Carmel By-The-Sea July 6, 2009

Both Sherry and I are planners (OK, I admit, I like to plan more),  and we did not have anything planned for July 4th weekend.  We moved couple of weeks ago so unpacking was our major plan for the weekend.  Towards the end of the week (more like Thursday) we decided to take a day trip.  On our drive to BART station Thursday morning, Sherry came up with the suggestion of going to Carmel.  And even though we spent a weekend in Monterrey a while ago, we did not do much in Carmel during that trip.  Friday we did some unpacking,  errands and decided to leave to Carmel on the morning on Saturday.

Before we go anywhere we spend a good amount of time reading on-line on what do once we get there, what restaurants to try.  This trip we did not have enough time and energy to spend on the usual research that we do, so we decided to just wing it.   We drove to Monterrey first, had our lunch there and then we went off on the 17 mile drive.

The initial drive on 17 mile road was more like viewing expensive houses.  I wasn’t much impressed, the houses were really pretty, but I wanted to see the ocean.  When we saw the view of the ocean, we stopped, we could not walk to the water so we spent little time looking around and got back in the car.  Along the drive there are so many pretty Cypress trees, some of them were slanted, some were really big.

The next stop we could walk in the water, but it had rocks all over.  The water between the rocks were so clear that we could see fishes, snails and crabs.  We decided against stepping into that water as we did not want to disturb the life there.  Then we drove to this area where we could see seals taking a nap.  It was so nice to see the seal yawning and stretching and getting into brawls over rock space.  We then drove along the path and next stop was lone cypress (this is the logo of the Pebble Beach company).  Our next stop was the ghost trees, the name is because the trunks are bleached white from wind and sea spray.

After driving through all of 17 mile, Sherry decided to ride his bike the route that we came and we decided to meet at the Seal Rock Picnic area.  So he left ahead while I hung out at one of the spots reading a book.  After a while I took the same route (at least that was the plan, I got lost, then drove around for a while, then finally got back on the needed route, all the while talking to Sherry assuring him that I was not lost, I was just driving around).   We met up at the Seal Rock Picnic area, walked around the beach, played in the water.  For some reason ocean water does wonders to my soul.  I was so relaxed, and happy.

After a while we decided to drive into the city of Carmel.  We went to Carmel Beach, it is just so pretty, the sand was so light in color.  We were at the beach around 6.00 PM and we stayed there till the sun set which was around 8.30 PM.  Sitting by the beach and looking at the waves is just so relaxing.  Finally we left around 8.30 PM and got home by 10.30 PM.

This is one of the most relaxing vacations we have been on, I think we should wing it more often.

Click in each image to see a bigger view

Summary January 27, 2009

Distance Driven – 4000+ KM

Pictures Taken – 1000+

Memories Made – Countless

More details can be found here:

Day-1, Day-2, Day-3, Day-4, Day-5, Day-6, Day-7, Day-8, Day-9, Day-10

Here are list of few questions that was commonly asked by our friends

How is the visa situation?

If you are an American Citizen, no visa is required to travel to these countries.  If you are an Indian citizen, Schengen Visa is required.  If you are visiting one country, then you apply for visa at that country’s embassy.  And if you are spending more time in one country than the other, then you apply at the embassy where you are spending most of your time.  If you are spending same amount of time in all countries then you need to apply at the embassy that is your port of entry

How is traveling through Europe?

We can not speak much for the trains there as we drove our rental car.  Driving in Freeways in Europe is very similar to driving in America, but the cars are manual transmission unless you request for an automatic transmission (which I think has extra charge).  Driving in the city center is harder as the streets are narrow and parking is scarce.  The best thing to do if you are driving is to drive long distance and take the metro/bus service to go into the city.  Driving on freeways, other than Germany has tolls.  For our 9 day trip we spent almost 200 Euros in toll.

What did you do for directions?

We rented a GPS, and we would recommend anyone driving around in Europe to do the same.  Make sure the GPS that you rent has all the countries  that you are visiting stored.  Our initial GPS (that came with the car) did not have Italy maps, we were so glad that we found that out at rental place as opposed to when we were in Italy.  So the rental car people provided us with another portable GPS.

How is the weather in Europe?

We went during December so it was below 0 Celsius everywhere other than Rome.  The days are shorter, so did not get to do much after 5.00PM.  We knew it was going to be cold, so we had packed enough winter clothes, gloves, hats and scarfs.  Other than Italy, most of our destinations had snow.  The roads were cleared of snow so we never had to drive over snow or ice.

Is language an issue?

Depends, we do not know any foreign language and were able to manage by speaking English.  In all the major cities, people do understand English.  We did a lot of pointing and actions as we spoke and people understood us.

Are people nice to tourists?

They were extremely nice to us.  Everyone we asked for  suggestions and help was very nice, and was ready to help out.  If he or she did not the answer, he or she would ask someone else who did.

What is your favorite place from this trip?

Italy was our favorite destination.  We would definitely love to go back to Italy and spend 2-3 weeks.

Would you do this all over again?

Yes, we would as long as Sherry is up for the driving part.

Feel free to ask more questions in the comment section and we will try to answer it to our best knowledge

Day 10 January 27, 2009

Date: January 4th, 2009

The Plan:  Drive to Frankfurt Airport, Fly back home

We woke up bright and early, packed rest of our items and had breakfast at the hotel and checked out by 8.00 AM.  Our flight was at 11.50AM and we didn’t want to miss it at any cost.

Our hotel as 15 minutes from the airport, so after we got out of the hotel, filled gas in our car and left to the airport. We missed the rental car entrance the first time so we had to circle the terminal again.  We returned our car, got all the paper work cleared and walked towards the ticketing counter.  All went well, and we were checked in all the way to San Francisco, with customs clearance in Chicago.

We finally got to San Francisco at 11.00 PM on Sunday and got home around midnight.  We unpacked a little and went to bed and we both had to go back to work on Monday.

Day 9 January 26, 2009

Date: January 3rd, 2009

The Plan: See Paris, Drive to Frankfurt

We stayed in the La Defense area of Paris, and to get to the city center we had to take a bus to the La Defense Metro station and then take the Metro to the city center.  The staff at the hotel were very helpful and told us what bus to take, what metro stations to get on and off.

Our first stop was Arc de Triomphe, we walked around the arc, marveled at the workmanship and took pictures (like every other tourist).

Arc de Triomph

Arc de Triomphe is at the western end of  Champs Elysees.  As we are not huge shoppers we just walked down Champs Elysees, only going into one cafe to get a pastry and coffee.  Champs Elysees has been featured in so many movies, I remember seeing it in Devil Wears Prada.  So like true cliche we held our hands and walked down Paris (it wasn’t as romantic as it sounds as Sherry was going off to take pictures, of course not pictures of me).

Champs-Élysées - I

Champs-Élysées - II

Building along Champs-Élysées

Arc de Triumph from Champs-Élysées

It was very cold that day, the windchill was worse, so that walking was making me all pissy (I know, I’m in Paris that should make me happy, but it was really really cold).  So we passed through Place de la Concorde, the monuments around this area were breathtaking.  Lot of history (though I was not aware of it then) is associated with Obelisk and the Churches around this area.

Place de la Concorde

Obelisk in Place de la Concorde

Place de la Concorde

The next stop was to The Louvre Museum, and to see all of the Louvre, it takes a person 2-3 days at least.  We mainly spent time in Denon wing that housed Italian paintings (seeing Mona Lisa was on the top of the list).

The Louvre - Outside

The Louvre - from Inside

After we got out of the Louvre, we walked around Place du Carrousel.  Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel is located in this square.

Arc de Triomph du Carrousel

Next stop was Eiffel Tower, so we walked to the Metro Station, asked the lady at the ticket window and she told that, we had to switch trains and told us what station to get off.  We followed her direction and got off the correct station.  By this time we both were very hungry and stopped at a small cafe and had lunch.  Then we walked to Eiffel Tower, it was not as impressive as it was the night before.

Eiffel Tower - I

Eiffel Tower - II

Eiffel Tower - III

After spending some time walking around, we decided to head back to the hotel as we had to drive back to Frankfurt that evening. We got to the Metro station and waited for our train.

View of Paris City from the Metro Station

We got off our station and then took the bus numbers that the hotel staff had told us and we got off at the right station.  We went to the hotel had some cappuccino and started our trip to Frankfurt.  It was a 5 hour drive and we did not leave Paris till 5.00 PM.  Driving to Frankfurt we knew there were no mountains and snow so we were not worried.

We got to drive on Autobahn, which Sherry was very excited about.

Temperature in Frankfurt

We finally got to the hotel around midnight, checked in, got all our luggage out as we had to pack.  This was the last night in Europe, our flight was at 11.00 AM the next morning.  So we did some packing (moved stuff around so we did not exceed the weight limit), and finally got to bed around 1.00AM.  We both were  sad that our trip had come to an end.

Day 8 January 24, 2009

Date: January 2nd, 2009

The Plan: See Geneva, Drive to Paris

We woke up in the morning, and looked out of our window (that seems to be the ritual these days) and were greeted by snow.

View From our Room

Its not like we had an option so we got all bundled up and went outside.  The parking lot had lots of snow and carefully we got onto the freeway.  Our first stop was Jet d’Eau.  It is a large water fountain that is situated at the point where Lake Geneva empties into Rhone River.

Jet d'Eau

Jet d'Eau - Base

We drove around Lake Geneva, and fell in love with this city.

Driving in Geneva

Buildings in Geneva

Buildings In Geneva

Our next stop was United Nations, again we were on a tight schedule (had to drive to Paris) so we decided against touring United Nations (plus I had done that once before).

View close to United Nations

I don’t know if you can tell, but the black object is a motorcycle.  We parked on the street where United Nations HQ was located and we walked toward United Nation.  We passed Museum Ariana, which offers a huge collection of Ceramics.

Ariana Museum

Right across the museum we saw a Smart car parked.  Smart cars are all over Europe but we never got to see one close.  So we got closer to check out the car.

Smart Car

There was a statue of Gandhi on the way to United Nations.

Status of Gandhi, close to United Nations

Then we got to United Nations, it seemed rather quiet that we expected.  We could hardly see anyone other than the guard ( I don’t know who we were expecting to see, but we were expecting more people), and tourists.

United Nations

Right across the street from United Nations, there is a sculpture of Broken Chair.

Broken Chair

With all the snow around us, it was very cold.

Temperature in Geneva

After walking around United Nations HQ our next stop was Migros, to buy Swiss chocolates.  We walked around the store picked some chocolate and fruits.  When we came to the cashier, she told us something in German and we were so clueless we kept staring at her.  She then told us to follow her and she showed us chocolates similar to the ones we had gotten that were on sale.  So then we exchanged the chocolates with the ones she showed us.  Then she started ringing our items and when it came it fruits she said something else.  This time I realized she was telling that we need to put the UPC codes on the fruits.  So I walked to the fruit section and looked around on what I need to do.  I saw a guy getting some fruit, I showed him my fruit and looked clueless.  He then pointed me to a scale where I had to place the fruit and press the number that was next to the fruit, it printed the UPC code that could be scanned at the register.  Pretty effective as the cashier doesn’t have to remember that the code for banana is 4011 (I have worked at grocery stores), and there is no need to put those nasty sticker on fruits with the number.

After we got out of Migros, out next mission was lunch.  We went to a small place (recommended by wikitravel) and found parking on the streets.  We had to pay for parking and the machine did not have instructions in English.  So we asked couple of guys on how to operate the machine, they said they had no clue.  Then another girl was walking by and she came over and helped us by reading the instructions and translating them to English.  Through out the whole trip people were very nice to us.  Be it in helping us with paying toll in automated machines or parking or recommendations for places to eat.  We had 90 minutes on the parking meter so we had a nice lunch and then walked around Geneva a little while.

We still had 10 Swiss Franks to spend so we went to gas station pumped gas for 10 CHF and started our trip to Paris.

Driving to Paris

Driving to Paris

The drive to Geneva to Paris was little more than 5 hours.  As we got closer to Paris, we started hitting traffic.  By this time I was very tired, even though Sherry was the one who was doing all the driving I was the one who was tired.  He suggested that we go see Eiffel tower at night as it would be all lit up.  I reluctantly agreed as I just wanted to get to the hotel.  I was so glad that we decided to see Eiffel tower at night.  It was so pretty with all the lights.

Effile Tower at Night - I

Effile Tower at Night - II

Eiffel Tower at Night - III

It was cold that in the 3rd picture of the Eiffel tower it is our breath captured.  We did not do the ride that goes up to the Eiffel tower, we just enjoyed the tower from the ground.  Driving in Paris is as crazy as everyone says it is, there are so many roundabouts and each roundabout would have 6-8 exists.  With lot of gear shifting we finally got to our hotel which was 20 minutes outside Paris.  It was around 10.00 PM and all the eateries around that area had closed other than a pizza place.  So we got some Pizza, ate some fruit (and some Swiss Chocolate) and called it a night.

Day 7 January 20, 2009

Date: January 1st, 2009

The Plan: Drive to Florence, See Florence, Drive to Pisa, See Pisa, Drive to Geneva.

Our original plan was to wake up at 6.00 AM and be on the road by 7.00 AM.  Since we did not go to bed till 2.30 AM the previous night and as we had a long drive ahead we decided to get some rest.  So we out of Rome by 10.00 AM (little later that we would have liked, but we were well rested).  Rome was the southern most point in our trip and we knew it was gonna get chillier.  So enjoyed the warm 13C while it lasted.

Temperature in Rome

The drive to Florence was pretty and we started seeing the clouds, and we knew it was going to rain, and not just rain like here in San Francisco, but pour like back in India.

Drive to Florence, was cloudy

And as we had guessed, it rained heavily.  We drove in the rain, then after a while we stopped for gas and Cappuccino it stopped raining.

Drive to Florence, was rainy

We got to Florence and we were way behind schedule so we decided to just drive around Florence and have a quick look around.

Florence City - I

Florence City - II

After Florence our next stop was Pisa, this drive was not on the Autostrada.  So the roads were not as great as the ones we were used to in rest of Italy.  We got to Pisa, saw the leaning tower of Pisa.

Leaning Tower of Pisa - I

Leaning Tower of Pisa - II

After walking around the leaning tower we decided to get something for lunch.  We went to the city center found a cafe, got 2 sandwiches and Cappuccino.  We got some extra pastries to go and walked around the Pisa city center.

Pisa City

I wish we had more time to spend in both Pisa and Florence, but we didn’t as we had to get to Geneva and it was starting to get dark.  The rest of the drive was uneventful.  We drove through Genoa , it pitch black by then and did not get to see anything.  In the dark, Genoa looked very pretty.  The drive by Genoa was by the ocean, we were bummed that it had gotten dark and we couldn’t see anything.

Driving to Geneva, we had to drive over the Swiss alps.  Most of the rides were under the mountains through tunnels.

We crossed Mount Blanc Tunnel, its 11.6 KM long and we felt like it went for ever.

Mount Blanc Tunnel

The tunnel ended in France, where it was snowing.  The snow plough was ahead of us cleaning the snow and putting salt.  As we exit the tunnel we saw this sculpture on the right.

Sculpture in France at the tunnel's exit

During the day the sculpture would look like this.

We were spending the night at Archamps, and the drive to Archamps from the tunnel exit was around 30 minutes.  That drive was the hardest one of the whole trip.  We got to the hotel around 11.00 PM, we were so relived to be done with this drive.

Day 6 January 17, 2009

Date: December 31st, 2008

The Plan: See Rome, Celebrate New years eve, Spend night in Rome

We woke up this morning and looked out of the window, and it was cloudy.  The forecast had predicted rain, so we packed an umbrella and took the hotel shuttle to the city center.  Once we were in the city center we decided to just walk around.  Our first stop was, as you would have guessed,  was for cappuccino and pastries.  Once we were all warmed up, we were in quest for the Colosseum.  As we were walking (and trying to locate where we were in the map) we saw lot of ruins in the city.  It was shocking how the ruins were in the middle of the city and how life around it evolved while the ruins stood still in time.

Roman Ruins - I

Rome was by far the biggest city we went to in Italy.  The streets were wider, there weren’t that many cars (maybe it was because it was new years eve), and most of the people around were tourist.  There are lot of statues all over the city, the buildings are very ornate.  The whole time I was in Rome, I was thinking how life would have here back in 13AD, when these structures were being built and all these were new.  Life would have been so grand, that is if you were born into the right family and so hard if not.

Steps leading to a Building

We did not do any tours inside these building, we walked around the Roman Forum.

Roman Forum

Buildings with Roman Forum in the foreground

We saw the Arch of Constantine, the work is so detailed makes one wonder centuries ago how did people manage to do all this?  What kind of tools would they have used?

Arch of Constantine

Arch of Constantine from Colosseum

Then we walked over to the Colosseum, we took guided tour which was very informative.  The tour guide said the movie gladiator depicts a gladiator’s life correctly but the story was not all correct.   The whole structure was build in 8 years by slaves.

The Colosseum

The Colosseum - Inside

The Colosseum - Inside

During the Colosseum tour, the tour guide told us that the Vatican City was closed as it was New Years Eve, so we had to scrap that plan.

All these travelling had finally gotten to me and I got sick, had a nasty cough and stuffy nose.  So we deiced to go back to the hotel, eat some cold medicine and get some rest.  So we got to the hotel, got some rest and woke up at 6.00PM.  When in Rome, do as the Romans so we decided to go ring in the New Year at the Colosseum like every other Roman.  We got out of the hotel by 7.30, had some dinner and went to the Colosseum.  We were surprised to find that it was not crowded (we were there at 8.30PM, maybe that was the reason).  So walked around the city a little more and came back to the Colosseum.  By this time the party crowd had started arriving.  So we hung out there, grooved to the Italian music, and partied like the Italians.

Party at The Colosseum, the crowd before us

Party at The Colosseum, the crowd behind us

Romans have this custom of popping Champagne at midnight and spraying it all around (we had no clue about this).  Around 11.45 we saw people opening up there umbrellas, and everyone pulling up the hoodies of their jackets, we knew something was going to happen.  So we dug out our hats and put them on and counted down the new year in Italian.  And then came the shower of champagne.  Both Sherry and I got drenched in Champagne, our jackets, backpack everything was drenched in Champagne.

Sherry had put the Camera in as he did not want it getting wet so we do not have any pictures of millions of liters of Champagne being sprayed, but it was worth seeing.  People were still partying, but we decided to split as we had a huge day the next day.

Our hotel shuttle only ran till 11.30PM so our plan was to take the Metro back to the hotel.  We asked couple of people directions and they gave us directions in Italian and we thought we understood and we started walking.  It was around 1.00 AM by then.  We kept walking and it seemed like there was no Metro station in sight.  We were both so exhausted by that time, we have been standing since 8.30PM and our feet were in so much pain.  So we decided to catch a cab and then we couldn’t find any cab.  So we walked some more, then finally we got a cab and he took us to the hotel.

We got to our rooms and then rinsed off out hats, and blow dried them.  Blow dried our jackets and sprayed a bunch of Axe on it (as that was only jackets we had for another 4 days of the trip).  We finally got to bed around 2.30 AM.  We didn’t even want to think about the next day as that was day we had 9 hours of driving (the longest driving time in the entire trip).

Day 5 January 14, 2009

Date: December 30th, 2008

The Plan: See more of Venice, Drive to Rome and go to Bologna and Florence, which is on route to Rome

We woke up bright and early, packed our bags, put our bag in the car and checked out of the hotel.  The hotel let us park our car till the afternoon (very kind of them).  We got a 12 hour pass for unlimited trips in all public buses and public boats (Vaporetto) from the hotel front desk.

We booked our flight tickets on December 2nd and that day the news said that there was flooding in Venice.  I was so heart broken then that I might not be able to go to Venice.  But, this day was a nice and sunny day, a perfect day to spend in Venice.  I was so glad that there was no sign of any rain.

Main bridge in Venice

We walked around Venice mainly, did not do much shopping, did a lot of window shopping.

Another Bridge

There are Gondolas all along the water that tourists could hire.  It seemed kind of cold so we skipped the Gondola ride, but we did see some great Gondolas.

Gondola

Another Gondola

We decided to do a Gondola ride when we go to Vegas again.   There were lot of shops around Venice, but I shocked to find a Bata Showroom.  Bata is huge in India, but I didn’t know it was huge in Europe too.  We saw Bata showrooms all over Europe, I didn’t know it was an European Company.

Bata Showroom

The other thing that shops there had was Venetian masks.  They were so pretty, the work on these masks were so intricate.

Venetian Mask

More Masks

We walked around Venice, saw Rialto bridge again.

Riatlo Bridge

Rialto Bridge

Here are more pictures of Venice

Water Alley

Venice - I

Venice - II

St Mark's Square

We rode the boats mainly this day, as we had a long drive to Rome and did not want to tire ourselves out.  The whole city is very well connected through boats. People boarded the boat from piers, and the boats stopped at other piers.

Boat Piers

Just like the previous day we found a small mom and pop restaurant and had our lunch, again very good. We were running way behind schedule, we were supposed to be out of the hotel on our way to Rome by 1.00 PM.  Finally we got on our bus to the hotel and got out of the hotel around 3.00PM.  The drive to Rome was almost 6 hours and we wanted to stop at Bologna and Florence.  We were driving through Florence another day so we decided to skip Florence on this route.  We did manage to drive into Bologna, another nice city.  We did not do much there, just drove around the city.

Bologna City Center

Towers of Bologna

After a quick tour of Bologna, we decided to get back to our drive to Rome.  It was still not warming up as much as I would have liked.

Temperature in Bologna

I was in Italy so I quit complaining and wrapped my scarf tightly and pulled my hat down to cover my ears.  The sun had set by then, so the drive to Rome was dark, we wished we had some day lights as we were going windy roads and mountains.

In Rome, we got to our hotel and we were tired.  We ordered room service and stayed in.

Day 4 January 14, 2009

Date: December 29th, 2008

The Plan: See Milan City Center, Drive to Venice

We woke up in the morning and nervously looked out of the window and we were greeted by a blanket of snow.  We both were little bummed as we have no history driving in snow (we live in Sunny California you see).  So we had breakfast at the hotel and we headed out to Milan.  Much to our surprise, the streets were clear of snow.  The drive to Milan was almost 30 minutes and very uneventful.  Driving in the Milan city center is not for the weak at heart.  There are actually no drawn lanes, main streets are wide enough to accommodate 2 cars (3 cars if one pushes it) going one way.  We were staying in the right most area (or we thought we were) to make a right turn and within seconds 1 car pulled on our right side to make a right, then another car pulled to its right.  Sherry goes, I guess we were not in the right most lane.  We found a parking garage and decided to see the city on foot.

Street in Milan

Street in Milan

In city center the streets are not asphalt but it is bricks laid out in some layout.  Our first stop was Castle Sforzesco.  We spend time walking around the castle.  It was not open for visitors as were there early.

Castle Sforzesco

On our walk to the next stop we both were so cold and decided to take a Cappuccino break.  That is the one thing I’m gonna miss the most, the coffee in Italy.  The Cappuccino we drank anywhere, be it in the heart of a touristy place or in a rest area by the freeway all were so good.  There we not as hot as we would have liked (as we were very very cold), but still so great that I don’t think I’m ever gonna enjoy Cappuccino here in America.

Cappuccino in Milan

After we were all warmed up from inside we walked toward the Duomo.  It was a Cathedral built in 1300s with white marble.

The Duomo

We went inside the cathedral and it is as pretty as it is outside, the stained glass windows were big and pretty.  The artwork on the stained glass were so detailed.  After spending a good 1 hour inside we decided to take the stairs and get to the roof top.  The view of the city from the top is just amazing.  We could also examine the structure from up close.

Rooftop of The Duomo

After the roof top we decided to head back to our car and go to Venice. Milan was the south most part in our trip so far and it was getting warmer.

Temperature in Milan

The drive to Venice was mainly through urban cities and went smoothly.

Signs going to Venice

The freeways in Italy are called Autostrada (if you look closely to the sign in green, you will see it say Autostrada).  Driving in Autostrada is awesome.  We did not see a single pot hole or tar snakes through our drives.  We got to Venice around 2.00PM, we were staying close to the Airport and that meant away from Venice.  So we checked into the hotel, and took public bus from there to Venice.

When I was in 8th grade I remember studying about Venice.  I was so fascinated by that town and have been wanting to visit Venice since then.  So when I got off the bus and I saw Venice, it was like a fantasy coming true (I know cheesy, but true).  Through out the whole trip it started getting dark by 5.00PM so by time we got to Venice, it was all lit up.

Venice at Night - I

Venice at Night - II

We walked around Venice, we walked through small alleys and big squares.  We saw the Rialto Bridge that has been featured in so many movies.  Then we walked to St. Marks Square which has been featured in Khuda Jaane song.  We checked at our hotel for the best place to have dinner and the staff us to stay off the major touristic spots and you will be fine.  So we had dinner at this small place that we found aimlessly walking around.  We had Pasta and Pizza and they were so good (again I don’t think I would ever enjoy pasta here in America).

There is so much places for shopping in Venice, we didn’t do much shopping though

Shops in Venice

We walked around a little after dinner and took the bus back to the hotel.  I went to bed so excited that I could not sleep.  I was just thiking about ‘how venice is going to look during the day’.  I think I even dremt about Venice that night (and every night after that).

Day 3 January 9, 2009

Date: December 28th, 2008

The Plan: See Zurich City Center, drive to Rhine falls, drive to Milan

Since last night we drove around Zurich, we were not that keen on doing City Center again. So our first stop for the day was Zurich Train Station or Zurich HB as it is called there.  This station is huge, in a day 2,700 trains pass through here.

Zurich Station

The station is much bigger inside, it has an underground level too.

Zurich Station Inside

We walked around the station, went underground did some more window shopping, did the most American thing had breakfast at McDonald’s again, trust me the Croissants and coffee are way better here.  We stopped by the tourist information at the Station and asked them about Rhine falls.  They were very helpful and when we told them we were driving with the help of a GPS they gave us the name of the city and the zip-code so we could enter it in the GPS.  They told us which routes to avoid due to snow.  The drive to Rhine was uneventful, here is a picture of a street as we drove beside it.

Street on our way to Rhine Falls

There are 2 ways to get to Rhine fall,  one is through Neuhausen, and that is the route we took.  From Neuhausen one gets to see the falls from a distance, the city from which we could see the falls much closer was closed so we have to settle for this view.

Rhine Falls

If you look at the picture closely, you will see a boat.  One can take the boat and walk up the stairs (white rails), till the red (Swiss flag).  It was so cold, so we decided against it and enjoyed the view from a distance.  We decided to have lunch there, so we walked around the city looking for places to eat.  It was a Sunday so almost all places were closed.  Istanbul cafe was open, and had a decent crowd in there (that is the way we decide a place is good or not, not being able to yelp).  We ordered 2 chicken dishes (don’t know the names), and some Turkish Tea.  The food was so good, and tea warmed us up instantly.  We made a note to ourselves to come back to San Francisco and check out some good Turkish place (we can yelp it!).  After lunch we headed back to Zurich, and then Milan.

Before we left Zurich we wanted to buy some Swizz chocolate so we were looking for a Migros or Coop.  We did not realize that these stores were closed on a Sunday, so no luck with chocolates (we were visiting Geneva in another few days, so I was not heartbroken).

The drive to Milan, was through Zurich City Center, so we took some pictures as we drove.

Building in Zurich City Center

And we headed to Milan, we were happily driving on the freeway and the GPS told us to take an exit and that put us on windy residential roads.  We got little worried and decided that we will stop by a tourist information and double check the route the GPS was telling us (we were mainly worried about roads being closed due to snow).  So in the GPS we mapped, tourist information near us, and it was 4 miles from us.  So we decided to drive there.  The quest for our tourist information office took us to Einsiedeln.  The drive up to Einsiedeln were windy roads and blankets of snow on both side of the road, pretty but little scary.  So we finally found our tourist information and since it was a Sunday they closed at noon and we were there around 1.30PM.

Einsiedeln Abbey

Since our quest for directions to Milan did not yield any result, we decided to trust our GPS (not that we had any other option) and head out to Milan. This drive was the most scenic drive we had in the whole trip.  Below is the picture of a canyon.

View along the Drive to Milan - I

View along the Drive to Milan - II

We were driving by the side of the mountains with water on one side.

Driving by the side of the mountain

View along the Drive to Milan - III

The terrain was mainly hilly so we drove mainly through tunnels.  Following the true cliche we played music of DDLJ (not that it needs a hyperlink) as we drove through mountains and valleys.

Mountain on the way to Milan

And boy oh boy was it cold.

Temperature

Our hotel was in Saronno, we got to Saronno (30 minutes before Milan), around 8.00 PM, we had a quick dinner.  Then we went to a grocery store, picked up some water and fruits.  By the time we got back to the hotel it had started snowing.  We went to bed wondering what was in store for us the next morning.