all the natural light and open atrium.

Taxidermy

Bison

For the remainder of my visit, I was reminded of the Ben Stiller movie ‘Night at the Museum’ since that movie was filmed here. The animal room is pretty spectacular and they just go and on. There was the room with the large land animals. The wall display of all the different ocean life and of course the large blue whale hanging in one of the ocean rooms. One of the coolest things about this part of this part of the museum is the rainforest exhibit. If you look closely at some of the dark places between the leaves, you might see some animals hiding.

Dinosaurs

Triceratop

In the beginning, there was a dinosaur. Literally. In the entrance lobby of the museum is a huge dinosaur skeleton that almost reaches to the ceiling. It is very impressive. Of course, there is also the huge dinosaur wing further in the museum. Almost all of the large dinosaurs were represented there. The T-Rex and Triceratops were standouts. It is fun watching all the little kids pointing and smiling at the different dino skeletons.

Gems

Green gem

If I were to launch a heist of this museum, then this would probably be the wing I would head to first. I actually think that it probably doesn’t hold the most priceless pieces in the museum, but it definitely has some of the prettiest pieces. Emeralds, rubies, and diamonds oh my! Of course, there were also every gem in between. The entire gem section looked like the gem collection of royalty. Thoroughly tired from trying to see everything, I braved the rain and stepped back into the streets of New York.

Parting Words

There were also a lot of cool anthropological exhibits in this museum such as the stuff from the Pacific Northwest, Africa, and Asia. One of the coolest things in the museum was this scarf made from the silk of the Golden Orb Spider. All of the silk was drawn from these spiders and just the story behind this golden scarf is amazing.  Imagine the bites just to coax the silk out of them.

Picture Gallery

]]> http://www.dottedroute.com/2011/07/new-york-new-york-museum-of-natural-history/feed/ 0 40.7807541 -73.9738541 New York, New York: Around the New York Public Library http://www.dottedroute.com/2011/07/new-york-new-york-around-the-new-york-public-library/ http://www.dottedroute.com/2011/07/new-york-new-york-around-the-new-york-public-library/#comments Thu, 28 Jul 2011 13:51:16 +0000 John http://www.dottedroute.com/?p=1986

Side of the New York Public Library

Trip Taken: 2010

After spending the better part of the early afternoon at the twin tower site, I decided to do visit some of the miscellaneous tourist places on my list of things to do in New York. So, I decided to go shopping, visit the public library, and Grand Central Terminal. I took the subway instead of just walking the several blocks north to the Flatiron building.

The Flatiron District

Flatiron Building

 

If you have ever watched a couple of TV shows or movies based in New York City, then the Flatiron building should be a very familiar sight to you. It’s a triangular building that kind of looks like the front of an iron. (I wonder if that is how it got its name.) I wanted to take a few photos of it just because it is iconic. It reminds of another triangular building in San Francisco. Not exactly famous but nostalgic for me.

After taking my photos, I headed for Union Square Park. The park had some great street performers and people just hanging. But my destination was actually across the park. There was a discount clothing store called Filene’s Basement I wanted to check out. Supposedly, it’s possible to find some great finds at basement prices. I didn’t find any designer clothes but I did find a cool Germany shirt.

New York Public Library

Second floor of the library

 

I had some extra time to kill in the afternoon so I headed to Bryant Park and the New York Public Library. Walking around Bryant Park, I find it strange that this small place could hold New York Fashion Week. Anyways, the library is right inside the park. The lobby is a great piece of interior architecture, which I think is made of stone. The main hall was closed for some reason, but everything felt very beige as in the marble. It’s a cool feeling and the A/C was welcome relief from the heat.

Grand Central Terminal

Grand Central

 

I’ve always thought it was called Grand Central Station but that’s actually a misnomer. It is suppose to be terminal. Since a lot of my knowledge relies of film and television. I remember this place mostly from the movie ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’ and the flash mob videos. When I visited, there were no flash mobs, but a lot of busy commuters going to and fro. It is quite a large space but it is noisier than I imagined.

Parting Words

There is so much activity happening in New York at any given time. I walked into Times Square and several of the musicals were doing a free show to promote the theater scene. Outside the New York Public Library, there was a men’s choir singing to entertain the tourists and to raise money for some charity. Walking around New York is definitely fun on any given day.

Picture Gallery

]]> http://www.dottedroute.com/2011/07/new-york-new-york-around-the-new-york-public-library/feed/ 0 40.7531242 -73.9822235 New York, New York: Twin Tower Site http://www.dottedroute.com/2011/07/new-york-new-york-twin-tower-site/ http://www.dottedroute.com/2011/07/new-york-new-york-twin-tower-site/#comments Wed, 27 Jul 2011 20:05:22 +0000 John http://www.dottedroute.com/?p=1981

Fence covering construction

Trip Taken: 2010

My visit to New York City also coincided with the single most devastating act of terrorism on US soil. It would be the ninth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the twin towers of the World Trade Center. I remember where I was that day. Still sleeping in my dorm room my freshman year and my roommate woke me up at around 6am to tell me there was an attack on New York. I didn’t really believe him and went to my first lab of the semester. Lab was pretty much cancelled and the rest of the day was pretty down. Remembering all that, I headed down to midtown to see what I would feel actually seeing the site.

One World Trace Center Tower Construction

At the site of the twin towers on the 11th of September, there were plenty of crazy to go along with the somber. There was someone standing by the site with a t-shirt that says ’9/11 was an inside job’. There were protesters blaming the current administration. How that was relevant to the commemoration is something I probably won’t ever figure out. There were definitely a lot o police officers. There was one building right across from the construction site where you could see past the fence. The building manager obviously didn’t mind as there were tons of people looking out the second story window.

Before I left the site, I left a little paper crane that I made before at the site with a plaque commemorating the people who died. It was suppose to be a gesture of hope and remembrance. In terms of practicality, I was probably just adding to the litter to the trash heaps of New York.

Parting Words

Looking at the current construction of One World Trade Center, it looks like it is going up really fast in the last few months. Last time I checked, they were already doing construction on the 74th floor. Can’t wait to see what it looks like when it is completed in two years if not sooner.

Picture Gallery

]]> http://www.dottedroute.com/2011/07/new-york-new-york-twin-tower-site/feed/ 0 40.7116241 -74.0107117 New York, New York: Museum of Modern Art http://www.dottedroute.com/2011/07/new-york-new-york-museum-of-modern-art/ http://www.dottedroute.com/2011/07/new-york-new-york-museum-of-modern-art/#comments Tue, 26 Jul 2011 16:03:17 +0000 John http://www.dottedroute.com/?p=1939

Entrance to MoMa

Trip Taken: 2010

The second museum I wanted to visit was the Museum of Modern Art or better known as MoMa. There is the MoMa PS1 in Brooklyn, but I only had intentions to visit the main complex. I probably would visit the Whitney or the Guggenheim before the PS1. It’s suppose to be more of the experimental art installations in Brooklyn. Anyways, I was really excited to see ‘Starry Night’ by Van Gogh. It is one of my favorite pieces of art. But I would be pleasantly surprised by the other treasures to be found here.

Statue Garden

Statue Garden

The statue garden right on the first floor of the museum is pretty striking. It is right after the ticket stile and is home to some small and large sculptures alike. It looks like it would be a very peaceful place to hang out for a few hours. One of the cool pieces was this wish tree by Yoko Ono (Yes, that Yoko Ono). It is an interactive exhibit where you write your wish on a piece of paper and you tie it on the tree. My wish still hasn’t come true, but I hope it will. Yoko Ono has another cool interactive installation on the upper floor where you yell into a mike. It is suppose to be some sort of cathartic expression in a public place. Some people call it ludicrous. I did it. It was fun and exhilarating. If that was Ono’s intent, then it was a success.

Monet’s Waterlilies

Waterlilies

Moving into the impressionism and post-impressionism styles of art, I finally saw Van Gogh’s Starry Night. It was smaller than what I thought it would be. It was still as intricate as I thought it would be. However, the most impressive thing was definitely Monet’s Waterlilies on wooden panels. I’ve seen several of Monet’s waterlilies in various museums around the world and never knew why they were so famous. Now I know why. These waterlilies panels are enormous. Six feet tall and at least eighteen feet wide. In all of that space, there is so much detail. Listening in on one of the tour guides, I found out that some of the other panels were damaged by fire so these pieces are a rare example of Monet’s large waterlilies panel.

Mondrian, Matisse, and Modern Art

Mondrian's Broadway Boogie Woogie

It wouldn’t be modern art if it didn’t go past impressionism. Picasso, Matisse, and others were well represented. There were different Lichtensteins all over the galleries. The large Matisse painting of dances was there too. Two of the pieces that were really striking to me were Piet Mondrian’s ‘Broadway Boogie Woogie’ and a painting by Klimt. I loved ‘Broadway Boogie Woogie’ ever since I saw a Pac-man version of it to celebrate Mondrian’s birthday. It might have been Google but I’m not sure. Klimt has been a favorite of mine ever since visiting the Leopold museum in Vienna so it was nice to see him represented.

Parting Words

There were also cool furniture pieces and technology installations that used social media as art. There was a interactive balloon that took messages from a dating website and put them as thought bubbles for each individual balloon representing a person. The representation of these new art mediums is probably why MoMa will continue to be relevant.

Picture Gallery

]]> http://www.dottedroute.com/2011/07/new-york-new-york-museum-of-modern-art/feed/ 0 40.7613754 -73.9776077 New York, New York: The Guggenheim Food Day http://www.dottedroute.com/2011/07/new-york-new-york-the-guggenheim-food-day/ http://www.dottedroute.com/2011/07/new-york-new-york-the-guggenheim-food-day/#comments Mon, 25 Jul 2011 20:28:08 +0000 John http://www.dottedroute.com/?p=1997

Japanese lunch

Trip Taken: 2010

With three museums under my belt, I was reluctant to go to the Guggenheim Museum. There wasn’t anything I really wanted to see there and it was all the way up on the northeast side of Central Park. But, I didn’t have any other real plans for that day so I decided to just go and see how I felt when I got there.

Guggenheim Museum

Guggenheim Museum

 

Frank Lloyd Wright’s iconic building in New York City is one of the most striking pieces of architecture I have ever seen. It fits weirdly with the luxury brownstones and the classical style of The Met across the street. I got to the Guggenheim and decided not to pay the entrance fee to go in. I had enough of museums, but I did walk into the gorgeous atrium. The concentric makes it seem like the ramp will go on forever. The white palette makes the entire place serene. I took a small stroll through the gift shop, decided against buying a necklace, and basically sat outside admiring the view until I got hungry.

Wajima: Japanese Bento Lunch

Wajima interior

 

I was looking for a lunch special since food in New York is so expensive and there was one not too far from the Guggenheim. Wajima is a little Japanese place on the Upper East Side that was found through Yelp. Yes, it was one of the rare occasions were I didn’t turn to my Lonely Planet guide. I sat at the bar and ordered the lunch special, which came with: rice, soup, tempura, sashimi, and soba. It was all very delicious for about ten dollars. Service was quick and prompt. My only quibble about this place is the clientele. They skew on the older side and one person even came up to me to complain about my Germany t-shirt, saying Americans don’t like Germans. I was like “what?..”. This is a little ironic seeing how we were eating in a Japanese restaurant. The Germans weren’t our only enemies during WWII grandpa!

Eileen’s: Cheesecake for Dessert

Tea and cake

 

After my mostly satisfying lunch, I did a little shopping in Soho (Hurray for Yellow Rat Bastard, Topshop, Uniqlo). I bought some gifts for friends back in the West Coast and went to look for some afternoon treats. My objective was to find a good New York cheesecake and headed toward Times Square for Junior’s. I walked around for maybe an hour trying to look for this place and had no luck. I want to try Junior’s and will definitely try to find it next time.

But my second choice, Eileen’s, was much easier to find. It was close to Soho, so I had to backtrack. Eileen’s is a cute little shop with what looks like just cheesecakes. I bought myself a cup of tea and a small strawberry cheesecake. The cheesecake was good, but softer than I would have liked. Maybe that is how cheesecake is suppose to be. The consistency was goopier than I like my cheesecake.

Opa: Greek for Dinner

Kebab plate

 

After a bit more wandering, it was close to dinner time. It is a bit of tragedy that I’ve stayed in the Astoria neighborhood of the borough of Queens and I have not had a bite of Greek food yet during my stay in New York. So I decided that it would be my last real meal in New York. My host through, AirBnB, graciously recommended a local restaurant called Opa. Walking through the restaurant, the atmosphere is a little dingy until you get to the back patio area which is like a garden party explosion. Greek flags, grape vines, and Christmas lights are strewn everywhere. Service was fast and the food was food. I ordered the combo plate and it came with a complimentary eggplant appetizer. What was great about this meal is that it introduced me to Souvlaki. Love Souvlaki. After this wonderful New York day, I wish I could have more good food days like this.

Parting Words

New York is a great food city like most big cities are. Great variety and competition spawns some of the best food in the world. If I had a bigger budget, I probably would’ve booked a table at Thomas Keller’s Per Se or Daniel Boulod’s Boulod. Maybe some day I will get to treat myself.

Picture Gallery

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