Fuelled by the romance shown in Bollywood movies and the general fascination that we have for Europe, we went for Euro trip to celebrate our first anniversary in July 2013. The top three countries in our mind were France, Switzerland and Italy. We decided to land in Paris and take off from Rome. Back in those days Emirates still used to be the cheaper option providing excellent service and running a A380 in that route. The travel within Europe was managed by a Euro Rail pass. Below is the travel route that we followed.
Visa:
We got the Schengen visa for the trip. It can be applied via the consulates of any country which you are visiting during the trip. Typical suggestion is to either apply to the country of your port of entry or to the country where you have the maximum stay. We had 4-5 days in each of the countries so we were indifferent to all of them. The travel agent who managed visa for our official travel suggested to go through Italy as it had the least turn around time back in the summer of 2013. We gave our passports and documents to the agent and within 3 days we had them back with the visa stamped. Its better to have a cover letter with a very clear itinerary described along with all the supporting travel/booking documents.
Paris:
The subway network is pretty decent and we never had to take any bus or taxi while we were there. The first place that we visited was Eiffel tower. We got takeaway food from the many food stalls lined up there and sat in the gardens of the tower along with several tourists and locals. This seemed to be a very popular destination for the French people as well during the evenings. You can follow it with a nice walk along the banks of Seine river. We also took a night ferry which cruised along the river showing us the most popular monuments which are all along the bank of the river.
Louvre museum has a free entry on the first Sunday of every month. Fortunately we were in Paris that day and decided to save 9 Euros each. It’s better to get their early as the queue is pretty long. Unless you are a big history buff or a museum lover, you should be done with Louvre in half a day. A visit to Paris is incomplete without having coffee and enjoying the French fashion in Champs-Elysées. You will find all kinds of luxury retail outlets in that street and window shopping is very common. Arc De Triomphe is at the end of the street and looks similar to India gate but bigger in size.
You will be in awe with the architecture of Notre Dame. The gothic style church is very different from the churches that we see here in India. Big colourful windows and fine craftsmanship was signature of this church. We also witnessed few wedding photo shoots during our visit. Another very popular church in Paris is the Sacre De Coeur. The French movie Amelie made it even more famous. There will be some guys selling the sacred thread in front of the church and they will be intimidating you to purchase it for 10 Euros. I did the mistake of making eye contact with them and it was difficult to get out of it. So better avoid looking at them altogether. A good place to spend a leisurely afternoon is Luxembourg palace. We repeated our routine of getting takeaway food and eating near the large pool inside the park.
We also took the train to get out of the city and visit Versailles. A place of historic significance where the treaty of Versailles was signed ending the 1st world war. The palace is huge and covering it will take few hours.
Overall we found Paris to be a lively city. You can see artists working on their paintings and musicians playing their lovely tunes all over the centre of the city. Even 70 year old ladies were young at heart and made sure that they give tough competition to the 16 year olds in terms of accessories and looks. The parts of the city away from the centre were dirtier than our expectations.
We took the TGV train from Paris to Zurich and were travelling at more than 350 kmph. With a beer in hand and the beautiful scenery crossing our eyes we entered Switzerland.
Switzerland:
We spent one day in Zurich. Honestly there is not much to do here. We were just there to see a friend. Tourists take a cruise around the city and visit the Chinese garden but there is nothing particularly unique about it. Interlaken was a delight. This is also a big junction for all the trains. We made Interlaken as our base and travelled to all other places in Switzerland from here. Having a Euro Rail pass has loads of benefits in Switzerland. All ferries are free and we also got 50% off on the Jungfraujoch train. We hired two bikes and spent the whole day exploring the town and riding near Lake Thus. We continued the tradition of eating take away food near the lake. We took the ferry on Lake Brienz and spent few hours enjoying the journey surrounded by the mountains.
Another beautiful town that we explored from here was Grindelwald. It is a typical mountain town and easily accessible by train from Interlaken. It reminds you of all the beautiful valleys in northern India.
We also visited the top most place of Europe the Jungfraujoch. The cog wheel train runs inside the mountain. When the journey ends you suddenly break out of the darkness into the white sheet of ice at the mountain top. We were very excited as this was the first time we were seeing so much of clear undisturbed ice.
We left the amazing weather of Switzerland enjoying the beautiful journey to face the warm weather of Italy.
Italy:
The last leg of our trip started with a full day in Venice. It is a tiny, lively town. All lanes are crowded and just finding your way around becomes a challenge even with a map. It becomes slightly better when you reach St. Mark’s square as there is more open space. The street markets here are good with plenty of souvenirs to take back home.
We took an overnight train from here to Rome. The warnings of snatching and pick-pocketing in Rome are very common over internet. We were extra careful through out the trip. The first trip that we did was to the Vatican. There was a long queue to see one of the most important places for christians. The architecture of this cathedral is very different from its gothic cousin in Paris. It was colourful with domes. If you have read the book Da Vinci Code then you can relate to it even more and start looking for clues everywhere.
The government has done a good job of preserving their ancient ruins in the middle of the city. Even though the empire is destroyed, still you can imagine the grandeur of their civilisation by looking at the huge pillars which were once holding the biggest palaces of their time. You can get a nice view of the ancient as well as modern rome from Victor Emmanuel monument built on top of a hill. The city has lots of Pizerrrias baking fresh pizzas throughout the day. Contrary to the Indian versions, these were far more healthy and delicious. One slice of this large pizza is enough for one adult.
The Colosseum that we have seen in movies does not do justice to this architecture marvel. In reality it looks much bigger and must have a been a pride for Rome in those times. Pantheon is another very important building in the city which used to be a temple at one point of time. The long wide pillars seemed to be a signature style of all these buildings that we saw in Rome. We also made wish in the Trevi fountain.
The trip was a long and tiring one. In the end we were excited to get back home after such a refreshing trip and start planning for our next adventure.