PARisTrip 1: An Evening with Paris! – Prelude

One of the biggest advantages of being in Germany (in general, most of Europe) is that, you get a chance not just to visit other cities nearby, but you even get to travel to other countries. So when I was told I could be in Paris in just about six hours by bus, I obviously jumped at the opportunity! It is another matter that switching travel mates last-minute, took the flexibility of planning the tour out of my hand & I had to be content with a package tour, but what the heck – I was still going to spend the Diwali weekend in Paris!!!

We started off an hour later than scheduled due to bus arriving late – quite unlike what I had so far observed about Germany. Our tour-guide could converse in English, but would not oblige as throughout the bus journey, he made his announcements only in German. At first, his words made no sense to us and after a while we just stopped caring about it. For me bus journeys are the least comfortable of all the modes of transport, yet I did manage to sleep intermittently.

Thanks to the Schengen treaty, there weren’t even any “Welcome to France” or similar signs as the bus silently made its way from Germany into France. On the advice of friends & colleagues, we opted out of package sightseeing trip for the day & decided to explore the city on our own. Back in office, when my colleague had showed me the labyrinthine Metro Map of Paris, I was skeptical if we would be able to make our way through these criss-crossing lines all over the city. However, a single ride through the Metro that morning was enough to clear all doubts & we were ready to take on Paris with the confidence of a local.

Traveling through the Metro is extremely simple…

We got ourselves a Day Pass for Zone 1-2 (this is where most known tourist spots in Paris are)… at 5.50 € it couldn’t have got any cheaper to travel! We also armed ourselves with a map of Paris Metro (picked up from the ticket counter), which proved to be our survival weapon.

Tip: There are 14 Metro lines within Paris, each intersecting the others at a number of stations; “M” inside a circle is the sign to look out for when searching for a station. Mark out the source & destination stations on the map and see how they are connected. In case they are not on the same line, find out the shortest way through multiple lines noting the transit station(s) where they meet. In case, you are switching trains you don’t have to leave the station. All metro stations are marked with directions to platforms based on Line Number & Last Destination, so follow them. Before boarding any metro, you should be aware of the following:

Metro Line (1-14) (Route Number, different coloured lines on the map)

Final Destination of Line (This will give you the direction in which that metro is headed; you don’t want to be boarding the correct line but traveling in the opposite direction!)

Station Name where you are supposed to get down (transit or your final); some metro have PA systems, others don’t so keep track of the stations lest you skip the one you want to get down on.

Train timings are usually not a consideration as Metro trains ply with an amazing frequency. The maximum we had to wait for a metro was 9 minutes, average waiting time is 3-4 minutes. But it is still better to avoid hopping more than two lines in a single trip and instead plan your itinerary such a way that you see places in sequence.

“Sortie” is French for “Exit”, so if you have reached your destination station, head in this direction!

Given that we had less than 1.5 days to tour the city, in which we had to squeeze the still-pending hotel check-in et al, we headed straight for “Musée du Louvre”. Like most of the world, I was smitten by Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code” & to be able to walk through his adventure trail was a dream. The very majestic façade of the Louvre greeted us as we took the stairs out of Metropolitan station. Even before we entered the portals of the museum, we were awed by the whole panorama of opulent buildings around us – all replete with carvings & splendid balustrades. Inside, the Pyramids struck us! They didn’t belong there, yet somehow their austerity gave them a befitting place in the heart of Louvre.

Though every second was ticking fast, we wanted to at least have a date with Mona Lisa – the world’s most famous painting and descended inside Pyramid to get the tickets. Walking inside the Denon Wing, we witnessed millennia of history before us in the form of huge sculptures, murals, artifacts and priceless paintings. It shattered us when we were told no cameras were allowed inside The Grand Galerie. No wonder, I had never seen anyone click a photograph alongside “La Joconde” or “Madonna on The Rocks”! Yet to see Da Vinci’s masterwork, the Florentine lady with the mysterious smile, with just a glass sheet (bullet-proof, I might add) between us was a moment to cherish. I am hardly the one to appreciate art as it is meant to be, but I salute the geniuses whose strokes deftly captured a radiant countenance, an innocent smile, full curves of human body and even folds of a drape, lifelike…

The biggest grouse I had against these tour operators was that after we had strained every bit of our time to be punctual for the tour bus, we were made to sit idle inside the bus before proceeding. We kept pulling one another from every place we visited lest we missed our bus, only to be wasting precious minutes twiddling our thumbs, hoping for the bus to move, later. Paris is so full of people and too from disparate nationalities that it is difficult to point out a single diaspora – it, in essence, seemed a multi-cultural city!

Quickly freshening up at the hotel (which, as expected, was nothing home to write about); we were back in the Metro, this time moving towards “Sacré Coeur”. Cafés & shops selling souvenirs dotted the street that took us up the Montmartre Hill to “Basilique du Sacré Coeur”. This place surely gave us a glimpse of local Parisian life and along the way I couldn’t help buying a few black-n-white prints of Paris monuments. Though there were a number of bistros lined up here, I couldn’t find anything worthwhile to satiate my vegetarian stomach.

We, for a change, strolled up flight of steps to the main cathedral stopping every few steps to slake our narcissistic urges by getting our pictures taken against the towering white cupolas. The panoramic view of Paris from atop the hill was astounding & we gave us time to soak in the sanguine ambience. While on one side we had an impromptu guitar rendition, on the other a brilliant composition by a street performer playing an accordion was commencing.  Inside it was as calm as a few hundred people can get; the glowing candles and exquisite frescoes lending the pristine interior of “Sacré Coeur” a peaceful aura.

Our next stop was “Grande Arche” – the business face of Paris. Now that I think about it, I feel we could have given this place a skip. We spent more time reaching here (and back) than looking at the glass high-rises all around this mammoth structure. Even though I found nothing “Paris” or special about it except for its sheer size, (thankfully) my travel mates enjoyed the environs. Perhaps, this was the only time when I felt we had enough time to tour Paris & due to this assumption our pace slackened.

P.S. This is the first of a three-part travelogue on Paris.

Lights… Music… Water!!!

How can you make Johann Strauss II’s “An der schönen blauen Donau” (Blue Danube) or Vivaldi’s “Le quattro stagioni” (The Four Seasons) sound even better?

Well, have water fountains & laser waltz to their tunes!

There can be no words to describe the Musical Fountain Show that I witnessed here in Bonn… It is one of those rare moments in life which one can only experience – water taking altogether new forms, as if life has been breathed into it. Sometimes it is a mist in glowing colours, sometimes a fountain in a frothing gambol and at others a powerful spout sashaying to the brilliant classical compositions as if trying to reach the night skies…

Some clips from the magical night, though obviously it comes nowhere near the real experience, where you could feel the micro sprays of water on you as you stood gaping at this ethereal synergy of colour, music, laser & water!

Bonn Voyage

As I huffed & panted, I realized it was not some gruelling jogging routine I had just accomplished but a quick dash to the Haltestelle lest I miss my train which had already arrived on the platform. Trains & buses are always on time here!

And why do these buses have automated doors which remained closed & only open at the bus stops??? The ruthless driver won’t even open them at the traffic lights where he halts the bus. Had there been no doors, at least I could have jumped down there & saved on the 50 metres walk back to office!

Well jokes apart…

Travelling around Bonn (in fact all of Germany) is a cakewalk, if you put the language problem aside. Even a small city like Bonn has an extensive network of buses, trams & trains which connects its every nook & corner.  No wonder, commuting through public transport is the preferred mode of transport here, unlike USA where one would be handicapped without a car. It makes a lot of sense to get yourself a daily, weekly or monthly pass depending on the region of your commute & then you are a free bird with unlimited access to that region. You can explore the whole city, by getting off a train & hopping onto a tram & then another – all with the same pass.

What makes matters simpler is that every Haltestelle (bus/tram stop) displays the route of buses that ply through that stop along with their timings & duration. So even the most deserted of bus stops would tell you which bus you can catch at what minute of the day but again one has to be careful as buses timetables vary depending on the day of the week. It might not be as intuitive the first time, but once you get a hang of this system, commuting is almost hassle-free.

It is amazing to see the whole system work with clockwork precision, punctual to the actual minute, enabling one to plan their commute based on the link timings of buses, trams/trains. Of all the places that I have been around here, there is always a bus/train stop at walking distance. Indeed it is a well connected city from where I see it.

Such intricate is this whole web that some buses travel through some very narrow streets. The first time I was on such a ride, I almost was in disbelief at the bus entering this puny road, something I’d be scared manoeuvring even my car into! But the bus driver drove effortlessly through these lanes, halting at places to let the other vehicles, cyclists, even pedestrians pass. Germans deserve full marks for their traffic sense; in fact, except for India every other country in the world seems to respect the others and traffic rules on the road (another rant some other day).

Layzlump (sic) in Deutschland…

Though I had better things to write about my trip than to begin this with cribbing about the keyboard, I cannot help but feel piqued at the number of times I have had to use the backspace key in typing just a simple sentence properly. Typing just a few sentences, I can say that ‘Y’ is a much underrated alphabet. Not just are the alphabets ‘Y’ and ‘Z’ swapped there are some more (otherwise seemingly innocuous) differences on the German keyboard, which are sure to irk one (at least) for the first dew days.

Anyway, let me start from where it all began…

I barely had a day and a half before I was confirmed to fly to Germany. Under normal circumstances, it would have been manageable; but the fact that I had to vacate my room, move all the stuff over to a friend’s place (who stayed on the 4th floor of an apartment without an elevator), pack my luggage while constantly following-up about my travel tickets & accommodation details plus a whole lot of official formalities, I wasn’t sure if I could make it through all this. Though I did manage to plonk my luggage into the cab on time, it obviously left me with no time to let many of my friends know about my travel. So on my way to the airport I was frantically making calls & letting people know that I was on my way to Bonn for a couple of months.

Fortunately for me, this time round I had colleagues travelling with me for most part of the journey. So the nearly three hours at I.G.I. Airport, thanks to an early check-in, passed off without much trouble. As Delhi metamorphosed into a sea of tiny lights, I could then sense that MVY – III had begun! This time round I was too tired to even sit through a single movie & as soon as I had some food, I dozed off. Though sleep was intermittent, I do think I am managing to nap more than I could during my travels before.

Flight take-offs are always captivating! Be it day or night, just after the plane takes off from the ground, the view from the window holds in it something special, every time. It was early morning and Vienna was enshrouded in a blanket of grey when we took off for Frankfurt. However in a couple of minutes, the airplane was making its way through the clouds, as if tenderly caressing them with its wings. It soon rose above what now seemed like a cotton landscape – hills & valleys of cotton clouds, glistening tufts spread across infinite miles.

The flight was short & soon I was at Frankfurt Flughafen (Airport) looking for an immigration counter. Though I had my passport stamped at the Austrian capital, I was expecting an immigration stamp in Frankfurt, proving my arrival at my final destination country. But it was not to be, I was asked to head straight for my baggage. Hesitatingly, I picked my bags (which surprisingly came very quick) & inquired from some more people at the airport which resulted in only partially allaying my fears. It was here that I also realized that I was going to be a rank outsider in Germany with me not knowing their language & them, not any good at the one I knew!

My last minute travel plans had ensured that I do not get confirmed tickets through the Köln Airport (which was the closest one to Bonn). So, a train journey from Frankfurt to Bonn was still in order. Wearily as I trudged my trolley outside the airport, I now looked for directions to the Bahnhof (Station). Thanks to some broken advice from the locals & directions, I somehow found my way to Fernbahnhof (Long-distance Train Station). I was amazed (and eternally grateful to Deutsch Airport Authority) that I could take the trolley with my baggage up & down the escalators till the platform from where I was to board the train. Though initially I did not have the confidence of goading the trolley onto those moving stairs, I knew there was no way I could haul my check-in & hand baggage, totalling to some 40 odd kg of don’t-ask-me-what, around this terrain. The illustrations helped & with a prayer that I don’t trip my luggage or myself, I carefully pushed the trolley… I survived… and so did the bags… and the trolley too!

Knocking down some more language barriers, I got myself a ticket & settled myself on a bench at the platform, while waiting for the train to arrive. As I looked around, I couldn’t help but notice the broken window of the station’s dome or some odd pieces of litter. I sensed Germany wasn’t perfect (a word which I somehow associated with USA, at least when it came to cleanliness). Even though it wasn’t such a big deal, my belief firmed up when the train (Die Bahn) arrived 10 minutes late. It seemed quite like saddi-Dilli’s Metro; no wonder it made me feel proud. Peeping out of the window, I noticed over-bridges with posters & graffiti – it was not an isolated stretch, this seemed to be a recurring feature with many public walls being sprayed with incoherent writings & patterns.

After a while, I sighted River Rhein flowing parallel to the rail tracks. It was a picturesque sight, with streamers cruising through the river and verdant hills forming the perfect backdrop. Unfortunately, the train was speeding too fast for my archaic camera to do justice to this serene setup, so I just let my eyes savour these moments.

All these hours of travel & lugging my bags had exhausted me and I arrived at my hotel dead tired. At that moment, all I could think of was a warm water shower to soothe my crumbling body. Even food was not a consideration, as slumber pulled me into its arms soon after…

P.S. I just realized (after a week) that I can swap Windows’s keyboard to an English (U.S.) layout! Though now I have the keys in the place I expect them to be, I don’t necessarily see it saying what I want to type!!!