Saket Vora

This was a day of traveling. We woke up promptly at 6:00am and got ready on schedule. We did some last-minute re-arranging but figured we could always make changes once we got to London. We checked out of the hostel and walked to the Hauptbahnhof. I had saw on the weather report the night before that it would be snowing/raining all day in Munich and in London, but thankfully we had none of that. The snow on the ground was getting quite slippery though. We stopped by the nice bakery Müller, and the friendly baker recognized us. We ordered coffee and pastries (not the healthiest breakfast, but we enjoyed it!) and ate our fill. At one point some guys came in asking for directions, and the friendly baker helped them out a bit, and it thought it was cool cause I could follow it. My sisters and I don’t look like we would know German, so some people are surprised to hear us speak it. We directly entered the train station (after quickly stopping to buy a baguette for lunch, cause Munich would certainly be cheaper than London) and bought our S-bahn tickets. The S-bahn came and this was one where we had to be sure we got in the last compartment cause the train actually separates to go in different directions. Once at the airport, it was relatively straightforward to find the EasyJet check-in desk, though it was quite a ways from where the train left us. A line had already formed, and they were x-raying all of our checked bagged too. I saw one family that was having a lot of difficult that morning – the wife apparently got hurt while skiing so special arrangements had to be made regarding wheelchairs and stuff. Despite the line, we got priority ‘A’ seating. EasyJet has open seating based on priority. The earlier you check-in at the desk, the higher the priority and the earlier you board the plane to find a seat. Some things always amaze me when it comes to airports. Maybe it’s just because I’ve had experience with them or maybe it’s just because I’m always scanning for information (I often don’t slow down or stop when trying to find a desk, gate, or baggage claim…I always tend to spot the info mid-stride). At pretty much any airport, you are always asked to remove your jacket when going through the security clearance. There are signs telling you this as you wait in line. You can see everyone doing it in front of you. Yet this college aged girl is at the scanner and acts in surprise when the security officer tells her to remove her coat. As you wait in line, they have these plastic bins telling you to put sharp objects into. They are clear plastic and you can see Swiss Army Knifes, can openers, knives, etc. I’m gathering my coat and backpack when I overhear a lady arguing with one of the security people about a Swiss Army Knife they found in her purse. I mean, come on.  In Munich they also had us remove our shoes, something I hadn’t seen since our trip to Hawaii. We had about 1.5 hours to kill at the gate so I did some window shopping at a watch store and a Munich souvenir store, mulling over a FC Bayern Munich shirt or not. Finally the time to board came and we took these buses to the airplane. I helped an elderly couple with their bag (the husband had heart surgery), and Sachi and Sapana were good enough to save me an aisle seat on the plane. It was my first time flying easyJet, their second. Overall, I was very pleased. Comfortable seats and the most enjoyable airline crew I’ve had. They have a much more laid-back feel than the major airlines. The British accent and tongue helped immeasurably too. They introduce the names of the pilot and the flight crew, and the head of the crew was particularly friendly and amusing. We were 10 minutes early to London, and once again had to take a train to get to the main terminal. The passport and customs control went easily, and we quickly got our luggage. I gave my camera to Sapana and said goodbye to Sachi and Sapana. I’ll be seeing Sachi again in less than a week, but Sapana not until June. She’ll be fine. There was the Tube strike going on, but they were able to take a coach or train into Victoria station and from there hopefully to their hotel. I walked over and camped out by the row of EasyJet check-in desks. I bought a Herald Tribune and did some more window shopping after having my baguette sandwich. I noticed that they had opened the Copenhagen flight check-in nearly 40 minutes in advance so I went over and was probably the first to check-in. Best of all this meant I was free of my large bag. It was still nearly 2.5 hours before the flight, so I just waited in the lounge, read the Herald Tribune cover-to-cover. The Starbucks there in the terminal was run entirely by Indians and when I asked for a coffee of the day the guy (college aged) asked if it wasn’t too strong for me, and let me try a bit. I said it would be fine with some milk or cream and got a grande coffee and a big chocolate cookie (eating healthy….heh). It was great coffee and a good cookie. It’s funny how much you can miss a good filter coffee. The Europeans base all their coffee on the espresso, but I really prefer filter coffee. Soon after I finally went over to the gate (had to take a quick train cause the EasyJet terminal is rather far away) and made my way to the gate area. Several Indians on this flight and lots of babies or small children. Fun. When they called for priority boarding (small children, elderly, babies) half the group got up and waited close to the boarding entry. The easyJet clerk tried to get people to sit back down but had no effect. When they called for ‘priority A’ passengers to boarders, all those standing shuffled forward. I had my pass clearly displayed, and as I looked around me I saw other ‘A’s, ‘B’s, and even a D. A couple with priority ‘D’ came to the front but the clerk stopped them, announcing again that only priority ‘A’ passengers could board at this time. Knowing that they were being serious this time, 70% of the people standing stepped backward. It’s good that there was finally some order there. It’s not hard to follow directions people.

The flight out of London was uneventful. The couple next to me seemed to spending a few days there, and had guide books about the city. I didn’t have the heart to tell them that they should have gone to Stockholm. I was rather bored this flight (having already read my Herald Tribune) so I mostly listened to music and thumbed absently through the in-flight magazine (the same one which was on the earlier flight). We landed in Copenhagen 20 minutes ahead of schedule with a lot of snow on the ground. This time they also had an extendable passageway so we didn’t have to walk across the tarmac. The whole airport was really empty, being only about 4 hours till the New Year. I made my way quickly to the baggage claim, but alas my bag didn’t come until much later. With my bag I went over to the trains. Buying a ticket proved difficult, with the machines once again refusing to take my credit card or my Nordea card. I tried three different ones and others were having the same trouble. I finally tried my Wachovia debit card and it worked. I informed any others in line that if they were going to Sweden they could use the other machine (which was not in the same area as the other ticket machines). I walked a guy through the process and later on the train (I went to the wrong platform like three times) I met up with him again and we chatted a bit on the way to Malmö. He had a Swedish girlfriend and was spending New Years with her. In Malmö, I saw the next train to Lund wouldn’t be for another 30 minutes, so I had to kill some time there. Rather boring, but my mp3 player helped. I saw a lot of other college students going to Copenhagen. Some, who were on the train to Lund with me, were carrying alcohol and fireworks. In Lund, I stopped at the 7-Eleven to break a 100 note, in case my train ticket wasn’t good for the buses. Lund, to my surprise, had a heavy dose of snow, and it was everywhere. I dragged/pulled my bag to the main road so I could catch the #4 bus to Delphi. Unfortunately, the buses were running on a limited schedule, so 20 minutes and 6 other (wrong) buses later, #4 finally came and I made it back to Delphi. As I was waiting at the bus stop, some Swedes were in the middle of the university campus (with multi-story buildings at the Lund Cathedral around them) and were sending off large firecracks into the sky. A bit of snow and ice would fall from the trees above me everytime a shell exploded.

I changed my clothes and checked my email and such, then finally went into the kitchen where Lishuang was waiting. We greeted each other and talked about our trips a bit. I was feeling hungry so I had a frozen pizza and before we knew it, it was already 12:00am. A very large and well put together firework show started to go off in what looked like a field right next to Delphi. They were so close to us. This show went on for about 15 minutes before dying out. Feeling tired, we called it a night and I went to bed.

This was a really great day. I woke up when the alarm on my cell phone went off at 6am, but my sisters were still sound asleep. I took a shower and got ready then at 7:30am they finally awoke. It was ok though, because they got ready quickly and we left the hotel at around 8:30. There was still a lot of snow on the ground, but fortunately the skies were clear and the sun was shining. We walked to the train station and had breakfast in this nice bakery called Müller. It is a chain of bakeries but the staff here was friendly. After breakfast we walked to the Marienplatz to see it in the sun. The whole façade there is quite a sight, reminding me a lot of Brussels and Brugge. Sapana and I were feeling very cold this morning and I think every ten minutes I said to them “It’s really cold out here”. This meant we would often duck into a store and browse around for a few minutes. We sort of re-traced our steps a bit from the previous night, walking to the Residence and seeing some of the gardens from afar there. We also went into the Dallmayr store to buy some more things, like coffee and such. Sachi was going to buy tea for her ‘Tea Club’ back home, and she first picked up some Dallmayr black tea but then I saw they had ‘rooibush’ tea and immediately told her to get that instead. I remember drinking it with Christian and Judith while watching a movie and even though I’m not a huge fan of tea, I really liked it. It was getting near 11am, so we slowly made our way back to Marienplatz. We hit up the post-office to buy stamps for postcards, and tried again to use the machine outside (remember the disaster in Brugge?) Once again, we messed up again, this time buying European postcard stamps instead of international ones. I went inside and spoke to a lady about my problem, but she was very nice. She took the stamps back, gave me the right ones, then simply asked I pay the difference. All of it was in German, so I was feeling pretty good at what I knew. We stepped into a bookstore to warm up a bit then rushed outside once we heard the bells to see the famous ‘Glockenspiel’. Turns out that not all the churches are synced. We waited some more, seeing all the crowds gathering with their heads turned upward. I remembered the same thing happening in Prague, where I thought the whole thing was rather overrated. The bells starting going for real at 11am, though we waited about 5 minutes before anything started to move. The knight hitting the other knight was kinda cool, but still, maybe I just expect more from these things. We then went to Ludwig Becks and looked around a bit before going outside to the fountain to meet up with Christian at 11:30am. Right on time, he and his girlfriend Miriam came and we greeted each other and they met my sisters. We pretty quickly decided to go eat dinner and Christian pulled out a list of Indian restaurants. We said anyone of them was fine, so they led us down to the metro and we rode it for about 10 minutes or so to a part outside central Munich. We told Christian how we always buy metro tickets but that no one ever checks for them. He said that in 2 years he has been checked maybe four times. The area where we were had a lot of cafes and restaurants and stores and stuff, but not all high-end like the area between Karlplatz and Marienplatz. This was more suburbian. We navigated our way and found the restaurant, and they had some good choices. We went in and ordered, with four of us on Christian’s cue getting spezie, which we can’t find at all in the States and is a drink that is definitely German (it’s a mixture of coca-cola and orange fanta, plus some other things). We talked about our trip so thus far, how expensive Switzerland was, and our trip to Olympiapark the day before. I also asked about their upcoming skiing trip to southern France. Christian has a new snowboard he wants to try, and we took bets on who could race down the mountain faster. Miriam said she is faster on her skis but Christian takes a lot more risks (which I can totally understand). My sisters are rooting for Miriam, I am rooting for Christian, of course. We also discussed what was coming up next for Christian and Miriam, and I inquired about his departure from Lund and such. Christian mentioned that he recently saw a newspaper article in which a minister in German has publicly supported Intelligent Design, so we discussed how this rather sad American export is at least breaching Europa. The food was good (just about the same quality as that in Switzerland at half the cost!) and best of all after the meal they served us chai (Indian tea) which was really, really, authentic. My sisters and I were impressed. Christian pulled out his wallet, intending to pay for the whole dinner, and I attempted to stop him, but he beat me to it ultimately. What a gentleman. I did a little to make it up by beating him to the Deutsches Museum (where we went to immediately after lunch) and at the Hofbraühaus. I guess I’ll just have to come back to Lund and buy him dinner there!

The Deutsches Museum is something I have wanted to visit ever since hearing about it my German language class in middle school. It is one of the largest museums in the world dedicated to science, technology, and engineering. It was funny to see Christian’s eyes light-up when we mentioned the DM. They actually three campuses, one is their main one but there is another dedicated to aircraft and another dedicated to automobiles. The DM is something you can easily spend two days exploring, at least. As it is situated on an island in the middle of the Isar river that runs through Munich, we had to cross a bridge. We went down to the riverfront, walked under the bridge, then back up on the road and then across the bridge we walked underneath! Heh. After giving our coats to the garderrobe, we proceeded to explore the museum. We had about 2.5 hours before it closed, so we had to move fast. We first went through the electric power and machinery, with Sapana and Sachi wondering why this was all so interesting. For me, I could relate it to the internship I did at Progress Energy just this summer. We moved on then to something more excited – aeronautics. The Germans led the world in pioneering the jet engine, so there were many exhibits on jet planes. This area of the museum, which spanned three levels, reminded me very much of the Smithsonian Air and Space museum (the crown jewel in my opinion of the Smithsonian museums in Washington). We wandered upstairs to the astronautics, where they had a model of the Mercury capsule and a whole line-up according to scale of large rockets. I expressed my love and admiration for the Saturn V, explaining to Christian how I was the kind of guy who could name every Apollo astronaut. We saw a special exhibition on medical technology, so we ventured there and here is when Sachi’s eyes lit up. She got really excited here, and looked with fascination at this video of a procedure to replace someone’s heart valve. I only saw maybe 1 minute of it, but afterward I was honestly feeling a little queasy. I did see a demonstration on the EKG and I actually knew something about this cause of Dr. Snyder in ECE 301. On our way up the stairs we also saw the DM’s Foucault pendulum, which pretty much any respectable science museum has an example of. We continued onward to chronometry, saw a life-size model of one of Gutenberg’s printing presses, telecommunications (I was surprised at how informative it was…reminded me a lot of the digital communications course I took this semester), weights and measures, and into astronomy. As we were walking into another wing, Sachi caught a look outside of a wonderful sunset over Munich, with the red sun lighting up the horizon. The pictures I tried taking of it didn’t do it justice. Alas, it was time to go. We tried passing the Foucault pendulum on our way down but they kept shutting doors off, and finally we got to the aeronautics center where Miriam was reading her newspaper. She wasn’t there, so we went over to the garderrobe and picked up our things. Pity the museum isn’t open longer, though I do not know how long the Smithsonian museums stay open. I really must come back to the DM and see it entirely…especially the aircraft and automobile museums. We left the DM and headed to the metro, where we went to Marienplatz. It was about 5:20pm or so, so it was nighttime. We made our way over to the Hofbraühaus next. The Hofbraühaus is perhaps the most famous beer hall in the world, and as a result is so incredible touristy. The hall is enormous, which large long tables. It’s not uncommon to share a table with strangers (as we did). A lot of smoke and loud talking and waiters quickly walking through the crowds with enormous glass mugs in their hands. At first it didn’t look like we would find an open table, but Miriam spotted one and we quickly sat down. For being the Hofbraühaus, they serve maybe six kinds of beer. The classic of course it the house light brew, served in a mass (one of the ridiculously large 1 L glass mugs). Miriam, Sapana, and Sachi got one mass to share and Christian and I each had a 0.5 L weissbier. I was telling Miriam and Christian about how we’ve been trying to get Sapana to try a lot of beers but how she’s never liked any of them. Surprisingly, she actually liked the brew! We have a good picture of her hoisting the stein. Christian hadn’t been in the haus for around 10 years, and I could understand that entirely. There seemed to be more foreigners than Germans, though we did see people wearing the traditional hats, even some groups of elderly people around a table enjoying a drink. This was also the first time in my life that I could consciously feel the alcohol having an effect on me. Before this I had drunk 0.5 L or just a bit more, but it was always with a lot of food. Today, it had been five hours or so since I had eaten and we had been on our feet walking around the whole time. After we left, we stopped at a bakery and I got a pretzel to try to absorb some of the alcohol. We made our way back to Marienplatz and it was here where we said goodbye to Christian and Miriam. They had been so generous and helpful taking us around Munich and afterward I was feeling very down, realizing that it would be a long time before I see them again. My sisters were also feeling sad too, and they told me that I was right – all of the friends they had met were amazing people. From here we did some of our last souvenir shopping; we bought two steins, one for Sunil Uncle’s relatives and one for the O’Connors. I bought some more of the addictive roasted mandelnusse (which we actually determined after asking Christian were almonds), and as we made our way to Karlplatz we went into the Kaufhof and bought a German stainless steel Thermos. Sachi said mom and dad already bought a thermos, but I figured if they don’t use it, I will. Then I can start the story again of a cherished German thermos which I lost, and maybe my kids will go and buy me another one from Germany too. With the beer inside of us and some pastries from before, we weren’t feeling that hungry so Sachi and I picked up some falafel for take-away. We went inside the train station to check how tomorrow’s S-Bahn trip will go, and Sapana went to buy a tomato-mozzarella baguette (she had had enough falafel for the trip). Later at the hotel, the falafel turned out to be very spicy. We finished off some of the other food and did our packing while I was showing Sachi and Sapana some of radiohead’s songs. They think radiohead is a bit weird, which they are. I went down later to the lounge to check and write some e-mail, and when I got back (my sweater still smelling of smoke from the lounge), mom called us to check-in before we went traveling. We talked to them a while then finally went to bed. I was checking the photos from the day as I was lying in bed and couldn’t stop from laughing when I saw how many of Sapana’s shots were completely crooked. I then started looking at some ‘NichtLustig’ comics and had many a good laugh too. Brilliant stuff.  It was getting late, so at my sister’s insistence I shut down the computer and went to bed.

It was such a terrific way to end our European trip.

The train-ride to Munich went just fine, except that it was 15-20 minutes late leaving the station at Zurich. We were in a suite of four seats with one of them being reserved for a hop later on the train, but this person never showed up. We had two bottles of juice and some croissants/bread that we bought before boarding. I ate the bread while the sisters had mostly the croissants. Those things have so much butter! Not terribly healthy. Regular bread is better I think. There was so much snow on the ground in the area outside Zurich, and it would continue to be a winter-wonder land all the way to Munich. All the fields were white, and the evergreen trees were heavily dusted with powdery snow. It was really great. I feel asleep while listening to my mp3 player (not the iPod nano my parents gave me for my birthday…my $50 sandisk player), and got a really good two hours of sleep. Luckily also today the sun was winning its battle against the fog and the clouds. We finally got into Munich station at around 11:45pm. We disembarked and tried checking train times for the Olympic Park but couldn’t see anything familiar. We made our way to the tourist office (it can be tricky, cause ‘Reiseburo’ (trip bureau’ in English) is really about the train or transportation travel office, not the information for the city. It turned out to be a short walk along the block after exiting the station. While there we picked up some pamphlets and a map. I asked the lady whether our Eurailpasses were good for the S-bahn and Underground, but expectedly she didn’t know. We needed to get rid of our bags, so we found our hotel (which was much closer than I thought it would be) and our first impressions of the hotel was good. The baggage room was jam-packed (I think a huge Korean tour group got in that morning but none of their rooms were ready yet) but we somehow managed. I carried around my full backpack. We headed back to the train station stopping at this Golden Dragon-esque Chinese fast food place and ordered some tofu vegetables. It wasn’t bad at all for the money we paid for it, and felt better eating something warm rather than a cold tomato-mozzarella baguette or something. I went over to the adjacent asian grocery store to buy a soda (there was an open passage inside between the two places) mostly cause the drink cabinet in the restaurant was blocked by six people with two strollers. I got my drink then came back to the table where the girls were finishing up. Suddenly one of the restaurant staff comes up and asks me with a troubled look where I bought that soda. I pointed at the store next door and she looked sort of worried. She asked for the receipt (all in German, by the way) and of course it was in the last pocket I checked. She grabbed the soda and receipt and went over to the store’s counter, got the money back for the drink, then went over the restaurant’s register and ‘re-bought’ the soda, this time charging 10 cents less ‘lebensmittel’ tax, then handed me the soda. I was completely bewildered by the entire thing. We left rather quickly (the sisters were finished) after that. I think it must be something where if you buy bottled soda at a restaurant there is less of a tax involved than if you purchase a drink separately at a normal store. In any case, it was a different of 10 cents. Whew.

We walked east from the Hauptbahnhof towards Marienplatz, which the idea of turning northward and swinging by the Residenz and Operahaus. That didn’t quite happen cause we kept watching eastward along this really nice and wide shopping street. We saw this really great deal on fleeces and I bought one for 9 euros. We continued to walk (the sun was going down fast, and it was very cold) and I bought some mandel nusse (roasted brazilian nuts) which were just delicious. We were looking for a café but this proved moretable where the girls were finishing up. Suddenly one of the restaurant staff comes up and asks me with a troubled look where I bought that soda. I pointed at the store next door and she looked sort of worried. She asked for the receipt (all in German, by the way) and of course it was in the last pocket I checked. She grabbed the soda and receipt and went over to the store’s counter, got the money back for the drink, then went over the restaurant’s register and ‘re-bought’ the soda, this time charging 10 cents less ‘lebensmittel’ tax, then handed me the soda. I was completely bewildered by the entire thing. We left rather quickly (the sisters were finished) after that. I think it must be something where if you buy bottled soda at a restaurant there is less of a tax involved than if you purchase a drink separately at a normal store. In any case, it was a different of 10 cents. Whew.

We walked east from the Hauptbahnhof towards Marienplatz, which the idea of turning northward and swinging by the Residenz and Operahaus. That didn’t quite happen cause we kept watching eastward along this really nice and wide shopping street. We saw this really great deal on fleeces and I bought one for 9 euros. We continued to walk (the sun was going down fast, and it was very cold) and I bought some mandel nusse (roasted brazilian nuts) which were just delicious. We were looking for a café but this proved more difficult than expected. There were some souvenir shops so looked around a bit to comparison shop. I think I can get my Bayern pin for 3.55 euros. The cuckoo clock we want to get for the O’Connors might be something like 25 euros, pretty steep. The stein’s aren’t any cheaper either. We actually made it to Marienplatz and it reminded me a bit of the square in Brussels or Bruges. We turned a bit north from here and ultimately made it to the Residenz and Opera house before we realized it, and found this interesting café place were I got a coffee, Sachi got a hot chocolate, and Sapana a panini. Neat place. We find Maximilian strasse, but here I think Frommers has it completely wrong cause it didn’t seem like a shopping street at ALL. I said screw it and we started heading back to the nice street that we came in on. Suddenly Sapana points out the Dallmayr store. I had mentioned this place to them on the train from what Frieder and Christian told me and she had found it. We went in and explored the place a bit – fine foods from chocolates and jams and teas and coffees to even meats and such. I bought some whole coffee beans and Sachi bought some Weihnachten Schokoladen. I decided later to give them to Christian as a gift, so tomorrow we will come by here and buy more coffee and chocolate, this time for home. We continued onward and went by the mini Christmas market they had setup with an ice-skating rink. We looked at the skaters a bit (it was due for a Zamboni session that’s for sure) and then spent time on the Kaufhof. This is a huge department store that puts the ones we have in the malls to shame. We finally located the thermoses and did some comparisons. We’ll probably buy it tomorrow with Christian showing us Viktualien platz. We walked back to the hotel and decided to have dinner at this Italian restaurant just at the beginning of Senefelder strasse. The prices were pretty good, but the food was ok. The waiter didn’t seem to mind us much either I think. Tourists. :\ We got back to the hotel and went upstairs. I came down a bit later with Sachi to use the internet terminals and to try a beer, but we discovered that they had FREE Wi-Fi access in the lounge. We brought back down the laptop and tried to log-in, unsuccessfully at first cause the lady at the desk told me a log-in of ‘EuroYouth’ when it was ‘euroyouth’. We logged in and checked email, the weather, ACC basketball schedule, our credit card statements, and some other random stuff. I composed a long letter to mom and dad, but not sure if it finally went through at the end. Sachi and I came back upstairs, I transferred pictures to the laptop and worked on this journal until falling asleep.

Tomorrow will be busy but fruitful – Marienplatz, lunch and touring with Christian, the Deutsches Museum des Wissenschaft und Technologie, and the Hofbrauhaus.  Gotta get some sleep; gute Nacht.

Today was really, really, relaxed. We were awoken at 7am by a phone call from our parents, and we got to talk with them as we tried getting ready. It was nice to hear their voices and their well-wishes. We still felt kind of sleepy, so we all sort of fell back to sleep and didn’t wake up until late. We finally got up and ready and then walked across the street to the Starbucks where we ordered coffee and some pastries. Before leaving, I ate some more of the bread and cheese we bought from the grocery store the night before. It was still lightly snowing today, and it was cold. Probably the coldest it has been outside during our entire trip in Europe so far. After we did Starbucks we headed north towards the Zurich University and ETH campus, with the intention of visiting this museum of Medicine History. We walked farther than we thought and ultimately never quite got to the museum. We turned toward east-south-east and passed by the Kunsthaus Zurich (art house) where we stopped briefly to check times and prices. We still had some daylight so we made our way through the streets towards the southern part of the inner city where the Limmat opens up into the big lake. They had more shops and such so we did some window shopping here too. We bought our postcards, but I held off on my knife because this lady at the gall of charging 0.30 cents more for it than everywhere else! Victorinox is like Bose in that they have set prices for their knives, so you’ll find the same prices everywhere. It was very, very cold. We made it to the final bridge and walked across it, snapping photos along the way. Because of the falling snow, visibility wasn’t very far. We saw all these ducks and birds gathering by the pier-edge, including a swan that was out of the water. It is quite a big bird! Sachi even saw one of the ducks dive underwater and come up with a fish in its beak. We turned northward on the opposite bank and walked up the river-front, passing by this circus complex but didn’t think it would be so fun in weather like this. We crossed the bridge across from the Grossmünster cathedral and walked across. There was a souvenir shop so I went in and bought my ‘Soldat’ (soldier, in English) Swiss Army Knife and also stamps for the postcards back home. We made our way up the stairs and inside the Grossmünster cathedral which Sapana was apt to point out we did not see the previous day. It was ok inside, nothing too special in my opinion. We continued upward through the way we came down, on a sharply sloping street with a horse statue and several antique book shops and such. We got to the Kunsthaus and went to their general collection, which was free because of it being a Wednesday. I really enjoyed this museum. They had various wings dedicated to topics, like “Old Masters”, “Modern Art”, etc. then broke down each of the wings into more focused sections like “Italian art” and “Netherlands art”, often with pieces from the same time-period in the same room. It was very nice. I really enjoy the more landscape/cityscape/seascape paintings in the 1600-1700 period, when they really began to experiment with subtle forms of lighting in their landscapes. Italian art can be interesting, but one quickly gets inundated with endless depictions of the life of Christ. In their modern or contemporary art they had many examples of the “red lines on white canvas” or “primary color shapes on black canvas” type paintings, but also some really interesting ones where the painting appeared three-dimensional (thick ridges of paint where the strokes ended) but in fact it wasn’t. There were some Roy Lichtenstein, which Sapana recognized. The fourth floor was really great cause they had paintings from Monet, Matisse, Picasso, Munch, Dali, etc. Pretty good stuff.

After the Kunsthaus we went back to the hotel and did some packing and writing of postcards. I wanted to check my e-mail to coordinate with Christian in Munich, and thought we could go to the Starbucks where we saw a Wi-Fi access sign. Sachi bought a coffee and Sapana a hot chocolate. I was able to connect but was hit with a payment page. It sucked, you had to enter in your credit card information and such, and the rates were terrible. Disappointed, I went back to the hotel to use their kiosk in the smoke-filled lounge (they say the hotel is non-smoking, but all the workers in the lounge smoke and it wafts up into the floors). Happily, I saw an e-mail from Christian and his idea for a meeting place and time ended up matching perfectly with the plans we were sketching out for Munich. I sent back a letter, then the girls came back from Starbucks and after dropping off our jackets in the room went the 10 steps from the hotel door to the Indian restaurant that was in the same building as the hotel. Sachi had a glass of red wine and  I had one of white wine; Sapana just had water. We ordered an aloo appetizer, then chana masala, palak paneer, and a mushroom shahi curry dish, and a mixed bread basket. Switzerland is so freakin’ expensive. We were easily at $25+ per person for this meal. But it was good. Back in the room we had some of the chocolate we bought earlier, and continued to work on journals and pictures. I had my laptop on the bed at an angle due to the blanket and suddenly USB 2.0 was working! The transfer speed is SO MUCH FASTER. Excited, we connected Sapana’s iPod and started transferring songs. We also wanted to backup the European trip pictures so we started a transfer of 1700 pictures. Just as it was ALMOST finished (after 20 minutes or so of optimizing and transferring) the USB 2.0 suddenly cut out and it re-connected at USB 1.1. The iPod didn’t save ANY of the data that was previously sent, so instead of around 1600 pictures it only showed 24. Sigh. I’m gonna make IBM/Lenovo fix this when I get back to the States. I paid like $300+ for an extended 3-year warranty for this laptop, and it BETTER cover this. It’s a system-board problem. It used to work just fine, then it suddenly quit. I think they know about it too – some problem with electro-static-dust buildup inside the system mainboard. I’ll call them up and ask if there is a safe way I can blow it or something.

We had to get up at 5am to catch the train to Munich the next day, so we went to bed early. It was an interesting 21^st birthday.

We woke up around 6:15 or 6:30am, and quickly got ready and checked out. It was a quick walk over to the Geneva train station. Sapana bought some juice and Babybel cheese from the grocery store while I bought some pastries as Sachi waited by the platform. We went up to the platform as soon the train rolled into the station. It was a double-decker train, so we went up the stairs and Sachi had found this nice three chair booth by the stairs. We sat down (no reservations, but it was fine), had some of the food and got underway. About an hour after we were rolling, we began to see some great country-side. Green fields gave way to white meadows, and in the distance we could see snow covered mountains. The sun was engaged in an on-going battle with the clouds. I fell asleep for a good hour or so, but listened to Sachi’s mp3 player first to some new Nickelcreek songs then to my own. We also read Sapana’s recently bought Herald Tribune newspaper. After about 3.5 hours, we arrived at Zurich HB. We disembarked and headed to the main terminal area. Since our Frommer’s guide to Europe (what a rather UNuseful book that has been) does not even include Zurich, our first priority was getting a map. We waited in line at the tourist bureau, relishing the fact that we could actually make out a bit of what was around us, cause Zurich is in the German speaking part of Switzerland. The tourist bureau was filled with an unusually high number of Indians, who seemed to be intent on booking tours and such cause they were taking so long in line. Sachi worked through several pamphlets and guides about Zurich while Sapana and I waited to get a map. It turned out the map was free anyway, so I don’t know why they don’t leave it out on the counter. We also got directions to our hotel, which we proceeded to immediately afterward. It is colder here in Zurich than any other city we’ve been to so far. We walked along the river front, marveling at a Starbucks Coffee and some other stores along the way. As I was trying to clear a curb, I ended up snapping off one of the legs of my bag. This means that it will no longer stand upright on its own accord. How lovely. We checked in just fine at the hotel (an expensive Indian restaurant is literally right below it) and after consulting the maps a bit headed back out into the city. On the way to the Starbucks I stopped at the Swiss equivalent of Payless Shoes. We saw these neat looking boots for just $22. But they didn’t have my size, oh well. We entered the Starbucks and Sachi and I shared a tall coffee. Our worries about the cost was later assuaged by the fact that all coffee is expensive in Zurich (pretty much like EVERYTHING else in Switzerland). Sachi also had a bagel. It was a good coffee – American style, not the espresso-style that Europe loves. And we later found a Starbucks behind our hotel too. Huzzah. From Starbucks we crossed the bridge to check the timing of the trains to Lucerne, where we tentatively planning a day trip for the next day. Total round-trip tickets cost 90 euros though. Ouch. We saw this fast food place by the coop grocery store with vegetarian options and Sapana got some springrolls for four francs. We then went to the Swiss Landesmuseum. It was an interesting museum, but a little too unfocused for my liking. The different exhibition rooms tended to jump around quite a bit in the topics of the artifacts. Switzerland has definitely had a very different history than other European countrys. After the museum we strolled down Bahnhofstrasse, the principal shopping and activity area of the town. We saw three (3!) H&Ms and did some more window shopping for Swiss watches. One store had a very nice selection of Swiss Army watches, and one or two of the models were outstanding – exactly my type of preferred style except that they cost three or four times my trusty Timex Expedition. Heh. Figures. We also went into a souvenir shop (they aren’t that common in Zurich) only to get sticker-shop at the prices. Souvenirs are EXPENSIVE. They were asking $7 or $8 for a simple patch…$8 for a PIN. It was pretty ridiculous. One of the most popular Swiss exports – the Swiss Army Knife, is also on display in numerous stores, which show impressive cases with all imaginable variations on the very recognizable utility tool. There must be some sort of price control enforced by Wenger or Victorinix, because practically every store has the same price for the knives. I am seriously considering purchasing one, because it’s quite recognizable and I’ve certain found it useful. The one I’m eyeing is not the typical red one though…instead it is imprinted metal, the ‘Soldat’ (German for ‘soldier’) variety for 24 francs. This one is actually the ‘original’ Swiss army knife that was issued to every civilian and soldier in Switzerland (265 day military service is compulsory for every Swiss male). So not only does it look different than the typical Swiss Army Knife, but it also the original and it was bought IN Switzerland. Would be nice I think. I still have tomorrow to think about it. We spotted this church with a large clock tower, but it was funny cause every time we tried getting closer to it we would lose it behind a building and couldn’t find a way to it. Finally we made it and crossed the bridge to the size of the lake where our hotel is. They had another souvenir shop here so Sapana got her shotglass. The good pin I saw was an outrageous $6, so I decided to hold back. Everything else was too expensive. We visited another cathedral nearby (the Fraumunster I believe?) then I was hungry so we went looking for a café. Not finding much luck, Sapana had the good idea of picking up something at the grocery store and going back to the hotel to chill for an hour or so. We did exactly that, and after resting a bit went back outside towards the station and the Bahnhofstrasse. I had read that there was a Christmas market going, and though we saw signs of a small one, it was clear that the bulk of it was over. We saw them disassembling a large pavilion of stalls in the station when we came in. I went back to that other store and grudging bought by pin. Sigh. We did a bit more window shopping and scouted some restaurants on the way back. It’s crazy…any dinner restaurant here, even the ‘take-away’ kind, will leave you 18-22 francs down…that’s more than $14 a person for just the dish, not drinks. A falafel at a fast food stand costs 7 or 8 francs…between $5 and $6. I could buy a nice big falafel in Lund for $2.75! Not feeling terribly hungry after our afternoon snack, we bought some small things at the same place where we got the spring rolls earlier and stepped into the grocery store next door to pick up some juice and such. We walked back to the hotel and had dinner there. I got started on resuming this journal, and at this very moment I’ve been writing for 2.5 or 3 hours. We are going to get to a leisurely start tomorrow (our birthday). The trip to Lucerne was X’ed, being too $$ when really we’d get the most out of it in spring or summer, not winter. I also must say that it has been lightly snowing here in Zurich. It has been nice, and not really too cold. The snow was a nice factor and added to the ‘Swiss’ experience, though I would like to have a clear day to see the mountains surrounding Zurich. Snow is falling now so tomorrow shall be quite white I think. The sisters have been falling asleep two hours ago, and now must I. More tomorrow!

We woke up early today (around 5am) and quickly got ready and left the hostel by 6am. It was a good idea, cause the metro ride to Gare de Lyon took 35 minutes. We found the platform and eventually boarded. The tickets here were kind of screwy cause instead of the three of us being in one of the suites, we were kind of scattered. Oh well. I slept well for the first hour, then the conductor came by. I poked Sachi to wake her, and she gave him our rail pass. He saw that we were heading to Geneva and then starting saying something in French. We stared at him blankly, but the gentlemen sitting next to me quickly began to translate for us, saying that we will have to transfer trains in Bellegard, and that it would be easy. I thought the train was a direct trip, but oh well. I slept on and off for the next hour and a half, but the view of the French countryside was very nice. A thin layer of front gave everything a sheen while mist and fog shrouded the distant bocage. I was awake for the last half hour as we moved through the southeast of France, where the Alps begin to rise from the Earth. It was lovely traveling through this part of France – rugged cliffs provided a backdrop to ancient and rustic French villages, the tops were capped with mist and the sun slowly began to burn through them and reveal the mountains in the stark sunlight. Another French couple sat in the seats vacated by the original people, but they spoke English as well and helped explain what the conductor was saying. We got off at Bellegard (snow was on the ground) and walked over to another train with ‘Geneve’ taped on the window. Kind of sketchy. We learned later that the train schedules got messed up so our initial train wasn’t going to Geneva after all. Oh well. We finally made it into Geneva, and had to show our passport and go through security. You would think that because the euro is not commonly used, there would be ATMs publicly displayed. Not so fast. We couldn’t see one anywhere around the train station, so just went ahead to the hotel. The hotel thankfully is only 2 blocks from the train station, so we found it and got into our room at around 11:15 or so. We rested up a bit and put the camera’s batteries to charge. We left and walked around a few blocks finding a place to eat. First, like France, Switzerland isn’t too friendly for vegetarians, and two, it is expensive! At McDonalds, I think the Big Mac menu is more expensive than in Norway. We eventually found this place that had a falafel combo meal which was quite affordable, so we ate there. Went back to the hotel, transferred the pictures off the camera and got ready to head out. We went back to the station and after some difficulty (we had few Swiss franc coins) got our tram tickets and took the tram to the United Nations building. It was closed, so we saw it from outside then walked up to the Red Cross and Red Crescent museum. The Red Cross was started after Swiss Henry Dunant was moved by the suffering of soldiers following the battle of Solferino between the French and the Italians, so he urged them to remedy the lack of medical care for soldiers. In the mid 1860s, the Red Cross was formed. The symbol for the Red Cross, a red cross on white background, is an inversion of Switzerland’s flag, and Dunant chose this because he wanted a symbol of neutrality. But when the organization began operating in the near east, Muslim troops objected to the Red Cross symbol; they adopted instead the Red Crescent. Later, the Red Cross formally added recognition of the Red Crescent. Now, a few Israeli Jews want their own symbol. For an organization that believes in unity and universality, having two or three symbols due to perceived religious overtones is troubling, so I think a new logo is being considered. For me it’s rather shocking, because the Red Cross is so ingrained in my conception of help, first aid, emergency medicine, etc. It is a shame that this is an issue, and it goes to show how too many times mankind choses to invest so much time, energy, and attention on less important things than actually caring and helping their fellow man. The museum also had an exhibit of photographs taken by VII, a group of photojournalists who covered the Afghanistan and Iraq War. The photos were very moving. All in all, it was a nice museum for a worthy cause.

We wanted to also see what has become the symbol of Geneva – the Jet d’Eau, or just, the ‘Jet’. It is a huge fountain that sits in Lake Geneva and shoots out a plume high in the sky. But, as it turns out, it closed at 4pm cause it’s winter, and we reached the lake at 5pm. You have to realize though, the mindset that we were at. We had just come from magnificent Paris, and frankly any city would be hard pressed to match its grandeur. Also, despite seeing the sun on the way in, there were low gray clouds that covered the sky, and it was colder than it had been in any of the other cities we visited. Also, after finishing the Red Cross museum, we tried (being the honest citizens we are) to buy a tram ticket to get back into town all the way to the Altstadt (old town). However, unlike the well-run transit systems of Sweden, Denmark, and what we saw in Holland, in Switzerland you have to buy your tram tickets before boarding the vehicle. However, not all stops have a ticket machine. So first you walk to the nearest big stop. Then, having just arrived in Geneva in the past four hours, we did not have a sizeable Swiss franc coin collection. The ticket machines don’t accept bills, and exact change is required. Basically, we couldn’t buy tram tickets. So we walked back all the way to the lake. When you take into account all these factors, we were in a pretty flighty mood. My sisters and I were not unhappy by any means, in fact we were in quite a nice mood. We were simply acknowledging the fact we just didn’t get out of Geneva what one would get if they were here in June on a sunny day. Sachi was trying to defend it, and wanted to cross the bridge to see the Altstadt. It was already 5pm, and sunlight was fading. The bridge is quite far, and when I looked across I just saw hotels. Sapana and I started giving Sachi a hard time, jokingly of course, of what was really worth seeing in the Altstadt. She started reading stuff and unfairly, we were making comparisons left and right to bigger cities and places and ruled them out. Reading down the list, she said how there was this big ramp where they could bring their horses up….and we lost it. The very idea that we were reduced to a horse ramp of finding things to see was enough. Poor Geneve, this was just not your day. We strolled back up to the small shopping area in front of the main station and meandered through H&M. I bought a long sleeved shirt. After doing some window shopping of watches and Swiss Army knives, we then scouted out a place to eat (Italian, of course) then went back to the hotel. I got on the internet to check my e-mail, the weather (it’ll be snowing in Zürich), and such. I have to catch up on my journal then pack up for tomorrow’s train at 7:45am.

Today we woke up very late…at like 8:45 or 9am. It was alright, cause we did not have a concrete plan to work out. When we came down, I checked my e-mail and was glad to see an e-mail from Eddy giving us a meeting time and place. Hooray! We then left the hotel, first deciding to go see the Arc d’Triomphe and the Champs-Elysses. We took the metro there and as you come out of the metro the Arc rises from the middle of the large traffic circle. It was of course a bit smaller than I remembered it being, mostly because the last time I saw it in person was 10 years ago, when I was 11. We walked under the circle and got up close to it. I particularly like one of the sculptures on it depicting Napoleon. He is standing in the center, with Europe kneeling at his feet, being crowned Emperor, with the Angle of Victors trumpeting the news to the world. Very cool. From the Arc d’Triomphe, we started walking down the Champs-Elysses towards the Concorde Plaza. We stopped at the McDonalds (fanciest McDonalds I’ve ever been in) to have a cup of coffee at some pastries. We continued walking down doing some window shopping. On our right we saw a nice looking building so ventured along the Palais Royale and out to this very nice bridge. We snapped photos then strolled back to the Champs-Elysses. We bought stamps and postcards too, though I think the stamp guy might have swindled us. I said I needed 8 stamps for postcards to America, and he said I needed to put two on each card so I had to buy 16 stamps…which came to more than 8 euros. Considering other countries it was around 80 cents to send a postcard priority, this seemed a bit fishy. But oh well. Made me think of that Gujurati saying about getting ripped off while traveling. Heh. On the way an old Australian approached us asking where the closest metro stop. The funny thing is was also the only problem we were having with the metro system – unlike in other cities I’ve been in, the signs for the metro blends in quite well with the surroundings, so picking them out isn’t always easy. Especially with the long blocks of Paris. A French fellow overheard and stepped in to help. I certainly don’t remember that happening 10 years ago! We made it to the Concorde Plaza, where an obelisk from Cleopatro stands and another large palace or building (sorry…Paris can overwhelm you like that) stood across the river Seine and a large and stately bridge spanning it. At this point the sun was peeking through the clouds causing the sun-beam effect, so it was quite a nice sight. We also tried to find some souvenir shops to finish some of the shopping, but it was difficult. Paris souvenirs obsess over the Eiffel tower, so finding a shotglass with the French flag or seal or a pin was extremely difficult. From the Concorde plaza we took the metro up to the Montmarte area, which is hilly and elevated compared with the rest of Paris. It is known as the artist district and was where the French movie ‘Amelie’ was shot. The streets are narrowing and wind more, and there is an older, closer feel to it. It was nice. The dominating structure here is the Sacre Coeur cathedral. We took a funicular up to it and it provides a tremendous view of Paris, which sits well below. I could make out the golden dome of the Invalides hospital, and the Eiffel tower was towards the right but obscured by some trees and building. The cathedral itself was very nice inside, with perhaps the most serious and intriguing altar area of any church I’ve seen. The lighting set the mood very well. We walked down the steps from the cathedral, and once at the street we felt kind of hungry so we bought and shared a sandwich, while Sapana find a less than ideal but very affordable shotglass and I actually found a decent pin. It was about 4:15pm, and we were set to meet Eddy in front of the church at St. Germain at 5pm. We walked back to the metro stop and took the metro to the stop before St. Germain, in order to walk the rest of the way to both eat up some time and to see more of the city. It was a bit confusing, but we finally made it. There was a small Christmas market setup around the church, so we walked up and down that. One person was carving vegetables into flowers and roses. We also stepped inside the church before coming outside. One can easily see why the square at St. Germain is an ideal place to meet someone for a coffee or drink. There are nice cafes and restaurants around the square, and the trees and streets were nicely decorated for the holidays. We were waiting by the road, and I told Sachi that Eddy drove a small French car, and I pointed to a white Clio has it drove past. Not more than fifteen seconds later, I hear my name shouted out and turn to see Eddy in his gray Clio. He went down the road to park and a few minutes later we saw him coming up. It was good to see him. I introduced him to my sisters and we went to a nearby café for some coffee. As we sat I caught up with him on his family and his departure from Lund. Sachi and Sapana also complimented him on the movie and about how travels in Europe and in Paris so far. The funny and slightly annoying part was that the waiters here seemed determine to ignore us, so it took quite a while for us to get their attention. We asked for three hot chocolates and one coffee, but instead got three coffees and one hot chocolate. Eddy sorted it out. Also, one of Eddy’s favorite French movie stars came in and took a table a few ones behind us. I asked Sachi to see if she could subtly take a few photos of him. Eddy told us that this is a trendy and fashionable part of town that, like St. Michel, is nearby some universities. We also learned that Eddy lives inside Paris. I told him how much the city impressed me, from its grandeur to its outstanding metro system. He took it quite humbly. J It got to around 6:45pm when we left the café. I asked him for some restaurant suggestions so Eddy was generous and showed us around some of the streets around the St. Germain square. He helped translate some French menus and best of all, we found that his favorite bakery in all of Paris was still open! We went in and saw all the delicious things it had to offer. I bought several kinds of macaroons and a French baguette for tomorrow’s breakfast. They later turned out to be spectacular, and I’m definitely coming back there when I come to Paris again. Sadly, we had to part ways so we said goodbye. I am sure I will see him again in America or in Paris. Eddy was so great to talk to in Lund and he was so nice and generous during his holidays in Paris. My sisters really liked him too.  We strolled around more and got a little lost, finally making it back to St. Germain square. We spotted this Italian restaurant called Mezza Luna and went there, finding the menu affordable. I got pasta and Sachi and Sapana got pizza (this was a common occurrence on this trip). Parisians truly know how to do pizza – all the ones we’ve ordered at restaurants have been superb, and always in a wood-fired oven. After finishing dinner, we went back to the Arc d’Triomphe one was time to see it and the Champs-Elysses bathed in light, and saw the Eiffel Tower flashing. Fittingly, the memory card of our camera filled up and thus our last day in Paris came to an end. We took the metro back to our hostel, where we readied our clothes for tomorrow. Our train was leaving at 7:10 to Geneva, and we had to be really early. Just as we were getting ready, Shri came back from his day at Euro-Disney, looking quite exhausted. I told him about our day and I learned that he’s also a vegetarian with family in India. He also has family in San Francisco. He had spent two days in Dubai on a stop-over and said the nightlife in Dubai was really great. I wished him well on his journeys and he did the same, and I went to bed.

Paris is truly a grand city. It has the royalty of Vienna, but with a sense of grandeur and completeness that few cities can match. It is the only city I can think of that is deserving of the title ‘Capitol of Europe’. The metro system was also such surprise. Easy to read maps and plentiful signs make finding the right connections and trains a cinch, the trains run often and are clean, and throughout the stations there are maps showing the detail Paris city metro map, the greater Paris area, as well as a detailed look at the area of Paris just surrounding the station, to help you get oriented as you leave a particular station. They would also give free maps, so I made it a point to pick one up nearly everywhere we went. My wish was that we could have stayed one more day to see more museums, like the Musee d’Orsay and the Musee Rodin. Ah well…it gives me a reason to come. What made our stay in Paris the best was that Laure, Kahina, and Eddy came and met with us. Sapana said to me as we stood by the Arc d’Triomphe at night that meeting Saket’s friends was the most wonderful part of visiting Paris. I couldn’t agree more.

We went to Normandy today, the place where the Allied forces punched through Hitler’s ‘Fortress Europa’ and began the western offensive against his Reich. I have been interested in D-Day and World War II (European Theater of Operations) since early high school, and have read many books and watched films on the matter. In particular, D-Day and the US paratroopers has been a strong interest. And now finally I was going to get to see the places where it all happened. It takes about 2.5 hours by train to get to Caen, the biggest city in the Normandy area. We had a small worry at the station cause we weren’t quite sure where the train was, but finally we saw it and made it with about 10 seconds left. I slept a bit of way there, but once we were there we disembarked at Caen. We had some time to kill: the tour wasn’t going to start in 2 hours, so instead of spending time in Caen we chose to take the next train to Bayeux and wait there. Bayeux is very small, but it has an impressive cathedral there that holds the famous Bayeux tapestry, an enormous piece of work that visually depicts the 1066 Battle of Hastings. Alas, we did not get to see it. To kill some time, we walked from the station to downtown Bayeux (no souvenir stores were open…curious) but soon it was time to go back to the station. We ended up buying some snacks at the gas station and grocery store in Bayeux as we hadn’t really had lunch. At 1pm, a bus drove up with the D-Day Tours emblem and a man by the name of Olivier came out holding a sign with ‘Vora’ written on it. That’s us! Turns out we were the only people he had that day. December 24^th is really their off-season…summer is where all the money is made. But it was ok. Olivier was friendly and we were off.

We started by driving the American Cemetery at Colleville. This is the cemetery for the American troops that died in the Normandy region, on D-Day but also through the war. It is a very moving experience seeing the rows and rows of grave markers. 9,400 soldiers are buried there, some that are unknown. All face east, towards America. The cemetery is actually American soil, because the families wanted their sons to be buried in American soil, not French. The cemetery sits on the bluff overlooking Omaha Beach, so that was our next destination. We went by one of the exits where an anti-tank casemate sits that had be neutralized before the exit could be opened. This casemate can be seen in a famous picture showing American soldiers moving up the beach. We then drove down the length of the beach towards the western end of it, where we got down and were able to walk onto it. Off to the side stood the only remaining part of the dock from the artificial harbor the Americans built. What struck me about Omaha beach is how long it really is. Films and video games makes you think otherwise, but in reality the beach is five miles long. And unlike the other beaches (we went to Utah later), a bluff rises above the beach after several hundred meters from the sand. Another thing I had to visualize was the width of the beach itself – we were there at high-tide, but when the Allies landed the sandy part was more than 700m wide. With no cover, with an entrenched and prepared enemy on high ground in front of you, that would seem the distance from the earth to the moon to a soldier. Sapana was mindful enough to pick up a rock, which we’ll give to Nader. I wish I had thought to bring some plastic bags, so I could bring sand back. Anyway. We got back in the van and drove to the part of the shore that juts out and divides the Omaha and Utah beaches – Point-du-Hoc. This is on very high ground and the Germans had put in a well-armored battery of guns that could strike targets anywhere on Omaha beach. The Rangers were assigned the task of tackling this battery, which involved scaling a practically vertical cliff with Germans lobbing grenades down at them, then coming to the top and fighting hand-to-hand, then being surrounded by a mine-field. The Allied bombers heavily bombed the area three months before the invasion. Point-du-Hoc is arguable the most compelling because one can see the enormous impact craters that are easily 10-12 feet deep and 18-22 feet in diameters all over the landscape, dotted with smashed concrete slabs from the fortifications. Some of the massive casemates with six foot armor still remain, the 155mm guns removed. There is also one of the bunkers in which we could do down into where the German soldiers slept and such. It was kind of eerie, because Sachi and I had virtually attacked these bunkers in video games, and I could vividly see Tom Hanks leading his troop of men against bunkers very much like these in Saving Private Ryan. The tragic part was that the Rangers suffered a 60%+ casualty rate in taking Point-du-Hoc, yet they didn’t find any of the guns there. The Germans had moved them back into the country for protection. From Point-du-Hoc we drove to Utah beach. They have another museum setup here but it was closed due to the off-season. They had a Sherman tank and a Higgins boat outside on display. I didn’t know this but the Higgins boat was made out of wood except for the steel front door. Compared with over a 2000 dead at Omaha beach, there were 200 dead at Utah Beach. There is no tall bluff overlooking the beach. We also saw these markers that are apparently all over France which markers the date that the place was liberated. As we drove on some of the narrow back-country roads, we also saw these distinctive kilometer markers the Allies would place down as they took back more and more land. Using these markers they were able to call in more precise airstrikes. Our attention moved next to the US paratroopers, who were dropped behind enemy lines six hours before the invasion began (at 12:30am) to help disrupt the enemy’s response during the invasion. We saw the bridges that had their doors open to flood the fields behind Utah beach, and we then swung past St. Marie-du-Mont, a small village which was the designated gathering point for the 101^st Airborne Division. As we drove past the village, we saw a stately manor house that Commander Taylor of the 101^st chose as his headquarters for Normandy. I also got excited when he mentioned Brecourt Manor. It may be kind of obscure, but I really enjoy the ‘Band of Brothers’ story by Stephen Ambrose and the story he tells of Easy Company of the 502^nd PIR of the 101^st. In ‘Band of Brothers’, Lt. Winters leads his men on an assault of four large artillery guns that were setup on a field at Brecourt Manor. These guns were striking Utah Beach. Outnumbered in manpower and firepower, Winters was successful in neutralizing the position and he has his men were awarded for their gallantry and bravery. It also provides the context for a particularly intense and fast-paced action sequence in the miniseries Band of Brothers (episode 2, ‘Day of Days’). Olivier our tour-guide drove us by the manor and I got out and took some photos. In a way I felt silly, cause really it was just a field with some trees marking its borders, but it was sort of a thrill to be near the spot where these men that I have read so much about were and fought back in 1944. From Brecourt Manor we drove to St. Mere-Eglise, the rallying point for the 82^nd Airborne. What makes this church famous is that a soldier named John Steel got his parachute caught in the steeple and remained hanging there for several hours. He pretended to be dead, which proved especially difficult after being shot in the leg. To commemorate this, there is a mock-up of an airborne soldier hanging from the church. The members of the 82^nd grew quite close to St. Mere-Eglise. For the 50^th anniversary they paid for new stained glass which showed paratroopers falling from the sky with the Holy Mother and the church in the center. It was quite interesting.

I wanted to buy some souvenirs but was rather discouraged because of the off-season. Olivier helped find a small shop across from the church but all I got were some post-cards. In the summer all the stores are open. Pity, cause I was going to spend some money there too. That concluded the tour, so Olivier got on the highways and took us back to Bayeux. There were stores still open in the downtown and instead of waiting at the lonely train station for an hour for our train, I asked to be dropped off there and we killed off some time window shopping there. It really is a small town. We bought some food at the grocery store and later walked to the train station. We boarded a train that was going from Cherbourg to Paris St. Lazare, so we were all set for the entire way back.

It was a really great day trip. Actually being there in the places I’ve read about was such a thrill. I was happy that the weather stayed cooperative, a bit of sunshine, no rain, and it wasn’t that cold. What struck me the most about the entire tour of Normandy was how large the area is in reality. Somehow that point never got into my mind in the books, films, or games I’ve played. Omaha beach is really long. The distance between Point-du-Hoc and St. Mere-Eglise is 20 minutes by van on decent roads. The entire land area that was involved in the Normandy operation is so much larger than I had previously realized. I only wish that I could have also done the tour with friends like Nader and Craig with me. Maybe in the future though. J

As we got ready in the morning, I saw that Laure had sent me an SMS. It was great news – she gave us a meeting place and time where we can meet her for lunch. Hopefully check-in at the hotel will go smoothly and we should be able to make it ok. We took a taxi to Brussels Midi cause it’s a shady area and after a slight mix-up on the train (we were sitting in our numbered seats in train car 17, not 16 as our ticket said) we were on our way to Paris.

We arrived in Paris just fine and made our way to the metro. My mom says that when we were in Paris ten years ago, she was surprised at how easily we had navigated the Paris metro. After so many other cities under our belt now, it was no problem. We found the hostel soon enough and checked-in, though we couldn’t enter the room until after 5pm. The lady at the desk was quite weird…I asked if we could leave our bags somewhere and she just pointed at this sheet of Rules and said to read it first. I mean, this isn’t the first hostel we’ve stayed at. After I read the rules, I asked again “where is the luggage room” and she pointed me to it. Silly. We then went back out to the metro and we had about two hours to use up before meeting up with Laure. To the Eiffel Tower! We took the metro again to Bir Hakim and got out of the station and immediately the Eiffel tower loomed above us. It is quite an arresting sight. We walked towards it snapping photos every five minutes. It was partly cloudy, but as we moved out down the Champs de Mars, the sun began to break out above the clouds and slowly the entire tower was bathed in light. It was very nice. We walked towards the south-east, trying to find a café or something to have a cup of coffee, but no real dice. We didn’t have a good map, so we just wandered a bit. I spotted this building with its gold-leafed dome glinting in the sunlight. It is called Invalides, and it is a grand hospital that Napoleon built for his injured soldiers. Finally it was about time so we took the metro to St. Michel. Laure said for us to meet in front of the fountain at St. Michel, and we got there a bit early. Promptly at 12pm, I spotted her walking up the street. She had to quickly finish a call with her father then I introduced her to my sisters. She told that me that Kahina was coming too, so we waited a bit. Kahina then came and was so kind to bring some chocolates. I wish I had bought some flowers for them, but I forgot. I’m sorry! Hungry for lunch, they led us through some of the side streets where university students in Paris often frequent. Laure and Kahina helped decipher some of the menus and we found a nice place. We talked about Brussels and Amsterdam and our previous trip to Paris, and I touched base with them about people leaving in Lund. Marion and Helene were flying back today on the same flight from Copenhagen. Kahina brought this handy guide and she and Sachi looked through to see which museums were opened on Christmas Sunday. Laure and I sketched out a plan for the day, so we gathered up our things and headed out. We first headed north, across the bridge to the Cite, a small island where the city of Paris began. Kahina made an excellent point about train reservations for Caen and to Geneva. Kahina led us to this huge shopping mall where she knows of a SCNF office. It was amazing. Kahina led us down this maze of escalators and crowded hallways (full of holiday shoppers) and into the SCNF office. We got to the desk and Laure and Kahina talked with the clerk in French. She would look up some information on her computer, tell it to Laure and Kahina, then they would turn to me and translate it to me. I would respond, then they would tell it to the clerk. The best part was when Laure turned to me and started speaking in French, then suddenly caught herself. I really wish I knew French at that point. Poor Laure. She and Kahina were so amazingly helpful to us. Kahina had to leave us at this point, so we said goodbye. L Laure still had some time before another meeting, so we walked over to the Louvre. I forgot how truly enormous the museum is. It sits in the grounds of the palace that Louis XIV was raised in. We entered the Louvre and explored some of the wings.

The weather in Brussels was not as cooperative as it was yesterday, but at least the weather in Brugges was good. We started off the day by walking to St. Catherine’s cathedral northeast of the Grand Place. This is very similar to Notre Dame in Paris and is done in the true Gothic style. It is a beautiful white cathedral that was recently restored to its old beauty. It took 300 years to complete, and I believe it. Intricate stained glass and great indoor lighting. This is the main religious building for Brussels. We then walked behind the Cathedral towards the Royal Palace and the Park of Brussels. It was barely drizzling and while the Palace building was sort of nice, we just had to imagine how nice the Park would be in spring. It has an enormous circular fountain in the middle of it. From there we took the metro to the EU part of town. Brussels is considered the capitol of Europe because it sits at the center of the three main powerhouses – England, France, and Germany. Just a day earlier the prime ministers were here hammering out the EU budget proposal, but alas we missed them. As the seat of government for the entire European Union, it’s not overly impressive like that of Rome. I figured the people wouldn’t be too happy if the ministers made these buildings very very nice. We hopped back on the metro and exchanged lines at Gare Centraal and made it to the Atomium park that is north-west of the city center. The Atomium lies in the ‘World Fair’ park and was built in the same spirit as when the French constructed the Eiffel Tower. Perhaps due to its location and admittedly geeky context, it hasn’t achieved the same fame. I personally think it’s really cool. It is an iron compound that has been multiplied in size 160 billion times. It is something like 100 meters tall I believe. Each nuclei has something in it, and there is an observation deck on the stop. We didn’t go inside it, cause it was so foggy around. In fact from where we were, about a third of the Atomium was shrouded in fog. It was just after 12pm at this point, so we decided to head to Gare Centraal to take the train to Bruges. After buying a sandwich baguette at the station and purchasing the train tickets, we boarded the train and an hour later we had arrived at Bruges. It is Bruges in French and Brugge in Dutch. The north-east part of the country speaks primarily Dutch, while the south-west of the country speaks French. Brugge is a quaint town (though touristy) that has been able to keep its medieval nature but still accommodate modern aspects. We took the bus to the city center (the buses are very similar to those used in Lund) and got out at a large square we thought was the Markt, the famous central square. It had a fountain the middle and then we discovered we got off too early. We started to walk to the Markt (Bruges is not very big) and walked through a crowded street with nice designer stores lining the street. We passed by one that had guild-like emblems on the top and I asked Sapana to take some close-up pictures of it. I thought I recognized some Masonic symbols and will e-mail a professor in Lund who I know is researching on the Freemasons for his opinion. We finally entered the Markt and were blown away. Belgian cities KNOW how to do their central squares. Like the Grand Place in Brussels, Brugge’s square features glorious buildings on each side of the square with impressive architecture. A Christmas Market setup dominated the center of it, with some small stalls setup and an ice-skating rink that encircled the large Christmas tree. But the building that continuously stole the eye was the breathtaking belfry that towered into the sky. 85 meters tall, 366 steps to the stop. I loved the architecture of this building – it reminded us so much of Orthanc, Saruman’s tower in Lord of the Rings, though not obsidian black of course. We climbed to the top and were treated to a breathtaking view of the town of Brugge. It was about 3pm and the sun had reddened the horizon, and at one end you could see both large churches with the red-orange horizon behind them and red-roofed medieval city in front. It was incredible. Also engraved at each window opening were lines which cities inscribed along with the distance to each. So that was pretty neat too. The bells started clanging so we went downstairs (Sachi slipped a few stairs in the beginning…it was rather steep). We tried buying some postcard stamps from this machine outside the post-office but instead I ended up with a single stamp worth 3.90 euros! D’oh! We continued to explore the city more, walking to the Berg square and over one of the canals. We stopped in a lace shop to buy some of the famous Bruge lace then ultimately made it back to the station then to Brussels. After getting back to Brussels we checked in with the travel information bureau and bought reservations for the train to Paris. We reserved an early one, the 7:10am arriving at Paris Nord at 8:30am, so that meant going to bed really early. We bought some falafel to go (the falafel was WAY too salty we discovered) and again bought some food for breakfast at the grocery store. We swung by a convenience store that had some computers setup to check e-mail. Our Normandy tour was set, and I got some responses from Laure. We should be able to meet her in Paris tomorrow. The internet at this café was something like 8 or 9 times cheaper than at the hotel. Back at the room we had dinner then watched ‘Enemy at the Gates’ that was coming on TV (earlier, they were showing South Park dubbed into French, which was hilarious, because part of what makes South Park so great is the insanity of the American voices). The movie could have been pretty good, except that practically the whole cast was British and didn’t make any attempt at masking their accent. The battle locations were done really really well I thought. I was completely convinced that they were fighting in the pulverized city of Stalingrad. I also downloaded the pictures off my camera and realized that we had taken more pictures in Brugge (we were there for 3 hours) than we had for the whole city of Amsterdam (we were there for 1.5 days). Heh.

Brussels has been wonderful so far. We arrived at the Gare Centraal station, and after a little difficulty at getting our bearings, we were able to find the hotel. Sachi gets big props for finding this hotel – it is fancy! The room rate that was listed in our room was 230 euros for one person: we are three persons staying in the room for just 90 euros a night! It’s just barely more expensive than a youth hostel, yet is more comfortable. The location is good as well, just a five to seven minute walk to the Grand Place. We also over-paid for the hotel’s internet terminal, but we were having so much trouble finding an internet café in Amsterdam I just wanted to get it done. We had to confirm our Normandy tour reservations and I had to communicate with parents and my friends in France too. After dropping our things off we headed to the Grand Place, which we had crossed while trying to find our hotel. The Grand Place is the central square in Brussels, and by all rights it is the most breathtaking square I’ve ever seen in Europe. Gorgeous buildings with beautiful detailed facades surround you, while two Gothic buildings that stand opposite to each other soar into the sky. Brussels also had a Christmas Market going strong while we were there, so the Grand Place was accordingly decorated. A large tree stood at one end, while throughout the square they had put smaller trees into ornament balls. It was a really nice sight. We strolled through the Christmas Market and I had my sisters try from glühwein, a warm mildly alcoholic beverage that Frieder introduced to me. Sachi liked it, but Sapana doesn’t like anything bitter, so she was non-plussed. We continued to walk through the Christmas Market until we got to a famous cathedral. The exterior was in the black-white-gray starkness similar to St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Prague. The inside was nice but I got the feeling it was no longer used for serious religious service…it felt more like a community hall. Around the perimeter they had models of the Manger nativity scene from different ethnic communities in Brussels, so each had their own style of the nativity scene. There was a group of kindergarten kids on a field trip that enjoyed it. Behind the church was the real Christmas market setup, with an enormous Ferris wheel at one end and an ice-skating rink in the middle (and one that was in serious need of a Zamboni!). I was really glad the sisters got to see a proper Christmas Market, because I doubt there will be one around when we finally get to Munich. As the sun had set, we strolled back to the Grand Palace and took care of some souvenir shopping along the way. We bought some the famous Belgian chocolate to try, and while we were in the store we heard an instrumental of the theme from Bombay, the decade old Indian movie. How bizarre is that. Wanting to have dinner quickly, we went to a Pizza Hut (I know, I know, not very interesting). Afterward we stepped into a grocery store to buy some bread and cheese for breakfast tomorrow. Tip to travelers on budget: grocery stores are a great resource to use. We found the Grand Place dark as we approached it, but we discovered that they had a side-show presentation that they were projecting onto the city of Brussels museum (the towering white Gothic structure) along with some nice music. In the true ‘European’ Belgian manner, it was an acknowledgment of all the countries in the European Union with a holiday flair. At one cool part they had a sequence in which the intricate façade of the building was being traced in white lines, then the whole thing was colored in to look like some demented birthday cake finished by some four year old. Then the whole building was plunged into darkness except for a sole spotlight illuminating the very top of the spire. It was a great moment, but I missed it with my camera so we will stop tomorrow. After the show ended we returned to our hotel where we watched the Bayern Munich – Hamburg game. It was a fun game to watch, especially after I had learned a bit from Christian and Frieder. I tried to teach the sisters as much as I could about it. It was surprising to see Bayern Munich have so much trouble scoring. Later they showed highlights from the rest of the Bundesleague matches and I rooted for Frankfurt too. Mom called the hotel so we talked with her for a while, though I was worried it was going to cost a fortune. It’s cool though, it was good to talk with her and dad. Tomorrow we will see more of Brussels then in the afternoon go to Bruges.

We got a full rest last night and started the day well. We pack sandwiches made at breakfast which saves us money for lunch, leaving more for nice dinners. We first went to Vondelpark and strolled through it a bit. It is alright…closer to Varoslighet than Hyde Park. Afterward we headed into inner Amsterdam on foot, crossing the four main canals that encircle the city. Our first stop was the Amsterdam Historische Museum. It tells the history of the city over the past 1500 years. It was quite interesting to see how the city started from a few dozen homes along the Amstel river, grew into a bigger city, and the development of the unique pattern of canals that run all around the city. It was a good museum, lots of varied presentations and information. Afterward we walked over the main square in Amsterdam, the Damrak, and then crossed into the southern edge of the ‘Red Light District’. I know we weren’t in the heart of the district, but it wasn’t that big of a deal. There were normal people there with kids and such. A slighter higher concentration of ‘coffee shops’ than normal, but that’s about it. We got to the place where there is currently a LOT of construction going on. The only Metro line that goes into inner Amsterdam runs out of the central station going east by southeast. There are construction a north-south Metro line, which would be rather nice, because most of the main Amsterdam sights lie in that direction. We took it pretty leisurely after that, strolling through some of the shopping areas and picked up some extra things to eat for lunch. We went back to the hotel to eat. If it were spring and not cloudy/dark, I would have headed directly to Vondelpark for a picnic in the park. It’s ok. Tonight we will eat at an Indian restaurant. If you walk along Leidsestraat just north of Leidseplein and simply look to your left and ride down the side streets, you can see 8 Indian restaurants in two blocks. I’ve been telling my sisters that we shall avoid Italian food or pizza as long as we can. Amsterdam is quite impressive for its multicultural nature. The current trendy culinary habit for people are take-away Asian noodles eaten with chopsticks. There are innumerable ethnic restaurants to visit.

We are currently planning on taking the 9:30am train to Belgium scheduled to arrive in Brussels at around 12:30. We will go to the hotel, drop off our bags, then immediately head out into the city. Brussels is not as big as Amsterdam, so it should be easier to see. The following day we will take a day trip to the city of Bruges, which is lauded for its charm and beauty. I desperately need to check my internet. I have not yet found one of those internet cafes that isn’t in a drug haze filled ‘coffee shop’. Sigh. Maybe tomorrow. We need to call home tonight too.

Woke up at 6:00am today and we all got dressed. We were down for breakfast at 7:15am. The breakfast included in our bill is surprising full featured. Breads, cheeses (including this different but really nice cheese I hadn’t seen before), cereal, etc. We also made some light sandwiches and kept it with us, thereby saving us the cost of a lunch. We took a tram to the Centraal station and bought tickets to Den Haag. We timed it fairly well, didn’t have to wait more than 15 minutes. The trains here in Holland are double-decker, so we took the top level to get a better view. The train ride was uneventful. I read my Economist and such. Sachi slept a bit, which was a good idea. We arrived in Den Haag but forgot to pick up a map or something at the train station. The Europe guide doesn’t have a map of it, so it was a bit of just free exploring. Once again, someone came by and asked us if we needed any help. We just started walking to the city center. I wanted to see Den Haag (The Hague) because I had read about it a lot in the papers and I heard from Frank it was a nice city that wasn’t so touristy like Amsterdam. I dunno if it was because it was Monday, but the city didn’t really feel busy. It was ok. It was nice by the canals. We did not get to see the International Criminal Court because it is located out side the city. WE did see the Peace Palace and some other old buildings. We learned that the town of Delft was reachable by tram ride, and that city WAS mentioned in the Frommer’s guide to Europe that my sisters brought along. We rode a tram to Delft and walked around a bit. It is a nice small town that has canals running all through it. We read that there is some famous blue and white porcelain made here, but unlike in Prague where they were selling bohemian crystal on every street corner, we couldn’t find anyone selling the porcelain. We must have spent 15 or 20 minutes following these signs to a porcelain place, but really didn’t feel like it was going anywhere. We took the tram back Den Haag and then boarded a train back to Amsterdam. It was about 3pm when we got back to Amsterdam, which meant it was the first time we saw the main city with light. Fortunately for us it was both not very cold and not rainy. The city along the canals does look rather nice when the sun is out. We set out west of the ‘Red Light District’ and worked our way down until we reached the King’s old palace. There was this very impressive very large structure that turned out to be a shopping mall! We turned westward and started crossing some of the four main canals that encircle the old city of Amsterdam. We soon found Anne Frank’s house and took the tour inside. When my parents were in Amsterdam so many years ago, they did not see Anne Frank’s house and my mom has always wanted to. It was a good museum – not a huge variety of information because the topic is so focused, but I mean come on, we got to stand in Anne Frank’s room and see the pictures and postcards she put up on the wall. It was a good experience. Afterward there was only one hour left before the van Gogh museum was to close so we made our way back to the ‘shopping mall’ and took a tram back to the hotel. The Frommer’s Europe guide has to cover all of Europe, so the restaurant recommendations are quite limited. One inexpensive vegetarian apparently made the list in Amsterdam, so went there after a brief stopover at the hotel to drop off the backpack and such. We were able to re-use our tram ticket. The restaurant had dishes for about $11-13 per plate, and had Mexican, Indian, and middle eastern dishes. We had one of each. The food was good and we ate our fill. We walked back from this restaurant at Fredicksplein to our hotel, which is a short walk from Leidseplein. We felt rather tired today, so I had some Tylenol and spent a bit of time downloading pictures from the camera and writing entries in this journal. Tomorrow I must find an internet café and also call home. Since none of the museums open before 10 and the sun doesn’t come out until 8:30, we are going to push back our wake-up time from 6am to 7am. Ahh, one more hour. Tomorrow we will walk through a bit of Vondelpark, go to the Amsterdams Historische Museum, take a peep at the Red Light district, take a canal tour, and probably try an Amstel and a Heineken, both local brews. Then off to bed early so we can catch the earliest train to Brussels. ‘Night.