Getting emotional in Berlin

Vacations in Europe have generally been relaxing breaks to take in mountain or coastal scenery but for a few city breaks when we usually admired pretty buildings. This trip was not one of those as in the middle of a tourist spot, I found myself crying overcome with emotions. Also after this trip, I wondered why London streets were so narrow and considered the possibility of relocating from UK to Germany. And to think this destination was not even on my list but selected by Lakshman due to his fascination with the history of Second World War. Here is a glimpse of the city.

Beautiful bank of River Spree

How not to go to Paris

There are many ways of going to Paris. This is the story of how not to go there and still have the most perfect day anyway.

Basking in Basque

I want to start with how exciting it is for a passionate Game of thrones fan to accidentally visit a shooting location that was an integral part of Season 7 as Dragonstone. Everytime they showed this place on the show in 2017, I was beaming. I mean, Tyrion Lannister, Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen, they all walked on this same path that I did. 😍

Weekend in Paris

My brother usually has sound judgement and so when he recommended that Paris as a holiday destination was not a great idea, I trusted that judgement and was not keen to visit. But as fate would have it, French embassy issued Schengen visa for the longest duration so we applied for a visa  in January 2017 with Paris as the first destination.

The hordes of tourists, pushy street peddlers and risk of pick pocket thieves made me weary. So for once, I was going on a vacation that I was not particularly looking forward to. I still did my homework, printed maps of attractions and underground map to familiarise myself and plan an itinerary centred around the beauty below.

 

European capital of hedonism and tulips

Like everyone who watched Kumaari song in Anniyan a decade ago, I was mesmerised by the tulip fields in Netherlands. Unlike my passionate desire to visit Rome, the home of Angels and Demons, the wish to visit the tulip field was a shallow day dream. Not something I ever thought I'd be able to do. But..

All the roads led to Rome

From Roman civilization to Roman numerals and Roman gladiators to proverbs about Rome,  the eternal city has been part of our lives since childhood in ways we don't even realize. Like millions of readers, it look center stage in my mind when I read Angels and Demons by Dan Brown. (Was that a decade ago!) That book brought Rome and Vatican City alive in an extraordinary way. I couldn't wait to visit the historic city, follow the path of illumination myself and get drenched in the ancient magic of Roma. This is the story of exactly how I went about doing just that. ☺

Bavarian Alps

When we got Schengen visa in 2017, Lakshman asked me which destinations were on top of my list. I came up with Switzerland and Santorini. He countered with Bavarian Alps and North of Spain as alternates to avoid crowds and excessive expense. I was game.

So in 2017 Easter break, we flew to Munich from Heathrow and rented a car (Peugeot 2008) from Munich airport. I have to say this here, considering he has not driven either​ an automatic car or on the wrong side of the road, Lakshman tackled both these challenges admirably. We drove on from the airport to countryside without seeing even a glimpse of Munich city.

The countryside was beautiful and reminiscent of English countryside except for the houses which looked like Swiss Chalets. We stopped at a cafe for lunch and realised that communication during this trip was going to be a big challenge as English was not popular in rural Germany and my German, which was purely based on an offline dictionary app, was not quite enough. We had one slice of bread and a few thinly cut slices of cheese for lunch. But the cupcake and gelato slightly made up for that paltry lunch.

We drove on to Chiemsee Lake but quickly realised that the boating service was not in operation. We drove on to another side of the vast lake and walked along the shore and on the pier taking our fill of the wonderful views.