Northern Lights trip

 Jan 25, 2024 thru Feb. 1, 2024

Itinerary:

DAY 1 : MUMBAI – HELSINKI

DAY 2: HELSINKI – ROVANIEMI 

 Rovaniemi – the Capital of Lapland. Rovaniemi is an urban oasis amidst the Arctic wilderness, where culture, wild activities and fairy tales come together; Rovaniemi is also the official hometown of the Santa Claus. Visit the Santa Village where you can take a photo with the real Santa, visit his Post office and Santa Village situated exactly on the line of the Arctic Circle.  Hunt Northern Lights on foot on the river front of Kemijoki. 

DAY 3: ROVANIEMI SIGHTSEEING
Visit Ranua Wildlife Park where you will see the Polar bear and almost 50 other Arctic animal species in the wilderness of the northern forest. Enjoy a tour of Ranua for 1 hour, enjoy a local lunch at Ranua and return to Rovaniemi. In the afternoon visit the Artikum – a museum and Science centre. 

DAY 4 : ROVANIEMI – KIRUNA (350 kms, 6 hours) – ABISKO
Rovaniemi to across the border into Sweden on our way to Abisko. The road is beautifully covered in snow and the twilight adds to the beauty of the surroundings. Visit the Ice hotel in the Swedish village of Jukkasjärvi on the back of Torne River which is completely made by Snice – a mixture of Snow on Ice, where the walls, floors and ceilings of the hotel are the canvases of designers from all creative disciplines. The artists and art work vary from year to year and room to room. Later in the evening, proceed to Abisko which is considered one of the best places in the world to view the Northern Lights because it has conditions that line up and make the Northern Lights appear on average 159 nights (of the approximately 212 nights that are dark enough for Auroras to be seen) each year, according to experts. 

DAY 5 : KIRUNA – TROMSO – TROMSO CITY TOUR (400 kms - 6 hours)

After breakfast, we depart for Tromso. Which is another top place to experience the world’s greatest phenomenon “The Northern Lights”. On arrival in Tromso,

enjoy orientation tour of Tromso including a visit to Polaria Arctic Museum where we see the feeding of the bearded seals and watch a film on the melting of the ice in the Arctic’s. Check in to the hotel. Night, we visit the Fjellheisen by the aerial Tramway or cable car. The top of Fjellheisen offers amazing night views of the Tromso city and surrounding villages. It is also an Idyllic spot to watch the Northern Lights.

No one is quite sure when or whether this natural phenomenon will appear, but when it does it will simply take your breath away. The colours and shapes change and move, like an ever changing work of art in an otherwise dark sky. They dance across the sky, charging forward, winding, unfolding, flaring up, and suddenly fading away - all in a wash of greens, blues, reds and purples. It’s spectacular!! Night stay at TROMSO (NORWAY)

DAY 6 : REINDEER SLEDDING

After breakfast proceed to the Sami Camp where you will meet guides who come from Sami reindeer herding families who will explain about Sami Culture, Feeding of Reindeers, Lasso throwing, display of cultural artifacts and conclude with a traditional Sami song. Later you will enjoy reindeer sledding. After local Sami lunch return to the hotel and have some rest or roam around the Tromso town. Later that evening, we will take a Northern Lights cruise (4 hours), which will take you away from city lights

and deep in the sea where you can get another experience to watch out for the spectacular northern lights. Night stay at TROMSO. (NORWAY)

DAY 7 : TROMSO – OSLO (by Air)

After a leisurely breakfast departure to the Tromso Airport for your flight to Oslo. On arrival transfer to hotel and enjoy an orientation tour of Oslo City. Night stay at OSLO. (NORWAY)

DAY 8 : OSLO – MUMBAI (by Air)

Kashmir - Spring of 2024

Summary of our visit 

Up there,  nestled in the Northwestern Himalayas, between the Great Himalayan range to the north east and Pir Panjal range to the south west,  lies the scenic Kashmir Valley. This place was on our to visit list but that intention got translated into action only during our Scandinavian trip in January when our fellow traveller Anu, mentioned that she would be there in her Srinagar home for a couple of months in April & May and that would be an opportune time to visit Kashmir. We needed no further push and planned a visit between 9th and 15th April. Our itinerary consisted of 4 night stay in Srinagar at her guest house which is fantastically located a few hundred meters away from Dal Lake. Based on her inputs and those from our driver-guide Lateef, we did Srinagar sightseeing for a day and did two excursions, one to Gulmarg and other to Doodhpathri. Thereafter, we moved our base to Pahalgam and after two nights there, proceeded straight to Srinagar Airport for a flight back to Mumbai.

Now for the detailed description of our visit.

During our Srinagar stay these are some of the places that we visited. On the day of our arrival at Srinagar, before checking into the guest house, we headed straight way to Dal Lake and took the Shikara ride. The Shikara ride is really charming, the ambience is peaceful and even as you stretch comfortably in the Shikara, you can savour the illumination of house boats parked along one of the lake, watch the sky as dusk rolls in and temperature starts to drop making you reach out for warm woollens. The Shikara took us to a market and we did our first shopping there - a woolen shawl. 

We then proceeded for an early dinner and found a gourmet place that served piping hot soups, spring rolls and a choice of main courses. Having worked up a healthy appetite, we indulged in Kashmiri special Dum Aloo, Dal Makhni, Butter Nan and topped it up with a dessert of Brownie with Ice Cream.  Around 9:30 or so, we checked in to the guest house and called it a day.

The following day (day 2), we learnt that due to the Id festival, the guest house cook is on holiday and we will have to have our breakfast at a near by place. That was challenging since most establishments were shut as Id was announced that day. Luckily we found a small place serving Alu Paratha and bread toast. After a time consuming breakfast, we moved out for Srinagar local sightseeing. First place was the temple that Adi Shankaracharya had established up on the hill.

This temple requires you to climb 250 steps if you wish to have a 'darshan', which we did. View from the top of the temple was our first brid's eye view of Srinagar. Next to the temple is the cave like place in which Shankaracharya did his penance. After seeking the blessings from the temple, we moved on to visit Tulip Garden. This garden is said to be the largest in Asia spanning some 30 acres. There were thousands of Tulip flowers of so many different colours blooming there. 

There on, we visited a few of the famous Mughal gradens - Chasmeshahi where there are perennial glacier melt stream and we could'nt drink enough of it.  We then visited Shalimar Garden, old city Hazratbal, Nigin lake in Badamwari which is a must do place and then we went up the hill to Hari Parbat Mandir aur Killa. We skipped the Killa since it involved a lot of climbing up the steps but visited the temple of Sharika mata. The deity is believed to be 'Swayabhu" - self manifested. It was such a serene experience - there were no other devotees around and the dusk was just setting in and we were standing infant of the deity!! I have experienced this serenity in only a handful of  temples like Golden Temple, or  at Garudeshwar. 

Calling it a day, we decided to head back to the guest house but before that we stopped by in the carpet factory called Jamal but it was closed that day. So we returned and ordered in some hot soup and retired for the night.

Day 3(11 April 2024)  was the trip to Gulmarg which is about 2 hours drive away. We started from our guest house around 9 am and reached Gulmarg by 11. 

Along the way we got to see the famous Lal Chowk. This was the place that the tri color was hoisted after 30 years on 26 Jan 2022. The Chowk or Square was given its name by left wing activist who named it Red Square as they fought the princely state's Maharaja, Hari Singh. 

As we drove towards Gulmarg, along side were large trees - Chinar which is believed to release large quantity of oxygen, Deodar, Willow and then trees like  Walnut, Apple trees and Pine. Apple season is September so all we saw were Apple flowers. Before we ascended the last 30 minute stretch going into  Gulmarg, we stopped at Gumboot rental shop and rented gumboots to prepare for wandering on the snow on mountain slopes.  

Since it was the in season rush, all online tickets for the Gondola ride were already taken. So we hired a vehicle to drive us around the scenic places. Our first stop was by the hill slope which was snow covered. The locals were offering a sledge ride some distance up the hill and then a speedy down slope ride. Thanks to the enterprising locals, there was a tea/coffee shack right up the slope and it was a treat to savour hot coffee amidst the cool surroundings. 

Gulmarg also offers All Terrain Vehicle (ATV) hire and joy rides on helicopter. We decided to skip those and settled for enjoying the scenery.  After a late lunch(3 pm) on the way back to Srinagar, we reached Srinagar around 5 pm and thought that we will complete our shopping at the Jamal Factory and head back to guest house in time for dinner but we didn't anticipate the huge traffic jams.  The narrow roads were clogged with traffic and instead of an hour's ride to the factory, it took us almost 2 hours to reach the factory. This factory has amazing collection of silk, woolen and cotton carpets most of them hand woven. they showed us their exquisite collection of runners, round and rectangular carpets. We purchased one for the bedroom and requested them to courier it to us which arrived a few days after we returned home.

Returning to guest house there after was another 90 minute ordeal and when we reached atlas at around 9pm, we were so drained that like the previous day, we just ordered in hot soup from Lhasa and retired for the day.

Day 4( 12 April 2024)

After a hearty breakfast of hot delicious  Alu Parathas, Toast & Omelette, we started for yet another excursion, this timey to Doodhparthi. There is a river that runs thru this place called Shali Ganga which has milky colored glacial melt. There are couple of legends about origin of its name Doodhpathri literally meaning Valley of Milk. Some say that the name comes from the Mughal emperor Akbar, who was impressed by meadow's beauty and named it for its resemblance to milk. Others say that the name comes from a legend about the famous Kashmiri saint Sheikh Ul Salam Sheikh Noor din Noorani, who pricked the ground with his stick to find water for prayer and milk came out. He asked the milk to be only used for drinking and it immediately turned into water. 

As we ascended to Doodhpathri, our driver pulled up near a food stall by the road side. The husband and wife team was dishing out Makke Di Roti and Sarson Da Saag - hot freshly made corn roti roasted with liberal amount of genuine ghee along with the Mustard leaves plucked freshly from the farm was a treat too good to let pass. So we sat down on a make shift table/chair ensemble and savoured the treat despite the sumptuous breakfast we had eaten earlier. 

Post that treat we drove into Doodhpathri parking lot where our driver arranged for us horses to carry us to the river Shaliganga. Now we were riding the horses and after about 45 minutes travel thru grass and mud we reached the river bank. Thanks to our gumboots, we could actually enter the river (which fortunately did not have much of a current or water levels. The back drop were snow capped mountains and in front of us the green meadows. After a few photo sessions there, we returned two the parking lot and headed back to Srinagar, determined to reach the guest house well in time which we did at 5:30 pm. We did some shopping along the way primarily dry fruits & saffron.

 That evening Anu and her husband took us out for a nice hot dinner to Lhasa which by now had become our favorite restaurant. We retired soon after dinner packed and ready to check out and leave for Pahalgam the next day morning.

Day 5 ( 13 April 2024)

After an early breakfast we bid good bye to our hosts and caretaker of Lakshmi Guest House and headed towards Pahalgam on NH 44. Along the way we visited Martand (Sun) Temple - of the 3 temples in India. Quite an impressive construction considering it was done in 800 AD and later destroyed by Mughal king as well as earthquake. 

We also visited the Mattan mandir at the foot hill of Martand temple hill and stopped by for a quick lunch at a Dhaba. We reached our hote,l Hotel Heeven in Pahalgam in late afternoon. The pleasant surprise was that the hotel had upgraded us to presidential suite - the best room in the hotel which offered 270 degree view. 

The hotel has stunning views of mountains, clouds drifting lazily in the valley, the Lidder river flowing continuously making a nice relaxing sound. The atmosphere was simply enchanting.

We took a small walk and just lazed around in the evening. Before retiring for the day, had some light dinner of Khichdi /Kadhi that the chef had specially prepared for us.

Day 6 ( 14 April, 2024)

The breakfast at the hotel was a lavish spread. After a generous breakfast, we asked for a local sightseeing taxi and for under Rs. 3000, the driver took us to Chandan Ware  - a place from where the Amarnath Yatra proceeds on foot. It was drizzling and we were up in the clouds. Visibility was low. We then came to Betaab valley. Interestingly, the valley is so named after a bollywood film that was shot there. By then the clouds were yielding way for sun to shine thru. There after we visited Aru Valley where some scenes from movies like Karma, Bajrangi Bhaijan and bobby were shot. After returning to the hotel, we had lunch at the Italian place (Pizza) and after a relaxing nap, went to Pahalgam market for shopping.

Day 7 (15 April 2024)

After breakfast, we were on our way to Srinagar airport. Home was beckoning us. We didn't want to be late for our 3 pm Vistara flight to Mumbai. Drive through jams Srinagar airport.

We left the hotel at 8:45 and drove non stop, reaching the Srinagar airport around noon. Our return flight was at 3:20 pm - so we had ample time to settle down and have tea/coffee at the Airport. The connection at Delhi was a tight one. There was a change of gate and the gate for the next flight was quite a distance away. We had to literally run to make it to the flight.

Finally reached Mumbai at 8 pm and after a longish wait for baggage, reached home at 9:30pm. Kashmir is really so full of nature and so beautiful. I would certainly want to revisit and just relax at Pahalgam - may be at Hotel Heaven or some other such.

Alluring Ellora

 "Hey what's Ellora? Where is it?"  These questions from my friend when I told her that  we were planning a trip to Ellora and Ajanta completely took me aback. I tried to explain the greatness of Ellora caves but soon discovered that I was way out of depth in my own knowledge of this great work of art. It is true that we are blessed with so much history and culture but are only dimly aware of it. I realize it now after so many years that a much more rigorous study is needed to fully appreciate the unique aspects and magnificence of not only our own but any history and culture.  

We had engaged a well read ITDC certified guide Amol  who came highly recommended by my cousin Anil, who himself is a very senior and well respected guide in India. The description about Ellora that follows is all thanks to the sharp analytical mind of Amol as well as his in depth study of the region's history and culture.  He literally brought the stone monument alive.

So let us begin the enquiry. What is the distinguishing aspect of Ellora? There are over 100 caves of which  34 are open for viewing. These were carved out between 6th and 12th Century CE and reflect Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism.  All these caves are 'Carved Out' of the rock as contrasted with 'Carved In' monuments which are plenty all around the world.  So whats the essential difference?  In this case, the building material is carried out of the cave where as in Carved in caves, the building material is carried in. 

Said differently, this monument was created by creating spaces with in the rock and chiseling away the rock to bring forth the intended form or structure. Do you now see how difficult this is? For one, there is no possibility of rework - so it has to be right the first time each time. This as we all know is a tall feat to achieve in any area of work.

We spent much of our time visiting Cave # 16 which has the Kailash Temple. The temple is decorated with some of the boldest and finest sculptural compositions to be found in India. 

The sculpture depicting Ravana attempting to lift Mount Kailasa, the abode of Siva, is especially noteworthy.   Ramayana and Mahabharata stories are carved out on the side walls.

Like me I am sure you will be wondering why would this large monument be carved out of rock in this part of the world. The answer came from our guide that this place was along an ancient trade route to other countries. This meant that the traders who passed thru here would see this monument and spread the word about its magnificence and thus the fame of the King who sponsored this will travel far and wide.

Last but not the least, one marvels at the technology that made chiseling and digging tools  that could break basaltic rock.  The steel that is required is carbon tempered steel and one wonders how the people in those times got their hands on these!!

Ellora caves are highly accessible from the nearest major Airport which is Aurangabad Airport or Railway station or as we had done, you can simply drive in your vehicle. From Mumbai it took us about 8 hours end to end including a couple of stops of about 1 hour for lunch and tea.

Best time to visit is winter months since the ambient temperatures are nice and pleasant.  

 

Southern Utah - Fall season of 2013

A 5 Day Tour of the Southern Utah National Parks


After returning from this very memorable tour of the Southern Utah region, I thought of capturing the memories and moments in form of this Travelogue which may help an inspired visitor plan out his/her trip even better than what we did.  Starting from Las Vegas by car, we toured by car, the Zion, Bryce, Capitol and Arches National Parks in that order and returned to Las Vegas - total journey of over 1200 miles - in 5 days Nov 6, 2013 - Nov 10, 2013. The next day we  flew back to New York. I can say this, that had we got more time on our hands, we would surely have lingered around more in Bryce and Arches National Park, at least a day more each.

Background:  Frankly we were not aware of the Natural beauty that lay hidden in this Southern Utah region despite our several visits to US. We were planning to go to Yellowstone national Park but thanks to the timely advice from one of the Tripadvisor readers, we learnt that except one all other entrances to Yellowstone had shut down for winter and the park would be buried under lots of snow. The Tripadvisor lady advised us to tour Southern Utah National Parks and thats when my research turned to finding out more about the region and chalking out an itinerary.  We did visit Yellowstone eventually the following year and you can read about that post in my other blog post shortly.

Highlights: The entire Southern Utah region is very enchanting and has  a variety of colorful rock and you can see elements of nature at work here sculpting  away the hills into arches, canyons, towers, amphitheaters, caves and shapes like these. The air is clean, pollution non existent(I read in a visitor center there that the air in this region was rated as the CLEANEST in the entire USA). You can see as far as the eye can see all around - that gives you some idea of the vastness of the place.

First things First:  If you look at the Google Maps, you will see that The Parks are to the North East of Las Vegas, West of Denver, South of Salt Lake City and North of FlagStaff.

Day 0: We arrived in Las Vegas from New York around 4 pm, rented a car which turned out to be a huge Dodge Grand Caravan and checked in to Circus Circus which we had reserved online thru Booking.com. I will say that the Hotel was once a great place but no longer. Also, it is not  walking distance from the happening places on the Strip. But anyways, we just needed an overnight place to stay.

Day1: We started off in morning around 8 am towards Zion national Park by taking the Route 15N towards Salt Lake City. Once you leave the bustling Las Vegas behind, the road is quite deserted. We had a quick breakfast stop. After a sumptuous American breakfast, we headed further on and reached Zion by 11:30 am. The view along way was spectacular. The color of the hills and texture of the rocks change every few miles. Right at the entrance of Zion National Park is a cosy little Visitors Center. Perhaps because it was a weekday and early winter time, there were hardly 2-3 other visitors. However, the staff in the Visitor center was very helpful and with their advise, we made the most of the few hours of our journey thru Zion onwards to Bryce Canyon outskirts. It was just as good that we decided to take our overnight stop near by to Bryce Canyon entrance because in Bryce there was a very different world of rock formation that awaited us the next day. The hotels where we stayed was part of the Best Western chain but this was really a high class Best Western which had a nice and cosy fire place in the Lobby with antique furniture. The staff was very courteous and our rooms were spacious and elegant.

Day 2: We had planned that we will make the most of the day light and so we woke up early and after savoring a great breakfast at the hotel, headed out to view the sights with in Bryce.  If you have not seen or heard of Hoodoos (which is the local name for the unique pinnacle rock formations), let me say that the first viewing will take your breath away. Its awesome, enchanting and magnificent. Hoodoos is a native name that American Indians gave the formation. You dont see them immediately when you enter the park but when you park your car and walk up a few hundred feet upto the viewing point, there they appear below, infront and around you. There are literally thousands of Hoodoos every where as far as eye can see. Each Hoodoo is in a different stage - some are getting 'born', others are mature 'adults' and some others decaying.  Hoodoos are formed by slow erosion in a bed of rock where some layers peel away at faster and others at slower pace. The forces of Wind, Ice & water are always working to chip away and carve out these structures. You can see the famous natural Amphitheater formed due to a particular way in which Hoodoos have grown in the region.

We were able to take a few trails which involved 4-5 miles of walking up and down inclines. One point to note is that in Bryce you are at an average elevation of 7000 feet+. There was snow and Ice on the ground and temperatures were a not so cold 2-3 degrees Celsius. It was tiring but a wonderful experience that no one should miss. We watched the Sunset and headed back to our cosy Best Western for a good nights rest before driving on another few hundred miles onto Capitol Reef National Park enroute to Arches national park.


Day 3: We started early morning as the previous day and after gassing up our Dodge caravan, we again entered Bryce national Park since the road leading to Capitol Reef branches out from with in the Bryce Canyon National Park. It is called Route UT 12 which is the Scenic Highway and what a lovely road it turned out to be. It is a long drive to Capitol Reef and it will take up about 5-6 hours. So be prepared. Along the way, there are 3 very beautiful towns. Hemley was one I recollect. Its quite picturesque. We did not take any lunch break until we arrived at Tory which is a small town at the entrance of Capitol Reef. We had booked the only available hotel there which is Days Inn. After checking in and having a couple of sandwiches from the only Subway in town, we headed inside to see the Capitol Reef National Park. Unlike any other park, this one does not have any entry charge or even a formal entrance and we did'nt quite realize when we had already entered the park. The rock formation along the hills on both sides were indeed Reef like. There were hardly any tourists there. We stopped at the Sunset point and waited for the sun set to snap a few pictures and then headed back outside to our hotel for the night halt. Having warned by the Hotel reception that the only food place in town - a little pizza place, shuts down by 8 pm, we had stocked up on veg. Lasagna as our dinner. However, we were so tired by 9 pm that we ate a little and slept off peacefully.


Day 4: As had become customary, we woke up early and after a simple breakfast, bade good by to Days Inn and drove thru Capitol Reef Park towards Arches National Park. Journey is long and the landscape is fairly rocky & barren. We were heading to Moeb, a large town about 5 miles south of the entrance of Arches National Park. We reached Moeb around 1 pm. Since we had a choice of restaurants, we decided to indulge in Mexican food and thanks to Google Maps, found a great place. It was very good - as good as what you get in some larger west coast cities in California. Then we decided to utilize the 2-3 hours of sunlight that we had for viewing the Arches National Park sights. This place was relatively very busy - there were over 50 cars ahead of us as we entered the park. The length of the park is about 18 miles but there are places along the way to park and venture in land. Unless one does that, you can not view even a single Arch. Arches national park has over 2000 arches - the count is what has been discovered until now. The biggest Arch is Landscape Arch. To view it, you have to take a 1.5 miles trail inland. We positioned ourselves prepared to shoot some pictures of the spectacular Sunset during which the fading light, colors the Arches and rocks in a very beautiful way.  After viewing the sunset, we headed back to our Hotel called the Big Horn Lodge, almost entirely made of Wood. The town also offered a micro brewery - so we decided to pay it a visit. It turned out to be a very lively place - bustling with locals and tourists. It also offered some good vegetarian choice of menu so we decided to have our dinner there. By the time we had eaten, we felt very sleepy - so we headed to our real cosy Hotel room and went off to sleep.

Day 5: We knew we had a long (478 miles) drive ahead of us back to Las vegas. So we had good breakfast and got on I-70W which is a 2 lane Interstate and where speed limit is 80. With the cruise control facility offered by the vehicle, driving was easy and less tiring. We managed to make it to our Las vegas hotel by 3 pm. First thing was we returned our rental vehicle since our flight was early morning. We had the entire evening too ourselves which we decided to use for seeing some good Shows offered by Las Vegas hotels. MGM grand was a place I was familiar with and so with out much beating around the bush, we decided to see the Magic show by David Copperfield at MGM. We also did the traditional trying of our luck at the slot machines. The luck was on casino's side. The show was good. Special effects and technology was simply amazing. We had some nice dinner and retired for the night.

Day 6: We took the early morning American non stop to new york flight and were headed to our temporary US home  in Manhattan.  We had covered 1200 miles in 5 days. What started as an idea a month ago when we were discussing where to go, had materialized and had become memory. A lot of help came from some great advice that I got on Tripadvisor and of course the GoogleMaps was the best buddy thru out the driving.

Great Place Utah!! Hope we can visit more parks in the region soon.

Some Travel Tips:

Make sure you are in a reliable and comfortable vehicle because you will be traversing a lot of empty stretches of road and there is no one visible for miles around. Also,make sure your gas tank is topped up.

If you are visiting in summer, please do carry a portable cooler (Thermocole one that you get at any grocery store for under $20 is good enough) and load it with ice bags and water, juices etc.

Be flexible about food or carry your own as most small villages where you will halt overnight dont exactly offer a menu spread. You can always purchase food from Trading posts which can be microwaved and consumed.

Carry a good Camera !!


Safe Travels!

Switzerland-Paris -2015 trip

For many years,  I  had this very scenic country known as Switzerland on my must visit - must see list.

So, when my better half and I were discussing possible places to visit this summer and she suggested  Switzerland, our decision was made. What followed was a a very memorable trip that I have chronicled in this blog.   My motivation for writing this blog are simple:
1) It will be an external memory aid to us to enable us to review and re-live the trip. It will also help us better respond to questions from friends and well wishers on how was the trip, what did you see etc.
2) for those who are planning a Swiss vacation, they may be able to derive some tips.

Disclaimer: I don't claim to be a writer neither I am paid to endorse any brand of hotel or restaurant and neither am I a brand Ambassador for any city or country .. if you still insist on reading this blog, then please do so at your own risk of being terribly bored. I think its only fair to let you know.:-)

May 5 thru May 9, 2015

Day 1:

We took a JET Airways flight to Zurich via Paris. The Paris -Zurich flight was code share with Air France and put us in Zurich at 10:15 pm. That night we had planned to stay near by Airport and found a reasonable Holiday Inn express at Rumlang about 4 miles away.

Day 2: Zurich & Lauterbrunnen

Train network in Switzerland is quite extensive and run by SBS. A short distance from our Hotel was the Rumlang train station and we took a local train to Zurich HB which is the main Zurich station. We had to lug our luggage ourselves for about 10 minutes walk to the station and then at the station up a flight of stairs. So, will strongly recommend anyone wanting to use public transport to move about, that please carry a backpack and a roller preferably 22 inch carry on types.

Like many other large stations in Switzerland, Zurich HB offers a reasonably priced luggage storage at Euro 10 per piece for the entire day. We used that facility to store our luggage and headed to the nearest Tourist information center which was close by the station. They guided us to take a 2 hour Zurich City tour via a trolley which offers an excellent introduction to the main attractions in the city.

The Old City is very lovely with cobbled streets, many of them pedestrian only!! Along side the main street is the river Limmat that originated at Lake Zurich and flows in north westerly direction. It add a distinct charm to the city. Lots of very historic buildings, churches and clock towers. Refer the pictures alongside.

The helpful lady at the SBS office at Zuroch HB also suggested that we purchase a 3 day Swiss Rail Pass that is valid on all trains, Cable cars except at Jungfrau train for which this pass offers a 25% discount. Apart from  the cost savings, the pass also saves you a lot of time and hassle in purchasing tickets at the station.  We headed out to our destination for the next two days - Lauterbrunnen gate way to the  high up Jungfraujoch in the Alps. To reach there, we had to change trains twice first the ICE (Inter City Epress) from Zurich to Bern and then in 6 minutes to IC (Inter City) from Bern to Interlaken and then in 8 minutes to Regional rail from Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen.  Again lugging the bags down and up the stairs and ensuring that we made the connecting train was a real challenge which we were thankfully able to meet.

Lauterbrunnen is a village which is located at an altitude of 800 meters in the Alpine valley. It is a narrow cleft with steep mountain walls  rising on both sides. There is a lot of vegetation and being spring time, we were lucky to see some tulips too.

As the name suggests it is place to a number of waterfalls amongst them the Staubbach falls which drops over 800 to 900 feet and is considered one Europe's highest unbroken falls.

Trummelbach falls which are ten glacier waterfalls inside the mountain. It alone drains the melt from glaciers like Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau.

We stayed at Hotel Jungfrau which is a cosy little place. We found this to be very conveniently located from the train station although the road on the way to the hotel is at a slight incline and having to pull the bags up the incline takes some doing.. Another reason we thanked our good sense of packing light and using a backpack and roller suitcase each.

We had  a good dinner at the hotel restaurant itself and with plans made to visit Jungfraujoch, went to bed early to be able to wake up early and catch the morning train up hill to Jungfraujoch.

Day 3: Jungfraujoch & Trummelbach falls.

Although we had Swiss Rail passes, we still had to purchase the round trip train tickets for Jungfraujoch train and caught a 8:30 am train which would take us up to 11,333 feet  Jungfraujoch station. This is the highest train station in Europe. It takes about 2 hours to reach up to almost  4000 meters. Along the way, the train makes a few stops the first being at a very scenic village of Wengen.

Jungfraujoch tour is an interesting one. Its usually very chilly and windy outdoors. Inside the building there are multiple floors and at the top is the Sphinx observatory. We spent about 2 hours and took the afternoon train down to Lauterbrunnen. The view from the top is very breath taking. Luckily the weather cooperated and we had clear visibility of several peaks in the Bernes Alps region.

Once at Lauterbrunnen station, we quickly found that there is a bus that can take us to the Trummelbach falls and got on it. Trummelbach falls are waterfalls that drain from inside a mountain. To access those, there are steps that we had to climb. the place is provided with artificial illumination. The awesome volume and roar of  water that you see & hear at close quarters leaves you dumb struck. It was some thing that we had never imagined. Later we read that the falls drain more than 20,000 liters of water per second. This is all the melt from the glaciers like Eiger, Jungfrau and Monch. Since there were hardly any other people around, it was only us and the falls and we witnessing it in dim yellow light standing barely a few feet away from the falling water....All I can say is this is absolutely must see manifestation of the intensity, power and vastness of nature.

There after we again boarded the same bus which took us a little further to the base of the mountain from where one can board the Cable Car to Murren and much more.. We took the cable car which almosts ascends vertically up the face of the mountain. We sat at a lovely cafe enjoying food and the scenic view from the top and were even treated to a few colorful para gliders that were gracefully gliding down to the valley below.

Day 4: Off to Lausanne

We had a leisurely breakfast, checked out of the hotel and again lugged our bags to the train station on our way to Lausanne. It turned out that we had to go thru 2 train changes to get there but by now we were used to 6 minute transfers between trains running with our luggage in tow. Some how the body had adopted and we got on just fine.

Lausanne is the 4th largest city in Switzerland, It sits on the shores of a lake that extends all the way to Geneva where it is known as Lake Geneva. There are alps for backdrop and these are French Alps. We walked thru the town which involves a lot of uphill walk as well. Ouchy is the port and is about 15 minutes walk south from Lausanne station. We had selected a Hotel close by to the station called Hotel Victoria Eco which turned out to be a very spacious and comfortable place. There are two metro lines running thru Lausanne; one runs East West and other North South. As a resident of the Hotel in Lausanne, you get free tickets to travel. The Hotel gives you those tickets.

Lausanne is also the seat of International Olympics Committee (IOC). There is an Olympics museum that chronicles all data of all olympics. It is located in Ouchy.  We only saw that from outside as we were late getting there and the museum closes at 6 pm.  That evening was a early dinner and early hitting the bed since we  had a 3.5 half hour travel to Paris coming  next morning.

PARIS: May 9 thru May 14

Paris - the city  that evokes abundance of History, art, culture, food and fashion. That would be our home for the next 5 days from May 9 thru 14 of 2015.  The 3.5 hour high speed and I mean really high - 310+ km/hour speed that brought us from Lausanne to Paris. We reached Gare de Lyon station a little before 4 pm on May 9th, got into the Taxi and headed to this small cosy apartment in the Latin Quartiers region of Paris.

In a short time of 15 minutes we were in front of our building and our host was awaited. He, Alexander, turned up around 4:40 and we went to the Apartment on the second floor of the building and set that as our base for the next 5 days. A lot of internet research had led me to the conclusion that for Paris visit, staying like a local Parisien will enrich our experience even further. That proved to be the case indeed. Just for information, I will recommend creating an AIRBNB profile and then searching that site for apartments that suit your budget and location. I located this one thru Airbnb and am happy that I did!! 

The apartment was very conveniently located near by a METRO and RER station. In Paris the Metro network runs underground and each route is identified by a number running from 1 thru 14. RER on the other hand  runs on the surface and travels much longer distances. Tickets are valid on both. You can buy 10 tickets which sell slightly cheaper or a 1, 3 or 5 day pass. We purchased a 3 day pass.

The first priority was to visit the near by grocery store and stock up on bare necessities like cereals, milk, bread  or should I say Baguette...There after, we stepped out for a leisurely walk exploring the vicinity and headed along the banks of River Seine towards Notre Dame Cathedral. Before that we visited a couple of natural islands. These are  premium addresses in Paris. Since it was a great sunny afternoon, all street side bistros and cafes were buzzing with people. The mood was very vibrant and every one  seemed to be really enjoying themselves. Being early days of summer the daylight extends up to 9:30 pm so more time to have fun.. People seem to be making up for the lost daylight hours during the 4-5 months of blistery winter weather.

We had heaps of laundry to take care of and our apartment offered that facility which we used very happily and once more our wardrobe was renewed in anticipation of the next 5 days in Paris.

Day 2: It was Sunday and we noticed a lot of rush for viewing Eiffel tower and museums in Paris. So we replanned and decided to visit the Palace at Versailles, which is about 45 minute travel on RER C line south east of Paris. However, once we reached there, we noticed large groups of Tourists there.

None the less, we were able to get a priority access tickets and headed out to the Palace and gardens. 

A practical tip:  The Palace grounds are huge and so is the garden. Its important to estimate your own walking stamina and plan accordingly. There are self drive electric buggies very similar to the golf carts that you can sign up for or a road train.

King Louis the XIV and Marie Antoinette lived here. The place is very tastefully decorated and the halls and other chambers are highly opulent. The gardens with its dancing fountains are a real treat to watch.

Versailles is also known for the famous 3 Treaty of Versailles that was signed after World War 1 end. The Palace was chosen for this since the number of people expected to attend was very large. The Hall of Mirrors was able to hold the large number of leaders who came from Germany, England and France.

The Day 2 sight seeing ended  at around 7 pm. Our feet were hurting real bad.. we had walked a lot and were constantly on our feet since afternoon., came Tired and hungry we dragged our selves home and managed to grab a bite somewhere along the way and crashed in our beds.

Day 3: We had booked a TGV (high speed train) to REIMS.  The TGV speeds exceed 300 km/hr. This is in the Champagne-Ardenne region and is famous for its Champagne houses most of whom offer the tour and tasting. We found that Tattinger offered tour that suited our schedule and taking the city bus arrived at the Taittinger facilities. They offer a hour tour taking you down the stairs almost 20 meters and walking thru a labyrinth of  tunnels where hundreds of thousands of bottles are stored - Some still ageing and some ready to ship. The whole process of how this world class bubbly is created is laid out in front of us in the tour. At the end of the tour is tasting time and you sample some exclusive bubbly.

We got back on TGV and returned to Paris by 600 pm and headed straight to Eiffel Tower. There was small line and we easily purchased tickets and got into a large Sky
lift that rapidly ascended to Level 1 where we halted briefly. we went up to Level 2 and then right to the Top which is at 300 meters and once considered the tallest structure until Empire state building came along.  It was commissioned in 1889 and named after the engineer whose company built it. It is an icon of France now.. Strangely, this was supposed to be temporary structure created as part of the contest whose rules specified that the structure should be easy to demolish at the end of its lease period of 20 years when it would revert to City of Paris. However, it continued to remain due to its value in communications and rest as they say is history.

After a bird's eye view of Paris, we decided to take a cruise on River Seine and got onto the top deck of the boat that cruised towards the west where magnificent historical buildings along both sides of the river were pointed out. While returning to Eiffel tower, it had become dark and we got to see the tower golden in color because of the  illumination. It looks like a flame shooting up all the way into the night sky. What a sight?

That was pretty long and interesting Day 3 and by the time we came back home, we were very tired and worn out but very happy to have savored some select champagne, been on the Eiffel tower and watched the transformation of the tower from silver to gold in the illumination.

Day 4:

We decided to take the city bus and head to Musee de Louvre or Louvre Museum. We alighted at Palace Royale Louvre stop and stopped to peruse some souvenirs. During a casual question asking for direction to the museum, the shop owner told us that all Museums in the area are closed on Tuesdays. So much for our planning!! However, we decided not to let this set us back but look at what we can do extempore. We were on Rue De Revoli which is like New York's Fifth Avenue sporting famous brand name stores along its entire stretch. We also were close to the Tourism office and thats where we headed. At the Tourist office, we booked tickets for the LIDO show that evening at 9 pm, got 2 day tickets for the Hop on- Hop Off bus and also next day's Louvre museum tickets. 

Then we got onto the Hop on - Hop off bus which eventually brought us infront of Musee dOrsey. I had read that this museum has the famous Monet painting 'Water Lilly' and we hopped off the bus there and headed into the museum. We were lucky to make it in time for the Guided Tour and for next 1.5 hours, we heard a lot of Impressionist and post impressionist and Academic painters and their styles, differences and which painter falls in which category etc. Some much needed education on appreciating art.. We saw many Monet, Manet and Picasso paintings. After a quick trip back home, a shower and dressing up - yes, LIDO expects you to be in in Business casuals - meaning no teeshirts, shorts or tennis shoes. 

LIDO is an experience.  The theatre has been running shows since 1929. It is located on Champs De Elysees, that famous avenue which has the Arc de Triomphe at one end of the avenue.

The show uses a lot of technology, props, costumes. The dances are so well choreographed. The Opera singer who hits all the right high notes and the lights dazzle you. They serve you champagne which is anyways is part of your admission ticket. via The show ends and we head home via the Metro which is right outside the LIDO theatre. Worth seeing and experiencing this!!

Day 5: Today is the Day for Louvre Museum visit. We land up at the museum at noon and our tour is guided by the Map that we picked up at the entrance of the museum. There are 3 levels housing  3 different wing. Each wing is on all the three levels - so if you want to see this Wing by wing, then there is considerable climbing up and down the stairs. We chose to see all three wings in each level.  Denon wing on level 1 is where we start since thats where Mona Lisa is!! As we get thru various sections, we are impressed with the sheer size of Louvre collection. A cursory visit to each section, will easily take about 2.5 hours. It took us about 3 hours and then some for lunch and some occasional rest for feet breaks. 

That was pretty much the last of the tours that we took. We then decided to spend our remaining time  walking around the Latin Quartiers and old city area, sipping coffee watching the city go by and soaking in the ambience &  vibrancy.

Day 6: We leave our apartment and take a WECAB to Rossie Charles De Gaulle airport. I will recommend this cab. It can be booked via phone or online and because it offers a fixed fare paid by you in advance using your credit card, you are always assured of what you will spend. Incidentally, this cab also works out about 20-25% cheaper compared to regular cab since it shares the ride with up to 2 more people.

We boarded our JET nonstop flight to Mumbai on 14th afternoon and got back home by 10 am next morning.

A total of 10 days (Switzerland and Paris) of trip and some very memorable sights that we will treasure. 

Some Tips on Food etc.

We are vegetarians and you would wonder what would these people get to eat. Let me share the variety that we savoured: Great Salads with choicest Cheeses, Soups, Couscous based Moroccan food with delightful hot Vegetarian Stew, Italian food, Greek food, falafel and of course plenty of Chinese and allegedly Indien restaurants. Baguette, Croissant, pastries, French Fries and macaroons offer a easy and delicious snack - of course with all the walking, we could calorically afford to indulge in these.

Language is not a barrier if you are willing to learn a few words of French. Any visitor guide will give you the needed vocabulary. French people love politeness and its a good custom to start any conversation with Bon Jour and use S'il vous Plait liberally. Google Translate is your best buddy.

Travel light and carry what you can lift by stairs for at least a couple of floors.  Elevators are not as common in most apartments or even hotels.

Most places accept Debit or credit cards..so no need to carry lots of cash. Keeps you worry free!!

Safe Travels!!