Travelling to Dusseldorf, Germany 1 --- Germany Railway

Taking public transport in Germany is much more complicated compared to Singapore. There are trains, buses and trams. May be the main reason is that most of the information is written in German Language. Our SMRT in Singapore is much simpler, very straight forward. One platform for one train, each line has different waiting platform...

In Germany, the same waiting rail or platform can has multiple train services operating on it. It is depend on the time when you are waiting. Hence, it depends on the departure time for your train, you must be on time. It is not like Singapore, we wait on the same platform, and another train shall come every 5 to 6 minutes. If you miss this one, you can board the next train.

Platform to Dortmund

Same Platform 5 to Paderborn

The Germany railway that I experienced during my trip has ICE (Inter-City Express), RE (Regional Express), S-Bahn and U-Bahn (their local train for high density urban area). I took the RE from Düsseldorf to Paderborn. ICE is faster with speed more than 200km/h but normally more expensive. Their S-Bahn or U-Bahn is much cheaper but you have to stop at more stations.

High Speed ICE

City and Town Transit - RE

Town Travelling - Tram

The train in Germany allows passengers to bring along their pets and bicycles. You can also enjoy you food in the cart. Overall is still very clean and neat, not smelly or feel uncomfort. Imagine if you allow this in Malaysia….

Foldable Seats for Bicycles

Dog in the Train...(^0^)/

Comfortable Seats

Important Time display on Train to check where you are

Push to open train door to preserve heated air

But I do hope one day that Malaysia can have an inter-city fast railway system and connect us between states, especially between KL and Singapore…haha…

One thing to remember is that we need to validate our ticket at the entrance of each train. The ticket does not shows which date or where we are going…thus, the ticket is valid in term of number of rides. We can buy multiple ride ticket at a discount. From time to time, the DB Bahn officer shall conduct spot check, the fine is EUR4 if they found you did not validate your ticket…(how I found out?...I did not validate…luckily was given a warning since I am a tourist…hehe…)



Complicated MRT Network



This is just the Düsseldorf local train network!

Tram ticket machine in German Laguage

Ticket Validation Machine beside the entrance...just like SMRT (I meant Bus)

Düsseldorf Main Station

Wind Turbine everywhere

Getting my Singapore EP Pass 3 --- e-Appointment and Collection

After getting the Notification Letter from HR, I have made an e-Appointment to visit the EP Service Centre (EPSC) at:

The Riverwalk

20 Upper Circular Road, #04-01/02

Singapore 058416
*Near Clarke MRT station

You can make an appointment on (in 15 minutes slot):
Monday to Friday: 08:00am until 05:15pm
Saturday: 08:00am until 12:45pm

It is advisable to make the appointment in the weekdays, as weekend is only half a day, should be packed of people.

I reached the EPSC half an hour early, they let me in. I think it is all depends on the appointments, as long as there is free counter, you can jump your queue. But...because of the photo taken earlier is not approved...I need to take again......They said it was because my glasses were in parallel with my eye, so cannot see my eye properly...

There was a photoshop just beside EPSC, a lot of people like me is queing there. Some with family members, they apply Dependent Pass for the Expat's wife and children.

As a result, I ended up have t pay another SGD14 for my photo....haiz...I thought this shall only happen in Malaysia...Moral of story, do not take your EP photo else where, take them at the EPSC (can re-take if disapproved)...

Finger printing and document checking is fast, less than ten minutes. Then, you can come again after four days to collect your EP.

Sample Singapore EP

Remitting Money via Western Union

One of the fastest and reliable ways to remit your money to another country is via Western Union. It does not require any deposit account at the country that you plan to send the money to.

There is a lot of Western Union agents located at various locations in Singapore. I just remitted some money to Germany last week… It is quite simple, I went to the Singpost branch initially but the server down…...thus, at the end I approached the Western Union service at Maybank.

Not all the Maybank counter staff knows how to perform the transaction, hence I waited for about fifteen minutes for the relevant people. You need to fill in a form on the place that you plan to transfer, who is the receiver and how much money…then, they shall calculate the exchange rate and administrative fee…The exchange rate is relatively high…same as the bank published rate (usually worse than money changer rate).

I received a receipt. There was a MTCN number, you need to let your receiver know and your receiver shall be able to withdraw the cash with local currency at any local Western Union agent by showing the MTCN number and his Identification Card. The money is ready for withdrawal in less than one hour time. You can track your money online with the MTCN number as well.

I transferred Euro300 to Germany for a fee of SGD60. What I can conclude was that the fee is very high, more than 10%. Hence, if possible, uses other alternative, i.e. credit card advance cash withdrawal, ATM card (with MEPS or Cirrus), remit to account…all this are cheaper, if I am not wrong…(each has its pros and cons, though…)

Travelling to Paderborn, Germany 4 --- Visit to Heinz Nixdorf Museum and Schloß Neuhaus Castle (b)

The second story, the organization was more squarish, nevertheless, we still visit in clockwise direction. It was basically showing the evolution of computer in the world, from 1950s to 1970s, 70s to 80s, 80s to 90s, 90s to millennium and beyond in future.

a) Antique ATM Machine

b) Storage Media

c) Antique Computers and Laptop

d) Antique Mobile Communications

e) Digital Games and automatic chess machines

f) Antique Radio and Walkman

g) MARK I (for gas turbine control?)

h) Modern Technology, i.e. color sensor, watch, robot soccer dog, robotic arm, robotic facial, interactive games (scissors, stone and paper) and flight simulator

After visiting for more than one and half hours, I continued my journey to Schloß Neuhaus. I did not take my lunch at the HNF Bistro since it is serving sandwiches and the price is not cheap (around 10 EUR). Luckily, there was a small Chinese restaurant (or stall) along the way, I took Fried Duck Rice (my only rice meal in Germany) for 7+EURO (normally Asian foods in Europe are expensive).

I took some photos at Schloß Neuhaus. It was really a beautiful renaissance moated castle. The garden in front of the castle is also spectacular (there were two pairs of couples taking their bridal photo on each side of the garden).

Nothing much there, it was just a beautiful outlook. There seems to be no admission into the castle. There were a museum beside the castle, I went in to have a look since it was FOC. There were two museums, i.e. one on the history of the castle and one on the natural science. It was no photography allowed and all the descriptions were in German. So, I just walked through the museums within half an hour. The exhibits are interactive, great for school tour.

Schloß Neuhaus Entrance

Schloß Neuhaus Front View

Schloß Neuhaus Garden with 1st Couple

Schloß Neuhaus Garden with 2nd Couple

Schloß Neuhaus Side View

Schloß Neuhaus Moat

Schloß Neuhaus Church

Schloß Neuhaus Water Hand Pump

Then another one hour walk back to the hotel…and it started to rain in the midway…I reached around 4:30pm…it really tired for my feet after a long walk…

In conclusion, I really feel that it worthwhile to have this visit if you so happen to dropped by Paderborn, especially the HNF museum. It is really a great effort and investment to collect so many of these exhibits at that point of time. The founder of HNF, the late Mr. Heinz Nixdorf, he himself had collected over 1,000 objects in the field of office communication... .You can see the whole history of computer under one roof with such a low cost.

Another observation was that children in Europe are fortunate to be able to get expose to museums and education environment in younger age as compared to us.