I am glad to inform you all that I had the fortune of going on a tour of Europe along with my dear wife Smt. Anasuya, from 16th July to 3rd August 2017 (17 days). We had chosen Bharath International Travels, Mysuru, Karnataka as our trusted tour operator. I would like to share my tour experiences through this blog.
1.Conquest of London:
Our tour commenced from London. I had my childhood (since 1967) dream of visiting the famous
Lord's Cricket Stadium fulfilled. The thrilling sight of the picturesque field made me reminiscent of our Indian team's famous World Cup victory during 1983. I could also recall our great batsman and the Lord of Lord's, Dilip Vengsarkar scoring 3 consecutive centuries in 3 appearances here. But Tendulkar, the great and even Sunil Gavaskar could not score a century here!
Trafalgar Square (see above) was interesting as we came to know that the square commemorates the victory of British over French, led by Napolean, the great. Even today this place is the most preferred spot for celebrating great British Victories. Tower of London, the historic royal castle which is presently a museum for British royal dynasty possessions was one more place we visited.
England queen's Buckingham Palace disappointed me as I could visualize that it is a poor second when compared to our Mysuru Palace. Similarly we visited Madam Thussad's wax museum wherein we had pictures with our famous icons like Einstein, Amitabh, Modiji and Tendulkar. But I could remember the lesser known Sunil's Celebrity wax museum near Lonavala, Pune which is by far a better one. But do we care to value our own pride possessions?
London eye (huge giant wheel across the river Thames) which provides us an aerial view of entire city was an exciting experience. Similarly we felt emotional on seeing Basava and Gandhi statues near the Parliament square.
2.Paris, the city of Love!
I and my wife felt emotional on reaching Paris (travel through English Channel and Bus) as it was the place where our son Dr.Subhash lived, studied and secured his doctorate. It is also the place where he found his life-mate Ms.Gayatri. As per many including my son, Paris is said to be the best city in the world to live and also is the most visited city on this planet. Reportedly 8 crore tourists visit this city every year!
Eiffel Tower is the symbol of Paris standing on the bank's of the river Seine. It is named after its designing engineer Eiffel. The steel tower was built during 1887 to celebrate 100 years of French revolution. It stands 324 meters tall and we could reach its top to have an aerial view of the city.
Louvre Museum, Paris (see Pic above) is said to be the second largest and the most visited museum in the world.
Highlight of Louvre Museum is the painting of Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci. But compare this to our woman-with-the-lamp painting by S.L.Haldankar (on the right) at Sri Jayachamarajendra Art Gallery, Mysuru and decide for yourself which is a better one. Watch the glow of lamp on the saree and the shadow behind the lady! Is it not marvelous?
Nothing much to write about Paris Palace. One can see below the marvelous picture of Triumphal Arch (1806) built to commemorate Napolean's victories wherein 12 main roads of the city converge.
Disneyland on outskirts of Paris too is a an enjoyable experience. We were also taken on a cruise ride on the river Seine to have a night view of the city.
3.Beauty of Brussels, Belgium
We can be seen here in picture with Atomium, a monument commemorating a major Science event held in the city earlier. The atomic structure behind is interesting. Each of the modules (spherical in shape) of the atomic model is said to be containing exhibitions and interactive displays related to science.
The 'Grand Place' of Brussels which encompasses the Royal Palace, City tour hall and the Museum of Brussels is an exciting place to visit.
4.Holland, the land below the Sea level!
Certain pieces of land in Holland (also called Netherland) are said to be below sea level in this country and hence the name 'Hallow land'. Holland is known for dairying and wind-mills. Amesterdam, its capital is the world's most famous flower market! Madurodam in Amesterdam, the miniature park which contains replicas of famous Holland landmarks is a great tourist attraction.
5.Germany, the home of top brand cars!
Germany is an automobile giant and the home of tops car brands like BMW, Audi, Mercedes and Opel.
In Germany we visited the Heidelberg city. On the back of the picture above one can see the famous Heidelberg castle. This is the city where tennis super-star Steffi Graph spent most of her childhood. The city boasts of a famous University which was established during 14th century. Cruise ride on river Neckar at St.Goar was exciting. We also visited the famous Cathedral (Church) at Cologne. Then we moved to the picturesque Black Forest of Germany which houses the manufacturing centre of the world famous Cuckoo clocks.
6.Switzerland, the heaven on earth!
We commenced our journey of Switzerland by visiting the famous Rhine falls.
Titlis mountain (10,623 ft) in the Alps range is a major tourist attraction. We went on top of this mountain with the help of the Cable car. During evening we visited the Interlaken city which is a favorite location for shooting of Bollywood films. We can be seen below with the statue of Yash Chopra who picturised his famous film DDLJ and many more films here.
Probably the greatest attraction of Switzerland is the JUNGFRAJOCH (11,333 ft) which is the topmost spot in Europe. (see below).
We reached the top with the help of the train which runs through several tunnels over exciting range of hills and valleys.
Here I have tried to compared the two beauties of nature....Switzerland and Jog falls. Has not God blessed our country too at par with Swiss?.......... You be the judge!
7.Is Austria more naturally blessed than Switzerland?
It apparently looks so. In Austria the mountainous landscape keeps changing every 20-30 kms adding to the beauty of nature. May be for this reason Austria is the house of winter sports for the entire world.
Austria is also famous for its rich classical music. 'yodelling' while singing has originated from Austria. Kishore Kumar could sing yodelling successfully. Remember the famous song 'Zindagi ek safar hey suhana' from the film Andaz!
Austria is the home of SWAROVSKI, the world famous manufacturers of artificial crystals. The picture above is a location related to Swarovski Crystal Worlds museum. The museum was built in 1995 to celebrate 100 years of the company.
Innsbruck, Austria is a famous sports centre. We can be seen above in front of the Golden roof completed around 1500 AD which marks a royal wedding of the rulers of Austria. The city also contains a grand 18th Century Church called the Baroque Cathedral.
8.Slovenia, famous for Postojna Caves!
Ljublijana, the capital city of Slovenia is famous for St. Nicholas which has the grand bronze door.
Slovenia is also famous for Lake Bled, which is famous for water sports. See picture below.
Postojna cave a limestone cave created by Pivka river is 24 kms. long and 400 feet deep. One has to go inside the caves on a specially designed open train and then by foot to witness the breath-stopping natural formations of limestone all along. This natural wonder is only seen to be believed. See picture below.
But even in India one can see such Limestone caves. There is one such cave near Bhopal. One more such cave I have seen on Araku Hills, near Vishakapattanam.
9.Italy, the seat of Roman Catholic Church
After Slovenia we moved to Italy, the country having highest number (53) of UNESCO recognized heritage sites. Probably the greatest of them all is the Colosseum at Rome. (see pic below).
Colosseum is an ancient sports stadium built by Roman Kings about 2000 years ago. Even the world's greatest modern cricket stadium Lord's has a capacity of 30,000 whereas this ancient stadium has a capacity of 50,000! The mansion is built using concrete and sand! One of the seven wonders of the old world, the Colosseum is still in presentable condition!
We entered Italy through the city of Venice, which consists of 120 artificially created islands. The city does not have roads and the popular mode of transport here is Gondolas (Boats) and we had the privilege of the Gondola ride all through the city (see Pic below).
Venice is also the seat of Saint Mark's Basilica. Basilica is a special Roman catholic church in which the various religious rites are performed by the holy Pope.
Our next stop in Italy was Florence, the home of many masterpieces of great renaissance artists like
Micheangelo. One of its iconic sights is the brick-red tiled-dome cathederal (Church) which can be seen in the aerial view above.
When we reached the city of Pisa, I remembered the popular 9th standard Physics text picture of the Leaning Tower of Pisa (see Pic below). It is one of my old memories when I had dreamt of visiting
the monument one day and it took nearly 50 years to realize it. This monument is a perfect example for the concept of 'centre of gravity' as propounded by the father of Physics, Issac Newton. No item on the earth will fall down as long as its centre of gravity stands supported!
The site of Leaning Tower consists of four monuments. Leaning Tower itself is a bell tower which stands 184 feet tall and was built about 700 years ago. The other monuments are a Church, a Baptistery (for baptising young children into christianity, something like our Upanayanam) and a Cemetry (burial ground).
The last city we visited in Italy was the holy city of Rome, the only city in the world which houses an independent country within its corporation limits. Vatican city state within the city of Rome is an independent country with a population of about 1000 spread over just 110 acres. This smallest country of the world is headed by the holy Pope himself!
Vatican city houses the famous St. Peter Basilica (see Pic. above) which is regarded as the mother of all catholic churches in the world. This church is said to be the burial site of Saint Peter, one of the direct disciples of Jesus Christ and he is also the first Pope.
Vatican city also consists of the famous Vatican museum (see above) which has a display of more than 20,000 arts works and paintings created by Renaissance period artists like Michelangelo.
Yes, Europe is blessed with gifts of nature like mountains, rivers, lakes and caves. Europe's history is also very rich leaving behind great monuments. But our own country India too is equally blessed and great!
While European countries are able to create a 'brand' out of their tourist attractions and attract the entire world with their top class infrastructure, our Country is lagging behind on both these counts. All of us are stakeholders in 'brand India' and we all have a role in building this great brand!
Long live Europe! Long live India!! Long live our mother earth!!!
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