Hi everybody
We have been having a fabulous time so far in Zurich and Paris.
The flight to Zurich was decent - slightly cramped for leg room but we got a window and aisle next to each other. Landed in Zurich ahead of time on Saturday, and went out to see the city. Like most places in Europe, Zurich has a train station under the airport - the 15 km to the city centre station (Zurich Hauptbahnhoff as it is called) took 12 minutes. Zurich at 730 am was quite cold - we walked down the old part of town along a promenade called Limmat quai which runs parallel to the Limmat river towards the Zurich see (which is a lake). Later we walked along the Zurich-see's banks and saw a number of swans. Around 945, we turned back towards the station and returned to the airport by yet another train. Post lunch, we boarded our flight which was 10 mins late (got a window again) and landed in Paris around 210.
At Paris, we cleared immigration surprisingle fast, collected our luggage and then walked for 15 mins to reach the train station. Our hotel map had told us to take a train to one station (Chatelet des Halles), and then a metro to Madeleine station near which our hotel was located. So we bought our tickets and boarded the train. It was incredibly hot that day, and the train was like an oven (esp as it had full glass windows, and no AC or even fans). The train took much longer than we expected - about 40 mins to reach Chatelet. We then had a long walk towards the metro station. As I was trying to exit the train station to go to the metro area, we had to pass an automatic gate. The gate opened, I got thru with one suitcase, but the other suitcase got stuck as the gate shut on it. Radhika then used her ticket to open the gate, and pulled the suitcase towards her, but before she cld come thru, the gate shut again, and refused to open with her ticket. I went out to look for help, but cld find no official. As I returned to the gates, I saw Radhika had gotten out - she saw that there was a separate gate that people woth luggage were using and followed someone else thru that.
We then took the metro (which was better than the train since it had a system that blew air in while running) and reached Madeleine without further ado. As we stepped out at Madeleine, we were amazed to see a huge structure (photos when we reach). We walked down to our hotel which was 5 mins away. All told it took us 1 hour 20 mins to reach - conclusion, in Paris spend 50 euros and take a cab to the city.
Our hotel is very decent - it has a fabulous location, 5 mins from the Madeleine and the Place de la Concorde, in the heart of everything. The room is small, with an AC, albeit a relatively weak one. Paris has a number of broad boulevards with palaces and monuments at either end. The most famous is the Champs Elysee, which starts at the Place de la Concorde, and goes on over 2 km in a straight line east west to the Arc de Troimphe. The Place de la Concorde has a huge Egyptian obelisk at its centre. Beyond the PDC, lie the Tuilleries Gardens and then the Louvre. So you have an east west alignement of the Louvre, the gardens, the PDC, the Champs Elysee and the Arc. The noth U south alignment here starts at the Madeleine, along Rue Royal to the PDC and then further down to the Seine river, and to the French parliament building across the Seine. After grabbing a snack (cheese sandwich) at a vendor, we explored this alignment. Before we knew it, it was 8pm, we were dead tired, but the sun was still beating down hard on us. So we went to the hotel, had a nap and headed out at 930 for the Cityrama office for the Illuminations tour and the Lido show. Illuminbations involves going past the major sights of Paris in a bus at night, but even at 10 when we started, it was twilight. We took in the beauty of the city in a 1hr 15 mins spin, and disembarked at the Lido at 1115. After waiting in a long queue, we got in for the show at 1145. The show involved a number of scantilly clad women dancing on stage set to operatic music - was fairly mediocre in my view since it did not have a story we cld follow and I slept thru parts of it. It ended at 145 am and then we got back to the hotel around 230. It was thus 615 ist when we went to sleep. We slept well, and rose yesterday morning only at 945 am.
Will send a follow on mail on day 2 later.
Ciao
Raj and Radhika
No comments:
Post a Comment