Paleis op de Dam

In English, it's called the Royal Palace on the Dam, simply because its located on the Dam Square, in the heart of the city. This is the Royal Palace of Amsterdam was originally built as the city hall for the magistrates of Amsterdam. In the 17th century, it was the largest secular building of Europe.

It is used mainly for official state functions, for example state visits, the Queen's New Year reception and other official receptions. Every year, it provides the setting for the presentation of various official and royal prizes.

Call me lucky, cos the Royal Palace is no longer open to visitors as its now closed for a major renovation/restoration.

Geneva, Lausanne and a fraction of France

I went to Geneva from the 20th till the 24th of January. I visited Geneva, put up at Shawna's place and she was in fact, my tour guide for the whole trip. To cut it short, the following is the summary accompanied by some photos!

I arrived in Geneva via Easyjet for a total of 70Euros, on Wednesday, at around 11pm. The flight took me no more than 1.5hours, thus the lack of comfort on the plane didn't really get to me. Shawna picked me up from Gare-Cornavin station and we first caught up - about the people we knew in Mass Comm and etc. I have to admit, it was really nice to speak singlish once again!


Thursday: We first went to rent our skis and mine amounted to only 32francs which is around SGD$43 and that's not too bad at all, considering it included the ski boots, the skis and the sticks. Then we walked around the city, did some shopping and some sightseeing. However, i must say, the shopping was quite expensive - clothes, accessories, food and etc. pffft. Saw the Jet d'eau - It's one of the largest fountains in the world. Situated at the point where Lake Geneva empties into the Rhone River, it is visible throughout the city and from the air, even when flying over Geneva at an altitude of 10 km (33,000 ft). Too bad, it was a cloudy day!

The highlight of this trip (apart from skiing) is visiting the United Nations Office in Geneva (UNOG) and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees office. I also took photos at the big renowned chair seated right outside the gates of UNOG.

The towering, gargantuan, broken chair in Place des Nations is a piece of protest art by Daniel Berset on
the subject of landmines. People who have a gripe with the UN or one or more of its member states have
held frequent demonstrations under the chair. It weighs 5.5 tonnes and is 12m high.

Friday: We drove to the outskirts of France, to Rochebrune where Megeve (a mountain) is located, to ski. Being a newbie or virgin skier, Shawna and I hired a teacher for an hour, and that cost around 20Euros each. And finally, we managed to ski down a slope by ourselves. I must say, i'm very proud of us! The view was just breath-taking. Ohhh sipping hot chocolate on the mountains was blissful. more like indescribable. Obviously, i crashed, twice so that explains the aching knees and a bruise i have right now - but it's so worth it. And i got to admire Mont Blanc - Europe's highest peak from afar.



Saturday: We took a train to Lausanne and to our surprise, it was so expensive. 41 francs for the train ticket and that's like SGD$55. And the city was so small cos we finished it in about 1.5hours so i don't know if the cost was all that worth it. But stepping into the grandest, majestic cathedral i've ever seen, it might just make up for the expensive train ride.

Sunday: I woke up at 4am to catch my flight back to Amsterdam. I had a blast!