OUR EUROPE TOUR (June-July, 2013)
1. Preamble:
My
Self and my wife (Vidyullata) have been planning to tour Europe for quite some
time, but could not embark on the tour, due to lack of time. Last year, our
elder daughter, (Uma Devi), suggested that ourselves and their family could
meet at some point in Europe and travel
together. This idea looked fine. Our son-in-law (Ravi) did lot of research
through the internet regarding the sites to be visited, places to stay and
other related issues and fixed them. I suggested that, to know more about the
countries we are visiting, we should drive by a hired car rather than travel by
train or plane. Also, we preferred to stay in each place for longer duration
rather them hop to many places with short stay, at each place. Accordingly we
planned our tour as following: reach Paris from our respective locations
(Hyderabad and San Francisco); travel to Switzerland, then Italy and back to
Nice (France) by hired car; depart to respective home towns from Nice.
In order
to look after our in-laws during our absence, we requested my brothers -in - law
(Sita Ram and Sudhakar) to visit Hyderabad. It is also a good opportunity for them, as
they have not visited India for the last 12 years or more.
Next
Issue was to obtain Shenzhen Visas. For obtaining Shenzhen Visa, we had to
purchase the air ticket, book and pay for accommodations, obtain insurance
polices, etc, all in advance. Also, as per rules, Shenzhen Visas have to be
obtained form the embassy of the country, where we would be staying most of the
time; in our case, this happened to be France.
Ravi,
Uma and Rama obtained their visas in San Francisco
and my self and Vidyullata from Bangalore.
Once we submitted all the documents properly, it was a mere formality to obtain
the visas; however, we had to visit Bangalore for a day for this purpose.
Ravi
made all the bookings for the accommodations at different places and also hired
a car for travelling from Paris to Nice via Switzerland and Italy. Of course, his American
driving skills and license come handy for driving through Europe.
2. Our Journey to Paris
Myself
and Vidyullata left for Paris via Dubai on 15th
June, 2013 (Saturday) at 4.20 AM by Emirates Airlines plane. Our flight to Dubai took 4 hours and after a stopover of 2 hours at Dubai airport, we boarded the onward plane to Paris.
(My
observation: Dubai airport is very
modern and beautifully built by major contributions from Emirate Airlines;
Emirate Airlines earn lot of income from Indian passengers, who hate to travel by
Air India due to their inefficiencies and unfriendly crew. In effect, India
is losing heavily).
Dubai Airport – inside views
We
reached Charles De Gaul Airport of Paris at 13.30 hrs, local time. The
immigration process was very simple and was completed within 5 minutes
(including waiting time in the Q). Ravi, Uma
and Rama reached about 1 hour before us. We them at the pre-fixed rendezvous
point (Hotel Sheraton’s lobby). After a few minutes of settling time and
exchanging pleasantries, we jointly travelled in a Taxi to the apartment in
Alesia area, already booked by Ravi. The land lady was waiting for us. After
introductions, she handed over the Apartment to us and left. Apartment was
good, but I felt that it needed better maintenance. As per European style,
there is only one bathroom and one toilet for two bed rooms. (Fortunately, the
bathroom and toilet are separate. In the apartments at other places (Switzerland and
Nice), there is single common bathroom cum toilet for two bedrooms). We stayed in
hired apartments at Paris, Switzerland and Nice and ‘bed and brake-fast houses
in Verona and Orvieto (Italy); through, the apartments cost more or less same
as a star hotel, there are kitchen and laundry facilities in the apartments and
are more homely. The B&B facilities at both places in Italy are like
resorts.
Our Apartment in Paris
3. 1st Day Sight seeing in Paris
Next
day, (i.e. on 16th June, 2013), after breakfast, we went to Notre Dame Cathedral by metro. Paris metro is very well
connected and very efficient. I understand there are more than 12 lines across
the length and breadth of the city.
Notre-dame de Paris means “Our lady
of Paris” is a Roman Catholic Cathedral” built
by 1345 on the bank of river Seine. It is of
French gothic architecture. I first read
about this cathedral in my childhood, in the famous book “Hunch back of Notre Dame”
by Victor Hugo.
Notre Dame
Cathedral
After
seeing it from out side and inside, we went to Louvre Museum.
Louvre museum is one of the largest
museums in the world, in which about 35, 000 prehistoric and modern objects are
exhibited. It seems, the building which houses the museum was built as a palace
in the 12 century.
‘Mona
Lisa’ painting of Leonardo da Vinci is very popular one (Still, I do not know
the reason!). Any time of the day, there will be big crowd in front of this painting,
making it difficult even to Photograph. As per our Rama, the painting became
popular because of the popularity of the painter!
We
also saw Napoleon’s apartment in one of the sections.
In
my opinion, we need at least one week to see all the art works in the Louvre. Photographs
of some paintings and sculptures are pasted below:
Venus de Milo
(No need to mention the name)
Napoleon’s Apartment
Napoleon’s Apartment
Paintings on the ceiling
Tired after walking through the Louvre Museum
As mentioned earlier, we have to keep at least one day for visiting
Louvre museum. Many restaurants are available within the museum. So, one can
enter in the morning, have lunch within the museum it self and stay in the
museum till evening until they check out.
………Continued.
