Was planning on this trip for a long long time.. Finally was able to do it in Oct 2018!
One of the speciality of the trip was that we had traveling members from 4 years to 70 years!!
Lot of challenges from even before start of the trip. Getting multiple visas (UK & Schengen). I got the UK visa on my own though had trouble with adding family members for the same slot in UK visa vfs website. Schengen requires planning the whole itinerary, internal stay & travel booking, insurance, etc. Even missing the middle name can create a problem!
I had checked many of my friends about each of the countries / cities and the travel options. The main attraction was Swiss. Rest all was specific to what we wanted to see. The European cities – Paris, Rome & London have their own charm. Unlike Australia, Europe is full of history and backed by excellent museums. We didn’t go to any Zoo in Europe though. Australian forest and wildlife is completely different from Asia & Europe which makes it very interesting. Also Australians are known for outdoors/adventure and Nelson bay near Sydney gave us some insight into the same.
The dynamism & energy of people in Melbourne may be compared to people in Amsterdam. Though both these cities have good public transport, people choose cycles (Amsterdam) & skateboards (Melbourne) which is pretty cool!!
Paris:
Nice buidings, nice people, great public transport - metros!! We had difficulty opening the metro door as the knob has to be turned or button pressed! Some of the trains are pretty old and you would be happy to know that Bengaluru has better metro coaches! We did Notre dame cathedral followed by Ice cream at Amorino. Then we went to the top of the great Eiffel tower! Amazing view of Paris.. Following day, went to Disneyland taking the metro! The ride was nice and reached disneyland in just 40 mins! Disneyland is outskirts of Paris it was interesting to watch the outskirts of Paris sitting in the train.. Some of the rides in Disneyland were down and so there was lot of rush for the other rides. The star wars ride was amazing. My dad & mom who came along had a terrific 2 mins on that ride!! The illumination in the evening closing time was amazing. Had dinner at Gandhiji restaurant (serves non-veg & alcohol) on our way to our AirBnb home.. The owner was an interesting person and we had a good chat with him! Next early morning we started with a tour of Sacre-coeur Basilica in Montemarte area. It was pretty close to our AirBnB house. Took a cab and reached in 10 mins. The Basilica is on top of a hill and gives a beautiful view of Paris! There was a real person dressed like a statue and was giving the tourists a nice time! The Arc de Triomphe is one of the most famous monuments in Paris, standing at the western end of the Champs-Élysées at the center of Place Charles de Gaulle, formed by its twelve radiating avenues. The Arc de Triomphe honours those who fought and died for France in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Friday afternoon traffic: We had to catch the TGV-Lyria train to Basel from Paris. Our taxi got cancelled at the last minute and it took another 20 mins to get one more. We had traffic signals everywhere and by the time we reached the train station, we were late! Luckily we had another train leaving after 2 hours and we could get tickets for the same! Finally, we realized how easy it was to travel in the metro in Paris than traveling in a taxi!
Interlaken, Swiss:
We reached Interlaken late in the evening. We had a nice AirBnB house near the station. Beautiful view outside, we started our first day with the visit to Jungfrajoch! It was a perfect day and we had a great time travelling all the way up! We had lot of Indian travellers in Swiss. We met a lady from Chennai who was traveling with her sister and had toured all around the globe! Jungfrajoch was one of the places that wasn't yet conquered on their list! Interlaken is a quite town and surrounded by two beautiful lakes - Thun & Brienz. It's a lot of walk and we couldn't finish the entire cave! Later we did Harder kulm which offers a beautiful view of Interlaken and surrounding areas! The cog wheel train was also a beautiful experience. The next day we went to St. Beatus caves. This is a beautiful cave near to lake Thun! After St. Beatus caves went to Harder Kulm! After visiting the top, we had lunch there. Here we met a lady from Karachi, Pakistan who started chatting with us.. She was very curious about us and our culture!! Very keen to know if we are vegetarians or not!!
Lucerne, Swiss:
Here we planned to do Mt. Titlis. However due to the rain, we decided to push it to the next day. So instead we did Mt. Pilatus. Scenic views of switzerland all the way till the top! Since it had snowed overnight, we enjoyed some snow at the top! Mt. Titlis: Very beautiful like the other places. Chapel Bridge, Lucerne Lido, Lake shore, Lucerne
Rome:
Colosseum, Roman forum, Trevi Fountain St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican city
London:
Trafalgar square, Westminster, Buckingham palace, Big Ben, London Bridge Wembley: Went to a relative's place for dinner. Saw the Wembley stadium from a distance! Slough: Slough is near Heathrow airport and its a nice place away from the city. Visited a friend. Evening we went to Windsor castle!
Edinburgh, Scotland:
Edinburgh castle, St. Giles cathedral, Scottish national gallery
Drive from Edinburgh to Inverness & back:
Pitlochry Dam, Dores beach, Loch Ness, Fort Augustus, Scotland Snack shack, Dalwhinnie
Amsterdam, Netherlands
City tour (Hop on Hop off) Westerpark - serene garden with a pool of water where ducks & other birds having some fun in the water! Cycling on the cycle paths of Amsterdam with my kid at the baby seat was fun!! Early dinner at Saravana Bhavan - Delicious South-Indian meal in Europe! On the way back to our hotel, we lost our way and by chance reached the popular "I amsterdam sign" near Rijksmuseum!!
