My Travelogue for Trip to Europe ( Aug 27-31 '05)

Trip to Brussels, Amsterdam and Cologne...

Peering into the past is one habit of man that makes man who he is, for it is often said that the past holds the foundation to the present and to some extent, the future too. So here I am, trying desperately hard to recollect the details of the trip that we went on to. I, actually feel like a school boy, trying to pen an essay on “How I spent my holidays”, a feeling that I enjoy and one that I miss quite often. I shall try and write in as much detail as possible from my memory, which I have long stopped trusting !! Well, here goes for nothing...

Pre D-Day :

The day dawned like any Saturday morning, or was it Friday night ? We never really know, when Friday night ends and Saturday begins. Well, whatever, we needed to take the bus for the tour at 6:00 am in the morning from London, a good 45 min drive from Abingdon which meant that we needed to leave our place by around 4:30 am, which meant that we needed to be up by 3:30 am. Now, how the hell can a person sleep at 2:00am and wake up at 3:00 am. Not possible, esp for Kumbakarnas like urs truly. So decided to do the next best thing, ie stay awake the night, for we could always sleep in the bus.

We reached London, without much of a hassle, and that too, well within time. Things looked good, except for the scenery around us. We seemed to have mistakenly landed in a Senior Citizen get-together... No DDLJ kind of company. The only company that seemed available was of our group !! Thus we started out on the journey…

Now for the serious stuff !!

Day 1 : We travelled from London to Utrecht which is in Holland. On the way, we touched Brussels( which did nothing to create an impression on me, other than the waffles, which I managed to avoid with a light stomach but a very heavy heart ). In Brussels, we saw the town center and also a statue called Manneken Pis, which actually has a young boy pissing. Legend has it that the boy used to stand in the verandah of his house and piss on the soldiers passing by, hence the name. Some people also say that, a nobleman lost his son in the Belgian version of Kumbh ka Mela, and when he found him, he was pissing. God knows what the reason is, but this is the story.

From there, we went to a structure called Atomium which had been erected in 1958 to commemorate some convention that was to take place in Brussels. It has been modelled on the Iron atom, ie an Iron atom that has been magnified abt 165 billion times.

After that we checked into our hotel in Utrecht( the scene of many heart breaks for the Indian Hockey team ). We did some roaming around there, before we called it a day !!

Day 2: The day began with a promise to show us what Holland is actually famous for, ie cheese and clogs and also a fishing village. But before all that, we visited the miniature city of Madurodam. The city is made up of models of structures from all over Netherlands, all reduced to 250th of their original size. It is indeed a sight to behold, and I was totally amazed by the beauty and attention to detail of the structures.What was more surprising was that, the have not only built models, but also have working models for the ship yards, and the bridges and they also have a working train and road system model !!

From there we went to the fishing village of Vollendam. Now, why is it called a fishing village, I am yet to figure out, but it was truly beautiful. It had a lot of sun, water and music. In fact when we went there, a band was playing and they were amazingly melodious !! Wow !! A true holiday spot !!

The next stop was the cheese and clog factory, wherein we got the oppurtunity to actually see cheese being made ( Boy, it really stinks ) and also sample some of it ( but tastes pretty good ). Besides cheese, we also saw clogs, which in fact are wooden shoes ( does not refer to chokes in pipes ) being made and also try some of them on. Time well spent indeed !!

Then it was time for the city of canals and bridges, ie Amsterdam. Amsterdam, as u know is famous for the diamonds and also the canals. In fact, it is said that the city is actually built on marshy land, after driving wooden piles into the marsh. We visited the diamond factory, who were kind enough to display some of their wares ( note just display ) and also show us how exactly a diamond is polished. And u know what, the first diamonds were discovered in India !! An interesting piece of info !! :-)

We were then given a cruise round the city in a boat. Those folks actually have an entire traffic system in the waterway, just like the roads. They have signals, No parking signs and also water taxis !! Seems like a parallel waterworld !!

Day 3: This day involved a visit to the Cologne cathedral ( a huuuuuuuuuuuggggge structure ) and a cruise in the Rhine valley.... Nothing really interesting to write abt...

Day 4 : Drive..drive..drive..drive..drive..drive..drive..drive..drive...ferry across English channel..drive..drive..drive..drive..drive..drive...train...bus...taxi...home

Food arrangements through the trip : Well, you would not believe it, but it was the best food in quite sometime. We had the best Indian food available including dal, samosas, kachoris, bhajiyas, and also pav bhaji !! Actually, we had a catering van traveling with us and we used to get hot food from there for lunch and dinner !!