Kaushik family: September 2005

Sunday, September 25, 2005

Paris

The Eurostar train was impressive in its speed. We travelled by chair car which is the same as the A/C chair car in Indian trains. The only other feature is a well stocked dining car where one can go, buy eatables and spend time gazing out of the windows. The speed at whch the trains travels is just amazing. Its top speed is 300 km/h and that raw speed is just awesome to experience. The train just casually overtakes car on the highway that are also going at a high speed. The Channel tunnel has lights inside the tunnel, but otherwise is no different from a subway tunnel in London or Paris.

The tunnel part of the journey takes less than half and hour to complete. The journey itself was non stop from London to Paris. The train arrived promptly at the Gare Du Nord (Gare- station, Nord - north) in Paris at 11:40 AM (there is a 1 hr time difference between England and France).

Immediately we could sense the difference between London and Paris. the station was as crowded as any railway station in India (But to be fair, this particular station is the busiest station in Paris. ). We could not find anyone helpful to give us directions to get to our hotel. We thought we had to take another train to get to the hotel. But we could get no help. We then walked out of the station and the first person we encountered was an Indian. I immediately guessed he was a Tamilian, but made the mistake of speaking to him in English. I was surprised when he started speaking to me in French. I immediately asked him if he was a Tamilian and and when he answered yes, everything was allright then and we got the directions. In the event, our hotel was only a 10 min walk from the station and we checked in around 12:30.

We left the hotel after a few minutes and walked to the nearest stop where we could get the hop-on hop-off bus. Before that we got some fruits to eat at a nearby grocery shop. The buses are similar to the one we went on in London with a running commentary that one can listen to using a ear phone provided for each passenger, in the language of our choice.

This particular bus has 4 different routes and our idea was to get the Eiffel Tower as the first stop. So we had to change to a different bus once the original bus has reached central Paris. The circuitous route taken by that bus covered a lot of the places one would want to see in Paris and it was fun to get our first sights and sounds of Paris. It was in that trip that you called us from India.

We finally got the Eiffel Tower around 2PM. I have to admit the sight of the Eiffel Tower itself is well worth the whole visit to Paris. What a sight. Right from the beginning I was intrigued about the construction of the tower. How could they have built such a massive, tall structure more than a 100 yrs ago with the technology they had. Hats off to them. App, what do you think about that? Buildings constructed more recently keep getting damaged and fall, but this tower is still standing without any problems whatsoever. It does help that the design makes it stable. A very wide base and a tapering top. There is no way that this could fall.

We decided to walk to the first level. The walk was a lot of fun although very tiring. Once we reached the first level, we realised that we could walk no further and that we had to take the lift to go up. There is no choice. There was a wait for the lift and we stuck up a conversation with an elderly French couple who enquired about us. I used my broken French to answer their queries. The French are very friendly people. I have noticed in both London and Paris that the native white people are friendlier to us compared to the others such as settled Indians who seem to be less friendly and rather remote. What a paradox.

When we finally got the top of thr Tower, the view from there was both scary and breath taking. One could see the whole planned city of Paris, most of which was constructed during Napolean's rule.

After getting down, we took a relaxed stroll towards Arc De Troimphe. This is the equivalent of the India Gate, it is a war memorial built originally to commemorate Napolean’s victories. We next sax a had coffee and sandwich on the Champs Elysee, a wide road right in front of the Arc De Troimphe, with lots of fashion shops and restaurants. It is lines with beautiful trees that are trimmed so that there is an illusion of a straight line when seen. Next we went to the Place De La Concorde which is close to the Siene river and has a beautiful plaza with palaces all around. It was at one point the site of the grisly guillotine where hundreds of executions took place in the 17th century. They have now replaced this with a tall Egybtian obelisk. The obelisk is a tall stone tower with hieroglyphic symbols and is 3000 yrs old. By this time we were very tired having had a long day. We had dinner at a restaurant opposite our hotel. The French as you know have wine with their dinner and it was a pleasure to follow that custom. Wine is not very expensive and a bottle (1 lit) cost 3 Euros. By the way we had exchanged the dollars we had for Euros in London the previous evening itself. One Euro is approx. US$1.25.

The first place we headed to on Saturday morning was the Louvre museum. I insisted that we head for the Mona Lisa first. There was a small much crowd around the painting. The painting has been mounted on its own wall and there was special enclosure around it. Although the Mona Lisa is the most famous painting in the Louvre, there were a lot more pieces of art and sculpture that caught our attention. Frankly Meenu thought there were many paintings that we as good as or better than the Mona Lisa. The Louvre also has a very impressive collection of very ancient Egyptian antiques. We spent 3 hrs in the Louvre although one could well spend even 2 days in the Louvre alone.

We next went to the Notre Dame cathedral. The church is enormous with magnificent stained class windows. We prayed for everyone there. We then took a relaxed walk along the Siene river. Next we went to the site where the infamous Bastille prison once stood. The storming of the Bastille prison and its ultimate destruction marked the start of the French revolution.

Late in the afternoon, we had a very interesting experience. We were walking along one of the streets and Meenu noticed an antique shop. The strange thing about this shop was it was specializing only in antiques from Tamilnadu. There were lots of things ranging from the typical “swami padams” to the more expensive bronze statues. One of the strange things she had was a framed advertisement for fertilizer completely in Tamil. We spoke to the owner and realized that she was an American from Detroit. She travels a lot to TN and she even knew where Pudukottai was as she used to go to Karaikudi to get her stuff. She could even speak and read Tamil. She then told us about a Tamil shopping locality in Paris called La Chappelle. When we got there we were astounded. A half mile stretch of the road was full of Tamil stores and restaurants. We went into a couple of the stores and everyone was chatting away in Tamil. I was very impressed. Most of the Tamils in Paris we met were from Pondicherri although there were others from Ceylon too. We then went to a Tamil restaurant and had dosai, vadai and coffee. Where we really in Paris???

That evening we went to the famous Moulin Rouge. As you probably know very well, the place is full of shops openly selling erotic things and various kinds of shows. We got back to the hotel by 10PM that night.

The next day was Sunday and we went to Versailles. Versailles is the site of a massive palace and gardens and was the official seat of the royalty until the French revolution. The town itself is a 40 minutes train ride from Paris. Somehow we did not find the palace itself very impressive having seen the Buckingham Palace, although the history about the palace was fascinating. The gardens behind the place was one of the most impressive gardens one could see anywhere in the world. They are spread around 100s of acres and really a sight to behold. We got back to Paris by 4PM and went once again to Champs Elysee to just take a walk and watch the crowds. We sent you a card from the Renault F1 racing team’s official shop there. Did you get it?

By this time we were exhausted and were waiting to get back home and be with the kids. We got back to the hotel and had dinner at the same place that I mentioned earlier.

The next day was the day of departure to Boston. We decided to sleep late at least once during our vacation. So we got up only at 9AM and had a leisurely breakfast. We packed up our things and took a train to the Charles De Gaulle airport. We reached there by 11:15. Our flight was at 12:45 and took off on time. We reached Boston on time around 4PM, took the Logon Express bus to Framingham. From the bus stand we took a taxi to go home and reached home by 5:15.

In hindsight I realized that the most precious thing for us was the time spent together alone. Of course we had fun sight seeing in London and Paris, but we would have had the same fun in any place. This opportunity was very special and may not come again. We were indeed fortunate that Meenu’s mom managed to take care of the kids in spite of her age and health.

Thursday, September 22, 2005

London

We arrived in london on a wet monday, typical london weather. From Heathrow airport, it took us roughly half an hour to get to Earl's Court station, the closest one to the hotel. The surprise about the hotel rooms in London and Paris are that they are very very small compared to economy sized rooms in the

. In both the places, a continental breakfast was provided as part of the room tariff. Breakfast consisted of cereal, fruit, bread, croissants, cheese, yoghurt, tea and coffee. More than enough for us.

We left the hotel around 10AM and took the bus to hyde park which was the closest stop to our hop on hop off tour of london. the tour was on a nice open top red bus, but alas, the rain proved a spoiler and we had to take cover in the covered portion. Still we did get our first glimpse of London. We got off at Picadilly Circus and started walking our way bach towards Regents Street, London's primary shopping locality. It looked a very familiar sight seen in many movies.

We saw Veerasamy's, London oldest south Indian restaurant (it was closed for renovation), and Broadcasting House (BBC broadcasting center). WE had a nice coffee at Cafe Nero's coffee shop and then took the bus to Westminster Abbey. Westminste4 Abbey was really something. It is a cathedral still in use. It is the burial place for England's greatest monarchs and warriors from all the back to the 11th century until Queen Victoria.

There was an interesting marble plaque commemorating the British victory in Trichnopoly (Trichy) and the Rock Fort has been shown as the backdrop. From there we went saw the Big Ben and the Thames and parliament house. We did not go inside as it was getting late. We started walking towards Downing Street, saw the street from behind barricades and then walked towards Trafalgan Square. the very tall Nelson's column is a very beautiful
structure commemorating Nelson's victory over Napolean's fleet. We got back to our hotel around 9PM and were dead tired.

By the way for lunch we walked into a Mcdonalds and there we managed to get a nice grilled vegatebale sandwich, something that is not available in the US. They also sell a chicken tikka sandwich. Surprise, surprise!!!

The amazing fact about London and Paris is their vast metro system. Getting from one place to another however close or far is such an easy task. Their ticketing is also very easy to understand. As long as you are in one particular zone, the ticket price remains the same even if it is the next station or 10 stations away. A single whole day pass costed us only 4 pounds 50 pence compared to paying 1 pound 40 pence for a single one way trip. The pass could be used in both trains and buses.

The second day was bright and sunny luckily for us and we decided to go and see the change of guards at Buckingham Palace. the cermony started at 11AM, but we had to be there much earlier. The change of guard itself was very interesting with a large band performance. After that we decded to fo into Buckingham Palace. The one thing tourists have to be prepared for is the cost involved in getting into all these attractions. For instance, the ticket for the palace cost 13 pounds a person. That is a lot of money. One will easily end up spending 100 pounds or more everyday for two people in London or Paris. In any case, the Palace itself was very interesting. Lots of rare paintings, works of art and so well maintained. After all the Queen still lives there. The history that has been created in London is just breath taking. Every stone and building in London had a story behind it.

We met Rishi in the evening at Liverpool Station and went on a cruise on the Thames river. We also walked around the financial district of London. Rishi was was glad to see us. Rishi is pursuing a Ph.D in international trade from Middlesex Unix. He lives in a suburb of London called Waltham Court. We had food at an Indian restaurant for dinner and we returned to our hotel around 9:30.

The next day was Wednesday and the day started bright, but it started to rain soon after. We went to Lords cricket ground. What an experience it was. Like a pligrimage, to the Mecca of cricket. It is in a locality called Marlybourne (MCC stands for Marlybourne Cricket Club), a very high class neighbourhood. The stadium is right in the middle of a residential area. We took a guided tour of the stadium, the pavilion, the famous long room, players dregging rooms and the media center. It was fascinating. We finally went to the Lords museum where there are such priceless artifacts as the original Ashes, Ranji's bat, all the actual World Cups and lots of memorablia. All in all, it is a worthwhile visit.

We next went to Madame Tussaud's was museum and it was real fun. I have to admit those people are real artists. The wax figures are so realistic. We took pictures with many of them, incl. Amitabh Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai. Close to the wax museum is the famous home of Sherlock Holmes, 221B Baker St. We saw that place from outside.

In the evening, we went to the SwamiNarayan Temple in a suburb of London called Neasden. It is a very beautiful temple made of marble and more marble. We met a very interesting gentleman by the name of Shanmugam Pillai who has with the Swami Narayan oroganisation since 1967. A Tamilian speaking fluent Gujarati. A former DMK athiest, now a total beliver. He had moved from Madras to Nairobi and then to the UK. He would not let us go without having dinner at the temple that evening. It was very enjoyable and we reached our hotel only by around 10PM.

Security was very highly visible throughout London, both on the roads and in the subway system. The authorities have removed all dust bins from the subway system to prevent someone from dropping a bomb into the dust bin. So commuters are forced to carry the trash with them outside the station.

I forgot to mention something else on Day.3. We went to visit the Houses of Parliament. The Tour was very informative and included a guided tour of both the House of Lords and House of Commons. Unfortunately, Parliament was not in session and we could not see any activity. Unlike in India, anyone can go see a debate and does not need any special pass to get in. One just has to stand in line and get in early.

By the way we have carefully preserved all the tickets that we bought to all these places. They all have been printed with nice designs and Meenu is planning to make a nice collage of them.

We got up and bright and early on Thursday and went to the Tower of London. The Tower of London is one of the oldest forts in England, dating back to the 11^th century. It is famous now for housing the Queen’s jewels and imperial crowns. At one point it was infamous as the last prison for many condemned people including royalty before they were executed. The Queen’s jewels are an amazing collection. We finally had a look at the Kohinoor diamond. By the way that diamond is not in the crown worn by Queen Elizabeth II. Queen Victoria was the first person to wear that crown and the last person to wear that was Queen Elizabeth’s mother, the wife of King George VI, who died 3 yrs ago. We were not allowed to take any pictures of the collection, but there is a very good web site with all pictures and other details.

After that we went to the British Museum. By the way entrance to all museums in London was free. This was the not the case in Paris where we had to pay to get into every museum. The British museum possibly houses the most amazing collection of Ancient Indian, Egyptian and Mesopotamian antiques. It was indeed a humbling experience to see those civilizations having been so advanced 5000 yrs ago. We saw many perfectly preserved mummies. I am pretty sure that the Egyptians were much more advanced than the Indus valley and Mesopotamian civilizations. The museum’s Indian collection includes many bronze statues of our gods and goddesses. By the way there was a special exhibit to house artifacts found in the Buddha stupa at Amaravati in guntur Dist. Do you remember we have gone there by boat from Vijayawada. Even at that time I was very impressed by the stupa. I was even more surprised to see the collection in London. In a way it a good thing that these are being exhibited and well taken care of in Britain. They would most probably fall into a state of neglect in India. What do you think?

Next we went to the Victoria and Albert Museum. This is a different kind of museum. It houses much of personal collection of Queen Victoria. By the way Albert is Queen Victoria’s husband (also called Prince consort). The only pieces that we were interested in were the throne of Ranjit Singh, the sword of Tipu Sultan and a special mechanical toy belonging to Tipu Sultan that shows a tiger attacking a British soldier.

Later in the evening, we walked into the famous Harrods store. It is a massive shop, something like Mustafa in Singapore, but larger. There were so many people from the Middle East shopping there as if they were buying fruits and vegetables. Everything is dreadfully expensive and we eventually ended up buying 2 samosas and 2 batata vadas!!! And even those cost 1pound each. There is a very nice memorial to Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed. After all, Harrods is owned by Dodi’s father, Mohamed Al Fayed.

That night we had dinner at a Lebanese restaurant. We got back to the hotel around 10PM.

Friday morning we got up much earlier as we had to catch our train at 8:10AM from London’s Waterloo station to go to Paris. We did not have breakfast at the hotel. Instead, they gave us a packed breakfast to go and we left the hotel at around 6:40AM. We reached Waterloo 30 min later. Both British immigration and French immigration have counters at the Waterloo station and our visas were checked by the French authorities at the station itself. The Eurostar train left promptly at 8:10.