EUROTRIP-ITALY

ITALY 

Now comes the country which since the antiquity has been the centre of history, culture and art!! We first headed towards Milan, the global capital of fashion and design! Milan Centrale was a busy station, and the first shop I saw on reaching the platform was  Sephora, no wonder !!
We took the metro to our hotel, The people in the subway were very simple ,but well dressed.  I expected people wearing a lot more of branded clothing, but it want as what I had perceived.
 Also, we witnessed a a weird thing in the subway, 14 year olds smoking  cigarettes. It was kinda shocking. The roads and the road  side shops very much looked like India. We were super tired by the time we reached our hotel ..The room was very spacious and loved the modern furniture, but didnt even have time to appreciate it.

VENICE:

21st August:
Next day, we were having a train to Venice Mestre, early in the morning, Right outside the station was a Lavazza , so had our breakfast, and saw lot a of Bagpackers like us.. and tried too think that we are not the only once with heavy bagpacks lol.
Our hotel was 5 minutes walk from the station, but that walk felt like an hour walk with our bags!I wish we had taken some cab.Our hotel was a small BNB, owned by a lady. Basically it was 2 apartments converted into a Hotel, The rooms were pretty clean and tidy.

We were so excited to be in the magical city, that we quickly freshened up, We also got some fruits and yoghurt from the near by convenience store, before heading to Venice. The transit was pretty good, just one bus took us to Venice Centrale. Venice Mestre is a small town just besides Venice, and has a lot of cheaper hotels to stay...Compared to the expensive Venice BnB.So the decision to stay here was good for our pockets..Getting the best of both worlds.


We reached Venice, collected the maps and inquired about the Gandola rides, which usually end of after 3pm.
So,we decided to do the gandola Ride the next day, and roamed on the streets of Venice on our own..

the streets of Venice are like a labyrinth ,  no matter how much you try to follow the map, you might get lost,, we tried to follow the edges and followed the signs in yellow for academia and St marks

It was really crowded with lots of shops of glass products, masks , souvenirs,  and branded shops,.

I somehow felt like Shrinathji, with narrow crowded streets made up of stone and small shops with art ..
Basically the glass products are sold because back in the days Venice was the first city to manufacture things out of glass , Murano’s glassmakers held a monopoly on quality glassmaking for centuries,  and to continue having monopoly  they had secret factories to to manufacture these products. The glassmakers were not even allowed to go out of the Venetian republic.  I guess there was no concept of  patent in those days..

There is also a story for the masks sold in Venice , back in 14th  century , when Venice was booming and was a party city the merchants and kings from near by cities like Paris and London would come to Venice and do things they could no do back home, so for anonymity they wore these masks.

We reached the st marks square , it's famous for the st marks basilica and the bell tower,

The church is special because of the blend of East and the West..the church was created in the 11th century.
It  has the tomb like a mosque and is the best known examples of Italo-Byzantine architecture

I had heard that view from the bell tower is amazing, so we went up the tower  , just before sunset  so that we can enjoy both the views. and , yes it is spectacular , the beautiful red roof tops and the st marks basilica. Also the faraway ocean..

Especially  after the sun sets , the reflection of the light in the water , blew my mind off..That feeling of being up there and enjoying the view still stays with me...St marks square is at its best during  the night, with the near by cafe's having musicians play the melodious baroque music..We enjoyed the rest of the evening , by strolling around the streets.Its said that even for an experienced traveller, there can be no better joy than walking up in Venice. 

22nd August:

The next day was our last day in Venice , so checked out,kept our luggage at deposito bagagli , A service offered by  Cooperativa Trasbaglia Venezia. We had our breakfast at a shop, near the deposito baggali, and had some egg sandwich and nutella croissant , Ravish got his coffee, and unfortunately he droped it ,and also someone else's coffee, she started asking for money,as if shewas gonna sue us ,for dropping her coffee, and made accusitions that she would have got burnt, had it fallen on her hands.. Anyways we didn't pay much atttention and walked passed her...
The agenda of the day was to get ourselves a gandola ride, so the first thing we did was the gandola ride. 

After that we walked all the way to st marks square , because we had not seen the church from inside (Got a bit hectic, but don't wanna leave a place without seeing the famous places its famous for) .And guess what we were craving for some Indian food, so we searched for an indian restaurant in Venice(thats the irony of life , we look for indian food in Italy )

Our hotel in Florence was very close to the train station, so we walked to the hotel, had some dinner, went out on the streets at night, place was happening at night..

One thing noted italy due have sighs in 2 languages , France and Switzerland always had sings in one language french and german(Zurich )

ITALY

21st august

Early morning we were having a train to Venice  mestre.

I got a good feeling on reaching mestre..  may be cause the city looked like india.i felt like home..

Had some breakfast at Lavazza , and walked to the hotel.
It qas  smkl bnb owned by a lady. Roos were clean... it was like 2 apartments turned into a Hotel.
She gave us 3 keys , to the place.

Freshened up and went to the most awaited city... got the bought map  of the city.. and decided to  walk to st marks square...
the streets of Venice are like a labyrinth ,  no matter how much you try to follow the map, you might get lost,, we tried to follow the edges and followed the signs in yellow for academia and St marks

It was really crowded with lots of shops of glass products, masks , souvenirs,  and branded shops,.

I somehow felt like sjrinatji while walking past the crowds...
Basically the glass products are sold because back in the days Venice was the first city to manufacture things out of glass , and in fact to have  monopoly , they had secret factories to to manufacture these products to have  a monopoly , I guess there was no concept of  patent in those days..

There is also a story for the masks sold in Venice , back in 14th  century , when Venice was booming and was a party city the merchants and kings from near by cities like Paris and London would come to Venice and do things they could no do back home, so for anonymity they wore these masks..

We reached the st marks square , it's famous for the st marks basilica and the bell tower,

The church is special because of the blend of East and the West..the church was created in
It  has the tomb like a mosque and also some byzantine architecture .
I had heard that view from the bell tower is amazing, so we went up the tower  , just before sunset  so tjat we can enjoy both the viws. and , yes it is spectacular , the beautiful red c proof tops and the st marks basilica. Also the faraway ocean (sea looks amazing )
Especially  after the sun sets , the reflection of the light in the water is mind blowing

St marks square is at its best during  the night, with the near by cafe's having musicians play the lovely sound italian tracks..
We enjoyed the rest of the evening , by strolling around and  looking for some place to have dinner..

22nd August:

The next day was our last day in Venice , so checked out,kept our luggage at.

The first thing we did was did the famous gandola ride, walked all the way to st marks square to appreciate the church from inside.and then caught our train to Florence.

Our hotel in Florence was very close to the train station, so we walked to the hotel, had some dinner,

23rd August

We were super tired the next day  so took it a bit slow. We took sufficient sleep , and walked in  the streets of Florence until 3pm,
We went to as signing I can't

Also the duome has  a huge significance in renaissance 

caught train to pisa,

And then after spending around 2 hours in pisa left for rome..

Yeah the most hectic  day of our trip was finally over.. we really felt that we were living a nomadic life.

Rome is a big city and very crowded as well,  so we decided to hire a cab to our hotel.
The hotel was good ,owned by a lady, rooms were well maintained..

We went our for dinner to a near by place , had some roman pizza, bought some fruits and water for the next day .

As I just mentioned Rome is  a crowded city , especially because thousands of tourists come here each day. And  we were warned by many about the lineups at the Vatican city, so we had to again wake up early the next day ;) (the incident of locked of locked khushboo in washroom  )

We took metro to the --station , never had a I seen 3 escalators in one direction (so you can imagine how crowded the subways were )
There were few train with no air conditioner and the weather was always around 28-29 , so we were always sweating..

The city  has good infrastructure, good highways , not so great subway system(comparing it with Paris , not Toronto ;) )

Some metro stations even had 3 escalators in one direction , you can imagine, how crowded it must be ( I saw something like that for the first time )

24th August:

So we went to the ---metro station, and walked to the st peters basilica (note that there would be loads of tourist guides trying to sell the skip the line tickets , don't buy that , even if the lines look long , it doesn't take long to get in ) this church is just amazing I have never seen a church as beautiful as this one ....it's huge and magnificent... you can just stay there and appreciate the art of Michelangelo ... the dome and all he sculptures look beautiful....

The church is named st Peters after saint Peter, he was the right hand man of Jesus . And his body was buried below the church

Saint Peter was crucified upside downs by the Romans , in the square outside the church.. his Portiat is right outside the Church , (the saint with  a key is him )

We had 2 days in Rome, so we  decide to see the most famous places first..

So the next was Colosseum--- you can imagine Colosseum like a huge soccer  stadium ,just the difference is imagine gladiators with their horses instead of Leo Messi .

Colosseum took @@ years to build.
There is palatine  hills and lot of other things to see here, but I could not appreciate the relics, for some reason..
May be a tour guide would have helped , to make me imagine the importance of that place..( for me , I felt people Have just hyped about it ) 

We walked by introducing he streets near Colosseum, I found a nice small place for some home made pizza, the smell of pesto sauce attracted me towards it ,,

25th August:

The next day we were leaving for a malformed coast  ,  (yeah we sound like nomads )). It's the south of Italy , said to have one  the best beaches and amazing views....it's comparable to south france..

The only problem is its not easily accessible, our journey was very adventurous, we did a train from Rome to Naples. Then another local  train to Sorrento.( @@another incident khushboo falling off in the train )
Our base was Sorrento (it's a beautiful small touristy town )you just get a  fresh and good vibe after being here...

Our hotel was located in the heart of the city am was just 10 min walk from the station (he just 10 min, sounds easy but it's really a tough walk with lot of luggage  but guess what we left both our bag packs in Rome and just got a small carry on here,thank god we did that )

Plan was to do the island of  Capri today and Amalfi coast the next day , but we had learnt by now that less time is equal to no time to relax , so we decided to skip Capri , all we wanted was a beach to relax in  , so we stayed back in Sorrento and relaxed in a private beach.
Capri is a beautiful island , we had seen something similar to that in Canada ,it has the grotto and some beautiful  begged and turquoise green colored water ,the kinda everyone imagines In a beautiful beach )

But no regrets :)

26th August:

We bought the Sita bus pass for Amalfi coast, the buses run every half an hour (note that if you travelling in  high season like august,better to get in line before half an hour, it has long queues,so you might miss few buses,and always catvg the bus from its starting point , one more thing, sit on the right side if the bus to get  good view. And while returning  the left side )

There  are 2 famous beach towns--Positiano,and  Amalfi .
Positano is like an hour from  sorrento , and amalfi is 2 hours..
We just did one , to enjoy the beauty of the place,
So we went to amalfi. Got off the bus and we got this amazing  view of the beach  surrounded by a mountain which had these small colorful houses  on wine end .. the beach was bluish and turquoise greeen.

hundreds of umbrella and and people sun bathing

There I'd this picture I had in mind about the view of Amalfi, so we decided to hike a bit to see that exact view..

It was like a 20 min hike up to the cemetery .. it was scorching hot , and so that 20 min felt like an hour.. but we had to do it.. so went up their to take some beautiful shots of Amalfi, I must say it was worth the treck..

We headed back for the 5,30 Sita  bus towards sorrento., as we had a train to Naples  to catch.( We did this to avoid the long journey the next day.)

This train is really busy,with no air conditioner, luckily we got seats this time,. Thing to note there are few train in this route with (dd) sign these train her fewer stops, so we caught that one this time ...

We reached Naples at around 11ish... we had already heard stories about Naples, and they all sounded true, it didn't feel safe, you gave to be very attentive with your luggage . And act like a local..

Our hotel wasn't too far, from the station so we checked in and went out for dinner..
There are few Patios close to the station.. it was pretty busy , with proper playing  music and drums .. we had some soup and pizza (napoli pizza was really good )

27th August

Next morning train to Rome, we were exhausted by this time so, checked in the hotel, relaxed and went out to explore in the evening..

We tool the @@line to spagna, for the famous  Spanish steps.

It is close to few other famous places like pantheon, @fountain which was getting refurbished

These places were good but it was really hot, very crowded and we were tired  so did a quick visit to these places..

Had some dinner near by.. frankly speaking I didn't find Italian people especially in Rome very friendly..

EUROTRIP-SWITZERLAND

SWITZERLAND

19th august

Our train to Zurich  was from Gare de Lyon station, early in the morning, we really didnt feel like bidding good bye to Paris, but at the same time we were excited to know what's in store for us .Our train was a swiss train that runs between the 2 countries. we had heard about random passport checks, but we didnt encounter any of those checks.

We reached Zurich by 11am. Our  hotel was 10 minutes walk from the terminal .Zurich is a the largest city of Switzerland, and its the financial centre of Switzerland, it also houses the Stock Exchange.Its a beautiful city surrounded by mountains on all the sides, and the river Limmat passes from between the city dividing the city into the old and new city.We collected the maps and headed with out heavy bagpacks towards our hotel. 

Unfortunately lot of hotels their have strict policy of check-in check-out times, and had to wait for like 2 hours to get our room, so we had our lunch in the mean time and planned the next two days.

Today the plan was to exlplore the city and tomorrow we are going to Lucerne(one of the famous attractions in Switzerland ) We dont have a lot of days in Switzerland, but we really wanted to get a feel of it, because of all these Bollywood movies we have watched that are shot here,especially DDLJ :)

We started with the old Town, thinking it would be good to have a feel of the culture and the history of the old town. I just loved the midieval houses, narrow lanes, small boutique shops!! The town halls and the clock towers are from even before the Rennaissance period. There is a famous Fondue shop in the heart of Niederdorf in the old city .I had gone crazy taking pictures of the beautiful boutiques, and some funny names..

                          

We relished  the melodic chimes of the clock tower every hour. The St Peters;s church boasts to have the largest clock tower face in Europe. I did try to record the mellifulous music.. There was a small square near by, with a huge tree in the centre of the square, and I loved the site of people reading books in the quite surroundings. (For some reason it felt like India, A huge banyan tree in the centre and people doing their stuff ) 

We then headeed towards the other Romanasque church  Grossmünster, The twin towers of the Grossmünster are regarded as perhaps the most recognized landmark in Zurich.

Later we saw the Fraumunster church . I loved the neaighbourhood of this church with colorful houses, like Burano in Venice. 

We then headed towards the new town, which is more like a financial district and has all the branded shops..
We were meeting Ravish's cousin Jays (Remember the one we met in Paris, she was here from her work, lucky us,got a chance to meet again :)

We went to Hiltl for dinner(The oldest vegetarian restaurant in the world according to the Guiness book )
This place has hundreds of varieties of  food, mixture of all cuisines, and you get a lot of indian options as well.

We had a lovely evening , and then obiously the time spent wasnt enough so then we went to a small cafe that Jayshree recommended. The time passed so quickly that it was time to depart again, in the hope to meet again!!


Next day was Lucerne, a small lovely city , with a thriving tourism industry owing to its status as a gateway to Central Switzerland. We had already booked our package for Mount Rigi,.We took a train to Arth-Goldau, from there took a cog wheel train to Rigi Kulm, The views from the train were to die for.. Slowly and steadily it took us to the summit.Mount Rigi is called the queen of mountains and its 1,798 m high.
It is surrounded by the water of three different water bodies: Lake Lucerne, Lake Zug and Lake Lauerz.
The view is just jaw-dropping.It was a little cloudy that day, so there were times, that all we saw was clouds under us.(That view was heavenly ;) , but you definitely need sun and (no clouds to see the real view ).We took the train and then the cruise back to Lucerne.. I enjoyed the view from the cruise as well.. (You just feel that , in the most remote area as well, everything is just perfect, afterall its one of the most developed nations with their Swiss Francs so strong!! )

  

,

From the cruise to Lucerne

We explored Lucerne a bit, saw the famous bridge , strolled around the streets and had the best canneloni I have ever tasted.

I think this was one of our longest days, we then took a train back to Zurich, picked up our bags from the station and caught a train  ( (Cant imagine we had travelled so much in one single day ) to Milan.Yes,the next country we are travelling is ITALY!!!  :)

EUROTRIP-PARIS

PARIS

15th-Aug

We reached my dream place - PARIS at around 1.30 pm. Our hotel was in the bercy village( 12th arr), close to Gare de Lyon.  Basically Paris is divided into 20 arrondisements, and they start from the centre and form a spiral.The smaller the arrondisement, the closer you are to the city. Eiffiel Tower is located in the 7th arr.

The best way to get to the city is RER Train, and then the Metro.

 ( FYI: RER trains are the long distance trains in Paris --they are named alphabetically A, B, C, D, E, while Metro is the underground train system that runs in the central Paris)  -- RER vs Metro

So, we had to take a RER-B train and then the metro to Cour Saint Emilion.

Paris has an astounding network of metro that runs throughout the city .also , I found them more expeditious than the Canadian subway. We bought  separate tickets for the RER train and then bought a 3 day metro pass for zone 1-3 with that we can  go anywhere in the Paris city )If staying in the city centre, your best bet would be to buy the day pass. There is a lot of walking and you definetely need a metro pass especially the Zone 1-3 pass.So depending on the days you stay just go for it. (Zone 1-5 is quite expensive , so buy it only if you really need it, better option is buying individual RER train tickets if its a to and fro journey )

Here is the Metro map with the important subway stations marked,for reference.

Metro Map--Paris

Our hotel was in a nice neighbourhood called The Bercy village. This retail and leisure development housed in old wine warehouses is a relaxed place to shop and for people watching. And it was just 2 min walk from the subway station. (what else do we need in Paris!! )

We got a room on the 8th floor , and guess what I saw from my room's  window,( The Eiffel Tower, I was esctatic )..  Plan was to freshen up and meet Jays and Robin at Trocadero subway . (Thanks to Robin, that the first thing we happened to do in paris was to be here!! ) We truly enjoyed the view from there ( that's the place from where you get the best direct view of  effiel tower , I was obviously spellbound by it when I saw it from this close , No wonder it's been the wonders of the world) .There were crazy crowds taking selfies and pictures( we were obviously one of them )  .

  

From here we could the see the parc De Mars , the tower, and the crowds just underneath , waiting to climb up. The one picture I always wanted to take was the one with Eiffel Tower and a red umbrella  finally my wish was fulfilled.

Unfortunately Jays and Robin couldnt make it, and so we went to the opera to meet them ( it's so good to meet your family in a different country , and get bonded in just the first meeting . We went to an Italian place for dinner . This areas is one of the good places to get a  french feel )

Now the fact that we were meeting for the first time, we have to make it memorable (Our jetlag and their tiresome journey didnt stop us from having some fun) So, we headed to the icecream place -Hagan daaz, which was on the Champs-Élysées  (The Avenue des Champs-Élysées is a boulevard in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, 1.9 kilometres long ,which runs between the Place de la Concorde and the Place Charles de Gaulle) .

With icecreams in our hand, and the long conversations to catch up to, we started walking towards Arc de Triomphe. (It honours those who fought and died for France,in the French Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars. It was started in 1806 by Napolean and was ended by King Louis .The soldiers also used to have victory parade here.

 

The view of the gorgeous street at night was amazing.. It is definetely the City Of Lights. I always wanted to roam around in the streets of Paris like the Midnight in Paris. :)

We finally called it a day and decided to meet early in the morning at the Louvre the next day. 



16th-Aug

We reached the Louvre at  around 10.15, and there were still long lineups. Unfortunately  Jays and Robin could not join us , since they didn't let them take there small carry on bags inside. ( something to note )

Louvre is housed in the Louvre Palace, and is one of the World's largest museum.The collection is divided among eight curatorial departments: Egyptian Antiquities; Near Eastern Antiquities; Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities;Islamic Art; Sculpture; Decorative Arts; Paintings; Prints and Drawings.
Basically that means a lot of information, so if you are a History buff time it accordingly.

We didnt have a lot of time and we are not History Buffs , so all we were interested was  the renaissance art , and mona Lisa , and we did quickly see the other collections.

Crowd surrounding Mona Lisa

The craziest crowd we saw was in front of the Mona Lisa. We walked a lot to find a room that had Mona Lisa. Now once in the room, we thought it would be easily visible, but all we saw was a huge crowd surrounding Mona Lisa and people taking selfies.

We met jays and Robin for a quick lunch at a near by cafe as they were leaving for London,and said our Good Byes, with the hope of meeting soon.

Louvre is close to a lot of famous attractions, so thought of visiting those places. First we went to the famous Notre-Dame de Paris and saw the Glorious Gothic architecture.  It is one of the oldest architectures in the city and It set the standard for the gothic architecture from the moment of its inception in 1163. Really enjoyed the beautiful interiors of this marvelous church. Its a huge dark, earthy cavern lit with an unearthy light.

                             

After that we walked down the streets near the church and reached a crowded square.And to my astonishment, there were kids playing volleyball and basketball in the heart of the city .I really loved the vibe of this place, reminds you of doing some physical activity, 

From there we went to Place de la Concorde,( Its the a major public square) also appreciated the  beautiful fountain from Devil wears Prada,where Andrea Sachs throws her phone into one of the Fontaines de la Concorde.

We also visited the Tulieris garden , near by. This was the place where Parisians celebrated, met, promenaded, and relaxed. It has a good view of the Eiffel Tower as well.. (While watching the Eiffel tower from here I was wondering, how luckyParisians are to see the Eiffel tower every single day, I was definetely in love with Paris by now... Like Andrea Sachs says in Devil wears Prada:  , "I never understood why everyone was so crazy about Paris, But it is so BEAUTIFUL"

We then went to Sacre Coeur, the basilica is located at the summit of the butte Montmartre, the 
highest point in the city, and also a very famous neighbourhood with lovely boutiques and patios. 

From here you get a beauriful view of the whole city, with the magnificent Eiffel Tower standing right in the middle of the city ( and ofcourse if you pay you get an even better view :)

Right outside the basilica, there were lots of crowd.Few artists showing some stunts,playing music.And the best was a guy juggling a soccer ball, on the MJ song(Heal the world) playing in the background.
It was JUST AMAZING!!!

We spent the rest of the evening there, checked out few boutiques and mom and pop stores.

17th-Aug

The next day was for the Effiel Tower. (To really see it from close) . We had found a small cafe close to our hotel, that served some vegetarian options like omlette, quiche, and ofcourse Croissant (the staple breakfast), so had a quick breakfast, anticipating the long queue.

The ideal time to go to the Eiffel Tower is at around 8.30, (well our friends who had recently been to Paris had warned us on that,we did regret that: ) .Basically there are 2 elevators to reach the summit, one that goes to the 2nd floor, where you again change the elevator (means another set of queues). The lineup to go to the 2nd floor looked like a 2-3 hour wait time, so we decided to take the stairs (which had less wait time) uptil the 2nd floor and then took the elevator to the summit. One thing to note that (there are aruond 3-4 gates from the ground floor, you can guage the shortest queue and get into that one , and on reaching the second floor again there are 2 elevators and hence 2 queues, sometimes people tend to follow and one hence one quuee always has less wait time than the other  )


Climbing was fun, obviously a bit tiring,It has around 500 steps. so wasnt too bad. The good thing is you see the view changing as you climb up. The view from the second floor is great as well..We clicked a lot of pictures of river Siene and the various bridges from here.And obviously the view from the summit was mesmerizing.

We wanted to explore some Parisian neighbourhood ,so Jays had suggested us this place called the St Germain Street, and it was iindeed a nice place with loads of patios with a french feel. Sharing a video from this place.
We had dinner at a fancy restaurant, and had French Ratatoulie and Penne with Pesto sauce.

18th-Aug

This was our last day in Paris, and we were going to the Palace of Versailles. Versailles is like 45 minutes from the city central, and since its not a part of Paris Centre, the best way is the RER train. The  train station is around 15 minutes walk from Versailles Palace. we had already bought the tickets online so were hoping to face less line ups, but to our surprise there  were crazy crowds, looked like 4 hours of wait time to get into the palace. So we thought of doing the Gardens and the other places with the hope that the lineups would reduce after 2 hours.

You really feel like a princess when you are at the Versailles Palace, they have got musical gardens and fountains  in the afternoons,which run every  hour .The music is like that of Princess Diaries!!

We skipped the other queen's palace, because the train that took us there has another set of lineups (I was really done with the long queues by now )Anyways the Main Palace was magnificent, The Palace was begun by King Louis XIII and the later generations expanded it. Louis XIV was an art lover and each room is named after the art on its ceiling. The Queens bedtoom was beauutiful with the Summer-- floral furniture ,It is said they changed the furniture for each season..I was amazed by the lavish lives they lived, no wonder the whole of France envied the King..

Later in the evening bought some soveineiours, and bid our good byes to the City Of Lights...

Few More links on the way:

Switzerland
Italy
Spain--Barcelona