A useful detour

Day 2

Man, did I sleep well! I went to sleep on one side and woke up exactly that way. No dreams, no tossing and turning. Just a clean uninterrupted sleep...after soooooo many days. I woke up completely refreshed and charged up. Praveen had been up a lot earlier (he had trouble sleeping) and so was the first to head for the shower while I talked to his aunt and cousin. Like every other place on earth, the early morning TV programs were dominated by the Home Shopping Network. We spent quite a bit of time bitching about the programming.

Shower and thermals later, I had a "Dutch" breakfast of round toast sprinkled with De Reitjer, a dutch speciality which comes in quite a few flavors and varieties. It was so nice, I thought my daughter would love it and so was keen on picking it up at some supermarket before I left Amsterdam.

In last night's dinner table conversation, a few very interesting places had come up, especially one called "Panorama Mesdag" where the elders in the house were of the opinion that it was a fantastic thing to see and the younger ladies in the house thought that it BLOWS! We wanted to see which side we would fall on and so this one was first on the list. As we drove towards it, Uncle realized that today might be the day of the big Marathon and that a few roads might get closed for it. Turned out that it was going to be on another day, so we would have a pretty easy ride.

We parked around the corner from Panorama Mesdag and the first thing one would notice was these lovely flowers growing in random places on the grass. They all looked so gorgeous and made for some great shots. I think I clicked at least 20 just standing there :) Here's a sample:

Panorama Mesdag turned out to be quite a revelation! After walking into what looked like a museum, we walked up a narrow staircase and were stunned. We were standing on a platform which overlooked the ocean on one side and a city landscape on the other. It took us a while to realize that it was a painting! As we walked up the stairs, the landscape walked toward us, just like it would in a real setting. The effect was mesmerizing. To further enhance the effect, the platform built in the center had real sand around it that sloped down towards the painting and the colour of the sand was matched to the colour of the sand in the painting. There were ambient sounds that made me feel like I was near the ocean, what with the sound of waves crashing on the beach and the calls of the sea gulls.

The painting is 10m high and 120m in width, mounted in a perfect circle to give the illusion of watching the actual scene. What was amazing was that Herr Mesdag and his team took a mere 4 months to paint the whole thing. What's also amazing is that this work of art took 10 years to restore and come to it's current state. I would definitely recommend anyone visiting The Hague to have a look at this place. It was a truly absorbing experience.

From here, we walked to the UN International Court of justice. It was of course closed and therefore we could not have a look inside at the places where international disputes are settled. The building itself looked like an old church, but for the weather wane on top instead of a cross.

Near the entrance is the World Peace Flame. Surrounding it are rocks that have come from more than 150 countries. It was nice to see that the Indian representative (something that looks like a Shiv Ling) was front and center in the arrangement.

From here, we headed to Madurodam, a place for all things miniature. I marveled at the attention to detail in each building and structure built there, but that sort of gets old and we quickly tired of that place. We could have lived without having seen this.

What was coming next was exciting. We wanted to see the tulip fields and, while we were told that we were a couple of weeks too early, we wanted to try our luck and see if we could spot the things that inspired Van Gogh. We drove beyond Lisse and a few other place to see if we could catch a glimpse. It turned out to be a wild tulip chase and we had to eventually give up. At this point, we decided we should get some peptone in our bodies and stopped at a McD on the way.

What this little tulip chase had done for us was that it ensured we would be reaching our next destination, Kinderdijk, just around sunset. This was working out perfectly for us. Apart from the little episode of Praveen leaving his phone at the McD but realizing it before we left, we were headed for Kinderdijk (pronounced Kin-durh-da-eek) and on reaching that place, it did not disappoint!

The Dutch have preserved this little patch to showcase the old way of moving water between canals. The area had more than 10 windmills which presented a perfect place to take pictures with the sun setting behind them. This is where Praveen and I went shutter crazy! I can't even remember how many images I have taken at this spot. If only the skies were a bit clearer, we would have had some postcard variety shots. But I'm not complaining. I still got some great shots!

What was interesting to know was that the position of the blades of the windmill signaled from afar important events like the birth or death concerning the owners of the mill. You could also see if a mill was operational or not from afar. That was quite farsighted and a novel idea, I thought.

We were lucky enough to be at Kinderdijk the day they had opened for the season, but were late by 5 minutes to see the insides of a wind mill. When we arrived, one mill was clearly operational, but by the time we got to it, it had stopped moving it's blades. Damn you, punctual Europeans! Only then did we realize that we were 5 minutes past the 5:30pm closing time. Oh well! At least we had photos!

After a full day of taking some great shots, Praveen and I were quite happy on the journey back. We also saw an overhead bridge built specifically for cycles so that they could cross the busy crisscross of highways. This was definitely a country obsessed with bicycles. And it showed in the shapes of the legs of most women there :)

Back home, a quick dinner and a family photo and we were off to our next destination. Uncle was kind enough to drop us to the train station despite being tired from chaperoning us all day. Thanx to him, we had a great day! Now we were on the train heading towards Amsterdam, one of my favorite places in the world. My last vacation there (with Shesh) was still vivid in my mind. We landed at Centraal Station (pronounced Stah-soon) and took Tram #2 to Westlandgracht and a short walk later, we were at HEM Hotel. It was quite late in the night, but we had crossed Leidseplien, my favorite place in Amsterdam, on our way to the hotel and we had seen the throngs having fun on a saturday night. We hadn't landed into Amsterdam to sit in a hotel room. Leidseplien was just a few tram stops away and the cold was not going to stop us getting there.

People having a ball, drinking lots of alcohol and then passing out, either thro over consumption of alcohol or drugs looked like the norm at Leidseplien. We had landed late in the night, so no food was being served, so we topped up calories by consuming copious amounts of beer. Watching people around was the fun part. What was great was to see the Amsterdam police putting people into cabs so that they reached home safely after a night of debauchery. That was a nice gesture and only cemented my view of Amsterdam being the best place in world to have a good time.

We dragged our butts back to the hotel around 3am and, thanx to the beer consumed, dropped into the lap of slumber.

Today had been a good day!

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Day 1

The day started with our arrival at the Mumbai International Airport around 11ish. As you would have read in my previous post, we had bumped into our buddy from the office at the old watering hole and were well fed before we reached the airport. For obvious reasons, our spirits were high as we walked towards the Jet Airways checkin aisle. Since both of us are Jet Platinum members, we went to the Premier checkin counter, tossed in our bags and then checked for the possibility of an upgrade. We had to give 3 upgrade vouchers each and, lo and behold, we were flying into Brussels in Business Class!

After checkin, it was Immigration and Customs. Collectively, the both of us were carrying the following:

1. Three SLRs (2 D90s and a D200)
2. Five lenses (12-24mm, two 18-105mm, 50mm f/1.8 and a 70-300mm)
3. Two Video Cameras (Kodak  zx3 Sport and FujiFilm XP10)
4. Four Tripods (two Nikon, one Joby Gorillapod and one Sony)
5. Three phones (two iPhones and a Nokia)
6. One laptop (MacBook Pro)

Thanx to a suggestion by Abhin Patel at the office, we had taken a printout of a list of serial numbers for all our gadgets. The Customs officer was surprised to see so much equipment come out from our backpacks. It was interesting to note his expression as he asked us what we do and whether we were photographers by profession. Then it was the lounge and then time to board the flight and get our vacation underway.

Now you need to know this about Jet Business Class...it rocks! The seat flattens out like a bed, they give you a night suit for you to change in, there's a nice flat screen TV for you to watch movies (if you are so inclined), there's a plug point where you can charge your hungry iPhone. And they serve Glenfiddich. Perfect.

So I watched "The King's Speech" while sipping my scotch and then ate a bit, just enough to make me hit the snooze button hard. The flad bed seat helped to get me a decent sleep and I woke up completely charged and pumped to begin our journey within Europe. After waking, it was time to wear my thermals and get ready for cold weather.

Immigration within Brussels (or should I say, the EU) was a breeze. Just a stamp on the passport and we were off. We headed towards the place that has a train connection to Bruxelles Centraal Station. To our dismay, our Eurail passes worked for all the other trains but not the connection between the airport and Centraal, the thieves! So it was a small amount (rolling my eyes here) of €5.40 per person to get us to Centraal. The journey was a revelation in the amount of graffiti that exists in Brussels, especially around the train tracks. Not a single area on the trip was sans graffiti.

After arriving at Centraal, the hunt was first to get to a luggage locker. Obviously, we didn't want to lug our bags around town. To check on this, we went into the International trains reservations area where we got our Eurail Pass stamped and our passports checked and then were told that, thankfully, the luggage lockers were just a floor below where we were. So €4 for the locker and we had stowed most of our luggage and were free to roam about. 

As soon as we stepped out of Centraal, we were greeted by a nice Citibank logo. Cash withdrawn, we were ready for what Europe had in store for us. We had seen a (I) sign that meant "Tourist Information" which pointed down the street and gave as directions "right next to the hotel opposite Centraal". So we walked up and down the street, yeah the weather was cold but not that much, and couldn't see the (I) sign. The nearby coffee shop looked very inviting plus that seemed to be the best thing to walk around with on a cold day. Into the coffee shop we went where we got directions on where we "might" find the (I). And so we walked down that road and came to this place:

Can you see the (I)? We couldn't...and there were no signs. but the place looked very pretty, despite the muggy grey skies. So we stayed there taking pictures and during one particular composition, we saw it! The (I), in case you are going there, is on the ground floor of that huge cathedral like building you see on the left. So we got information about how to get to the Hergé museum, found out that Brussels has no Hard Rock Cafe (the pathetic city) and a set of maps we could use.

Back to Centraal to catch a train to Louvain La Neuve (or LLN as they mercifully call it) which we realized is a University town, 45 minutes by train from Centraal. This is where the Tintin museum is located and that was our first stop.

The tour was nice. They had these little iPod Touch based audio guides that explained the tour and the significant things on the walk. That made the entire experience very silent within the museum. You could see Hergé doing his earlier drawings, expanding his team when he started doing the books in colour and a lot of paraphernalia associated with the Tintin books. It was a nice thing to see for someone who has always been a big Tintin fan.

By the time we finished with the museum, it was almost 4pm CET and we were quite hungry. Hitch is that Praveen is a vegetarian, so we had to look for a place that served veggie food. Finally we zoned in on a local burger joint (called Quick) where I hogged down two large burgers to sate my hunger. Back to the station we went. On the station, as we were waiting for the train to take us back to Centraal, I looked across the platform and I could see Praveen's reflection on the train window. Moving a bit, I could see me as well. And I thought "hey, that's a cool picture", so I asked him to stay where he was and then after a couple of experiments, I got this shot:

 I thought it was quite cool!

In the train back, there was this lady sitting diagonally across from me who was sketching this wonderful superhero like character. She was doing a real good job, unfortunately I could not get close enough with my 12-24mm lens and could just about get there with Praveen's 18-105mm, but her hand would get in the way. I think Praveen still has a lot of those pix and I will put one of them up here later.

Back to Centraal and a bit of looking around. Clicked a few pix, but nothing great. Sat in a bar near Centraal having local beer and checking the next train to DenHaag, which was our next stop on the trip. The train was to leave Bruxelles Midi at 6:18pm and we had to make a call whether or not to take that one or to wait for the one an hour later. We decided on taking the 6:18 which meant it was going to be a mad dash. Rush to the luggage locker, flash the bar code receipt, take our stuff out, rush to the platform, board the train during what seemed to be rush hour, get off at Bruxelles Midi, rush to platform 8 (I think) just in time to see that the train is there and will leave in 7 minutes. Perfect! Only problem was, in all this rush we had forgotten to pee. So now the hunt for the loo was priority.

Every toilet we looked at was non-functional, which was soon going to pose a serious problem. On top of that, we were having beer that we bought on the train (Heineken and Palm) which was aggravating the problem. In some time, I was going to reach crisis levels and so was Praveen. Then an announcement came on the train's PA system telling us that only 2 toilets in the whole train were functioning and their locations were on the two extremes of the train. So we both crossed two whole bogeys (one at a time, of course) to relieve ourselves and return to the beer cans and the Bhujiya that Praveen had carried (lifesaver).

Now I know I have mentioned graffiti before, but you have no idea how much there was. The funniest moment was when Praveen spotted a train which had "???" painted right above the driver's cockpit! A train which doesn't know it's destination?!?! :D

In the same bogey, sitting on the other side of the bogey with two ladies was an elderly gentleman who started a conversation with us about photography. They too were taking the train to The Hague and were colleagues who had some business in Brussels. He was one boisterous guy, I should say. It was fun talking to him. Even while taking a picture of him, he insisted he wear his "signature" which was this black felt hat he wore. Time flew as we talked to him.

Two hours and a few minutes later, we were standing on DenHaag station, realizing that we were standing in the 3rd country that day! And right there on the platform was Praveen's cousin waiting to pick us up. Her dad had parked a bit further from the station and it was a short walk. I was pleasantly surprised to see him drive a Toyota Prius and was quite thrilled to sit in the car. The more I sat in that car over the space of 24 hours, the more I liked it. I think I will pick that one up as my next car.

We stayed that night with Praveen's relatives. They were very warm and made a lot of effort to make us feel comfortable. Both the daughters gave up their bedrooms for us, which must not have been a pleasant experience for either of them as they had to sleep elsewhere. To add to it, the mercury had dropped even further and the forecast of Amsterdam being at 8˚C looked completely wrong. I think it was closer to 0˚, but I really didn't want to check out the temperature scale. A light dinner, conversations about where we should go the next day (a lot of great suggestions), some freshening up and it was time for slumber.

It's so good to get into cozy warm covers when the outside temperature is so low. Was just hoping that I sleep well, mainly cause I had not slept well for a while. I didn't know the extent to which I would sleep.

It had been a fairly eventful Day 1.

Boulevard of A Broken Dream

As you would have read from the previous post, my buddy Praveen and I were heading to Northern Europe towards the Arctic region to see the Northern Lights. This was a trip 11 months in the making and was supposed to be one of the tick marks on our "Things to see in life" list.

The map here is an illustration of the ground we would cover in order to get to Tromso, the theatre at which we had bought tickets to watch one of the greatest natural shows on earth.

After a week of meandering through some of the nicest cities in Northern Europe, we would land in Tromso only to be greeted by foul weather that only got worse. Cloud cover everywhere, snow, rain, muggy climate and cold as hell. We wondered how we were going to get a glimpse of Aurora and her majesty in this weather. The perpetual optimists we are, we kept our hopes high. We had hired the services of an "Aurora Hunter", someone who knew the best spots around Tromso and the northern part of Norway to see the magical lights. All we could do now was to put our faith in the skills and the experience of this Aurora Superhero. In the end, the weather was this Superman's Kryponite! He cancelled the tour at the last minute citing bad weather and a mystery virus that he had contracted just that day. So we were left with nothing to gaze at but the cloudy evening sky from the confines of our room. We had braved bitter cold only to be left out in the cold when it came to the reason we were there in the first place.

This blog post marks the first in a series of posts (one for each day) on the things that we did, the places that we visited and the route we followed.

The only reason I am putting this up is that some people may benefit from our misfortune and find this information useful while planning their own trips.

Serendipitous

That's the only way to describe this situation.

Praveen and I are heading to the airport to catch the late night jet flight to Brussels (YEA!!!) and we decided to catch a drink & some dinner before the flight at our old Sun Mumbai watering hole, Maharaja. This is a place that, once upon a time, was full of Sun folks at the end of a largely exhausting day. This was a place where we all came to drown our sorrows, even tho ours sorrows were accomplished Olympic level swimmers. But I digress here.

We landed at Maharaja hoping to see someone from the old gang busy banging away their glasses on the worn wooden tables. Instead, we were greeted by a room full of strangers an not a single known person in sight.

As we stepped out for a breath of fresh air after leaving our bags at the table, we bumped into Sri Bobby, our very own Sun veteran and buddy. And he was there only because his Travelhouse driver was still having dinner, so our man decided to have a "paan" at the paan shop near Maharaja.

And he bumps into us!

And he's staying at the Maratha...which is right next to the international airport!

And he can help us get something from the Maratha that we have been trying to get before we leave!

And he can help us with our return journey as well!

Now you tell me if there is a better word to describe this situation than Serendipitious! :)

Sent from my iPhone

I can Bore(alis) you all now :)

It's finally here. All the I's dotted and T's crossed!

Here is a trip the planning for which started eleven months ago, in the month of April last year. And the germ came quite accidentally, like all good things.

My buddy Praveen got a mail from his friend with a picture of the Aurora Borealis, a natural phenomenon which I'm told looks way better in person than it does in pictures...and it looks absolutely WICKED in pictures! So he turns around to show the picture to me (both of us being photography buffs) and says "I want to see this one day". And I reply "so do I". And right there began the plans to get here.

With research suggesting that the best time to see it is at the summer equinox, we had a date around which we could plan our schedule around. So the flight tickets were booked as far back as the 1st of June last year. And from that time on, a schedule & an itenary emerged.

After months of planning, anticipation, shopping and excitement, the day has finally arrived. Praveen and I are headed to the Northern parts of Europe for a trip that we have been waiting for for a long LONG time!

We are landing into Brussels (thank you Jet Privelege Miles), then it's all Eurail from there.

Brussels - Rotterdam - Amsterdam - Copenhagen - Stockholm - Tromso - Oslo - Bergen - Oslo - Brussels

Both of us are planning to take a whole lot of pictures and video and see if we can stitch a travelogue together, maybe even a trip video. What I will try to do is to post a blog every day or every other day to recount whats happened. So keep posted :)

That's all. Wish us luck. And hope the trip goes smooth with as much fun as possible.

Au Revoir!