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

1. How Not to plan a Euro trip! - The Dream

 

The Dream

18 June 2022

While I sat on the flight to Amsterdam, I couldn’t believe that we had actually made it. The dream trip, the trip that we had wanted to realize way back in 2020 (but we all know what happened in 2020) is finally turning to life. 2022, the year of resumption of travels or revenge tourism as they call it, rekindled our dream of our much-awaited Europe trip. All those days of discussing the Europe trip flashed in front of my eyes. 

While I was unaware what behold us, it was sure that this was going to be one hell of a journey. 

And it was too, all thanks to our 'meticulous planning', or as I would like to call it, 'How Not to plan a Euro trip!'

How to Plan, How not to

May 2022

It was a weekend in Bangalore, and the general rule is that if we did not step out of the home for roaming around, then we would end up planning a trip! And that is exactly what happened. The scapegoats this time were Soorej and Praveena as they too were with us at that moment. One discussion led to another, and we finally decided that it is time to reinstate the Euro trip. 

The gang: Me, Simi, Nachu, Soorej and Praveena.

Praveena was okay for the trip. Soorej denied saying 2 weeks of leave is too much and so he will not be able to join the trip. We did not bother much, as we knew he would come around.

The other challenge was with Nachu. Nachu would join school for the first time, for nursery, on 6th of June 2022. We couldn't plan to complete the trip before that, as that wouldn't leave us enough time for planning and the visa application process. Travelling after June 6 would mean that she must be absent from school immediately after joining school. Hmm...Tough choice...

After thinking long for 10 seconds, we knew what to do. Anyhow it's not like she's been absent from school before. There is always a first time to be absent. Her's will be immediately after joining. So that's it. Dates finalized. Euro Trip - 18 June to 3 July. 

See, how easy it is to plan a Euro trip. Oh! Well, forgot something. Where all in Europe do we go?

My cousin Sudhi was in Switzerland, so Switzerland became an automatic choice (free stay + We don't know if he remembers, when he moved to Switzerland, he had invited us. We do remember 😌). Amsterdam also made the cut owing to the availability of a specially baked cake. Austria was another place in contention, but someone told us that Swiss and Austria has similar landscapes and to try Italy instead. Okay, Italy it is! .'So, let's go to Amsterdam, and we will return from some place in Italy.', we decided. We looked for flights and found that the rates to Bangalore were cheaper from Rome. So, that's sorted. We didn't book the tickets yet, but finalized this plan.

18 June: Bangalore to Amsterdam

3 July: Rome to Bangalore

Now, we had to start off with the visa application. There are several documents required for the visa application and we all started it one-by-one. The visa application also required the day wise itinerary and opening google maps to plan the itinerary revealed a staggering stat. 

Amsterdam and Rome are 1611 kilometres apart!

How are we supposed to land in Amsterdam and then reach Rome, so that we can return from Rome which is so far away? That too in 2 weeks? We did not have the answer yet, but the positive thing was that once we have the answer, that becomes the itinerary!

Our initial plan was to rent a car and self-drive the whole duration of the trip. Yay, Road Trip! But then 2 weeks may not be enough for a complete road trip. We called up Sudhi and delighted (or startled) him that we will be visiting Switzerland for a few days. We took suggestions from him and continued with our investigation to finally reach a conclusion. Itinerary ready in no time!

Amsterdam to Zurich via flight. Car rental for Switzerland local sightseeing. Return the car, take a new car from Zurich (2 cars decided based on cost factors) and drive to Rome and drop the car in Rome. Fly back.

The easy peazy itinerary

Now that the route map was ready, we had to book flights and accommodation as that is required for the visa. Some travel agents do provide dummy bookings. But since most of the hotels have free cancellation up to a week before check-in, we opted to go ahead and book the accommodations right away and use actual bookings for the visa. We booked the flight too and gathered all other documents. By the way, Soorej had come around and was actively participating all document gathering and planning 😀. He in fact even arranged a travel agent to help us with the visa, whose 'help' turned out to be a nightmare in itself. We shared all the documents to the travel agent, whose only job was to book us a visa appointment. It is when we attempted for visa appointment that we came to know about the rush for visa application. We were not even able to get a slot for appointment. The visa appointment application portal did not have enough slots, and even for the slots that were shown as available, the payment was not going through. At times, the only slots were shown for July! We kept trying and the travel agent finally succeeded in booking separate slots, one for Soorej, Praveena and another for us. Kudos, until we saw the appointment confirmation. He had misspelt the passport number of Praveena. Time was running out; he had to cancel that appointment and try all over again. He again managed to get an appointment, this time an earlier date, but different location, Chennai! Which means Soorej and Praveena get to go on a Chennai trip to go for a Euro trip! The Visa appointment dates were finally confirmed.

Me, Simi and Nachu - 2nd June in Bangalore

Soorej and Praveena - 31st May in Chennai

All the tension that built up when we weren't able to get appointment, made way for joy when we finally managed to get the appointment dates. We knew from past experience of travellers that visas take around a week. We had 11 working days to get the visa from the date of appointment. So, we could say that we just made it. Whew! Just to be sure, we googled what are the visa processing times in the recent past. 

Thanks to revenge tourism, there was a high demand for visa, lack of staff and extremely high delays in visa processing. Once search and thanks to google, our feeds kept on showing news articles of various accounts of people having had to cancel trips as they did not get visa on time. Some European countries even couldn't process visas after 45 days. More than 45 days? Well, we had 11!

 

The visa application process was smooth. While handing over the passport and visa application, we asked the consulate what the estimated time for visa arrival was. Everyone in the consulate were well taught, they never committed any date. Fingers crossed, we counted days and google sadistically kept showing up posts of delayed visas on our feeds. As days went along, it also meant that if we were to get the visa, the travel date is nearing. That definitely calls for some travel shopping. The Myntra delivery guy visited our apartment almost a daily basis. He could rent a house in our apartment complex, and he would be working from home! Weather appropriate apparels that arrived in our apartments too were in a dilemma, whether they will visit Europe or will have to go back to the Myntra warehouse.

The visa status could be tracked online, and we eagerly checked the status every minute of the day. Though the days were running fast, the status update of the visa application was in snail's pace. June 3,4, 5, 6, 7, 8,9,10,11,12,13.. Tension mounted. Several cancellation charges stared at our faces!

Finally, on the 14th of June, Soorej and Praveena received their passports with visa stamped and we got ours on 15th! Whew! That was close, just 3 days before the travel date. (Yeah, we could have applied 2 days late and still made it 😜). We were happy, more than happy, relieved. And then happy again. 

Yes, The Euro trip is ON!

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