Pretty Prague!!

Just when we thought all European cities were the same, we came across Prague. We had heard it to be very pretty, and it well exceeded our expectations. The castle was distinctly beautiful, especially after dark when it was brightly lit, all the more accentuated by it’s sparkling reflection in the river Vltava. Then there was the Charles bridge…felt very Parisian, in the sense numerous artists drawing portraits and caricatures, a few musicians performing, handmade crafts – all along the bridge while you enjoy the sunset and see the city roof tops bathed in golden twilight.

We chose to stay a bit differently this time. We had heard that vegetarian food was difficult to find in Prague and so had decided to cook on our own. Ms. Sophie’s was a hostel but had self-catering apartments as well. The word ‘Hostel’ doesn’t do justice to the standards this place offers. The apartments were very spacious with a well-equipped kitchen. Chic fittings and stylish interiors…we were pleasantly surprised at the quality. The upma mix that I had prepared came in handy and so did the pasta sauce, maggi and some home made snacks…definitely recommended for anyone visiting Prague. The apartment was centrally located in the new town. A 3 day pass allowed us to use all public transport including the brightly coloured trams which are a must experience.

We indulged in getting our portrait made – over a year after we had first thought of getting one made…we had thought of it when visiting Paris in March 2008. On the first day, we had walked through Charles Bridge looking at the various artists drawing portraits. We had liked one in particular and came in early the next day to get one done for us. It was a bit awkward having people walking past look at you while you sat with a smile on the face…very supportive though; as was evident with the thumbs up sign from many of them. Our efforts (the artist also did put in lots of efforts J) showed well in the end output though.

We were there for 2 nights and 3 days and felt Prague was an ideal getaway for such a trip. It is said, ‘Good girls go to heaven and bad girls go to Prague…’ – still wanna go? :)

Gorgeous GREECE!!

I guess the biggest challenge Santorini faces is to live up to it's high expectations of being one of the prettiest places. Images of the white houses against the splendid blue of the Aegean Sea are pretty much etched in every one’s mind.

After an extensive debate on whether to do only Santorini or more of Greece, we settled down to do only Santorini in the interest of time. An evening flight took us from London to Athens and an early morning flight took us further onto Santorini. A small airport (reminded us of airport at Leh) - it was much what you would expect from an island.

Heliotopos – Our hotel was 15 minutes from the airport, on the top of the hill in Imerovigli village. A nice, split level studio apartment with the bed on the first floor, and the kitchenette and the sitting area on the ground floor. We had our own private balcony, overlooking the Caldera...a splendid view of the sea, with the island forming a crescent, with Fira, the capital of Santorini on one end and Oia, and another pretty village on the other end.

Imerovigli, the village where we were staying, was effectively at the centre of the crescent. Our short trip of three days comprised a walk of Fira (an hour) and a walk to Oia (3 hours). Both these walks are on established hiking trails, which run through the top of the mountains. So through the walk, you continue to savour the marvellous views of the sea. At one point on our walk to Oia, the trail was so narrow, that we could see the Aegean Sea on both sides. Both Oia and Fira are outstanding – don’t think there are other places like them – as in, the white washed houses, blue roofed churches, all laid beautifully along the hill top and slopes contrasting against the dark blue sea. So, if you ever want to enjoy this view in particular, the only place you can go to is Santorini. On the third day in the afternoon, we took a boat trip to the volcano and walked up to the crater.

The weather kept steady through most of our trip with some rain on the second day. A warm 25 degrees was very welcome from the steadily getting colder London. October is the end of season for Santorini with most of the island and services closing by November.

So, did Santorini live up to our expectations? Well, it almost did – A relaxed holiday, where you can lie back and enjoy how quiet and beautiful the world can be. The only exertion though is for your finger, which doesn’t stop clicking away on the camera.

Our shopping tips – flavoured olive oil, Sesame coated nuts, Linen clothing, Greek mythology dolls.

Scenic Scotland!!

Did you know?
It feels awesome to cook Maggi in a duplex cottage overlooking the sea. So, on our trip to Scotland, we took the Bridle cottage at Cockburnspath, 35 miles from Edinburgh. It was extraordinary as we headed off the motorway and drove through farmlands to reach the cottage.

Picture perfect views, rainbow rising from the sea, novels to read, games to play, music to listen to and a hot cup of tea to sip from…welcome to Scotland.
Edinburgh was all colour and activities as the festival was in full swing. There were numerous street performers, enthralling the audience with their brilliant acts. Edinburgh castle was impressive as the Scottish symbol of power, protection and majesty. It stands high on an extinct volcano with panoramic views of Edinburgh. We soaked in the festivals spirit as we walked through the Royal Mile and Princes Street. Following up on a recommendation, we climbed up Arthur’s seat in the afternoon, from where all of Edinburgh looked even more majestic. Standing tall at 800 feet, Arthur’s seat is a must do for anyone visiting Edinburgh.

We drove through Forth Road Bridge, until recently the longest cantilever bridge in the world. We crossed the Highland boundary fault line and the scenery changed from the rolling farmland of the Lowlands to the forested hills and mountains of the Scottish Highlands. We walked for 6 miles through a wooded area named the Hermitage. Here, surrounded by thick forest, the River Braan crashes over spectacular waterfalls. This is a migratory route for Salmon, and they can often be seen trying to leap the falls, although we were not fortunate enough. We then followed the wide valley of the River Tay, the longest river in Scotland with the greatest flow of water of any river in Britain. We reached Loch Tay and headed along it’s shores to reach Killin and saw the wonderful falls of Dochart in the heart of the town.

On the last day, we stopped at the Pease Bay beach before heading back to London. We were the sole wanderers on the picturesque beach. My mom-in-law and I had a good time picking up shells and playing in the water. The camera had a field day capturing some breathtaking pictures. The vast expanse of the beach contrasted well with the blue sky, mountains with green cover and the red rocks.

With it’s stunning lakes and lush green mountains, Scotland is on par with Switzerland in terms of scenic beauty.

Leh - Roof of the world!

While I find words to describe most of the places I have been to, Leh is one place, which left me absolutely speechless.

The ‘roof of the world’ as it is popularly known, makes you wonder if it is part of the ‘real’ world we live in.

The terrain is rugged, there is hardly any greenery, barren lands till your eyes can see…and yet…it is pretty in a strange sense.

I can assure you, irrespective of whichever place you have been to, Leh will not fail to amaze you…do travel to this incredible destination in Incredible India.

Mesmerizing Egypt!!

30th June 09 - It is a week since we came back from Egypt but you know what…we are still there and I guess it will be a few more weeks (or probably another holiday) before we come out of it. Egypt was magical, exotic…7 days of wonderment and getting lost in a different world…the world of a beautiful Nile river, the mighty Saharan desert, majestic pyramids, massive temples, eerie tombs…a realisation that there didn’t exist an older civilisation than this. This is what man created first…what happened on the shores of the Nile was unprecedented and unique, an adventure which evolved at dizzying speed, creating works of art and science way beyond the prospects of the time.

We had to put that paragraph there before we start from the beginning – that is how amazing it was. We were sceptical of organised tours…privacy, pace of the tour, comfort of people around etc…but all of this was proven misplaced when we arrived in Cairo at 11:30 pm on Jan 17th, 2009. We were met by a representative from the tour company and escorted to the waiting group at the baggage claim. There were 4 to 5 couples already there and after quick introductions, we picked up our bags and were comfortably seated in the bus. After listening to the do’s and don’ts from our tour manager on the bus, we arrived at the Sonesta hotel 20 minutes later.

The hotel was comfortable but we hardly had any time to enjoy it as at 8am the next day we checked out and headed to Giza to see the pyramids. They appeared more colossal and magnificent than we had thought them to be. Out came the camera and we started with the pictures. There was of course a detailed history provided by our tour guide which we will let you read on the internet else this will become a never ending travelogue considering the Egyptian civilisation spans over 3000 years.

After the pyramids we were taken to a Papyrus shop. Papyrus as you may know is the oldest form of paper and used by the Egyptians to record history. This material has lasted thousands of years. We were given a demonstration of how Papyrus paper is made and then there were hand drawn sheets we could buy personalising them with our names. We bought an Egyptian wedding card (what they used thousands of years back to depict a wedding) and got our names written in Hieroglyphics.
This was followed by lunch at an Indian restaurant. While it is very easy to find a few thousand year old mummies in Egypt, vegetarian food is not that easy to find. This happened to be the strongest motivator for us to take an organised trip. Tasty desi food and we then left for some museums followed by the Khan el Khaleeli bazaar. We then boarded an overnight train to Aswan. While the train was reasonably comfortable, the bland pasta and tomato ketchup, the so called dinner on train was far from interesting. We had been alerted to this by our tour manager in advance and had armed ourselves with Falafal and some fruits on our way to the station.

Arriving at Aswan early in the morning, we went to the Nubian museum there and then to a perfume shop. We were educated on the various types available…perfumes which make you smell fresh at the start of a day to those with medicinal values.

Then the best part of the tour began…we checked into our cruise on the Nile. We were pleasantly surprised to see the luxury on board…the rooms were amazing and overlooked the river. A tastefully done lobby and a wonderful sun deck made the cruise really impressive. We were to visit places around Aswan for the next 2 days while the cruise stayed docked on the river.

On the day we checked in on to the cruise, we were spared any more sight seeing and allowed to rest for a couple of hours. A relaxing Felucca ride on the Nile (local sail boat) was planned for the evening. The setting sun, Sahara desert spread across the bank of the Nile and a cool breeze…this was a perfect evening. Because the train journey had not been that comfortable and we had to be up by 4 am the next day to visit the magnificent temple of Abu Simbel, it was an early night for us.

After a cup of coffee at 4am, we left for the temple. It was to be a 3 hour drive through the Sahara in a convoy of vehicles. Apparently, there had been a terrorist strike in the late 90s, where in many tourists were killed. After that incident, vehicles are only allowed in a convoy through the desert and all vehicles are escorted by armed guards. It has been over a decade after that incident…the security measures are more of a second nature now and not an indication of actual threat.

Anyways, as you would imagine, everyone in the bus slept of once we hit the road. At about 5:45am, we opened our eyes to see one of the most spectacular sights we have ever experienced. The sun was just about rising to our left and the light made the desert expanse on either side of the road look magical. But for the stretch of road ahead of us in black, on either side it was just sand till the horizon, faintly glowing in the early sunlight.

We reached Abu Simbel just before 7am and true to our expectations, the temple was splendid. The sheer size of the structure captivated us. After a brief on its history, we were allowed to go inside the temple and were given time to indulge in our ‘Japanese hobby’ as our tour guide chose to refer to photography. We got back by noon to the cruise for lunch and then visited the Edfu temple. A couple of hours there and we got back to the cruise.

The entire next day was idyllic. The itinerary was easy with the Kom Ombo temple prior to lunch and the Philae temple in the evening. We set sail on the cruise after breakfast and were at Kom Ombo by noon. The temple is just on the banks of Nile. As impressive as the rest of the temples, Kom Ombo also has a mummy of a crocodile.
We reached the Philae temple at dusk and with our tripod walked into the exquisitely lit temple premises. This was the first Egyptian temple we were seeing after dark and that made it special. While the structure is similar to the other temples, this one is spread over a far larger area. We got some good night shots and headed back to the cruise.

We could barely sleep that night in anticipation of the hot air balloon ride the next day. Like a drill, we were up at 5am and after a short boat ride crossing to the west bank, we were in open fields where we saw close to 8 hot air balloons being prepared for take off. Each of the balloons had baskets which could carry 25 people. These baskets had been split into compartments to hold 5 people each with an additional central compartment for the Pilot (guess this would best describe the person flying the balloon). We were quickly given information on how to position ourselves on landing should we experience either the American or British landing (American landing representing a bumpy landing with the balloon hopping a few times before stopping and the British landing referring to a sliding stop). We were fortunate to have an Egyptian landing which was just one touch and a stop on the ground.

We went up to a height of over 1500 feet and watching the sun rise while suspended in air was a whole new experience. The view of the desert and the city of Luxor from up there was spell-binding. We got back to the cruise by 8am and checked out after breakfast. We then went to the Valley of the kings where the tombs of various Egyptian kings are present…including Ramses and Tut an Khamun. The pilgrimage continued with the temple of Hatshepsut (hot chick soup – an easy way to remember as suggested by our tour guide J) before lunch followed by the Karnak and Luxor temple after that before heading to the station for an overnight train journey back to Cairo. This time it was some salads and garlic bread from Pizza Hut which rescued us from the scary spaghetti in the train.

Checking into our hotel in Cairo, we were already feeling a bit low since it was the last day of the trip. We visited the Pharonic village which orchestrates the Egyptian way of life and history from early days. It was time for lunch then and all of us assembled in the hotel lobby for the sound and light show at the pyramids. It is a spectacular laser show with the pyramids and Sphinx lit in all their glory with the history being told in the background. The day and our tour ended with a good dinner at an Indian restaurant.
We were all back at the airport at 6am the next day for our flights back to London.

Queen of England waved at me today!

Thursday 18th June afternoon - witnessed the Ascot week in all its glory, when I saw Queen Elizabeth. Today was "lady's day" and got to see English ladies with their lovely hats and grand dresses. It was long procession with many horse carriages, several cars, a police van and an ambulance.

Between Heaven & Earth - Switzerland

There was only one disappointment from our Switzerland trip – bada dhoonda lekin Raj nahin mila – Yash Raj films ko kitne saare mile…anyways, other than that, it was as dreamlike as any Hindi film dream sequence shot there.  From the outset we had wanted this trip to include more than the standard itinerary of Interlaken and around.  That’s where Zermatt and St.Moritz came in – let’s take a step back and start where we started…Interlaken.  

Plenty of advice ensured we were armed with the Swiss pass when we landed in Zurich.  The train station (one of the two in Zurich as we got to know later) is right opposite the airport.  We landed at 9:45am local time (GMT + 1hr) after taking off from London at 7am.  From the airport we walked across to the train station and took the first available train to Interlaken via Bern – the capital of Switzerland.  The last 30 minutes of the 2-hour journey made us realise just how picture perfect Switzerland could be…the train travelled right along the Thun lake. A lake as large as Thun in itself was a marvel.  Our hotel was a 7-minute walk from the Interlaken west station.  

By then we had already come to experience the hospitality of the people there and this stayed with us throughout the trip.  It was a nice small hotel with its very own Mexican restaurant on the ground floor.  We grabbed lunch at a nearby Indian restaurant and took a nap – a luxury which normally we could not have afforded on our other trips – after all a Swiss holiday is not supposed to be hectic.  We took a bus that evening and visited Lake Brienz.  The beauty of this was; there was not a tourist there at 5 pm.  A lake as pretty as this and no one around – strange but true to our good fortune.  We spent an hour and came back to Interlaken.  We strolled around the streets and headed back to our hotel.

Jungfrau was scheduled for the next day and after a familiar early morning preparation, we started on the 3-hour journey to the mountain top.  It required a couple of changes in between (a place called Grindalwald while going and Lauterbrunnen while coming). Just when we were getting tired of the journey (a good part of this is within the tunnel so there is nothing to see around except for anxious faces of fellow tourists), we arrived at Jungfrau.  The Ice Palace and observatory are the highlights at Jungfrau in addition to the plateau itself.  Plenty of snow as expected and sub zero temperatures.  Before stepping out into the open, we got on our woollen layers.  Indians were all around and so much so; you have a Bollywood restaurant at the summit.  India truly has arrived.  We took a lot of pictures and did enjoy – well, as much as sub zero temperatures would allow.  We were back in Interlaken by evening.

Weather on the next day was bad – it was raining and was not expected to improve till evening.  The safest option was ‘Trummelbach’ with 10 glacier falls, inside the mountain, made accessible by tunnel-lift and illuminated. It was a 45 minutes journey from Interlaken. 20,000 litres of water gushing out per second makes it a sight to see and a sound to hear. It is the only glacier-waterfalls in Europe inside the mountain and still accessible.  Fortunately, it had stopped raining by the time we stepped out allowing us to appreciate the scenery around.  We were back at Interlaken for lunch, and took the cruise on Lake Thun in the afternoon.  The Swiss rail pass made this a free cruise for us.  Clouds and rain kept us company off and on through the 3-hour cruise but none the less, it was an exceptionally scenic ride.  The ride ended in Thun and we took a bus back to Interlaken.

The popular Mt. Titlis found itself on our agenda on day 4.  It is a longish train journey from Interlaken to Elgelberg and ends with a 40-minute cable car journey up the mountain.  The initial part of the cable car ride was as expected.  The last segment is on ‘Rotair’ – apparently the only rotating cable car in the world.  On being told about this, we were expecting the cable car itself to rotate.  However, interestingly, the cable car does not rotate on its way up, it is just the floor on which you are standing which rotates.  This essentially means, you can not hold on to the railing on the walls of the cable car as the walls stay where they are where as you would be rotating.  Within the car, there is the inner circle, which rotates anticlockwise, and the outer circle, which rotates clockwise.  We realised this when we gave our camera to someone for taking our picture.  It so happened that the moment we gave them the camera, they started moving away from us – they were on the inner circle and moving in an opposite direction to us.  Fortunately, they did manage to take a picture before we moved out of the frame.  That is enough going round in circles for now – lets move on.

The climb up Mt. Titlis was breathtaking – I mean literally - you do need to take deep breaths due to the high altitude.  Once we reached the top, it was zero visibility and terribly cold. 

We took the ride on the Ice flier – open chair lift which takes you from the mountain top to somewhere – we are not sure where as we could not see anything.  Thankfully our chair on which we sat was visible else it would have been a scary 20 minutes.  On the other side, we had the option of taking the snow scooter – a small plastic scooter shaped ‘toy’ which can be used to slide down at high speed on the slope.  We were sceptical as nothing was visible around us.  The attendant there tried to convince us that there was nothing to worry as on the other side of the slope there was a wall and that would stop us from going beyond – the only million dollar question was – were we happy crashing into a wall – I mean, it is all nice to know that you won’t fall off the cliff, but zipping into a wall of ice at –6 degrees did not seem inviting – some other day perhaps.  The pizza and soup at the restaurant were welcoming and after the ritual of taking our pictures in the local costume, we headed down the mountain.

It was a bright and clear day on May 6th.  We had to check out of Interlaken and make our way to the ski resort of Zermatt – a travel of about 3 hours.  Since the day was good, we went out to the Thun lake again after breakfast and walked for a couple of miles around the lake enjoying the morning serenity…needless to say, it was a great day for photographs.

We had a delicious Indian lunch and headed to Zermatt.  The journey was uneventful and in fact the terrain was fairly barren as we approached Zermatt.  This was understandable owing to the altitude.  We reached the car free resort by evening and walked to the hotel.  Zermatt had a different feel to it…it was much smaller and quieter compared to Interlaken, plenty of shops though and had a more relaxed ambience to it.  Checked into our room on the 3rd floor and for the first time saw the mighty Matterhorn.  Once we had known that we would be going to Zermatt, we had seen quite a few images of the Matterhorn but seeing it in person was quite a sight.  The absence of any peaks around it gives it such a majestic look.  It was a quiet evening walking through the market following which we retired to our rooms.

May 7th, 9:00am and we are at the Gornergrat railway – all set to take the train to Gornergrat, which is the best place you could see the Matterhorn from.  The journey up the mountains was far more impressive than what we had experienced going up Jungfrau or Mt. Titlis – partly because it was a much shorter journey, the snow and terrain more accessible and also because it was a very pleasant 6 degrees made much warmer by the brightly shining Sun.  45 minutes later, we got off the train and what a sight…the Matterhorn was unbelievable – it looked awesome against the clear blue sky and the best part of it was that we were not freezing.  Lots of pictures later, we got back to Zermatt.  We were wondering how to spend the afternoon when someone suggested we could take the cable car from near our hotel to the some villages up the hills.  We were however late to go all the way to the top, so got off at the first stop (15 minutes) and then decided to walk back to Zermatt through the wooded road.  Although we were unsure if it was a wise decision considering the lonely route back, the scenery around kept us occupied and within the next hour and a half, we were back in Zermatt.

The next day was for the Glacier Express.  We were doing the entire route from Zermatt to St. Moritz – all of 8 hours through some of the most scenic routes a train could pass through. Even the train was a showpiece in itself. Nowhere else will you be able to dine at your seat, against a backdrop of changing panoramas as on the Glacier Express. The journey had plenty of ‘wows’ and you cover quite a bit of varied terrain which otherwise would not be possible.  We reached St. Moritz at 6 pm and our hotel was ideally located just across the station opposite the lake.

A night in St. Moritz was purely for transit and for us to leave for Zurich the next day to catch our evening flight back to London.  It is a 3 hour journey to Zurich so we had the morning to ourselves at St. Moritz.  This happens to be the earliest winter holiday destination in Europe and hosts the rich and famous.  You have every designer label present there – most of which were closed for the season and were to reopen in June.  There again, it worked in our favour as the town was quiet and allowed us to take pictures at ease.  There are quite a few lakes as you travel out of St. Moritz and we took a bus to the one that was the farthest – 45 minutes from where we stayed.

Nothing had prepared us for the beauty of these lakes, some of them still partly frozen. The reflection of the graceful mountains on the lake provided us with some of the best memories of this trip. You will notice how exquisite this place is from the pictures…we just did not feel like leaving from there.  An idyllic walk half way back and a bus journey transported us back to St. Moritz   It was evident that our trip had progressively become better and better as we had travelled from Interlaken to Zermatt to St. Moritz.  We had a nice hot lunch, bought the famous nut cake of the region and headed back to Zurich to catch our flight to London.

The punctuality and organisation of Switzerland was not a surprise for us but what was pleasant to watch was the hospitality – there were numerous instances where in the bus driver got down to assist old people into the bus and the bus only moved ahead once these people were seated.  It still made its next destination right on dot. Amazing isn’t it….