Reims the heart of Champagne

Monkey & Berr inside the TGV fast train
all ready to leave Paris to Reims which is about 80 miles away
so with a fast train it's less than an hour

TGV First Class cabin was nothing fantastic compared to Trenitalia in Italy
Trenitalia is more comfortable and most of all there's a food cart goin around the first class but not TGV
prollie coz it was a short journey....:(((((((

I was so looking fwd to my "train ride" food then :P
JS was like -_-" train and plane food where got nice???
well I lurve MAS's Nasi Lemak and Satays
and also Cathay Pacific's beef brisket!!!!
and Emirates's arrays of mezze
JS -_- x 100000000

I was amazed that Reims is quite a big city and very modern
earlier, Monkey was imagining "Kampung" :P
Reims was a very historical city and played important roles during the Roman Empire

as we strolled along the street on a Sunday afternoon.....there's so much to see here
from the beautiful Cathedral to the Basilica and shopping :D
hehehehhe yes shopping :)))

hehehhehe yes shopping at H&M
I ran towards it and JS was like......slaps forehead and wondered why the hell a kampung like this has got H&M
Reims has got La Fayette departmental store too!!!!!!! *equivalent to Harrods*

since there was no "train" food.....I must feed my tummy first :D
and we arrived Reims on the right time of the year

with Christmas Fair/market/kiosks all lined up on the main street
selling lil trinkets to YUMMY FOOD and all the christmassy stuffs

fried crispy-on-the-outside-chewy-on-the-inside dough
then sprinkled with icing sugar!!!!!!!

all eppy eppy again
and JS was nagging at Monkey

"Tonite got dinner at the beautiful Les Crayeres, dun spoil your appetite"
:((((( but this is my lunch wor :(((((((
see lar readers...I kesian or not?

after snacks then it's time for weeeeEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeee time!!!!!!!!

ahhhh!!!! SO CUTE!!!!!! it's a miniature HORSE!!!!
at first I thought it was a mule or donkey....but later found out it's a breed fr the horse family
SO CUTE!!!! i wanna take them home!!!!!!!

but so poor thing.....they were made to work like donkeys in the cold

no Monkey can't ride this.....the miniature horse will fall flat on their bellies with all 4 legs sprawled
but the french kids were so happy to climb on them and ride round round round this enclosed area

we stayed like 10 steps away fr the centre of the town, which was this landmark
anyway Reims town is small but there's a lot to see and do

BrrrrRRRRRrrrrrrr
no it was not snowing....just some deco in town centre
but wanna make this pic looked like we were at some arctic place :P

ice skating anyone?
:))))))))))))

the city/town/village is pretty quaint huh?
but underground this place were tunnels and caves used by champagne makers to age their bubblies
it's like a maze down under dated as old as the roman empire
will blog more bout Champagne/Reims soon :)))

Train ride Rome - Milan

yep the plane touched down on schedule at 6am...and in less than 30 minutes time
we were at the Leonardo Da Vinci aka Fiumicino airport's train station

treni in partenza = departing trains
and it took 15 ppl to figure out how to buy tickets fr the vending machine
coz all of us were foreigners...
there were french, greek, english and some african travellers.

and so Monkey trial-ed and error-ed the damn machine
abused it until 2 tickets came out.
everyone was "Voila!!!!!"
coz all of them chicken shit-ed out and didn't wanna put any Euros into the machine
for fear it will never come out.
train to Roma Termini = Rome's Terminal was quite comfortable
i forgotten how much it cost for the 30 mins journey.
Roma Termini was full of...wat else Emporio Armani everywhere
in fact the airport itself was full of advertising boards and buildings wrapped with Armanis...
i thought we landed at their factory in the beginning.
we had breakfast at the train terminal awaiting our next connecting train to Milan
I think the name of the cafe was Chef Express
they served nothing less than Lavazza coffee
*now can u compare this brioche with the one served onboard MAS?*

"I want Brioche"
Mr. Waiter: "Paaain? Cioccolato?"
*notice the pain?*

"errrrrrrr"
Mr. Waiter: "CIOCCOLATO" *hmmmmuahhhh*
and gave me that usual "kissing-my-5-fingers" gesture...

"ok ok cioccolato"
and it didn't disappoint me...coz the cioccolato = NUTELLA!!!!!!
yes Nutella is Italy's pride :)))))
JS had his Attila Pane with salame e provola
Pane = bread
salame = salami loorrrr....
provola = a type of cheese called provola

it was toasted with perfect crispness
"how come the panini here is so nice???"
let's gawk at the thinly sliced spicy salami
with traces of fats :)))))))))))))
we bought our tickets online erm like 2 months earlier fr TrenItalia's website
*bravo to Monkey bcoz it's quite impossible to log in and buy...according to Richard Quest of CNN*

it cost Euro 186 = RM 949 for 2 person to go to Milan *one way for First Class*
it's bout 4 hours journey with the fast train
know your Italian well and find your platform...cos there's like 31 platforms here
Bin = Platform
oh yea and also know which coach/carriage u are in...and wait at the correct coach/carriage
coz there's like 20 carriages!!!!!
and voila we were in!!!
they do serve drinks and snacks on the First Class cabin with daily papers...
daily papers in Italian -_-"
nice pic eh??? I TOOK IT!!!! with his giant NIKON tai farn shue
Firenze = Florence

the train stopped at Bologna and Florence
oh yea..there's a huge factory outlet in Florence
heeeee...:)
heeeeheeeeeheeee
:))))))))))))))))))
maybe another time....and from Florence u can go to Pisa

train ride was very very pleasant
and 4 hours flew past us while we sightsee-ed the countryside in such speed
:)))))))))))