http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/wildcat007/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from wildcat007 en-us Sat, 05 Jul 2008 04:47:39 BST Sat, 05 Jul 2008 04:47:39 BST Sorry folks for the delay in posting. Internet access in Eastern Europe is not as cheap as in free or accessible as we had hoped. Anyhow....Buda and Pest are split down the middle by the Danube River. Our hotel is on the Buda side atop Castle Hill. Near our hotel is an old church under going some repainting. There are great views from the top of the hill. The weather here is delightfully w http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Hungary/Budapest/blog-271071.html Most of our day was spent ambling through Krakow's Old Town Main Market Square and Wawel Castle. Wawel Castle sits atop a hill and contains a complex of building in addition to the castle. The other features include a cathedral museums crypts and a courtyard which supposedly has a chakra in it. This chakra is described as a vortex of positive energy one of only a handful in the world. We http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Poland/Lesser-Poland/Krakow/blog-269355.html On Thursday we checked out of our Katowice hotel and headed to Krakow. We got aride from Adam another work collegue. He had got us to Krakow in record time driving 160 kmhr when he could. It was dinnertime for us when we arrived so we sought out Momo a Tibetan and Indian restaurant in the formerly Jewish Kazimierz neighborhood across the Vistula River from our hotel. We were in heavan T http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Poland/Lesser-Poland/Krakow/blog-267789.html The first thing we do when we land in a new place is to get a street map and try to get ourselves oriented on it. This involves walking around quite a bit to see what's nearby in every direction from our hotel. So far in Katowice we have seen lots of apartment buildings one university a few churches and some shops and restaurants. This place is not geared toward the tourist and so it doesn't http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Poland/Silesian/Katowice/blog-267788.html We took the tram and a bus to Old Town Warsaw. Leading up to Old Town is the the street Nowy Swiat. This hip and modern area boasts many shops and cafes. Intersecting Nowy Swiat is a street called aleja Jerozolimskie Jerusalem Avenue which once led to a Jewish settlement called New Jerusalem. Here we were surprised to find a single massive fake palm tree in the middle of a cold cloudy and http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Poland/blog-266299.html Here we are in Warsaw at last Our flights here were all uneventful although all were late getting started. In fact in Paris our plane sat at the gate for half an hour because the mechanized gateway was broken . Or so we were told. Then our pilot let it slip that the crew had to hunt for some staff person who knew how to operate the thing. Had we gotten off on time we would have just made o http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Poland/blog-265741.html Ready for another chronicle of adventures traipsing across the globe We areTomorrow we head for Europe. Yeah yeah we were in Paris just a few months ago but this time work is sending us to Poland for a week. Then since we will the there already and can't pass up the opportunity we will take a week of vacation and whip through Budapest Vienna and Prague.So tomorrow we shall cross the great http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Kentucky/Louisville/blog-265155.html We left Chennai at roughly 315 am on December 30. Such an ungodly hour. Yet the Chennai airport never sleeps and was bustling. No problems getting on our flight even though it was a bit late leaving for Paris. We arrived in Paris at about 10 am local time. We had traded in some of Anant's Hilton Honors points for a free onenight stay right near the airport. After India it seemed extra lux http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/-le-de-France/Versailles/blog-232068.html A trip to Tirupathi is not in the cards this time. If we were willing to take a bus to the top of the temple complex and do the express darshan then we could have hired a car and made it a long day trip. But we wanted to walk up the roughly 4000 steps to the top of the hill this is half the experience we wanted to do an overnight excursion. Next India trip perhaps. Since Tirupathi has b http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Tamil-Nadu/Chennai/blog-230972.html What started out as a day trip ended up taking much longer. We wanted to go down to Karaikal and Tirunallar to visit the Sree Saaneeswara Bhagavan temple. This temple is dedicated to the planet Saturn which has a strong influence in both of our horoscopes. The trip was thought to only be about 34 hours drive by car. But because of traffic narrow roads and roads dammaged by recent rains it t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Tamil-Nadu/Chennai/blog-230289.html On Friday we left Tirunelveli on the Chennai Express train which left late. There was a heavy police presence at the train station due to a huge DMK political rally in town. I have discovered that I am allergic to Indian trains. At least the wool blankets they pass out to everyone for making up a bed for sleeping. I coughed all night but at least thought to wrap my upper self in my own shawl http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Maharashtra/Pune/blog-228814.html We took the Kanyakumari Express train from Chennai to Tirunelveli. It arrived at 430 in the morning. The taxi we hired to take us to Dr. Balasubramanian's house broke down half way there. The alternator gave up the ghost. We waited for a bit and then finally got an autorickshaw. It was almost comical trying to fit 4 people 5 with the driver plus everyone's luggage into a tiny vehicle only http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Tamil-Nadu/Tirunelveli/blog-227264.html We have arrived in Chennai India. The old name of Madras seems to roll off my tongue better. We are impressed with the remodeling of the Chennai airport. The line at Immigration is the shortest I have ever seen only about 1015 minutes wait. Much improved since last trip 2 years ago Anyhow we have been here 2 days now and are finally adjusting to the local time schedule. Thank goodness f http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Tamil-Nadu/Chennai/blog-226429.html We have been in Paris for 2 days now. Took us awhile to find a Wifi place. We have been sightseeing like crazy. We have walked taken the bus and the Metro train all over the city. We have seen pretty much all the sites including the Eiffel Tower the Champs Elysees the Grand Palace the Louvre Museum Saint Chapelle and Notre Dame. I am sure I am forgetting something..... Anyhow we are en http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/blog-225709.html The Countdown Begins....28 Nov. 2007Ahhhhh Lots to do before we leave on December 3rd. But I think it will all get done. I am starting to seriously scrutinize what to pack. Want to take only about 5 days worth of clothes so I will have an excuse to go shopping once we reach India Anant is out of town for work and will only have 2 days when he gets back to get his stuff together. I would http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Kentucky/blog-223500.html