RTW: Trip of a Lifetime (Part III)

Continuation of our RTW Trip, don't forget to check out Part I and Part II if you haven't read them.

Day 8: Milano- Berlin Another day to pick up remaining sites in Milano before taking our flight to Berlin in the late afternoon. We visited the usual suspects around the city center: Duomo (rooftop), Saint Bernardino alle Ossa (aka bone church), Sforza Castle; as well as the hip neighbourhoods: Montenapoleone and Corso Como. Although I am not a big shopper, Montenapoleone gives a good sense of the fashion capital, people are really fashionable. I felt like a bum there.

Take away: Around Duomo, watch out for those 'friendship bracelet scam', I heard those claim-to-be Kenyan have been practicing this trick for over 10 years. Just take their photo and that should scare them away.

Notable Sight: Sforza Castle has a lot of good art collections and a home of Michelangelo's masterpiece, Rondanini pieta. Spare extra hours if you want to make the most of it. Bone church is also quite a sight where not many people know about.

Photography: Not much to write home about, usual tourist places. Being there is more enjoyable than taking pictures :)

Day 9: Berlin Karens really looks forward to Berlin. We know that people are efficient and things do work! Well, we never let down. Transportation is convenient and things go the way we planned. We started our day from the East Side Gallery, walked back to Berliner Dom and DDR Museum. After the only German food we had for lunch, we went briefly to Alexandraplatz where we spotted a mini Oktoberfest. Going thru Checkpoint Charlie, Topography of Terror and finally arrived at Reichstag building and Brandenburg Gate. The day surely went fast!

Take away: Nothing to worry about in this city.

Notable Sight: DDR Museum will take you back to life in the Communist era. Lots of things to learn and experience. Don't miss it. Topography of Terror has lots of sensational photography, a great place to learn about WW II and master your history exam.

Photography: Berlin is a little too organized for my taste. You will enjoy a high degree of architecture photography, but not street.

Day 10: Berlin- Madrid- Rio de Janeiro

A hell of a day in the plane, we took off early from Berlin to catch our connecting flight in Madrid. It's worth noting here that Iberia's lounge was fantastic. They happened to have 'tapas day' serving high quality prosciutto with several choices of wine in the airline lounge. Then it's time for our long flight to Rio.

Day 11: Rio de Janeiro- Iguazu Falls

Got up early and headed to Rio's beach, also tried some coffee and bread at a super local place nearby our hotel. Rio has tons of public space with exercise equipments where the government provides free gym instructor and medical advisor to each location (I was told). It doesn't matter what time of the day you're in Rio, you will always see people jog on the street, work out, play sports..They are very concerned about working out indeed.

Then we flew to Iguazu Falls in the late afternoon, wow, the city is really different to Rio, in a nice way of course. We chose to stay at Belmont Hotel situated within the park, one of the best stays in our trip, highly recommend!

Take away: Although it seems ok to walk alone around Copacabana, not many other areas give me a piece of mind to photo walk by myself.

Notable Sight: I love the colors and street arts around Selaron stairs. Very dodgy place to go by your own, but worth spend some time photographing.

Photography: I love photographing in Rio, I wish I spoke Portuguese and was able to do more street shooting around the city.