Semarang Trip

Two weeks before Ramadan, we decided to visit grandma. We bought single trip tickets, we chose train as the schedule and location was more convenient. The train, Argo Bromo Anggrek, departed on 09:30 from Gambir Station. The journey took 5.5 hours with two short stops at Cirebon and Pekalongan. It was a while I rode an executive train, I was excited to explore each train car. The seat is comfy, has wide leg room, and could be rotated 360 degrees. I bought lunches at the train station before boarding. To my surprise, the train has small restaurant selling instant food, like noodles and fried rice packed in plastic bento box for around IDR 20-30k.

At the restaurant counter

Going back to my seat, I enjoyed the scenic views of rice field and village. There's a TV in each train car playing movies, but no sound coming out of it. In the afternoon, the train passes the beach of north Java (Pantura). We could see the Java sea along the way for a couple of minutes. We arrived at Semarang Tawang station at 3 pm. The train continued its journey to Surabaya.

Semarang Tawang station

We started our trip driving around the old city of Semarang. Our first stop was market square. There are various old buildings. The legendary Gereja Blenduk (Dome Church) stands in the middle. The square was crowded with pedestrians, people were enjoying cool afternoon breeze in the shade of trees and buildings.

Dome Church

My mom was curious to know how the inside of Gereja Blenduk looks like. She approached an old man, who was apparently the watchman. He allowed us to enter the church just paying 10k for donation. The church was built in 1753, the oldest and the only one having the largest pipe organ in the province. The seats are made from rattan. The tiles look like batik pattern. The stain glasses are modest yet beautiful. We really admire the architecture.

We continued to walk around the square. There is a mini gallery and flea market at the corner.

Next stop was Toko Oen, the legendary bakery and ice cream parlor. The ice cream is all homemade and has authentic taste. The place has indeed vintage ambience, stuffed with classic old furniture and old photographs. When were about to leave, fortuitously we met the owner! He told us that the children of Oen are all doctors and have no interest to continue the family business. The current shop is the only location which is keep maintained by the origin family. The other shop in Malang was already handed over to another owner.

The next day, I decided to explore the city of Semarang. Together with my sister-in-law, we took Uber to Lawang Sewu Museum. It is a historic building, used to be headquarters of Dutch railway company in early 1900. "Lawang Sewu" means thousand doors, and certainly this building seems like having infinite doors. If the doors are all opened, I could see the end of the building through the aisle from one end.

The patio is so long, person at the other end looks like just a dot. There are several intersections and hundred of rooms, some of which are locked to preserve its antique furniture.

There are stairs to the second floor facing beautiful large stain glasses.

There is a building section which the doors are double layered and I think it's beautiful.

Our next destination was Sam Poo Kong temple. It is the oldest and the largest chinese temple in Semarang. It feels like travelling to China for a moment.

The sun was getting to set and the lights were coming out, resulting to dramatic view of the temple.

The entrance ticket for the whole temple was 28k. For Lawang Sewu museum the ticket price was 10k. It is best to hire taxi/Uber to get to places around the city as it is much easier than using public transport.