Vrindavan

 For a long time I wanted to visit Vrindavan and this time when I came to Lucknow I made it final. We went for a 3 day trip. Now from Lucknow to Agra there is an express highway, totally unimaginable earlier.. one can travel at 100 km/ hour very comfortably. We started around 7.30 and reached there around 12.30. We had booked a hotel very near to temples as we can’t walk too much.

There food and merchandise of Radha Krishna is everywhere.. and everything is so beautiful.

In the evening we went to have darshan  of Bankey Bihari ji and it was so crowded and devotees love was really inspiring. And then to Radha Ballabh temple.

Next day we went to Radha Raman temple.. Holi in Vrindavan has special importance, people come from everywhere to play with Krishan. 

If one goes as a tourist there are many more places to see like Nidhivan, Prem Mandir, Gokul and devotees do Parikrama of Govardhan,.

All in all a very fulfilling trip.

VIENNA--CITY OF MUSIC

AUSTRIA TRIP PICTURES

DAY 1 - VIENNA PICTURES

The Hop on - Hop off bus, that took us on the city tour of Vienna

The Mozart and Strauss Concert

The main Opera Singers- The Female was mindblowing !

The Orchestra that performed beautiful Mozart and Strauss compositions

Such Magnificent Statues are a common site in the historically rich city, Vienna

The Huge and Beautiful National Library in Vienna

The popular Giant Ferris wheel which gives a panoramic view of the entire city of Vienna.

The Secession Building, Vienna

The famous Danube River

The Fine arts museum or Kunsthistorisches Museum as they call it

The Statue of Legendary Mozart

1May being a holiday, this wa sa long weekend here, so we decided to utilise it for a trip and we went to Vienna. From Zurich we took a train at 9.44 PM. Here the metro and tram system is so well integrated that one doesnt feel the need of a car. From any place to every place you get tram or metro. We took a tram for the main railway station.Banhoftrasse.. its the most happening station I have sen. Last time I went there, there was a local market..sort of stalls were put up for all the fresh and cooked products. This time they had made a makeshift stadium for a match. But here people smoke like a chimney specially the girls. The station was littered with cigarette butts.

Trains are quite comfortable here, but in the night around one..3 girl students came to our cabin, and didnt let us sleep at all, they kept on talking , drinking and laughing all the time..whole night with no consideration for fellow passengers.Anyway we reached Vienna in the morning around 7.30 AM

We had booked a hotel near the station only...FLEMING'S--it was a very good one, we had a nice room here and it was the walking distance from the railway station.But when we saw the room we shocked to see that the bathroom was in the room...like shower cubicle and the walls were of transparent glass without any curtain even. I have seen many countries but never expected something like this:). Then we checked may be this one room is like this, so we will change the room, but no...there all the rooms had the same type.....cant understand their sensibilities,...is it that there only couples come or what?

Since we had only one day at our disposal, we decided to take hop on hop off tour....for 24 hrs they charge 20 euro/ person and one can complete the whole city this way. There are three routes, one should take the shoenbrunn palace route first because this service stops early. Most of the bus stops have food kiosks and food there is quite reasonable and good.

Vienna is one of the most beautiful places I have seen..with beautiful buildings, magnificent architecturee, gardens( 23 in all and huge and very well landscaped) and Danube Lake.

If we go to Vienna and dont see Opera...Nainsaafi ha unke saath:), so in the evening we went to see opera at Imperial hall. Though this was in german, so we couldnt understand much except what the anchor told us, it was very enjoyable, specially the ballet, and the female opera singer and two compositions of Mosart and Strauss.

I was very happy to find good vegetarian food over there,and I found that austrian people are the most beautiful ones..men and women both.Vienna is place for artists,its very rich .in culture and heritage.We all fell in love with the place.

In the tours...hop on,...... they provide every seat with head phones and running commentary about the places we are passing thru in most of the languages,One can devote time as and where one wants.

We returned the hotel by 11 PM