Visiting friends on a busy sightseeing trip.. a welcome break

Given that I have come back from Asia and had two more sick days (this is starting to sound like a broken record now) the long weekend is a welcome break. Staying at home, trying to do yoga, recovering nicely. 

That means every now and then I get to take a break from work and continue to post about the Europe trip that seems to have happened a long long time ago.. Going down memory lane to retrieve what happened is a good and happy exercise.

The previous post on the series is here..

On day 7 of the trip we went from Interlaken to Paris, but with a 5 hour stop at Basel in Switzerland to meet Boo and family!

Everytime we met she has been saying "if you come to Europe, you better visit!" and we always said "yes" and finally we made it to Europe and to Boo's!

We had a great time. I learned that Arugula can be put in Sambar and given my allergy history and I have never had Arugula before, ate it tentatively. It was tasty and my body did not react to it. So ended up eating a lot of it! 

Then we went on a tour of Basel with Boo doing the tour. She impressed us with her conversational German and we witnessed a lot more of Swiss hospitality while walking on the streets. Swiss seem to be a happy people in general!

Walked across the river to some historic buildings, had ice cream, macaroons and walked back just in time to get packing and to the main train station. Also learned that there was a thing called Bubble waffle! 

I got a great shot while we were on the bridge of the entire group. Placed the 5D on a statue on the bridge and everyone thought it was a bad idea. To top things off, just when we were all about to say "cheese" to the self timer, a tram went behind us at full speed. Was expecting the photo to be a wash.. turned out that the fast moving tram in the background gives us a crisp focus! learnt something that day!

Downtown Basel was quaint and cute.

Saw a beautiful park right next to the parking lot and the kids got to play there for 10-15 minutes.. and we were on our way!

We had a scare just before leaving their house when we saw in the news that all trains to Paris were cancelled because of a strike. Apparently Parisians are famous for striking at the drop of a hat. 

There was a package tour to the Palace of Versailles the next morning and it was imperative we made it to our Paris Air B&B that night. We planned some best and worst case scenarios and decided it was best to go to the train station and take it from there.

We went there to see the big display board flash on time for 19 trains and "cancelled" in red for the one train we were supposed to be on! Mr. Boo told us that we should go and ask the ticket rescheduling folks for options or refunds. There we were told that if we ran to a gate in 5 minutes, there was a trail to Mulhouse ville and from there trains to Paris were still running.. (that place was on the France side of the border). We ran, said bye and were on that train. There was one conductor who spoke English and was very nice. He told us that unfortunately that train was also cancelled.. but if we kept going on the same train to the last stop, there was another train from Stassbaugh (I forget the name) from which a train was still leaving for Paris!

Given we were screwed one way or another and with the tought of having to find accomodation last minute in a place we weren't planning on visiting, we said "okay, it is our turn to have another adventure". So we keep going on the same train.

Finally we got off and found that after 40 minutes there was indeed an almost empty train that was going to Paris. We made it to Paris while watching a glorious sunset across the fields from a high speed train.

We got off at Paris Est station and checked Google maps. The original train was to stop at Gare Du Nord station. Turned out our Air B&B was one street away from this Paris Est station and we kind of made up most of the hour we lost in going through extra trains!

A video that captures Day 7 of the trip!

The Air B&B was nothing like what the website promised. The whole two room place was incredibly small. The restroom including the shower was smaller than the bathroom on an United economy cabin. They must have used some really good fish eye lens to post those pictures of the place for the website. There was a bright side though. There was an amazing balcony as we were in the top floor and you could see up and down Rue de Magenta. 

It took us just an hour to get used to the confines of the apartment. Once we got used to it, the coziness grew on us. We were not exactly tired. We were all excited. It had been a good day.. smiles all around, some excitement, running across train platforms, walking through Parisian pavements in a line dragging our suitcases and finding that the place was alive and kicking at 11PM. 

The next day was going to be interesting.. Driver was supposed to pick us up bright and early outside our Air B&B to take us to Versailles! 

Reduced expectations are a good idea

Of all the days in the Europe trip (last post on series is here..) we had the most fun on Day 6. We left Zurich in the morning by bus (different tour guide this time but same Viator tours) and reached Interlaken. The views on the way were amazing, but it was raining non stop. 

After our adventure the previous evening at Mt. Titlis, we decided to not make a last minute option change to add 500+ bucks per person to go to The top of Europe .. aka JungFrau. We also had accomodation at Interlaken for the night. So we would not be returning to Zurich. So we said our byes to Zurich, tried to co-ordinate things with the guide, explained the situation and were on our way. The lakes were blue and clear and the reflections were beautiful. We had a restroom stop at Interlaken. It was interesting. Most folks had only Euro coins on them. To enter the restroom was 1 swiss frank. Most of the people were elderly and were desperate to get to the restroom. Some good samaritans stepped in and made sure that folks were able to get in. The whole thing was ridiculous. Finally after a lot of stress from a collective crowd the bus was boarded again and we were on our way to Grindelwald. 

Grindelwald is like the base for the train that goes up to the Top of Europe, but there are plenty of activities at this place. It is like a sports park of sorts with lot of mountain related adventure training places. One thing I always wanted to do here was go on a sled ride on the edge of the mountain after seeing some pictures of this posted by my friend Jessica a year ago. 

Many of us in the group were not going to JungFrau. So we were given a return ticket by train to Interlaken. We were to meet the bus at Interlaken... everyone else to go back to Zurich while we pick up our luggage from bus and leave the group. It was a good deal.

We were amazed by the scenery at Grindelwald, a river that cuts through the village, a gondola to go up another 3000 feet to the sled ride place, a restaurant at the top with a view to the Glacier and mountains, flower lined roads, cute houses.. it was like being in a fairytale! 

The only downside was the rain and low visibility of the mountains. The sled ride was also closed (it is called Pfingsteggbahn). We still had lunch at the restaurant and the food was good! Then we let the kids play in a little zip line for kids and got back down. 

We wandered around the main street in Grindelwald and asked about things that were unique to the place we could enjoy in 2 hours. The lady at the gondola told us about the Rope park which was built into an ice skating rink. The kids and San saw the advertisement and really wanted to check it out and we did.

It was a series of rope walking, climbing sets, set 80 odd feet above the ground. They had to go through a training session for 30 minutes and did 2 of the 3 courses. As soon as they were done, we went to the train station, got some ice cream and boarded the train to Interlaken.

Think the worse swiss ice cream is better than the best US ice cream. Local stores in villages are selling ice cream that is bringing me back memories as I write this post! If there is one thing that might make we want to just stay in Grindelwald inspite of the weather, it is the quality of the ice cream. 

By the time we reached Interlaken rail station, it was pouring down. We had to walk in rain for almost 25 minutes to reach the bus stop luggage drop off and we were almost an hour early. The only restaurant close to this stop which had food we could eat was a Hooters! I am not a big fan of Hooters (have been to one in Minnesotta many years ago) but the hot chocolate and TV playing the soccer game vs. the pouring rain outside was a no contest. We sat there and kept ordering fries, onion rings, more hot cocoa and eventually walked out. 

It was like magic. The rain stopped. The clouds moved out. We got a beautiful view of the glacier right from the park area in Interlaken.

Then the bus showed up and we asked the folks who went to JungFrau how it went. They said they could not see anything in the bad weather and it was a wash. We were very proud of our decision to stay and have fun at Grindelwald and started walking towards our Air B&B in Interlaken.

Given all the stuff they had eaten, the kids decided to skip dinner. So San and me left them in the house and took another walk back to the park to take pictures.

We stopped at an amazing chocolate store called Laderach and spent time there.

We also saw an advertisement for the place ... apparently it was a bond movie shooting location.  

Took more pictures and Panos..

 

bought some Chai to go at an Indian restaurant (there were 4 within sight at one intersection!)  and walked back to join the kids. 

We had a great evening in Interlaken once the rain stopped. It was so pleasant and nice and the colors came out as did all the people. One minute the place is deserted and next minute it was festive! 

Slideshows of pictures from Interlaken and Grindelwald ...

If you go to Switzerland, stay at Interlaken. Make that the base. If we go back, we will do just that. 

Here is a video of the days trip..

The next day we walked 20 minutes with our suitcases to the main train station only to find the trains first stop was right outside our Air B&B in the 2nd little Interlaken train station! We did a facepalm and moved on. The kids would not stop talking about how we woke them early on the pretext of having to walk 25 mintues to the train station in the morning dragging our luggage only to cross the starting point. 

Hopefully they do better at traveling than we do when they get to this age.. 

To be continued.. 

To Shahrukhland and Kajolberg

This is a post on the Europe Trip day 5 afternoon. The previous post in the series that covered Lucerne is here..

After lunch in Lucerne, we were off to Engelberg. It was like a small town (maybe Village) on the base of Mount Titlis. A few people who could not climb high altitudes were dropped off by our guide to spend the afternoon there. The bus started climbing after that brief stop and we were treated to some amazing scenic views and we reached a parking lot of epic proportions. 

This was the gondola ride up the mountain. The Gondola takes you up to 10000 feet. Then there is a five story building with multiple restaurants where you get out of this ride. It is a rotating Gondola and that means amazing views of the mountains and everything below as we go up.

There were 8 people to a carriage and we were joined by another Desi family from Chicago and made pleasant conversation. They had grown up kids, with the youngest just finishing college and when we got out the guide promptly said "okay. We have fixed time here. There are many activities here. you can go through an ice canyon, go to an ice flyer to 13000 feet and then go for a walk on the edge of the ice. we will wait here. The last gondola down for you to make it to the bus on time is at 4:15 PM". 

Given how the traveling Narayanan family had done with such hectic schedules over the last 4 days, we accepted the challenge and walked to the ice flyer. On the way to the ice flyer, we saw a cutout that made Mt. Titlis a household name in India. 

I knew what had to be done. Gave the camera to our tourguide who was Swiss German and she goes "yes of course. you have to take a picture in front of Shah Rukh and Kajol!".. she said it so matter of factly as though they were local Swiss names. The world is full of wonders I thought and asked San to pose.. She was happy but for some reason, could not bring out the inner Kajol on time! Eventually for some strange reason she was doing that pose in front of the Hogwarts Express in UK and I was doing a facepalm! Where were we?! Yes.. Kajolberg..

We walked to the ice flyer. There were snow flurries falling pretty heavily... and then we had an adventure of a lifetime.. which is a post in itself. So we will skip the ice flyer for now and move on. 

We barely made it back to the five storied building again and were greeted by the sight of Pav Bhajis, rice, pickles, papad etc.  

While the family went for it, I grabbed a hot cocoa and while we were eating there was a realization that we were about to miss the ride down. So we scrambled and made our way back to the parking lot. Our guide was nice. She said "you can get some Chai and Samosas and other Indian snacks at a restaurant outside the ticket counter. We are still waiting on some folks.". So off we went and got Chai Samosa.

Life comes full circle I thought. Many years ago, we had Maggi noodles at ~10000 feet in the Himalayas at Manali and that was a Swiss company product. Now we were having Chai Samosa in Switzerland!

The panoramic view of the mountains from the parking lot was amazing..

Then the bus filled up and we were back on our way to Zurich and were treated to more scenic views.

The bus dropped us at 7PM. We went to a mexican place after going to our new Air B&B and dropping off the luggage. We had booked one walking distance from the bus terminus for the night. We went in at 7:20 and the waiter was nice enough to let us eat as long as we were out by 8 as it was a reservation only place. The food was amazing, the wall decor had some kind of masked wrestler photograph everywhere.. and were back in the Air B&B. On the way back we went to an Indian grocery store run by a Sri Lankan Tamil, saw a Sari Store, a bunch of Indian restaurants and realized we were in Little India in Zurich!

There was laundry to be done.. using a German washing machine in the basement that looked ancient and some precious sleep to be had before another all day adventure the next day. 

Here is a tip. Air B&B laundries are not reliable. After making multiple attempts to dry the clothes after washing, the thing promptly gave some fatal error. There was no one to help in that place at 11PM and I had to translate using google translate to find that it was a fatal error. 

While the family was sleeping, I hauled a bunch of semi wet clothes (practially half of our luggage) and put a cloth on every possible exposed surface in that Apartment. There were bras on the kitchen cabinet hooks, jattis on the TV.. think you get the picture.. I created surreal art and went to bed praying. Set an alarm for an hour earlier than we had planned. San woke up and I gave her the bad news.. 80% of the clothes had dried completely! 20% still needed some help. So we used the iron box and ironed out the moisture for an hour and were all set! 

Back to pictures and videos..

A video of most of the afternoons trip..

We were not coming back to this place the next night.. it was going to be another all day trip that ended in a different city!