Uncategorized – Page 2

Travel to Florence and Pisa

July 16, 2016July 17, 2016Posted in Europe, UncategorizedTagged Bell Tower, Dumo, Florence, Pisa, Uffizzi1 Comment

We arrived in Florence on Sunday at around 12.30 pm after a 2 hours train ride on Italo 9912 (Italo is a privately run train system, (Trenitalia is govt. run). The train ride up north was very comfortable, we were in coach and paid just 60 Euro for 4 of us. I thought that was really cheap on a fast train that reached a peak speed of 260 kmph. Book in advance and you can get great deals.

I had to exchange some dollars to Euros. I did this at the train station. After the bad experience at Rome airport, I was ready for them. The woman at the counter told me that the fees was 19 % and if I exchanged more than 500 bucks, she would bring it down to 15 %. In which other business do you get 15 % commission for a cash transaction?? I managed to negotiate this down to 9 %, which I think is still very high. I needed the Euros !!

The hotel was a short cab ride from the station. Florence like Rome was very very hot and humid. Our hotel Berchielli was a bit of an unknown. I booked based on good reviews on TripAdvisor. It was a little expensive, as are most hotels in Florence.
It turned out to be a very quaint, exclusive and one of the oldest hotel in Florence. We got the rooms on the top floor. We discovered later from hotel literature that the Picasso had stayed in the room that we were in, Room 514 at the Berchielli. That was amazing !! Complete coincidence. The room had windows that opened to a beautiful view River Arno (that flows all way to Pisa and beyond) and a lovely view of the Ponte Vecchio bridge ( the oldest bridge in Florence).

Florence is the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is a city museums, cathedrals and Palaces. There are so many of them here. It is considered the birthplace of renaissance. It was the hub for business and trade and one of the wealthiest cities in the region. It is small cozy city, with a population of less than 0.5 M. Small narrow streets, even narrower pavements. most streets cobbled with stone. Very nice feel to the city. Tourism is the biggest business here, cultural & religious tourism is huge.

Our first stop after lunch was at the Dumo(Dome). It was a quick 5 min walk from the hotel. We were told that the cathedral was closed, but we could visit the museum and go up the Dumo and the bell tower. We visited the museum on Sunday. It was focused on the works of Michelangelo and the construction of the Dumo. The story of the construction of Dumo was very interesting. The construction was spread out over several decades and under the guidance of different engineers. An interesting fact to know that Michelangelo was inspired by this Dumo to build a similar one at the Vatican.

After this visit, we went to Piazza Michelangelo. This was recommended as a spot for sunset viewing. We got there by taxi, a 9 Euro ride from the Dumo. There was not much to see other than a replica of David by Michelangelo and a beautiful overlook of Florence. We got some pictures here, enjoyed the sunset over a glass of beer and some wine and cabbed back to the hotel.

I continue to be very impressed with the taxi system/ service in Italy. They are very easily available, drivers are courteous, they charge by the meter and don’t cheat.

We got some paninis to go for dinner (a break from pasta and pizza). Some where in between all of this we got our daily dose of Gelato. We have several learnings about Italian food, but I will address that later. Talking about food, it has been 8 days since we had Indian food. The last was at Jaipur in Cologne on July 3rd. I am craving for biryani, masala Dosa and other Indian food. The kids seem to be doing okay.

We watched Portugal win the Euro Cup final and drifted off to sleep in la casa Picasso @ Berchielli.

Day 2 – Monday
After a late and awesome breakfast, we went to the Dumo. Amu and Usha wanted to get some rest and save their energy for our visit later in the day to Pisa. Prerana and I made the short walk to the Dumo. We had to decide between climbing the Dumo and the Bell Tower. The Dumo was higher and many had more steps. The wait for the climb to the top of the Dumo was 3 hours Vs 1 hour for the Bell Tower. The Bell Tower won !! We stood in line for about 45 min before we started our climb. It was a climb of 414 steps. For our tired legs, it felt like we were did much more than that. A few stats on the Dumo and Bell Tower;
– Construction of Dumo started on 1296 and lasted. 140 years.
– Bell Tower is a part of the cathedral / Dumo in Florence. Conceived by Giotto who was an eminent painter and architect
– Project started in 1334. Giotto died in 1337 and the project was completed in 1359
– 82 m high, the Dumo in comparison is 96 m high

We were exhausted after the climb. A bottle of Powerade and lemonade later, we caught up with the rest of the crew and were on our way to Pisa.

Pisa is well connected by train from Florence. About 45-50 min by a regional train will get you to Pisa. We took a cab from the train station to the Tower (flat rate 9 Euro). We had an appointment at 3.15 to go to the top of the tower. We had some lunch at one of the local trattoria near by. Fantastic pasta!! The local vino was good as well.

Security here was kinda tight at Pisa, there was much more security here than at the Dumo or bell tower. There was no security at the Dumo or bell tower, which was surprising. We saw some tough looking army types with automatics in many spots in Rome, especially in the Metro stations.

We had to deposit our bags at a cloak room, we were checked out with a metal detector, before we started our climb. This was 297, but it was not the number of steps that made this climb very interesting. The stairway was inclined (since the Tower is leaning to one side) and so you are thrown off balance. There were a couple of spots along the way to stop and catch your breath. The views were amazing from the viewing gallery at the top. You still get this very unsteady feeling as you walk around the periphery of the Tower. The climb down was in some ways tricker to navigate due to the inclined stairway.

After the customary pictures “trying to hold your arm against the leaning tower” or hug the Tower in my case, we started our way back to the Pisa station. The train tickets between Florence and Pisa were 8 bucks per head one way.

After some rest at the hotel, we went out for what will be our final “pasta” meal in Italy. We went to a trattoria Osteria di paccatori. I had some of the best pasta, spaghetti actually in the entire trip. It was fresh and very very good. We had a final round of gelato at our favorite gelateria on the way back to the hotel.

We were completely tired by the time we got to the hotel. Crawled into bed and drifted away into a deep slumber very quickly.

Day 3 Tuesday
I woke up early (as usual) and decided to take a walk along the river Arno. It was a beautiful morning, the sun was just beginning to come out. I walked onto the famous Ponte Vecchio bridge. It was about 7.30 or may be 8 am and there were already groups of tourists up and about. Incredible!! I walked across the bridge, got some really nice morning pictures.

This was our last day in Florence. We were on the 3.30 pm fast train from Florence to Milan. The only thing we had on the agenda was the visit to the Uffizi museum. Again we did not book in advance and had to book through a reseller site and managed to get a 11.30 am appointment. It was going to be tight. We get may be 2-3 hours at the museum before we come back to the hotel, pick our bags and head out to the train station. Of course we had a few things we wanted to pick up, gifts and some take back items.

We all know that Italy is famous for leather goods. We saw a lot of leather stuff on display in Florence, both stores on the street and showrooms as well. I was not very impressed, most of the items seemed very expensive, priced for tourists. The other popular items on shopping lists were clothes (Italians are well known for their fashion), wine (of course) and chocolate.

Breakfast at the Berchielli was awesome. They had a fantastic spread. Their coffee (Kaffe Americano) was the best that I had on the entire trip. It was just perfect !!

We got to the Uffizi museum, a short walk from hotel, in time for 11.30 time slot. The crowds were huge. Even with a reservation, we had to stand in line, to get tickets before we could go in. The Uffizi museum is known to be biggest and best museum on Italy and we were on a time budget. No way that we could do justice to this museum. We decided that we would do a very selective walk through of the museum, hitting the selected highlights in the museum. We had a list of art work which were the classics ( and artists who were famous. We saw works of painters such as Michelangelo, Bottichelli, Raphael, Leanardo, Caraviggio and famous paintings such as the Birth of Venus, Spring, Christening of Jesus, Annunciation, Madonna and Child, Battle of San Ramano. There were so many others that as beautiful and amazing. You can spend an entire day in this museum and still not do justice to it. Unfortunately we did not have that much time.

From the Uffizi, we left for the hotel, picked up our luggage and left for the train station. We grabbed some sandwiches / paninis for lunch and were ready for the ride to Milan.

The train ride was uneventful. We got to experience first class on Italo (first class was cheaper than coach). The train zipped through the country side of the Tuscan region at incredible speeds, through several tunnels in the Apennini mountain range and across fields of sunflower and several vineyards.

We arrived in Milan a few minutes behind schedule. We took the Malpensa Express to the airport and from there the airport shuttle to our our hotel. After dinner at the hotel and we end to bed early. We had to catch the 7 am shuttle back to the airport for our return flight to US.

A Italian holiday comes to an end…. A great vacation, several memories, moments that we will cherish forever.

Travel to Warsaw, Poland

July 16, 2016Posted in Europe, Uncategorized2 Comments

I am in Poland on a short business trip. I got here on Saturday and return to the US Tuesday. This is my first visit to country in Eastern Europe. I have captured below some of my observations and experiences.

The flight from Newark to Warsaw was uneventful. LOT, the Polish airline does mot have a reputation as a very good airline and they lived up to it. The plane, food, service were all terrible.

Looking at all the hoardings on the way to hotel, it is quite clear that the Koreans are here in a big way. Saw several large hoardings of Samsung and Hyundai.

I am staying at the Sofitel hotel in Warsaw. The hotel is right in the heart of Warsaw. The ride from the airport was about 15-20 min. The cab driver spoke good English. I have discovered over the last two days that most people understand English and converse as well. I have not had much trouble with language. The currency here is Zloty. ( 3 zloty = 1 US dollar). I was under the impression that Poland had adopted the Euro currency. They opted out of the Euro, though they are an integral member of the European Union.

Right opposite to my hotel is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. (see picture). This is, I was told, one of several such memorials for several soldiers who have died fighting for Poland. It is located within the arcade that links two wings of the Saxon Palace. The central tablet is surrounded by 5 eternal flames and 4 stone tablets bearing the names and dates of battles in which Polish soldiers had fought during World War I and the Polish-Soviet War. There is a huge park / garden adjacent to the memorial.

Some history on Warsaw…

During World War 2, Warsaw came under the rule of the Germans. The Germans moved all the jews, almost 30% of the population into the Warsaw Ghetto. In 1994, when the Red Army was making huge progress into Poland, the Germans, moved several of the POWs into other camps. Aucshwitz is one of these very well known camp. As the Red Army made it closer to Warsaw, the Germans destroyed most of Warsaw. They demolished most of what is now called “old city”. They ruthlessly massacred about 200,000 people. In 1945, the Red Army eventually took over Warsaw. The Russians under their rule helped rebuild

My hotel is very close to the Old City. Last night we went to the Old City area for dinner. It was an awesome experience. The place looks amazing, all the buildings that were destroyed have been reconstructed. The area is vibrant with lots of activity. Street musicians, locals enjoying a Sunday evening in the area. There are several restaurants, bars, pubs and shops lining the streets (including an Indian store called India Market). My hotel is very close to the Old City. We went into a traditional Polish restaurant. They served traditional polish food and traditional polish booze, Vodka. I
never realized that there were so many different kinds of Vodka. They had Rye Vodka, Wheat Vodka and Potato Vodka. We, of course, tried all of them. It was quite an interesting experience. The traditional food included Pierogi, dumplings which included veg and non veg options. Other items on the menu included Flaki ( soup), Bigos, Żurek and Kotlety. The veggie Pierogi were quite tasty. Pierogi are “dumplings” which are stuffed with vegetables and meat. Quite an interesting evening with Pierogi and vodka.

Yesterday, at end of our meetings our company had organized an evening reception. The hotel arranged a performance by a dance group from the Warsaw University. A group of 20 boys and girls performed the traditional folk dance called Mazur or Mazurek. The outfits are very colorful, the music is rhythmic and the dance very energetic. They performed 2-3 dances and then pulled in people from the audience to join them. We have seen some of these in Hollywood movies, but always fun to see them live. I thought there was a significant German influence in the music and the dance. After they finished, the music changed from Polish to Indian and the dance to freestyle bollywood.

Warsaw in general is considered quite expensive. Sofitel, the hotel we are staying in is considered a good hotel and the rooms here are in the USD 125-175/night. The prices at restaurants are quite varied like in all cities, but generally lower than other European cities like London and Paris. The Zloty to USD conversion also helps. Dinner for two in a decent Italian restaurant in the Old City area cost about 60 Zloty or 20 dollars. 20 bucks is not expensive at all. On Sunday evening we went to a traditional Polish restaurant. Here a meal for two would cost about 150 Zloty.

Today evening we will be going out on a short tour of Warsaw after we finish our session. I will share some more details after this sight seeing trip.

Warsaw is on the banks of the Vistula River. There are several beautiful spots along the river including the new National Stadium. Our first stop on the tour was the Lazienki Krolewskie, a Palace Garden complex. This is apparently one of the largest in Europe. It is right in the heart of the city. This garden is now a museum. This Garden Palace is very closely associated with Stanislaw Poniatowski, the last king of Poland. The palace survived World war 2, but was badly damaged. It has been fully restored now and is stunning. Unfortunately, we had bad weather and could not see all of the museum. It was raining all through our visit. The tour guide had fascinating war stories. You could almost imagine being in one of those war movies we used watch when we were in school. The palace came under attack during the war and as the Germans were fleeing they did not have time to
destroy the palace structurally, but managed to destroy the interiors of all the palaces.

One of the most famous monuments in Warsaw is the Chopin statue. Fredrick Chopin is famous composer and the pride of the Polish. The airport is also named after him. We drove by the Chopin Museum, as it is under renovation.

The next stop was the Jewish Ghetto. This part of the visit was quite gut wrenching. During the German occupation, the Nazis rounded up all the Jews in Warsaw, almost 300,000 of them and put them in these camps in what was called the Jewish Ghetto. They started
systematically killing them in this camp. The Nazis then felt that they were not able to kill the jews fast enough and decided to move them to Auschwitz which was about 400 km away so that they could “eliminate” them faster. The Jews were told that they were being moved to a ” better place”. Over the next few months, they moved 3000 people a
day by train to this camp. Auschwitz is described as “living hell” and all of us have read about the treatment meted out Jews in the various camps here. Jews in the Ghetto pulled together a resistance movement in what is called the Jewish Uprising or the Warsaw
Uprising. They, of course, had no chance against the Germans, but “at least they had an honorable death”.At the end of the war, about 3000 Jews survived in and around Warsaw (out of 300,000) All the others died in the uprising, in the camps and while being transported. There is now a memorial at the site of the ghetto and a museum that has stories of the survivors. The stories are horrific and shocking. We have all heard some of these stories before or seen them depicted in Hollywood movies. But being there, at the site, was bone chilling.

After this, we drove to the Old City. Here we did a street tour of the city, with the guide giving us a great look back into the history of the whole area. Quite fascinating. We drove by the Copernicus Museum, the Royal Castle and the Warsaw art gallery.

After the tour, we went to an Indian restaurant, Buddha, for dinner. The place was quite upscale and the food was quite good. As we were enjoying our dinner, suddenly the lights dimmed, some middle eastern music came on and a belly dancer appeared. Indian restaurant , that too called Buddha and a belly dancer !! Just did not seem to make sense, but nobody complained. The dancer performed for 5 min and disappeared. The same scene replayed 2-3 times through the rest of the evening.

There was an England-Poland soccer game at the new National Stadium in Warsaw. The Polish fans were all of over town, wearing their very distinctive red and white scarves. As we got closer to game time, you could not only see them, but also hear them. They were all
pouring out of bars and restaurants heading for the stadium. I was told that there were several English fans as well,who had flown in for the game. I could see several in our hotel. We had considered going for the game, but could not get tickets. I found out later in the night that the game was cancelled as the field was water logged due to rain.
Overall, a very interesting 3days in Warsaw. I learnt a lot about Warsaw, Poland, the people and their culture. The people are generally very nice, very proud and very hardworking. After all that they have gone through as a nation, i could not sense any visible anger / hatred towards the Germans. May be this was too short a visit to get a good read on this. The tour guide and a couple of others that i interacted with, were making a lot of jokes about the Russians. They are not very well liked.

I am now on my way back to the US. We had some excitement at the airport. We had the wrong departure time (1.55 pm instead of the actual dep time of 1.10 pm) for our flight and the counter was closed when we got there. We almost did not make the flight. Thankfully, they let us get on the plane. With all of this, I could not do the shopping that I was planning to do.

I travel again tomorrow morning to LAX. I am looking forward to the weekend.