Our West Europe trip - Koparkhairane to Kobenhavn

Susmita and I returned to Mumbai on 26th May night after a very pleasant tour of 24 days to Western Europe.

In the following paragraphs I am trying to capture the story of our visit.
One of the ideas of writing this is to tell the readers that with the help of the Internet, a trip to a European destination can be organized easily with a little extra budget and effort.

The main features we found were:
1. Detailed planning helped substantially.
2. A single Schengen visa takes care of most of Europe (England, Ireland excluded)
3. Prior knowledge of what are the things to be seen helps
4. Knowledge of the various types of tickets available for local transportation helps
5. The cleanliness all around

6. The beautiful architecture in all the cities we visited – many of them UNESCO Heritage ones

7. An apple costs Euro 1, so does a banana- a pretty unfamiliar experience for Indians
8. Conversion to INR could lead to disasters/disappointments
9. Mixing train and buses in the itinerary leads to economies
10. Getting Bus tickets in advance is recommended – they were mostly full
11. Trains were not full – but early ticket purchases on the net lead to savings
12. Night journeys are advisable. An extra day in Amsterdam and Paris could have been possible had we taken the night buses. There is not much additional scenery apart from the yellow Canola fields all around
13. Local metro/tram tickets need to be validated wherever required, else you become a ticketless traveler despite paying those Euros to buy the tickets
14. Carry the particular credit card used in booking tickets online. The same is to be used with any other identification document.
15. A small electric kettle and tea bags come handy in hotels where you don’t get one.
16. Approximate daily expenses for 2 people would be around 300 Euros (hotel 100+ breakfast 20+lunch and dinner 80+museums 30+local conveyance 20+miscl 50)

Happy reading!!!

It all started last July when Shonali (my sister in law from Toronto) was here. We just talked of a West Europe trip and she was giving a rough plan. I decided to write down the details lest I forgot. She has friends in Germany and France.
Came February 2010, and Susmita started talking of the trip. Initially I was not very keen. But once I got into the planning mode, there was no stopping me. And what a detailed plan it turned out to be – thanks to the net, I had all the rail and bus tickets and hotel bookings done almost 3 months ahead. That led to substantial savings.

Yet when the planning started, I didn’t have any idea of the locations of the various places which Shonali had spoken of. The locations were necessary for sequencing purpose – where to start from and which city after the current one. Things became easier when I got a map.

The plan turned out to be something like this:Mumbai-Frankfurt-Munich-Prague-Weimar-Berlin-Hamburg-Copenhagen-Amsterdam-Brussels-Paris-Frankfurt-Mumbai. After a few iterations as to air travel, we decided to continue with rail only.  So alternative cost-saving modes were chosen - Rail pass for travelling inside Germany and Buses for Inter-country travel. Especially attractive was the Amsterdam-Paris super-promo fare at 15 euros for an 8-hour bus travel. (one cardinal principle to be followed is not to make mental conversions of EURO into INR during the trip – otherwise one’ll not be able to gulp down a cup of coffee even. Even the Americans find Europe to be a costly place – as the prices are almost one and a half times there)



First time in Mainland Europe:
It was May 3, 2010. We got down at Frankfurt airport at 9.30 am and after about an hour got a train to Munchen at the airport station itself.

Munich(Munchen): The ICE (Inter City Express) took 2 hours to Munich (at 200 km/h).

The journey thru the yellow Canola fields was superb. The info-desk at the station showed us the way to the nearby Hotel where we walked up with our strolleys in 5 minutes. It is always nice to book hotels near the station. Although slightly more expensive, this saves a lot of time. (we learned it the hard way at Amsterdam later). As the flight was already delayed we dropped the idea of visiting the Neuschwanstein castle situated two hours away. Instead we set out for the BMW works. We saw the plant from outside and then saw the models inside the showroom. Big affair.

Outside, standing on some raised ground full of greenery and trees we could see the Munich Olympic stadium. Now I am told that the raised ground is the debris of WWII. On our return we visited the main marketing areas of Karlsplatz and Marienplatz. We discovered an Indian restaurant bang opposite our hotel and the Garhwali cook got us the naans and chicken which came as a welcome surprise to us.





The next day we set out for Dachau concentration camp(closed on Mondays). It is on the metro line and a bus took us to the camp from the Dachau metro station. The slight drizzle did not deter our excitement and the English speaking guide made great efforts in bringing out all the aspects of the Nazi barbarism.

                                                                                  Concentration camp site

The Dachau camp was mainly for dissidents and only about 55 people were gassed over here. The gas chambers are still intact. But the 15 camps have been brought down. Only one has been preserved and we were taken thru it. There are 4 religious places built around the area now. After Dachau we went to the technology museum but as it was already delayed we did not get in. It is supposed to be very nice. The continuous drizzle and the windy conditions put paid to our aspirations of visiting the English garten. Next morning we set out for Vienna. The rail ticket was already bought beforehand.

Vienna(Wien): It was not on my original list. But in order to reach Prague at night, we had the full day to spare. Our host at Prague, Ms Blanka, a professor at the University was having classes upto 8 pm. So to enjoy the day, we headed for Vienna on the Danube and reached around 11.40 am via Salzburg. Again the journey was terrific.

My school friend Gautam Roy was there to receive us(a meeting of school friends after 38 years). In that short span of 4 hours he took us to his home, organized lunch for us and then showed us round by walking and by tram. Amazing buildings all around! Vienna is a cultural center. We went round the University area. At 5 pm we started for Prague by bus.






Prague(Praha): We reached Prague thru continuous drizzles well on time at 9 pm. The buses run at 120 km – so 400 kms are easily covered in 4 hours. But the metro ride from Bus station to our host Ms Blanka’s place could start only at 10.30. That’s becoz we forgot our camera in the bus but fortunately remembered the same while on the escalator from the C line to the B line at the Bus station – Florenc. The bus was already gone. But the lady at the counter could establish contact with the driver and fortunately the camera was still there in the bus. We received it thru another bus driver headed for Paris after one and a half hours. (See – we two can create and get into issues out of thin air) Blanka drove us to her home around 11.30pm.

Next day amidst inclement weather she dropped us at the Castle on the higher side (the Royal Garden side) so that we were not needed to climb up and then climb down again. We started with the Royal Gardens and felt enchanted with the colorful flowers all around. Then we started for the castle. It is a huge area and there are quite a few buildings to be covered. Slowly we went round all the buildings from outside.The Czech Republic President stays there. The architecture all around was so nice. We kept on clicking our camera.



After about two hours around the buildings when we wanted to get inside, we found that the tickets bought at the beginning but not required so far were lost. They must have flown off in the wind. The learning was that we need not buy tickets until required. They had a ticket counter inside the specific building as well. We need not have bought the tickets at the main gate.

Anyway, we took a number of pictures of Prague city from that top location and then started walking downhill from the castle and saw the various wares on display in the shops on both the sides of the cobbled roads. We walked over the bridge on the Vitava river and lined up at the townhall for observing the march of people inside a clock. At the strike of the hour, we saw many metallic people passing thru an opening in the clock. It is a tourist attraction and people start thronging the place much ahead of the hourly event. Before that we went inside the St Nikolai Cathedral. Now-a- days you need to pay for getting inside churches and cathedrals. Also concerts are held inside almost everyday and the tourists get to enjoy the music of Mozart, Beethoven, Bach by contemporary artistes. On the third day morning we took the train from Praha hln to Dresden in Germany.

Dresden: The train ride alongside the Elbe was enjoyable.

The ever-yellow canola fields were also found along the entire stretch.

We were not staying at Dresden- so we put our luggage at the station (4 Euro per bag) and purchased day tickets by tram/bus. We went over to Zwinger (not very far from the station) and spent the day there. Again this place was a complex of buildings with various museums. We went inside the paintings museum and saw the original Madonna by Rembrandt. Then we visited the nearby cathedral and the huge portico there.

Again a feast of pictures for the eyes and the camera! In the evening we left for Liepzig on our way to the town of Jena (pronounced Yena) where we were to spend three nights at Babette’s place. Babette is a friend of Shonali.

Jena/Weimar/Erfurt: These three places are located in the Thuringia province in Central Germany. Shonali and family had stayed here for sometime and had made some permanent friendships here. We reached Jena in the evening and were warmly welcomed by Babette at the Jena Pardies station. Jena is a beautiful medieval small town and is a centre of Science and Technology.

Next morning another friend Daniela and her husband Bernhart drove us round to nearby places. We visited the Naumburg cathedral of St Peter and St Paul with beautiful architecture.

We also saw the places where Napoleon had come with his army. The lunch at a hotel included the seasonal Spargel(asparagus) which is very popular with the Germans at this time. Then we visited Buchenwald concentration camp at Weimar. Here also the camps have been brought down. But the interesting fact is that the Russians used the same camps to imprison alleged Nazis and people who they thought were not communists. Between 1945 and 1950 they killed 7000 people in this camp.

Next day it was Elrun and Hans’ turn to take us round Erfurt. We went to the majestic Petersberg Citadel - from where we could see the entire town. Then we visited two side by side churches – one catholic and one protestant. We had Thuringen bratwursts (sausages -speciality of the place) and ice-creams before we walked on a rivulet.
Interestingly the bridge on this river was full of houses fully occupied by inhabitants. We returned to Jena by train. The next morning we set out for Berlin.



Berlin: Berlin remained faithful to our expectations. We associate it primarily with the wall and the war.

That apart we discovered Berlin to be really big. And that West Berlin was situated in East Germany i.e West Berlin was a standalone piece of West Germany. We took the hop on and off bus and went round in it twice to get a fair idea of the interesting places. It took a full two hours to complete one full round. There are so many huge Gardens and parks.

We saw portions of the Berlin wall which have been kept intact. World famous artists have created huge paintings on it.

On the second day we visited the checkpoint Charlie which was the intersection point between the Soviet East Berlin and the American West Berlin.

 The museum alongside is extremely informative. We saw the many ways which people used to cross-over to West Berlin. We also visited the Story of Berlin museum at Kudam where we got a full coverage of Berlin from 1237AD when the city was formed. The museum also houses an original nuclear shelter. The shelter at best would be a temporary resting place. From Berlin we moved on to Hamburg on our way to Copenhagen. The train brought us to Hamburg within 1 hour 30 mins. Manik uncle was there to receive us at the station. He is in Germany since 1954.

Copenhagen(Kobenhavn): We got into the bus at 7 am from Hamburg to Copenhagen. I was all along curious about the Baltic sea crossing.

And there it was – all the vehicles including buses and a full train were put inside a huge ferry. We were asked to alight from the bus. Passengers promptly went to the upper floor restaurants and enjoyed the delicacies while moving on the Baltic sea for about 40 minutes. Thereafter the bus journey continued and we reached Copenhagen at around 1.30 pm amidst drizzles and windy weather. There was nobody on the roads with whom we could check the direction to our hotel. That resulted in a very long walk in the wind and rains.
 
But on the other hand we got to take a glimpse of a huge statue of Hans Christian Andersen and discovered an Indian restaurant on our way. We realized later that actually we were walking on Hans Christain Anderson Road.

We concentrated on the Tivoli Garden (an amusement park) that evening. We learnt the concept of Disneyland was taken from the Tivoli.

We found people from all nationalities enjoying the various rides. Inside there was an aquarium also
which was being claimed as the largest tropical one in Europe.

A replica of the Little Mermaid (sculpted by the same Edward Eriksen only) is kept there as the original one has been sent to the Shanghai expo currently. Next day we took a hop on hop off and saw the Rosenborg and Amalienborg palaces. The latter is the winter home of the royal family. The bus showed us round the Copenhagen harbour. One additional day here would have enabled us to take two other tours outside Copenhagen. We could see buses for Norway, Sweden, Finland. With a hope that someday we’ll be able to see those places also we returned to Hamburg by bus at 9 pm.
Hamburg: It is the second largest city in Germany after Berlin and is a big port on the Elbe. We stayed three nights here with our cousin Bapon. He showed us around the port area which is extremely beautiful. In winter the Elbe freezes and people walk to office on it. There is the big lake Alster where extensive boating is done.

There is a huge Airbus assembly plant adjacent to the harbour. That way it is an extended arm of Toulouse. The city was badly bombed during the War. But the indomitable German spirit has rebuilt it fully. We enjoyed the Indian and Thai Restaurant food here apart from the German dishes at home. After 3 nights at Hamburg we boarded the bus on Monday morning at 5.45 and started for Amsterdam.

Amsterdam: The lady bus driver took 7 hours to reach Amsterdam. A passport control check at the Holland border took about 30 minutes. On reaching Amstel bus station we faced some issues. We did not want to go to our hotel at Schipol airport and thereby save time. Instead we went over to the Centraal station and got our luggage in the luggage boxes operated automatically with the credit card. Ask for help to operate the boxes. In case you open it out of curiosity or otherwise having locked it once, you’ll have to re-use your credit card.

Once done, we took a tram to Anne Frank‘s house.
The arrangements inside gave a good feel of the trying circumstances undergone by the family before they were detected and she was sent to Bergen Belsen concentration camp where she died two months before the camp was liberated. After that we took our stuff and headed for our hotel at Schipol. Here we took a  roundabout way of reaching Schipol by the metro and subsequently by a bus. A lot of delay could have been avoided if we went for a direct surface train rather than the metro. Anyway we returned in the evening and took a one hour boat cruise thru the inter-connected canals. The English commentary was very helpful in understanding the canal system in Amsterdam. There are around 2500 house boats parked on both sides of the canal.
Next day we started early and at 9.30 we took a 10 hour tour of Holland in a double-decker bus. It was a wonderful journey. We saw old wind mills, cheese factory, small fishing villages, wooden shoe manufacturing facilities. A boat ride of about 40 minutes on the North sea was part of the trip.
Then in the afternoon we visited the Hague. We went to a Pottery unit and to the International Court of Justice.

Finally we were taken to Madurodam where miniatures of various projects of Holland are seen in operation.We saw a miniature Schipol airport, the metro, the surface trains, the locks, the various architectural buildings and the works. It was very very impressive. Again, one more day would have helped in seeing a few more museums and buildings in Amsterdam. Next morning we took the bus to Paris en-route Normandy. We reached Paris via Antwerp and Brussels. Our niece Durba, recently transferred to Paris from Pune was on hand at the Bus station to receive us. Half the tension goes away when you see a known face in an hitherto unknown place/system.

Normandy: We stayed the night at Paris with Durba and next morning headed for the Normandy coast by rail. We had bought the tickets on the net in India itself. We had some difficulty in finding our way from the metro station to the Long distance train station as a steady flow of people at that early hour was missing and we ourselves had to push thru a few opaque doors. But it was under one roof - so there was no going out on the roads.

We reached Argentan station at 9 am and our hotelier friend Catherine was there to receive us. We had a round of coffee before setting out for Le Mont Saint-Michel.

The cathedral was first built in the eighth century and ever since it has been improved upon. It is situated high on a hillock. It is thronged by people far and near and there is always a steady stream of visitors climbing up the steps. We climbed up and paid our obeisance.

Then we set out for something which we always wanted to see. The D DAY Allied landing spots on the Normandy coast on 6th of June 1944. We reached there around 5 pm and saw what we wanted to see and click.

The English Channel, the Omaha beach, the German bunkers, the craters created by the bombs and the rock protruding in the channel at Pont De Hoc. Everything was there against the backdrop of the American and French flags. That seemed to be a real life situation.

Then we visited the allied cemetery where 10000 soldiers were buried. Individual crosses marked the fields. For Jew soldiers instead of crosses there were stars. While we were there the two American flags which get hoisted every morning were being taken down amidst bugle sounds. There is a similar German cemetery also and a small Polish one. Next day we visited the war memorial museum at Caen. They showed two films – one of them on the Normandy operations of the Allied forces. It gave battle by battle description of the advancement of the Allies and the ultimate routing of the Germans. The photographs and the descriptions all around have captured the WW II in its entirety. Normandy gave us a total taste of the Second World War. In the evening we returned to Paris.

Paris: We were longing to see Paris. We set out for the Varseilles Palace on Saturday morning. But a surface railway snag made us change the plan. We waited for long at a station and then moved on to the Notre Dam - again a very impressive old cathedral which matched our imaginations. In the afternoon we visited the Louvre.

Seeing the Mona Lisa was one of the important events of the trip. There are lots and lots to be seen – paintings and sculptures. A selective tour can be made by preparing a list of “to be seens” from the net beforehand.

In the evening we saw the Eiffel Tower. At 10 pm the lights came on and it was a spectacular view.
Next day first we visited the Bastille. The prison is not there anymore. Instead big statues are there. Then we went to Concorde and saw the Obelisk and the Concorde palace. The obelisk was presented to France by Egypt. It originally stood at the entrance of the Luxor Temple. Then we walked on Champs Elysees. It is one of the most famous streets in the world and is the most expensive piece of real estate in Europe. The ‘LIDO’ is on this street. The temperature was 25 degrees Celsius and it seemed the whole of Europe was there. We could not get to go inside any of the many restaurants as every nook and corner was full. We also saw the Arch de triumph (something like the India Gate at Delhi) made in honor of those French soldiers who fought in the Napoleonic wars. After resting at a friend’s place in the evening we visited Montmartre – the highest point in Paris. A Basilica is there. To reach the high point we used the funiculaire(cable car).At the Place du Tertre, artistes draw portraits of visitors. There is a relaxed atmosphere.

Walking down we reached Pigalle where the world famous Moulin Rouge is situated. I saw tourists buying tickets at more than 150 euros to see the shows. Next day we went to Varseilles using a different route – the metro and the bus. We reached there on time but being a Monday it was closed. This is one aspect which one needs to keep in mind. One must always check on the net before reaching any of the places. Anyway we took pictures from the outside. We’ll have to come back to Paris to finish this unfinished visit. Later we took a boat ride on the Seine from near the Eiffel Tower and went under 22 of the 37 bridges over the Seine in Paris. The English commentary explained all the edifices alongside in complete details. The rest of the time was spent in visiting the Luxembourg gardens. Next morning we set out for Frankfurt.

Frankfurt: The ICE train was speeding at above 300 km/h.For us this was a new experience altogether. We reached Frankfurt HBF in good time and proceeded to the hotel at the Frankfurt airport. A Srilankan helped us getting the rail tickets from the machine and also led us to the shuttle bus stop at the airport. We spent a quiet day at the hotel. Next day the hotel shuttle dropped us at the airport and the journey back home with Air India passed off without any major incidents.

The coolcab got overheated on the crowded Vashi Bridge at 12.30 am and limpingly brought us home at Koparkhairane, Navi Mumbai. That concluded our journey. We have captured our excellent trip in over 1200 pictures. We carried two sets of chargeable batteries and a battery charger.

With the Euro falling to lower depths, it’s time that you made your maiden trip to Europe.

One last piece - take good care of your passport. I had to go in for a fresh one when the German Consulate declared my passport to be a damaged one as the lamination had peeled off somewhat and refused to accept my visa application.