Things progressed in a steady phase to our favour. My client had approved for 4 days leave and Star tours had the option to arrange for the Schengen visa as part of there tour package. My colleague Monish, the one who briefed me about this tour stressed the point that having visited UK this would be our best chance to plan for a Europe tour. With him, all the formalities had been completed with ease and we choose Oct 1 to Oct 6 dates for the tour
We were all set for the tour and our tour check list showed that all our items have been checked. We then boarded the taxi around 4.30 AM on October 1st and reached the tour pick up point at 5.30 AM. Out of curiosity, we were the first to reach the boarding place J and waited inside the public telephone booth to escape from the cold wind.
Later people started to arrive one by one. The coach was full, all the 49 seats have been booked and all were Indians expect for one foreigner or I should say only one local British women who accompanied her Indian friend. It seems this tour is meant only for Indians. They serve Indian food throughout the tour. We departed almost on time and we reached Dover where our first day of the tour started.
Day 1: (Wednesday) London - Dover - Calais - Brussels - Hotel
We boarded the ferry on our way to Calais France. The sea welcomed us with a warm shake. The 90 minutes journey prolonged to 2 and half hour due to the roughness of the sea and almost everyone got sea sick. After an uncomfortable voyage we finally reached France. We settled back to the bus and after half hour we had our first break for lunch. They served good quality hot Indian food. The caravan followed us throughout the tour and they served lunch and dinner. After a good lunch we headed to Brussels Belgium for a photo stop at the famous Atomium structure. The Atomium structure is a monument built for World's Trade Fair. It is 102-metres tall; with nine steel spheres connected so that the whole forms the shape of a unit cell of an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times. The top sphere provides a panoramic view of Brussels. The view of the Atomium structure was wonderful. Unfortunately, we were not able to get the panoramic view since it was closed by the time we reached. The delay in the ferry spoiled our day’s schedule which eventually forced us to miss the famous Mini Europe tour in Belgium. We then headed back to a hotel in France located in the town Thornville and with that our first day of the tour ended with drowsiness.
Day 2: (Thursday) Hotel - Lake Titisee - Black Forest - Rhine Falls – Switzerland
After having the continental breakfast, we checked out of the hotel and proceeded to the amazing Black Forest, stopping at the beautiful Lake Titisee Germany. The Black Forest region is essentially known for three distinctive features: its highlands, scenery and woods and the traditional cuckoo-clock. The weather was so nice and cold and we had our lunch at the lovely environment in the black forest. After the lunch we had an opportunity to visit the cuckoo-clock manufacturing place, were a demo on the making of cuckoo-clock was shown to us. We saw different types of cuckoo-clocks. Continuing the journey, we crossed the German border and reached at the most spectacular waterfalls in Europe, the Rhine Falls. The Rhine falls is located in northern Switzerland and close to the German border. The Rhine Falls is the widest waterfalls of Europe, just ahead of the Dettifoss (largest waterfall in Europe) in Iceland. We boarded a cruise which took us near to the falls. The force and the flow of the waterfalls were amazing. We headed towards our hotel in Switzerland to end the day. The accommodation provided in Swiss was great. It was a 3 star hotel named The Terrace at Engelberg, located at the top of the hill. We stayed there for two nights.
Day 3: (Friday) Mt.Titlis – Interlaken
The 3rd day of the trip was the most memorable day. We went to Titlis Mountain which is one of the most admired places in Swiss. It is approx 10,000 feet high from the sea level. We reached the peak via 3 cable cars. The last cable car is the world's first revolving cable car. The cable car ride was an amazing experience. On the way we got a lovely view of the city. Luckily it snowed and we were able to experience the snow too. Once we reached the peak, we rented shoes to get into the snow. We were all well equipped with the winter clothing and hence we did not face much problem with the cold. Getting into the snow for the first time is always exciting and fun. Since I had already experienced before I observed the reaction of my wife and kid. They were on cloud 9, my wife and kid were so excited and they had a tremendous time playing in snow. You can see their reaction from the below snap. I could not stop my wife, she left Kaviyaa with me and went all the way further down and had a blast of a time on our absence :)
After the breathtaking experience in the snow we headed to the ice cave where 5 countries national anthem can be played by selection and of course we selected our National Anthem. Then came the photo studio were we took a snap in the traditional Swiss costume as part of remembrance of this lovely place. We struggled for the poses expect my kid Kaviyaa. She likes to give pose anytime anywhere 24/7 J. This studio is famous that most of the celebrities had taken photos with similar costumes. We saw Virender Sehwag and some other Hollywood stars photos who were trying to match our poseJ. The time came for us to leave the lovely spot. We left the place but my thoughts and memories are still hanging around there.
After the splendid time we continued our travel passing through the scenic nature to Inter Laken. On the way we stopped at Luzern which is one of the most famous Swiss cities to visit the Lion Monument. It honours the Swiss Guards who were massacred during the French Revolution. Swiss military is so famous that it’s a mandatory for everyone in Swiss to serve for the army for 2 years after the education. After taking couple of snaps we continued our way to Inter Laken. Now came the real beauty of Swiss, were ever you turn you can see Mountains, falls, snows and scenic locations. On the way we saw some famous locations were Bollywood and Kollywood songs have been pictured. The air and the environment were so clean and tidy that we had a pleasant walk for an hour. The day ended with scenic memories and a good mood to sleep and leave Swiss the next day morning.
Day 4: (Saturday) Swiss – Paris
We left the Hotel Terrace early in the morning and boarded in the bus towards our way to Paris, it was told to us that it would be a long journey on the fast highway, the whole day we were in the bus with a halt in between for lunch. The day made us to open up ourselves with others who were travelling with us, all these days we had offered face to face smile to everyone for the past three days, and we had fun in the bus playing anthakshari, dumb charades and personality identification games. We didn’t know how long we were playing before our tour manager interrupted us in between and asked us to see the Eiffel tower. Everyone started to rummage around and finally the Eiffel tower appeared to our left. Welcome to Paris, was the message from our tour manager. We started getting closer to the Eiffel tower and in the end we had a magnificent view of the tower. Our booking for the Eiffel tower was made on the next day morning, so we jus passed throw the Eiffel tower to enjoy a boat cruise along the romantic River Seine and marvel at some of the most famed sights of Paris. The Paris city was amazing, it was being told to us that Paris in night is a fantastic sight and having visited Paris we should never miss this opportunity. Paris at night was not in our tour package, however we requested our tour manager to organize this for us. The tour manager too felt that this is a must do activity to experience at night. He organised the tour for us with a condition that at least 40 people should agree for this tour by paying extra 15 Euro per person. Every one was excited and gave a green signal. After the cruise ride we checked in to our hotel in Paris and after the dinner around 10 PM we headed to Paris at night tour.
Paris at night
Paris at night is a spectacle. The amount of light energy consumed is amazing. The entire city is lighted up. The traffic is so heavy and at once I felt like I am travelling on Bangalore’s Hosur road. After a slow moment, we reached the place from were you will get the best view of the Eiffel tower. Words jus can’t explain the beauty of Eiffel tower at night. You can see want I mean by seeing the below snap. Astonishing display of lights, every six minutes, you can notice the lights glittering at the entire tower. Undoubtedly that moment was the highlights of the tour. Unfortunately my kid did not experience this, since it was at the midnight and she was too tried too. After this we passed through some of the famous spots such as Concorde Square, Opera house, Champs Elysées, Arc de Triomphe and many other historic buildings. We also visited a place where Princess Diana died in an accident and the hotel which she had the last dinner of her life. The number of people on the streets in Paris is uncountable. This would be the next crowded street which I had seen; of course the first would be the Ranganathan Street in T-Nagar, Chennai. It was around 1.00 AM that we returned back to our hotel. The other highlight of Paris by night is the amount of information that our tour manager Viraf had given. He knows in and out of Paris and he went to the extent that he can tell how many bricks were used to construct each monuments. It was an awesome experience.
Day 5: Sunday - Paris - Calais - Dover – London – Guildford – Home
No excuse, the wakeup call is set up as usual at 6.00 AM in the morning. We checked out the hotel and headed to Eiffel tower. So far we had not gone much closer to Eiffel tower and the time has come for us to experience it much closer. Our booking was at 9.30 AM and we went 30 minutes before time. It was a masterpiece. It was too windy and unfortunately they did not admit us to enter the top floor of the Eiffel tower. The lift took us to the first and the third floor of Eiffel tower. It’s the same OTIS lift which is been used since 1889 the year when the Eiffel tower was constructed. We had a good view of Paris from the Eiffel tower. We shopped and brought some souvenirs on the shops available on the third floor of Eiffel tower. After spending two hours around the Eiffel tower, we headed towards Dover on the way back to London. Five days went jus like that. The tour had come to an end. We had our dream tour. It was well managed tour were we had no issues on food and accommodations. The tour was worth for each penny which we had spent. My kid had a great time in the tour. We were worried initially and she proved us wrong in all possible ways. She gave us trouble in having food, but apart from that she was well behaved throughout the tour. In the end she became the princess of the tour as she was the only child in the tour. First day she had problems with interacting with new people, but on the fifth day, she was on the opposite side. She started to pull the mike and started singing Nursery songs along with the coach driver Lawrence. He is an unbelievable guy with good sense of humour. They both had good time throughout the tour. The tour might have ended, but the memories we had will be there for ever. Three cheers to Star Tours for organization such a wonderful trip :) People who visit London, should definitely eye for this tour.
More snaps are available at the below link
http://picasaweb.google.com/dinakar.97/EuroTripSwiss#
http://picasaweb.google.com/dinakar.97/EuroTripParis#
http://picasaweb.google.com/dinakar.97/EuroTripBelgiumGermany#
