Easter break in Jordana....

We decided to go to Jordan for our Easter break in 2012....

When we reached the airport to collect our rent a car we were in a for a surprise..we got upgraded to a Mercedes :). Z was sceptical ...thinking that he would have to pay more for the scratches / damages (if any) than the rental... i was kicked as i was going to drive it...anyways in this surprise the major glitch was that there was no GPS :(...
We arrived at our first pitstop - The black Iris Hotel way past midnight...reason we got lost :) anyways the staff was helpful and we had a quick bite and fell tight asleep.. the next day we woke up early to explore Madaba the city of mosaics....we went walking round the town; the first stop was St George's church but since the morning mass was in progress, we decided to explore other parts and then come back to it. So we went walking to the Shrine of St John the Baptist and then went to the archeological park/museum which is also the Virgin Mary church. This place was filled with mosaics which were unearthed while building a new structure and thus were then preserved as a part of the heritage.. As we moved away from the park and back towards the church, it was nice to walk around the town and the market area and absorb the culture...As the sun began to rise, we quickly moved to the Church. After visiting the church we decided to explore the markets which were opening up.. A quick purchase of fridge magnets and a cute bookmark for Z we decided to head towards Mount Nebo.. this is the memorial for Moses where moses is said to have spent his last years staring away at the promised land he was probidden to enter...
Then we made a quick decision to go towards the dead sea and go for a quick dip... however since we were going there without a GPS and there was a marathon on that day (ironic isnt it ?) we could quite find the entrance to the public beach...having said that Z being the waterbaby that he is, took quite easily to the dead sea and started floating around... I, the eternal scary boo, stood on the shore while he beckoned me to come on over... when i did finally relent and step in ..i had the briny water in my eyes and mouth and that was not a happy experience.. the shore was crystallined salt and was very sharp... later we realised we had many small cuts on our feets and they burned like hell... all said and done, the dead sea did make a pretty picturesque location and off we went towards Dana...

while enroute Dana we came across Wadi Mujib which is the world lowest wild life reserve... the drive to Dana was long and it was quite beautiful and we reached dana just before sunset which was a good thing as there were no street lamps or people... The guys managing there had a queer connection to Ahmd and had a gujarati calender there..overall people were very hospitable and friendly, food was good and the climate was alot cooler than madaba...the next morning after breakfast, we went to explore our surroundings and found that our hotel was perched on a hilltop and across was a natural reserve which would require experienced trekkers to explore... anyways since we were headed to petra, we decided to make a move...

Enroute petra was the famous shobak castle...i was driving that day and it was quite a pleasure driving that car..unfortunately the route to the shobak castle is not for the lily livered driver and i was more than happy to reach the castle sooner than never.... the castle is set on a hilltop and with the spring setting in, the whole area looked bright and happy... anyways once we explore the vistas from the castle we were on our way to petra...

Petra was quite a touristy expensive place but we were there from 12 to 6 pm in the eve...it was quite a long trek and i guess i miss those long walks i use to go with lamiya.. i was so sorely out of breath that even the oldies were springing like teenagers.. :(

The next morning we decided to make an early start as our flight was at 7 in the evening... we had decided to visit jerash amman and then the desert castles...

Just in time - Bahrain....

So we decided to go and visit Masi Masa in Bahrain... since i was not working then and Z had a 3 day weekend thanks to some national holiday we booked ourselves on the flight to Bahrain..

however as they say "there is many a slip between the cup and the lip"... our visas were rejected twice and it felt like we would not be going as if we were rejected the 3rd time we might be blacklisted...however we decided to take a chance and apply at the consulate in Abu Dhabi and this is all a day before we flew....well I was fasting on that day and Z could not come to drop me to AD...so i went by bus to AD and tried...though i was successful in getting a visa, the visa cost the same as the flight fare for each of us....

Anyways we managed to board our flight and off we went...we arrived late in the night and Masa Masi were waiting to recieve us...after a quick dinner we had a hearty conversation in between of which i dont remember when i fell asleep

Day 1 Museum Mosque and Fort

We woke up to a hearty healthy breakfast and then Masa dropped us to the National Museum of Bahrain. This is the largest and one of the oldest museums in Bahrain. It is constructed near the King Faisal Highway in Manama.  It is a huge place and possesses a rich collection of Bahrain's ancient archaeologyical artefacts and covers 6000 years of Bahrain's history. 

After spending 2-3 hours walking and talking masa decided to pick us up and took us to the
Al-Fatih Mosque.  We were asked to were burqas and cover our heads..A visitor wanting to learn more about Islam could not do better than to visit this grand mosque, with its unpatronising, informative guides. Built on reclaimed land in 1984, Al-Fatih Mosque is the largest building in the country and is capable of holding up to 7000 worshippers. The mosque was built with marble from Italy, glass from Austria and teak wood from India, carved by local Bahraini craftspeople, and has some fine examples of interior design. Nearby the Al Fatih Mosque is the National library building....

We then had lunch at AlAbraaj and decided to rest a bit at home...around 4ish we decided to visit the Arad Fort.  This is one of the first landmarks one could come across on arrival at Bahrain, due to its close proximity to the airport. The illuminated fort, when seen at night, is a sure magnificent sight.

Later we sat in the garden surrounding the fort and chatted away ..We wrapped up dinner at a restuarant in Manama Old City....

Day 2 Oil Well, Tree of life and F1circuit...

We met up with Mustaq Uncle for a heavy breakfast and a had a very good time with him...then since he was working we decided to head out towards seeing the first oil well in the Gulf...The road to reach there was a bit rough and had many troughs but it was quite a journey...Unfortunately the Oil Museum had closed for renovations a day before.. from the there we decided to visit the Tree of life..Standing alone in the desert about two kilometers from Jebel Dukhan, this mystic tree is a welcome shade from the day's heat, though the source of water for the tree still remains a mystery.

From there we went to see the F1 circuit... though it was empty, it was pretty grand....

We had lunch with Masa Masi friends at BBQ delights in Seef Mall...later in the evening we all went to gardens near the airport and the oldies started regaling nostalgic moments and then even started predicting the planes that were landing... :)..

Later in the evening we decided to visit the Bab al - Bahrain...Built by the British in 1945, Bab al-Bahrain, the 'Gateway to Bahrain' was originally designed by Sir Charles Belgrave and was redesigned in 1986 to give it more of an 'Islamic' flavour. Despite having been moved back from the water's edge, the gateway is still aptly named, as goods of various description, people of all nationalities, street vendors, shoppers and workers pass under its arches in a constant pageant of activity in this, the heart of Manama

We then wandered towards the Soukh. It is said that visit to Bahrain would remain incomplete without making a trip to the Soukh, which is full of sounds, aromas and colors. Everything from cloth of colors and textures to jewelry and gold and a traditional array of spices and local produce is available. The Gold Souq consists of contemporary European jewelry and the traditional Bedouin designs and other variety of styles. Z bought me a pearl pendent :) ...lucky me...

Day 3 Half way across to Saudi..

This day we visited the Bait al Qu'ran..  this house has the largest collection of the holy Koran from various era of time and in various calligraphy styles and in various languages...

From there we moved towards  King Fahad Causeway. Opened during 1986, this engineering link that connects Saudi Arabia with Bahrain, is also one of the most expensive bridges in the world. The bridge traverses Umm Nasan Island, a sanctuary for wildlife, and at the halfway point there is a facility area, that comprises a restaurant, which could be visited even if one does not travel all the way to Saudi Arabia

We then visited the Al Jasra Handicraft Centre and picked up small souveniours for near and dear ones... and then we moved towards towards The Barbar Temple.. this is an archaeological site located in the village of Barbar, Bahrain, and considered to be part of the Dilmun culture. The most recent of the three Barbar temples was rediscovered by a Danish archaeological team in 1954. A further two temples were discovered on the site with the oldest dating back to 3000 BC. The temples were built of limestone blocks, believed to have been carved out from the nearby Jidda Island. During the excavation of the site many tools, weapons, pottery and small pieces of gold were found which are now on display in the Bahrain National Museum. The site is on the tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage

from there we proceeded to Shaikh Isa's House. Shaikh Isa’s house located at the old down of Muharraq, was the home of great grandfather of Amir, Shaikh Isa Bin Ali Al Khalifa. It represents a fine example of local architecture, with a wind tower, wall carving and lattice work, indicating a traditional nineteenth century life.

Finally we picked up these awesome backlavas which i have not found again in uae :)

Omani Escapade 1

June 17th 2011 Day 1 : Forts, caves and a mountain

We made an early start at 5:15 am. We were keen to get to the border by 7ish as we were taking the longer yet scenic route through Al-ain..however getting into Oman is quite a confusing drive as we entered Buraimi and then again entered UAE.. apparently the border is scattered...some how after asking several people who all pointed in different directions, a kind soul at the petrol station provided the much need assistance in form of directions understandable by us.. and off we were to Buraimi (omani part)... 

Our aim was to spend the night in Nizwa and as we traversed from Buraimi to Nizwa we saw many interesting places and monuments..our first stopover was at a place called Ibri.. ibri was a small town and had a fort.. we were quite impressed to see a fort so well maintained ..but this is was nothing as compared to rest of them (apparently Oman has many forts and castles). We had missed the Friday market as we reached Ibri by around 1030ish...

 

Next we made our way towards Jabreen...this place also had a castle and it was very very beautifully maintained..even though we were late and it was closing time already, the guard was nice to let us wander around and leave at our convenience.. from here we moved towards  bahla..we had lunch in bahla but did not explore it as we wanted to get to Al hoota Caves ...the Al hoota caves contain stalagmites and stalactites .. also worth mentioning is that these formations sometimes resemble a posture or an animal and we were show a rock formation which looked like a lion, an elephant face, an old man sitting with his hands on his face, etc...Unfortunately  we were not allowed to take photographs there :(

From al hoota caves we made our way towards Bahla for lunch and then rested for half an hour before moving towards the Mountains of the Sun aka Jabal Shams.. this is the highest mountain range in Oman and overlooks the second largest canyon in the world Wadi Ghum.. 

the route to this mountain was through the beautifully preserved village called Al Hamra (it is said to be the oldest village in Oman where time has literally stood still)...The route to Jabal Shams was not for the faint hearted and a 4WD would have made the inclined slopes more easier to traverse through ...however we heaved along with our saloon car and though the road was in very good condition for most of the road, the slope of the road was quite another story...however once we went up we forgot to see the km on the odometer and at one point were confused to go ahead as we seemed to be headed downhill..thinking that we missed the top we reversed and took a detour off road and were at the periphery of the range ... it was a breath taking view and though there was not enough place to turn the car comfortably we still managed to make it downhill... along the way up and down we saw many areas which were flatten and there were 2 goal nets on either side..soccer is the favourite game there and we could find many many patches of land levelled for  playing soccer...

As we retraced our route to go back to nizwa, the evening was coming down on us ... we all were tired and headed towards nizwa to find a place for the night.. we stayed in a place called tanuf residency which had basic amenities..we went to pizza hut for a bite and then fell asleep like logs...

June 18th 2011 Day 2 : Daggers, pots, Jins, shells and aphrodisiac confection

We woke next morning and hunted around for a south Indian restaurant and had some wholesome breakfast... from here we went to explore Niwza... Nizwa had a fort and souq area near the fort which was quite interesting.. Niwza had an old world’s charm about it as it was just opening up as we reached..Nizwa is known for its silver craftsmanship ...we took a round of the city and finally decided to get some souveniors .. 

we saw an omani dagger worth 2000 OR ..it was the shop owner’s grandfathers and the handle of the dagger  was made from rhinos horn...after that we decided to see the fort and make our way towards bahla and tanuf before heading out to muscat.. 

the fort was not as beautiful as the Jabreen castle yet held our attention as the views from the fort were very nice.. we could see the city in directions infinitely till the mountains...

From here we moved to Tanuf to the water manufacturing plant..alas we could only see the plant from outside and not inside ..the best part of this trip was that there were always date trees lining the streets and sometimes they were low enough to pluck the dates... we did not know who was the owner of the tree but nonetheless it was fun ..

 from here we moved to Bahla and we saw the Bahla fort from the outside as we had enough of forts already ...Bahla is famous for its potteries ..it is a vase shaped rounded pot which is hung from an iron handle by hand made rope.. it is rumoured that Bahla is full of magic and these pots hold jins..after hunting for some potteries and not finding the traditional we made our way back to nizwa and picked up the same from the souq there..

From there we proceeded towards Muscat...and from there we moved towards Sohar ..on the way we passed a fishing village in Barka and pulled over to soak up some sun and collect some shells ..it was a deserted beach and it was after many many years i got back to collecting shells.. found some new kinds of shells instead of the regular white ones..it was a fun moment for fatema and zahid too as they splashed waves on each other... after that we went looking for omani halva ... as drove around we noticed an extraordinary amount of women’s tailoring shops ..these shops were consecutive and not scattered and sometime four or five similar shops would be together.. 

we drove towards sohar and finally hatta and entered UAE.. heading towards dubai and looking forward to the next trip..

Rain in Spain and Spain in Rain.....

Rain Rain go away ..

Little johnny wants to play..

Rain Rain go to Spain....

And Rain it did indeed....

Well after we had renewed our vows a couple of times, we left for our honeymoon with of course a brief stopover of 4 days at Dubai ... pretty cool place you know (now thats our home by the way)

Day 1 Freezing MADRID

The weather in Madrid quite literally drove me MAD and itching to get RID of the gloomy feeling...it was freaking zero degrees and cloudy and windy...even though i am supposed to be dramatic and hypochondriac (obviously as per my better half), it was extremely cold for someone who had come from the humid climes of Mumbai...

Ok i guess i will stop whining and get on with my story...anyways we reached our cosy hotel (more like a motel),quickly got into warmer clothes and headed out to the metro to explore the city.. afterall we had only a day here and we intended to make the most of it...

It was already afternoon when we started and got off at the Opera station and started to walk towards the Puerta del Sol..This is Madrid's most famous and most central square, located just a short walk from the Plaza Mayor..Outside the Casa de Correos is a stone slab on the pavement marking Kilometre Zero - the official starting point for Spain's 6 National Roads. 

This is a vibrant part of the city - full of bars, restaurants and shops...It started to rain even more heavily and the temperature dipped to about 0 degrees C...cold and wet as we were we started to make our way to the Prado Museum...Located in the eponymous street, El Paseo del Prado, its dazzling display of works by the great European masters such as Velázquez, Goya, Raphael, Rubens, and Bosch (among other major Italian and Flemish artists), is housed in an 18th-century Neo-Classical building..there were so many pieces of art that it was daunting to remember any particular one....

Unfortunately due to the weather i could not take many pictures..We then went to a cafe to have a quiet cup of coffee and tapas and take in the atmosphere...as it was getting dark we made our way back to the motel oops hotel...

Day 2 Just in time for Madrid to Malaga

The next day was much better in terms of the weather and though the sun was playing hide and seek, it was bearable...

We saw the The Palacio Real, or Royal Palace which is Madrid's largest building and the largest royal palace in Western Europe. It was built on the site of the old Alcázar. 

 

It is located next to the equally beautiful Plaza de Oriente square.  We also saw the palace gardens, called the Campo del Moro from the top... The Plaza de Oriente takes its name from its location - to the east of the palace, and contains several sculptures. 

 

While walking there we saw several street artists like the headless earl (i like to call him that) ..there was also photograher who was using a very old camera and had props to ensure that the final picture that would come would be as if taken in another time and era...

As we walked by the various lanes of Puerta del Sol again , we decided to pick up some small souveniours ...and of course I flipped on these lovely pair of brown suede boots...it was already nearing midday and  we then realised that we were running late and rushed in the metro to our motel..thankfully we had already checked out...finally when we reached the counter we were almost refused as the gates were closed and i was like if we miss this flight these will be the only pair of boots Z will buy me....but fortunately they let us through and off we went to Malaga !!!!!!!

We reached Malaga and got our rented car - it turned out to be a red sporty honda civic..it was such a pretty car that for a moment Z thought that with a car like this we might get mugged but we took it anyways and set the tom tom to our hotel ...Once we reached there we settled in we had a quiet dinner at the restaurant in the hotel

Day 3 Stalagmites and Stalactites J

The next day we were off to Nerja ...this town is on the Costa del Sol which has sandy coves sheltered by the impressive Sierra de Almijara mountains...fortunately or unfortunately the skies cleared up but we could not take in the sunshine as we were in the cave L... Well went to see the famous Cuevas de Nerja and had a touristy photo taken of both of us as token of being there...we roamed abit in nerja and decided to head back to malaga and explore ...

We went to the Alcazaba and then walked up to the Gibralfaro Castle which had stunning overview of the city and the port...after all the exhaustion we settled for a quiet meal and slept off...

Day 4 Rains and Ronda brrrrrrrrr

The next day we headed to a place called Ronda which is famous worldwide for its dramatic escarpments and views, and for the deep El Tajo gorge that carries the rio Guadalevín through its centre. 

Unfortunately for us the weather turned really bad and it began raining heavily off and on...anyways we headed for the 18th century Puente Nuevo 'new' bridge, which straddles the 100m chasm below, for its unparalleled views out over the Serranía de Ronda mountains... 

Across the bridge, there was an elegant cloistered 16th century convent which is now an art museum in old Ronda called La Ciudad...

Day 5 Granada and Gambas L

The next day we made a day trip to Granada to see the Al hambra and Nasrid Palace...The Al Hambra is an entire walled city within the city of Granada. There are royal apartments, forts, gardens, pavilions, barracks... All this surrounded by an impressive wall..

The Alcazaba consists of buildings dating from the thirteenth century in grounds used solely by the military...we also saw Jardin de los Adarves (Garden of the Ramparts) laid out with cypress trees, flowers and many fountains...

then there are several palaces beginning with The Palace of Comares which is considered one of the jewels of the Alhambra, with a beautiful pond flanked by two rows of hedges ...

another palace known as the Lions Palace...there are 124 columns that surround the courtyard. Everything in this garden has a symbolism representing paradise, surrounded by four rivers, while twelve lions at the centre represent the twelve signs of the zodiac...

 


The first two palaces are distinct in their Arabic style but the palace called Carlos V Palace has architecture from the renaissance period and even today is considered to be one of the best examples of renaissance architecture.... after spending a good 5-6 hours walking we decided to explore the remaining city and head back home...

We headed back home and had a nice quiet dinner in an Spanish place where Z had the famous la gamba (tiger prawns cooked with garlic and olive oil) and subsequently had a bad bout of allergy.

Day 6 Read Relax RestJ

Since the allergy was quite severe we decided to rest the next day ...This day was spent resting and reading (ZR-Theodore Boone and ZM- Death Match) ...okay don’t judge me by the name of the book... both of us were reading murder mysteries ..

Day 7 Dive, Disaster and Dance....

 The next day Z's allergic reaction was better and he decided to dive...we headed to Almeria at Playa del Sol where Z went for a dive...and i was suppose to drive back home as Z was tired..
however things took an unfortunate turn and we got stuck in sand while taking a turn... as i tried to get the car out of the sand, our clutch box broke and we were stranded... then we called the rent a car company for assistance and then waited for the pickup...the car which sent by the Rent a car was an Audi with a suited chauffeur...

we could hardly believe that it had come to receive us...

as soon as we sat, we fell asleep and we were dropped to the Rent a car office at the airport in about 2-3 hours...there we had a long discussion and finally got a replacement...that night we went to Torremolinos  to watch a flamenco show which we enjoyed thoroughly and then headed back to hotel ...

Day 8 Cordoba

 The next day we made a day trip to visit Cordaba to visit a La Mesquita...this Mosque Catheral is has mixed styles of architecture and it is actually very fascinating to see Arabic and Catholic styles at one place... 


Interesting tidbit : Built in 786 as a mosque, the structure was expanded several times under Cordoba's Muslim rule while still remaining largely true to the original design. Following the Christian Reconquista of Cordoba in 1236, work immediately went underway to convert the building to a church, and four centuries later a cathedral at the center of the building was constructed, though not without controversy as it significantly altered the space. Today, despite the presence of the cathedral, most of the original mosque structure remains remarkably well-preserved...

As we walked away from the Catheral, we towards another fortress called the Alcazar de los Reyes Cristianos...this was supposed to be the headquarters for the Spanish Inquisition...the fortress has very beautiful gardens and a roman sarcophagus...

Spaniards are very proud of displaying their flowers and have read somewhere that there are contest to see which alley is more pretty...

we passed across a particular Calleja de las Flores.. A beautiful narrow street, full of flowers with a wonderful tiny square at the end and excellent views of the Mezquita's Tower framed by the buildings lining the street.

Well after all these sights we returned back to the hotel and packed our bags for another journey ...homewards...

The Dutch Sojourn

Started from Mumbai on Saturday early morn and flew to Dubai to meet the rest of the family.. was thinking how and where would I meet them as we had not decided a place to meet them but luckily caught up with mum and Roz in the cloak ! J … well the perfect Saturday had just begun…

then Z calls Pa and says “ They wont issue me a boarding pass” – coz the flight was over booked and Rangwala junior had not done an online check-in  ! What followed was a nerve racking half an hour and then at last he gets his pass and we were almost the last to board… needless to say, the flight was packed and we were scattered but in twos and threes…

the flight from Dubai to Amsterdam was not great... whether it was in terms of services which was really bad or the landing... it was like being on a rollercoaster… and with the inflight camera and the recent spate of plane crashes being reported in the media, I was praying hard !

Anyways we landed, got our luggage, arranged for our car and headed out of the airport. Before I continue this journal any further, must really mention some relative who had said that the weather was warm enough to wear sleeveless ! It was 13 degrees, windy and was raining… I have never ever been that cold before!

Well somehow made it to the car, put our luggage in and then we were rolling….we had a GPS device ”tom-tom” (Jane ben J) which was giving the directions for the route to Wassennaar..

Day 1 June 19, 2010: Settling In

Actually we reached Duinrell in Wassennaar by around 3ish in the afternoon… checked in and …then Roz and I – we got lost! (The first of the couple of times in this trip J) we were looking at the places to visit at the reception and the rest of the gang just literally disappeared !  well the reunion did happened thankfully... 

That’s our three bedroom cabin complete with a barbeque stove and heaters..Anyways once we had settled in and unpacked, we decided to move out and check out Den Haag…  It was so peaceful and scenic, the houses were so pretty… it almost reminded of my Hansel and Gretel story book except that these houses were not made of food J… 
We had decided to go Madoradum .however that required quite some time to see and we were late and on top of that…the weather was gloomy (it was a rainy windy day ! L)… so we decided that we would see this place on the last day in the morning.. anyways we moved on from there and went to explore Den Haag and had dinner at a Indonesian place where we tasted a rice specialty called Ritsafel

Day 2 June 20, 2010: Say Cheese !

Had a nice heavy breakfast and headed out East to explore ……

So Our Jane ben guided us to the small and quaint village of Gouda… actually we did not have a specific location and hence once there we were kinda lost as to where to park and how to get to the market square… Anyways the Dutch are quite warm and friendly and we found a friendly stranger who quite literally walked us to the Nieuwe Markt …That’s Z chatting away with the friendly [tall-cute-blonde] stranger!! 

Yea so anyways made it to this cheese museum …which was actually a cheese weighing house and an interesting trivia bout this place was that once upon a time the owner (or perhaps the mayor) of this building had issued an order that no building should be built higher than this building… pretty autocratic so the neighbor actually built a building which was just the same height and there was a same stone carving on that building which when translated meant “Not very high not Very Small just right” J … 

anyways we had a tour of this museum and learnt how they make the famous “Gouda cheese”... Even cheese is young, mature and old …and a specific kind is eaten in breakfast, lunch and with wine… We did buy some yummy cheese ! We had some Ice-cream and french fries and mayo ! 

The village square had a beautiful Church which had a cuckoo clock. The melodic chime of church bells could be heard anywhere in the village !

Well we then headed out to Amersfoort… Amersfoort is said to have one of the oldest and the best preserved city gates. 

We walked around and found that there were live bands playing and all the road side cafes were occupied with people who were out to unwind… The imposing Onze Lieve Vrouwe tower can be seen from anywhere in this town…Wrapped up this long day with Arabic food at Habibi…

 

Day 3 June 21, 2010: Berry Berry everywhere

Texel is one of the 5 wadden islands. It is the biggest and the most populated Frisian islands in the Wadden Sea. We needed to travel north to Den Helder and take a ferry to the island.  We took a combo ticket in which we got to see an aquarium and a museum. The aquarium had seals and they were about to feed them which was fun to watch. The museum was actually a house tour (audio) as it were in the olden ages replete with furniture and utensils of the olden days…there was another museum we were kinda out of time as we needed to have dinner and be in time to catch the ferry back as the last ferry was leaving by 9… so  we had pizza for dinner and shopped for berries, berries and more berries J…

Day 4 June 22, 2010: A bit of this, A bit of that

Today was my coco bday... I turned --- never mind…we cut a cake and then headed South…

Delft:

Was a bright sunny day!!! ………Rode on a tram!!!

Had a hard time locating this delftware factory but it was worth the effort nonetheless. There was a tour which showed how the traditional delft ware was made right from the moulding to the painting stage. They create some amazing stuff and I think it is a piece to treasure. Anyways we then headed out to Kinderdijks

Kinderdijks:

Kinderdijk is situated in a polder at the confluence of the Lek and Noord rivers. To drain the polder, a system of 19 windmills was built around 1740. This group of windmills is the largest concentration of old windmills in the Netherlands… The best way to explore this picturesque landscape was either to walk or cycle … I cycled after “god-knows-how-many” years…

Rotterdam:

…This could be Rotterdam or anywhere

Liverpool or Rome

'Cause Rotterdam is anywhere

Anywhere alone

Anywhere alone …

Since this was the last leg of the day trip we all were tired and went to the Euromast (standing tall at 185m). It was a nice way of discovering this beautiful city but one regret could not see the Cube Houses ..we finished the day with Chinese at the Oriental Palace..

Day 5 June 23, 2010: Castle, Caves and the elusive Printen J

s hertogenbosch

This was on the way to Maastricht. It was a quaint little town with a nice castle which had a moat and ducks and dandelions (so love dandelions – fulfilled my childhood Enid Blytons fantasies -- had fun blowing the thistles) a short trip and then out to Maastricht!

Maastricht

It is located near the border of Netherland and Belgium and Germany. It has some pretty special limestone caves. There are lime stones cave in the north and south of the city..We just missed the tour for the north caves and rushed south to ensure that we did not miss the south caves tour. The guide (in the pic) there was very sweet. He impromptu organized a tour and fortunately we had two other people in our group who could speak English and could translate what the guide spoke in dutch. The weather was beautiful and warm but in the caves the temperatures dropped to 10 degrees and we did not even have a sweater on us… Though the caves were impressive with the sketching and carvings, it was a bit too long (perhaps we were cold)... we then left the city and headed for a small little trip to Aachen in Germany !

Aachen

Aachen was this small town near the border of Germany. The local specialty offered was something known as Printen (which I am not sure if I would have wanted to eat)… In search of the elusive Printen had a glimpse of how beautiful and unspoilt is the bucolic rustic landscape of Aachen. Also lesson learnt – spelling mistakes can also take you places!  

Day 6 June 24, 2010: Waterloo

This was a long trip in terms of travel…I think it took us a good 1-1.5 hour to get to waterloo…we reached the tourist info center and inquired about the places to see... we got a combo offer which included 2-3 museums (including a museum dedicated to Duke of Wellington and Napoleon each) and the Lion Mound which is an awesome place. 

A bit of a history lesson on “the Lion Mound”- it is the place on which the battle of waterloo was fought in which Napoleon was defeated by Anglo-Allied army under the command of Duke of Wellington and the Prussian army. This battle was the last for Napoleon and brought an end to the reign of Napoleon as the Emperor of the French. The lion Mound is a memorial (which is built from the earth of the battlefield) in the form of a statue of a lion (looking towards France) on a hill, with 226 stairs. The views from the top are awesome.

…we had some awesome Belgian chocolate and cookies.

Day 7 June 25, 2010: Amsterdam

We went to Amsterdam towards the end of the trip as we did not want to spend more time on major cities. This is more often than not a stopover city and can be visited many times in the future. 

However we went to the Anne Frank Museum. It took us a bit of roaming here and there (which was actually good as we got to feel the city) before we actually reached the place. When we reached there, there was a long queue but fortunately the weather was calm and there was no rain. The museum is quite unique and in my opinion more a message to humanity. There are quotes from Anne Frank’s diary and interviews of Anne Frank’s father and friends. It showed a glimpse of life in the Nazi era. Thank god I wasn’t born then…

Honestly Amsterdam as city held less charm for me than as compared to smaller towns.. and I forgot  we ate fish and chips (I think the fish was raw ! eeeks had to gulp it down with cookies ! that was something) .. Seems like French fries and mayonnaise is a national favorite…I dig that! J

We went and shopped for a bit of groceries for barbeque and we wrapped it up early and headed home to pack and had a barbeque party ! Yayee!

Day 8 June 26, 2010: Heading back to Dxb

This was our last day in Netherlands and we checked out at around 9.30 ish in the morning and went to visit the Madurodam (miniature replica of Holland). We had tried to visit this place on the first day but it required around 2 hours to fully see the place and we were pretty late. The picture above is the replica of the place in Wassenaar we were staying in..really didnt have the guts to try out any water action since it was so cold.....Anyways we rushed through this place a bit as we had to give our car back and had a flight to catch.

And the flight back home was a safe landing, great service and and I finished watching the Twilight Series in air (not necessarily in that order) J

The End