Back Home About 5 families had arranged with bus driver to drop us off in the airport this morning. The bus would leave the hotel around 7 AM and take us to the Charles De Gaulle terminals. We woke up around 5:30 am in the morning and had breakfast. Hotel provides coupons for breakfast. We had to take the coupon to the restaurant to be counted. We were one of the first to bring our suitcases to the bus. Since the elevators were not working, people were having trouble bringing the suitcases all the way from floors high. We left the hotel around 7:15. Our flight was at 10:45 am. We reached the airport around 8 AM. There was not much a queue in check-in and security. We were in the terminal by 9 am. Paris ... read more

To Switzerland We could not sleep after 6:30 am. I guess we got used to that. But, still we did not get up from bed till 7 am. Water in the bathroom was a trickle. We did not expect that the water will completely stop! We struggled to complete our morning duties with this issue. SOTC rep talked to the Hotel folks. It looked like SOTC will not use this facility from now on. We entered Swiss from Italy border. The first city on the border was Chiasso. There was a line to cross the border. They did not check our passports. We crossed lake lugano in 30 minutes and took a break in Lugano. Here is a pretty neat attraction called ‘Miniature Swiss’. It is similar to Madurodam in Netherlands. It had nice models of ... read more

Onto Florence Showers are really the story of the day. Pranav’s shower could not be turned down to lower ‘hot’ setting. His false screams from the bathroom brought neighbors out! Breakfast was OK. Now, we are heading towards Florence , capital of arts. Here the vegetation is smaller trees and shrubs. There are stretches of cultivated land, mostly flowers, fruits and corn. After an hour of driving, the landscape changed again. We went thru ’Emilia Romagna’ chain of mountains after city of Bologna. These mountains were not huge like the Austrian alps, but very green. We crossed at least 25 tunnels on our way to Florence. This was probably the second best drive we have had. We directly went to an Indian restaurant (Haveli). It is a very small place with narrow tables etc. But the ... read more

Onto Austria - Swarovski Crystal Museum and Innsbruck Yesterday night hotel stay was good. Room furniture looked very IKEA-like. There was not coffee maker and alarm clock. Beda are usually separate and twin sized. We got ready in the morning of July 15th. Alarm went off at 6 am instead of 6:30. Ritesh had planned it that way so that we would leave by 8:30 today. We have a very long ride towards the Austrian border. It will take 6 hours. We will have packed lunch today (veggie burger, samosa etc). It was a long drive. We left the hotel around 8:30 am. Plan is to drive thru Stuttgart, outskirts of Munich and get to the border. It is more than 220 kms. We took a break for restroom before lunch. Lunch was pre-packed. We ate ... read more

London to Belgium After an excellent breakfast in Hilton, we boarded the same bus. Our entire luggage were packed and loaded. We bought batteries and water bottle. First significant attraction was the Euro-tunnel. There are 3 different lines. Folkestone is where we depart. The whole bus goes into a loading dock that is covered. There are 2 feet of space on either side for people to walk. Windows are minimum. Once the train is in the tunnel, you cannot see anything outside. In 25 minutes you are out. Once you are in France, you will have to move your clock up by an hour. We drove through France countryside. I could sport some vineyards on the way. It was a beautiful countryside. After entering Belgium, we stopped for lunch. Here we are on our own. This ... read more