Berlin – the capital. It is miles away from Stuttgart, but whats a visit to Germany without at least a peek at Berlin!

Though they say there never is a bad time to visit Berlin, we certainly did find one :) . It was raining quite bad and we had to shorten our visit to just over a day and a half, due to both bad weather and bad planning. Anyway what we saw was pretty good. We left in the early morning on a Toyota Avensis, a big but comfy car, and managed to avoid most of the early morning traffic somehow. We reached Berlin quite early in the morning and checked in to a youth hostel in the Eastern part of the city. We began our journey from the Prenzlauer Allee railway station. Our first destination was off course Alexanderplatz. It is a very nice open area, right in the middle of the city. Some attractions around were the Fernsehturm (the TV tower) and Marienkirche. We walked around the place and along the boulevard Unter dem Linden with a lot of beautiful buildings all around.

The end of a long walk lead us to a park (I forgot the name) with two huge statues of the founders of Communism – Karl Marx and Frederick Engels. Spending some time there we headed towards Bebelplatz. It was Christmas time and the place was lovely with a big Christmas market. We continued our walk through Friedrichstrasse and finally reached Checkpoint Charlie. The whole place spoke of a lot of history. This was the dividing line between East and West Berlin. It is well preserved for everyone to see, including the sandbags for the soldiers and signs warning that “You are about to enter the American Zone”. It is unbelievable that this city was divided between two countries just around 15 years ago.

Tired legs told us to take the train and we reached the most famous landmark in Berlin – The Brandenburger Tor. It is a magnificent piece of art, I must say and naturally it was time for the cameras to click! We then moved to the Reichstag – the German parliament. The sun was already fading and it was getting really cold, so we had to call it a day and went back to the comfort of our hostel.

Next day it started raining, so after a stroll through the not-so-spectacular park built by the Soviets (again my memory fails me to name it) we decided to leave Berlin. We then drove to the famous Magdeburg water bridge, we had seen only in email forwards. It was not so easy finding the place, but for once our navigation system was a great one and we did manage to reach the place, though not after getting misled several times, but I blame human error for this one :) The bridge is a great engineering marvel to say the least. Walking on it was a different experience altogether, fighting off the strong and cold gusts of wind, blowing from all directions. The town of Magdeburg was beautiful too and as Renu quipped, every street in town did have a story to tell.

Well the other highlight of the trip was off course the blitz through the autobahn on the Avensis! Another great trip despite the weather…

This was my second trip into Austria. Driving again and for the first time while it was snowing. The temperatures outside were really down the scale during our onward journey, reaching -8 to -10 at places. But salutes to German engineering, there was not one trace of snow on the Autobahns even the though the area around it was covered in a think white blanket of snow.

We started off from Plochingen in the evening and reached Vienna by midnight. We were hosted again by Sandeep’s cousin Soumya chechi (of Chicken Bonn fame ;)). It was tough finding her house because our navi was not working outside Germany and the signs in Vienna were poor even compared to Indian standards!

Next day morning, we drove to the Schloss Schonbrunn. The city roads of Vienna were not ice-free as the autobahns and handling the car on ice was a pretty scary experience in the traffic of Vienna! The schloss was quite good and I was impressed by the Princess ‘Sissi’ who once lived there – for once a European princess was actually beautiful :)

After a brief stay there, we drove towards the city center. There we walked around the quite charming city and somewhere in the city we found the desi ‘Cafe Coffee Day’! It cost us a lot, but the welcome we got was pretty cool. They even gave us a bag of coffee as we left. The place seems to be pretty popular in Vienna too.. way to go India! After the CCD experience, we went to a huge Christmas market right outside the ‘Rathaus’. The Christmas market had a brilliant atmosphere with the numerous stalls selling a variety of curios, hordes of people chirping away, children riding ponies, a live band playing and even a glimpse of the Vienna mayor! We ended our day with a visit to the parliament building which has some beautiful Greek sculptures adoring its front yard.

The next day was mostly spent at home cooking away. After another nice meal we bid farewell to Soumya chechi…

It was an odd time to visit this much hyped about place. It was already November and winter had already started showing up its head even up in Stuttgart. But we had 3 days to ourselves and with no other long breaks likely any time in the near future, we set out on a Thursday morning on an Audi A3.

Our first destination was Zürich. We crossed the border (not before revving up the Audi to 230 on the autobahns, off course) at Schaffhausen. The contrast with Germany was only gradual, the scenery did not change dramatically but the roads did – they had speed limits :) . Zürich was a pretty nice city, we intended it to be just a short stopover and walked a little bit on the city streets. The rest of the city we saw from the car. Nothing of note, except that I got a little scared when I found myself across the tram track with two trams heading towards me!

We headed towards Flüelen, a nice small town alongside a lake. The drive was just brilliant through the winding mountain roads alongside a lake. You know, after that I started thinking maybe speed limits in Switzerland is probably a good thing. You can see a lot more and take in the beauty and appreciate it much better. At Flüelen we parked alongside the lake and took a stroll. It was really beautiful. The mountains and lakes presented a view as if it was right out of a picture postcard. After a few hours we moved towards Luzern our halt for the night. We had difficulty finding the youth hostel, so we got to see a lot of the city in the car thanks to a very crappy navigation system (which I heard was manufactured by Bosch). Finally after we managed to reach the hostel, we did explore the city a little bit on foot in the night. The ‘flower bridge’ was really good, maybe even better if we had seen it during day. The whole city had a nice classical touch to it. Great!

Early morning on Friday we dragged our lazy selfs towards our nächster halt – Engelberg. Again located in a very rural part of Switzerland the drive was fun all the way, especially the long tunnels and Ginu driving for the first time in Europe ;) (just kidding, he did drive great for a first timer). Our navi enabled us to see some probably unexplored areas of Engelberg, including a nice wooden bridge across a small brook with no civilization around. It was a good experience. We finally reached our actual point of interest, the cable car station to Mt. Titlis. We were expecting high costs and bad weather, but it turned out to be just the opposite. We were going in off season, so prices were nearly half and you couldn’t really ask for better weather at this time of the year. What luck! Mt. Titlis was an amazing experience, first time really up close with so much snow. We had our fun, playing like little kids with the snow. Too bad we couldn’t take any souveniers (you see, snow melts). Needless to say, the view was breathtaking. And as customary, I did fall stepping on some hard and slippery ice, and that too while encouraging Renu to be not scared and keep going up a small snow slope. Well embarrassing, but I am getting used to it as the falls are now getting fairly regular :D .

Another thing I noticed about Mt. Titlis (and generally Switzerland), I saw a lot of boards in Hindi. I was a bit surprised at first, but seeing the number of Indians there, well… The Swiss people are really smart, they have made very good use of Bollywood! Indians seem to be flocking to every corner of this beautiful country. It doesn’t end there either.. we even got some delicious Samosas from a very European restaurant at a rather cheap (by swiss standards) price!

Our stopover for the night was Grindelwald. I feel like I am repeating this too often (ah! guess who works for Bosch navigation systems.. hehe.. Anu.. no offense :D) but the navi, this time both the machine and the human variant (Sandeep) led us to a different hostel up a very scary hill only to find out that it is closed from October! I switched to a slight panic mode, but soon we realized that it was *not* the youth hostel we were supposed to reach! Hmmph.. what a relief! The youth hostel at Grindelwald was a good one – the Downtown Lodge – I would recommend this if you are on a visit. The city (or rather village) was a sleepy little place with a nice park (meant for children I think, but who cared, we all played! :D ).

We had planned to go to a place called Trümmelbach the next day, but unfortunately it was closed. We had Plan B, Plan C and Plan D and we kind of switched back and forth between which plan to actually take since we were always on an ‘unknown road’ according to the navi. Finally we decided to go to Geneva. We didn’t have much time to see a lot of the city because we had to reach Stuttgart by nightfall. But we did manage to catch quite a good glimpse of it and driving on the streets of Geneva was almost comparable to driving in a less trafficy city in India. I had a lot of good fun.. I could hear cars honk! Where else in Europe!! Felt so much at home <evil grin>.

By midnight, after a splash and dash on the autobahns again, we were back in Stuttgart. It was a great trip, probably a great time to visit Switzerland if our experience is anything to go by. It was incredibly cheap, cost us one-fourth of what it cost most of our friends who went in summer. But luck has to be on your side, we were blessed with brilliant weather… Whatever it is, do visit Switzerland sometime, unlike a lot of other things, it lives up to the hype… :)

1 This was the first time (also the last till date ;) ) I had the chance to travel in Germany’s fastest (and potentially the fastest in the world according to my German collegues atleast) train – the InterCity Express or simply the ‘ICE’. It was a good experience, that much speed on land was new (though not any more). The interior decos were interesting too, I especially loved the bord-bistro, though I chose not to dine since prices weren’t too catchy for my pocket :)

Once in Hildesheim, I was treated to some great Indian food prepared by the one and only Anu, and surprise surprise I got an early birthday party complete with a cake, candles reminding me I’m turning old (grunt!) and even a few Germans ;). It was a major surprise for me and I loved it! After the mini birthday party we went for a fair in closeby Hannover. We were a very unique gang that day, friends representing 4 countries – India, Germany, Turkey and Romania.. truly international. Everybody was discussing our (the Indians’) age and how we can be so young and working.. hehe.. and I thought I was growing old.. That was a relief! It was great fun and we spend a lot of time chit chatting in the banks of Mach see, having been denied access to the ‘Pepermint dome’ because our clothing was too informal. Boo!

2 I had told Anu that next time I will come driving and she was like no way that is possible. Well it was possible and it was done :) This time we had the full troupe for the trip and not just me. Ginu, Renu, Sandeep and I, geared up from in front of Bosch Plochingen on a Friday evening at around 1630hrs for the stated 5 hour drive to Hildesheim. 1.5 hrs of the stated 5 hrs was lost in the traffic of Stuttgart. It was a tense but good experience for me, since I had not driven much ‘on the wrong side’ in the cities of Germany. Anyway the stated 5hrs extended to nearly 8 and we finally managed to reach Hildesheim by midnight after also getting my first speeding ticket ;) It was a long drive, but with undampened spirits we held on till around 3 am in the morning watching some great Mallu comedy clips :)

The highlight of Saturday was a trip to an amusement park – Heide park – in a small town called Soltau some 100 km away from Hildesheim. The rides were brilliant and the best thing was since it was during off-season we did not have to endure the long queues we had to wait in while we had gone to Europa park. There were some great rides I would recommend any day, especially the biggest wooden frame roller coaster in the world. By night fall we were back, but this time there wasn’t enough energy left for the marathon all night film screenings and so we all had a nice good sleep. Sunday was spend experiencing Ms. Ann Mary Philip’s cooking. We were all good food testers I believe and the quality of food meant that we were all filled up by the time it was time to leave. We also made a short visit to the Hildesheim church and spend a few minutes in the serenity of the cathedral.

3 Two weeks later and we were back. Again in the car, with more drivers, with more experience and no speeding ticket this time, but anyhow managed to get a parking ticket – punishment for a slight lapse of memory :( Saturday we went again to Hannover. Mach see was so different this time, I couldn’t count more than 5 people in the whole area. Last time I was there, there was no place to even turn around without bumping on to some one. Anyway we spend some more time there and was back at home by evening. Mach see seems to have some uncanny relationship with birthday surprises. Since even this time there was not one, but two surprise parties – one for our hostess Anu and one for Renu, each being planned by one another and we three being the common factor. We pulled it off fine and I think they were not acting surprised ;) That was good too. Two more surprises well done in Hildesheim.

The highlight of the trip was yet to come. And that would be a surprise even for you, my good friend – Kappa (tappiocca) and beef fry – Kerala style in Germany! Wow.. that was the tastiest food I have had in ages. Serious and I am not writing this because I know Anu will read this sooner or later ;) but it indeed was… incredible!

Three incredible weekends in the quiet sleepy town of Hildesheim. All credits to Frau. Philip aka Anu for making it all so unforgettable. This post is dedicated to you, Anu.. :)

No one can come back from Europe without visiting the city of Light can they? It was October and probably not the best time to visit, but this was probably our only chance so our gang of 8 packed off in a Eurolines bus from Stuttgart late night on a Friday. We reached Paris on Saturday morning and equipped with a Paris Visite card we set off exploring…

Our first stop was the Louvre Musuem. I am not exactly a museum guy, but this one I enjoyed. I got to see Mona Lisa in all her glory and roamed around some of the locations immortalized by the Da Vinci Code. After spending about two hours looking through some magnificent works of art we left the Louvre and walked along the Seine river, through Pont Neuf bridge via Place Dauphine, Sainte-Chapelle and finally reaching Cathedrale Notre-Dame.

The Notre-Dame was just an amazing piece of architechture and truly lived up to its fame. The insides of the cathedral was incredible and very serene, true to a place of worship, though the buzz of tourists was a little absurd at times. Our next destination was Place de la Concorde. It is a huge traffic hub built in 1757. There stood an Egyptian obelisk claimed to be the oldest object made by humans surviving in Paris. Ahead of us lay the Champs-Elysées the most famous avenue in Paris. We walked ahead for 3 km to reach the Arc de Triomphe. It was very nice to look at and part of one of the many famous symbols of Paris. We decided against going up the arch though.

Next destination was the most famous of them all – The Eiffel Tower. We had to stand in a long queue to catch the elevator that takes us up, but it was well worth the wait. We reached on top at the best possible time and were treated to glory of Paris in daylight, sunset and darkness. It was an incredible feeling and a magestic vista. The chilling wind was nearly unbearable but we just couldn’t make ourselves leave the place. It is truly one experience you should not miss.

After this we had to get to our hotel at a Parisian suburb called Cergy. But unfortunately the sub-urban trains where on strike and we had to take some difficult alternate routes, but finally we made it. The hotel was just ok but the breakfast was wonderful!

Because we had gone to most of the important places the previous day, we could go out on a more relaxed pace on Sunday. We explored a bit of the Ile St-Louis. I didn’t find it particularly attractive except for a nice leisurely walk which fitted in perfectly because we had a lot of time. We then visited the Hotel des Invalides, where Napoleon rests, nothing special again, and left towards Abbesses.

At Abbesses we ate lunch at an Indian restaurant, which was a mistake I thought. We explored a bit of the streets and alleys of Abbesses before heading towards Basilique du Sacré-Coeur. The basilica was also another example of fine architecture. It looked grand against the blue skies of Paris and provided a great view of the other side of the town. Also a nice place to frame the Eiffel tower if you have a camera with a good zoom (I boast of one ;) ). We again had plenty of time and relaxed on the steps towards the cathedral, pondering about the 2 days in Paris.

Paris on the whole is a very enchanting city with lot of things to offer. It may not be my most favourite place but it is indeed close. Glad to be able to tick mark one more place off my checklist of things to do before I die :D

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