6. How Not to plan a Euro trip! - The Wake up call

Click here to read Part 1 : The Dream 

Click here to read Part 2 : Bam! It's Amsterdam

Click here to read Part 3 : Here we land, Switzerland 

Click here to read Part 4 : Its never late, for another chocolate 

Click here to read Part 5 : Bye bye Chocolato, Hi to Gelato

Time to roam, then to Rome

2 July 2022

We had a free shuttle from the camp to the Florence city. Cars are not allowed in the city. We could use bicycles or segways which were available for rent. We chose to walk. We found a route in Google map where we could cover all major attractions and reach back at the same place. The architectural marvel of the buildings here truly awed us. 'David by Michelangelo' was the sculpture, but it was us who stood still!

We didn't have enough time to go inside the buildings as that would take hours of waiting in line. We had time only till noon, we walked through the streets with gelato in our hands. Of course, how could we not have a gelato after having discovered that the gelato was invented here in Florence. Me and Nachu also rode on the carousel. 

Florence

We still wanted to see more of Florence, but the time didn't let us to. We had to take the shuttle back to the camp and check out. 

We have to reach Rome, the last station of our Euro trip.

With all the blunders we had driving in Europe, we were sure that we wouldn't face any difficulties driving to Rome. Because 'all roads lead to Rome'. Yes, I was wanting to write this line the moment I decided to write this travelogue. 😜

We reached at Rome at around 4:30 PM. After checking in to our hotel, we immediately stepped out to see the Colosseum. On our way, in the last minute of course, we checked for tickets to the Colosseum and learned that we had to book those in advance, which we hadn't. Anyhow, we took our chance and continued the journey to the Colosseum. Rome, we felt wasn't as clean as the other cities in Europe and started giving us non-Europe vibes.

The metro took us via Vatican City. So even though we did not visit Vatican, we can say we passed through Vatican City.

Once we reached the Colosseum, we found a person who was selling tickets, unofficially, but we got a good deal and got into the Colosseum. It is always good to have a guided tour in such historical places. We had learnt that the hard way when we visited Harappa and had no clue what we were seeing. But we failed to learn from our lesson and entered Colosseum without a guide. We did our own exploration and imagined the gladiator stories that happened there years ago. We also walked close to the groups who had a guide talking loudly to understand what he was saying about the place. 

It was the last dinner in Europe. We planned to have a fine dining experience and walked into a nice restaurant. While having food, the server came and asked us whether we were from India. 'Yes', we replied. 'Are you from Kerala?'. We were quite surprised by that question because we understood how he could recognize us as Indians, but if he had to understand the specific region, he would have to be some spy.

'Yes, how did you understand?'

'From the way you nod your heads'

 Oh, that's when we realized that we do nod our heads in a specific way.

'Our head chef is from Kerala!'

 'What?', We came to this expensive fine dining European cuisine experience only to know that it was cooked by a Malayali! That's great.

The server later came along with the head chef.

'Nattil evideya?' (Where are you from (in Kerala)?), we asked each other. Because that's what you ask when you see a Malayali outside Kerala.

We were further surprised that his home in Kerala was just a few kilometres away from Simi's home.

The world is such a small place that we met him of all places when we could have met him in Kerala.

The world is such a large place that we had to travel all this way from Kerala to meet him.

After bidding farewell to him, it was now time to bid farewell to Europe. It was our last night here. We had to wake up early the next day and go to the airport.

3 July 2022

It truly was a trip to remember. We were feeling disappointed that the trip was ending. We need more of this, more of adventure, we wished. Okay, one last time, the universe obliged!

So, we had to return our car in the car rental office in the Airport first and then head to the bag drop and other activities to board the aircraft. Google maps was set with the car rental office, and we started.

We reached the airport, and there was no car rental office there! What do we do now. We cannot leave without returning the car. (Oh, no. Will we be stuck in Europe with the car!! 😛  )

We needed to ask someone where the car rental offices were. Typically, all car rental offices would be in the same place. But we were in the Airport, and it was a drop off location where we couldn't park for long. 

'Okay, you guys try to roam around or find a parking spot, I will check with someone', I got down of the car. Soorej was driving and he drove along. I went inside the airport and checked with a couple of people, and no one had any idea where the rental offices were. I called up Soorej. He couldn't find a parking spot and they had to exit the airport premises back to the road and continued searching for the car rental office.

We did try calling the rental company, but they wouldn't pick up as it was not their office hours yet.

I continued my research in Google maps and asking people and finally got some clue on where it was. There was a walkway connectivity from the airport to the rental company drop off location through the airport. I called up Soorej and he too had figured that place at the same time and was driving towards that place. I headed there by foot.

It is almost at the same time that me and the car reached a basement which was the car rental drop location. We were relieved. We took out our luggage, re-checked the car, took a video of it parked and dropped the key in a box there. That's it. The car is no more ours. 

The luggage was heavy, we felt heavier (literally too from all that food) as we walked to the airport to board the return flight. 

The Wake up call

Our transit was in Qatar, and we had some time there. From the airport, we all ordered a hot chocolate and chocolate croissant, Well, muscle memory.

Having that hot chocolate and chocolate croissant made us realize how rich those were in Europe. The croissant was soggy and hot chocolate not so much 'chocolaty'. That was our wake-up call. Okay guys, you are out of Europe. It was just like falling off from the bed, like pulling off the bandage. Reality has struck. Trip is over. Back to work. Back to school!! 

Europe.

Well, that was our Europe Trip. It was an amazing experience. A great exploration. Various cultures. Various food experiences. Lot of blunders which truly made the trip. (And Lots of amazing planning which led to all of these. 😜)

The other day, me and Simi were talking about one of the experiences we had during this trip when we realized that with time, these memories will fade. Such rich experiences, I shouldn't let that happen. That's the inspiration to write this travelogue. 

'This travelogue will help us keep these memories for ever..', I said as I started writing this.

' ..and also remind us that there are more places to visit in Europe.' Simi completed the sentence.

'There are?'

'Of course, there are. Is it time to plan the next one yet?'

 

5. How Not to plan a Euro trip! - Bye bye Chocolato, Hi to Gelato

Click here to read Part 1 : The Dream 

Click here to read Part 2 : Bam! It's Amsterdam

Click here to read Part 3 : Here we land, Switzerland 

Click here to read Part 4 : Its never late, for another chocolate 

 

Bye bye Chocolato, Hi to Gelato

27 June 2022 continues.

After grabbing a few more chocolate croissants, chocochip cookies and hot chocolate, we exited Switzerland. 

Snacking and driving, we reached Innsbruck in Austria. We intended to reach Innsbruck a bit earlier, but the chaos at the car rental company led to a delay and we reached only late in the evening. We went for a stroll nearby, had dinner and called it a day.

The plan for the next day was to do the Olpererhütte hike and click pics at the suspension bridge. It's a beautiful place of which we had seen photos and was in our 'must visit' list and we were really happy that were were so close. The sad part is that it still is in the list as close was not close enough.

The weather report for the following day was not so great, it was misty and with thunderstorms. We already had an experience with a thunderstorm hike and didn't want to repeat it. We had to quickly think of a Plan B. In comes Google maps. Our hotel for the next day was booked at Verona in Italy which was ~300km away, so we had to look for something on the way to Verona or in Verona itself.

Goole map showed all sorts of plan B. That is when it struck. I had found something that all 4 of us wouldn't be much excited about, but still would make our trip worthy for all the excitement the 5th one would have. The 'Peppa Pig land' in Gardaland resort in Verona!

28 June 2022

It was a 3-hour drive from Innsbruck to Verona. We started after breakfast and reached at around lunch time in Verona. After checking it to our hotel, we went to a shopping mall in Verona. The restaurants there were very tempting, and we finalized on one. No prizes for guessing what we ate for our first meal in Italy. Yes, wine and pizza it was. The taste and texture of the authentic pizza was amazing which we truly enjoyed.

Next destination was Peppa pig land for us. Soorej and Praveena definitely had nothing to do with Peppa pig and they decided to visit a lake nearby. For Peppa pig land, we found an economical option. Gardaland is a very big amusement park/resort which requires a whole day for exploration and Peppa pig land was just one small portion in it. There was this ticket plan in Gardaland that if we enter after 6 PM the tickets were of half price. We definitely didn't need the whole day as all we were interested only in Peppa pig land and not the rest.6 PM it is. Half price it is!

Peppa Pig Land

Nachu was truly mesmerized by the sight of Peppa pig land. Her dream to go in a hot air balloon came true when she boarded the hot air balloon shaped giant wheel. Of course, she would later grow up and realize that it wasn't a real hot air balloon. But for the time being this was good enough. 

The hot air balloon ride 😜

There were several rides in the Peppa pig land and Nachu truly enjoyed each one of them. After that, we explored some other kids' rides making it a memorable night. 

On to the next day.

 

29 June 2022

By now, it would have been evident that the Italy journey had a certain level of planning. A planning which we had to stick to, no matter what. Because the hotels were booked that way.

This day, for instance, the hotel was booked in Moneglia which was around 300 km away from Verona. So, whatever the plan for the day, we had to reach Moneglia by evening. How is that for a plan?

We roamed around in Verona in the morning visiting some churches and walking around the streets. We had on our list that we had to try Gelato from Italy because it was invented there. On the streets of Verona, we found many Gelato shops and understood that it was time to start our Gelato exploration. We had the first of the many Gelatos that we were going to have during the trip, had lunch in a busy street where we had some amazing Lasagna and then started our drive to the 'planned' accommodation.

It was a good drive, a bit longer that we expected, but we managed to reach the Moneglia beach before sun set.

It was a small beach and all shacks where closed. There were only a couple of eateries open, and we had some sea food pizza which were initially reluctant to have but turned out to be a good culinary experience.

30 June 2022 

Our stay for the night was in Florence, 200 kms away!

But yeah, we had enough time to explore Cinque Terre, the primary reason we stayed at Moneglia. 

Cinque Terre was a beauty. It is a group of 5 islands. The cliffs had buildings on terraces, narrow roads, steps to hike to the top, all of which overlook the clear sea. A photo frame in each angle. We didn't hike all the way to the top but did hike up to some height where we could get a good view. The lunch with that view too was special in itself and Italy again didn't disappoint us with its food.

Amazing visuals

Cinque Terre

We left Cinque Terre in the evening to reach Florence late in the night. In Florence, we had chosen a camping site for stay, for economic reasons. Well, the camping site was an amazing one with all kinds of options for campers, like tents, rooms, RV parking space etc.

We crashed as soon as we reached there.

1 July 2022

Okay, so where do we go this day? Or rephrasing the question, where had we booked an accommodation for the night?

Easy answer. For a change it was the same place.

That's because this day had a very specific plan. Visit the leaning tower of Pisa. 

After breakfast, we started our drive towards the Leaning tower of Pisa. We reached there at around noon and reached our destination. More than the building itself, it was the marketing that mesmerize

d me. How a fault was marketed so well that people all around the world including us drove all the way to see the 'architectural marvel'. We took the mandatory pic with Pisa, leaning over it, trying to hold it etc.

Who has a better balance?

We had a sumptuous lunch from one of the eateries on the street. What mesmerised us more than the architectural marvel is the taste of the cheesecake, which none of us wanted to share but have the whole on our own. Especially when sharing a cheesecake with the 'cheesecake magician' Simi (you blink your eyes and its gone!). No wonder they say, 'Sharing is scaring!'.

We then drove back to our camp.

We then spent time with the amenities in the camp like the swimming pool and had dinner from the camp itself.

 Day it is.

 

Click here to read Part 6 (last part) - The Wake up call

4. How Not to plan a Euro trip! - Its never late, for another chocolate

Click here to read Part 1 : The Dream 

Click here to read Part 2 : Bam! It's Amsterdam

Click here to read Part 3 : Here we land, Switzerland 

Its never late, for another chocolate

25 June 2022

We checked out from Grindelwald and as usual asked Simi what was the plan for the day. She smiled and gave the usual reply, 'more nature'.  We visited Oeschinensee and Blausee. It was a much more relaxing day with lot of time for taking pictures. And exactly on this day, the memory card of our camera got corrupted denying the universe from witnessing all the solo pics/couple pics/family pics/group pics that we took that day.

Luckily we had mobile phones with us.

On the way to Oeschinensee 

Blausee - Deosn't it look dreamy?

Blausee - a glimpse

One interesting activity we did was the mountain coaster which was a first-time experience and an amazing one. It was a ride where a person sits on a cart and the cart goes through a slide of almost 750 meters amidst nature. Me and Nachu sat on one cart, and I started the video of my camera to capture the complete ride. But the moment the ride started the video automatically stopped. 😐 This doesn't seem to be a good day to capture memories digitally!

 

The video gone wrong

 

After a gap of 2 days, we returned to Sudhi's place and called it a day.

 

 26 June 2022

 

'What is the plan today?'

'More nature'

 

It was a Sunday and Sudhi, Swati and Swasti also joined us for the sightseeing. We visited Mount Stoos. To reach the top, we had to go via the world's steepest funicular. Up above, we were truly awestruck by the view. Even though we jokingly said that it was only 'nature' every day and no city vibes, the beauty of nature really amazed us. There were mountains, greenery, lakes, and one could just stand on the viewpoint and gaze at the beauty for hours together. But not when you have a 4-year-old kid with you. There was a park there with swings and slides and Nachu and Swasti played there for some time. It was too windy and after our regular photo sessions, we dispersed from that place.

Happily walking towards getting featured in my blog

 

with our Swiss hosts

Is nature looking too artificial?

In the evening, we visited a restaurant on the banks of Lake Lucerne with a mission to try the local cuisine, especially the Swiss national dish, Swiss cheese fondue.

Sudhi graciously paid the bill stating that we were guests, and we could pay when they visited Bangalore. 

 

Sudhi, we are waiting for you to come to Bangalore to buy you the Bangalore special Bisi Bele Bath from Shanthi Sagar😜.

No, seriously come down, let's continue the party that we put on a pause in Switzerland.

 

That was our last night in Switzerland and Nachu and Swasti truly enjoyed the time dancing and playing on the Lucerne bridge.

Thanks to Sudhi, Swati and Swasti, an evening to truly remember ever!

 

27 June 2022

It was time to bid farewell to Switzerland, but not without a 'memorable' incident.

 

We had to drop the rental car and take another one which we had booked for the cross country drop off. Me and Soorej planned to drop the older car and pick the new one and then go home to pick the others. That way they could spend time at home to pack, get ready etc. Now, we couldn't pick the new car and then drop the old one because the drop off time of the old car was earlier than the pickup time of the new one. Delay in dropping off will lead to hefty charges. So, the plan was that I would drop Soorej to the rental office of the new car, then go and return the old one and wait there. By that time, Soorej will pick the new one and come and pick me.

 

Soorej was driving when we reached the location of the new car rental. He got down from the car and I took over the driver's seat. Soorej went ahead to the car rental office. I drove off to the other car rental office. The drop off time was nearing.

 

I drove through Zurich city. Driving in the city was totally different from driving in the countryside. There were too many cars, buses, bicycles in the cycle lanes, trams on the middle of the road etc and several rules to follow. I was driving highly concentrated and reached a traffic signal. While staying at the signal, I got startled with a thought! The car key was with Soorej. I think he had put it in his pocket while driving and when he got down, the car key went with him.

 

Yeah, so I was driving a car on the busy street of Zurich at the busiest hours, and I did not possess the car key with me. If the car engine shuts down for some reason, I would have no way to start the car. I looked at the rear-view mirror and it was a police car behind me. Wow. No other car would have made the situation more dramatic. I waited for the signal to turn green. The car meanwhile went to sleep. A chill ran through my spine.

 

The signal turned green. I pressed the accelerator and the car started and took off. I sighed relief for the time being, but still the thought of engine shutting down lingered in my mind. I wanted to quickly reach the rental office but there was no way to cruise with the busy traffic.

I somehow managed to reach the rental office exactly at the drop off time and was relieved. 

The relief was only for half a second when I realized that to return the car, I need to return the key as well. I called up Soorej before getting out of the car. He said he has started off with the formalities for the new car and will be getting the car soon. I got off the car and told them that Soorej was just nearby and has the key with him. 

For them, the car return time is when I hand over the key and they started threatening me to charge for late return. I convinced them for more than half an hour that the key is just 5 minutes away (they didn't seem to believe me for some reason). Soorej finally arrived and we handed over the key. That is when the rental company added more drama to the story. Well, that is too long a story to be covered as a sub plot. So, that one is for some time later.

 

We walked out of the rental office, and I looked at the new car. A Volkswagen Touareg! It was such a huge one. Truly majestic. 

We drove home and picked up the others. With all the incidents, we were late to start our day. We said bye to Sudhi, Swati, and Swasti. They were amazing hosts and truly made our trip smooth as Swiss butter. You guys truly rock! (I think we should visit you again to thank you personally. 😜😁)

 

Okay Touareg, time to cross the Swiss border. On our way, we saw a supermarket and wondered whether we should get our usual hot chocolate and chocolate croissants, and some chocolates for the way. We looked at the time and it was already too late. But it's Swiss chocolate. We looked at the time again. 

The car waited in the supermarket's parking lot.

 

It’s never late, for another chocolate.

 

 

Isn't it a small car for our remaining trip?

Click here to read Part 5  - Bye bye Chocolato, Hi to Gelato

Oeschinensee Mounatin coaster video - https://youtu.be/7rQbYSC41Tk

3. How Not to plan a Euro trip! - Here we land, Switzerland

Click here to read Part 1 : The Dream 

Click here to read Part 2: Bam! It's Amsterdam

Here we land, Switzerland

21 June 2022

 

We took a flight from Amsterdam to Zurich, and I messaged Sudhi when we landed. We had booked a self-drive rental car from Zurich airport, so we had to take the car and drive to Sudhi's home. He had shared his home location with us. A guy from the car rental company was standing on the airport with my name on the placard. 'It's the first time I am experiencing this, someone holding a placard with my name', I said, and we walked towards him. The car rental office was a few kilometres away from the airport and he had come to pick us up. We reached the car rental office. There stood our car waiting for us. A BMW X3.

 

It felt quite different to drive as it was a left-hand drive, however after the initial hiccup, I started enjoying the drive. The features like lane assist would keep me in lane and anti collission breaking would automatically break when the car is closer to the vehicle in front. I didn't have much to do, I wondered whether I was driving the car or the other way round! We did not get much time to enjoy the drive as we reached Sudhi's home. 

Sudhi welcomed us with hot home-made chai! Yum! The chai felt even more fulfilling as we were having tea for the first time in last 3 days.

 Sudhi, his wife Swati and 6-year-old daughter Swasti stayed there. Swati was on a business trip and would return that night. On reaching their house, Nachu instantly started playing with Swasti. Just like we got tea, it was a welcome change for her after seeing only us adults for the last 3 days.

 After the refreshing tea, we took some rest and visited the Lake Lucerne which was pretty close from where we stayed. We had a walk around the lake and enjoyed the natural beauty. Then it started raining and we had to head back home.

Sudhi, who is an amazing cook was ready with some amazing home cooked dinner and he also had stocked the local beer in his fridge for us. What is hospitality if not this? Athithi Devo Bhava! 

Swati came back from her business trip, and we all enjoyed some family time. Nachu was delighted to watch Peppa pig on TV after 3 looong days!

 

22 June 2023

As per Sudhi and Swati's suggestion, we planned to visit Rhine falls. Commute wasn't a problem anymore as we had a car to drive us around. Rhine waterfalls was a beautiful sight for the eyes. The waterfall was breath taking and we took a boat ride by the waterfall. We went close to the falls and the water sprayed upon us which in itself was a refreshing experience.

Rhine falls

After visiting the falls, we went to a street to have dinner. Walking to a Mc Donald's made us realize that everything in Switzerland is costlier compared to that in Amsterdam.

After strolling through the city for some more time, we went back home, again to some amazing home cooked food! 😋

Peppa pig played on TV, and we conversed all sort of random things. It was a relaxing evening, a perfect way to end the day considering we had a much busier day planned ahead of us.

 23 June

We started from home at around 9 and drove towards Lauterbrunnen. On the way, we grabbed some chocolate croissants and choco chip cookies. We realized that we were being robbed of having the real joy of eating chocolates back home. The amount and quality of chocolate in the croissants and choco chip cookies were unimaginable and the more we ate, the more we craved for more.

Since Simi was the main itinerary planner, first thing in the day, we used to ask her the plan for the day. In Switzerland, the answer was kind of a template, with only the place name changing. 'What to see there?'. 'Nature'. 

Nature, truly beautiful, not overrated a bit. Each view was a frame, and we really enjoyed the drive. We just wanted to stop at each point to click pcs but then we would never reach our destination. We did a few pitstops though. 

At one such pitstop, we did notice something interesting. We just got off the car and were stretching ourselves, when we saw 5 Porche cars come together, revving and park at the parking spot.  It was a sight to see. Yeah, they might be seeking attention, and they definitely caught not just ours but everyones around there. We keenly looked at who would get out of those cars. More than amazed, we awed seeing 5 sixty plus gentlemen get out of the car. Man, they were enjoying their retired life. We really wanted to ask if they would adopt us. We were also five, the counts matched! 😜

Back to reality, we continued our drive and reached Lauterbrunnen. Again, a pleasing sight to the eyes. We had lunch, roamed around and spent some time in the kids' park. 

Lauterbrunnen

By this time, Nachu was fully comfortable in walking along the footpaths without being held. Simi told her to be cautious in these unfamiliar places.'Unfamiliar? these are familiar places for me, she said!' and continued exploring the place.

We continued to Grindelwald, where we had booked our stay for the night.

 

24 June

We had to execute 1 out of the 2 plans. 1. Visit top of Europe (via gondola ride) or 2. hike to Bachalpsee lake. The weather that day wasn't too kind to us, it warned us of thunderstorms and less visibility. The ticket rates to top of Europe also helped us in deciding against going there. Trek it is! We still had to take a Gondola to Station Bort and then start the trek. While going to the gondola station, we saw someone selling grilled chicken. We bought a whole chicken as a snack in case we felt hungry on the way. We could get the actual lunch once we reach there.

View from the Gondola ride

Station Bort to Bachalpsee lake is more than a 2-hour hike. Contrary to the weather report, the weather actually was kind to us. It was cold and misty though, which was perfect for the hike, and we started the hike. It was an easy path, picturesque. The initial thrill of posing for photos died down a bit when we had to walk for more than an hour. It then slowly started drizzling and we we wore our ponchos. 

The trek

Break between the trek

It took us more than 2 hours to reach the destination. Nachu, without any complaints walked the complete hike with us, the complete 2 hours! When we reached there, some tourists saw her walk and welcomed her with claps and appreciations. It indeed was an appreciable feat, but she really didn't understand what she had achieved.

We walked to the lake, and it was dreamy. Beautiful. But our hunger overpowered the desire for taking pics. Speaking about hunger, we realized that there was no shop or cafe on the top. So, all we could eat was that one chicken than we had bought. After the hike, we were so hungry that the chicken transformed into just bones in a few minutes. Those few minutes were more than enough for the weather forecast to come true.

The rain became heavy. Fog filled up the area and we couldn't see anything a few meters away. We couldn't even see the lake, the beauty of which we thought we would enjoy after our lunch. We ran to the side of a small building and stood there waiting for the rain to stop. Nachu meanwhile who had a very hectic day from all the hike, fell asleep. Okay. So now how do we go back with the rains and Nachu sleeping?

The rain reduced but didn't stop completely, neither did we expect it to stop. So, it made no sense to wait as it would also get dark pretty soon. So, we carried Nachu (mostly me 💪), and walked back. Nachu had the soundest sleep, with even the rainwater falling on her not waking her up. 

Once we reached back, we were again energized with hot chocolate, then we walked around Gridelwald, had dinner,  and switched off ourselves recharging for the next day.

 

Gridelwald

Click here to read Part 4  - Its never late, for another chocolate

2. How Not to plan a Euro trip! - Bam! It's Amsterdam

 

Click here to read Part 1 : The Dream

Bam! It's Amsterdam

18 June 2022

That is how we ended up in the flight to Amsterdam. All those initial hiccups would only mean that we will have a smooth vacation, right? Well, if it had been so, I might not have had to write this looong post. 

We landed in Amsterdam and took the shuttle to our hotel. After checking in and freshening up, we didn't waste much time and hired an Uber to Amsterdam city. From Amsterdam, we took an ‘IAmsetrdam’ pass for 3 days, which allowed us to use unlimited trains or buses within Amsterdam. After spending some time in the city and having dinner we headed back to our rooms and crashed.

19 June 2022

After having an amazing breakfast, we headed out to explore Amsterdam. The first plan was a windmill tour. Since we had the 'IAmsterdam' pass, planned to travel via bus. We waited at the bus stop to catch the bus number 195.  After giving us some time to click photos, the bus arrived, and we hopped in. Google maps told us that our destination was the 6th stop from where we boarded. The bus wasn't very crowded, and we enjoyed the view outside. After a while, I checked the map to know how many stops were left. What? It showed 8 now. The bus stopped at the next stop and continued. The map now showed 9 stops to our destination. That is when it struck. Bus 195 goes both ways. And we were travelling in the wrong direction!! 

Eagerly waiting at the wrong bus stop

What next? We decided to get down at the next stop and go back.We would end up wasting some time because of this silly mistake. When the bus stopped, we got down, only to be surprised by what we saw. There stood a solitary windmill. We crossed the road and walked towards the windmill. It also had a windmill tour. Isn't this amazing. The silly mistake turned out to be a perfect mistake! We sandwiched the windmill tour between our photo sessions. We did learn a few facts about windmills and as done with school education, quickly forgot those. 😜

After having lunch, we visited other places like De Zaanse Schans where they had the wooden shoe workshop and more windmills. This time, we were careful with boarding the bus. We went to Amsertdam Centraal by evening, the time when the city starts to vibe. We roamed around, walked a lot, had all the food we could. Personal Record Alert -Amsterdam recorded my most expensive pee ever when I had to pay half a Euro (~Rs 40) for it. A record, I am not very hapee about.

The day ended and Rotterdam was excited to welcome us the next day.

20 June 2022

Plan of the day was to visit Rotterdam. We planned our travel perfectly this time as we did not want to make any mistakes like we did the previous day. We had a free shuttle from the hotel to the airport (which is one of the reasons we booked that hotel in the first place). We took that shuttle and reached the airport. Then our 'IAmsterdam' pass gave us complete travel freedom. What a planning! 

Iamsterdam

After checking which train goes to Rotterdam, we quickly boarded that train. The train journey was smooth. But one fact led us to a small doubt. There were no stops at all. Was this some special non-stop train that we actually weren't supposed to board? Our doubts got cleared when we got down from the train and tried to exit the Rotterdam station. At the exit, we scanned the QR code present in our 'IAmsterdam' pass and the turnstile refused to budge. 

Yeah, the doubt is cleared. 'IAmsterdam' pass was only for roaming within Amsterdam city. Rotterdam is outside of Amsterdam city limits. We were not supposed to travel Rotterdam with this pass. We were lucky that a ticket checker was not present in the train we came, or else we would have had to pay a hefty fine. Now, we cannot exit the station as we do not have a valid ticket. We could go back to Amsterdam in a similar train, but then there could be a ticket checker this time. Which means we could not go back either. We were trapped! 

Now what? All our collective brains started to work, and we identified Praveena as the person best suited to handle this situation. She put on an innocent face and walked towards an official who was standing there. We all stood a little bit far away carefully observing. She put her innocent face on and told the official that her QR code wasn't working. The official checked the pass, then explained to Praveena how she shouldn't have used that pass to travel to Rotterdam. However, since it was an honest mistake, the official used her card to let Praveena out. Praveena proved her honesty again, stating that it was not only her, but 4 other passengers including a kid and pointed at us. The official looked at us and frowned. She couldn't let all of us exit for free. She asked Praveena to go to the ticket kiosk outside, take 4 tickets from source to destination as Rotterdam, and then use that ticket to exit. 

Praveena, who was outside the station now, called us and we walked towards her. She conveyed the news to us. It was a fair ask for us that we had to book the tickets now, rather than paying fine. 

 'Okay, so we have to book tickets from source as Amsterdam to destination as Rotterdam, and then use that ticket to exit Rotterdam.', got it. We checked the ticket rate from Amsterdam to Rotterdam. Close to 19 Euros per person. Which costs ~76 Euros. 

We asked Praveena not to book tickets and to wait outside. We took a while, booked the ticket, and used that QR code to exit the station. 

'Finally,', Praveena exclaimed when we got out and met her. 'What took you so long?

'Well,' we replied, 'We, software engineers, analysed the 'requirement' again, We understood that we could book tickets now, which means our source could be the previous station as well, which is Rotterdam Alexander. The ticket price from there to Rotterdam is less than 3 Euros. And since you already exited, we didn't need 4 tickets, but just 3 tickets from that station to Rotterdam, which comes to ~9 Euros.  Which means we save ~67 Euros.'

'What!?, And did you do that? Didn't you purchase 4 tickets? Did u just book 3 tickets from that station to Rotterdam?'

'We just pointed out a technical possibility. We won't say what we did..because...'

 'because?'

'..because we are damn hungry, and we can't talk!'

We searched what to eat in Rotterdam. While having a sandwich, we looked for activities in Rotterdam, and found this bicycle rental place. We rented a bicycle and did the Rotterdam city tour in bicycles. We particularly loved the child seat, which was attached behind the cycle where Nachu sat, and she too had an amazing city tour.

Nachu got a nap in this comfy seat

We enjoyed the Cube houses, and the other amazing modern architecture of Rotterdam.

By evening, we exited Rotterdam as it was our last night to continue exploration of Amsterdam. This time, we made sure we booked the right tickets!

The third night in Amsterdam, we made sure we covered most of the city, ate most of the trending food there. We were so full, yet when we saw a big crowd in front of a French fries eatery, we too stood in queue to buy and try it. It cannot be missed if it is so popular. It indeed was good. Late night, we bid farewell to Amsterdam city as we would be travelling to Zurich the next day.

We left Amsterdam with some good memories..Lot of blunders which ended up as funny incidents, lots of learnings, lots of city tour, food, and lots of new experiences.

These were just the starters; the main course is awaiting in Switzerland!

Click here to read Part 3  - Here we land, Switzerland