Sunday, December 10, 2023

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?'

Monday, December 4, 2023

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

Perfection at its worst!!!