A Fast, But Fun Filled Euro Trip

                The college trip to Europe is one of my most memorable trips in my life. I had already visited Europe before when my dad was working there, but I was little then, so my experiences were filled with food in fast food restaurants and other trivial things. This time around, I was in my teen years and I had a lot to look forward to.

                A travel agency organised our trip. We took the Qatar Airways to Frankfurt via Doha. We were accompanied by three of our staff. The flight travel was eventful. One of our staff, who was unaccustomed to alien food, avoided eating and fainted during the trip. Fortunately, he revived soon after. I tried to take a long wink after the incident, but was unsuccessful. The aerial view when we entered Qatar was nothing short of spectacular. Most of us managed to strike off certain morning duties at Qatar! The plane we boarded for Frankfurt was bigger. The travel to Germany was long but the on-board flight entertainment kept us busy. Fraport - as the Frankfurt airport was called, was huge with numerous terminals and flights were touching down and taking off. It was 14 °C and I felt cold in spite of my jacket. Our driver duly arrived in a Benz bus. We had a comfy ride to Hof for the night with a stop in between for a snack. As we entered the snack bar, we started converting Euro to Rupee, which was actually dumb because as most of us know that such things will result in thinking more rather than satisfaction. We were greeted at the hotel by biting cold and an Indian dinner which did not taste Indian. After the dinner, I was more than willing to snuggle into the blankets the hotels provided for us.

                I had a huge breakfast the next day. There was an array of raw meat and roast ones and I indulged myself. We paid a visit to the Hof University. We have a MoU with them and made it a point to make it as a part of our schedule. The faculty received us with much hospitality and we sat through few presentations. Our Indian punctuality was “felicitated” by their staff! The Cuckoo clock factory was next on our list. Unfortunately the factory was closed and we had to be satisfied with taking snaps outside the factory. We stayed in a hotel at Lucerne, Switzerland for the night. It was a breath-taking view that greeted us in next morning. There was a picturesque lake near the hotel and mountains close by. I have seen such views only in movies before. We had a good breakfast and proceeded to Mount Titlis in Engelberg. The trip to the top of the mountain was scenic. The temperature read -1 °C at the top. I had envisaged snow as being soft and fluffy. My views were changed in a matter of minutes as my hands started to go numb after sometime and the winds started to blow stronger. We left the peak and shopped at various outlets. Mount Titlis station had five floors and the top one was the glacier view. The other floors had restaurants, photo studios and souvenir shops. We took four cars to reach the top of the mountain. Later, in the evening we visited the Rhine falls. Few of us went for a boat ride in the Rhine. We boarded up in a hotel at Austria for the night.

                Swarovski Crystal Museum was the first place we went to in the morning. Each exhibit was unique and spectacular. The largest gem at the entrance and the Indian horse 'Chetak' were some of the attractions. After the exhibits, we shopped at Swarovski. There were numerous varieties of articles to purchase. Pens with crystal bodies, crystal chandeliers, crystal pendants and even small gem embedded key chains were present. After a long time spent in shopping at Swarovski, we travelled to Venice.

                The weather started to get murky and it started to rain as we approached Venice. It was lashing down by the time we got down from the bus at 'Venezia'. We took a boat to the mainland. The gondolas - traditional curved Venetian longboats were waiting for us in the canals. The gondola ride through the canals was supposed to be lilting but the combination of night time and heavy downpour made it more of an item on the checklist to be ticked off. Sadly, Venice deserved more than two hours of sightseeing than it deserved! We had dinner at an Indian restaurant and boarded up for the night.

                The next day was the dullest day of the tour as we spent more than half the day in travel to Rome. The Colosseum greeted us as we entered Rome. We had time on our hands and traipsed around Rome on foot before staying at hotel for the night. We had a guided tour of Rome next day. The guide gave us headphones which acted as a means of conveying his information to us. He explained the history of Colosseum to us and the surrounding places. The Trevis Fountains followed next. It was an old fountain where people threw coins for luck. After a quick lunch, a guided tour of the Vatican ensued. Again, the rain offered us no respite as it chose a wrong time to pelt down upon us. The Vatican museum was the first one on the agenda and it was wonderful. It had paintings, maps and sculptures. The passageway to Sistine Chapel was marvellous. The paintings told stories of its own. The minimum lighting and attention to detail of the paintings made the view more charming for tourists.

                The Sistine Chapel was the 'topping' of the tour. Michelangelo's 10 year frescoes and paintings spoke volumes of the hard work that went into making them. No wonder he was almost blind when he was finished with his work! The St. Peter Basilica has a capacity of 300,000 and was huge for a church. One of our students went missing in the chapel but we found him at the place where we were asked to assemble in case anyone of us went missing. The St. Peter's square was bare as it was raining and we made a run for the bus. A few of us went for last minute shopping. I had a good dinner and slept the last night in Europe with a sense of satisfaction. It was a bumpy ride back to Coimbatore and with every jolt on the road I was reminded of the comfort of the Europe bus travel and the frantic but frolicking incidents!!!