Month: August 2018

Travel

Prague

It’s always been on my bucket list to visit the beautiful cities of Eastern Europe. So, during the Easter weekend of 2012, we decided to visit Prague.

It was grey and bitterly cold even in April, but the place was crowded. But still, we managed to visit the key sites of this beautiful city, without any hassle from the crowds.

I also enjoyed a late evening stroll, enjoying the stunning architecture of the old city.

Some photos from the trip below.

Prague cityscapes:

Prague Skyline
Prague cityscape
Prague markets

Prague Castle:

Prague Castle
St Vitus Cathedral
St Vitus Cathedral – close up

Old Town Square:

Old Town Square
Old Town Square – close up
Astronomical Clock
Travel

Palace of Versailles

We spent a whole day here and it was a day well spent indeed. We took the train out to Versailles and walked through the town to reach the Palace.

The Palace of Versailles is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The scale and splendour of the Palace has to be seen to be believed. The mind boggles at the thought of the time and money it would have cost to build and maintain.

The Palace is situated within sprawling gardens. Unfortunately, being winter when we visited, the gardens were quite bare. But we could still appreciate the geometrics patterns of the layout and admire the many sculptures and fountains that dot the gardens.

Some photos of the Palace taken on a grey, gloomy day.

Palace of Versailles
Palace of Versailles
Versailles Garden
Cherubs – Versailles
Versailles Gardens
Gardens – Versailles
Lifestyle, Travel

Towards more sustainable travel

I love traveling and think it’s a great way to refresh, recharge while at the same time learning more about different places and cultures. So I was a bit unsure how to react to this news article – http://www.dnaindia.com/just-before-monday/report-the-ugly-side-of-travel-is-your-hobby-leaving-a-massive-carbon-footprint-behind-2645694

As kids, I remember our annual summer holidays where we would take the train to travel to grandparent’s place. The train journey was as much part of the holiday as meeting family. Maybe one option is to try and take more sustainable modes of transport while holidaying, wherever feasible.

The first holiday we took when we moved to Bangalore was to Mysore. And we took the train rather than a car. We took the Shatabdi and it was extremely comfortable and stress free. Similarly, when we took a trip to Kerala, we took the train one way. Kids enjoyed the experience of an overnight train, sleeping in ‘bunk beds’, as they called it!

Yes, it is not always possible in this day and age, when time is in such short supply. The impact of travel and tourism on sustainability is a topic that I am very interested in, and will look at in more detail.

If you have any suggestion, ideas, please let me know. Thanks!

Travel

The Museums of Paris

The museums of Paris are great attractions to visit, especially if it’s cold and wet outside (as it is when we were visiting) or if one is traveling with very small children (as we were :-)).

The Louvre was the first museum that we visited. One of the benefits of visiting in the off season is that we did not encounter mad crowds. And as we were traveling with a little child, we did not have to stand in the general queue to enter.

We also got to see the Mona Lisa at leisure. In addition, the vast spaces of the Louvre meant that my little one could easily stretch her legs.

The second museum we visited was the Musee d’Orsay. Good collection of art in an iconic setting. Here is an image of the famous clock there.

Clock - Musee d'Orsay
Clock – Musee d’Orsay

The final museum we visited (not counting the Palace of Versailles that I will cover in a separate post) was the Musee de l’Orangerie. Both my wife and I are fans of Impressionist paintings, so we enjoyed our visit to this relatively small, but beautiful museum.

 

Travel

Paris – Eiffel Tower and Seine river cruise

Continuing with the flashback to our visit to Paris, we next visited the Eiffel Tower. We were lucky in that we were traveling in the off season, so the lines to go to the top were minimal and we were able to spend a good amount of time and get some great views across the city. It was a wonderful sight to see the twinkling lights of the great city down below. Just as we were leaving, there was a brief light show. We got great views of it from right below.

The next day we went on a Seine river cruise. This was not something that I had read about before visiting, but it provided for some great views of famous city monuments such as the Notre Dame Cathedral and the Palais Bourbon.

Notre Dame Cathedral
Palais Bourbon