1 continent, 6 countries, 10 cities, 6 friends, 11 days, 8 hotels, 3 world wonders, 1 snow mountain, buses, trams, trains, flights, boats, cars, cycles, cable car, singing/dancing on the streets, x no. of sandwiches, y number of burgers, z no. of pizza's, 4000+ photos that's a brief of our Euro trip, at the end of which i struck off the 3rd continent from my world map.
The full itinerary of Euro trip was formulated and booked entirely by ourselves, which took almost 3 weeks to finalize. A Lot of permutations & combinations and confusions ended up with a plan of 5 countries. Initial plan was to visit only 4 countries. After discussions and travel options, 4 countries became 5 countries and on the next day 5 became 6 and then on the next week 6 became 7 and it seemed never ending. After contemplating, considering our body fitness and time, we finalized these 5 countries; France, Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland & Italy. Seems Vatican city in Italy is also considered a country; a country surrounded totally by another country, so technically that marks the 6th country of our trip.
For Europe trip you need to get Schengen visa with which you can travel up to 25 countries in Europe. This visa is even more cumbersome to apply when compared to Australian visa, it requires a health insurance too. Venki, Muni, Senthil and I, the usual travelers from Singapore and Jack from USA and Muhil from Germany are the cast of Euro Trip.
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| That's the depth of planning |
For Europe trip you need to get Schengen visa with which you can travel up to 25 countries in Europe. This visa is even more cumbersome to apply when compared to Australian visa, it requires a health insurance too. Venki, Muni, Senthil and I, the usual travelers from Singapore and Jack from USA and Muhil from Germany are the cast of Euro Trip.
From the past experiences getting visa is a hectic job for us. So, for the Europe trip we meticulously prepared all the docs required to apply at the French embassy Singapore and Jack has to apply in USA for the schengen visa. One fine morning we went to French embassy to apply for visa and got almost rejected at the application counter itself. We were told that as per our itinerary we stay longer in Italy and that we have to apply for visa at the Italian embassy. After persuading the personnel at the counter, he considered our application at the French embassy itself because our arrival and departure is at France and moreover we stay the same number of days in France and Italy. It was just that we stay few hours more in Italy than France. For Schengen visa, it doesn't matter where you land or where you depart, you need to apply visa at the country's embassy in which you would stay the longest as per your itinerary.
After coming out of the embassy we quickly called Jack and alerted him about the situation we encountered at the embassy.
Mr. Jack resides in North Carolina state and he is temporarily working in New York, so he booked an appointment at French embassy in New York. To his surprise after reaching the embassy, he was asked to go to Italy embassy in Philadelphia(his residing states consulate). Looks like in US there is a rule that you need to apply visa in a consulate in which your residing state belong. We also asked him to go to Italy embassy instead of French embassy in his residing state's consulate. To reach Philadelphia he had to travel 500 miles(8 hours by drive). After going to the Italy embassy in Philadelphia, the counter personnel asked him to go to French embassy, frustrated Jack pushed aside the chairs, slammed the embassy doors when leaving the embassy; it was the eve of Friday. At his home when inner peace engulfed Jack, he realized that the lady at the counter misinterpreted the itinerary, as he stays more days in France than Italy. So Jack booked an emergency appointment and went with a peaceful mind to Italy embassy again and explained the itinerary in such a way that the consul doesn't have any other option but to accept his application and grant visa. And guess what, he got his visa granted just one day before the flight departure. We got our visa stamped and jack got his too; Phew!!! Too much commotion for a visa.
Mr. Jack resides in North Carolina state and he is temporarily working in New York, so he booked an appointment at French embassy in New York. To his surprise after reaching the embassy, he was asked to go to Italy embassy in Philadelphia(his residing states consulate). Looks like in US there is a rule that you need to apply visa in a consulate in which your residing state belong. We also asked him to go to Italy embassy instead of French embassy in his residing state's consulate. To reach Philadelphia he had to travel 500 miles(8 hours by drive). After going to the Italy embassy in Philadelphia, the counter personnel asked him to go to French embassy, frustrated Jack pushed aside the chairs, slammed the embassy doors when leaving the embassy; it was the eve of Friday. At his home when inner peace engulfed Jack, he realized that the lady at the counter misinterpreted the itinerary, as he stays more days in France than Italy. So Jack booked an emergency appointment and went with a peaceful mind to Italy embassy again and explained the itinerary in such a way that the consul doesn't have any other option but to accept his application and grant visa. And guess what, he got his visa granted just one day before the flight departure. We got our visa stamped and jack got his too; Phew!!! Too much commotion for a visa.
30 Apr 2014: By 8 pm we packed our bags and got ready to land on the 3rd continent on our world map. Took taxi at 8.30 pm and reached airport by 9.00 pm, we were 2 hours before departure. Yes we don't want to take any risk, so we reached airport very early unlike the other trips. Got our boarding pass at Lufthansa airlines after which we went to take my traditional "travelog snap".
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| Last but 4 is our flight LH779 |
As usual we went to Anandha Bhavan but our usual's was not available so went for dosa and rava kichadi after which went to cheers mart for our usual drinks.
Wheels up at 11 pm, destination is Paris via Frankfurt with travel time of 15 hours, we boarded the aircraft early and we were the odd men out. Literally we four were the only Indians on-board A380; the worlds largest double deck passenger airliner; my first time on that mighty bird. Lot of movies was there for in flight entertainment and one of them was thala's Arambam.
01-May-2014; Landed Frankfurt at 5.45 am and our connection flight is at 7.15 am to Paris. This time clearing immigration was easy, we had just to show some docs. Everyone at the Frankfurt airport were gazing at us, may be our chocolate brown texture attracted them.
The connection flight took off on time and reached Paris Charles de Galle airport; one of the top 10 biggest airports in the world.
At the aircraft's airbridge we passed through the glass wall and saw that the sun was shinning very brightly at 8:00 am. Damn!!! it was supposed to be cold, we were dejected but not for long. Once we came out of the airport the cold weather embraced us, wow that was a huge relief. Jack reached the Paris airport before us and was waiting to welcome us.
Took a 6-seater taxi for 70 euros from airport to our hotel; st. Christopher's inn at Garu de nord. Our rooms were very cozy for a budget hotel, we quickly got freshen up for the city tour.
Muhilan was on the way to our hotel from Germany, we got ready and were waiting outside for Muhil to join us at our hotel. By the time we met Muhil it was 12 noon and we saw Sujai on the way, who was travelling with his office colleague.
The connection flight took off on time and reached Paris Charles de Galle airport; one of the top 10 biggest airports in the world.
At the aircraft's airbridge we passed through the glass wall and saw that the sun was shinning very brightly at 8:00 am. Damn!!! it was supposed to be cold, we were dejected but not for long. Once we came out of the airport the cold weather embraced us, wow that was a huge relief. Jack reached the Paris airport before us and was waiting to welcome us.
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| Welcome jack |
Took a 6-seater taxi for 70 euros from airport to our hotel; st. Christopher's inn at Garu de nord. Our rooms were very cozy for a budget hotel, we quickly got freshen up for the city tour.
Muhilan was on the way to our hotel from Germany, we got ready and were waiting outside for Muhil to join us at our hotel. By the time we met Muhil it was 12 noon and we saw Sujai on the way, who was travelling with his office colleague.
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| Tats our hotel |
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| Welcome Muhil |
Went to the metro, took a one day pass(€8.50 per day, per person) and headed straight to Arc de Triomphe. It started to drizzle right after we hit the streets, spent some time at Arc de Triomphe for the drizzling to settle down.
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| tats Arc de Triomphe |
Our plan for the day is to walk down the long stretch to enjoy the scenic view of Paris. After the drizzling we started to walk and had food at a restaurant, damn it is really difficult munching those hard cold buns you can literally feel the pain in your mouth after eating those.
It was around 2 pm, drizzling started again, we bought an umbrella for €7 and started to walk again. As we walked down the straight road(Av. des champs Elyess), we saw old architectural massive structures everywhere.
Around 5 pm we started to search for toilet, half an hour past and we still could not find a public toilet. Finally when the tap is about to explode, we entered a restaurant had coffee and used the restaurant's toilet. One thing for sure that will happen to you in Europe is that, when you want to go for toilet, you always end up pursuing it; "The Pursuit of Toilet".
The above location is where the kamal song was shot, "Germany in senthen malare, tamil maganin ponne silaye kaadhal devathayae"
Then we went to louver museum, its where the famous Monolisa art is preserved. Since its 1st MAY most of the tourist attractions were closed and this one too. The buildings around the louver museum is an architectural excellence. Took lot of photos around the museum and spent some time there.
We were hungry so we started to scout for restaurants, as we walked, it started to drizzle again and then it turned violent so we had to go under shelter for a while. We slowly moved and on the way bought an umbrella, crossed few restaurants which were costly, finally ended up at subway with a foot long sub for each one of us. The branch had a pay use toilet for 50 cents per person but we used it as 50 cent per 6 persons. After stomach full we went out of the outlet and almost 70% of the people were gazing at us on the streets, the below photo would explain why...
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| The love lock bridge |
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| the love lock bridge, eiffel tower behind |
We went on to search for this canal cruise which goes around few important places including the Eiffel tower. After inquiring few people, we found that this cruise boarding point is very near to notre dam. The cruise departs at 8.20 pm and we were there at 8 pm but still we were not issued tickets because they have a cutoff time for each schedule, the next available one was at 9.20 pm. The cruise is an one hour journey and drops off at the same pick up location, no other choice, we had to go for it. Now, we got nearly an hour to spend so we planned to visit notre dam. We asked the cruise counter staff 'where is nostradamus?', he acted blur that's because we mispronounced notre dam as nostradamus. It is just opposite to the cruise company, we crossed the bridge and spent an hour at the closed church, just by chatting and taking pictures. Night at France starts only after 9 pm, which is good for tourists as you get lot of day time for sightseeing.
9.10 pm, we went to the cruise boarding point, the cruise was almost half empty. We went to the top open deck for better view, the wind was damn cold and freezing; probably first time in my life I am experiencing such freezing temperature. The main attraction of the cruise ride is that it goes very close to the Eiffel tower. After half an hour of the ride we can see the Eiffel tower approaching us gradually. In sometime, we were very close to the Eiffel tower and it was lit up with a luminous light. Such a pleasant view and it became mesmerizing for a minute when it was mixed with randomized flickering white light. We were very fortunate to take the 9.20 pm cruise to witness the beauty of the tower in night mode, if we had took the 8.20 pm cruise then it would have been day mode.
We bought tickets to the top of Eiffel tower, there is a lift that takes you to the top. At the top it was very cold and there was this girl with mini skirt posing for photos in that bitter cold. You can see almost the whole of Paris from that height of 324 metres. The eiffel tower was constructed in 1889 and it was the tallest structure on earth when it was built with a weight of 10000 tons.
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| Watch it on the left |
After 15 mins we climbed down and took metro straight to the hotel, reached around 1.30 pm. First day of euro trip and that was a long long day, our legs almost wept of exhaustion.
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| First sketch of Eiffel tower with comparison of height with other structures |
02-May-205; 7.30 am as usual I was the first one to wake up, target was to get ready and finish breakfast by 10 am and we almost did it. Free breakfast at the hotel, nothing great about the food worth a mention. We did checkout of the hotel and dumped our bags at the hotel lockers. 3 of Jack friends working in Austria reached last night and will join us today for the sight seeing. We took the metro from Garu de Nord station to Chateau Rogue station and walked all the way to sacre coeur(Basilica of the Sacré Coeur); which is our first tourist destination for today.
The church is on a small hill, from its top you get to see the view of city. Reached there around 11 am, there are lot of souvenir shops in streets of this place and its very affordable.
There are two entrance to reach the top of church one is via on one side and other is to take the curved path(like in the above photo). Unaware of the trap at the other end of the curved path we started to climb up. We were a group of 9 people, at the end of the curved path there was a group of Black people standing in a straight line perpendicular to the pathway like a toll gate. When we reached the other end of the path, each one of the Black guys caught hold of each one of us and held our hands. Each one of them were well built and at least 6 ft high, even if you try to push through they wont let off your hands, yet 3 of us managed to slip through them. Quickly the black guys started to tie a small colored thread on our hand and started asking money for the thread; claimed to be ritual thread. Even if you give 5 euro they won't let you go, some of us even gave 15 euros to escape from them. One brave soul from our group just gave only 1 euro and manage to free himself from them.
The whole incident happened in a jiffy, at the end of which you find yourselves being robbed of X euros. So, in case if you ever go to this place and see a bunch of black people standing just take a big U-turn and take the other route. Such a cheap way to rob tourist and the government doesn't care or take any action about it. Spent about an hour at the church taking photos, searching toilet and wandering around. We saw the black guys again, now they started roaming around, finding tourists to tie the stupid thread and rob them.
Its was again the cold rough buns for lunch, after food we went for purchasing souvenirs.
We took the metro and went again to Eiffel tower to get a view of it in day light. Went there around 1.30 pm, on the way was this automatic high tech toilet. Few of us went to use the toilet, if you were a bystander watching us using the toilet, then definitely you would have had an outburst of laugh. For one person to use the toilet it would easily take 8 minutes, to cut short the time we tried lot of different stuff which resulted in the door being automatically opened midway, latrine been pulled in, two person using at the same time; loads of comic moments...
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| From Sacre Cour to Eiffel Tower |
If you were able to find a correlation between the photos above at the first look then i have made a successful collage, i should pat my back.
This evening at 5.30 pm we have a train to catch from Paris de Nord station to Amsterdam, the paris de nord station is just few steps from our hotel. We went around the Eiffel tower and took lots of photos solo one's/group one's. Near the tower there were lot of people attracting tourist using the Cup and ball trick, you can see bunch of people being cleverly tricked and lots of euros being lost in the flick of an eye.
We didn't play the game because we have seen such things in our villages and there is no way you can beat the host. I saw a guy who easily lost close to 200 euros in a single attempt. We left around 3 pm from the Eiffel tower to the hotel; had some refreshments at the hotel's restaurant. Took our bags from the lockers and headed straight to the station.
We had booked in Thayls service provider, the max train speed of which is appx. 350 km per hour; my first time on a real super fast train. After we boarded, in less than 15 mins we headed straight to the cafeteria and spend most of our journey time in the cafeteria mostly chatting, eating, drinking & gazing at the cafeteria sales lady. The train had a heater and it was warm all through the travel time.
In the train, there was this TTE lady to whom we said "hi" every time she passed us, would have been at least 20 times in the whole 3 hours journey and she replied back with a big smile every time she crossed us. When you leave France, all that gloomy straight faces registered in your mind gets erased by the warm welcoming faces of dutch people; such a big difference.
Between Paris and Amsterdam is Belgium and our train crossed Brussels; got down at the Brussels stop and took few photos. We had Belgium in our first itinerary, since the transport timing didn't suit us we had to skip this country.
We alighted at Rotterdam station which is one stop before Amsterdam because our hotel is very near to Schipol airport(Rotterdam). Amsterdam was much colder than France, so cold that it forced our jackets to quickly come out of the bags and cuddle us.
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| Took this photo at a photo booth @ Amsterdam |
After taking photo at the trademark "I Amsterdam" hoarding, we headed straight to Ibis Amsterdam; which is our stay for the next two days.
Our hotel is at least 20 mins away from the city by train, we didn't get any rooms near the city area; all booked even 2 months before. We checked in @ Ibis and in half an hour's time we left the hotel to city by metro and reached around 10.30 pm and it was freaking cold out there. Went to MCD for dinner which was just few metres away from the metro station, well MCD was a savior for us back to soft buns. After dinner we went around some of the famous places around the canal, spent some time around the streets and we left to hotel around 12 am, as we were tired and next day we have to get up early. There is Ibis hotel bus service from the metro station to the hotel; the last service is at 1.15 am. We missed one bus slot by just 30 secs and had to wait 15 mins for the next one in that freaking cold weather.
3-May-2014; Got ready around 9 am, our day trip for today is keukenhof; the famous flower garden of Amsterdam.
Took the 9.15 bus from hotel to schipol airport, since some of us didn't eat breakfast we had to find some food chains in the airport. To stimulate our frustration a few burgers ordered at burger king took at least 45 mins for takeaway. 10.30 am, we took the bus from airport to keukenhof and that's another 45 mins drive out of the city. As we had bought the tickets earlier clearing the entrance of the flower garden was easy, the garden was fully packed with tourists. You can see lots of buses, one behind the other dropping off hundreds and hundreds of tourists.
Inside the gardens there are huge varieties of flowers in different colors, so much colors that you think of any color in the spectrum of colors and there is one flower in the garden matching it. Yet, we were quite disappointed, as our imagination of kuekenhof was like the "kumari" song from ''Anniyan" movie; different colors of flowers in a long straight line parallel to each other extending up to 200m(The Tulip fields). After taking few pictures with the flowers at the garden, we went to food court and had some burgers for lunch.
Around 2 pm we left the garden, at the exit was this band which attracted people with their enthralling music and most importantly the band members were very energetic.
Took the 9.15 bus from hotel to schipol airport, since some of us didn't eat breakfast we had to find some food chains in the airport. To stimulate our frustration a few burgers ordered at burger king took at least 45 mins for takeaway. 10.30 am, we took the bus from airport to keukenhof and that's another 45 mins drive out of the city. As we had bought the tickets earlier clearing the entrance of the flower garden was easy, the garden was fully packed with tourists. You can see lots of buses, one behind the other dropping off hundreds and hundreds of tourists.
Inside the gardens there are huge varieties of flowers in different colors, so much colors that you think of any color in the spectrum of colors and there is one flower in the garden matching it. Yet, we were quite disappointed, as our imagination of kuekenhof was like the "kumari" song from ''Anniyan" movie; different colors of flowers in a long straight line parallel to each other extending up to 200m(The Tulip fields). After taking few pictures with the flowers at the garden, we went to food court and had some burgers for lunch.
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| One more beautiful flower spotted :) |
At the very exit there was this bicyclehiring service, at which you can pay and cycle around the small village. We took 6 cycles one for each, they gave us a map with different routes ranging from 5 km to 25 km. The bicycles had pedal brake and not hand brake; first time I am riding a bicycle with pedal brake. Since my fraternity is a bunch of lazy bums we took the 5 km route. The foot brake bicycle was a bit tough to control initially, Senthil rammed his cycle onto a professional cycler who came in opposite direction on his professional cycle. I had a long time wish that I should ride bike or cycle on a foreign country side farm land and it came true in Amsterdam.
Along the route we should see the Tulip fields like in Anniyan song, as per the map given to us. We indeed saw few fields but to our despair all the flowers had been plucked from the fields. Then we came to know that every year, last week of April is the season in which Amsterdam blossoms with colors to the fullest, we went at the first week of May. If we had went cycling on the last week of April then it would have been an unimaginable feat to our eyes. If you ever plan a trip to Europe then Amsterdam must find a place in your itinerary and make sure you plan in the second half of April. We cycled along our route on that pleasant weather in search of an Amsterdam's trademark windmill. We took an off-track route and found two windmills at quite a distance, spent some time there taking photos.
By the time we cycled back and were on course our route the boys got tired, on the map we spotted few restaurants at some distance and cycled towards it. Found few tulip fields along way but most of them already been harvested. We then found a restaurant, parked our cycles and ordered burgers and wine. The restaurant was very pleasant, the location of the restaurant made it even more pleasant to have dinner.
By the time we finished the meal it was 5.30 pm, since it was very late we cycled back to board the bus to our hotel. On the way back we entered one of the tulip fields for a photo session.
After lot of solo photos being snapped, we hit the road again and Muni boy's bicycle chain slipped. The chain setup is fully closed so we cannot put back the chain on its rack. We had to tow Muni boy all the way back; Venki, Jack & myself took turns in towing, actually Venki was the one who did most of the towing.
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| Human Towing |
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| see parallel queue at a distance??? This is a single queue, that's how long the queue was... |
8.30 pm we reached the hotel, target was to get ready and board the 9 pm shuttle bus back to the metro, but we missed it and finally took the 9.15 pm bus. As you know our hotel is half an hour away from the city area, this night is the last night in Amsterdam so we want to enjoy the night life of Amsterdam. 10.15 pm we reached Amsterdam central and went straight to the MCD, had some burgers for dinner, then we walked straight ahead to the party area.
This night we went to the main party area where you can see different ethnic group of people from all around the world gather in the same area. The night was freezing cold and we went to wander around the streets, the streets were light up with lot of colors on all of the doors of the small houses, it was so colorful that it forces you to gaze at each one of the house. After spending some time at the streets of Amsterdam, we returned back to the central stationOn the way we went to MCD again; i guess that's fourth time we are going to the same MCD. After some burgers we left and took the train back to schipol airport, on the train we were singing tamil songs for the entire half an hour journey, lot of chorus songs(mainly "ippadi unnai yenthi kondu inthiralogam poividava; ratchagan song"), our music band woke up few passengers in the train. From schipol airport we took taxi back to our hotel, since few taxi didn't take us which forced jack to scold some of them in foul language. By the time we reached hotel it was 2 am, itinerary for tomorrow is not fixed; more like leisure time.
04-May-2014; The only fixed itinerary for today is Vondel park. Got ready around 9 am and took train to Amsterdam central, from there we took a short city tour by foot; first spot was Dam Square. Before the city tour we had to dump our bags at the station baggage drop, we had checked out of the hotel and our train to Munich is at 8 pm today. At the baggage section the lockers accepted only credit card, we spent half an hour at an locker trying to figure out how to pay and use the locker; finally came to notice that the locker that we were trying is not functioning; shit!!! It was heavily crowed in the locker section, quickly we found some lockers and dumped our bags at the lockers and left to MCD for breakfast.
On the way we bought some souvenirs, we reached Dam square but was still searching for it; had to convince ourselves that the place we are at is actually Dam square as our map gave us a different portrait.
Took some photos and we moved straight ahead to the Amsterdam National Museum. Since the ticket price for the museum was high, we didn't go inside the museum but took some photos outside.
After museum we went straight ahead to vondel park where muhilan had scheduled a visit with his friend(localite). At vondel park we met muhilan friend, who informed us there isn't much to see at vondel park and took us straight to the coffee shop for some coffee.
There was this famous coffee shop where we had coffee and some cake, then we went to have lunch at some noodle shop. This noodle shop was almost Asian style so we ordered extra hot chilli noodle for every one and it was damn spicy. After lunch venki started to feel dizzy and as time passed by muhilan felt dizzy too, everyone started feeling dizzy one by one as time passed expect muhilan friend. We were not exactly sure what caused the dizziness but muni boy had a feeling that his head was ice cold, each one of us had their own feeling because of the dizziness.
We were supposed to take the canal cruise after lunch, since most of us felt dizzy we went to the Amsterdam central to take rest. Muhilan friend offered to go to his house and take rest but we went to the station instead as the timing was tight. Can you imagine we went to the station 4 hours before our train schedule time just because we felt dizzy. There were many funny/crazy moments at the baggage section, super market, toilet and at the platform; i cannot elaborate those moment here as it would consume pages, call me or any of our boyz for the whole story :)
There was confusion if we are at the correct platform or not, but in some time it got confirmed and we are indeed at the correct platform. The confusion was mainly because the local and international train uses the same track and stops at the same platform. After some rest most of the dizziness faded away, at 6.30 pm Jack and i went to MCD to buy some burgers; MCD's in Europe are your savior its far better by tons than eating the frozen breads. Exactly at 8 pm the train reached and exactly at 8.30 pm we hit the beds and slept, train is scheduled to arrive Munich at 7 am.
05-May-2014; 7 am we took taxi to MEININGER Hotel München, got freshen up and started our city tour at 10 am. This day we framed a song for Muhilan as he used to spend a lot of time at the toilet, (song in tamil)
"Muhil hae, Muhil hae, vaa Muhil hae
Veliyae, Veliyae, Vaa Veliyae
Naan unnakaga than vegunerama kaathu rinthaen Vaaaaaaa Muhil hae"
in the lines of the actual tamil song
"Kuyil eh Kuyil eh poongkuyil eh,
mayil eh mayil en vaa mayil eh,
oru pooncholai yae unnakaga than poothaduthae vaa vaa"
For tourists there are loads of information about places of interest at Munich, i should say its probably one of best tourist friendly city even though nothing much to visit in it. You get everything at the hotel's reception itself, from city map to tram tickets. First we went to the Nymphenburg Palace, since we hadn't entered inside any of the palace so far in our trip, we went inside this one.
Not a majestic one, if you have time you can go to Neuschwanstein castle by skipping this one. Actually we hadn't planned well for Munich, the neuschwanstein castle takes close to 3 hours travel from the city, that castle resembles like the one's you see in those fairy tale movies.
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| Neuschwanstein castle from google |
After walking for sometime in the garden, our foot found the beer court. There were lot of people with big beer jugs and pork stick. The apt name for the garden would be englisher beer garden, as there a lot of beer courts and jugs n jugs of beers everywhere. We spent more time at the courts than at the park. We then took a exit from the park and struggled sometime searching for the bus stop to the market city. Reached the Marienplatz Square which is the city center of Munich, we spent some time roaming around and taking photos.
We then entered the Marienplatz bell tower, by then it was 5.00 pm and unfortunately the tower didn't have elevator, so you got to climb the steps all the way up and it was quite high. The boys were very tired by the time they reached top, at the top its a nice view of the city. After spending some time at the tower we then roamed around the streets.
One of Muhil friend told us that he will meet us at hofbrauhaus at 7 pm, in the mean time we had food and took a short city tour by walk. Before 7 pm we went to the hofbrauhaus which is a very famous beer brewery in munich. It's a very big place, you can see tons of beer jugs flying around being served and consumed. Muhil friend ordered a half jug and the waiter commented that half jug is for children and that we are adults and brought him a full jug. I guess this house has the most visited tourists in a day, a high class Beer house.
At 11pm we left hofbrahaus and reached our hotel early, as next day morning we have train to Garmisch at 6am. The top most point of Germany is the Zugspitze snow mountain, our first hit to a snow mountain.
06-May-2014; First time in my tourist life i had the luxury to wake up as the last person, usually i will the the first person to wake up and force the guys to get ready; thanks to Muhilan.
Boarded the train to Garmisch on time at 6am, its a 2.5 hours journey from Munich to Garmisch. The train route from Munich to Garmisch is a fantastic natural feat of mountains, houses and vast green fields.
Reached Garmisch on time as we didn't book any accommodation for the day, we went in search for the lockers so that we can dump our bags. We went a long way searching for the lockers following the sign board of Tourist info centre and its far from the train station. After walking for over 10 mins we finally reached the tourist info building to find it being closed. So we had to walk back to the train station, to our surprise the baggage section was at station itself and none of our 12 eyes spotted it. We dumped our bags at the lockers and went to buy train tickets to the mountain top.
We took the small train from Garmisch to Zugspitze at 10.00 am, the way to Zugspitze is even more appealing for our eyes. Vast greenish yellow grass with few huts spread out and mountain in the backdrop.
If i am given an opportunity to stay in Europe for the rest of my life then without a thought my choice would be Garmisch; such a pleasant village.
The train from garmisch stopped at a particular station and from there we took a bus, after the bus again we shifted to a different train; this is the actual train that goes to the top of the mountain. By 11.30 am we reached the mountain top, our first time on a snow mountain. There are few snow mountains in India but our first timer is bound to happen in Europe.
We expected freezing temperature on the snow mountain but to the contrary it was not even cold, mainly because of the sun light. The sun was scorching to a extent that we could not have a view of the landscape without coolers, the reflection from the ice was too bright to handle. We spent about 45 mins at that location mostly taking photos; solo, groups, coolers on, coolers off, scarf on, scarf off, jacket on, jacket off, t-shirt on, t-shirt off.
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| hero of our trip |
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| Sun was scorching so hot, even with sleeveless it was not cold |
We then took a cable car to reach the top most point of the mountain, where it was a bit cold and possible to get panoramic view of Germany. After sometime we went down to the restaurant to have lunch and it was a pretty heavy lunch that day and quite an experience to have at an ice mountain.
The train from the mountain downwards leaves every half an hour and we have a train to catch from garmisch to Zurich(Switzerland) at 6 pm. After few thoughts we took the train at 2.30 pm downwards, a tight timeline but if we stick to the plan we should be able to catch the 6 pm train. The return train stopped at its last station, from where we need to take a bus and then a train. But this spot is the place where Eibsee lake is located, so we took some time to wander around the lake. There was a restaurant, had coffee in it with the view of the lake by the side. This is the lake we saw at top angle from the top of the mountain(few pictures above).
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| Jack made friends with this old couple |
By 4 pm we went to the train platform, where there isn't any soul and started to practice salsa dance with dance master jack.
Practice session:
Real Performance:
Took the local train to garmisch and got down 2 stops before Garmisch for a photo-shoot session at the greenish-yellow grass field. After photo-shoot session, dance session continued again on the platform till the next train.
By 5 pm we reached the garmisch station, that's about an hour earlier for the train to Zurich. Spent sometime at the station and the nearby shops buying souvenirs. Took the train to Zurich at 6 pm, this train crossed Innsburg (Austria), got down and took photos. Austria was also in our initial itinerary but was excluded because of the transport/timing constraints.
The above is the toilet facility inside the train...
At 11 pm we reached Zurich and took taxi to our hotel(Edwand lodges). In the whole of Europe, switzerland is the only country which doesn't use euro but Swiss franc. 1 euro is 1.2 Swiss franc, Swiss does accept euro but they take for 1:1. So when you ever go Swiss remember to get some francs, since we didn't have any francs handy, had to give euros for the taxi that night. The Edwand lodge is fully automatic, no receptionist nor front desk, there's a kiosk machine once you key in your booking number it drops you the room keys. Even for checkout you just have to drop the keys in kiosk; technology at its extreme. Since this is our only night at switzerland we went out for a short night walk, had some pasta for dinner.
07-May-2014; Next morning we went out for the city tour, took a bus from our hotel and went to the train station. We went to the tourist information desk at the station and i must say this, switzerland is by far the best tourist information country of all the ones that i have been so far. The information desk had 6 staff to serve the tourists, it had different kind of city maps, train/tram route maps, local tour packages, you can find any information for the matter. By far the costliest place that i have been too, with expensive locality i guess the government can afford to spend for tourism. After few options and with only one day at switzerland we fixed Rhine falls and Uteilburg mountain to visit for the day.
Exchanged euro to Swiss franc at the station itself then took the train to Rhine falls, reached the falls by 11 am. Rhine falls is a small falls more of a river, not a very great destination but can visit once, if you got time.
After spending some time at the falls we were back to the station where the dancing session continued till the arrival of the train.
We then alighted at the central for lunch and took another train to Uteilburg; top most point of Zurich. It was 3 pm, we took another train and reached Uteilburg, another 500 m trek to mountain top tower. The tower was swaying slightly, it is a great view from the tower which gives you a 360 degree of almost everything in Zurich.
We have a train at 7 pm from Zurich to Milan, so at 4 pm we were back to the Uteilburg station to get train to Zurich central. Again our dance session continued at the platform till the arrival of the train. At 5 pm we have reached the central, took our bags from the lockers, went for souvenirs and was waiting for the train. The train was delayed by 30 mins, bought some energy drink to boost up till the arrival of the train.
The train then arrived 45 mins late to its scheduled departure, our plan of city tour in Milan that night was not possible. One thing for sure is, if you are from India and when you reach switzerland you may feel totally different from what you have imagined; every Indian has a imagination of switzerland and when you reach you will see the difference.
By the time we reached Milan it was 11.30 pm, the Milan train station was itself an architectural excellence, stopped by MCD and packed some burgers for dinner. Our hotel Gonzaga is very near to the station, so we walked towards it and on the way Senthil almost got hit by a car while crossing the road. It was a fortunate night for us, else by now we would have been in some hospital finding a bed for Senthil. By the time we reached our hotel and cleared the front desk it was 12 am and we have a train to Venice at 7 am. Our plan is to leave the hotel at 6 am, it was a 3 per room type and Muhilan was the first one to wake up at 4 am to get ready.
08-May-2014; Milan was cold and very foggy in the morning, 7 am sharp the train took off to Venice.
In our compartment, there was some school children who were off for a school trip to Venice. Somehow 3 of the kids liked us very much and we were playing games with them using hand signals, their school teachers didn't let them to move from their seats. We can see how eager they were to come and speak to us but since the teachers were strict we just have to use hand signals to communicate.
At 10 am we reached Venice, the first thing you will notice in Venice is the climate; a drastic change compared to other parts of Europe, it was sunny and a bit hot too and the next thing that you would notice is the big crowd of tourist swarming in like files.
We took the water taxi ticket of 20 euros per person for one whole day. There is no land transport in Venice, everything at Venice is water based even the police patrols in a small boat. We walked to our hotel Ariel Silva and on the way we had our breakfast at a restaurant, traditional Italian food with wine.
By 11.30 am we had checked in and started for the self city tour. I found an one day itinerary in the internet posted in some blog, which is almost a perfect one for a days trip at Venice. First we went for the gondola ride, all of us in one gondola 20 euros per person for one short circuit. Well 20 euros per person is expensive but in Venice, gondola ride is one of the must do things.
I was very keen to visit all the places in Venice, i liked the place very much and it was in my bucket list. But Venki and Muni were not interested much so i had to force them to follow the itinerary, which is to reach Piazza San Marco at first. This place is a must go in Venice, where you can see a vast group of tourist from almost different parts of world at this place, lot of beautiful young girls too.
First we went to the basilica, a church that had golden mosaics. After the church we went to the campanile(bell tower), the top most point in Venice. Venice is a very small city surrounded by water and from that tower you could easily get a glimpse of each and every structure in Venice.
After spending some time at the tower we took the long walk on the Riva degli Schiavoni along the waterfront to find a pizza restaurant for lunch. It was 4 pm by then we found a pizza restaurant, ordered a full pizza one for each. It was a relaxed lunch by the waterfront, we left the place at 5 pm and took the water taxi to Rialto Bridge. The Rialto bridge is one of the famous place at Venice where you cannot miss to take a photo.
Muhilan, Senthil and I was keen in finishing the itinerary while Venki and co. took off; we divided as two groups. We left the bridge, moved through different streets enjoying the beauty of Venice. It was a very long walk, we walked through almost most of the corners of Venice.
Campo Santa Margherita, the only place in Venice where the pubs are located, we didn't go inside any but just walked pass through the street.
At one point we lost ourselves wandering through the streets, one of the localite helped us to find the way back to our room. It was 9 pm by then, Senthil and Muhilan left to the hotel and i was going shopping to buy souvenirs.
By 10.30 pm, i was back at the hotel; night at Venice ends early by 10 pm itself. Venki and co. have not reached the hotel by then, we slept off early as we have a flight to catch at 6.40 am from Venice to Rome. There is a bus service that starts at 4.30 am from Venice to the nearby airport and we should board it without fail.
One thing about Venice is, it is a beautiful city which you can traverse in a day but make sure your partner would love such a place surrounded by waters.
9-May 2014: 4.00 am we checked out of the hotel and reached the bus stop on time and took the bus to venice airport. Actually we were like 15 minutes earlier to the bus schedule.
We took the Alitalia airlines and reached Rome at 7.45 am, sharp on its schedule. Took a taxi service at the airport to the Romangello Hotel II, the taxi service was delayed by 45 mins that frustrated us, the drive to hotel was another 45 mins. By 9.30 am we reached the hotel, the first thing the hotel receptionist told us is that, beware of pickpockets and keeps your belongings safe. We took the local metro train to Vatican city, the smallest country in the world. Its a country surrounded totally by another country(Italy) with a very small population; the capital of Christianity.
After alighting at Vatican city we went straight to St. Peters Square where there was a extremely long queue to the Vatican museum.
The queue is very long and it was hot there we stood almost an hour in the queue, the sun was harsh and we were tired. After a tiring hour in the queue we finally made it to the museum, 20 euros per ticket. Since we were tired we didn't visit much of the museum, went to food court had some burgers, after which our energy level was restored.
Then we went straight to the St. Perters Basilia, took some picture and headed back to our hotel. St. Peters Basilia is where Mr. Pope resides and the major events happens in vatican. We felt that, we really should have skipped the museum and that would have saved a lot time.
Since we forgot to take the tickets to Colosseum, we headed back to the hotel, took the tickets and boarded another train to reach the Colosseum. The Colosseum is already half destroyed, you can even see the bullet marks on the walls, actually it looks better in the movies. There were three levels, we went to all of the levels and took pictures, since there was change of climate from cold to hot weather our faces turned very black.
At 5 pm we left the Colosseum, had some food outside of the museum then Venki, muni and jacki left to hotel to take rest. Senthil, Muhilan and I left for city tour, we have 3 more hours before it gets dark. For Rome you need two full days to visit all the places, but we have only 3 more hours left, so started to walk and covered almost all the major places in Rome. It was a very very long walking city tour for us, we covered Roman Forum, Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Castel Sant Angelo and many more in the 3 hours time. Along the way there were small shops where we bought souvenirs. Again we found ourselves searching for toilet and finally entered a restaurant order some cakes and used their toilet.
By the time we went to Trevi Fountain it was dark and beautiful as well, it is one of the famous fountains in the world. You can wish something and throw coins inside the fountain over your shoulder; which is a tradition, doing so your wish comes true. It is estimated that 3000 euros are thrown to the fountain, i guess every tourist who come to Rome will visit the Trevi fountain and throw some bugs. The place was very crowded and the fountain was lit with different colour, guess it is best viewed at night.
After spending some time at the fountain we left to our hotel, near to our hotel was this "Halal Indian Restaurant", where we had chicken biriyani for dinner, after nearly 8 days we are having Indian food and its such a relief for our mouth, relieved from those cold buns/burgers. Next day we have a train at 7 am to Pisa and so we slept early.
10 May 2014; Got up, packed our things and headed straight to the train station, our hotel is just across the station so it was easy for us. The train was on time and we reached Pisa at 9.30 am. Dumped our luggage at the lockers, took a taxi and went straight to Leaning Tower of Pisa.
We got less time at Pisa because we have train at 1.45 pm to Milan, Pisa was like a stop over destination along the way back to Milan. The leaning tower of Pisa was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, it is more lovely to see it for real rather in movies.
The above photo might remind you of x-men, yes that coolers is very similar to the x-men character. There was a kid who literally starred at me, i guess he would have thought how come x-men is black.
Took lot of pictures at pisa and spent close to an hour at that place. Lot of tourist at this place too as this is the main attraction in the whole of Pisa. For climbing the tower the ticket price is 20 euros, since we had climbed lot of towers we didn't go for this one. At the exit of the Pisa tower complex is a streak shopping area for buying souvenirs and we did buy lot of things. At 12 pm we took taxi back to the station, had food at McDonalds and boarded the train to Milan.
Scheduled arrival in Milan is at 5 pm and we planned to go for a short city tour. Our hotel Cardano Hotel Malpensa is an hour ride from Milan central station, after reaching the station we bought a local train ticket from Milan central to Malpensa station. We inquired where to board the train and followed the sign boards and boarded the train. The train was very posh and we were amazed that a local train is such classy, found 6 seats for us and happily sat down. After the train started, few of our guys went to the cafeteria in the train to buy some coffee and food. The conversation between the boys and the cafeteria attendant goes like this...
Guys: How much time does it take to reach Malpensa?
Attendant: Huh!!! you are in the wrong train and this one goes to switzerland. The next station is only after an hour.
Guys: 6 coffee and burgers please. (Casually ordered)
We were not shocked or depressed that we boarded a wrong train as we know earlier that such a incident is bound to happen(Boopathi arrives just one day before the last day of our euro trip). It is a customary thing that a such an unforeseen incident happens to us in each of the trip that we have been so far, just that we don't know when or how it will happen but it will happen for sure and here it just happened.
When the ticket checker arrived we explained our situation and she let us to alight at the next station without asking for any money. An hour passed by, we got down at the first stop, the station name is called Stresa. This station is a deserted one and seems like it rarely gets passengers, there was no one at the station and we didn't know where to buy tickets as all the counters were closed.
We went outside the station and found a couple, we went straight to them and asked them to help us. They were not able to speak English fluently but they really helped us, they took us to the area where we can buy tickets, explained us which train to board and when the next train arrives. In Europe, lot of people helped us in needy situation and this couple still reminds in my mind.
We bought tickets for the next train and it is at 8.30pm, 45 minutes to burn, so our singing and dancing continued with energy drinks. For Muhilan and Jack this is a new experience but for other 4 of us it is dejavu moment. The train arrived and we boarded the train, even the train was deserted only we were there in the entire coach, the singing session continued.
We arrived at Milan station at 9.30 pm and our actual train to Malpensa is at 10.30 pm. After inquiring many people we were at the correct platform waiting for the train, looked like this was the last train to Malpensa. After we took the train every one slept in the train and we reached at 12'o clock; the Malpensa station is at the airport itself. In Milan there are two international airport destination and we have flight to Paris only from Malpensa airport and that is why we booked hotel near the airport.There was no taxi at the station and we have to wait for 15 mins at the station for taxi. Finally we boarded a 6 seater taxi and reached our hotel at 12.30 pm, went to have spaghetti at the nearby hotels restaurant. Next day morning we have flight at 6.30 am to Paris for which we had to take the hotel taxi at 4.30 am.
11-May-2014: Our last day of euro trip, got up on time and boarded the taxi to the airport. We bid adieu to Muhilan at the airport as he had a train to Germany; his home. We didn't book for any extra baggage with the airticket, so we had to pay nearly 25 euro per person to carry our bags. There were lot of checks and long queue to clear everywhere and by the time we hit the airplane our thoughts were, never ever in our life we should buy a ticket with this airline; ironically the name of the airline is easyjet.
We reached paris de charles airport at 8 am in the morning, Jack had flight to USA at 11 am so after breakfast we bid adieu to Jack and dumped our bags at the airport baggage section. The baggage section was fully automated and very costly to use, we paid almost 25 euro for half a day to dump all our bags which is damn costly. Then we left to Versailles palace; the only spot left in Paris which we didn't cover in the first two days. The train ticket cost is 18 euro per pax and it took 1.5 hours to reach the versallies palace. When we reached it was around 11.30 am, went to MCD and had some burgers and coffee.
The sky was clear, as we walked towards the palace the climate changed drastically and it started to rain. We didn't have umbrella so we took shelter under the bus stop roof.
Once the rain settled down we went near the palace and took photos, due to time constraint we didn't go inside the palace. From outside it looked beautiful, inside should be even more appealing, the queue for tickets to the palace was very very long as well.
After photos we started back to the train station and the sky cleared again, became sunny. On the way we stopped by few shops and bought souvenirs, the items at this location was cheap and the quality was good compared to other places in Paris. We bought a big Eiffel tower souvenir for each of us and left to take the train back. We reached the airport at 3.30 pm; slept all along in the return journey.
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| Sleep wherever and whenever you can |
We have a train at 7 pm from Zurich to Milan, so at 4 pm we were back to the Uteilburg station to get train to Zurich central. Again our dance session continued at the platform till the arrival of the train. At 5 pm we have reached the central, took our bags from the lockers, went for souvenirs and was waiting for the train. The train was delayed by 30 mins, bought some energy drink to boost up till the arrival of the train.
The train then arrived 45 mins late to its scheduled departure, our plan of city tour in Milan that night was not possible. One thing for sure is, if you are from India and when you reach switzerland you may feel totally different from what you have imagined; every Indian has a imagination of switzerland and when you reach you will see the difference.
By the time we reached Milan it was 11.30 pm, the Milan train station was itself an architectural excellence, stopped by MCD and packed some burgers for dinner. Our hotel Gonzaga is very near to the station, so we walked towards it and on the way Senthil almost got hit by a car while crossing the road. It was a fortunate night for us, else by now we would have been in some hospital finding a bed for Senthil. By the time we reached our hotel and cleared the front desk it was 12 am and we have a train to Venice at 7 am. Our plan is to leave the hotel at 6 am, it was a 3 per room type and Muhilan was the first one to wake up at 4 am to get ready.
08-May-2014; Milan was cold and very foggy in the morning, 7 am sharp the train took off to Venice.
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| Tats the metro station |
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| It was a relief to be back in shorts |
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| The kid replicating our dance moves |
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| See the teacher signalling not to take foto??? Tats the strict teacher |
By 11.30 am we had checked in and started for the self city tour. I found an one day itinerary in the internet posted in some blog, which is almost a perfect one for a days trip at Venice. First we went for the gondola ride, all of us in one gondola 20 euros per person for one short circuit. Well 20 euros per person is expensive but in Venice, gondola ride is one of the must do things.
I was very keen to visit all the places in Venice, i liked the place very much and it was in my bucket list. But Venki and Muni were not interested much so i had to force them to follow the itinerary, which is to reach Piazza San Marco at first. This place is a must go in Venice, where you can see a vast group of tourist from almost different parts of world at this place, lot of beautiful young girls too.
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| do you see me in the foto??? |
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| our first selfie - see random folks behind posing as well??? |
First we went to the basilica, a church that had golden mosaics. After the church we went to the campanile(bell tower), the top most point in Venice. Venice is a very small city surrounded by water and from that tower you could easily get a glimpse of each and every structure in Venice.
After spending some time at the tower we took the long walk on the Riva degli Schiavoni along the waterfront to find a pizza restaurant for lunch. It was 4 pm by then we found a pizza restaurant, ordered a full pizza one for each. It was a relaxed lunch by the waterfront, we left the place at 5 pm and took the water taxi to Rialto Bridge. The Rialto bridge is one of the famous place at Venice where you cannot miss to take a photo.
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| Venice Navy |
Campo Santa Margherita, the only place in Venice where the pubs are located, we didn't go inside any but just walked pass through the street.
At one point we lost ourselves wandering through the streets, one of the localite helped us to find the way back to our room. It was 9 pm by then, Senthil and Muhilan left to the hotel and i was going shopping to buy souvenirs.
By 10.30 pm, i was back at the hotel; night at Venice ends early by 10 pm itself. Venki and co. have not reached the hotel by then, we slept off early as we have a flight to catch at 6.40 am from Venice to Rome. There is a bus service that starts at 4.30 am from Venice to the nearby airport and we should board it without fail.
One thing about Venice is, it is a beautiful city which you can traverse in a day but make sure your partner would love such a place surrounded by waters.
9-May 2014: 4.00 am we checked out of the hotel and reached the bus stop on time and took the bus to venice airport. Actually we were like 15 minutes earlier to the bus schedule.
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| Sleep wherever and whenever you can... |
After alighting at Vatican city we went straight to St. Peters Square where there was a extremely long queue to the Vatican museum.
The queue is very long and it was hot there we stood almost an hour in the queue, the sun was harsh and we were tired. After a tiring hour in the queue we finally made it to the museum, 20 euros per ticket. Since we were tired we didn't visit much of the museum, went to food court had some burgers, after which our energy level was restored.
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| ask jack about this statue...he would give some intricate details |
Then we went straight to the St. Perters Basilia, took some picture and headed back to our hotel. St. Peters Basilia is where Mr. Pope resides and the major events happens in vatican. We felt that, we really should have skipped the museum and that would have saved a lot time.
Since we forgot to take the tickets to Colosseum, we headed back to the hotel, took the tickets and boarded another train to reach the Colosseum. The Colosseum is already half destroyed, you can even see the bullet marks on the walls, actually it looks better in the movies. There were three levels, we went to all of the levels and took pictures, since there was change of climate from cold to hot weather our faces turned very black.
At 5 pm we left the Colosseum, had some food outside of the museum then Venki, muni and jacki left to hotel to take rest. Senthil, Muhilan and I left for city tour, we have 3 more hours before it gets dark. For Rome you need two full days to visit all the places, but we have only 3 more hours left, so started to walk and covered almost all the major places in Rome. It was a very very long walking city tour for us, we covered Roman Forum, Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Castel Sant Angelo and many more in the 3 hours time. Along the way there were small shops where we bought souvenirs. Again we found ourselves searching for toilet and finally entered a restaurant order some cakes and used their toilet.
By the time we went to Trevi Fountain it was dark and beautiful as well, it is one of the famous fountains in the world. You can wish something and throw coins inside the fountain over your shoulder; which is a tradition, doing so your wish comes true. It is estimated that 3000 euros are thrown to the fountain, i guess every tourist who come to Rome will visit the Trevi fountain and throw some bugs. The place was very crowded and the fountain was lit with different colour, guess it is best viewed at night.
After spending some time at the fountain we left to our hotel, near to our hotel was this "Halal Indian Restaurant", where we had chicken biriyani for dinner, after nearly 8 days we are having Indian food and its such a relief for our mouth, relieved from those cold buns/burgers. Next day we have a train at 7 am to Pisa and so we slept early.
10 May 2014; Got up, packed our things and headed straight to the train station, our hotel is just across the station so it was easy for us. The train was on time and we reached Pisa at 9.30 am. Dumped our luggage at the lockers, took a taxi and went straight to Leaning Tower of Pisa.
We got less time at Pisa because we have train at 1.45 pm to Milan, Pisa was like a stop over destination along the way back to Milan. The leaning tower of Pisa was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, it is more lovely to see it for real rather in movies.
The above photo might remind you of x-men, yes that coolers is very similar to the x-men character. There was a kid who literally starred at me, i guess he would have thought how come x-men is black.
Took lot of pictures at pisa and spent close to an hour at that place. Lot of tourist at this place too as this is the main attraction in the whole of Pisa. For climbing the tower the ticket price is 20 euros, since we had climbed lot of towers we didn't go for this one. At the exit of the Pisa tower complex is a streak shopping area for buying souvenirs and we did buy lot of things. At 12 pm we took taxi back to the station, had food at McDonalds and boarded the train to Milan.
Scheduled arrival in Milan is at 5 pm and we planned to go for a short city tour. Our hotel Cardano Hotel Malpensa is an hour ride from Milan central station, after reaching the station we bought a local train ticket from Milan central to Malpensa station. We inquired where to board the train and followed the sign boards and boarded the train. The train was very posh and we were amazed that a local train is such classy, found 6 seats for us and happily sat down. After the train started, few of our guys went to the cafeteria in the train to buy some coffee and food. The conversation between the boys and the cafeteria attendant goes like this...
Guys: How much time does it take to reach Malpensa?
Attendant: Huh!!! you are in the wrong train and this one goes to switzerland. The next station is only after an hour.
Guys: 6 coffee and burgers please. (Casually ordered)
We were not shocked or depressed that we boarded a wrong train as we know earlier that such a incident is bound to happen(Boopathi arrives just one day before the last day of our euro trip). It is a customary thing that a such an unforeseen incident happens to us in each of the trip that we have been so far, just that we don't know when or how it will happen but it will happen for sure and here it just happened.
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| See the GPS map above??? Tats straight opposite to milan |
When the ticket checker arrived we explained our situation and she let us to alight at the next station without asking for any money. An hour passed by, we got down at the first stop, the station name is called Stresa. This station is a deserted one and seems like it rarely gets passengers, there was no one at the station and we didn't know where to buy tickets as all the counters were closed.
We went outside the station and found a couple, we went straight to them and asked them to help us. They were not able to speak English fluently but they really helped us, they took us to the area where we can buy tickets, explained us which train to board and when the next train arrives. In Europe, lot of people helped us in needy situation and this couple still reminds in my mind.
We bought tickets for the next train and it is at 8.30pm, 45 minutes to burn, so our singing and dancing continued with energy drinks. For Muhilan and Jack this is a new experience but for other 4 of us it is dejavu moment. The train arrived and we boarded the train, even the train was deserted only we were there in the entire coach, the singing session continued.
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| tats our ride back to milan |
We arrived at Milan station at 9.30 pm and our actual train to Malpensa is at 10.30 pm. After inquiring many people we were at the correct platform waiting for the train, looked like this was the last train to Malpensa. After we took the train every one slept in the train and we reached at 12'o clock; the Malpensa station is at the airport itself. In Milan there are two international airport destination and we have flight to Paris only from Malpensa airport and that is why we booked hotel near the airport.There was no taxi at the station and we have to wait for 15 mins at the station for taxi. Finally we boarded a 6 seater taxi and reached our hotel at 12.30 pm, went to have spaghetti at the nearby hotels restaurant. Next day morning we have flight at 6.30 am to Paris for which we had to take the hotel taxi at 4.30 am.
11-May-2014: Our last day of euro trip, got up on time and boarded the taxi to the airport. We bid adieu to Muhilan at the airport as he had a train to Germany; his home. We didn't book for any extra baggage with the airticket, so we had to pay nearly 25 euro per person to carry our bags. There were lot of checks and long queue to clear everywhere and by the time we hit the airplane our thoughts were, never ever in our life we should buy a ticket with this airline; ironically the name of the airline is easyjet.
We reached paris de charles airport at 8 am in the morning, Jack had flight to USA at 11 am so after breakfast we bid adieu to Jack and dumped our bags at the airport baggage section. The baggage section was fully automated and very costly to use, we paid almost 25 euro for half a day to dump all our bags which is damn costly. Then we left to Versailles palace; the only spot left in Paris which we didn't cover in the first two days. The train ticket cost is 18 euro per pax and it took 1.5 hours to reach the versallies palace. When we reached it was around 11.30 am, went to MCD and had some burgers and coffee.
The sky was clear, as we walked towards the palace the climate changed drastically and it started to rain. We didn't have umbrella so we took shelter under the bus stop roof.
Once the rain settled down we went near the palace and took photos, due to time constraint we didn't go inside the palace. From outside it looked beautiful, inside should be even more appealing, the queue for tickets to the palace was very very long as well.
After photos we started back to the train station and the sky cleared again, became sunny. On the way we stopped by few shops and bought souvenirs, the items at this location was cheap and the quality was good compared to other places in Paris. We bought a big Eiffel tower souvenir for each of us and left to take the train back. We reached the airport at 3.30 pm; slept all along in the return journey.
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| Tats how sunny it turned in a moment |
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| This foto explains how big Paris de charlle airport is... |
Europe is a very nice destination if you are a person who like architecture/history/nature. Amsterdam, Germany and Italy will awe you for sure. This is one of the trip in which we had planned a lot, spent a lot, traveled a lot and covered a lot of places with loads of memories. "naanga aadatha theru illa paadatha edam illa"
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| My collection of fridge magnets |
I saw the kid in jack came out in europe and below is the collage that i dedicate to him.
With euro trip we have covered almost 40% of the main world destination, left with Africa, north and south america. I hope i can cover the remaining part of the world before i die :) Africa for sure as it is in my bucket list.
