Vijay Basrur

Woburn Safari Park

Wobrun Safari Park is the biggest managed safari I have ever been to.

It was about 45 mins drive from home and we reached the place at 11:15 and took almost 30 mins to get in thanks to some long queues.

You have to drive around in your car and move along a defined path and go along spotting the animals. It was a wonderful experience and we spotted quite a few animals enroute. The tigers & the giraffes were the most amazing.

After that we went to the walking safari where you walk around the place and come in close contact with animals. We spent quite a bit of time with the Kangaroos. After lunch and some more walking around, we queued up to see the Sea Lion show. It was real good fun to know more about the sealions and to see them perform various stunts.

We got back home after encountering real bad traffic jams. My cousin, who was driving was complaining about the slow pace of the traffi And we were moving at 60 kmph during most phases and were bumper to bumper only at some points.

Lazy Easter Sunday

Probably the first day of our trip where we did nothing but stay indoors all day. We slept like logs and had some amazing home cooked food which was a welcome change for our appetite.

Welwyn Garden City is a lovely residential place with a lot of greenery around. But like most European places we have found, it is deserted. When we took a walk at 6 in the evening on a Sunday, there was not a soul on the road.

Ironically some holidays, Easter being one of them, is taken very seriously in England. Everything was shut. Huge departmental stores, small mom n pop stores, most eating joints and even public transport. It was eerie to an extent.

A relaxed day felt like a holiday after weeks of non stop working. We cooled our heels and it was decided that we would head to a Safari the next day.

Incommunicado

Well its been 3 days since my phone konked off. Will resume my blogging now.

Its been a good thing without the phone but a little scary since we needed the phone miserably when we were delayed at Paris enroute to London.

Anyway here we go!

Paris Airport Blues

To be sitting inside the airport, till late in the night, for nearly 5 hours waiting to take a flight that barely lasts 50 mins, is probably one of my worst experience in flight delays.

We reached London at 1.30 in the night, 3 hours behind schedule. We survived on some horrible food since there was barely anything available at that hour in the night.

Easyjet gave us food worth 5 euros each and we just about got one bottle of water, a sandwich & a bag of chips. We also had a frustrating experience using a credit card phone to keep in touch with our relatives who were waiting for our arrival.

My wife’s cousin had pre booked a cab which was a saviour in that hour of the night. We reached home at 2.30 and had a quick dinner and immediately crashed into bed.

Invalides, Notre Dame Cathedral

Napoleans Tomb is quite and intersting place to go to. The main area where he is buried is quite a structure. Its grandeur and size tell you a lot about how much he would have been respected during his times.

The rest of the Hotel de Invalides is not very exciting. It houses an army museum which was party shut due to some renovation. So after covering most of the area, we settled down on the lawns to finish a bag of chips, fruits, beer & wine which we had to consume since we were leaving Paris the same night.

After lazing around a bit more, we made our way to the Notre Dame Cathedral. The queues were long but we managed to slip in, in true desi style, the only time we’ve broken a queue.

The cathedral has a lovely facade but the interiors were dark and the place was crowded since it was a weekend. Its a nice place with lovely stained glass windows on all sides.

We got out quickly, caught a bite and headed back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and head to the airport.

Chateau Versailles, Siene tour

It took us a little over an hour to get to Versailles.

The grandeur of the Chateau is stunning. The size of it just amazing. The tour takes you through all the different types of rooms, each of which has a different theme. The walls, the ceiling, the paintings on the walls & the furniture are all different in every room.

To think that so much wealth was spent for personal use, gives you a hint as to why people would have been frustrated at that time. Frustration was one of the cornerstones for the French Revolution.

The Versailles Gardens are about 5 times bigger than the Chateau. They spread over a huge area and in some directions go on till the horizon.

Since it was a bit late, we decided to head to Effiel Tower to catch the lighting up at 9 pm. we had some spare time so we took a lovley crusie on the river Siene. The hour long cruise takes you around many tourist attractions, all of which are conveniently located along the riverside.

The lighting up of Eiffel at 9 & 10 pm is something one should never miss. It gives a wonderful touch to the tower and it looks like one huge blinking Christmas tree.

We made dinner out of a real nice & juicy hotdog and a chicken n cheese crepe. This joint is right below the tower on the opposite road and seemed like a family run place. I have never had a better hotdog anywhere else. Period. We also got conned into making a potrait which didn’t turn out quite well as per wifey since I am made out to be a trifle serious in the potrait.

We were so dead tired that we crashed into bed without a change of clothes and woke up in the middle of the night to change.

Tomorrow will be our last day in Paris. Boo Hoo

Louvre, Arc D’Triomphe & Champs Elyeses

If you take a few football fields and keep many an artifacts, you would probably get the Louvre.

Louvre is the worlds biggest museum. It seems if you were to spend one minute in front of every piece in the museum, it would take 4 months to see everything inside the Louvre.

Though the main attraction is the Mona Lisa, frankly it pales in comparison with some of the other paintings. Infact the painting kept right opposite the Mona Lisa is much better but its glory is dwarfed by the Mona Lisa hype.

Though we walked for hours and browsed through with some specific atrefacts in mind, we fell short miserably in covering even 30% of what the Louvre has to offer. Since the rooms begin to close at 5.30, we decided to hang around the pyramid and then head to the Arc D’Triomphe.

The location of the Arc is mind blowing. The central island has 12 roads leading into it & apparently making it the worlds busiest roundabout. We climed on top of the Arc to get a superb 360 deg view of the round about.

The best view is of the Champs Elyses which is the main road leading to the Arc and is Paris’s best destination for “hanging out” and ofcourse “shopping”. The road is lined with trees, wide footpaths and open air cafes giving it a very romantic touch.

After strolling around aimlessly for a bit, checking out a Virgin Megastore & window shopping we finally got back to the hotel. Enroute we packed some hot Chinese dinner which we ate in the room with Hieneken beer and wine.