Euro Trip - Part 7

Day 11 :
Left Antwerp in the morning and drove to Paris , pausing on the way for a rest stop . Entered France and drove straight to Paris and to lunch which was the local meal .. chicken , mushrooms and rice . Drove straight from there to the Novotel Hotel Pretty big hotel and we were made to wait a while while the rooms were being prepared .. After goin up to the room , restin for a while and gettin ready , we came down for the city tour of Paris

With over 30 million foreign visitors per year, Paris is the most popular tourist destination in the world. The city hosts numerous iconic landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame cathedral, the Champs-Elysées, the Arc de Triomphe, the Invalides along with world famous institutions such as the Louvre and popular parks like Disneyland Resort Paris.

We were first taken to meet our local guide outside the Louvre museum which we were to go to the followin day , and while waiting took photos of the famous glass pyramid




The local guide turned out to be a Punjabi , called Maninder Singh , who was a professor in one of the colleges there .. Very Knowledgeable man .. but very apt to stray from topic to topic .. Drove around the streets of Paris and he was explaining all the way , stopping whenever there were any interesting sights to allow us to disembark and take photographs .. Drove past the famous Notre Dame Cathedral

Dint go inside as buses are not allowed anywhere near there these days and it was too time consuming to park and walk .. Went past 2-3 kilometres of Old , Beautiful buildings in the centre of the city .. Went past the Golden bridge , Parliament , Jacques Chirac's house etc .. We stopped at a place which had the Grand palace to the left and the Invalides to the right for a photo shot



The next place we stopped at was a square where there was this obelisk , built by the Egpytians 2000 years back , which had been donated to the French some time back .. It was gold tipped as well .. Around this area is the famous elite hotel, The Ritz, where the winner of the Tour de France gets to stay after his win



Surrounding this place were statues of women depicting the states of France .. For example the lady representing Bordeaux was holding a basket of grapes cuz that region was famous for its wines .. After some more pics here we left this place and went to the Champs-Elysées, Saw tons of car showrooms on the way ... Peugot , Ferrari etc and then saw the Arc de Truimphe ... Circled this about 3 times and took pics ... There was a rehearsal of sorts going on there as navy men were preparing for their National day parade on July 14th




Passed the bridge where Diana had her accident after that , they have a bronze flame statue there to commemorate the tragic event and the pillar her car crashed against is still left unrepaired .. From there we went to a vantage point from where one gets a nice open view of the Eiffel Tower .. Saw lots of Africans illegally hawking Eiffel tower replicas here .. While we were there we even saw a cop run after , chase down and arrest one person guilty of that offence .. 5 mins after the cop had left tho , his compatriots were back and resuming their activities .. Took pics of the Eiffel tower from this viewin area after this incident





Saw a guy practisin his skateboard stunts there as well .. After this we left and went to the Eiffel tower itself , passing on the way the Paris Hilton ( The hotel , not the girl :P )

Had to go and wait in line @ the base of the Eiffel tower for some time .. Had some fries while standing in the queue ( i guess the "French " in French fries was rendered redundant there ) .. As i had said in an Earlier post , Europeans take their dogs everywhere from restaurants to shops .. One man was even standing in line with us to go up the tower with a dog in tow :o .. As i had also said in an earlier post , any open space will do as a venue to host a concert there and the huge park near the base of the Eiffel Tower was no exception ,as preparations were underway and speakers were being set up




The black thingys on either side of the lawn were in fact , speaker decks


Craned (Almost sprained ) my neck and took some pics of the Tower from the base up as well




The queue we were waiting in was the Group Queue , where all the tour groups with a size of above 20 people were supposed to wait .. There was this couple behind our group in the queue as well .. When we got to the security check , the guard told them " Sorry Sir , this is queue for groups only " , To which the man retorted , pointing at himself and the woman " One , Two .. Group ! " Needless to say he was refused admittance and had to go and join the general queue :))

We went upto the 2nd level on a 2 level elevator which could hold about 90 people .. From here we had to take a different elevator to reach the 3rd level and had to wait in queue for that as those elevators had a lower capacity .. While waiting in the queue , we managed to get some nice pictures of Paris from that height




After ascendin the next set of elevators we reached Level 3 , which was the highest one was allowed to go up the Eiffel Tower . It was quite a spectacular view of Paris,with the river cutting across it, from up there and we spent most of the time takin pics




Also , from that height we could see the 12 major roads meeting at the Arc de Truimphe and also the exceptionally busy roundabout in which the Arc lies.



At the place where we came back to , to board the elevators to take us down , there were many boards with distances to major cities the world over displayed on them .. They informed us that Chennai was 8047 km from there .. There were lights on the Eiffel tower as well , which we were told would light up every hour for 5 mins starting from 9 Pm .. We had to leave there earlier than that tho

Proceeded from here onto the cruise on the famous Seine river .. Near the dock we saw a statue , which was a smaller replica of the famous Statue of Liberty in New York .. On the boat ,which had been booked exclusively for our group they served dinner and unlimited wine .. They had also arranged for music to be played and turned one part of the boat into a dance floor .. The whole group was up and dancing pretty soon , especially after some wine had been downed

At 10 pm , we were again treated to a fantastic sight as the Eiffel Tower ( which was visible from the part of the river we were in at that time ) lit up and continued to sparkle and twinkle for 5 minutes





After a fun couple of hours ,the people going for the Lido show (a famous dance and music extravaganza ) went below and changed into formal clothes adhering to the shows dress code ..Thereafter we left the boat and got back onto the bus .. The people who had opted and paid for the Lido show were taken to the theater where it was gonna be held .. It was scheduled to start quite late , past midnight and after dropping off those people there , the rest of us were taken back to the hotel .. We dint particularly want to go for the show as we had seen similar one earlier in Thailand and dint think this was a big deal .. We wanted to walk around the Champs-Elysées , where the activity peaks only as the hours grows late and goes on until the early hours of the morning .. This was the place that the French public came out onto in huge numbers to celebrate the 1998 football Wc win and was shown prominently on TV .... But , Some people in our group were not upto it after a long day and wanted to rest , so the plan never came to fruition and we ended up retiring to the hotel .


Day 12 :

As it was quite late by the time the people from the show returned , we had a late morning start .. Asked the others about the show over breakfast .. Responses ranged from "fantastic" to " ok " .. First stop today morning was the Versailles Palace

The king of France at that time , Louis 14 was looking for a site where he could organize and completely control a government of France by absolute personal rule. He settled on the royal hunting lodge at Versailles, and over the following decades had it expanded into the largest palace in the world. Versailles is famous not only as a building, but as a symbol of the system of absolute monarchy which Louis XIV espoused.

We went there and met our local guides and proceeded to enter the palace .. The first impression upon seeing the palace was marvel at the level of opulence that must have existed .. Everywhere we looked we could see beautiful paintings , sculptures , decorated ceilings , Huge rooms indicating quite a lavish lifestyle that the kings must have enjoyed at the expense of the peasants




They paid the ultimate price for this luxury though .. When the revolution struck the king Louis 16 and his family were carted away to Paris and executed by guillotine

The guide took us from room to room explaining its purpose and what the paintings and other art in the room symbolized .. First we saw the chapel where there was a balcony from where the king could sit and look down at the commoners .. The next room was a nobleman's reception room , where the important guests of the king would be met





The next room was the ballroom , where there would be dancing .. The king was quite fond of hosting parties with food , drink and dance and would do so at least thrice a week ( instead of ruling his kingdom ) .. This room had a fireplace so huge that people could actually walk into it .. The next room had a sculpture of Louis 14 .. The sculpture ,on orders from the king , falsely portrayed him as slim and muscular, whereas in reality he was neither





The next room was the war room with a ceiling covered in gold coated sculptures and paintings where important discussions were held .. There was an official painting of the king and the queen as well .. In the queen's picture , there was a little dog present as well .. This was supposed to indicate that the queen was faithful to her husband .. The kings portrait on the other hand had no dog ;) .. The next room was the bedroom of the king , where his bed is still there



The bed was so short because in those days people did not sleep fully reclining , but rather sitting up .. This was so because it was believed that if u sleep lying down u may be in danger of death caused by swallowing ur own tongue .. The next room was the waiting room where people would wait to meet the king and tell him their problems .. The room beyond that was the Throne room where the king sat and conducted his daily affairs .. The original throne which was solid gold , was molten down for money long back and now there rests a replica in its place

After this we entered the famous Hall of Mirrors , aptly named as one side of the hall is covered wholly by mirrors and the other side has windows open to the dusk sunlight





In the evenin the light coming in would be reflected back by the mirrors creating a amazing optical phenomenon to the people present , as mirrors were not widely known in those days .. This room was also covered in chandeliers and paintings .. This room was basically used to impress visitors to the palace

From here we proceeded to the next wing , which was the queen's and ladies' quarters
The first room was the queen' bedroom which even had a secret door along the wall through which the king could enter at night .. This was followed by a ladies' waiting room , for the ladies who came to meet the queen .. The next room was covered with paintings of Napoleon , who grabbed power and declared himself akin to a god .. There is a famous painting there depicting the coronation of Napoleon .. This painting is unique cuz unlike other kings who got cornated by the Bishop or some holy authority , Napoleon coronated himslef and then crowned his queen himself



All of Napoleans sisters are also present in this painting , but one of them is dressed in pink and is clutching her belly , whereas all the others are in white .. This was done by the artist to depict his love for her and that she was pregnant with his child .. After this we passed the shop , a room containin sculptures of all kinds and went out onto the palace grounds

The grounds outside are Huge , over 800 acres and there is a beautiful garden just outside the palace with a fountain .. Beyond this lies the massive grand canal ..Even farther into the distance lie the dense woods of the King's hunting grounds.




After takin a few more pics of the palace from outside,





We left the gardens and went to look at the exotic plant garden and storage area from up on a balcony




From the balcony , we could see , beyond the exotic garden , a huge lake .. This lake is actually rectangular but they created an optical illusion to make it look square when seen from a distance .. After this we saw the Changing gardens .. These were so named because these lay just outside the Queen , Marie Antoniette's window and every night the gardeners would remove the pots containing the flowers and replace them with a different set , with different placement .. This was done so that when the queen woke up every morning and peered out the window, she would see a "new" garden .


We left the palace after this tour and went straight to lunch .. After lunch we had the visit to the Louvre museum

The Louvre Museum is the most visited and one of the oldest, largest, and most famous art galleries and museums in the world... It houses many treasures and its popularity soared when it was used as a central setting in the plot of the bestseller , The Da Vinci Code



We entered it right under the famous glass pyramid.. The museum is huge and to see all the exhibits on display would take decades .. We were given a map containing all the important and popular attractions and directions to get around the museum .. It is divided into 3 wings , each of which is further subdivided into various categories


The first thing we saw was the Winged victory of Samothrace , a marble sculpture of the Greek goddess Nike (Victory) .. This is thought to date from the period around 200 BC




We then passed a few corridors draped with beautiful painting on both sides to get to the most famous occupant of The louvre - The Mona Lisa .. This merits an entire wall to itself,even warranting a special protective glass covering .. It looks surprisingly small when seen first hand , maybe accentuated by the whole empty wall behind it .. As expected there was a huge throng of visitors swarming the painting , trying to get their picture taken with it




We went to the next floor and entered the sculptures section ... Saw various famous sculptures such as the Venus De Milo,




a sacrophogus of a married couple , a statue of Caesar , a gladiator .. Entered the Michalangelo room after that .. Here there were famous statues like one of Cupid and The Dying Slave .

We left this wing of the museum and proceeded to another wing , an excerise which in itself took 5 minutes ..After navigating our way to the Mesopotamian quarter we saw some old pottery , some metal sculptures and the famous pillar containing the Code of Hammurabi




This is one of the first written codes of law in recorded history .. It was even written in the common language of Babylon so that any literate person could read it .. It was the first proponent of the famous "Eye for eye, tooth for tooth philosophy"...The code is also one of the earliest examples of the idea of presumption of innocence, and it also suggests that the accused and accuser have the opportunity to provide evidence

After looking around a bit more , we discovered that our alloted time was up and hastened back to join the group and got back onto the bus

The last place we visited that day was a place called Montmarte .. Montmartre is a hill 130 metres high,primarily known for the white-domed Basilica of the Sacré Cœur on its summit




We went upto the top , looked around , went inside the church where they had some pretty impressive paintings .. Walked around the church , rather impressive view of the city of Paris from up on this hill as well .. Came down and saw people makin arrangements for a concert to be held here at the base as well ! Bought some french crepes from a surly old lady and ate them after coming down :D

Returned to the hotel after that , signalling the end of a long day and an even longer post :P

Euro Trip - Part 6

Day 10 :

Today was the visit to The Netherlands .. The Netherlands or Holland is a very low lying country .. There are lots of dikes and dunes to protect the low lying areas from flooding .. Had we gone before May 21 we would have been taken to see the famous flowers of Holland but this was unfortunately not the season for it

Instead we went to a smallish fishing village on the coast called Volvendham .It was full of fishing boats and picturesque colourful houses



The docks had a power line for every boat's pier .. Somethin i hadn't seen before ... The skies were ominously dark as we began strolling around the city .. The houses here were boxed together tightly so as to maximize the available space





Some of the houses even had a level below the road height .. In The Netherlands , lot of commuting is done by way of bicycles .. So much so that , all the roads have a separate lane for cycles complete with little traffic signals for them .. Some cars are even equipped with overhead racks to carry the cycles



Just as we were completing the tour of the city , it started pouring .. We took shelter in a roadside stall selling , as luck would have it , hot dogs :P .. We had some hot fries and hot dogs while waiting for the rain to abate ... When it showed no sings of doing so , we took the umbrella ( The attentive and regular reader will know it was bought in Germany :P ) and proceeded to look around a bit more

We left this place after about an hour there and drove to a cheese and shoe factory .. Netherlands is famous for its cheese and its wooden shoes .. The wooden shoes used to be worn by farmers when they were workin in the flooded fields .. After some explaining of how cheese is made and some quite delicious sample of the various types of cheese ( This included even non veg cheese ) we were shown a demonstration of how wooden shoes are made.. These days they are bought just for decorative purposes by tourists , and so they even have multi coloured shoes


After buyin some cheese ( which I'm enjoying to this day ) we left the farm and went for a photo stop in front of a huge windmill, which the Netherlands is quite famous for




The windmills were used in the olden days to dry the flooded fields .. These days these huge structures are little more than decorative figures on the landscape.. Quite a few of them still around though

After this we headed into Amsterdam , the capital , and headed straight for lunch .. Was local dutch meal .. Fries and Croquettes .. After this we went on a cruise on some of the many canals of Amsterdam ... The city was founded when the dam on the river Amstel was built , thereby leading to its name as well and it is full of canals and waterways

There were cycles galore on the streets of Amsterdam as well and lots of rails provided to park them next to and lock onto .. Sometimes even that is not enough though as depicted by this photograph



At one point on the cruise , we could see 7 bridges in one straight line , one behind the other .. We also saw the Dutch coat of arms ( The XXX )




After the cruise we were let off at Dam square , the main square of Amsterdam .. Walked around there for a while , saw the palace and generally hung around the area



A magician was starting to perform in the square , but it was just as we had to leave though :/ .. From here we drove to Madhuradam where they had Miniature Holland , models of all the important buildings of Holland on a scale of 1:25




All the models were remarkably detailed and took many years to build .. Even the shrubs surrounding the buildings were miniatures , grown especially for this park .. Some of the buildings even had miniature people in them .. Like, a miniature castle would have tiny soldiers gathered in the field .




We were given a map which had information about each model and its number to go by

Some of the building even had moving mechanical parts to display the working of them .. Some models, on inserting a coin would move around and perform various actions .. Eg : On a model of a fair , the roller coaster would go for a ride around the circuit , the merry go round will move etc etc .. On a model of a bridge , the bridge will rise everytime a boat passes underneath and come back to position once the boat has crossed etc , In a ship repair yard , the ship will come out after the repairs ..... and so on





They had moving automobiles on highways , an extensive railway setup complete with bridges over obstacles that trains would ply on ,mini cable cars and even a model of an airport where planes would move up and down the runway




They also had a mini football field , lookin down on which u would get the feeling that u were up in a blimp flying over the field making the people look like ants




After takin a LOT of pictures here , in the process depleting all the memory as well as draining the battery of the camera , we left Madhuradam and went back to Antwerp and to the hotel .

PS : It was indeed fortunate that we had taken the laptop along as we could transfer photos from the camera when the memory would run out , as it quite frequently did , what with the sheer volume of photos taken ..

PPS: I'm only including one day in this post as this was unnaturally long with lots of pics by itself and also cause the next day is Paris , which will be equally ,if not more , lengthy

Euro Trip - Part 5

Day 8 :

Went first to the Rhine falls this morning ... The Rhine ( Rhein in German ) river is one of the most important rivers in Europe stretching for 1300 km and is a very important trade facilitator

The Rhein falls as such is not a very steep or big falls .. Juz pretty looking




But the cool thing is that they have viewing points on a rock which splits the falls ( denoted by the flag flying ) and a staircase to get up there .. So we got on a boat and proceeded to that spot .. While we were on the boat it started raining .. Rainfall on Rhein falls :-)

Anyway we got onto that rock and climbed up .. and the view was indeed spectacular .. seing a waterfall from above it was pretty cool




Went to another view point after that from where u can see the falls side - on . .After a few more pics here went back to the main dock and back onto the bus

From here we officially entered Germany and into the Black Forest .. This is so called because the density of trees in the forest is so thick that sunlight cannot penetrate through the tree tops and reach the forest floor .





This is a huge forest and is clearly visible from the air as well , as we noticed while flying over Germany .. Also obviously visible was the Swiss Alps .. But i digress ... We went to the small town of Titisee in the heart of the Black Forest for lunch .. The local meal .. Steak , Salad and potatoes and some local beer .. Germany is well known for its beer .. They have over 1200 breweries in Germany and the regulations for these was laid down way back in the 1500's


After this we went to the Drubba Cuckoo Clock factory ..The black forest is the place of origin of the Cuckoo clock .. In the winter months when it becomes too cold for farming , the farmers of this region resort to making Cuckoo clocks from the wood found in the Black Forest .. We were shown a demonstration of a small part of and an explanation of the making of the Cuckoo clocks .. They had many varieties for sale as well there ranging from simple clocks which emit the cuckoo sound to musical clocks that perform a whole host of actions in tune to the music which cost exhorbitant amounts .. We bought a small clock with just the cuckoo and also an umbrella cuz it was starting to pour

After that we proceeded to the town of Heidelburg .. Heidelburg is known mainly for its famous university renowned for its printing technology and its castle .. Its castle is situated on a hill from where one can get a nice view of the city .. We proceeded to go into the castle and look around




Apparently the castle had a Huge Wine vat which was as big as an entire room .. But it was closed when we went :/ ... Here, inside the castle also, they were making arrangements for a concert to be held :o .. After spending some time here we drove to our hotel .. Travelled by the famous Autobahn ,the highways of Germany, where there is no official speed limit .. The drivers are cautioned to drive around 120 kmph though .. After dinner at the hotel Ramada , we walked around the place a bit and made fun of the long German names :)





Day 9 :

Started off with a cruise on the river Rheine on a huge cruise boat .. Apparently the Rhine is a deep enough river that pretty huge and long cargo ships , which i thought were in operation only in the seas were plying these waters





Also the water of the Rhine was not like the green in Switzerland but more greyish like namma ooru water .. Every 2 mins or so we could come across a castle built on some hill in this region




As there was quite a chilly wind blowing on deck , we went down below and spent the rest of the ride there .. Also saw monument to a legendary lady who used to sit on a hilltop and sing .. The sailors , mesmerized by her beauty and voice would forget everything else and crash into the rocks .. Also saw lots of caravans and trailers on the banks as this was a popular getaway place

Came back to shore and drove to Cologne ... This is the birthplace of the famous ' Eu De Cologne ' .. First we went to the Cathedral in Cologne .. This is built in the Gothic style of architecture with lots of spires n stuff and lot of sculptures on the walls .. Beautiful to look at though it is covered in black grime




Apparently during World War 2 , 14 bombs were dropped on this by The allies and still it survived without any major damage .. My theory on this is that 14 bombs were dropped , but none of them exploded :D

Went inside and saw the huge pillars holding it up built layer upon layer .. Also they had lots of stain glass painted windows inside



The grandeur and size of these old European churches is quite stunning




Bought a bottle of Eu de Cologne in a shop nearby , had lunch and left Cologne and drove to Belgium


We first drove to Brussels , the capital of Belgium and went straight to St Michael's Square , where ,again preparations where on for a concert



Strolled around a bit and saw some of the things Belgium is famous for... Chocolates , especially the Godiva ones .. Lace works and lace tapestry stores ..Also Tintin Snowy and Captain Haddock painted on a wall and at the bottom , the signature of Herge , their creator who hails from Belgium .. And of course saw & ate some Belgian Waffles



They have so many varieties of Waffles and toppings and on a chilly day such as this , it was bliss to eat one of those hot waffles

Also saw the statue of the mannequin Pis - the symbol of the city of Brussels




The story behind this is that one day the young prince went missing .. After searchin for a lot of time , the King said that whenever and wherever the prince was found , he would erect a statue depicting exactly what the prince was doing at that time .. As luck would have it, the prince was found in a street cornet , urinating , and hence the statue


Also saw statue of a famous Army general which it is rumoured ,if u rub , will bring u good luck



Also saw a glass roofed building which kept the entire interior warm and was full of shops




Left brussels after this and drove to our hotel , The Hilton Scandic , with a photo stop at the Atomium along the way



This was built in 1950's to commemorate the Trade fair held in Brussels that year and is obv, in the shape of an atom .

The hotel was in Antwerp , famous for its diamond cutting .. Had local dinner that night ... Soup , Fish , rice and salad .. Went for a walk after dinner and if you thought German names were long ....