5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Chalo chale.

So its over. My little Euro jaunt, more fondly referred by me as EURO 2010. I am very much back in the city of Bombay, and have already inhaled about a kiloton of dangerous noxious fumes, almost been run over by a car, cheated by a rickshaw driver, fallen victim to a cold and flu rolled into one and almost strangled 2 shopkeepers. Sigh. But definitely feels good to finally be able to carry on a conversation without having to reply to one's own questions.

I got around to thinking when asked by a friend, as to what I'm going to miss about Europe. Its kind of a stupid question - there's tons of things, but felt a better adaptation of the question would be my top 5 moments of my EURO 2010.

So, in no random order:

1) The World Cup 2010
If you plan to watch football and you're not landing up at the venue, I can confidently say that the next best place is Europe. Anywhere. You can go to an open town square, a discotheque with teeny boppers, an oldies bar where they still play a gramaphone or just your nearest electronic store. The fever, the excitement and the tension is still the same - football madness transcends its surroundings. Add to that mixture a healthy infusion of beer / alcohol and good-natured intra-European ribbing ... and there's a recipe for a perfect sporting event.

2) Van Gogh at Amsterdam
There's something else about seeing his paintings in every conceivable bastardized form in the planet, and then SEEING the actual thing ... and then buying different bastardized forms of all the paintings at the official gift shop :-) I remember humming Starry Starry Night as I saw all those paintings - recognizing some, not the others - and marveling at the sheer joy they evoke. There definitely is something about art.

3) Tin Tin Museum
I'm not a supreme Tin Tin fan. I adore Asterix way more. But something has to be said for a museum that almost makes you 'rediscover' something ... and look at something anew. I went back and wikipedia-ed the Belgian reporter and mentally noted some trivia to keep for future reference. And of course - much before I ever went to Europe or wherever, there was a certain Mr Herge who helped me travel all over the world - without leaving my home.

4) Swiss Cheese Fondue at Restaurant Swiss Chuchi
I think I'm a foodie. I know most people who know me are probably pursing up their noses in distaste - wondering how someone who is a vegetarian can even remotely CLAIM to be one - but I do genuinely enjoy a good meal, and I most definitely feel vaguely disturbed and well ... incomplete if I've not had a good meal when I'm out at a restaurant. So in that vein, after several unappetizing meals in Germany, it was great to actually savor and relish this leisurely lunch in Zurich.

5) Aachen Rathaus & Dom
Nope - I'm not compelled since I lived there, but truly speaking, I came across little in the Church-walla artwork zone that even remotely matched up to our Dom / Cathedral in Aachen. Intricate, rich, serene, beautiful and totally grand ... Aachen is totally worth a visit - just to see the local architecture.

An eclectic combination of work, chest congestion, social appointing and lack of time have totally prevented me from blogging since I left Europe - but hopefully I should try and keep up the writing. It was fun, and I totally enjoyed it. Bombay is no less an adventure-filled venue, and AARGHHH. Life always goes on.

Cheerio.

Sushma

The Rich Zoo or Day 3

Day 3 - It was our final day in Zurich - and we had decided to specifically spend it IN Zurich ... so pictures from the city follows.

Now usually in every city, we end up doing the same circuit - the museums, the Churches etc etc. So we decided to shake it up a bit, and do stuff we may not have traditionally chosen to do before.

We started our day bright and early at the Zurich Plant Observatory. They have a huge selection of tropical, non-tropical and the rest of the major classifications (obviously you are realizing that my botanical knowledge is fairly weak) but the fun stuff was definitely the insectivorous plants, the range of flowers and the huge greenhouses they were kept in.

Non-flower people - you can skip right upto the part where the colors stop ... if you want explanations of any of the flowers below - i don't know ... wikipedia it??!!!

Right. So Flower Show 2010 ends here. Now on to Zurich. More importantly, by this time we were ready to eat 2 Swiss cows, so it was important we wend our way to the nearest Swiss restaurant (in this case - Swiss Chuchi - will recommend this restaurant till my dying breath) and eat ... ... ...

Swiss Cheese Fondue. Heaven. In. Cheese. Form.

The streets of Zurich are also fairly steep ... check this out.

After which we walked up to a viewing point of Lake Zurich and the surrounding areas ...

My dear husband obliged me with a mandatory I-am-king-of-the-world pic ...

And some random snaps around the city ...

Don't ask, won't explain.

They have a lot of museums in Zurich. I mean, a lot. Some almost seem they've been invented for the sake of getting people to come in. Refer the above pic.

From there we went to the Art Museum of Zurich ... lovely, but no point putting up pics of stuff that were good. Now calling all the 'arty' types - WHAT, and I mean WHAT makes THIS art???!!!!

I am not referring to African Stick Insect - pray why should a canvas with two yellow lines on it be art??!!

And lets take that thought a step further and remove the yellow as well - voila, a canvas of white paint for ze art connoisseurs ...

And now I will tell a three-year old to draw a mountain with pencil and dribble a dash of red on the top, and call it - The Vengeance of Perseus. Yes. That's what I will do ...

But why bother with the red? The deep inferences of 'Goethe in Italy' ... yes, thats what this one is called. Where's Goethe? Who cares. Where's Italy? Why bother. I would call it the much more truthful, but much less poetic - 'When-I-Get-Bored-In-Meetings-And-Only-Have-A-Pencil-And-Paper'.

So ends our experiments with modern art. Obviously we do not get it, and right now I am wrapping up my post, because I need to submit my niece's pencil doodles for acceptance to the Louvre in Paris. So excuse pliss.

We ended the day at the 'Jules Verne Bar & Observatory'. The main part was closed, but they did give us some fabulous drinks and a gorgeous view to contemplate our last hours in Zurich.

So that's that. I am hours away from going back to India now, and its been a fairly exciting (to say the least!) European sojourn. Will definitely cram one more European tata post in sometime ... and then hopefully my Bombay blogging adventures shall begin.

Adieu, au revoir, ciao and all that.

Cheers
Sushma

Adventures of a Swiss Miss - Part 2

I know I know ... its been a while. But believe me - I have some fantastic reasons for it - which I will choose to reveal at a later date - sanity, mental well-being and non-incarceration permitting.

Where I left off last was us trooping off from Lucerne to catch a cable car that would take us to the heights of Mt Pilatus. Remember Pontius Pilate etc etc ... if you don't, go back 2 posts and reread or read it here.

Now I'm going to try and do the progression pics - as we go up ...

Really guys - isn't that simply breathtaking? That's the thing about Switzerland - you need to actually give the camera a break, because the views most definitely aren't.

Now once we were up there, we ate up a feast at the ONE cheapie restaurant they have there (which is also far from being cheap - they gave me a bowl of pasta with a thimble-full of tomato sauce to go with it and extracted almost 15E for that - chindi chors.) After that we started to do a nice dose of walking. They have a lovely trail path carved into the mountain and alongside it, so we decided to go where the mountain took us.

Entrance to the grotto-ish tunnel ...

Inside the tunnel, they have all the mythologies surrounding the mountain written up on little boards to give you some kind of fun perspective ...

The clouds were so thick at places that you may have been tempted to lean over and pick a flower ...

... but then you would have been met with CERTAIN DEATH ...

At some places the clouds even seemed close enough to catch ...

... but needless to say, that would also have meant the above.

The good thing about being summertime (besides the fact that we weren't freezing our pants off) was that there was lots of flowers and birds that were wandering around, so we managed to catch quite a bit.

In the distance were snow-capped peaks ... I guess of Titlis (yes, there is a mountain named that) and Jungenfrauch. It was a lovely walk though, and although by the end I could have sawed off my own legs and donated them in exchange for a wheelchair - all-in-all, I will say - absolutely luverly.

After that it was time for our trip back to base camp - and this time, they took us by train - the steepest cogwheel railway in the world supposedly. At some places the train is almost at an unbelievable 48 degree angle to the ground ... but before you think that we spent the trip being held in place by titanium chains and with mass chaos and pandemonium as people bounced inside the compartment - sadly, that was not true. The train itself is built almost like a staircase - so umm, if you were to take the train off the railway, the shape of the train is not flat, but a staircase, so at however a crazy angle you're traveling, you're still sitting upright on your chair. In comparison, although I don't remember the specifics, I remember taking a fairly steep train up to the Peak, at Hong Kong, and remember yelling good-naturedly along with all the passengers as we lurched up and down. So clearly, the Swiss aren't used to ANY level of discomfort on their train trips.

So that was the steepness level. Don't get it? See the video ... and don't worry, I'm not falling out of the train in the video, I'm just getting ambitious with my ability to lean out.

We sat at different levels ...

... and caught some spectacular views ...

If you can look beyond the heads, you can actually see the declination of the path ...

And once we were back on solid ground, it was time to take a leisurely boat ride back to Lucerne. Of course enroute, I saw glimpses of what my life should have been ...

Now THAT is a Saturday afternoon ...

A backyard view to kill for ...

And around the bend was Lucerne, where we caught our bus back to Zurich for a well-deserved and cheap-ass dinner and drink. Great day in totality - saw tons, and successfully attacked at least a few kgs on the ol' weighing scale.

Now for my favorite part ... the fun random pics.

Yes - there is either a man, or a company called 'Buttholz' that manufactures ply. My sympathies with either. This almost beats out a certain R Banchhod of previous fame.

Umm ... only Alsations allowed???!!

The Welcome Wagon, the Band Wagon and now the Pee Wagon.

Cheers folks - my last post on Zurich follows in the next post (obviously) ...

Sushma