Lago Maggiore, Italy

Being in Italy is like browsing through the pages of history!!

Italy: A place where the presence of 3000 years is felt at each and every moment!

Italy: The place is more beautiful or the people I wonder!

Italy: A place where food is so delicious!

Italy: A place where people talk continuously abt sth tht doesnt make ny sense at all!

Looking at the Italian peninsula on googlemaps, switching the view from "Satellite" to "Terrain", two mountain ranges can immediately be recognised. The Swiss mountains in the North and the mountain range that runs along the peninsula. I had the opportunity to travel to the North (close to swiss border), to the middle (on second mountain range) and Sicily in the south (The Shoe) on three different occasions (April 2008, Sept 2009 and June 2011).

In the north: Lago Maggiore (in Piedmont), Verona, Venice (in Veneto)

In the center: Florence, Siena, San Gimignano, Pisa, Cortona (in Tuscany), Perugia, Assisi, Orvieto (in Umbria)

In the south: Palermo, Mount Etna (in Sicily)

*** It's difficult to organise all the information/pictures on one page. For this reason, I have split the information region-wise and intend to upload it one by one.

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THE NORTH

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When you go up-north in Italy towards Switzerland, you have these huge lakes surrounded by beautiful mountains. One lake that took my breath away.

Lake: Lago Maggiore

Length: 54km

Time: Spring 08

Picture taken from Isola Madre (Mother Island)

City : Stresa
My Hotel : Hotel La Palma (in the picture)
Stay: One Week

Memories:

Heavy Breakfast, Heavy Lunch with Espresso Shot, Heavy Dinner, Beer....
A week spent eating, and eating more.. until I couldn't eat anymore!
Talking while eating, and talking the rest of the time!






The lake has tiny villages around, next to it and on the mountains.

One evening I come out of the hotel and started hiking on the mountain with Aleksey. We encountered waterfall, beautiful villages and the view of the lake. We came down when it got dark. The picture on the right was taken in some village while coming down.












Isola dei Pescatori (The Fisherman's Island)

One day the whole group went to visit the islands that we could see from Stresa. We visited Isola dei Pescatori and Isola Madre. We had our lunch on Isola dei Pescatori.













Isola Madre (Mother Island)

The view of the island from Stresa in the night. It has a number of architectural structures and a beautiful garden where flowers blossom and white peacocks roam around.

Some More Pictures:

Everyday after dinner in some restaurant (left) we used to end up in this pub (right).

The towns around Stresa are very rural. Because of the Simplon Pass (Brig to Domodossola), the city now falls on the line connecting Milan (in the south) to Swiss Cities (in north). The booming tourism caused Stresa to develop into a popular tourist destination in this region.

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THE CENTER

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THE SOUTH

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Place: Mount Etna (Sicily)
Time: Sept 2009
Attraction: 2nd Largest Active Volcano in Europe (3300+ meters high)
Experiences: Barren black volcanic landscape, Warm ground and melting snow, Cold and unpredictable weather.


The Peak
















The Crater I walked around
(Center of the crater below)

















City: Taormina (Sicily)
Time: Sept 2009
Attraction: Ancient Town (facing Etna on west and Ionian sea on east)

Photofungography: Lunteren.NL (Fall 2007)

(Click on the image if you want the high resolution picture)

To enjoy the wonders of mother nature you don't have to go far away but rather to look around. So obsessed with our daily life we rarely tend to appreciate what we have around us. Thus it makes perfect sense for me to take vacations and go as far away as possible from the place where I work just to remind myself of who I am and to be 'Me' once again. I need this experience of being free, in salvation.

Although I always get delighted remembering the good times: the mangroves of Bhitarkanika, The Fjords of Lofoten and the walk on Mount Etna. Then I look around and realize that one of the most memorable times that I have had was right in my backyard! It was only after I left IIT that I started remembering the turtle that I caught, those birds that flew in the classrooms, those great times I had on Mukhlal's bike, and the wonderful "anticipation of sight of Panther(s) scaring the shit out of me" experience when going somewhere in the night.



One such "backyard experience" that I had was when I went to my first national conference in Lunteren. It was my first ever experience with the colors of fall, and a forest in the Netherlands for that matter. I was so amazed to see the colors that I dived way deep into it. I became a 'bee' who roamed around enjoying the creativity of nature, what I now call a fungal experience.




I made a long walk in the forrest, enjoyed the colors of fall and photographed mushrooms. It was a wonderful experience. I returned back to Delft the next day and couldn't stop thinking about Mushrooms. I got so carried away that I started reading wikipedia articles about mushrooms, and fungus in general, and decided to classify all the mushrooms that I had photographed. Well! I had to give up eventually, there were too many of them. I learned a lot about Mushrooms and started eating them as well on a regular basis! Also, I learned that biological classification is highly complex and it keeps changing as new discoveries are made. Here, I am sharing the beautiful world of Mushrooms with you that gives a spice to everlasting colorful memories of being in forest during fall.




Gilled Mushrooms (agaricals or euagarics): These are most familier types of mushrooms. As the name suggests these have gills beneath the cap and a stem, indeed the stereotyped structure of what we would call a mushroom. They range from the ubiquitous supermarket mushrooms to the deadly destroying angel, hallucinogenic fly agaric to bioluminescent jack-o-lantern mushroom.




You can't miss sight of the fly agaric (Amanita) because of its bright red color as you can notice in the picture. Soma talked about in Rig Veda has been suggested to be an Amanita extract. It is famous for its hallucinogenic properties with its main psychoactive constituent being the compound muscimol. It was used as an intoxicant and entheogen in Siberia.





Polypores: These are tough, leathery poroid mushrooms similar to boletes, but typically lacking a distinct stalk. The polypores do not have the spore-bearing tissue continuous along the entire underside of the mushroom. Polypores are found on rotting logs as you see here and are rot-resistant to the extent that they themselves often last long enough for moss to grow on them. This is due to the mushroom's ability to produce compounds with anti-pathogenic activity. So they have some medicinal uses.




The one on the right is commonly known as Turkey Tail (Trametes Versicolor) is found worldwide. Polysaccharide-K (Krestin or PSK) is a protein-bound polysaccharide isolated from this fungi. It is used as an immune system boosting agent in the treatment of cancer in some European countries as well as in China and Japan. In Japan, PSK is approved as an adjuvant for cancer therapy.




Bolete: It is a type of fungi characterized by the presence of a pileus (cap) that is clearly differentiated from the stipe (stem), with a spongy surface of pores (rather than gills) on the underside of the pileus. I am not sure about the mushroom that I have in the picture is Bolete! Birch and Chestnus Bolete are common in Europe. It might be Chestnut Bolete.







Puffballs: The puffballs don’t consist of a visible stem. They are called puffballs because a cloud of brown dust-like spores is emitted when the mature fruiting body bursts. A powdery gleba on maturity is a feature of true puffballs, stalked puffballs and earthstars. False puffballs are hard like rock or brittle. All false puffballs are inedible, as they are tough and bitter to taste. While most puffballs are not poisonous, it shouldn’t be confused with some poisonous young agarics like Amanita (very poisonous). To be on the safe side they can be cut into half lengthwise before use. Puffballs were traditionally used in Tibet for making ink by burning them vigorously.




Is this the highest point of the Netherlands?

South Holland where I live is densely populated and so flat, I can't imagine a forest here. Then you go biking around Kijkduin or mountainbiking (!) in Schoorlse Duinen in Bergen (highest and widest dunes here). Netherlands is so amazingly flat that a 50 meter bump on the ground feels like a mountain. Walking around in the forest I was wondering "could it be the highest altitude point in the Netherlands". I checked later that 1/3 of the land is below sea level in the Netherlands where 21 percent of the people happen to live, the rest of them are not doing any better!! The highest altitude is actually 322 meters in south east. They say "God created the world, and the dutch created the Netherlands" and you know they are right if you have ever biked around in south Holland.

Switzerland (23Feb-2Mar, 2009)

Every single Indian visiting Europe would never forgo a visit to Switzerland! Thats the most beautiful place on earth as portrayed by Bollywood movies. It happens often that I tell my exotic travel stories back in India and get asked in the end "Have you been to Switzerland?". It becomes an embarrassing moment to say "No!". So I finally made up my mind to make an extensive tour of Switzerland and get to know the "Heaven!". For it being a small mountain country in the alps and I staying in Netherlands , the time couldn't have been better if not February. After heavy snow fall in mid-feb the small alpine country was covered with snow. I was lucky to get clear sky and sun-shine blazing in the snow-white countryside. I started and ended my journey in Geneva covering east (The Swiss!), west (French Speaking), north (German Speaking) and south (Italian Speaking) part of Switzerland.

I arrived in Geneva on 23rd Feb, another huge concrete jungle. It was the first time I met my friend Ankit after almost two years. He cooked authentic grandmotherly north-indian sabji roti for me. Indian men have hidden talent for cooking, its sad we never realize it back in India. Also, his student housing was similar to our hostel in IIT. So nostalgia kicked in and we were back in old days.


The next day he headed for his work and I started my journey to the alps. For my surprise I was noticing women everywhere. I couldn't resist appreciating them! (I will come to this point later). I started my journey towards east, my first destination being Lausanne. I should note at this point that I had no plans for my travel and I didn't really have any destination. What I had was a rail pass which gave me unlimited travel opportunity for 4 days (out of my 7 day visit)!


Lausanne is an elevated city facing lake Geneva. Its known for its technical (EPFL) and management (IMD) institutes. After making the walk in the city center above and along the lake below, I headed for Bern (The Capital!) in the afternoon.


The old center of Bern is built on hilly peninsula surrounded by river Aare. The medieval city has been recognized by UNESCO as World Heritage Site. Its possible to make a quick walk of the city center. Most noticeable sites are Time Bell, Munster (Gothic Cathedral) and view from there. One can visit Einstein's House when he was working in the patent office in Bern with his wife and wrote papers on special theory of relativity.


I headed south from Bern to a small town Thun located on one corner of lake Thun. There are high mountains in the south which run east-west along whole Switzerland. The most touristic thing would have been to visit Jungfrau- 4000 m (up from Interlaken) and Matterhorn- 4527 m (up from Zermat). Knowing my less touristic taste I was suggested by my host to try Niederhorn (up from Beatenberg) facing lake Thun that is not a common skii resort. So I went to Niederhorn the next day. I wouldn't say more and let the pictures tell the rest of the story (the first picture). I met a Musician from Bern who came to perform in Thun. Sadly I couldn't see him perform that evening. But he introduced me to typical swiss cousin (Hamme) on the mountaintop. Also I realized the importance of wearing sun glasses for the first time as ice covered mountains and bright sun was making it difficult to keep my eyes open and trust me I really wanted to. The view of the mountains (Jungfrau, Eiger, Monch...) is breath taking. I ate Maroni (roasted hazzlenuts) on my way back. Monica made me nice Fondue that evening, which was the perfect end to the perfect day.


......I should note here that the highest mountain in western Europe is Mont Blanc (4800 m), which I could see towards the west. If you happen to fly from/to Milan over swiss alps take appropriate window seat (right/left- I think) as they often take the plane from the side of Mont Blanc (they usually inform). Don't forget to take your camera in your handbag (because I didn't!)......

So amazed by the beauty of that place that I decided to make a long walk to nearby town Spiez (15 km from Thun) the next day. It was one of the most beautiful walk I ever made. View of lack Thun surrounded by mountains covered with snow was beautiful. My knees were hurting from day one and it got worse after I reached Spiez. So I sat down in Speiz the rest of the afternoon and evening and wrote postcards to my parents. I slept at my Brazilian host. He gave a Brazilian solution for a Brazilian problem- A lotion for horses and cattle brought all the way from Brazil. Not a joke- it did have picture of happy cattle grazing on the farm!! Instead of going to snowboarding with him the next I decided to take full day of rest (by sitting in the train!).

I spent the whole day sitting in the train and crossed swiss mountains from Brig to Chur (west-east) on Glacier Express, cutting swiss alps in the middle for hundreds of kilometers. It was one of the most beautiful and scenic experiences of my life. It climbs mountains and goes through bridges. The highest point of the Glacier Express was more than 2000 m. Glacier Express is the slowest express in the world, probably faster then the slowest train!!!!



I went through the mountains towards west and went on towards north-west of the Swiss to a small alpine country of Leichtenstein (160sq.km). It is a landlocked mountain country between Swiss and Austria. It is the fourth smallest country in I took a Bus from Sargans (swiss) to Vaduz (the Capital of Leichtenstein). There is no border control and you can get a visa stamp in the tourist office in Vaduz for 2 Euros! The picture on the right is The Palace of Royal Family in Vaduz. The country has only 35000 residents and it has more registered companies than citizens!











I ended my day in Zurich where I stayed with another friend of mine from university- Samir Berman. The next morning I spent walking in Zurich. I had to reach south of Swiss in the Italian speaking part the same day as I had plans with my friends from Geneva to spend our weekend there. So I travelled north-south crossing the mountains again to a city called Lugano on lake Lugano. We enjoyed another mountain city next to a beautiful lake. Italian part is very different from rest of Swiss. You get awesome food, Italian people fun and everything is super cheap on Swiss standards! The next day we went to Bellinzona (north of Lugano). It is famous for the three Roman Castles (Castelgrande, Montebello, Sasso Corbaro) that are World Heritage Sites. I could barely walk but I did finish first 2 castles before time run short and we had to go back to Geneva. I spent my last day in University of Geneva- Dept. of Chemistry watching chemists working in their gloveboxes and uploaded pictures.We went to an Indian restaurent and enjoyed unlimited awesome food for just 10 bugs. Ankit dropped me at the airport and I said good buy to the Heaven!

Something Funny:
Indian Bollywood movies shoot songs in Thun-Interlaken area where I stayed 3 nights. Indians in hundreds dancing somewhere, wearing beautiful colorful dresses, becomes a turist attraction for locals every summer! At the same time it becomes pain in the ass for the hotel staff where they make big mess. Special arrangements have to be made for them. I wish I could be part of the Bollywood dance!

General:
Swiss is extremely expensive country. Lot of people in India want to visit Swiss thanks to Bollywood movies. I have seen many who plan to go there after they retire, particularly people from middle class who decide to go once abroad in there life. I would sincerely suggest to consider lot of other available options within India, in east Asia, or in Europe for that matter. Swiss is beautiful but so are lot of other countries. Himalayas goes as high as 9000m (mount everest) against 5000 m in swiss (Mont Blanc). So just go visit Himalayas if you want to see snow covered mountains. Its just not worth the price IF its your only trip ever abroad. Also, always check the weather condition of the place. Landscape will be very different in Summer (lush green) and Winter (snow covered). If its raining the time you go, you will really regret. Clear sky is very important when go want visit such a landscape.
To my surprise I found people of swiss very nice and friendly. I was impressed by swiss hospitality.

Stockholm, Sweden (May 08 and May 09)

Of all the places I have been so far Stockholm is the one I would always be ready to revisit. I have been to Stockholm twice already but for short visits. Yet the place has influenced me more than any other city or landscape I ever visited. Its the blend of beautiful archipelago, green forest and modern city with its architectural beauty that makes Stockholm so unique.

Cruising in the archipelago with its 24000 islands and islets is one hell of an experience. The view of the city as you leave Stockholm City into the Baltic waters is enchanting panorama (picture above). One than enters into a magical world of untouched landmasses scattered around in all directions. Two and a half hour journey from Stockholm city to the islands of Finnhamn (picture to the right) is the second most magical maritime experiences of my life*.

During my second visit I got an opportunity to stay with a friend in student housing in Stockholm university. I realized a connection that people have here with nature. I spent some more time the next day to visit some places around. Woodland Cemetary is a kind of place I would most often visit if I were living here. Your soul most certainly speaks out aloud amid the tranquility. Its worth coming here just to make a little walk or to read a book.





Stockholm is at the mouth of lake Marlaren, 1,140 km² by area, where it joins Baltic sea. The most prominent place on the archipelago of this lake would be Drottningholm, or Queens islet, is residence of Swedish Royal Family. This is yet another place to walk around and relax. A short visit is not enough to experience all facets of this beautiful place. This city deserves longer stay to experience urban and natural life in changing climate all year round.







* First being the sweet water Mangrooves and islands of Bhitarkanika National Park- Orissa (Dec 2002).

My France Trip (June, 2006)

I wrote this story on a piece of paper almost 3 years ago during my first ever vacation in Europe! It was Jun, 2006 and I was working in east Germany as summer intern. I have a lot of wonderful memories from that time.

Places: Koln, Paris, Nice, Monaco, Marseille, Frankfurt
Guys: Sameer, Das, Pushkar and Anupam
Time: June 2006

"I still wonder how lucky you sometimes get. Das called me in the morning and I woke up. Still checking, packing my bag, and thinking that I would be able to reach Jena West station in 23 minutes. It was 4:59 am when I realized I should better be taking the hell out of my room to the station. Walking down the way I realized how far my place was from the station. I was running and walking and still confident that I would make it. Well! I saw buses going in front of me when I realized buses do exist and I could have taken bus directly to Jena West. So habitual of taking a walk to every place I go with the idea to save money that I forgot the buses do exist. I hurried and reached Jena West Station at last and on time. As I was trying to figure out which of the two platforms is my train going to come I saw it coming. So I rushed towards the platform and boarded the train. I faced the ticket checker for the first time. I reached Weimar and took the train for Frankfurt. I was having a printout in hand of my train schedule. I was supposed to reach Frankfurt Flughafen FernBf and it was Frankfurt (main) HBf. So I asked a guy outside and he told me that the other part of the train is gonna go to Flughafen (airport) and so I again rushed towards the other part of the train. After boarding the train I looked around and it seemed first class. So I thought that I will have to come out again and board another bogy. One more guy who boarded was equally scared. It seemed like he also was travelling on DB for the first time. We went to the other side and found the second class. I got out at Flughafen FernBf, looked around for Das and he was there. We went to Cologne together. Cologne turned out to be a very nice place. Cologne Cathedral is just outside the station (Picture to the Left). We took a map from the tourist information center and started walking on the road. The whole city looked kind of empty. Maps are confusing if you are looking at one for the first time. It took me some time to figure out how to use a map. There were just churches, museums and art galleries in the city and nothing else. That’s when I realized that I don’t have anything to see here anymore. After appreciating the architecture of the Cologne Cathedral, the city has nothing more to offer me. We went to one of the art galleries, spent some time looking at weird pictures that had some weird stuff in it that we didn't understand. Anyways, we came out horrified and decided not to visit another art gallery in near future. We went directly to an area close to the train station. We spent quite a long time on the riverside, first on the bridge for road traffic and then on the other bridge for the trains. I took lot of pictures of the beautiful river Rhine before boarding TGV for Paris.

Paris! The fashion capital of the world! How my stay gonna b like? Pushkar and Anupam were waiting for us on the station. They were there since d morning. The first thing he told me is that the place is in mess and people not supporting at all. They won’t speak English with you even if they could. Since we were already late, Pushkar went to search for a room and we (Das and I) started our journey in Metrorail towards Eiffel. It was decided that we (might) meet at the Eiffel Tower, besides one of the four feet. We didn’t have an idea how the metro lines worked, and we boarded the metro. We saw black people all around. It seemed like nobody knew any English. So we reached one station and came out of the other. We again boarded that station and came out of the next. We were not getting how to reach to Eiffel and there was nobody to help us. We were on our own. It was already 8pm and we were getting very late. We then decided to go back where we came from. We took the Metro,  waited for the station from where we started. But rather I saw my train coming out of the ground and it scared the shit out of us. Holding the map in our hands, we tried to understand how the whole metro system works. We talked to a French lady who was standing in the metro. She was really trying to help and so the whole English-French conversation started. We were asking in English and she was responding in French. We finally came out and she showed us the platform which will bring us back. As we boarded the metro again and saw lot of black people again, I lost any hopes from the people out there. It was very scary. With some hope Das asked one of the two white women talking to each other that I didn’t even noticed. She replied in English and it was a happy and satisfying moment after a long time. She explained to us how the whole metro system works. We then started for Eiffel tower, got off at the right station and started walking towards the Eiffel. Das had to pee now. It was really an emergency for him and I was scared of the city. We started looking here and there for some place for Das. Das was ready to pee anywhere and I was telling him to hold on to it. Don’t go for public urination and let French police catch us for that! I convinced him that Eiffel gets lots of visitors. So his problem will be solved there. As we reached Eiffel and looked for the first place it was closed. I was all scared, and Das had an emergency. Both were not in the condition to think anything. Finally we found a place for Das and then we sat down on a bench for a while and took some pictures of Eiffel. I was so scared about where to stay in the night that those ‘taking pictures of Eiffel’ was just a formality. Das was feeling relieved now and not at all scared. He was trying to convince me to stay there overnight to save money and I was suggesting that we should go to Notre Dam and stay there as Sanchit had told me earlier that he stayed the whole night with his professor at Notre Dam. Anyways, we asked a guy and he told us that it’s safe to stay at Eiffel. So we were pretty sure that we were going to stay there at night. We took lot of pictures when they started twinkling lights on Eiffel at 10 pm. It was really a nice experience. I generally asked an Indian street seller who was again and again coming to sell key rings to us about whether Eiffel will be open at night or not. He told that everything will be closed by 1:30 am. Then I enquired about Paris metro and it closes at 12 am! It was the scariest moment ever. Especially when Das was not at all scared, rather confident, that we would spend the whole night on the streets. Paris is obviously not a safe place for that. So I said that I will pay for his hotel stay if he is supportive, and that he was not helping at all. So we asked the same guy about the place where we can stay in the night and he told us to go straight to a place. So we started walking very fast. We met a Chinese looking couple and the woman was very helping. They helped us with the map, showed us one place where we can go and find a cheap hotel. It was very far away from that place. Metro was also about to close. So we started our way towards the metro rail. Then we saw Pushkar and Anupam coming from the other side. The improbable had just happened! We got reunited in such a big city like Paris. God is great, the ultimate reality I guess. Four of us started walking towards the metro again, there was not a lot of time left. Pushkar had to take his bag from the Paris station and then we had to go to the place they had booked for overnight stay. It’s the “Formula One” hotel. We reached the hotel, and got good sleep. Next day we woke up late and went to Notre dam church where we met a group of IITians. Summer students from the IITies are everywhere in Europe, and especially in Germany. We then went to Louvre Museum (Picture of Das and I, in front of The Louvre, to the right) and then to Eiffel where we took a Boat trip on river Seine. The trip was an hour long and we saw most of the important places. After the boat trip, we went up the Eiffel climbing stairs. I really didn’t want to go till second floor just to save money as it’s quite at a height. But three of them wanted to go up taking stairs and save money, so I was left with no option but to take the stairs. We went to the second floor and took lift from there to the top. We spent lot of time on the top. After we got down, Das and I went to Paris Nord station to collect our bags and directly go to Paris Lyon station where we were supposed to take our next train to Nice. Nice is on the Mediterranean coast in southern France. Pushkar and his friend went to see Louvre museum. We met in Paris Lyon again and started our over night journey towards the Mediterranean Coast. Since we all bought the tickets separately, so we got the seats in different bogies. Again I saw mostly black people in the train. We reached Nice early in the morning. Police caught and enquired about us!! The tourist information center in Nice was closed, so we decided to visit Monaco first. It is the second smallest independent state after Vatican. The whole journey from Nice to Monaco was amazing as you see Mediterranean Sea on one side and mountains on the other (Picture of Monaco Monte Carlo train station to the left side). It turned out to be very nice place. No streets lights are required and you can just go on to cross the road anytime you like and cars stopped giving first preference to you. It was totally a different experience for me. In Germany it is mostly streetlights everywhere and people follow the rules properly. So people will cross the road only when the light is green even if there is no car on the road. We went to the castle on top of the mountain and took lot of pictures. We returned to Nice and police caught us again. They were looking into the visa with lens and talking to each other in French. They then took us to the post and we were waiting outside when they were inside with our passports. We showed our university identity cards from IITies as well as our host German universities. They also took it and went inside. Finally they came out and let us go. We were four people, so I was not at all scared this time. Das told that he was!! The tourist information center was open by that time. We instinctively headed towards the beach. We really had a great time on the beach. Nice is famous for nude beaches and so we all were kind of excited but it was quite rainy that day and so not a lot of people were around. We were lethargic about visiting larger part of the sea coast at the time, so we just stayed at one place and took a dip into the Mediterranean waters. We returned to the station early and waited quite a long time on the station for our train to Marseille, which was supposed to be a very old town. Pushkar and his friend stayed back in Nice. Marseille was bit like Mumbai. It was indeed very old town and no feeling of beautiful Europe. We just took the map from the information center and started walking down the hill to visit a few places. We went to the sea coast and watched street performance by red Indians (Picture to the right). The funny thing about Marseille is that people don’t follow street lights! Nobody even look at the streetlight I guess. We took the train for Strasburg from Marseille and spent about an hour in Strasburg. From Strasburg we took train for Frankfurt and stayed there for quite a long time. We went to the airport first to get the information about tax free shopping. We then visited the new FIFA football stadium which was closed for tourists for security reasons. Our eurail pass included the local S bahn (local metro rail) as well. So we went to the main shopping area of the city and then headed for the old city. Their was a screen in the middle of the river and people were watching the football match on both sides of the river. Hey! When I entered Germany from France, I felt like coming back home as my French experience didn’t go so well. Das and I took trains for our respective destinations after that. I traveled a lot in those 3-4 days and got an idea of those places. Although I guess it requires some quality time if you want to know any place."