Hong Kong. October 17 - 24, 2018.

There are a couple of family items I need to take care of, and I also thought $600 roundtrip was too good a deal to pass up …

Wednesday 10/17.  So here I am, inside UA179, about 6 hours into the flight.  For future reference: the plane just flew beyond Greenland, and I lost the internet connection.

Anne never thinks cheap airfare is a reason to take a trip, so she is not coming along.  Instead she went to visit Hoboken and see how the grandkids are doing: Ellie being away on a yoga retreat.

The plane is quite full, but I do have an empty seat next to me.  I think I managed a couple of hours of fitful sleep. 

Thursday 10/18.  The plane was to get in a few minutes early, but we were put on hold for about 15 minutes, so we ended up being a few minutes late.  One would think they should give some sort of priority to these long-haul flights: I am sure everyone was impatient after being inside a plane for over 16 hours (including boarding and departure taxiing.)  I wonder how landing slots are prioritized as I am sure there are many regional flights at any given time.

Our holding pattern before we landed at HKG airport.

Alan, for whom I brought along the remaining 20 lbs or so of luggage, was waiting for me as I got out of customs.  We had a light meal before we went our own way.

 Alan and I at Tai Hing HKG.

I had the "Fish and Bean Curd" casserole.

Accommodation: Causeway Bay apartment (whole trip.)

Friday 10/19.  Saw and talked to Tim a bit this morning, then went off to (i) have breakfast, and (ii) walk around Victoria Park.

 I had never seen these two horse sculptures before in my many visits to Victoria Park, and I couldn't find any reference to them in my (cursory) search of the web.

Typhoon Mangkhut passed near Hong Kong on September 16 and fell 46,000 trees in Hong Kong per some reports.  There are still signs of damage in the Park, but the place is mostly cleaned up.  There are quite a few fallen trees that have been cut.

I bought a ticket to tonight’s Hong Kong Philharmonic concert, and really enjoyed the performance.

Jing Wang, Hong Kong Philharmonic's concertmaster, performed the Brahms violin concerto.  Here he was thanking his colleagues.  It was an enjoyable concert.

I had a snack at around 5 pm, so didn’t have dinner until after the concert (around 10:30 pm, at Mak’s Noodles in Causeway Bay.)

 I ate quite a few meals today, although I did avoid carbs, for the most part.  I only ate a third of the slice of bread from this breakfast at Cafe de Coral.

 I had a light lunch at Maxim's, so supplemented that with this Pepper Lunch dish.

 Couldn't resist French Toast, this one at Nam Loong.

At about 10:30 pm, after the concert, I went for this at Mak's Noodles.

 Without trying very hard, this is the level of activity I had today.

Anne mentioned that the entire Hong Kong Island is not 9.6 miles.

Saturday 10/20.  Breakfast and coffee with Alfred at Mongkok East to catch up.  Said goodbye at 12:30 pm so I could get to Tsuen Wan, about 45 minutes away on MTR.  Met up with Alan, Farina, and their daughter Yan-Yan for lunch.  They all seemed quite well-adjusted.  I had not visited Tsuen Wan for a long time, it is just like any of the other districts (such as Shatin), with lots of shopping around the MTR station.  Traffic seemed less chaotic, from what I could see.

Lunch with Lee's in Tsuen Wan.

Breakfast of chicken and eggs.

Wontons for late night dinner at Ngan Loong.

Sunday 10/21.  Attended the 10:45 am service at North Point Alliance Church, was hoping – but didn’t – catch Raymond, my classmate from high school.  Wandered around the area a bit after eating lunch.

Wandering around the North Point area, I came across this interesting street corner.

I ate TWO lunches.  This at JP Porridge in North Point.

Cafe de Coral.

Dinner was at this relatively new restaurant called “John Anthony” located on Sunning Road.  They have an interesting take – both presentation and recipe – on some standard Chinese dishes (claim is Cantonese, but in actuality wider than that.)  I found most of the dishes to be good, except a couple of them were a bit on the salty side.  Later that night I had some wontons at Mak’s, again.

This is a duck dish at John Anthony's.  Little duck, a lot of caramel (which you are not supposed to eat.)

Wagyu Char-Siu.  The ultimate compliment would be it tastes just like char-siu.  At 5x to 10x the price.

I enjoyed this smoked chicken dish.

Instead of baked rack of lamb, these were deep fried and smothered in cumin.  I liked it.

Sweet and sour pork where the pineapple slices are fried, and fried dough also used as an ingredient.

"Four Seasons" string bean dish is quite traditional.  A bit too salty for many people.

 This cod dish was quite good, but by the time it was served I didn't bother to find out what was special about it.

This is Mickey Mouse's 90th birthday.  Display in the atrium of Times Square.

Late night snack at Mak's Noodles.

Monday 10/22.  I had dim sum lunch with E & L at the Jockey Club.  At 5 pm I met up with four DBS old boys who were members of the DBS Scouts chat group.  They are all younger than me (from 2 to 9 years) but there was a surprising amount of commonality.

I was a Scout during my high school years, and belong to a chat group of scouts from my high school with most members graduating in the 70s.  We met for coffee at Le Pain Quotidian at Pacific Place, from left: Daniel, Jimmy, William, and Jerry. 

I went to this concert by the British vocal ensemble Stile Antico.  They sang mostly polyphonic songs from the 16^th Century Renaissance era.

 Stile Antico sang a program of mostly 16th Century polyphonal music at City Hall Concert Hall.

I ended up eating many late night dinners/snacks.  Here is a bowl of fish balls at Ngan Loong.

Tuesday 10/23.  Lunch was with Joe T of Hope International at Lee Lo Mei on Lyndhurst Street, a restaurant with new takes on nostalgic dishes from old Hong Kong.  We both picked the steak.  It was on a hot grill, and not seasoned as heavily as I remembered it.  Quite good.  Dessert was red bean soup, with some granulated confectionery sugar sprinkled on top (not sure how to describe it.)

Lunch with Joe T was at a nostalgic restaurant.  The steak was quite good.

Through Facebook I found out Elaine and Dominic were in town, so we met up for coffee in Causeway Bay.  Elaine left after about an hour, but Dominic and I talked for another hour.  All for the price of one drink – good it was slow time of the day for the café.  While Anne and I would run into Elaine every few years, this was the first time I saw Dominic since the 1980s: we had a couple of years overlap at a church in New Brunswick.  It was nice to catch up.

Over tea the Kungs and I talked for quite a bit at this cafe (called "Glee Cafe" on google maps).

Joe T was free that evening, so we met for dinner in the HK University area, where he lives.  And another dessert place.  I had the almond and sesame paste with sesame-filled sweet dumplings (only the Cantonese would think of concocting this as dessert.)  Joe T had something similar.  I finished mine, he didn’t particularly care for his.  It was around 9 pm that I headed back to CWB.

 I forget why I was grimacing, but these were the dishes Joe T and I had for dinner.  The Malacca Restaurant is located in Hotel Jen, a Shangri-La property.  We first encountered this hotel in Brisbane.  You know the trip isn't eventful when most of the photos are of food.

Not part of the trip.  But a purple BMW 4 series!

Wednesday 10/24.  Woke up at around 6:30 am, left the apartment about an hour later.  The Uber driver had trouble finding the place: with so many tall buildings and one-way streets it was easy to overshoot turns.  Still I got to the airport at around 8:30 am, my slightly larger than usual roller suitcase didn’t cause any problems with security.  That gave me time to hit both the Premium Plaza and United Club lounges, and have two breakfasts; neither worth writing home about, though.

 Breakfast at Premium Plaza Lounge at HKG.  They also have a noodle station.

 What I got at the United Club.  The eggs looked better, and they had bacon.  However, the food was cold.  Slight edge to the Premium Plaza this time.

And they were both better than what was served on UA180.  

Plane left on time, and there is an empty middle set, so I am fine.  I bought internet access again as I had to work on some issues.  As the routing is over the Pacific, service has not been interrupted much.  But very slow.

Plane landed on time, Anne came by to pick me up.

Reformation Tour – Italy, Germany and Switzerland. Part II. September 19 – October 3, 2018.

Continued from Part I.

Thursday 9/27.  Today’s program was relatively light.  We were met at the Mainz town square by Peter, the local guide.  He first described the town square, and the truncated column in the middle (probably planned, but not used for the Cathedral,) and the meanings of the various bronze sculptures at the column’s base.  The Mainz Cathedral was started in the 10^th century, and is unusual in several aspects: it has two presbyteriums (a German word that means “chancel”) dedicated to St. Martin and St.Stephen; the main door faces south, instead of the traditional west; being of Romanesque design, it was quite dark inside (not unusual for that design, I suppose.)  We didn’t have time to explore the cathedral in detail.

The Mainz Cathedral is dedicated to St. Martin and St. Stephen.  Construction started in 985.

 Semi-circular arches identify the architecture as Romanesque.  Later additions would include some Gothic design.

 Our guide Peter explaining how unusual it was to have the artists names engraved on the doors back then.

 One of the sculptures around the column in town square.  Inside the helmet is a fox and three mice (not seen in this photo), symbols of some prominent families at the time.

I had known that Gutenberg invented the printing press (not the specifics) since high school, so was a bit surprised when the guide explained there was a lot of controversy surrounding the true inventor.  In any case, there was no patent protection, and Gutenberg eventually went bankrupt.  Peter also donned a printer’s apron and demonstrated how the process worked.  After lunch Anne and I went back to the place to take a more detailed look.  I was surprised at how the Chinese had started printing books (by a different method) since around the 6^th century.

 Statue of Gutenberg in the museum.

 The museum gives due credit to others who also invented printing.  Bi Sheng of China dates back to the 11th century.

Becky, a fellow tour member, helping Peter to demonstrate how the printing press worked.

Jurg suggested two types of food: schweinshaxe and fish.  We tried both, former at Augustinos and latter at Fisch Jackob.  We also had coffee and cake at Dom Café, to boot.

 Schweinshaxe at the Augustinakeller Restaurant.

 I had fish soup and fried fish at Fisch Jackob.

 Sharing a piece of cake and having coffee at the Dome Cafe.  The houses around the square were destroyed during WWII, some of these rebuilt houses have facades to make them look medieval.

The other restaurant recommended by our tour director was the Holy Ghost.

Mainz is on the bank of the Rhine, we saw several cruise ships docked there.  Jurg, who also worked cruises, said a 10-day cruise can range in price from around $1,500 to $15,000, with the luxury lines offer a guest to crew ratio of 1:1.

Several cruise ships were docked in the Rhine.

For dinner, Anne and I walked to a McDonald’s that was about 1 km away.  It took around 25 minutes between order and food delivery, which was one of the slowest I have experienced.  I was so disappointed that I went through Google Translate to send in my feedback.

Friday 9/28.  It was a relatively short drive from Russelsheim to Worms.  Our guide Maria turned our 1 ½ hour tour into one that was closer to 3 hours, which was great value for the money.  Worms was destroyed completely by Louis XIV in the 17^th century, and again by the allies during World War II, thus much of the city was rebuilt.  Outside the visitor center they have a film depicting what the city looked like during Luther's visit in 1521, based on records they could locate and – undoubtedly – a bit of poetic license.  The significance of this place was that Luther was given safe passage to come here from Wittenberg so he would be given a chance to recant his beliefs.  At the end, he stood firm and concluded with his famous saying “I cannot and will not recant anything … May God help me.  Amen.”  The large Luther statue is not located at where he stood before the Diet; the actual location is marked by a small plaque; in 2016 someone added a pair of boots next to it.

 The Trinity Church was built to honor Luther.

 The interior was redone after it was destroyed during WWII.

 The artwork in the balcony shows King Charles seated on high, Luther's accuser is on the left, and Luther is on the right (as indicated by the ray.)

 A room in the church has on display various painting of Luther at the Diet of Worms.  This has an Adventures of Tintin theme.

 Martin Luther Monument is surrounded by sculptures of four men: Peter Waldo of France, John Wycliffe of England, Girolamo Savonarola of Italy, and Jan Hus of Bohemia.

 Where Luther actually stood is marked by a plaque.  The location is close to the Cathedral (Catholic) so a statue would probably be problematic.

 In 2016 a pair of shoes was added.  They are the same size as the one worn by the statue at the monument.

More detailed look at Luther's statement which ended with "May God help me.  Amen."

Our guide spent a lot of time taking us through St. Peter’s Cathedral – we suspect she is Catholic.  Since Luther is still banned from the Catholic church, it was a surprise when she pointed out his presence.  It was a stained glass window depicting the history of worms.  What was even more surprising was on that pane we also found the phrases Sola Fide, Sola Gratia, and Sola Scriptura.

 St. Peter's Cathedral.  The two arches above the doorway have parallel Old and New Testament stories.

 Inside the Cathedral.

How does a protestant find his way into a Catholic Church?  Luther is acknowledged in one of the panes of this stained glass window describing the history of Worms.

Four panels with phrases "Solus Christus" and others on them.

We stopped at City Doner for lunch.  Anne lost her small money bag, luckily she only had a few euros in it.

Heidelberg is located on the banks of Neckar, and is quite busy with tourists.  There is also some Reformation connection, but that isn’t on this tour’s program.  We had some time before dinner, so decided to take the funicular up the hill.  Time constraints made it impossible to go all the way to the top.

 Heidelberg Castle is a short climb from town.

View of town from Funicular platform.

Group dinner was in Heidelberg.  We stayed until around 9 pm.

Our hotel for the night.

Accommodations: ISG Heidelberg (1 night.)

Saturday 9/29.  Our wake up call was at 7 am, a bit later than usual, and we departed at 9 am for Konstanz, Germany.  The legendary German Autobahn was more like a parking lot today, with accidents and roadwork causing quite a bit of delay for our journey.  It was close to 1:30 pm when we got to Konstanz; without traffic or rest stops it would take at least 1 ½ less.  By the time we got organized outside the Jan Hus Museum it was past 2 pm.  Jan Hus was a Bohemian (today’s Czech Republic) who was burned at the stake in 1415 after being condemned by the Council of Konstanz.  The display also talked about how his student Jerome first supported him, then renounced him, but finally was also burned at the stake because he reasserted his beliefs.

 One complaint with the tour was that little consideration was given to rest breaks.  This was an unscheduled stop on our way to Zurich.

 Jan Hus Museum in Konstanz.  It gives a detailed story on Hus's life.

The word "schmuck" in German means jewelry.

The other attraction was the Imperia statue, erected clandestinely in 1993 to commemorate (more like make fun) of the Council, with a woman holding a naked pope and emperor in her hands.

The Imperia is a harsh satire of the power structure during Hus's time.

On the way to Zurich, Gibson talked a bit about the four reformers around the Luther statue we saw in Worms: Petrus Waldus of France, John Wyclif of England, Jan Hus of Bohemia, and Girolamo Savonarola of Italy.

We checked into the hotel a little before 5 pm, and were on our way to town by about 5:15 pm.  We managed to get to the Zurich Opera House a little after 6, and I bought a couple of tickets for La Boheme while Anne picked up food at the nearby McDonalds.  We had a bit of problem with finding the trams at the Flughafen interchange on the way back, but got back to the hotel at around 10:30 pm.

 Listening to an opera inside the Zurich Opera House is always an enjoyable experience.

Conclusion of La Boheme.

Accommodations: Movenpick Hotel Zurich Airport (2 nights.)

Sunday 9/30.  We got to Lake Zurich at 8:30 am and walked around a bit before the local tour guides showed up.  Regula led our subgroup of 12 and conducted a mostly “Zwingli” reformation tour.  The dark side of the reformation was its intolerance towards the Anabaptists, with many executed for their “heretical” beliefs such as adult baptism.  On the other hand, Zwingli’s influence was wider than in religion, he promoted - among other things - work (evidently at that time people thought only common people worked,) education, and government-supported welfare.  We had seen many of the sights on our prior visits to Zurich, but for this trip got a deeper understanding of the significance of the churches, the role Zwingli and Bollinger played during the Swiss Reformation, and the above-mentioned persecution of Anabaptists.

 Fraumunster is closed on Sundays, so we didn't get to go in for a visit.

 Nor to walk around in this nicely laid out garden.

 Zwingli was a key figure in the Zurich Reformation movement.  Here is the house he lived in, right next to Grossmunster.

 Statue of Zwingli along the Limmat River.

 Zwingli's "office apartment," now part of Kulturhaus Helferei.

 Froschau was a printer during Zwingli's days.  His printing presses greatly helped the spread of the ideas of Reformation.

 Zwingli set up the first "soup kitchen" outside of this church (Predigerkirche.)

A dark side of the Reformation was the zeal the "main liners" had persecuting those they didn't agree with.  The Anabaptist Felix Manz would be drowned at this location along the Limmat.

During lunch break Anne and I climbed up the tower in Grossmunster with a great view of the city.

 For seniors the cost to go up the tower is 2 euros.  It involves a climb of close to 200 steps.

 The initial 100 or so steps is this narrow spiral staircase.

Panoramic view of Zurich from the tower.

The group proceeded to visit a monastery in Eisendeln, I dropped off to attend a second opera, Vivaldi’s La verita in cimento.  After which I hanged around the city and rejoined the bus on its return trip to the hotel.

Curtain call, Vivaldi's La verita in cimento.

 The same curry wurst cost 2 euros in Konstanz.

Dragon boat in Switzerland?

A mesmerizing display of soap bubbles.

The hotel offers frequent shuttle buses to the airport (less than 10 minutes away), and we used it to have dinner (I at Nordsee, Anne at an Asian outfit) and Migros shopping (mostly chocolates.)

Monday 10/1.  Our first stop was a cave where Anabaptists were hiding out from persecution during the time of persecution in the 1520s.  It is difficult for me to understand why they were persecuted to such lengths by people who themselves were persecuted not too long ago.  I also found out that Manz was betrayed by a friend.  Next on the itinerary was Gruyere of cheese fame.  Somewhere along the route the signs turned from German into French, and we will be in French-speaking Switzerland the rest of the trip.  Gruyere is a tourist town dominated by the Chateau.  We didn’t have enough time to visit the Chateau, but did have a simple lunch in the HR Giger Restaurant.  The meringue and gruyere double cream was a nice dessert.  We had a bonus stop at the Caillers chocolate factory. It started at around 1900, but has since been owned by Nestle since the 1930s.  A tour of about 20 minutes tells the story of chocolate and the company, and at the end of the tour there were free samples of chocolate.  Too bad I had to limit how much I could eat.  Nonetheless we bought a couple of bars to bring home.

 Felix Manz was hiding out in this cave.  He was betrayed by a "friend" and handed over to the Zurich government, and was eventually executed by drowning.

 Group photo near the cave.

 H. R. Giger was a Swiss artist involved with the movie "The Alien."  There is a museum and a cafe named after him in Gruyere.  The cafe has an "Alien" theme.

 The Meringue and Gruyere Double Cream was a nice dessert.

 The streets were quiet on this drizzly day.

 Chateau Gruyere dominates the village.  We didn't have time to go in for a visit, though.

An Alien standing guard outside the museum.

One of the oldest names in chocolate, Caillers has been owned by Nestle since the 1930s.

Traffic in Geneva was particularly congested, and our driver scraped the side of the bus against some traffic barriers (leaving a long streak along the side of the bus.)  Dinner was at a food court in the shopping center next doors; we had Chinese this time.  Folks working there didn’t understand English, but spoke Chinese fine.

Accommodations: Ramada Encore Geneva (2 nights.)

Tuesday 10/2.  We waited by the Reformation Wall for about 30 minutes before our guide showed up.  An unfortunate aspect of this trip was the hours we spent waiting for groups to get together, go to the restroom, or to decide on what to do.  A more tightly run trip would have left a lot more time for sightseeing, rest, or more visits.

We didn’t learn as much about Calvin today as we did about Zwingli in Zurich.  By most measures Calvin was more influential to today’s evangelical protestant movement than Zwingli.  One factor could be not too many sites from Calvin’s days are extant today, the other could well be a less-informed tour guide. 

In any case, we visited the church where Calvin preached, St. Peter’s Cathedral which was converted to a protestant church, and the school he established for education of boys aged 16 – 18.  We also saw a Lutheran church which looks like a regular building from the outside; reason being Lutherans may not be accepted by the more zealous Calvinists.

 Promenade des Bastions.

 An interesting display outside the park, I wonder what all the cigarette butts signify.

 Central portion of the Reformation Wall showing William Farel, John Calvin, Theodore Beza, and John Knox.

 Front of St. Peter's Cathedral in Geneva.

 The two towers of the cathedral with a central spire.

 This chapel is part of the cathedral, not sure where exactly it is located.

 Cantor's seat.  During Calvin's days organs were not allowed inside the church, so the cantor would give the pitch for the congregation.

 Maccabees Chapel.

 The outside of the Lutheran Church looks like a regular house.  The Calvinists advised that they didn't "advertise" themselves.

 Inside the Lutheran Church.

 Calvin established this school for boys aged 16 - 18.

 An old street lamp.

The best I could tell is that this is a ramp for parking.

After the two hour tour Anne and I went down to lakeside to have lunch (pizza and sandwich), and walked around the waterfront a bit.  A multi-ticket allowed us to visit the Reformation Museum, the tower of the Cathedral (about 150 steps), and the Archaelogical Museum (Geneva dates back to BC times.)  The tour bus too us back to the hotel.

We left the hotel at 6 pm for our farewell dinner in town.  It was about 10 pm when we got back.

Wednesday 10/3.  Alarm was set for 5:30 am this morning.  The restaurant at the hotel opens at 6:30 am in the morning, so we decided (more like I decided over Anne’s objections) to have a quick breakfast before we left for the airport.  There were no taxis when we checked out at the hotel, so we took the bus option instead.  Evidently hotel guests are given public transportation vouchers for their stay.  True for Ramada, probably true for other hotels as well.  We got on the 7:22 am bus, and got to the airport at around 8 am.

It was somewhat of a surprise that we had to show our passport four times (luggage check, before security, passport control,  and before boarding) before we boarded the plane, but it was still a rather efficient process.  The plane is quite full in economy, but there are a few empty seats in economy plus.  Anne and I have the A and B seats in this 767, though.  So far the meal service has been better than what is typically offered on the Newark – Hong Kong flights.

Arrival at Newark.

Flight was uneventful, immigration and customs was straightforward, and we took an Uber home.