Did not know it's been a year since my last post. Had a shower thought about whether Blogger is dead or has an app, and proceeded to find the app during work.
So much has happened.
Went to ROM earlier this year to register our marriage, then had the ceremony a few months back. Got cold sore outbreaks so often this year I ran out of sick leave days due to the lack of sleep, but luckily last month when it came back, it was in a very minor form likely caused by the frequency (and hence remnants of my WBC specifically meant for the virus) and my frequent light application of the cream each time I don't get enough rest. So since it was almost invisible, I went back to work but with my mask on constantly and minimized eating with anything that has to be washed (to reduce water splashes).
Honeymoon planning is mostly done, parts of it are absolutely insane, beyond what I've ever imagined myself doing in this lifetime. First of all, I spent all my remaining points accumulated over my entire working life so far for a single flight for the both of us in late January 2026.
Suites. To Frankfurt.
Then SQ FUCKING BROUGHT THE AIRCRAFT TO NEW ZEALAND SO WE ARE FORCED TO TAKE THE DRAMATICALLY LESS IMPRESSIVE FIRST CLASS ON 777.
Well, to be fair, First Class is still far beyond what I'd ever thought was possible for myself, so it's still epic, but it's still the difference between epic and the pinnacle of epicness.
And we weren't even trying to visit Germany - Frankfurt was the closest airport with an SQ Suites flight to our destination, Zermatt. We could have flown First Class to Zurich instead if we had known, but by the time they announced the change, there were not enough redeemable seats for us on that flight on the few days we could accept.
This is such an insanely first world problem. Who could have imagined me typing an essay complaining about flying First Class on SQ?
Anyways, Zermatt. That was a big challenge, finding a suitable hotel. Her few requests included seeing the Matterhorn, which I tried my best to interpret as having a view of the mountain from the hotel, if not the room itself. Our relatively modest budget also added another major restriction to the search, eventually leading me to abandon the travel sites and all my hotel loyalty programmes to slowly searching each individual hotel around the mountain, including hotels all the way in Crans-Montana and Italy.
That was how I found the 3100 Kulmhotel Gornergrat. This hotel is a little difficult to get to, being at the mountaintop but it's got a great view of the mountain and the stars, given that it was originally built as an observatory. In fact in summer they have a resident astronomer around and offer dinner under the stars.
The next hotel was also similarly challenging to find. She initially wanted the Schloss Mittersill which was so easy, but then she realized I'd been there with an ex, so that was out. The thing is, I was totally set on going to a castle with easy access to ski slopes, and I'd already booked the flight home from MUC, so that made the following search much more challenging than simply booking another castle hotel.
It took me a month or two to exhaust the various lists of castle hotels online, at which point I was forced to slowly check the castles on Google Maps in the region. Fortunately, I recall a few names from my journey to Prague from Mittersill, and that's why I zoomed in to Zell am See, and soon chanced upon Schloss Prielau.
Schloss Prielau wasn't listed on any hotel sites I've tried, yet it feels fascinating. Aside from it's castle feel both inside and out, it has history that I can recognize, eg it was the hunting lodge of the Prince-Bishops of Salzburg in the Holy Roman Empire, then pre-WW2 it was the home of a famous Austrian poet before it was bought over by the Porsche family in 1987. It has a deer farm and shuttles to a nearby ski resort, so that's absolutely perfect. Budget-wise, my plan to book a suite in wherever we stayed had to be forgone to spend within our means, but it should be worth it nonetheless.
In between the two places, we have one night and enough budget to squeeze in a short stay near Schwangau, which features Schloss Neuschwanstein! Optimally it will be an English guided tour to the castle that was the inspiration for Disney's castles. For many people, that would be the original castle.
Finally the journey home is Business Class on Air France with a long layover in Paris. Wanted to have lunch at Arpège but it seems unlikely we could make it for their final lunch slot 1.30pm after we touch down at 11.50am, even with SkyPriority and taxi. That place would have been perfect though, since it's vegan and has 3 stars, not to mention I am curious about how a famous rotisser could keep his stars despite the complete change of ingredients. In any case, I'm still looking into what we can do during the layover.
Transport-wise, the trip from Frankfurt to Zermatt will likely be via rail, on First Class as much as possible with the help of a rail pass to keep the costs down, though taxis are also being considered, with multiple quotes obtained from taxi operators in both Frankfurt and Zermatt. Frankfurt taxi is cheaper but they have to drop us off at Täsch to catch the train into Zermatt, whereas the Zermatt taxi can drop us off at the edge of the village where we can transfer to the electric taxis inside.
To be fair, the Frankfurt taxi is fine since we'll still have to take a train in Zermatt up to Gornergrat, and the station is across the road from the main Zermatt railway station.
Taxis are at least twice the price of train fares, up to triple, but it will let us avoid unwanted incidents such as crime, and save us the hassle of handling our suitcase and snowboard bag while boarding and alighting the four or five trains. We won't get to see as much and lunch will be more expensive given we will likely have to cover the driver's too, but the potential ability to stop and take in the scenery might be interesting too.
The journey from Zermatt will include the Glacier Express to Chur, followed by taxi to Schwangau which should get us checked in by 4pm.
The taxis from Schwangau to Zell am See, and from Zell am See to Munich are easily found on Google, so quotes have already been found.
20th Jul 2026
Honeymoon was an incredible success. The only danger was we almost got snowed in on our mountain in Switzerland when the rail to our hotel 3100 Kulnhotel Gornergrat couldn't start due to heavy snowfall while we had to catch the scenic train to Austria, failing which we would probably had to get a long distance taxi or take another train which might set us back by a day.
Gornergrat with a view of the Matterhorn from our room was... epic.
The Austrian castle I planned to stay at went MIA after my email booking with them a year in advance. A couple months ahead of the trip I emailed them again but no response. After a few more tried, I gave up. Currently it's listed as temporarily closed on Google Maps.
So I searched around till I found a smaller castle near Zell Am See. Nowhere as grand but it looked ok. Turned out to be a more of a big house for a big family of 3 generations. It was actually pretty children-friendly and comfortable, but the food smells from the kitchen on the ground floor always filled our room on the second floor which Rachel didn't like at all given that they served homely Austrian cuisine that's very meaty and oily. Even the spinach dumplings were soaking in butter.
I love the food. Rachel did not.
But she was so sweet that she took it all in stride and made do with what was available, even when the spinach dumplings I asked her to try ordering turned out to be not her kind of food.
Overall we're happy with the trip but we probably won't return to the Austrian castle.
Anyways now she's pregnant and will be 32 weeks by tomorrow. The issues include insomnia and restless leg syndrome which I'm feeling helpless about. She's tried walking around for a bit outside the room when she couldn't sleep, and having a snack, neither worked last night. Today she tried working out with 50 squats, so let's see if it helps.
Nervous about our daughter. We have everything ready... I think. Her English names will be sweet whereas her Chinese name will be strong and metallic. A strange combo but I believe she will have to grow up quickly to care for her siblings in the future, so she has to be strong. Brings to mind the phrase "an iron fist in a velvet glove". But ultimately, que sera sera. My parents were so sure my mother would pass on first and my father would be the one to take care of us, but that didn't happen, so we can only plan and deal with life as it comes.
So how do I retain my GHA Titanium this year? I've stayed in one brand, still two brands short, and I won't be going anywhere with my newborn, not to mention Singapore hotels are exorbitant.
