Alluring Amsterdam : Part 2

After a colorful day at the Tulip Gardens, we reached the hotel and had a relaxed dinner. Our hotel was one of those many Airport hotels of Schiphol. It had some of the best amenities like luxurious rooms, a great sports bar , a greater fitness center and a spectacular spa. Spending an entire day at the hotel itself would probably make it a relaxed trip, provided that we cancelled all our other plans :)

However, after the quiet dinner, we looked up the internet to see how the weather favored us for the next day. "8 deg.Celsius and  70% chance of rain!" This immediately ruled out our plan to go to the beach at Den Hague (The Hague). While the thought of spending the day at the hotel hovered on my mind, I dint heed to it!
It then occurred to me that a city tour on a hop-on, hop-off would be a great idea. This way we could maneuver the rainy day and still manage to see a few of the attractions. So, a city tour it was!!

Day 2: Amsterdam City tour.


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The day started with a royal breakfast at the hotel. After such a start, we could be nothing else but energized! The shuttle dropped us at Schiphol Airport and from there we took a train to the Centraal Station (20 mins train journey). Next to me were a few teenage girls who were gossiped about their love life. They discussed how lucky or unlucky each one was ;and also went green with envy about another girl, who according to them was really blessed!! And why? Because, she had managed to marry a rich man! Their candid discussion surely kept me awake, in spite of a heavy breakfast! Thank you girls!

"Tours and Tickets" is a famous agency which organizes city tours, canal cruises and other tours around Amsterdam city. We went to one of their counters in the Damrak region (5 mins walk from Centraal) and exchanged our Holland pass coupons for a city tour!

This turned out to be a great plan since it took us around the city with guided assistance at some of the key attractions. The first and in every girl's opinion, the best attraction, was the famous Gassan Diaomond Factory.

Located in the Wasserplein region of the city, Gassan diamond factory is one of the many must visit places of Amsterdam! As a part of the guided tour, we had a brilliant opportunity to learn details of the Diamond cutting process and specifically about Gassan diamonds !

Gassan 121 Diamond

A lady executive took us through the process of transforming a raw diamond into a 121 facet diamond - a patented commodity from Gassan! Diamonds are girls' best friend .. and a man's axing enemy?? Just kidding :) After seeing these , I submitted a lengthy application to my husband (for some diamond jewelry)!

Stages of Diamond cutting

Famous diamonds from across the world

We could hop-off at this place and then take the next hop-on bus from the same point. Hence, we planned to visit Resistance museum!

The Resistance museum is a quiet exhibition about the disturbing facts of the World War! Apparently, a photographer who had taken a license to click the photos of those times, clicked most of the pictures which form the majority of the exhibits. The life and problems of the Dutch who witnessed and endured the events of World war; their works from their hide outs; their mechanized cycles; pictures of the crowded wagons which transported the Dutch; ration cards issued to the citizens by the government with the on-set of food scarcity and heavy pricing of commodities; some touching stories through descriptive letters and the like are all preserved here. By the time I walked out of this museum, I felt as if I had gone back to those days and that I had lived with them! It is indeed another must visit place! For information sake, this museum isn't much talked about and even the locals seem to  be less aware of it!  A guide book and the well marked direction planks at every street should really come in handy!

We walked back to the Gassan Diamond stop, hopped on the bus and to continue our guided tour. The next few stops were at the Heineken Brewery, the Vondel Park and the Dam square. We registered these places on our mind , marked them on the map and planned them as our next few destinations.  On our way, we saw a few "Coffee shops". These are what I call - the grass and weed bars :) With no inclination to hop-off here, we continued till Damrak - our last point on the guided tour.

After a quick lunch at a "Veg only" doner bar (Maoz veg is the name if I remember it rightly), we grabbed a double scoop gelato at a nearby parlor. With the melting gelato in one hand and the Wax museum hand-out in the other, we wasted no time and walked towards the museum.

The Madame Tussauds is so famous that it needs little or no explanation at all. So, here are a few pictures of life-like statues and about our pleasant experience meeting a few of the celebrities - all under one roof!
For those who have seen the wax museum in London, I am told this is a bit of a disappointment - for a reason that you don't get to see a many Indian celebrities here. The only Indian personality among the exhibits is Gandhi-ji. Most other statues are of the Dutch personalities and of celebrities from Hollywood.

It was time now for us to relax a bit, for we had had a tightly packed day until now. What better way to relax than to enjoy a Canal cruise! Again, by exchanging another coupon from the Holland pass, we took an hour long Canal Cruise.

We passed through some of the famous bridges like the Skinny bridge (of the "Diamonds are forever" movie fame) and passed through almost all the canals - the Amstel canal, Herren gracht, Kaiser gracht and the Prinzen gracht. Along the Amstel river are some of the most  beautiful and expensive house boats. These are apparently stationary and have now become Amsterdam's prized possessions!

It was dusk and a light drizzle seasoned the glamour of Amsterdam. The city looked perfectly romantic and all set to treat the people with its enchantment!

Continued..

Alluring Amsterdam - Part 1

Easter weekend and an urge to travel made us pack our bags and set off to Amsterdam! Unlike most of our previous trips, we DINT plan much. We vaguely had an idea though, of what we wanted to see in the city. No doubt that the city has some of the best and unique museums, but our agenda this time was to spend less time in the museums and to explore more and to do something different.


I guess the "do-differently" attitude set its mark first with our almost 0 pre-planning :) However,as a last thing I did find some information about the "Holland Pass". 
The Holland Pass is a wonderful scheme and comes in 3 variations : HP 2, HP 5 and HP 7. Each of this varies in the price, ofcourse, and also in the number of tickets which are indicated in the names. These tickets can be exchanged at some of the museums and attractions ; can be used to get a fast-track entry in some of the crowded museums or can also be used in exchange for a day's ticket for local city transport! Every scheme comes with a Discount card  - this comes in handy when you like to avail discounts in souvenir stores or some of the suggested restaurants. 
A 300 page city guide is also given to us along with this Holland Pass!

[NOTE:This pass is valid through out Holland and is not confined to Amsterdam alone! (Self-explanatory with its name, isn't it? :) )]


With this much of basic info at our finger tips, we planned our 4 day vacation during the 2.5 hr train journey from Germany to Amsterdam Schiphol Station!


Here is what we planned:

• Day 1: A tour to the World famous Tulip Gardens - Kuekenhof.
• Day 2: Den Haag beach and surroundings
• Day 3 & 4: Amsterdam City sight-seeing.

Soon after we reached Schiphol, we enquired about where we could take the bus to Kuekenhof. We had bought our Kuekenhof tickets online and this being a combo ticket for the transport (to & fro) and the garden entry, we dint have much to bother about!
We thought it would be bright and sunny and never carried warm clothes except for a jacket. But it turned out to be very chilly and cloudy! People were dressed in winter clothes and we were in summer casuals :) I dint want to show how cold I felt , so every time when my husband checked with me , I said I never felt cold and that I was loving it!! YEAH RIGHT!!!
Call it the excitement to see a zillion Tulips or the reminiscence of the movie Silsila crossing my mind, I felt energized and ready to rock 'n' roll!


Day 1: Keukenhof Gardens

"Dekha ek khwab to ye silsiley hue..." Yes... I had dreamed of visiting this place too.. To go running in the middle of the garden and to sing songs and just be me :) 
The cold weather would surely not permit me to do all this!! Nevertheless, it surely looked promising!! The colors of the tulips and the light breeze blowing over my face as I entered the garden really turned me on.
The place is like a wonderland - with so much freshness and life everywhere you see and an enchanting aura which embraced me as soon as I entered!
Usually, Kuekenhof gardens is open during March 21 to May 21 (around) and has travelers from all over the world coming over. However, the flowers are their best (full bloom I mean) during mid April. Hence, in my opinion, we witnessed about 60% of the flowers' best form. We were a bit disappointed because of this.


Our disappointment was soon overtaken by joy with our visit to the Glass house in the middle of the garden. Here, the flowers were their best! Full bloom, colorful and vibrant! Here is when my husband and I parted - only to take our own set of photos :) 

 

We easily spent about 3 hrs here taking photos and videos of the flowers and experimenting our photo-taking skills each time :) Sometimes, I would take photos and show it to him , he would get inspired and take more photos using his SLR . We did this turn-by-turn and in a competitive manner. Surely, SLR was the winner :)



There is also a Orchids collection here which is kept in an indoor location - again like a glass house.  Starting from the entrance till the exit, you will be simply awestruck looking at the variety and the arrangements. It was marvelous and surely a must see!


A total of 6+ hrs and we managed to see most part of the Tulip garden- including the flower field where the famous song from Silsila was shot. 

We boarded the shuttle and set our journey towards the hotel. 
A long day it was!! All I needed was some good food and a good night's sleep!


Continued...


Useful links:
Holland Pass Information
Keukenhof Official Website

Brussels-Ghent-Bruges

With the EU crisis in news all the time these days, who isn't familiar with the EU head quarters .i.e Brussels? However, when we planned a trip to Belgium, our intentions and agenda was not to solve any crisis :)
We planned it for a chocolate tour and complete relaxation of our mind body and soul!
Belgium is famous for its capture of historic beauty, financial development post World wars, and definitely its Chocolates!! With the claim-to-fame, it surely was my MUST VISIT country!!

We planned to keep it as a 3 day trip and we had just 3 cities on our mind - Brussels, Ghent and Bruges. The cities are well connected and it shouldnt take more than 30-40 minutes to hop from one to another. So, we planned to go to Brussels on the first day, followed by Ghent and then Bruges. To get to Brussels we chose Eurolines. It was a comfortable and short journey by road (3 hrs).
Without much ado, let me begin my experience in these cities.

Brussels: The capital city of Belgium and the Head Quarters of NATO and EU. It is a modern city with well connected transportation inter city and intracity and also with other countries of the EU. So, getting here is not a problem at all in any season and for any reason :)
It is culturally rich and vibrant. Our first stop in Brussels was none other than the Tourist Information centre. But to get here, it was some experience! The Brussels north station was our hop off point from Eurolines. From here, we had to go to the Central station and then from there a brief walk down the market square to reach to the Info centre which apparently happened to be in the Grand Markt region. The city map is not too intuitive and it did turn us off initially. But this city dint take too long to lift our mood!
The Grand Markt Square is like a huge enclave and is surrounded by ancient edifices. In the middle , we can see artists sketching portraits, some selling posters of the famous monumental structures and ofcourse, posters of the famous Manneken Piss.

Manneken Piss

Grand Market Square

We then planned to visit the Atomium - the famous structure originally built for the Trade Expo which happened in 1958.

Atomium

From here, we next went to Mini Europa - the park with all of Europe's landmark monuments' miniatures! This was a truly worthy place . The miniatures are full of life and activity. The detailing is very neatly done to exhibit how the life is like in the city of those monuments. For example - Ghent city is shown there - with Canals, some mills (depicting the cloth mills there) and even a miniature of the garbage carrier vehicle!! How better can it get? So, with this park's visit, I can claim to have seen entire Europe. So Mini Europa equals Europe in a nutshell!

From here, we headed towards Ghent - where we had planned to halt for the night.

Ghent: What a welcome it was! Initially apprehensive about this city because of our Brussels experience with the clumsy maps, we got down at St.Pieters station. And then, as we stepped out, we looked lost! There was some construction work going on and the place looked otherwise deserted. To add to the owes, we had forgotten our hotel address. But we walked like we would conquer the world ! After walking for about 200 m, we found another hotel - Trianon. This was the wisest thing we did during our trip - to go to this hotel and to ask the receptionist to "lead kindly light". 
The lady at the reception was sweeter than the sweetest praline chocolate of Belgium :) She called our hotel guys and took down the address and also offered us a room for sometime so that we could connect to the internet and jot down more information (in case we needed any). As we stepped out, a man came running behind us and handed over 2 tickets - day tickets to roam around in the city! Cant get any better, can it? :) I began to love the aura of this city.
It was already late in the evening, but we decided that we would see something in the city before we called it a day. So, we headed towards the Gravenstein Castle.
This castle is different from the usual ones. It has a strong stone structure surrounded by a canal and was formerly a place where people were executed for their misdeeds! The castle today holds an exhibit of the weapons and methods of execution of the former days. The occasionally spotted knights in shining armour are a highlight though :)
This city is calm, well lit and beautiful. We spent the evening walking along the pavements next to the canals, sat in the middle of the city in the open restaurant and experienced the light air as we had our dinner. We then took a stroll to explore the city a bit. It was beautiful - this city which is famous for its lighting during the evenings took my breath away!!

First glimpse of Ghent's beauty.

The heaviness that Brussels had created on our mind was wiped off by this enchanting city. Its aura like I mentioned earlier is captivating!
The next morning, we decided to see some monuments - The Belfry and Cloth Hall , St. Bavo's Cathedral ( of the Mystic Lamb fame) and some more. After these, we decided to do one of my big things on the wishlist - a horse carriage ride!!! It is a VERY romantic wish that every girl would have and truly by god's (and my hubby's) grace I must say, I got to do this!!

Fiona was our horse and Melanie was our Driver. Melanie guided us through the tour and spotted some of the famous structures of Ghent city. The main attraction in Ghent is the 3 consecutive towers - Saint Nicholas' Church, the Belfry and Saint Bavo's Cathedral. We also saw a statue there which Melanie described as that of a famous THIEF!! We laughed at it as she continued the story of this good thief. It is said that this guy had stolen a spinning wheel from England. But this had brought the people of Ghent lot of wealth since it enabled Ghent to grown as a cotton looming city! Ghent is even to this day, one of the richest European cities.

While we paraded in the carriage through the city, we not only enriched our knowledge about Ghent, but also about Fiona and Melanie. Fiona was Irish and Melanie was Belgian. The Irish horse with a mare's name was Melanie's breadwinner and favourite pass time. She loved Fiona and I fell in love with him (as in Fiona).

We bid adieu to this mesmerizing city after a brief shopping of chocolates (quite an oxymoron isnt it? coz chocolates shopping can NEVER be brief :) ). We now boarded a train to Bruges.

Bruges: Famously known as Venice of northern Europe, Bruges is a world UNESCO heritage site. This city is an abode of more museums and many canals with sparkling waters. Being Venice of the north means boats and more boats :) Here, we set ourselves footloose with absolutely no museums on our charter. We walked through the city and encountered more horse carriages every now and then! This city had horse carriages too - but here it seemed more commercial and not as enticing as it was in Ghent. However, this city felt like my home of my previous birth - because I felt so much at home and as if I belonged there! Just imagine this - a girl who loves horses and is in this city of canals and romantic boat rides - who wouldnt belong there?

We had lunch in a nice restaurant in the city's market place and enjoyed the flavors of the food and the folks. Everyone there were surely travellers and they dint leave a chance to contribute to the vibrance of the city. It felt like bliss!

Belgium trip turned out to be a tour savouring the splendor of the cities and less of chocolates (only by comparison)!! 

PARadise It iS :)

For all my readers who dint quite understand my effort to show the name of the place by capitalizing the letters in the title, I shall make it simple.. PARIS it is :)

Paris, formerly known as Paname in the mid 19th century, is the capital of France and one of the biggest metropolitan cities in the world and in Europe specifically. I will surely not be wrong when I say that it IS definitely everyone's MUST VISIT destination!
While some people save this place for their honeymoon destination and few others for their summer vacation, we saved it for no reason :) As we booked the tickets well in advance (only to be sure we get the tickets & decent hotels at a good deal) , the only work for us now was to pack our bags and board the train! Thalys it was :)   
A definite thing which we wanted to do was to go to Paris and to go by Thalys :) Though we chose Comfort 2 tickets, it was definitely a comfortable journey. We could also connect to wifi with costs as low as 13 euros for unlimited access time! However, first class would fetch us a muffin and some snacks + wifi for free :) 

Many parents, friends and relatives had come to the station - some to see the Thalys I guess, and some others to wish Bon Voyage to their dear ones :) It was surely a nice feeling to see so many people so eager to go on this train :) Was it "Paris calling"or Thalys train which made them all this excited, I still wonder :)

We had an amazing journey from Cologne to Paris (Cologne is the start point of Thalys, though there are odd hour trips which start from Düsseldorf). The train is so fast that the scenery outside our windows seems to be flipping faster than the wink of an eye! I remembered the school game of drawing pictures on different pages and creating a manual animation effect by flipping the pages fast :) 
As we reached Gare du Nord station of Paris, the facts that we saw on the net became vivid to us :) "Gare du Nord - the busiest station in Europe", indeed!
Official language is French. However, it is really not difficult to manage with English. So with ease, we inquired about the transport passes, museum pass and about tour guide booklets at the station's information center. There are multiple options to choose from - day passes to 3,4 or 5 day transport pass. It is definitely a great buy since it saves our time from repeated ticket purchase on consequent days! And from here, we took the bus and headed to our hotel.
Parisian hotels have one thing in common - small rooms! Thanks to the crowd in the city which leaves no option but to build small rooms to accommodate the swarming tourists :) However, we still managed to get a good deal and booked a hotel with very decent room and breakfast package !
All this was the prologue to my actual content. Now, quickly I will lay down our itinerary here:


Day 1: Check in to the hotel. Rest for a while. Head out to explore the hotel surroundings. Some shopping.
Day 2: Disneyland, Paris. Be back by 6 pm. Freshen up. Head out for some shopping and dining 
Day 3: The museums- Louvre, Musee d'Orsay. Go on top of the Arc de Triomphe. Go to Champs Elysees street. Some shopping 
Day 4: Notre dam church, Saint Chapelle, a Seine river cruise, Le Pantheon . Some Shopping
Day 5: Palace of Versailles. Back by 6 pm. Eiffel tower in the night. Some shopping 
Day 6: Montmatre- Sacre Coure, and left over shopping . :)

In spite of the brow raising "Six day trip in Paris" , our itinerary has still fit in only 2-3 museums of the many in this city of museums and palaces (I am not wrong when I named Paris that way, am I?) 
Paris city is rich in its culture, heritage and the way the monuments of past is still maintained to glorify the city it is today. With our itinerary in place, we began our tour.
This post will surely not be sufficient to explain everything we did, everyday. But I will surely give the highlights of some places I loved the most.
Louvre Museum- For those of you have read the Da Vinci Code or watched the movie, this place ain't anything unknown. And for all others too, this isn't some name you are hearing for the first time! Yes, this is the famous museum which houses the glass pyramid. 
Apart from the fact that Louvre is one of the biggest museums in the world, it also takes credit for being the most visited art museum in the world! Formerly, this was a palace - the Louvre palace. As we neared the museum, and as the first glimpse of the museum fell on my eyes, with no control on myself, I literally jumped with joy! 
It is stretch across a vast area with an amazing landscape surrounding it- a beautiful garden in front of it, across the road which only adds more glory to this magnificent edifice. With its exteriors this great, I could manage to imagine how its interior exhibits could be :)
The Mona Lisa, the nude statue of Venus & the great Sphinx are mostly the things that people look out for in this museum. However, to give you an idea, you can find art, sculptures, antiquities of the civilizations which spanned from the east to the west, etc etc - literally anything that you name! The Egyptian, Roman & Greek antiquities & sculptures caught my attention more than others, for no particular reason! 
Frankly, in my honest opinion, there are several other beautiful paintings which are much better than the Mona Lisa which are less or never noticed in the urge to see the MONA LISA. But yeah, the claim to fame of this master piece is an evergreen & debatable topic :)

Musee d'Orsay - The less hyped, fantastic museum is not too far away from the Musee du Louvre. It is mostly a house of the French art work. It is said that it was formerly a railway station , Gare du Orsay. 
This museum houses the works of several artists, who probably, can be called the Tier 2 artists, only a relative term I use on the basis of the hype :) This museum is a vast one, however not as vast as the Louvre. Yet, I loved every exhibit here since they are more eye catchy and modern. The themes are also different compared to the exhibits in the Louvre. It is surely not "Ah, yet another art museum". The flavour of art here is definitely different from that in Louvre. To tell you, when you visit the Louvre, you kinda feel like you are in those ancient civilizations and living in those times.. But in the Orsay, you feel younger because the art is relatively newer :) 

Arc de Triomphe - It is a look alike of our India gate , no doubt and is erected for a similar reason - a war memorial. It honors those who died in the French revolution & the Napoleonic wars. It houses the names of each of those who died in these wars. It is a 50m tall structure with about 323 steps which lead you to the top from where you can get a panaromic view of the entire city of Paris. The Arc de Triomphe faces the Champs Elysees street - a street where all the top brands have a store and is definitely a shopper's paradise :)

Palace of Versailles - is a huge palace which is about 20 kms away from the heart of the Paris city. Being located outside the zone 3 (in the transport terms of Paris), it necessitates you to buy separate tickets to get there. Known for its beautiful botanical garden and musical fountains , this palace covers area more than the Louvre Museum. Hence, it requires that you carry with yourself maximum energy and enthusiasm to see every nook and corner of this never ending stretch of land :)
It is like a village in itself - having palaces (mini) scattered in different directions & large areas covered densely with tall trees and green grass. What I loved the most was the sparkling waters of the pond which is laid in the centre of the garden. I guess I have no words to exactly describe my feelings after I saw the pond there :)
Some facts about this place - it was the home of king Louis XIV, who lived here with his wife and daughters. The palace shows some original and other restored artifacts and paintings of the royal family - each one neatly laid in the rooms of the respective inmates. This was also formerly the center for political  powers in France (in 16th century). 
Another interesting thing is that you can see the virtual tour of this palace in Google Art Project @ Palace of Versailles 

Disneyland, Paris - Ever since I was a tiny toddler, I wished to go to the Disneyland. And, in this trip, my wish was fulfilled :) From Paris city, we need to travel about 45 mins to reach to Disneyland - which has an exclusive (last) stop for itself. Needless to say how big it was! 
The Disneyland is divided into 2 parks and one Disney Village which has only restaurants. The 2 parks are - one which has the Disney Studio and the other which has the Disney theme park. 
The Disney studio park has everything related to animation and movie making - basically all the behind the scenes stuff. And, the Theme park has all recreational stuff - including the Disney Castle. Now, till March 2012, there is a carnival going on in Disneyland. And on each day end, there is a show or a parade with all the Disney characters. It is surely a must visit place in Paris (of course, if you haven't been to the Disney parks elsewhere in the world). 
My childhood friends- Mickey, Mini, Donald, Goofy, Aladdin, Jasmine, the Little Mermaid, the Lion King - everyone was there and I relived my childhood as I saw all of them under one roof! 
Some of the rides like "It is a small world!", and the "Pirates of Caribbean" are must go things to catch a glimpse of the amazing layout and set up done by the Walt Disney studios. 
The entire day - from 11 in the morning to 11 in the night was spent wonderfully in the Disney park, with a memorable Magical Moments with Mickey and his friends show to close the day! 

Eiffel tower- The 324 m tall tower is one of the 7 wonders of the world and the iconic structure of France. It is the most popular and most visited tourist attraction in Paris. This classic structure's view is breath-taking, particularly when seen in the evening when it is all lit up. It looks so decked up and gorgeous that it doesn't let the cameras stop clicking :)
We ascended the tower and went to the top of it at around 11 pm. It was chilly on top and was getting difficult to take pictures. When I walked around there catching a glimpse of the night view of Paris city, I felt like the stars had now come down to earth! The entire city was glittering with the well lit lights and it simply looked marvelous. 
From the top, through the telescope, we could spot some of the Parisian attractions - the Le Pantheon, the Arc de Triomphe and the beautiful aerial view of the several bridges across the river Seine.  
There is a small bar counter on the top of the Eiffel, and we saw many enthusiasts raising a toast - celebrating as if they had conquered the world :) I felt nothing less than that !

Our trip was almost as in the itinerary, sans the exaggerated Shopping part which was my addition to the list :) We bought some souvenirs and some classic photos of Paris.. 

“…the whole of Paris is a vast university of Art, Literature and Music…it is worth anyone's while to dally here for years. Paris is a seminar, a post-graduate course in Everything.” James Thurber 

Well, nothing to disagree in the above quotation! It is indeed a paradise for artists, a home for literates & a museum by itself! 

J'aime Paris!!