Home Again

Nevermind that we took off from Schiphol when it was 6 degrees & landed in Mumbai where it is 29 degrees at 11 pm, but it feels great to be back home. I am really looking forward to eat some home cooked food.

Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam

Anxious that we would get late for our flight, we woke up at 3:45 and left the hostel at 4:30 & reached the airport at 5 am, well ahead of the scheduled check in time of 5:15 am.

After the check in, we headed for some shopping. Schiphol airport is really huge and quite a maze. We picked up some perfumes & a couple of good single malts along with kiddie stuff for my nephew.

We were able to catch a spectacular sunrise from the airport and proceeded to board the flight to Milan to catch a connection to Mumbai.

Alitalia is a no great shakes airline. The food is average & so is the attitude of the crew. The only thing remotely nice is probably the white wine. But one thing Alitalia is good at is getting you early to your destination. Atleast both times our flight was ahead of schedule.

Though they screened Pursuit of Happyness & Casino Royale, we had to see the movies on silent mode since the headphones refused to work for many people. God Bless those Alitalia souls. They should take a lesson or two from our Jet Airways.

Keukenhof Gardens

One of the main reasons we included Amsterdam in our schedule was to go and see the Keukenhof Gardens, which are only open 2 months in a year. Well we couldn't have asked for a better destination to end our holiday than Keukenhof.

The Keukenhof Gardens are the best we've ever seen. Its a treat to the eye to see the well manicured gardens, beautifully landscaped with ponds and lovely arrangements of tulips & flowers in every shape, size & colour. Any view is a riot of colours and every flower arrangement is bounnd to leave you stunned and is guaranteed to leave your digital camera screaming for more space.

There are myraid varities of flowers with combinations that will make you wonder at the marvels of nature. You'll find the same flower in multiple colours & different petal designs. Since we took a pre-booked bus to the gardens, we got to spend only about 4 hours which are woefully inadequate. You need atleast a day to cover the gardens. Snehal also got to enjoy fresh strawberries & cream which she wanted to eat at Wimbledon.

With a heavy heart we rushed back to the bus happy to have enjoyed every moment at the garden & sad that we couldn't spend more time.

We caught up on some shopping for rest of the evening and decided to have dinner at the Hostel since we had to finish our packing before our flight early next morning.

So this is it. Tomorrow we head for the airport back to India. This is the longest holiday either of us has ever done and without doubt has been the best. Its hard to imagine a holiday that will be better than this one.

Delft & Madurodam

We had planned to meet my pal PJ who is based in Eindhoven and spend the day with him & his wife. We decided to go to Hague since he said it would be a better option than Amsterdam.

The Den Haag station is about an hour away from Amsterdam Central. The unique thing we encountered is that the railways charge an additional euro if you purchase a ticket from an agent. We queued up for 20 mins and still had to pay an extra euro. Damn!

It is indeed a great feeling to meet old friends after a long gap. Recalling old times, especially the Engg College days, is great fun. We chatted for a while and decided we could spend all day doing it & we were better off moving our asses while we chatted.

We took the train again to go to Delft which is the origin of blue ceramic pottery which Holland is famous for. We moved about in the factory to see the process of making hand painted ceramic vases, plates, tiles etc. There are entire paintings (Ex: Rembrant's Night Watch) which have been copied onto a huge collage of tiles. The entire process right from the moulding, casting, painting, firing & cooling is quite a time consuming process. Hand painted Delftware is very expensive, infact horribly expensive.

We had a lazy & longish lunch where we spoke more than we ate :)

From there we headed back to Den Haag to go to Madurodam which has a beautiful landscape which showcases the best of Holland in a miniature size. We spent nearly 3 hours looking around and it was fun. They have the world largest miniature railway which runs across the entire landscape. Most of the miniatures look exactly like the originals and its good fun to spot some of the landmarks, especially if you have already been to the original one.

After a long day we parted ways and wished we had more hours to spend. Once we got to Amsterdam, we sat down for what would be our first actual "candle light" dinner. We had wine, roast chicken/steak & ice cream. With just a day left before our holiday would end, the ambience was apt for us to relax, chat and recount the fun moments of the holiday.

Rijksmuseum & Anne Frank Huis

Fortunately the Rijksmuseum was a walking distance from the hostel and we mad a beeline for it after a heavy breakfast. Talking of which we were pleasantly surpised with the variety & quality of breakfast.

We were expecting a modest spread since this was a hostel. Instead it was lavish. There were cold cuts, 3 types of bread, waffles, jams & chocolate paste, fruits, cornflakes/museli, juice & tea/coffee. We stuffed ourselves well :)

The Rijksmuseum is under renovation and therefore only a aprt of it is open to the public. Amongst the many artefacts displayed, the main attraction is the "Nightwatch" painted by Rembrant. Its indeed spectacular. Some of the porcelain crockery kept is quite exquisite. The entire tour took us a few hours, after which we sat around in the park gobbling raisin muffins. The park which also includes the Van Ghogh museum was filled with picknikers having a gala time lazing in the grass absorbing all the sun.

Snehal was keen to visiting the Anne Frank House & hence we made our way there pasing through the tiny streets with a pit stop to purchase some tangerines & try out a glass of Guinnes. Didn't enjoy it too much. Guess its quite an acquired taste.

The Anne Frank House is quite a marvel even if you haven't read the Diary of Anne Frank. And for those who have its a tryst with the imagination you've read in the book. The entire house is so well maintained that it leaves you intrigued as to how life would have been when the Jews were hiding from the Nazis. The secret home inside the home is as it was in Anne Frank's time.

After grabbing a coffee, we headed to check out the famous "red light" district. Its quite a area in its own sense. The women sit at the windows dressed very provocatively. The windows are mostly bordered with neon lights to attract your attention. Along with these multiple windows, there are a couple of joints which have shows & other attractions, but the business at both places seemed very bleak since there were hardly any people around.

The entire district has a certain air of professionalism to it, unlike it is here in India, and since its is legal it is run pretty much like any other business. Walking around was quite an experience.

Amsterdam

We lost more than half a day by the time we got to our place of stay in Amsterdam, thanks to the time difference & a long journey from Schipol airport to Amsterdam via the train and tram.

We had booked ourselves at Stayokay, Vondelpark which is close to the heart of the city. Its a youth hostel and very well managed only by the youth. Somehow the working youth across Europe come across as very honest & serious about their work and they always seem to be enjoying their work. That's very heartening to see.

We chose Stayokay to get a hostel experience and we were glad. Its quite a laid back environment compared to a hotel.

We opted to go for a canal cruise across Amsterdam. It was good fun. The cruise took us through small canals showing us quite a few important landmarks before taking us into the harbor which is quite a hotbed of trading activity.

We had Falafel for dinner at a joint called Maoz. You take a Falafel and they throw in an unlimited salad for free. Mostly run by punjabi's with hindi muisic in the background, Maoz really packs in quite a bang for the buck.

We strolled in the streets of Amsterdam with ice cream and were amazed at the night life the city exudes. The city is filled with bars, pubs, cafes (which sell coffee) and cafes (which sell drugs).

We hit the bed tired of walking the streets. We seem to be walking less but getting tired early. Signs that we are at the fag end of our trip.

Change of guards, Diana Memorial Fountain, Tower Bridge, Tower of London

We made a dash from the Green Park tube station to make it in time for the change of guards at the Buckingham Palace. But since we were late, we barely managed to get a good position to watch the change of guards.But we did see the entire ceremony and though it was nice, both of us found it pretty average.

From here we got to the Hyde Park to look at the Diana Memorial Fountain. This again was a damp squib. The walk was quite a bit so we slept for a while at the memorial. The memorial is a large heart shaped structure of the ground, through which water flows. Since there is no fountain really, it left us a bit dissapointed.

We reached the Tower of London after some confusing detours since a few lines of the London Tube were shut. Lunch was Fish & chips. It was quite good. The tower of London and the tower bridge (usually referred as the London bridge) was a great watch. I never knew there was so much history associated with the tower. The crown jewels are amazing to look at though the Kohinoor doesn't stand out as much as you would think it should. Each of the exhibit screams of wealth & royalty and to view them at such close proximity is quite an experience.The tour inside the engine room of the tower bridge was like a rerun of hydraulics we learnt in Engg College. The old system of opening the bridge is a technical marvel and some of the fundaes were still hazy. Damn, I am quite a bad engineer. :-(

We strolled into a quaint English pub and had some pretty good roast chicken and a draught beer. The chicken was served with Yorkshire pudding (not even remotely sweet & nothing close to any sort of dessert) and roast potatoes. Our journey back got delayed since we had to take the replacement bus service as the main trains were shut. These guys have an amazing system of replacement bus services whenever the train services are down. They have the timetable worked out to the minute and published months in advance. Very impressive.

We got back late and wrapped up packing by 12 and went to bed feeling sad that we would be leaving London next morning.

Wimbledon & Madame Tussads

To be able to see something in real life, which you've admired for ages on TV is a dream come true.

The Wimbledon tour was exhilirating to say the least, for the both of us. We were not allowed access to Centre court due to the work on some hi-tech roof (due to launch in 2009) but we were taken to the players area, the members area, the brodcasters area, the open lawns, views of the multiple courts and finally to Court no. 1. The entire court is protected by electric fences to keep wolves, dogs & pigeons from straying.

Just being there is such a thrill, I can imagine what it must be during the championships. The entire campus feels elite and I am sure its a joy spending time here during Wimbledon.

We spotted the Rolex clocks which had just arrived. These will be put up on the main courts. A lot of equipment was at the gates and preparations are picking up steam.

From Wimbledon we made our way back into the city at Baker Street, which has a Sherlock Homes statue for his address of 21 Baker Street, to get to Madame Tussads.

Madame Tussads is quite interesting. Some of the wax models are really quite good. Julia Roberts, Morgan Freeman, Queen Elizabeth are some which are as good as real. Amongst the Indians represented, Gandhi is barely close to the real thing. Shah Rukh, Amitabh and Aishwarya are pretty average replicas.

They have a pretty good set from Pirates of the Carribean and Johnny Depp looks cool. The spirit of London is a pretty nice train ride within the complex.

Kensington Palace & Lion King

The visit to Kengsington was pretty average. The palace is pretty and its gardens even more prettier. Other than a few rooms which reek of royalty, the rest of the rooms are average.

We were expecting some additional memorablia of Lady Diana but there isn't anything.

We started the day planning to visit Madame Tussads but we spotted tickets for a special afternoon show of Lion King - The Musical and decided to grab them. Hence we opted to check out Kengsington before we headed for the musical.

Lion King - The Musical is truly spectacular. I have never seen a better stage performance so larger than life combined with brilliant music and a whole array of colours. Its a complete adaptation of the movie and if you've seen the movie, then the story is no different. But the stage adaptation makes you forget that you ever watched the movie before. They have enacted elephants, giraffes and other animals so brilliantly that it leaves you stunned. It got a spectacular ovation especially during the final bows by the actors and left a memory which we will cherish forever.

Don't miss this if you ever get a chance.

Windsor

Its actually surprising that on a day when we planned a couple of things, we managed only one. I think the travel in London & our holiday fatigue is getting to us.

Windsor is a very fine palace. Some of the rooms, especially one which has all order of knights place over the walls and the roof. The chapel is also very quaint and had a very English fell to it. It has the flags representing knights who are still alive giving it a royal touch.

By the time we finished admiring the castle, we had consumed nearly 3 hours and were running a bit late for the river cruise on the Thames.

Inspite of making a dash for it, we reached Embankment station 10 mins past 5 and in the bargain, missed the cruise. Infact the offices had shut down and it felt like we were a few hours late.

We managed to grab a mini dinner of the quintessential English jacket potatoes topped with tuna & cheese. With our stomachs satisfied we reached home and continued the hogging witha great dinner of sambar, rice, sabzi and pickle.

London Eye, Trafalgar Square

On our first outing in London was its most modern landmark, the London Eye. It is indeed an engineering marvel.The whole ride takes about 30 mins and the views are breathtaking. By the time the "flight" ends, you wish you could take one more round of the worlds biggest "merry-go-round".

We had lunch at Las Iguanas, a mexican joint, where Snehal's cousin works. Over beer, nachos, enchilladas, chimichangas and what not we chatted up till early evening.

We strolled into Trafalgar Square for a while and also picked up fish & chicken for dinner. The square was pretty crowded but most were desi tourists have a ball clicking photos in every pose possible.Since the cousins were meeting after a long time, the gossiping continued till late after a good dinner. The neighbours must have thought that there were riots going on since we were way above the average decibels at that hour of the night.

Woburn Safari Park

Wobrun Safari Park is the biggest managed safari I have ever been to.

It was about 45 mins drive from home and we reached the place at 11:15 and took almost 30 mins to get in thanks to some long queues.

You have to drive around in your car and move along a defined path and go along spotting the animals. It was a wonderful experience and we spotted quite a few animals enroute. The tigers & the giraffes were the most amazing.

After that we went to the walking safari where you walk around the place and come in close contact with animals. We spent quite a bit of time with the Kangaroos. After lunch and some more walking around, we queued up to see the Sea Lion show. It was real good fun to know more about the sealions and to see them perform various stunts.

We got back home after encountering real bad traffic jams. My cousin, who was driving was complaining about the slow pace of the traffi And we were moving at 60 kmph during most phases and were bumper to bumper only at some points. :-)

Lazy Easter Sunday

Probably the first day of our trip where we did nothing but stay indoors all day. We slept like logs and had some amazing home cooked food which was a welcome change for our appetite.

Welwyn Garden City is a lovely residential place with a lot of greenery around. But like most European places we have found, it is deserted. When we took a walk at 6 in the evening on a Sunday, there was not a soul on the road.

Ironically some holidays, Easter being one of them, is taken very seriously in England. Everything was shut. Huge departmental stores, small mom n pop stores, most eating joints and even public transport. It was eerie to an extent.

A relaxed day felt like a holiday after weeks of non stop working. We cooled our heels and it was decided that we would head to a Safari the next day.

Incommunicado

Well its been 3 days since my phone konked off. Will resume my blogging now.

Its been a good thing without the phone but a little scary since we needed the phone miserably when we were delayed at Paris enroute to London.

Anyway here we go!

Paris Airport Blues

To be sitting inside the airport, till late in the night, for nearly 5 hours waiting to take a flight that barely lasts 50 mins, is probably one of my worst experience in flight delays.

We reached London at 1.30 in the night, 3 hours behind schedule. We survived on some horrible food since there was barely anything available at that hour in the night.

Easyjet gave us food worth 5 euros each and we just about got one bottle of water, a sandwich & a bag of chips. We also had a frustrating experience using a credit card phone to keep in touch with our relatives who were waiting for our arrival.

My wife's cousin had pre booked a cab which was a saviour in that hour of the night. We reached home at 2.30 and had a quick dinner and immediately crashed into bed.

Invalides, Notre Dame Cathedral

Napoleans Tomb is quite and intersting place to go to. The main area where he is buried is quite a structure. Its grandeur and size tell you a lot about how much he would have been respected during his times.

The rest of the Hotel de Invalides is not very exciting. It houses an army museum which was party shut due to some renovation. So after covering most of the area, we settled down on the lawns to finish a bag of chips, fruits, beer & wine which we had to consume since we were leaving Paris the same night.

After lazing around a bit more, we made our way to the Notre Dame Cathedral. The queues were long but we managed to slip in, in true desi style, the only time we've broken a queue.

The cathedral has a lovely facade but the interiors were dark and the place was crowded since it was a weekend. Its a nice place with lovely stained glass windows on all sides.

We got out quickly, caught a bite and headed back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and head to the airport.

Chateau Versailles, Siene tour

It took us a little over an hour to get to Versailles.

The grandeur of the Chateau is stunning. The size of it just amazing. The tour takes you through all the different types of rooms, each of which has a different theme. The walls, the ceiling, the paintings on the walls & the furniture are all different in every room.

To think that so much wealth was spent for personal use, gives you a hint as to why people would have been frustrated at that time. Frustration was one of the cornerstones for the French Revolution.

The Versailles Gardens are about 5 times bigger than the Chateau. They spread over a huge area and in some directions go on till the horizon.

Since it was a bit late, we decided to head to Effiel Tower to catch the lighting up at 9 pm. we had some spare time so we took a lovley crusie on the river Siene. The hour long cruise takes you around many tourist attractions, all of which are conveniently located along the riverside.

The lighting up of Eiffel at 9 & 10 pm is something one should never miss. It gives a wonderful touch to the tower and it looks like one huge blinking Christmas tree.

We made dinner out of a real nice & juicy hotdog and a chicken n cheese crepe. This joint is right below the tower on the opposite road and seemed like a family run place. I have never had a better hotdog anywhere else. Period. We also got conned into making a potrait which didn't turn out quite well as per wifey since I am made out to be a trifle serious in the potrait.

We were so dead tired that we crashed into bed without a change of clothes and woke up in the middle of the night to change.

Tomorrow will be our last day in Paris. Boo Hoo

Louvre, Arc D'Triomphe & Champs Elyeses

If you take a few football fields and keep many an artifacts, you would probably get the Louvre.

Louvre is the worlds biggest museum. It seems if you were to spend one minute in front of every piece in the museum, it would take 4 months to see everything inside the Louvre.

Though the main attraction is the Mona Lisa, frankly it pales in comparison with some of the other paintings. Infact the painting kept right opposite the Mona Lisa is much better but its glory is dwarfed by the Mona Lisa hype.

Though we walked for hours and browsed through with some specific atrefacts in mind, we fell short miserably in covering even 30% of what the Louvre has to offer. Since the rooms begin to close at 5.30, we decided to hang around the pyramid and then head to the Arc D'Triomphe.

The location of the Arc is mind blowing. The central island has 12 roads leading into it & apparently making it the worlds busiest roundabout. We climed on top of the Arc to get a superb 360 deg view of the round about.

The best view is of the Champs Elyses which is the main road leading to the Arc and is Paris's best destination for "hanging out" and ofcourse "shopping". The road is lined with trees, wide footpaths and open air cafes giving it a very romantic touch.

After strolling around aimlessly for a bit, checking out a Virgin Megastore & window shopping we finally got back to the hotel. Enroute we packed some hot Chinese dinner which we ate in the room with Hieneken beer and wine.

Ah Paris!

The flight from Nice to Paris was just about an hour and since it was an early morning flight, we just slept through it.

My cousin had told me that the Paris Metro is pretty good. But when you actually end up using it, you find it truly amazing to find the many routes that take you from one point to the other. It was a breeze to get to Daumesnil, where our hotel was, from Paris Orly airport.

The hotel was actually 10 steps from the Metro station and the room was pretty small but very nice & cute. Surprisingly check in was at 2 pm so we just hung around, shopped for some groceries at the supermarket, had lunch and then checked in.

After resting for a bit, we headed to see the Eiffel Tower. The metro takes you 5 mins from the tower.

The queue was horribly long and it took us nearly 2.5 hours to get to the main lift. Every lift which went up or down had a minimum 30 min waiting time.

But every minute of waiting time is worth it. The experience just leaves you spell bound. We were lucky to get to the 2nd floor in daylight and the top floor during the night. It was freezing cold all along but we had loads of fun.

We must have taken countless photos since every view is spectcular. The view from the top is amazing and you can pretty much see all of Paris.

We were dead tired when we got back to the hotel, 6 hours after we started & 5 of which we were standing. We opted for sleep instead of dinner, which was a pretty good idea.

Day one is Paris was very tiring and exhilirating as well.

Monte Carlo

Visited Monte Carlo and enjoyed ogling at the luxuries of the rich and famous.



We strolled into the grand Monte Carlo Casino and heck we even made 7 Euros at our first attempt at gambling. These earning were immediately eroded by a small lunch of tuna salad and a glass of beer.



Outside the main entrace of the Casino you can spot many a expensive cars. We spotted 2 Ferraris and some really cool Mercs.



We also visited the Royal Palace and stolled in the palace ground which give a stunning view of the sea.



We got back to Nice and got on to the hop on hop off tour of Nice which was really nice. We sat on the upper deck and enjoyed ourselves.



The tour takes you through the entire city with explainations of the major landmarks. We missed out paying a visit to Old Nice which was highly recommended by my cousin.



We ended the day with superb palak sabzi, paneer sabzi, hot rotis, rice and my favourite yellow daal.



We wrapped up the packing in about and hour and went to bed excited about our departure to Paris the next morning.

Eze Village

Thanks to some convoluted bus schedules from Nice, we had to postpone our plans to get to Monte Carlo.



But a 30 min bus ride fro Nice is this quiet little town called Eze Village. The entire village is probably a few kms wide but since its on a hill it feels large.



The walk through the village is uphill but beautiful. It has tiny streets with cobblepaths and you can get a superb view of the sea from many spots.



We spent quite a bit of time in a tiny shop that sells home made liqueur, brandy, vinegar & oils. We also ended up shopping for a few things here. The best was Fig liqueur and garlic flavoured olive oil.



We wandered around aimlessly and loved every bit of it. We were told that most hotels shut between 3 to 7 and since it was already 5, we had to make do with sandwiches for lunch. I also tried a beer called 1664 which was pretty good.



We got back by 6.30 and had to struggle with the automated entry system and were glad that someone came from inside the building and we got in just before the door closed.



After a small rest at home we headed to the Promenade D'anglais which is like Marine Drive. It has a wide footpath where you spot quite a few folks cycling, skating or jogging. The view is brilliant and you can sit on the benches and look at planes landing and taking off.



We also walked down to the beach. Its the first time I saw a beach shore with pebbles and practically no sand. The water was very clean and a far cry from the Mumbai beaches.



Dinner was home made idlis, sambar, chutney, rice and pickle. Bliss!

Fragonard Perfumery

While at Eze village, we took a free guided tour of one of France's leading perfume company, Fragonard.

We were explained the entire process of perfume manufacturing right from the flower/fruit sourcing to the distillation and the conversion to various forms of perfurme.

But since they also make pure essences, their perfumes are a bit expensive. It seems they also sell their essences to other famous brands such as Chanel, YSL etc.

One thing for sure, after the tour and a visit to their factory outlet, it sure does leave your nose confused and your body smelling good.

Pisa

The drive from Firenze to Pisa took about an hour & a half. There is nothing to see in Pisa other than the Leaning Tower and the adjoining Duomo & the lovely lawns.

The tickets to enter the leaning tower were available for entry 5 hours from the time we reached there so we passed it.

The tower looks spectacular to say the least. And unilke other tourist attractions the leaning tower leaves a lot to be admired from a distance rather from up close. The inclination is more vivid from a distance and you cannot but marvel at this man made mistake.

After spending a few hours. Moving around the place, bargaining for a few fake watches (I got a decent Omega) & clicking quite a few snaps, we settled down for a nice picnic lunch of besan rotis, cookies, cashewnuts and tangerines.

Everyone slept during the drive back and so it felt like we reached Nice pretty early. We stopped at the border for some good Italian coffee and made it to Nice just in time for dinner.

We plan to visit Monte Carlo tom.