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!! )

  

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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

Tobermory -True Paradise

Hello again ,

This was the July 4th weekend, and a perfect weather for the most awaited trip to Bruce Peninsula, which is surrounded by Lake Huron and the gorgeous Georgian Bay. We started our journey  at around 10 am . We passed by the small towns of Caledon ,Orangeville , Sherburne ,Owen Sound .I am entrhralled by their cozy downtowns , the historic buildings, and the unique Mom and pop stores..I  wish to visit these towns sometime, when I have some leisure time to stroll down. And finally our destination was here, the beautiful town of Tobermory.

There were three places , that I was keen in visiting this time The FlowerPot Island, The Grotto, and the famous lighthouse. (I have always been fascinated about light houses, because that gets me to thinkng about so many accidents would have been saved just because of the help of these light houses--and also it reminds me of the secluded islands described in the "Famous Five" books by  Enid Blyton )

We reachedTobermory at about 1.30pm.reason being the highway 10 that connects Tobermory to Brampton is a one lane road. We directly went to the office of Blue Heron Cruises, and to our surprise the next 2-3 cruise were already full, So we thought of going for the Grotto first and then coming back for the cruises, and guess what we got to know, that the Bruce Peninsula Park is so full, that there is no place to park, and so we cant get in...

Hence we went for the 2.45 Jet Boat Cruise and a return Glass bottom Cruise at 4.25 and decided to see the Grotto later. That kinda worked in our favour,as we got some time to freshen up , and buck up for the adventure..

The Jet Boat is a pretty fast boat that takes us to the island in just 15 minutes...I enjoyed every moment of the breathtaking ride to the island. Enjoyed the fresh breeze ( tried to breath in as much Oxygen as possible) , the beautiful lansdcapse, watching seagulls , looking at the faraway ligth house...And the jumping along in the bumpy ride..

The Jeb Boat

They slackend the speed of the jet boat,as we were about to reach the isalnd, and hence we could capture the best views of the island. This island is around 6.5 km loong and is only accebile via the ferries from Tobermory The name of this island is derived from the natural sea stacks formed in the shape of namesake flowerpots.
( The Flowerpots are a type of sea stack, formed over many years as wind, rain, waves and ice hammered away at the cliff that once stood alongside the water’s edge, the softer rock eroded more quickly, leaving the harder rock remaining in the shape of Flowerpots)

Both the flowerpots captured together

Large Flowerpot

If you look through the bigger flowepot it looks like a face of a person.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

We reached the island at around 3.05 pm and hence had very less time to explore eveything on the island. They dropped us on the dock and there were few trails that would take us to these flowerpots, caves and the lighthouse. Since we were short of time, we decided to take the main trail that was around 1.5 km long, and tried to scurry through it, and take a break only when its really required. (That means less selfies ;) )

We hiked to the small flowerpot and then the large fowerpot, was amazed by looking at the age of these rocks,around 10000 years old . Its sucha a gradual process..And just wonder how it would be after another 10000 years... We then saw the caves .Many years ago this whole island and these caves were below sea level.And gruadually as the sea level decreased, the island was formed and we can see the hollow caves formed because of the tidal energy of the waves hitting the rocks... These kind of caves would be present below the sea level, and may be after another 5000 years, people would see those caves.. 

      

We wanted to go to the lighhouse, as I already mentioned my fascination about it, but we also didnt wanna make others wait becuase of us. and hence we dropped the idea, and instead enjoyed a bit on the shoreline watching the beautiful standing structures. and taking some selfies..

Our journey back wasnt as happenig as it was a huge glass bottom cruise boat .(We didnt really get any view from the glass bottom, we would have if we would have got this while going to the island, as they show ship wrecks

The glass bottom cruise

So, we got back to Tobermory and headed to The Bruce Peninsula National Park.  It is a 156 square kilomoeter park located on a part of Niagara Escapment(The Niagara Escarpment is a long escarpment, that runs predominantly east/west from New York State, through Ontario, Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois) and also a UNESCO-Biosphere Reserve.

Guess what the parkig was still full, because its one of the best camping sites and perfect place for a 1 day trip. You can expect such huge crowds in Ontario during summer weekends especially on a sunny day. They asked us to be back in 15 minutes..

We parked our car at the Cyprus Lake parking (P1), which is the closest to the Grotto, and took the Georgian Bay Trail to the Grotto and the Indian Head Cove.

Trail Map from Parking to The Grotto

The hike to the Grotto is a bit tiring as its uphill,especially after a long day, but its worth it.. We tried to be a bit adventurous and climbed down  the rock,

posing for a click :)-Indian head Cove

pose by hubby dearest, showing off his muscles

                       






                                                                                                                 

The Grotto

It was 8pm and the Sun was about to set, so we decided  to hike back to our car.On our way back I experienced something for the first time , well before I tell you, Let me remind you of the famous W.H Davies Poem(The Leisure--What is this life full of care we have  No time to see, when woods we pass, Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass )I had always loved this poem in my childhood, and so I  have a habit of stopping by and enjoying the beauties of nature.And so I think I have already seen squirrels eating their nuts , but I had never heard a squirrel squeeking so loud (btw its a bit dreadful, in the quiet night ) so thats how we ended our journey,  took all the memories back with us, and drove back to our sweet home.

Few References: 
http://www.blueheronco.com/
http://www.explorethebruce.com/tobermory/

 Au Revoir!!