Europe trip: Part 5

Lucerne, Switzerland, as the second last stop in the tour. With its famous Lion monument and Chapel Bridge it was worth an evening. We also managed to get an authentic Swiss knife with our names engraved on it. We also got our hands on some Swiss knife shaped chocolates- tourists, you know! When we came back, tired, we got assigned to the best hotels in the trip- with a rainshower! Almost everyone came to the dinner an hour late and when we got there the hotel surprised us with an awesome meal (the hotel had a surprisingly large number of Indians in the staff!)

Paris was the last stop. Although the 'City of lights' was mostly what we had heard, we were a tired lot even before we started touring the place. An even though Paris has an inimitable list of offerings in the Arc de triomphe, the Effel Tower, the Champs Elysees, Notre Dam, and the Louvre and they were all worth the money, all of us were way too tired to give the monuments their due.

The next day we were back on the coach to the Calaise port en route Dover to London and then back to Nottingham! It has been great sharing with you all these experiences- let me know your thoughts!

PS: After the fiasco of posting Mansi's pic in Cardiff Castle- I have been forbidden to post any of her pics!

Europe trip: Part 4

A visit to the smallest country in the world was next on cards. Our guide to the Sistine Chapel was a Canadian who gave a brief history about the place and the works and some of the artists like Michelangelo. Describing just that could take a while, so I'll skip it. Sistine chapel is all its billed to be- grand, holy, beautiful and so much more! The artistry is unmatched and the stories behind one painting after another is so captivating. (The image of a tile below was an earlier form of advertising: shopkeepers would have tiles like the below in front of their shops on the pavements to let pedestrians know what the shops sold! The other photo where one man appears to be giving something to the rest was on the ceiling and is actually drawn in 2D! The coloured image is again work on the celiling of one of the pathways in the museum..After Sistine chapel, we were out on the streets of Rome. Lunch was pizza by weight!

Florence, the capital of the Tuscany region in Italy was next on the list. Florence is known as the cradle of Renaissance and without no reason! This was the dark horse of the trip. Whether it is Ponte Vechio ('Old Bridge' in Italian) with its line up of jewellery and souveniour shops or The Duomo (the Cathedral Church) with the resplendent facade or The Accademia with the world famous David. Most inspiring though was Palazzo Vecchio ('Old Palace' in Italian) that was central to the Renaissance and folklore has it that one point housed the 'whose who' of Renaissance including Michelangelo, Raphael, Donatello, Giotto, Galileo and Macchiavelli (thats the second last photo from the below. The last photo is of a sculpture by a sculptor who whilst making this piece found his girlfriend cheating on him and drew the face of his girlfriend on the head that the guy is holding!). Really, wow!

Europe trip: Part 3

Next on the itinerary was Venice. The snow had left us by now- thank god! Well, what can I say about Venice that hasnt been said already. It is also known as the Queen of the Adriatic and is an archipelago of 120-odd islands connected by c400 bridges. Some islands are so small that they have just about 2-3 houses on them! A lot of houses have stairs outside them that open into open! A gondola ride was a part of the agenda after which we went to the St.Mark's square (backdrop of the 'Khuda jane ke' track from 'Bachna Ae Haseeno'), there was also the Bridge of sighs which was under repair- this was the place where inmates before leaving for a life sentence saw the last of their closed ones-hence the sighs, et al. And yes, we were there on 14th Feb, Valentine's day and much as I'd like to lie and say the tour was planned that way, it wasnt:) There is also a two week carnival in Venice in Feb and 14th was the last day of the festivities and we saw a lot of people wearing masks- some spooky, some gorgeous and many very elaborate!

Roma was next! After Amsterdam I was hoping for Rome to be the next highlight of the tour and man it didnt disappoint! The Colosseum is SO grand, we went in and looked at the place. Scenes from Gladiator where Russell Crowe fights came back to our memory and the wait to get in was totally worth it. There is also 'Spanish Steps' which is the longest and widest staircase in Europe. At the foot of the steps, besides one of the numerous clean fountains in Rome, there is Babington's tea room which was founded by a couple of English ladies around 1890 for English speaking folks in Rome. We were told that a cup of tea there costs £30- we took a picture outside the team room and quitely left for the next highlight. The big one is Fontana Di Trevi which is one of the biggest fountains in Rome (and trust me there are LOTS of them!). There is a very intersting story about the structure of the fountain. Whilst it was being constructed, there was a barber's shop on the right of the fountain who said he was being disturbed by the noise. Legend has it that the guy in charge placed a piece of rock at the fountain's side in such a way that it'd block his view of the fountain. The rock is called 'Ace of Cups' and is a very oddly placed rock for someone who wont know better. We also saw the place where Julius Caesar was killed. There was also the Pantheon and the Italian Gelato!!