Chamonix

We left Paris on the morning of the 24th, at about 10:00. We had some trouble getting out of the city, but magically found our way to the route we had printed from GoogleMaps. Just as we were about to get onto the autoroute, we missed a turn. If there's one thing I like about Indian highways, it's that you can easily turn around. We took the first exit that we could and tried to find our bearings. We asked for directions at a gas station. The cashier told us that if we went "straight away, straight away", we'd get to the highway.

This, however, turned out to be a long drawn route. We managed to reach Chamonix only at about 3:00 p.m., when we should have been there by 2:00. On the way, we went through quite a few tunnels that had been dug through the mountains. Every time we exited a tunnel, the view got better and better. As usual, once we got into the town/city, we had trouble finding the apartment. To top it all, it was raining. A kind teenage boy who seemed to have come to the town library told us in broken English to follow him and his mother to the place were we were heading, Chalet Beaumont.

The Chalet was beautiful. Breathtaking view of snow capped peaks all around, and a bird's eye view of the town below. The only minus was the fact that the wireless connection was horrible, but hey! I can live with that!

We did nothing productive that day. My parents went to town to buy us supplies (milk, curd, etcetera). The chocolate croissants were fabulous, as was the bottled chocolate milk. Rich is the only word to describe it.

I did nothing the whole day, except read a book called Velocity by Dean Koontz. I had actually commenced reading the book in December 2005, but stopped because I wasn't studying for my prelims :D. Full responsible and all!

We planned an early start the next day. However, we set out only after a hearty lunch of MTR Ready to Eat stuff. We were heading for Aguille du Midi, the peak accessible by cable car. We drove down to the Aguille du Midi Cable Car parking lot and parked the car. Surprisingly, there were no boards pointing us to the Cable Car "station". My dad and I saw some kind of lift nearby. On closer inspection, it turned out to be a construction crane.

A little more exploration got us to the station. Sadly, the car wasn't making trips up to the peak because of stormy weather. After a mild drizzle, the ticket counter opened again. The trip to the peak was very exciting, especially when we changed cable lines while ascending.

Words wouldn't do justice to the view from the top. In a lot of places, all we could see was white. It seemed so clean, so pure. The cold was biting my fingers though. I was unable to throw snowballs on everyone without wearing gloves.

There was also a beautiful ice cave at the peak, where i nearly took a nasty tumble. Slippery as cartoony banana peels, it was!

We also witnessed something very nice at the peak. A gentleman from Guatemala proposed to his girlfriend of 4 (I think) years. He'd apparently bought the ring at Houston, Texas a year ago, but hadn't mustered up the courage to pop the question. It was nice to see them so happy, sipping the champagne that he'd brought with him to celebrate.

The ride down wasn't as scary as I imagined it would be. There is a change of cable cars half way through, at which point there is a neat system intact to ensure that everyone who's gone up has come down too.

We did some shopping after we came down. Shopping is not my favourite hobby, but I tagged along anyway. I enjoyed marvelling at how just crossing a border lets you see a completely different style of architecture.

The next day, we took a train ride to another peak whose name I can't remember. Stayed there for half an hour, took in the view, came back, and did some more shopping. We walked into a shop because we saw a giant packet of Toblerone, but came out in twenty seconds because the shop stank so much. This place specialised in old, spoilt, "collector's edition" breads. Blech!

We returned to the Chalet soon. I finished my book while my parents and my sister packed up... we were to leave to Luxembourg the next day.

A rather bland blog entry, I know, but I'm writing this for the sole purpose of maintaining a journal of what happened in the trip, so I'm able to relive the memories when I can't walk without a stick.

Photos on http://picasaweb.google.com/sidzoo/Chamonix

Sid.

Luxembourg

We made excellent time from Chamonix to Luxembourg. We left Chamonix at about 10 in the morning, and covered the 650 km journey in a little over five and a half hours.

We had booked a place called Hotel Campanile, which I'd found on the net. There was some special deal for a family if the rooms were booked for a day before a public holiday. Luckily, we were staying on the night before Luxembourg Bankers' Day or something, so we were eligible for the discount.

I was patting myself on the back when we walked into the hotel. I'd actually done something good!

We checked in and unloaded the luggage in our rooms. My folks had done very intelligent packing for the trip. Different suitcases for different places and all. The works!

After unwinding in the room, we took a bus to the centre of Luxembourg. Our hotel was next to the airport in Findel. We walked around and did some shopping. We ate a hearty dinner at a pizzeria, and topped it up with fries from McDs. In my opinion, the world's best Mayonnaise can be had at KFC, Bengaluru. Nothing beats it, I swear!

We took a bus back to Campanile, and hit the sack. Our plan was to visit the Vianden Castle the following day before heading back to my aunt's house in Nootdorp, Netherlands.

Before leaving the next morning, my father asked the lady at the reception desk how to get to Vianden. She told us to follow signs to Brussels, until we saw signs to Vianden. Seemed simple enough. We also had a small map of Luxembourg that showed the major highways, so this route seemed about right. We set off...

Sweet disaster struck. Disaster because we crossed into Belgium when we were supposed to remain in Luxembourg until we reached Vianden. Sweet because the country roads were extremely scenic. I realised what had happened. There were multiple roads to Brussels from Campanile, and the road signs led us to one that we didn't want.

We pulled off in the next small town that we saw to ask for directions. We saw a gentleman walking around in a small room in a building in the corner of the road. We excused ourselves into his office and asked him if he could help us find our bearings. He said that we'd have to head towards Mersch in Luxembourg, from where things would be simple. To help us get to Mersch, he fished out a map of Arlon, a nearby town, and told us how to get to Mersch after driving through Arlon. We thanked him profusely.

We went down the road as instructed, but instead of heading into Arlon, we stopped and looked at the road signs. There seemed to be a direct route to Mersch. Without further ado, we headed that way, hoping for the best.

With the expert navigation of my mother and me, my father managed to get us to Vianden Castle by about 2:00 p.m. The castle was beautiful, majestic. I could picture a princess standing at one of the tower windows, waiting to be rescued by some prince with socks going up to his knees!

We didn't, however, go into the castle. I could well imagine what it would be like, and we had already lost time getting lost on the way to Vianden. We left Vianden by about half past three, and successfully found our way back to Nootdorp. We returned the car the next day. It had served us well!

http://picasaweb.google.com/sidzoo/Luxembourg

Sid.

Paris

The capital of France - home to a wonder of the world. We were due to leave for Paris on the 21st. We planned to drive from Nootdorp in a rented car. On the 20th, my dad went to Den Haag to pick up the Ford Focus StationWagon that we'd booked online. My dad didn't come back with a Ford Focus. EuropCar had none of those left, so we got a free upgrade to a Volvo V50!

It was a completely packed car in which we departed at 7:00 on the 21st, exactly one hour later than planned in our usual style :D. Armed with nothing but GoogleMaps print-outs, none of my aunt's friends expected us to get to our destination without getting lost. We proved them wrong. We only got mildly lost after entering Paris, and had to ask for directions. Magically, we found our way to Parking Rambutaeu in Forum des Halles, a 5 minute walk from the apartment we'd booked at Rue Tiquetonne. The highlight of the day has got to be the fact that we realised we'd been pronouncing the name of the street right. Tiquetonne IS, in fact, pronounced Tikitohn. And we thought we'd been making fun of French spelling all this time!

We got to the apartment, ate some MTR "Ready to Eat" Rasam Rice and Pongal, and slept like babies. We woke up at about 5 in the evening and took a cab to the Eiffel Tower.

Although the Eiffel Tower is not as visible from the rest of Paris as I imagined it'd be, it's one massive structure and one fabulous piece of architecture. We went all the way to the top and took in the stunning view. It was interesting to note that nobody wanted to pay one Euro to use the telescope mounted there. Camera zoom seems to be enough for all practical purposes nowadays!

If the Eiffel Tower was beautiful by day, it was doubly so by night. When the lights come on, it looks wonderful beyond description. We ate dinner under the Eiffel. Chocolate waffles and authentic French Fries with godly ketchup.

We had a problem getting back to the apartment. For one, it was 23:30. There were not too many taxis to be found. Compounding our problem was the fact that we were a family of five. It's difficult to get cabs that'll accomodate six. It was 00:30 when we reached the apartment. We retired to bed, planning to wake up at seven the next morning so we could reach Disneyland Resort Paris comfortably by 10:00, which was when the resort opened.

We woke up at 9:00 on the 22nd. While my mom fixed us sandwiches for breakfast, I volunteered to go to the car to get the chocolate milk. I found my way to Forum des Halles, after carefully retracing my steps from the previous day. No glitches so far. It was after this that I got lost. I walked the entire length and breadth of the mall searching for the parking lot. I had a vague idea of which level we'd parked on, but I hadn't completely registered the location. I was immensely relieved when I found a sign that led me to "Berger Parking". Funnily, though, nothing seemed familiar. I didn't see the loo that said "hommes" on the door.

I spent about half an hour hunting down the parking lot, and finally, I found it. Who on earth expects multiple parking lots in a mall. A parking lot is a parking lot. Why would one be called Rambutaeu and one Berger? Anyway, it was 11:00 by the time I got back to the apartment, and everyone was ready to leave.

We took the RER to Disneyland, and it was WONDERFUL! Magical! No scary rides though. There was one roller coaster that was remotely scary called Space Mountain Mission 2. Shruti and I rode it thrice in a row. Awesome fun! The ride through the Disney stories was simply fabulous, for want of a better word.

The only sad part of it all was that Sheetal lost her Minnie Mouse balloon on the way out because someone bumped her, causing the string to break. We had already exited the park, so we couldn't go back for another one.

We had dinner at Subway, where my folks had a hard time explaining what vegetarian meant. We then went into a Supermarket and somehow managed to pick out cheese, butter and milk from the store. My parents left me in charge, and went to see the show playing at The Lido. There was a free half bottle of champagne with the show. My parents let me down. They refused to partake of the "divine liquor", and settled for Coke!

The next day, we started late. Not like we'd started early on any day, but on the 23rd, we started late even by our own standards. We first took a taxi to the Arc de Triomphe, where we saw some very Indian sounding names engraved. Mutta Thaal? Heavens! We then took another cab to the Louvre Museum. Some of the exhibits were mega impressive. The glass pyramids were architectural delights. The Mona Lisa failed to elicit any admiration from me. Far from Da Vinci's best piece is what I feel about it. The only reason people admire it is because they're looking for a reason to admire it. Someone said that Mona Lisa's eyes appears to follow you around the room. That is, indeed, true. But I tried it with another painting, and another, and it worked there too!

With my expert directions, we walked back to the apartment, and got completely packed, all ready for the next leg of the journey.

Pictures on http://picasaweb.google.com/sidzoo/Paris

Haven't proofread this, but I hope everything's in order...

Sid.

Netherlands- I

What an awesome vacation! So much was done that one blog entry won't to justice to the entire trip. Another possible reason for the multiple blog entry system is the fact that I'm still a lazy lump of lard.

So... we left home at 23:00 on the 15th. Caught a 02:00 Air France flight to Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. Tried to watch Music and Lyrics on the flight, but fell asleep. Typical. The airline food was surprisingly good.

We changed flights in Paris and arrived at Amsterdam by 11:00. Sadly, two of our baggage pieces were missing, so by the time we got to my aunt's place (50 odd kilometres from Schipol airport, Amsterdam), it was 14:00. Our luggage was caught up in Paris and would arrive the next day, they informed us.

We went to Delft, a small town next to Nootdorp (where my aunt stays) that evening.

The next day, we went to Keukenhof Gardens. The tulips were not in bloom, but they were beautiful. We also saw some very arty statues that cost tens of thousands of Euros. I'm sure I can do a better job, even without the necessary tools and materials.

On the 18th, we uhhh... I don't think we did anything. Oh! We did visit my aunt's friend's place for an excellent dinner.

On the 19th, my aunt drove us down to Amsterdam. We went on a Boat Vaart (pronounced Boat Fart) along the canals of Amsterdam. It was mindboggling. The Dutch architecture was very impressive. Throughout the ride, my dad was cracking fart jokes, which made it all the more enjoyable :D .
After the Boat Vaart, we went to Madam Tussaud's Wax Museum in Amsterdam. We got some very interesting photos and headed back home.

On the 20th, we were busy packing for our roadtrip. We did a bit of shopping (my favourite pastime) (note: that was attempted sarcasm). I watched a couple of episodes of Eight Simple Rules For Dating My Teenage Daughter that night and went to bed.


Pictures on http://picasaweb.google.com/sidzoo/NetherlandsI

More coming up...


Sid.