MOTHER'S DAY IN ZURICH..SWITZERLAND

VIEW OF ZURICH FROM THE TOP OF
GROSSMINISTER CHURCH

CAKE FRIENDS.....six type of cakes served with

5 dips and fresh fruits

VIEW OF ZURICH

RESTAURANT--PAPA JOES

VEG FAJITA......with6 dips and wraps

A make it yourself type

Mother's day....I am so late in this, actually I was thinking of writing about my mother for a long time and then I thought wil do so on mother's day, again I was delayed. Though I dont believe in pampering mother's for one day and then forgetting, I prefer to be on good behaviour whole year, rather than going overboard one day only and then just be urself....I believe in looking after in day to day life sincerely which my brother does so beautifully.

Now about my mom:), I wouldnt praise her sky high, just state the facts. She has always loved me so much, that sometimes my younger sister doubted her for partiality. But later on I realised that parents love all their children equally, its only that the well behaved ones get more praise and thats sometime misconstrued. From my mother i learned the value and meaning of being well groomed, being well dressed all the time, doing all the things traditionally in full swing, so much so that, my children still like to be at her place on festivals.....because she makes her home full of energy, she is very social and very well respected for her intelligence and PR skills:), yes she is that way, she is the life of any party she joins...........As a daughter ,I dont think I have done anything for her traditionally, as I was brought up with a mindset that duaghters always make their home with inlaws, so neither I demanded any rights, nor I did much of any duties, except making her proud by being a good wife and mother, and whenevr she needed my presence, I did whatever I could to make that happen, but she always told me that my first responsibility lies in keeping my home happy,and I feel very thankful to her for making these demarcations which made my life so easy without any dilemmas and conflicts.And I have incorporated the same thing in my daughter's mind. I have always felt that mothers earlier were more selfless than today's, becuase they did everything for their daughters and nevr demanded or accepted anything from them, today if we do, then we demand also. Even today my mother's presence brings a feeling of security and safety to me, I know that she will take care of me and everything well, mothers are truely ireplacable:

And now my day..oh it was one of the best mother's day for me....as I was with my son and DIL and they made it really special for me, by pampering me, giving gifts,flowers, cooking special dishes and taking me out to lunch.

One thing I love in Europe is their cafe culture..they just relax there without any hurry and nobody even brings the bill till we ask for it.

For lunch we went to Papa Joes..a mexican restaurant in old town. See the languages idiosyncracies, in German.......

S is pronounced as J

J is pronounced as y

and then for the desserts we went to CAKEFRIENDS......yummy desserts and fabulous presentation .

HAPPY BELATED MOTHER'S DAY TO ALL !

Trip to Mt. Pilatus - Luzern..SWITZERLAND

PICTURES OF LUZERN AND MT. PILATUS, SWITZERLAND


Lake Luzern

The beautiful, fascinating buildings of old town in Luzern

The lake side cafetarias next to the wooden chapel bridge are always buzzing with people...

Stunning views from Mt. Pilatus

The steepest Cogwheel train in the world, which took us down Mt. Pilatus....Was an experience in itself

People paragliding on Pilatus...Was good fun to see them take off and fly over your head

Mt. Pilatus

The trekking steps up there would take one to the highest peak of Mt. Pilatus and is definitely worth the efforts as the views are mindblowing.

The stunning views from Pilatus.

This was one of the best views that we could stare for hours, as it looked like heaven.....It looked like small beautiful islands in the midst of the clouds

Another stunning view...

Midway to Pilatus....

The fun and adventurous Siel Park/Rope park, where there were activities lined up for everyone...

People trying to cross the rope....

The childern's playground, made completely of the wooden forest logs

The gondolas that we took up to Pilatus

The Lush green views while moving up in the Gondolas....


This weekend we went to see Mount Pilatus. From Zurich we took the train at 9.14 AM. What i love here is that travelling is such a pleasure by public transport, everything is so neat and clean and at time. Our train was a double decker and we had a very very beautiful scenic journey for an hour till we reached Luzerne. Zurich and Luzerne..both railway stations were as crowded as we see in India, and here I see many Indians everywhere.
In the Luzern we took a bus (tram type) to our stop Pilatus.It was a 15 minute journey and from there 15 minutes walk to the Gandola ride(yes for the 4 seater cable cars they call it Gandolas). It was 30 minute scenic ride taking us thru lush green fields to the top at another station for cable car. At this station, there were lot of activities going on........Basically it is a recreational area with well marked circular paths,inviting picnic places, a funfilled children's play ground and much much more.

From here we took a cable car for another 20 minutes and we reached MOunt Pilatus......a type of top station from where one can enjoy the view of city Alps etc. Here evrywhere one finds everything to eat, enough sitting places, shops selling souvenirs. Though stuff was quite expensive..a tshirt for 50 swiss F.There was a cave also and another top point for which one had to climb 100 steps at least, I didnt go there.My son and DIl went and see the surprise..i met a person there who was from Bareilly..rajendra nagar Awas vikas... dunia kitnee choti ho gayi ha ajkal:)
We had our lunch of wraps, coke, iceream and then coffee and enjoyed the view, there were para gliders also. Many myths surround this area..in the middle ages the bleak crevices were believed to be the haunt of a well meaning dragon and spirits
For our way back we took their special train ......from Pilatus Kulm to Alpnachstad, the world's highest cogwheel rialway winds up through lush meadows carpeted with alpine flowers ,past sparkling mountainstreams and fascinating rock faces. Over 900 species of flora are native to the Pilatus region..many of them protected species.....and that was the high point of our trip. This train goes down at a 80 degree angle , at times one cant see the track even, but its very comfortable and stable. Earlier I thought that the train for Mettupalayam to OOty had the most scenic and enjoyable ride, but this is one up on that also.Earlier I had travelled in a train like this while going to Chamonix, but that was nothing compared to this.It is a complete mind blowing experience.
After coming down to Lucerne we took a round of the city and saw Chapel Bridge..a 14th century chapel and and then sat at the bank of the lake Lucerne. All in all, it was a wonderful trip and I enjoyed every moment of it.and i would recommend everyone visiting Switzerland to include it..is a must see place.

SHAURYA

http://www.123musiq.com/Shaurya.htm

Yesterday we saw Shaurya....a very different movie:), I know all of you must be thinking that all the time I say it is different:), but what to do:) I like only different movies:).

Storyline is this....Two inseparable friends..Akash kapoor (javed Jafferey) and Siddhant Chaudhary( Rahul Bose), AK gets a posting in Srinagar as a prosecutor in the case of Captain Javed(Deepak Dobriyal), and Sid then insists upon him to get him one also, and so he gets the posting for defence lawyer. Sid is not serious in anything and even doesnt want to be in Army, he is just supposed to plead guilty for his client and get it over with. But once there slowly slowly the case unfurls and Sid comes alive and interested due to the complete silence of accused, a very spunky journalist..Kavya shastri( minisha lamba) and then due to the righteousness of the mother of accused.

And then he puts all he has to solve the mystery.and the secret behind all this stuns everybody.

Brigadier Pratap(K K Menon) , a highly decorated army men, with multiple awards, had a very loyal servant Jameer..who once betrayed him, raped his youngdaughter , killed his whole family and absconded, and now he sees that criminal in all muslims and wants to remove them from his country.

And there is Captain Javed..a muslim for whom honour of his country and army is more important than his life.

In acting..KK has outshined everybody , but Rahul is also excellent..movie belongs to these two outstanding actors. They are a treat to watch.Minisha is also good in acting, but lacks in the looks department.

Director Samar khan has done a good job and handled the sensitive issue with a sensitivity, but he has left many things for the audience to decide, too many self assesments leave a lot to understand. Some people are too restrained....Amrita rao..wife of the major who was killed, Seema Vishwas..mother of the accused .

And the end is very week, the way a strong brigadier goes about telling everything without worrying about the consequences is just not palatable.He was given a choice to come out of the witness box, but he doesnt. Here if he had shown something else thru which the case was solved, would have been more realistic and apealing.

But all in all this movie is worth a watch, very interesting and giving you something to think about.

I saw...

1920...quite useless, and Rajneesh duggal..not a hero material at all.

Bachna A Haseeno......Time pass..good scenery of Zurich

AA dekhe Jara......a new story line and slick movie.

SALZBURG..SOUND OF MUSIC..VIENNA

A local Marathon in Salzburg

Next day we had a complimentary breakfast at the hotel and it was really supmtuous..with so many varieties of cereal, fruits with dips, croissant, crepes, juices etc etc and the best part was that all that variety was delicious also. So after filling the fuel, we started for salzburg by train----its a 2 and a half hour journey and the route is very scenic.

At the railway station we found Burger king and had Veggi burger..just like we have in India..very delicious, dont know why they dont make it in US

Here either we could take a Sound of music tour or see the rest of the city, we chose the second option, again took an hop on..tour, first to get a feel of the city and saw then Helbrunn palace, there they have a special trick magic fountain show, but alas we couldnt enjoy it, as there were very few english speaking people so the guide spoke only german.

Then we roamed through the old town...its a pleasure to walk on cobbled roads, without any vehicle and see all the top brands and some local stuff also.We found a good restaurant also to have tea and garlic bread. I was surprised to see an Espirit Shop where they were selling the same Tshirts I bought in India for 1800/ in 30 Euros..means the rates are same, and if we consider the currency value, they are selling much higher in India.

And then we saw an Indian restaurant:):) and booked a table for our dinner over there..HANA'S RASOI--the food was very good and ambiance also good( most of the indian restaurants abroad compromise a lot on ambiance etc).

We had our return train at 12.44 in the night, and when we reached our reserved cabin, we saw their two men sleeping and were they stinking.....it was impossible to stay there what with smell of smoke,deinks perfumes and what all combined ...was so pungent, we couldnt stand, and despite our reservation we completed the journey somehwere else

Salzburg is so Mozart oriented that everywhere you find everything with his photo or statue, and it is amazing to see someone becoming such an Icon though he died at the age of 35 only.He prepared his first composition at the age of 5 only

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

My first day at Zurich

The way it looks for our drawing room

Flowers my DIL brought fro me on the airport to welcome me, arent they beautiful?

Yesterday is tarted at 5.25 from Chennai, quite a peaceful flight from there to London. But as soon as I reached there , i came to know that my connecting fliught to Zurich has been cancelled due to the fog and for the next flight ZI had to wait for3-4 hrs and even then they made us sit in the plane for one extra hour. I thought that if the same thing had hapopened with Air India, all of us Indians would have said so easily that theya re very irregular, dont take care etc etc.But here British airways did the same thing and we took it quitely. I have seen that in inflight services, no asirlines can match to our maharaja, its only their desk people who spoil the image.Our flight people are all so nice, sweet and caring, whereas i have travelled with AA and now BA, none are on the par at all.

Terminal 5 of the London airport is like a big shopping mall, with so many shops and restaurants and ample space for seating evrywhere and the facilities for internet and phone.But I wish that atlease there should be one phone both Manned, becuase with these automated ones, lots of travellers like me were more puzzled than able to make a call.

I went to take some tea and asked what is that spiced tea or what type of spices you put..and a very pleasant voice told me in Hindi...le lo, bilkul indian jaisa ha..with sugar inide....and I was so happy to see a helping Indian on the counter. That way even in the flight from chennai there was hardly any foreigner. Even while scanning the hand baggage..one britisher said..Namastey:), I had heard that britishers have a stiff upper lip, but was pleasantly surprised to see them talking jovially...but even their desk people are also sometime not very helpful:(. My flight was at 4 PM and till 3.15 they didnt show any details regarding the gate or anything....talk about their efficienciy..isnt it giving the stress to travellers?

I breathed in relief when I took off from London and we reached Zurich by 7 PM....wasnt I happy to see my children:):)..This is a beautiful city so much so that it looks like a dream. Tram goes from just outside our house. Its so beautiful to watch the view outside, sitting in your home.

NOT WITHOUT MY DUAGHTER...BETTY MEMOODY &

This is one book which I read at a stretch...8 hrs:)...very touching and interesting also. The story is about an American women who married an Iranian living in America for last 20 years and quite Americanised. But how he changes and once they go to Iran for 2 week holiday, he doesnt want to come back and wouldnt let her even. Then the living conditions in that country are so unhygienic and unpleasant to her, that she wants to get out at any cost, she can do so thru the embassy, but then her daughter cant as in Iranian law, children are under the custody of father. her daughter doesnt want to live in Iran, so how she fights the odds all laid against her, she has nothing in her favour and refuses to go back without her daughter. The laws are really barbaric over there and highly against the women. Its her arduous journey back to civilisation that is very chilling as well as inspiring.

If you want you can read the synopsis of the story here

After reading this book and thousand splendid suns, I would never want to go to these countries even as a tourist, i am so scared. And I realise the freedom we enjoy in India.My country is really great, After going thru such an experience only, one can value the freedom and democracy which we all seem to abuse all the time.