Christmas Markets and Festive Atmosphere

Vienna transforms into a winter wonderland during the holiday season, with Christmas markets dotting the city landscape. We explored markets at various iconic locations such as St. Stephen’s Cathedral, Rathausplatz (City Hall), Schloss Schönbrunn, and Schloss Belvedere. Each market featured rows of wooden stalls selling ornaments, handcrafted gifts, and warm seasonal drinks.

The markets feature countless stalls serving Glühwein (mulled wine) in decorative mugs, which visitors can keep as souvenirs for a €5 deposit. The hot drinks were perfect for when walking around in the cold. There’s also food like Kaiserschmarrn (like a fluffy shredded pancake with sugar and jam), hot dogs, and chimney cakes.

While many stalls offer Christmas merchandise, we discovered that most vendors source similar items (likely outsourced). However, we learned of an artisanal market featuring exclusively local craftwork, though we weren’t able to visit it during our stay.

We heard about a market that exclusively sold locally made items, though unfortunately, we missed the chance to visit it. Another notable scene was the line of people outside Stephansdom, awaiting Christmas mass, reflecting the importance of the cathedral in Vienna’s holiday traditions. Despite this, the atmosphere remained lively

Museums and Palaces

Vienna is known for its rich collection of museums and palaces. Among the highlights of our visit was the Albertina, though art museums are not my usual preference. A more engaging stop was the Schmetterlinghaus, the butterfly house, located near the Hofburg Palace. This greenhouse contained numerous butterfly species that fluttered among tropical plants, including banana trees. The butterflies flew around at their leisure. Some would land on the leaves, or even on the walking path, so we had to be careful as we walked.

One of the more memorable moments was witnessing a butterfly emerge from its chrysalis. However, the warmth inside contrasted sharply with the cold winter air outside, making heavy winter clothing less comfortable during the visit.

The Schatzkammer, Vienna’s imperial treasury, presented a vast collection of jewellery and regalia from the Habsburg era. The treasury holds significant historical pieces, including the Imperial Crown of Austria and the Royal Scepter, reflecting the power and influence the Habsburg dynasty once held. The collection includes the largest emeralds in the world.

At Schloss Schönbrunn (a UNESCO World Heritage site), we took a guided tour through Maria Theresa’s private quarters, which are only accessible with a guide. Maria Theresa, the only female ruler of the Habsburg dominions, was a pivotal figure in European history, known for modernizing the empire and her diplomatic maneuvers, including the marriage of her daughter Marie Antoinette (one of her 16 children) to Louis XVI of France. Schönbrunn, often likened to Versailles, served as a summer residence for the Habsburgs and features intricate Rococo interiors.

The Kapuzinergruft, the Imperial Crypt, provided a sobering experience as we explored the tombs of the Habsburg family, including those of Franz Joseph I and Maria Theresa. Franz Joseph, who reigned for nearly 68 years, oversaw significant political changes in Europe. The crypt narrates the legacy of the Habsburgs, a family that ruled Austria and much of Europe for centuries.

Culinary Experiences

Vienna’s culinary scene combines traditional Austrian dishes with influences from neighbouring regions. We sampled Flammkuchen, a thin flatbread from the Alsace region topped with crème fraîche instead of tomato sauce. The local Schweinsbraten (roasted pork) came served with Knödel (potato dumplings). This hearty dish involves slow-roasting marinated pork until tender, and the dumplings soak up the rich gravy, creating a filling and comforting plate.

Wiener Schnitzel, one of Austria’s most famous dishes, did not particularly stand out to me. I found the Japanese variation, tonkatsu, to be more enjoyable.

Flight Home in Comfort

The return flight offered a chance to experience business class. Upon boarding, sparkling wine was served, and throughout the flight, options for higher-quality food and drinks were available, including steak, cheese plates, smoked salmon, and Johnnie Walker Black.

The seats reclined fully, providing a more restful sleep, and the thicker blankets added to the comfort. Skippable ads during in-flight entertainment and access to the lounge with additional food and beverages rounded out the experience, making the flight much more enjoyable.

See more of Vienna here

The flight was to arrive in Kuala Lumpur at around 13:00 and we would depart for Bali at 21:50. Arriving at 13:00, we should have been able to arrive in the city via Grab between 14:30 – 15:00, but it took at least an hour at the immigration line so we didn’t get to the city until after 16:00. This would leave us around 5 hours in Kuala Lumpur, which is not great, but not terrible.

We had only eaten breakfast, so by this time, we were starving. So we went to Lot 10. Everything looks super good, but in actually only tasted okay. I thought it’d be on par with my trip to Singapore.

Next, we visited a nearby street market. The market reminded me a lot of Singapore – similar food options (bak kut teh, chili crab, stingray, etc.), which makes sense since Singapore used to be a part of Malaysia.

Our next destination was the iconic Petronas Twin Towers, but all of a sudden out of nowhere, it started pouring with thunder and lightning. At first the thunder was a few kilometers away judging but how long it took to hear the sound, but not long after it was right on top of us.

We got on a Grab to head over there, but the sudden rainstorm brought traffic to a complete stop and it was barely moving. After being in the car for 30 mins and having gone less than a kilometer, the driver advised that we head to the airport directly as there wouldn’t be enough time to hit up the twin towers and make our flight. We reluctantly agreed.

During the car ride, I chatted with the driver about living in Kuala Lumpur. The driver was Cantonese in enthnicity but was born and raised in Kuala Lumpur, which I didn’t expect at all. I had forgotten about how stuck we were in traffic while chatting with the driver (at one point the driver took a bathroom break and left the keys in the ignition).

Eventually, I looked on Google Maps, and saw there was no way we’d make it to the airport by car. We decided to get dropped off at the metro station in the pouring rain and we’d take public transit the rest of the way. Check it out in Mike’s video (the raining part starts at ~5:10).

That was pretty much our trip to Kuala Lumpur. After a big delay at the airport and the freak rainstorm, we really only had 3 hours in the city to do stuff, which was too bad. See the rest of the photos here.

This is probably the most iconic area in Singapore – Marina Bay. Starting with the Merlion, we toured around the bay. I didn’t actually understand what a Merlion was until I saw the actual statue.

The placement of all the buildings and the water was so perfect for photos!! This area is a must-go.

There’s even a spot for an outdoor band to play.

And an outdoor street food market.

I ate my very first stingray. Another one off the list.

Another must-go destination in Singapore – The Supertrees! There is a whole grove of them and they constantly change colours. They’re powered by solar energy and capture rainwater for reuse.

In Chinatown, there is a famous Michelin 1-star place located in Chinatown called Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken Rice & Noodle. The lineup almost went out the door and it was next to impossible to find a seat.

The chicken was not dry at all, but rather juicy with all the flavours of the soy sauce, and every bite was tender.

The chili crab is also worth trying if you’re willing to splurge.

In Maxwell Centre, Tian Tian is the best place to go for Hainanese Chicken Rice. If this place existed where I live, I’d go there all the time.

There’s also Song Fa Bak Kut Teh. They serve a ribs cooked in a flavoured soup. The ribs are super tender and fall easily off the bone, and the soup is a complex soup with lots of strong spices (kind of savoury and peppery). The shop even sells their own flavouring powder so people can make the soup at home!

Chinatown is pretty much a place where tourists go and most of the street vendors are catering purely to tourists. But the food here, on the other hand, is terrific.

The Buddhist temple there looks incredible. Unlike the temples in Hong Kong, photography is allowed and look way cooler.

Next destination was Little India. It was amazing at how all of a sudden, the streets were no longer filled with Chinese Singaporeans, but rather Indian Singaporeans. Many shops sold fabric for saris, and jewelry.

This was my first time visiting a Hindu temple.

There’s also an Arab Quarter. It’s incredible how in one city there are so many visible ethnicities.

Sentosa is another great place to visit. It’s the home of many resorts, Universal Studios Singapore, and the aquarium. It’s also the most southern point of continental Asia! I always thought the Vancouver aquarium was pretty amazing, but the one in Singapore is SO much better.

This was the most impressive aquarium display I had ever seen. The picture doesn’t capture how absolutely massive this room was. The window itself has a thickness of 70cm!!

Singapore also has a world class zoo – except this one is open at night, just to show off nocturnal animals.

Gordon Ramsay recommends 328 Katong, for Singapore’s famous Laksa. The soup is slightly spicy and contains chili, coconut milk, and evaporated milk. THe fillings contain noodles, shrimp and mushrooms among other things. The other two dishes are Nasi Lemak, which is a rice dish with dried anchovies and a spicy sauce, while the other is Otah, which is a fish cake with spices inside (these two items were probably the only dishes I didn’t like).

Pretty much all the restaurants and places I went came from recommendations from friends who either grew up in Singapore or lived there. Thanks to them, I got a bit of a local’s perspective on the most awesome places to go!

Photo album: here

Someone told me that the pastries were really good, and they were totally correct!!

This is the Danish Parliament building. They also allow a small number of people to go up to the top of that tower for free!! We did have to wait for about 20 minutes though, but I think that was a not so well known destination.

Everybody says that Nyhavn is a must-see destination. It’s definitely gorgeous, but everything around here is super pricey!!

Amalienborg is the home of the Danish royal family. Sometimes people see the Crown Prince of Denmark going in an out of the palace dressed like a normal person. The building with the dome at the back is the Marble Church.

These palace guards walked right by me!! Can’t imagine wearing the full uniform on a blazing hot day…

Next up, was a chill bike ride around the city going at a slow 10 km/h. The weather really cooperated with us! It was a weird change going from wearing a full bicycle kit while riding my roadbike to wearing street clothes and riding this commuter with a basket on top…

Randomly stumbled upon this really cool looking fountain, known as Gefionspringvandet.

We rode through this old school star-shaped fortress that has been turned into a nice greenspace!

North of there was the Little Mermaid statue that everybody talks about. Everybody says it’s a must-see attraction, but the most underwhelming. They make it look so big in the pictures but in reality it’s tiny.

We rode past a military installation and saw this interesting sign… They’re really up to date with this drone stuff.

I was in Copenhagen around the same time as Chester Bennington from Linkin Park passed away. He even left a mark on the people in Copenhagen.

There’s a reason why people say Copenhagen is the bike capital of the world.

The white buildings in the distance is Paper Island – a hipster place to hang out and eat food.

It’s so busy here…

To my surprise, I found an ostrich burger… It definitely had a light taste. I’ve heard it tastes a lot like beef, but I didn’t get that impression.

Next, we went to Freetown Christiania – an area that the people there self proclaim as autonomous. The area was formed by squatters on land used by the military. Today it is a kind of like area where the police in Copenhagen don’t really enforce their jurisdiction (although they can), and it is governed by the people who belong to that community who have created their own rules. All the houses have graffiti on them, the paint on the walls is slowly flaking off, and every house has tons of advertisement posters painted on them. The people in the community are either hobos or hippies and sometimes it’s hard to tell which – and they’re probably all high as a kite. If you’re looking for a wild party, you’ll probably find it here. It’s a shame that I wasn’t allowed to take photos inside.

Inside the city hall, there is an astronomical clock. The fastest gear completes a revolution every ten seconds and the slowest every 25,753 years. I have no idea what kind of information it shows, but I can appreciate the mechanisms as someone who studied mechanical engineering!

This was probably the best meal on the entire trip. A sampler of the most Danish food ever at Skindbuksen. When we went in, we were the only people inside who looked like tourists and everybody else looked local, which was a good sign, but we stood out. The owner of the restaurant came by with a giant plate of delicious food and loudly said to us, “this is what we eat in Denmark, you should try this!”. For a brief moment, our interaction with him gathered the attention of the entire restaurant, while it felt like all the locals were just judging us tourists… It was a tad awkward. BUT the food was absolutely delicious. There was pickled herring, deep fried fish filet, smoked salmon, roasted pork, and pork filet! The other tables were looking at our food with jealousy.

At the bar in our hostel, we met someone who was working in Silicon Valley as a software engineer who happened to be working and travelling. She told me she graduated at UC Berkeley and so I asked her if she had seen the Amazon store there (this). She told me how awesome it was to have something like that there and to her surprise, I revealed that I am actually one of the engineers who worked on it!

That’s it for Copenhagen!

Photo album: Copenhagen

I spent the first day travelling to the coast of Northern Ireland, the Giant’s Causeway and Belfast, and then the next two days in Dublin.

The Giant’s Causeway

Apparently, some scenes from Game of Thrones were filmed here, but I wouldn’t know because I am like the only person who doesn’t watch it!

Cows!

The northern coast of Ireland reminds me of what the northern coast of France in Normandy looked like.  I guess maybe it’s because the Irish part used to be part of the main continent and broke off a long time ago.

Not sure what the big deal of this bridge is, but I guess it was scenic.  Apparently the bridge is famous or something?

The coolest part was definitely the Giant’s Causeway.  Not sure where the giant nor the causeway are, but still cool nonetheless.

It’s pretty amazing how these rock formations formed naturally.

On our way back, we stopped in Belfast for a brief tour.

Belfast

In Belfast, the tour guide took us around to show us the history of the conflict between the nationalists (mostly catholics) and the unionists (mainly protestant).  Even today, there is still a clear separation between the two.

There’s even a wall painting of King William III, who was a Protestant who fought several wars against the Catholic king of France, Louis XIV.

Even today walls still separate catholics and protestants.

That night, we went back to Dublin.

Dublin

What is a trip to Europe without seeing a cathedral of some kind? This was at Christchurch Cathedral.

The coolest thing was the preserved cat and mouse.  The story is that the cat chased the mouse into an organ pipe and got stuck, and was perfectly preserved somehow.

I visited yet another castle in Europe, but I honestly think these kinds of things are really getting old.

Not far from the castle is Temple Bar, probably a giant tourist trap, but it really does have a lot of cool bars and restaurants.

There’s also the iconic Ha’penny Bridge. Not sure why it’s iconic, but it is.

There’s also the Spire of Dublin (in the back behind all the construction garbage), which awesome nicknames like “the erection at the intersection”, or “the stiletto in the ghetto”.

Yet another touristy thing: going to the Guinness Storehouse… and having a Guinness.

… and enjoying the view.

That’s it for Dublin!

Photo albums:

• Giant’s Causeway
• Belfast
• Dublin

The tour took us to various locations in the camp, where prisoners were experimented on, suffered in standing cells, etc. The guide also explained how the Germans ran the camps day to day, how they used certain prisoners to oversee other prisoners (Kapos), and of course the extermination. One of the most impactful exhibits here was a room full of just shoes – shoes of many who died at the camp. It’s one thing to be told a bunch of numbers of how many died, but it’s another thing to see thousands of shoes just laid out in front of you.

The camp was split into two: Auschwitz I and II, where the main purpose of Auschwitz I was for political prisoners while Auschwitz II was for extermination and forced labour. Originally, Auschwitz I had many one story buildings, but an additional floor was added to increase capacity.

Guardtowers and electrified barbed wire fences prevented escapes. They really thought of everything.

The death wall is where people were lined up to be executed by firing squad.

The next part of the tour took us to Auschwitz II. Railway tracks efficiently brought prisoners directly into the camp. It’s impressive how efficient they were – that’s what made so scary.

As the Allies closed in on the camp, the Germans destroyed many of the buildings to try and hide what they did. But nonetheless, the truth came to light at the end and many of those responsible were tried and executed.

It was really hard to imagine millions of people were killed in this one place alone. People didn’t talk much during the tour as if to informally have a moment of silence for all the victims. There was nothing to be said. Everyone felt the aura of sadness just by being there.

Link to photo album: here

My computer specifications:

• Intel Core i5-4570
• 16 GB Memory
• Radeon HD 5770

I followed the instructions here, with these changes:

• Using video driver “fglrx-updates” (the tutorial talks about NVIDIA cards)
• Did not install TuxLoL
• Did not do anything regarding the “Maestro error” since it only applies to Optimus Notebook users
• Did not follow step 6 because I did not run into the problem for big item icon text for the item shop
• EDIT: Thanks to Ingvar’s comment, the installation progress for the game can be viewed like so: open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and execute:

tail -f ~/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/LeagueOfLegends/drive_c/Riot\ Games/League\ of\ Legends/Logs/Patcher\ Logs/*.log

There are also other steps that I had to do, which I read from here:

• Click configure for the “League of Legends” entry in “PlayOnLinux” and find the “Display” tab and then choose the following options:
  • Direct Draw Renderer – gdi
  • Video memory size – 4096 (or something else depending on graphics card)
  • Offscreen rendering mode – fbo\0
  • Everything else on default
• Create a file called “game.cfg” in the directory “/home/your-username-here/PlayOnLinux’s virtual drives/LeagueOfLegends/drive_c/Riot Games/League of Legends/Config”. Below is what I have in my “game.cfg”:

[General]
EnableAudio=1
GameMouseSpeed=10
UserSetResolution=1
BindSysKeys=0
SnapCameraOnRespawn=0
OSXMouseAcceleration=1
AutoAcquireTarget=0
EnableLightFx=0
WindowMode=0
ShowTurretRangeIndicators=0
PredictMovement=0
WaitForVerticalSync=0
Colors=32
Height=1080
Width=1920
SystemMouseSpeed=0
CfgVersion=5.3.296
x3d_platform=1

[HUD]
CameraLockMode=0
MiddleClickDragScrollEnabled=0
KeyboardScrollSpeed=0.5000
ChatScale=50
ObjectTooltips=0
AutoDisplayTarget=0
ShowAllChannelChat=1
ShowTimestamps=1
ItemShopPrevY=39
ItemShopPrevX=106
NameTagDisplay=1
ShowChampionIndicator=0
ShowSummonerNames=1
ScrollSmoothingEnabled=0
MiddleMouseScrollSpeed=0.5000
MapScrollSpeed=0.5000
ShowAttackRadius=0
NumericCooldownFormat=1
SmartCastOnKeyRelease=0
EnableLineMissileVis=0
FlipMiniMap=1
ItemShopResizeHeight=0
ItemShopResizeWidth=164
ItemShopPrevResizeHeight=1080
ItemShopPrevResizeWidth=1920
ItemShopItemDisplayMode=1
ItemShopStartPane=1

[Performance]
CharacterInking=1
ShadowsEnabled=1
EnableHUDAnimations=0
PerPixelPointLighting=0
EnableParticleOptimizations=0
BudgetOverdrawAverage=0
BudgetSkinnedVertexCount=0
BudgetSkinnedDrawCallCount=0
BudgetTextureUsage=0
BudgetVertexCount=0
BudgetTriangleCount=0
BudgetDrawCallCount=0
EnableGrassSwaying=0
EnableFXAA=0
AdvancedShader=0
FrameCapType=6
GammaEnabled=0
Full3DModeEnabled=0
AutoPerformanceSettings=0
CharacterQuality=4
EffectsQuality=4
EnvironmentQuality=4
ShadowQuality=4
GraphicsSlider=6
paths=0

[FloatingText]
EnemyTrueDamageCritical_Enabled=1
EnemyMagicalDamageCritical_Enabled=1
EnemyPhysicalDamageCritical_Enabled=1
TrueDamageCritical_Enabled=1
MagicalDamageCritical_Enabled=1
PhysicalDamageCritical_Enabled=1
Countdown_Enabled=0
EnemyTrueDamage_Enabled=0
EnemyMagicalDamage_Enabled=0
EnemyPhysicalDamage_Enabled=0
TrueDamage_Enabled=0
MagicalDamage_Enabled=0
PhysicalDamage_Enabled=0
Score_Enabled=0
QuestComplete_Enabled=0
QuestReceived_Enabled=0
Disable_Enabled=0
Level_Enabled=0
Dodge_Enabled=0
Heal_Enabled=0
Special_Enabled=0
Invulnerable_Enabled=0
Debug_Enabled=0
Absorbed_Enabled=0
OMW_Enabled=0
EnemyCritical_Enabled=0
MagicCritical_Enabled=0
Critical_Enabled=0

[Volume]
SfxVolume=0.5
MasterVolume=0.5

Along the way, we passed by some iconic Portland scenery, such one of the many bridges in the city.

As an engineer, naturally I found this LEED Platinum certified building to be quite interesting. Despite having an entire roof filled with solar panels, it only provides 3% of the building’s electrical energy.

Our tour guide said that many people in Portland take part in what’s known as a “Zoobomb”, where one takes a bike (usually a children’s bike) and rides as fast as he/she can down a hill. This pile of children’s bicycles represents this popular activity.

And of course, the popular phrase…

Of course, when in Portland, I had to try some local brews. As always, I like the wheat beers best, and not the IPA’s, amber ales, or anything else.

Link to more photos: here

It was quite quiet in the car on the way there as the two girls in the back slept while the guys in the front didn’t talk much (I was busy finishing up my homework for a course because I forgot to plan my time accordingly). We departed Vancouver at about 8 PM and arrived at my friend’s flat at about 10:30 PM. We spent the rest of the night having some beers and playing Pandemic on its hardest difficulty (it started out pretty mild, but the plague escalated quickly and went out of control).

Space Needle

The Space Needle is probably about the most iconic building in the entire city.

Around the vicinity, there are a lot other tourist attractions such as the Pacific Science Center, the EMP Museum (formerly known as the Science Fiction Museum), and plenty of green space.

We also visited the Amazon campus, which is where our friend was working at. What surprised me is that there wasn’t any huge signage that Amazon was there. The only Amazon sign I could was by staring really hard through the glass into the building lobby.

Just Chilling

We stopped to rest a bit at the lobby of a nearby apartment complex. While we rested, I learned how to play Shuffleboard (albeit badly) and played a game or two.

Seattle Underground

Our next destination was a tour of the underground portions of Seattle. To get to the tour location, we walked through a neighbourhood full of hobos that I would have otherwise avoided at night (it’s relatively mild compared to what East Hastings in Vancouver is like). On one occasion, a hobo asked me if I was ready for the Seahawks game where I promptly replied, “very readys”.

The tour guide told us that where we were in Seattle used to be a lot lower in terms of elevation. After a fire that destroyed the city, the city regraded the land and so all the buildings that used to be above ground were now underground. The tour took us around the underground sections to show the history of the area.

The picture below shows what people use the space for now – storage.

Because of the regrade, sidewalks had to be rebuilt one story higher than before, so city engineers added skylights onto the new sidewalks in order to illuminate the underground areas. On the surface of the sidwalks, one would be able to see the skylights from the other side at ground level.

In the past, the underground area was used for a lot of questionable activities, such as organized crime, speakeasies, prostitution, etc. Because of its history, this area of town is still considered by many locals as the sketchy part of town.

Pike Market

Pike Market feels like the market in Granville Island in Vancouver, but is a lot bigger. I can’t explain it, but for some reason I greatly enjoyed staring at all the seafood.

Sooo much fooood

By the water near the market, one can get a good view of the water. The Ferris Wheel adds a nice touch as well.

We happen to visit Seattle on the weekend where there was a football game between the Seahawks and the 49ers to see which team would go to the Superbowl and because of that all over the city, people put up flags with the number 12 in support of the team. This building must’ve been full of Seahawks fans.

Shiro’s

This restaurant is so popular that when we tried to walk in at 7, to get a spot, the waitress told us to come back at 9. We had heard really good things about this place, so we actually starved ourselves until 9.

My friends encouraged me to try and order in Japanese, so I did. I started by saying to the waitress that I’d try to speak Japanese (私は日本語を話してみます), and then I listed off the food one by one and then success! While it was nothing complicated to do, it was cool doing that anyways.

I’d say the food was definitely worth the wait. I’d definitely recommend this place to people who really like seafood and sushi.

Morning Walk

The next day, we woke up early to go to Pike Market to buy some groceries to make breakfast. We walked along the pier and got quite a nice view of it.

Serious Pie

For lunch, we went to a pizza place that also came highly recommended. When I looked at the menu, every item had at least one word that I didn’t know. I had no idea what I was ordering, but the pizza was really delicious!  I also recommend this place.

Back to Vancouver

After lunch, we stayed for a bit longer at our friend’s flat before heading back to Vancouver. Seattle was a much welcome change in scenery and it has further enforced my desire to travel around to different places.

Album link here

The Deutsches Museum is one of the largest museums I’ve been to. There were so many topics on technology that the museum had. They had the usual topics on flight, ship building, engines, etc., but they had even more exhibits on classical mechanics, electromagnetism, chemistry, nuclear physics, mining, semiconductors, computers, cartography, microsystems, space exploration, printing, etc.

There was even a cool demonstration of arc lightning.

The section of space exploration was quite interesting too, but it wasn’t as big as the exhibit at the Smithsonian Museum of Flight.

The clean room exhibit reminded me a little bit of the type of work I did during my internship at Bosch.

Of course in any exhibit on computers, there has to be a computer from Remington Rand.

Here is the experimental apparatus that was used to discover nuclear fission.

The stuff I looked at was only scratching the surface of the museum. I pretty much skipped entire sections like time keeping, wind turbines, bridge building, among other things. I was there for four hours too and I didn’t even look at any one section in a lot of detail. To see everything, one would have to spend days here.

Link to photo album here