Euro Trip - Part 3

Day 4 :

Got up ,& after the usual morning activities , left for Venice . Got to the quay and got off the bus and onto a boat

Venice , Venezia in Italian , is a city made up of 170 islands and numerous canals .. Transportation is either by foot across the bridges (Venice has 400 bridges ) or by boat . So we got into the boat and entered Venice .. Marvelled at the way the place is constructed as we entered . . As everything here is transported by boat all the houses on the waterfront have landing docks and steps to enter the house from the water .. Some even have water garages .. They have public bus boats , police boats , gondola's etc etc .

Started the tour at the Bridge of Sighs .. This was so named because this was the bridge that the prisoners had to cross when they were about to be executed and they would sigh as they caught a last glimpse of the city



Then we were taken for a Gondola ride .. Nowadays gondola's are hardly used by the locals for transportation , they use motorized boats instead .. So the gondola's are used for ferrying tourists primarily




We were taken past the main waterfront and into the side canals that dot Venice . The gondola boatman was so skillful that all he had was his single long oar and not once did he collide any part of the gondola with a building or another boat .. Sang an Italian song on the way too .. In the narrow canals they even have speed limits .. 5 Kmph .. Tough to go beyond that anyway cuz of all the gondola traffic as its a very popular tourist attraction as seen from this traffic jam




After the gondola ride we went to the Murano glass factory where they showed us a demonstration of how to make glass works of art . Bought a red glass vase there .
After this we went onto St marks Square which contains the cathedral , baptistery and the bell tower .. St marks square is a big open space famous for the number of pigeons that can be perennially found there

For a fee one can ascend the bell tower and while we were waiting in line to do so , we bought one of the famous Venetian masks



Went up the bell tower and had an AmaZing aerial view of Venice .. From up there u can see the shoreline , the neighbouring islands and how densely the buildings are packed together so as to maximize the available space




Right when we were up there it turned 12 pm and the bell started ringing with a deafening noise. After takin lots of photos up there we descended back to St marks square

A great thing about Europe is that , anywhere they find a open public place or square they hold concerts and other events there . St marks square was also being prepared for a concert at that time




Got on the boat back to the quay after strolling around Venice a bit more . On the way back , we were served lunch and had live Italian music in the form of a musician playing an instrument

Got back onto the bus from the quay and had a 5 hour drive into Austria as we bid farewell to Italy .. Passed a few vineyards and as we got closer to Austria the scenery was breathtaking with lush green valleys nestling among the snow topped mountains in the background on either side of the road



Many of the hills had Castles and forts sitting on the top of them , all of them centuries old , used nowadays as private holiday bungalows. Also saw a few ski jump places and ski elevators , not in use presently but very popular in the winter

Reached Innsbruck in Austria at around 6 pm and proceeded for the city tour

Innsbruck is a small , very picturesque city with huge snow capped mountain ranges lying just a few kilometres away and visible from the town itself . Language spoken predominantly is Austria is German . Bruck in German means ' bridge' and the river running through the town is called the Inn and so the town literally means " Bridge on the river Inn "



The center of this city too had cobbled stone roads . As it was almost 7pm when we went for the city tour all shops and museums were closed ..Apparently they all close shop @ around 4 -5 pm itself . Saw the golden roof building so called because when seen against the backdrop of the mountains it shimmers as if made of gold



Also in Innsbruck is the worlds oldest existing restaurant as recognized by the Guinness book of World Records dating back to the 13th Century.. Went for dinner after this and had our local Austrian meal that day .. Soup , Steak and mashed potatoes .. After a nighttime stroll around the area , went back to the hotel and to bed .


Day 5 :

Left Innsbruck and went to the Swarovski Kirstallwelten . The entrance certainly was impressive with the Swarovski demon hanging over the entrance spewing water from its mouth



Inside there are a few displays and exhibits made of crystal for the visitors to look at before proceeding to the main shop. They also have the worlds most expensive wall made up of millions of crystals ... 2 rather boring shopping Hours later, our bags heavier with a few crystal articles we left the Kristallwalten and drove To Liechtenstein and out of Austria passing on the way the third longest mountain tunnel in Europe - 14 kilometres long .

We reached Liechtenstein and were taken for a small tour of the city of Vaduz ,its capital .

The Principality of Liechtenstein is a tiny, doubly landlocked country , bordered by Switzerland to its west and by Austria to its east.
It has no army of its own and is looked after by Switzerland .. For this reason the border checks to enter into Switzerland are done on entering Lichtenstein itself .

The tour of Vaduz was in a mini road train basically taking us to the few places of interest like The 15th century Red House and the vineyards owned by the prince.




Only confusing part abt Liechtenstein was the question of what its population actually was .. Our tour manager said 32,00 , the recorded tour tape on the train said 35,000 and the train driver said 34,000 .. Unless there were 1000 people dying and being born every minute there ( ie 3 % of its population ) there was no way of explaining it :)) .. My dad put it in perspective .. "Whatever its population is its less than that of Adyar "

After the 45 minute tour of Vaduz we left Liechtenstein and crossed into Switzerland

Switzerland's official name is Confederation Helvectia . It has a population of 7 million but gets almost 20 million tourists a year .They speak 4 languages there .. German, French, Italian and the lesser-known Romansh . It is one the few countries in Europe that has its own border controls and visa instead of the Shengen visa which gets u into most countries in the region and has made border checks between countries redundant .

On the way to Engelberg where we were to stay that night we passed the Wellen See (See meaning lake in German ), a huge lake with water the colour of dazzling green emeralds , the likes of which i had never seen before



Reached Engelberg , checked into the Scweizerhof hotel , had dinner and went for a stroll around the city , which , like a lot of Switzerland, is visually stunning .



We even tried blowing one of the traditional Swiss horns , the long Alphorn to no avail .. After trying for a bit we gave up and the professionals took over and gave us a mini concert :)



As it was getting quite chilly , came back to the hotel and went to bed .

Ps : Hope these posts are long enough for Haresh :P