Venetian glass has been made in Murano Island for ages. We took the vaporetto from Piazza San Marco and cruised over to Murano; the ride took 30 minutes. We had the choice of getting down at Navagero, Museo, Colonna or Faro. Since everyone in the boat got down at Navagero, we followed them. A man standing at the pier invited us to go inside a building to watch glass blowing in the workshop. It was a typical Quebec City experience for me all over again. What I loved the most were the glassware shops that sold colorful Murano glass - vases, [View Full Entry]

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A day in Venice is plenty. We had planned to steer clear of the museums and churches and instead spend the day browsing through cultural Venice and its neighboring islands. The vaporetto stopped at the Rialto Bridge and we got out. The beautiful bridge was built in stone on a single arch during the 15th century. The bridge has three walkways: two along the outer balustrades, and a wider central walkway leading between two rows of small shops that sell jewelry, linens, Murano glass, and other items for the tourist trade. We walked along the shops as I gazed at the [View Full Entry]

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I was looking forward to my first experience with the Euro rail, which is considered to be one of the finest rail systems in the world. We had made all our reservations online and so with tickets in hand, proceeded to our coupe. Each coupe was like a dorm room with bunk beds. A couple of American girls (students) sat cross legged on the topmost berth and giggled as we entered and asked us if it was our first time too. We said yes and instantly hit it off with them. A couple of French musicians came in next with their [View Full Entry]

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Montmartre has a fascinating history, ranging from beheadings to basilicas to cabarets to world-renowned art. With its formidable white dome, towering over everything, the Sacre Coeur Basilica sits at the highest point of Paris on the Montmartre knoll. We took the funicular up, using our Paris Visite card and were awestruck with the Sacre Coeur and its wide stairs and dramatic terrace, from which we saw a beautiful sweeping view of Paris. We did not go inside the church, instead sat in the beautiful terrace gardens, simply enjoying everything around us, before exploring the winding, village-li [View Full Entry]

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Check-out at our hotel was at noon and we didn’t want to go back and forth. So we dumped our luggage at the Gare du Nord Station lockers, validated our Eurorail pass at the ticket counter and proceeded on the Metro to Palais Royal Musee du Louvre (The Louvre museum). It was a lovely morning and I felt glad to be in Paris. A couple in the subway sensed my mood, as the boy sang a melodious French tune at the top of his voice and his girlfriend dance-walked beside him. It was obvious that the French loved life; it was [View Full Entry]

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We got down at the Charles de Gaulle - Etoile station and stepped out to be bowled over yet again by history, the Arc de Triomphe. The 164-foot Arc de Triomphe commissioned by Emperor Napoléon in 1806 evokes sheer military power and triumph. It was built in an age when leaders erected monuments in their own honor, to boost their egos. The arch's beautiful sculptures commemorate Napoléon's generals and soldiers. As I stood on the equally grandiose Avenue des Champs-Elysées, the most prestigious and broadest avenue in the world, I couldn’t help but feel grand myself. On my one side was, [View Full Entry]

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Our main agenda for the day was to take the RER C train from La Defense Station to Versailles Rive Gauche Station. We bought the train+entrance combo tickets to the Chateau de Versailles from the SNCF booth at the La Defense station, to avoid the crowds at the gate. I was hungry and seeing Mac Donald’s next to the ticket counter, went to buy breakfast as we had a 20 minute wait for our train. Mac Donald’s sucked! Being used to the quick service in US, I was irritated when they took their own sweet time to serve me. Every couple [View Full Entry]

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The pilots somehow managed to safely transport us to Paris, only half hour late at 9:30 am. The make up on the airhostesses after the 7 hour flight looked like bad icing on a cake. “Bhagara Baingan’s” face was bloated with sleep. The cabin crew would leave and be replaced with fresh plastic smiles and maybe an “Egg Burji” steward, this time. But the passengers would have to stay back in the same dingy atmosphere, until they disembarked in Ahmedabad. Feeling relieved to be out of the aircraft, we walked through the air bridge into the Charles de Gaulle airport, and [View Full Entry]

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I watched a movie called “European Vacation”, when I was a kid in India. It is the comedy of a fat American family with boisterous kids who do their best to catch the flavor of Europe, but just don't know how to be good tourists. They have difficulty adapting to new cultures and cannot drive small European cars nor speak local language. After a number of encounters and adventures, they manage to successfully complete their trip. That movie showed Europe in its entirety and made such a mark on me that I vowed to visit Europe when I was older. I [View Full Entry]

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A trip to India is meaningless to me without a trip to Bangalore, where I have countless beautiful memories. The city welcomed me with its usual warmth. My buddy Ramesh picked us up in his TATA Safari SUV with a great big ‘Welcome to Bangalore’ hug and drove us to his home. Aunty and Bhav welcomed us as enthusiastically as ever. To me, a Bangalore without them is as empty as a chocolate box without chocolates. We celebrated Tamil New Year with aunty’s delicious breakfast and set out with a carload of snacks and soda to Galibore, a jungle resort, where [View Full Entry]

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