A Weekend in Prague, Czech Republic

Whenever I hear the country name 'Czechoslovakia', I at once remember my dad's dictation, it was always a tough name to spell (By the way, from 01.Jan.1993 Czechoslovakia was split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia and hence the word 'Czechoslovakia' is permanently lost). I had never thought I will visit Prague - capital of Czech Republic (the heart of Europe) in my life, but, its fate that I should spend the 2009 Deepavali (Oct 17,18) at Prague (or Praha)!! Life is indeed a beautiful puzzle to solve.... Praha is the sixth most-visited European city after London, Paris, Rome, Madrid and Berlin. Prague suffered considerably less damage during World War II than some other major cities in the region, allowing most of its historic architecture to stay true to form.
I booked my travel from Hamburg to Prague (in Deutch Bahn - German train service) in August and for the first time in Germany, I was traveling alone for a trip. Balaji (my colleague at Capgemini) who at present works in Belgium, joined me at Praha. I was expecting the train travel (6.5hrs) to be boring, but it wasn’t. I had two cute Czech kids with their mom as the co-passengers. The kids spoke English and taught me Czech language too (Dobry den (Dough-bree-den) for Hello, Yokayoo/Dekuji for Thanks and Prosim (Pro-seem) for You’re Welcome). Also, the train line from Berlin to Praha passed through the Erzgebirge mountains, for a couple of hours enjoyed the series of beautiful alpine river valleys, surrounded by rocky escarpments and mountains. Sometimes, it feels good and better to be alone and I felt it at that time.
As always, I invested much time in planning this trip too. The major constraints were the time to spend and the vastness of Prague. Prague is a city which requires minimum a week to admire each and every beauty, I had just 25hrs to cover the must see places and was really a challenge to plan this trip. After few weeks of surfing the internet and reading reviews, I came up with a feasible itinerary. I decided not to visit the world's largest Castle in Praha, as I had visited the famous Neuschwanstein castle and Schwerin castle, it was a tough call but took it for good. Advised Balaji to spend half a day alone at the castle before I reach Praha at 1330. Praha has two central train stations and we decided to meet at the McDonalds near to the Praha Hostivice station. There was no big confusion in finding him and we started our trip taking a 24hrs travel pass for 100 Czech Korunas (CZK). We noted that the conversion rates are pretty low in the railway station and went to Wenceslas Square and converted Euros for CZK (24CZK/Euro).
Wenceslas Square is 750m long and 60m wide boulevard (a wide street or thoroughfare), it was laid out over 600 years ago during the reign of Charles IV. It was originally used as the Prague horse market. Wenceslas Square is where the Czech's come to let off steam (e.g. anti-communist uprisings or celebrations of national sporting achievements). It can comfortably hold up to 400,000 people! Behind St. Wenceslas is the monumental National Museum, and just off to the left is the Prague State Opera. The sides of the boulevard had many important houses, banks, shops, hotels and restaurants. The notable one was our famous brand "BATA shoe" company store, later when I surfed for this blog, I came to know that BATA's founder is a Czech entrepreneur, Tomas Bata!! walked the length of the square and without hassles reached the Old town square.
The Old Town Square is one of the largest and most impressive open public spaces in Europe. The most notable sights are the Church of Our Lady before Tyn, the Old Town Hall Tower & Astronomical Clock and the St. Nicholas Church. As soon as we reached this square, we saw the BIG astronomical clock. The Astronomical Clock consists of the windows with apostles at the top, the Astronomical Dial, the Calendar Dial underneath and various sculptures around. The clock announces every hour with 12 apostles passing by the window above the astronomical dial and with symbolic sculptures moving aside. The Astronomical Dial shows the medieval perception of the Universe: the Earth is the center. There are three circles on the astronomical dial, showing different time: the outer circle shows the Old Czech Time (“Italian Time”), the circle with Roman numbers shows the Central European Time and the inner circle with Arabic numerals shows the “Babylonian Time”: the length of an hour differs there according to the season – it is longer in the summer, shorter in the winter. The Prague Astronomical Clock is the only one in the world able to measure it. We were lucky enough to reach the clock at 1550, enjoyed the clock's performance at 1600. Decided to climb 69.5 meter tall Town Hall Tower (hosting the astronomical clock) and enjoyed the elevated view of the old town. Enjoyed the Prague's view for 45mins and came down to get along with the clock performance (for the second time) at 1700. The fun is to stand under the clock and look at the tourists looking at the performance. It’s really funny to watch about 300+ digital cameras all pointing upward at the same time.
The Church of our Lady before Tyn is an impressive Gothic cathedral. It is located just opposite to the town hall tower, the church's towers are 80 m high and topped by four small spires. The church is Prague's most important gothic sanctuary and is a very impressive sight. Enjoyed this info which I discovered during my trip preparation: A close look at the two spires reveal that they are not symmetrical. This is characteristic of the gothic architecture of the time and is a representation of both the masculine and feminine sides of the world. Also, we admired watching the St. Nicholas Church, the Jan Hus monument situated in the middle of the Old Town Square.
After cherishing the beauty of the old town square, we walked in the Jewish Quarter (Josefov) crossing few Synagogue (the place of worship for a Jews) to reach the Old Jewish Cemetery (founded in 1478), it is the Europe's oldest surviving Jewish cemetery. People had to be buried on top of each other because of lack of space. There are about 12 layer and over 12,000 gravestones. 100,000 people are thought to have been buried here. No idea, the gates to the cemetery was shut, I said to myself 'God doesn’t want me to enter the cemetery so soon :)'.
Traversing the city was so simple, they have three metro lines and numerous tram lines. Traveling in Prague tram, I remembered my travel in Kolkata (the only city in India where tram is still in operation). Accompanied Balaji to TESCO (an international retail chain, the Walmart of Prague). Balaji is a smoker and wanted to save money in purchasing cigarettes in Czech! Wonder why people spend so much for smoke, as I had never tried it, I know, I can never understand it. He did not do his enquiry properly (how much to carry in flight back to Belgium) and couldn’t decide whether to buy 2000 or 400 cigars, finally ended up in 400.
As per our plan we reached the Krizikova fontana (fountain show) to be part of the music-light show carried out to the Beethoven - Symphony No.9. It was a mind-blowing performance for 40mins and I loved to be there. I recollected my experience of the musical fountain show in Brindavan gardens, Mysore. The amazing fact is, a general search of 'Prague's must see places' doesn’t yield Krizikova fontana. as it is in the outskirts of the Prague centre, even the tourist info center guys were not much aware of this place. Don’t miss this show, when you are in Prague! The hotel we have booked was near to the fontana and after the show, we rushed to the hotel. While getting back it was too cold, a perfect autumn weather of central Europe and had a comfortable sleep.
Touring Europe in this part of the year, needs preparation w.r.t weather. Before my trip, I checked wetter.de, it said 6°C (max) and 2°(min) for the weekend. But the Sunday morning was damn cold than expected, plus it was rainy. Good that I had my umbrella and woolen gloves! We checked out the hotel and reached Charles Bridge. The best time to visit the bridge is early morning or late evening to avoid the tourist rush. Charles Bridge is built between the 14th and 15th century, spans the Vltava River with 16 pillars and boasts some 30 statues of various saints. Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV laid down the foundation stone on 9th of July 1357, at 5:31 a.m. It is no coincidence: this date was carefully chosen, because it makes an interesting numerical scale. When it is written in the chronology the year – the day – the month – the time, it makes a scale, going upwards and then downwards: 1 3 5 7 9 7 5 3 1. Strange enough to know that the great Emperor Charles IV too believed numerology!!
The bronze statue of St. John of Nepomuk is the oldest statue on the Charles Bridge. St. John of Nepomuk was a parson (A person authorized to conduct religious worship), who refused to betray a secret, confided to him by Queen Sophia, to the king Wenceslas IV. He was tortured on the king’s demand and then thrown to the river Vltava from the Charles Bridge in 1393. The inseparable attributes of St. John of Nepomuk statue are the five stars, a surplice, a cross and a martyr’s palm tree. The five stars allegedly appeared above the river, after the martyr was thrown there. They are supposed to symbolize the five letters of Latin word “tacet”, which means “silent”. There is a brassy cross with five stars at the place on the parapet, where he was thrown to the river. Its told that if one places his hand on the cross, so that every finger will touch one star, he can wish something and it will be fulfilled. I too did it :). In one of the review, I read an advise to visit Strelecky Island (small island in Vltava River). At the northern end of the island, it was said to have a incredible view of Charles Bridge. When we reached the particular island, the area was cordoned off by Czech police from some crime investigation. Hence missed the opportunity to have a beautiful view of the complete bridge from a distant point.
We marched towards the Petrin Hills. As per my itinerary, we should use the funicular (cable) train to reach the top. Bad luck, it was closed for maintenance. It was drizzling and we started to climb the 327 meter hill. The cold invariably increased as we climbed up and it was a tough experience, I don’t have a handy thermometer, but it must have been below zero. The Petrin hills has number of tourist attractions, we wanted to cover few of them: the Hunger Wall, the smaller replica of the Eiffel Tower 8Petrin Observation Tower) and the Mirror Maze.
Charles IV build the Hunger Wall thru the poor people in the 14th century. He wanted to give some work to those, who suffered from hunger at the time of bad crops. The Hunger Wall is 1178 meters long and about 8 meters high (sort of copycat of Great Wall of China). The Petrin Observation Tower is an imitation of the Eiffel tower in Paris. It is 60 meters high, so it is five times smaller than the Eiffel Tower in Paris. As we climbed the hill, we lost time (as well the energy) and couldn’t climb the 299 steps of tower! I had never entered a mirror maze before and was excited. I know that this is made for kids, but sometimes its nice to become a kid and enjoy!! It was funny to find the way through the mirror maze. I saw my picture in the mirrors all around and felt like there is no way forth or back. It was an amazing experience. Then I entered the other room, which is equipped with variously bulging mirrors and I can see my picture amusingly deformed. It was funny to check out how I would be looking tall or short, skinny or fat etc. There were 14 misrepresenting mirrors in the maze altogether and we enjoyed it.
It was time to catch the train to get back Hamburg, walked down the hill and had a nice lunch at a Subway (I couldn’t taste a Czech beer with lunch (mostly with pork), as I don’t take either of them). I should say that Praha is a cheap European city, I have been. I converted 70Euros and ended up having more than 100 Czech Korunas to spend, even though I expended like an average European tourist!! When I was returning Hamburg, a nice thought came up comparing Praha with Madurai! I lived in Madurai for more than 10 years and the resemblance is as follows:

- Praha is founded in 8th century and not as old as Madurai whose cultural heritage goes back 2,500 years, and the city has conducted trade as far as Rome and Greece since as early as 550 BC!!

- The Praha Castle being the center of attraction, Madurai has the Thirumalai Nayakar Mahal (palace);

- The Old town square is not old enough to compare with Madurai's Meenakshi Amman temple;

- The astronomical clock is as similar to the Porthamarai Kulam (Pond with the Golden Lotus) inside the temple;

- The Church of Our Lady before Tyn has the same architectural galore of Madurai's Aayiram Kaal Mandapam (Thousand Pillar Hall);

- The Praha is situated on the banks of River Vltava, Madurai on the banks of River Vaigai (Vltava faces floods often whereas Vaigai hardly sees water);

- Praha nicknamed as "city of a hundred spires", Madurai is "Temple city" or "Athens of the East";

- Praha has innumerous Synagogue (the place of worship for a Jews),in Madurai you will see a temple in every corner of a street;

- All the streets of Old town of Praha gets connected to Old town square much similar to the concentric rectangular streets surround the Meenakshi Amman Temple, Madurai is built around the temple;

- There are many bridges crossing Vltava, Madurai too has many bridges crossing Vaigai. The view of Praha I saw from Charles bridge is as similar to the view of Madurai from the Aaarapalayam bridge;

- The Petrin Hill of Prague is a nice place to leisure out from the city life, Madurai has the similar Azhagar Kovil (Alagar temple) Hills;

- I can keep going on comparing like these... let me stop sharing with this last thought: Praha is filled with tourism and economy depends on it, interesting fact is 'one-half of the Czech income from tourism is spent in Prague', I don’t have any comparison with Madurai's tourism development :(
I wish to see Madurai as developed as Prague, an European/American should plan himself easily (like me) to visit Madurai, I wonder whether my wish turns true in my lifetime!!! I celebrated 2009 Deepavali as well as my 250th day in Europe (thanks to diary writing habit, it gave me this count, its been 250 days I left my mother(land) ) in a grand style at Prague, one of the beautiful cities of Europe. Thanks for reading my experience, if you are reading this line, you must have enjoyed my narration!!! See you in my next endeavor from Switzerland, till then take care.....

Indian Cuisine at German's Kitchen!

A long plan to visit my German colleague and a good friend Susanne's house happened true on 19-Sep-2009. We five Indians reached Jork (a cute village 35kms off from Hamburg city) at 1100Hrs, where Susanne lives with Horst. (Read my blog "An evening in Buxtehude - Germany's country side" for our previous meets...). After tasting our lunch dishes at office, Susanne was particualarly keen to learn the process of making Chapathi. Obviously, Germans love wheat, with that when she tasted chapathi, she loved the taste!

So we decided to prepare an Indian cuisine at her kitchen. She had invited three other German friends for the lunch. Madhurima took the lead and we all helped her in cooking. We prepared chapathi, vegetable rice, matar paneer gravy, mushroom masala, potato cauliflower curry, raita, appalam (pappadam). The German ladies were keen in noting all the steps during preparation and the best part was Susanne trying herself a chapathi. A nice chance for me to visualise the German house arrangment and their daily living style. They had a beautiful garden, a glass room to enjoy summer. Horst took us for a drive to nearby Apple Orchard, where we saw short trees with 50+ apples per tree waiting for harvesting.

Germans enjoyed the lunch with appalam, appreciating all our efforts. Susanne's friend naratted his New Delhi business trip experience and the road travel from ND to Agra to see Taj Mahal. He was particularly amazed on our trafic rules following methods, elephant begging on the road, car over taking the two-wheelers, Bus/Lorry over taking the car (his statment was: Heavier vehicle is the master on the road), he even took snaps of overcrowded busses and explained his astonishment. True, more than a billion lifes lives and survives in India, nothing when compared to 83 million Germans!!! Had a splendid lunch and left Jork by 1730, It was indeed a good day to remember for ever.

Climate House, Bremerhaven, Germany

Everyone talks about the weather, but what factors determine the climate? At the Germany's new Klimahaus (Climate house in German) museum in Bremerhaven 8° East longitude, we can get the answers that are both scientifically supported and fascinating. It offered a great journey into the world of the climate with unique world of knowledge and adventure.
Early this month, my friend Arasu (working for UTC Fire & Security) shared info about this Climate house, for which UTC has done the fire security systems. We were fascinated to visit and planned our trip on 20-Sep-2009. I have made Eleven short (weekend)/long trips from Hamburg across Europe in the past 8 months, and all the trips were nice, enjoyable but nothing serious and thrilling. This trip brought that experience, read on...!!
The plan was to catch 0715 train from Hamburg, but Hari (third person in the trip) got delayed and missed the train. Arasu and I, sitting inside the running train were discussing on mobile with Hari, who missed it. A rush of thought came to me as to get down in the next station (Harburg), go back to Hamburg and catch the next train to Bremerhaven (reason: this is the last trip for Arasu as he leaves India soon and first trip of Hari with us). We speedily got down at Harburg and rushed towards local train station to catch the next train to Hamburg. Arasu was on mobile with Hari saying that we are getting back to Hamburg, suddenly I saw the back bag of Arasu missing on his shoulders; a rush of Adrenalin: WE MISSED HIS BAG IN THE TRAIN!! Ran to the platform where we got down from the train, but German punctuality, the train has already left the station. The bag had Arasu's favorite jacket, Sony camera, my Nikon camera and other stuff, thank God, not our passports. No idea what to do, the entire platform is empty, who will be there on a cold sunday morning! We decided to go to the info center and went up, explained the mishap to the German. He asked the color of the bag and which wagon we missed it, I said it was Wagon 8, he smiled and replied "The train runs with 6 wagons!". I don’t know, whether it was tension or what feeling, even the numbers were confusing to recollect...
He called two people over phone and detailed our issue, he told to go to Bremen (a station on the way to Bremerhaven) and collect the bag. He was not that promising and we left the place back to Hamburg to meet Hari. Arasu was perplexed, even me. But no idea, I had an unknown confidence like we will get back everything. May be the confidence was from seeing, moving and working with Germans for 8 months, as well appreciating their earnestness. We reached Hamburg and caught 0815 train back to Bremerhaven, this time with Hari and without the bag!! Reached Bremen at 0930 (2hrs passed without bag), while getting down Arasu queried "how much you are sure we will get the bag", I replied 99.9% and we went to info center. While Arasu was explaining the happenings to the German sitting at the info center, my eyes scanned his cubicle, I saw our Orange bag in the corner, I never interrupt other's conversation, but this time no discipline, I shouted 'there is our bag', the German dint ask any further details, coolly returned the bag. The feeling was tremendous, we caught the next train to Bremerhaven and reached the Klimahaus at 1100 with the enthuse and charm to enjoy the day.
The Klimahaus comprises of four exhibition areas: The Journey, The Elements, Perspectives, and Opportunities. The journey beginning and ending in Bremerhaven, always following the 8th degree of longitude! It passes though a whole range of climate zones and we encountered virtual people whose daily lives are profoundly influenced by each prevalent climate. We experienced extremes of temperature and discover fascinating creatures and plants.
The first region was Isenthal – Switzerland. We can experience the alpine climate of the glacier, Wander across a lush green meadow, past the cows, up the mountain, through stark rock formations to the glacier.
The second region was Sardinien – Italy, we can take an insect’s eye view of things and become part of the microcosm! Gigantic stalks of grass rise up. Above our head a large butterfly wings its way through the air, signifying the famous butterfly effect (The beat of a butterfly’s wings can result in a distant mighty storm).
The third region was Kanak – Nigeria, the Sahara and the arid heat of the desert which is spreading at great speed through Northern Africa is visualised not only by means of the sand and rock installations, but also with a shimmering steel wall of heat: the temperature is 35°C, the “sun” beats down mercilessly from above.
The fourth region was Ikenge – Cameroon, perfect simulation of a Rainforest – hot and humid tropical climate. The importance of the rainforest for the local inhabitants is shown at the outset of the exhibition area for Cameroon. On the forest floor the air is filled with various scents, strange sounds can be heard everywhere, and it is dark... a winding path leads through this exotic world, ending at a village scene of mud huts. In the rivers cape we came across exotic fishes which can be observed from a hanging bridge.
The fifth region was the world's uninhabited continent, Queen-Maud-Land – Antartica, it was a cold room, floor and walls are covered with real ice and temperatures dropped down to -6°C (21°F). Leaving the room we were caught up into the upper heights of the atmosphere. A climb of 65m long walkway through the night sky towards the dawn. Below was the topmost layers of clouds, above was the endless reaches of the universe. Iit was like we are at the edge of the world with the stars as the only source of light!!

The sixth region was Satitoa – Samoa, the place of tropical humid warmth, turquoise water and a fine sandy beach. There were aquariums on the sides, and we gradually submerge deeper into a fringing reef. A number of display aquariums illustrate the tropical underwater world off Samoa as faithfully to the original as humanly possible. Ranging from the shallow lagoon over the reef crest and the transition to the open sea.
The seventh region was Gambell – Alaska, in the Bering Strait, on the edge of the Arctic, we came face to face with a culture stretched between a society of hunters and foragers and the “American way of life”. The problems and hopes of the indigenous people, their normal daily life on an island cut off from the rest of the world, in a raw climate which is now changing, it was indeed marvelous.
The eighth region is Hallig Langenesse, Germany. The place where high tidal floods spilling over the island, the raging North Sea all around. We can see that the coastal protection workers are raising the height of the summer dike. But because of the Global warming, the next storm tide won’t be too far away and soon the island will be missing from the world's map!! It took 5hrs for us to cover these eight regions, we never felt the time running and it was a memorable journey across the globe, never thought I will go for a ride like this virtually!!
The Elements exhibition area details more than 100 interactive displays illustrating the physics of the climate, its complex interdependencies and numbers of amazing phenomena. The Perspectives area detailed the history of the climate, ranging from the origins of the Earth 3.9 thousand million years ago and looking forward to the year 2050. Couldn’t make into the Opportunities as it was closed, as well we were exhausted physically as well as mentally, brain has limit to grasp info at a time, we felt the saturation of that!!! Departed Bremerhaven (53°N Longitude 8°E Latitude) to Hamburg (53°N Longitude 9°E Latitude) with a great knowledge update on our world's climate and its interdependence! One more pleasant but a thrilling trip... See you in next blog: its from PRAGUE, Czech Republic!

The Scandinavian Dream...

A trip to Copenhagen was on cards as soon as I heard that the train we travel will go into the ship and you travel on the deck of the ship for 45mins to cross the sea border of Germany and Denmark and again the train runs towards the Denmark Capital for couple of hours! As well, a google search for Copenhagen resulted to the Little mermaid statue and Oresund bridge, the man made 8Kms connection between two countries (Denmark & Sweden). We (Arasu and me) made the reservations (train and lodging) and left Hamburg for the weekend on our 62nd Independence day (Aug 15, 2009). The trip's pleasure started in the train itself as soon as we reached Puttgarden, Germany. There was a unique announced in the PA system, advicing to get down of the train and go to the deck of the ship. The train slowly entered the Ship and there we go, we staired up to the deck and took the below snap from the side of the ship and catching the rare view of train tracks ending into the sea!The weather was not that great but the drive was ultimate, I had never been in my life on such a big ship that too over a sea which splits two countries (Germany and Denmark), indeed it was an unique experience. The sail was for 45mins and Arasu and me had a nice time roaming the deck and clicking snaps. Reached the train back and started travelling in the Danish speaking country. Reached Copenhagen in time, it was cloudy and thought the bad luck of bad weather continues wherever we go (read Rügen blog for this comment). Whoever lands Denmark, the first and foremost job to do is the "CURRENCY CONVERSION", we need to convert Euros to Denmark Kroner (DKK). Arasu and me converted our currencies seperately (in different counters) and paid 30DKK as fee per head, it was a learning from mistake: while converting currencies, convert only once but a bulk amount (how much u want) and save fees!!! Ask any European, he will say that Copenhagen is a costly city to roam, true, feel this fact: "If you travel to the next station in train or bus, you need to pay 21DKK nothing but approx. 3 Euros (Rs.200)!!" As all other cities, Copenhagen too has different zones, but the catch is one have to stamp his ticket as per his travel zones. As per our information collection before the trip, the best deal to travel (for 2 ppl) is to buy a 130DKK card thru which 10 travel can be made, i.e. 5 travel for 2 ppl per zone!! We were lucky that our DAN Hostel was in the next zone and we used one punch per person to reach the hostel. I should appreciate the Danish people, from Rickshaw-wala (Denmark has too many modern rickshaws) to train ticket advisor, everyone speaks GOOD English, a little known fact: there is no Danish FM which plays songs in Danish, all in all ENGLISH!!

We got the tickets to Malmö (ö should be pronounced as 'o and e' together, I am yet to master that pronounciation, and all my German colleagues laugh when I try that; although they cant pronounce 'R' in Rajesh as we do :>) and reached DAN hostel, checked in to unloaded our baggage and freely set towards Sweden. We stayed in a DAN Hostel at Belle Center connected by the electronic M1 (metro) route active from 2002. The speciality of this metro is it is a 'driverless light metro' with the entire metro system run by a fully-automated computer system, first of its kind in Europe. Malmö - the third largest city of Sweden, is just a 35mins train travel from Copenhagen, but you cross again a sea border (Denmark and Sweden), this time not by a ship, but by a tunnel cum bridge called Øresund Bridge ('Ø' is nothing but 'O' in English). Few of the interesting facts about Oresund Bridge (thanks to Wiki):

1. It starts from Denmark going beneath the sea thru a tunnel for 4kms to reach a man made unpopulated island and then a giant bridge rises up and runs across the sea for 8Kms to reach Sweden's Malmö. The reason for building a tunnel instead of another section of bridge is that the Copenhagen Airport is nearby.

2. The bridge has one of the longest cable-stayed main spans in the world at 490 metres (1,608 ft). On the bridge, there are two rail-tracks which are beneath the four road lanes.

3. There were challenges related to the difference in electrification and signalling between the Danish and Swedish railway networks. The solution chosen is to SWITCH the electrical system, from Swedish 15 kV, 16.7 Hz to Danish 25 kV, 50 Hz AC right before the eastern bridgehead at Sweden (Being an Electrical Engineer, I was curious on this fact).

4. The line is signalled according to the standard Swedish system across the length of the bridge. On the artificial island, the line switches to Danish signalling which continues into the tunnel.

5. Sweden runs railways with left-hand traffic and Denmark with right-hand traffic, the bridge uses the Danish method (RH track driving).

The train travel on the bridge was wondrous, we saw the Lillgrund wind farm located 10 km off the coast of southern Sweden, just south of Öresund Bridge. With its 48 wind turbines (arranged in a matrix format), Lillgrund is Sweden’s biggest offshore wind farm and one of the largest in the world. The wind farm generates 0.33 TWh annually (domestic electricity demand of more than 60,000 homes). The view of the circling blades from the moving train was awesome as at some point all the wind turbines (positioned in a single row of the matrix) fell in one view with numerous blades rotating in different phase sequences!Reached Malmö and converted few more Euros for Swedish Krona (SEK) at the forex center. We found the Malmö festival happening just outside the central station and peeped into it, it was sponsored by IKEA (international home products retailer from Sweden). Instead of taking a transport to the Turning Torso, we decided to walk in the swedish streets and it was real fun.

Facts about Turning Torso:

1. The tower uses nine segments of five-story pentagons that twist as it rises; the topmost segment is twisted 90° clockwise with respect to the ground floor.

2. Each floor consists of an irregular pentagonal shape rotating around the vertical core, which is supported by an exterior steel framework.

3. The two bottom segments are intended as office space. Segments three to nine house 147 luxury apartments.

4. As Turning Torso is a private residential building there is no access for the general public.

So we didnt go up the building and enjoyed the civil engineering wonder from outside. Just a 5mins walk from there is the Baltic sea and a beautiful view of the Oresund bridge. The weather was superb, bright and sunny, but on the wrong side, the Sun was just near the bridge and we cant take good photo with the Sun directly falling on our camera lens, no issues, we admired the view with our natural camera (eyes) and it will remain in memory for ever... Reached back to Copenhagen and entered directly into TIVOLI.

Tivoli is a amusement park and pleasure garden opened on August 15, 1843 (coincidently, we were there on Aug 15, 2009 just 166 years difference!) and it is the second the oldest amusement park in the world. We enjoyed the evening entirely and the four bests of Tivoli are: the demon (rollercoaster ride), the pantomime theatre, the midnight fire works, and the illumination show at the lake. Enjoy the rollercoaster ride virtually thru the below video.

The ancient Pantomime theatre from 1874 is one of the oldest establishments in Tivoli. Pantomime means a play when performers express themselves by mute gesture and are accompaniment by music. It was mind blowing synchronisation between the music (which is played live beneath the stage) and the action and worth for the time you spend in Tivoli.

The fireworks starts at 2345 and goes on for 15mins, virtually our Deepavali is brought to Denmark, it was colourful and majestic. The Illumination show was using focused light over water fountains and smoke in between. If you ever go to Tivoli, dont leave the garden after the fireworks (as many do), go to the lake in the center of the garden and enjoy this illumination show, its a special one and I dont think we can find it somewhere else!!

Reached hostel at 0130Hrs and had a nice sleep, the first day of the trip had much more thrill than I expected.
Day2 (Aug 16, 2009): It was good that we booked the hostel with the breakfast and had a nice morning food, checked out and directly head towards the central station cloak room and stored our luggage safely. Caught a train and reached the Osterport train station and had a short walk to reach the seashore where the symbol of Copenhagen - "The Little Mermaid" is sitting. She was pretty, short but attractive. The Little Mermaid statue is only 1.25 metres high and weighs around 175 kg itseems. The Copenhagen City Council are planning to move the statue to Shanghai for the duration of the Expo 2010 (from May to October), thank God we visited it before that... Below is the extract of the fairy tale written by Danish author - Hans Christian Andersen: "The Little Mermaid lives in a utopian underwater kingdom with her father the sea king; her grandmother; and her five elder sisters, born one year apart. When a mermaid turns 15, she is allowed to swim to the surface to watch the world above, and as the sisters become old enough, one of them visits the surface every year. As each of them returns, the Little Mermaid listens longingly to their descriptions of the surface and of human beings. When the Little Mermaid's turn comes, she ventures to the surface, sees a ship with a handsome prince, and falls in love with him from a distance. A great storm hits, and the Little Mermaid saves the prince from a near-drowning. She delivers him unconscious to the shore near a temple. Here she waits until a young girl from the temple finds him. The prince never sees the Little Mermaid. The Little Mermaid asks her grandmother whether humans can live forever if they do not drown. The grandmother explains that humans have a much shorter lifespan than merfolk's 300 years, but that when mermaids die they turn to sea foam and cease to exist, while humans have an eternal soul that lives on in Heaven. The Little Mermaid, longing for the prince and an eternal soul, eventually visits the Sea Witch, who sells her a potion that gives her legs, in exchange for her tongue (as the Little Mermaid has the most intoxicating voice in the world). Drinking the potion will make her feel as if a sword is being passed through her, yet when she recovers she will have two beautiful legs, and will be able to dance like no human has ever danced before. However, it will constantly feel like she is walking on sharp swords, and her feet will bleed most terribly. In addition, she will only get a soul if the prince loves her and marries her, for then a part of his soul will flow into her. Otherwise, at dawn on the first day after he marries another woman, the Little Mermaid will die brokenhearted and disintegrate into sea foam. The Little Mermaid drinks the potion and meets the prince, who is attracted to her beauty and grace even though she is mute. Most of all he likes to see her dance, and she dances for him despite her excruciating pain. When the prince's father orders his son to marry the neighboring king's daughter, the prince tells the Little Mermaid he will not, because he does not love the princess. He goes on to say he can only love the young woman from the temple, but adds that the Little Mermaid is beginning to take the temple girl's place in his heart. It turns out that the princess is the temple girl, who had been sent to the temple to be educated. The prince loves her and the wedding is announced. The prince and princess marry, and the Little Mermaid's heart breaks. She thinks of all that she has given up and of all the pain she has suffered. She despairs, thinking of the death that awaits her, but before dawn, her sisters bring her a knife that the Sea Witch has given them in exchange for their long hair. If the Little Mermaid slays the prince with the knife and lets his blood drip on her feet, she will become a mermaid again, all her suffering will end and she will live out her full life. The Little Mermaid cannot bring herself to kill the sleeping prince lying with his bride and, as dawn breaks, throws herself into the sea. Her body dissolves into foam, but instead of ceasing to exist, she feels the warmth of the sun; she has turned into a spirit, a daughter of the air. The other daughters of the air tell her she has become like them because she strove with all her heart to gain an eternal soul. She will earn her own soul by doing good deeds, and she will eventually rise up into the kingdom of God. "
Bought a souvenir (hand made copper little mermaid) for my copenhagen trip rememberance and started walking towards the Amalienborg Castle infront of the Marble Church. As per our plan, we made ourself available for the famous Amalienborg Castle changing of the guards, but our bad luck the Queen was not at home and the royal guards were missing (as they go along with the Queen). Only there were lieutenants guards (sergeant and 12 palace guards) without music we saw the guard changing, it was not that attractive as we expected and I need to visit London to view the changing of guards at Buckingham palace!!
The best way to tour Copenhagen is by foot and we got a excellent city map from the infocenter (near the central railway station) and it was quite helpful. We walked towards the Nyhavn, a colourful waterfront, canal and popular entertainment district in Copenhagen. It is lined by brightly coloured 17th and early 18th century townhouses and numerous bars, cafes and restaurants. Serving as a heritage harbour, the canal is packed with old wooden ships and numerous ferry tour starts from here. Then entered the street named Strøget. The Strøget is located in the centre of town and it is the longest pedestrian shopping area in Europe (carfree zone in Copenhagen from 1962). Enjoyed the walk along the Strøget, eventhough it was Sunday, 50% of the shops were open and tourists were enjoying their time in Copenhagen. At the end of Strøget, we reached the Rådhuspladsen, the City Hall Square. It is a city square beside Copenhagen City Hall at the center of Copenhagen. The square is home to a large statue of Hans Christian Andersen, the author of The Little Mermaid fairytale.
During my info collection for this trip, I read about the 1930's mechanism called 'golden weather girls (Vejrpigerne) of Copenhagen' near the City hall square. I was searching through out the square for sometime to see them but I was lost in the square... I felt bad to miss them eventhough I was infront of them!! Suddenly my eyes fell on a neon thermometer and atop I saw The girls are on a rotating disc and provided a weather forecast for Copenhageners. One girl on a bicycle would rotate to the front when it was sunny, and the second girl with an umbrella would rotate to the front when it was rainy. Today the statue is permanently stuck half way in between! But the neon thermometer (also from the 1930's) is still working and you can see the temperature reading captured by me on a bright summer day! Hardly scientific and really rather vague, but an excellent example of how girls on bikes are an integral part of the Danish mentality. With lots of satisfaction, happiness and beautiful memories, we boarded the train back to Hamburg. We enjoyed a beautiful sunset during the border crossing (Denmark to Germany) from the ship deck... I sign off with my own saying: 'The perfect utilisation of a weekend in Hamburg (North Germany) is a trip to Copenhagen!'

Rügen - Germany's largest island!!

Rügen (Ruegen in English) is Germany's largest island. It is located in the Baltic Sea, measuring an area of 926 sq.m (double the size of our Pondicherry) with a population of 73,000 (one-tenth of Pondi's 808,000). Rügen is located in one of the most popular holiday and recreation areas within Germany and has more tourists per resident than any other location in Germany. It was a dilemma whether to spend the entire weekend or a day at Rügen, but due to team's majority decision ( mine & Arasu were on the minority side), we went for a day (First mistake of the trip, there are so much to enjoy at Rugen, one day is the least)!
Left our home (awesome Hamburg) at 636AM on 25-July-2009 to reach Sassnitz. Sassnitz is a town on the Jasmund peninsula, home of the famous largest chalk cliffs of Germany, the so called Königsstuhl ("king's chair" in English). These cliffs are up to 161 m high above the Baltic Sea. The undisturbed beech forests behind the cliffs are part of the national park, consisting of only 30 sq km, the smallest national park of Germany. Again we did a good planning (me and Pradeep) and it was worthy. The travel time to Sassnitz was 4h30mins and we were there at 1100AM. Caught a bus to Königsstuhl and got down exactly middle of the forest, I trusted on the DB plan (DB is the German's national carrier and its site gives plan and timing for anyplace in German), we saw the driver and all the co-passengers giving a bad look, but we got down, it was drizzling too (Second mistake of the trip - believing DB timetable)!! No one was there in the vicinity and there was an old forest checkpoint, where there was a lady guard, sorry she was a lady Hitler to say, I had never seen a rude lady in German like that, she must have wondered what these 5 Indians doing in the middle of the forest!! She guided (not even one word in English) to walk 2kms from there to reach Königsstuhl! Rain started heavily and there is no cover to run, I thought a wrong day to come Ruegen; nowhere a Bus came and the lady Hitler said : get into this bus and reach Königsstuhl; the bus travel was 10mins, rain was pouring down!! Spoke with a co-passenger (English speaker), and they suggested to walk a distance to reach Victoria view point and then walk down 450 steps to reach the bottom of the cliff, the Baltic sea shore. We were singing "rain rain go away...come again another day..." and walked up towards the Victoria view point.

It was a beautiful view of Baltic sea, we can see the complete horizon, rain at few places and drizzle at few places over the sea, wondered how it would have been if it was a bright sunny day!!! Took the wooden steps and touched the Baltic sea shore, a beach which is 90% transparent, without a wave and of complete marbles, no sand, strange isn’t it!! The beauty of White Cliffs from there was magnificent, enjoyed the view with umbrella in the hand and it was a different experience. Came back to Königsstuhl bus stop and took Route # 20 to Sellin, it was a 1h30mins drive crossing Prora and Binz. All were dossing, I didn’t, I was thinking why the weather is playing spoilsport, there was no enthuse among the guys, all dropping and shrugging, and wondered whether this trip will become a flop (Third mistake of the trip - worry towards a flop)!!
A common rule through out Germany: don’t take granted that the weather is bad or good, it may flip-flop at anytime, we too faced the same! Got down at Sellin, sun started peeking out of the clouds, there was a sudden hope in air... walked across the Wilhelmstrasse (Brigade road of Ruegen), magnificent buildings, posh bungalows, unique restaurants, souvenir shops (Arasu clicked this snap when I was checking how the cow boy cap fits me, thanks to him, it was perfect). The Wilhelmstrasse leads to a 40 meter high cliff where there is a steep staircase or an elevator to the promenade or pier to the South Beach. The sea and the bridge, a magnificent view, with the Sun started smiling together with us, the trip came alive!
The pier (sea bridge) is of 394 meters, longest pier on the island of Ruegen. The beach was beautiful, perfectly arranged matrix of Strandkörbe (roofed wicker beach chairs which are a very common German tool on beaches), a funfair with kids drives, shops selling sausages, hotdogs, a perfect location for German summer vacation. We walked to the end of the pier and enjoyed the walk; it was amazing to stand 0.3Kms from the shore of the sea on a wooden bridge! Our plan was to catch the return train from Bergen, the capital of Rügen at 725PM, for that we should leave Sellin at 550PM, again a bus drive of 1hr. There was an advertisement for 10mins RIB (Rigid Inflatable Boat) Safari, a drive propelled by Yamaha engines (2 x 250 hp) with a Maximum speed of 100 kmph on the cold Baltic Sea! No one was that daring to take it, except Arasu. He was damn crazy to enjoy it and by that one group left the pier towards the sea (below snap is taken at that time). On seeing the stunts the pilot did over the sea, our little hopes of taking the ride faded, really... but Arasu was so adamant, he decided to take it alone, the whole team had a dilemma and finally with dual thoughts, we accepted. We went and spoke with Kathy (the lady who was organising the trip), she was a native English speaker and I was happy that she spoke real good UK English; she said we have to wait 30mins. I casually started discussion and came to know that the team lives in Sassnitz and leaves for the day to Sassnitz at 6-630, sudden change in plan, asked her why cant we join with you back home and catch the train from Sassnitz at 705PM. She was reluctant and said will discuss with Alex and get back. Alex is the pilot and when he got back a team to shore after an awesome show, told OK and we were ready for a drive not for 10mins, it was for 20mins from Sellin to Sassnitz, the same distance was traveled by bus for 1h30mins. We decided to meet at 615PM and started playing in beach. The water was shallow, transparent, and clean, a superb weather added glamour to the evening and we enjoyed in the sand cliff at the beach! Reached back Kathy and the team, they were also ready for closing the day, Kathy distributed a pair of wind-jacket and life-jacket to all of us and we were thrilled to start the drive. Introduced with Celicia from Canada and she was so helpful. All set and done, a crowd of 100+ Germans swayed their hands from pier saying tchüsse (bye in German), I told Arasu "it seems this is our last bye and so many have come to see that!!". We were standing behind Alex, having a good view of his navigator, controls and especially the speedometer. He pulled the throttle and we zoomed into the Baltic sea, speed was 30, slowly he increased the speed, it was 50 and I can see that the water is moving faster than 50kmph, was confused, but dint think much, enjoyed the drive: bright sun shining on you, a 10meters inflated boat raising its nose now and then a meter high over the big waves of Baltic sea, and often the water spilling on my sun glasses. The drive was more than 20mins and Alex did some stunts on the way like: lifting the boat nose, raising to the left and then at once to the right, 270 degree turns, it was an awesome experience, thrilling but real fun!! Once reached Sassnitz, I enquired his speed, he said 50 KNOTS, a sudden rush in my thoughts-how did I calculate a speed over water in KMPH, really stupid, may be the thrill made me to think idiotic! Made a rough calculation (50*1.8=90), it was 90Kmph, over water! Rushed back Sassnitz bahnhof to catch the train back home, a thrilling experience at Rügen, will never erode from our mind!
Most of us would have read "The 3 Mistakes of my Life" novel by Chetan Bhagat. He dint end the story with an appreciation for the mistakes or decisions. But our trip was different, even though we did three mistakes (see above) but it ended in a very happy thrilling note, we appreciate it...

BERLIN - "Ich bin ein Berliner"

A dream comes true, a trip to Berlin-Germany's largest city, the capital of Germany. It needed a meticulous planning to tour this wonderful city (useful site: http://www.visitberlin.de/), as we saw the volume of places to cover and the travel time (4hrs) from Hamburg, we decided to stay a night and spend a complete weekend on the trip.

DAY I: 04-o7-2009, Saturday

We left Hamburg on Saturday morning and reached Berlin via Schwerin by 1030AM. It’s always wise to plan a trip itinerary and go with few queries to the info center, we did the same. We got a city map and the more important train network map (S and U bahn). The Hauptbahnhof (central station) itself is a tourist destination. The S-Bahn platform is in the fifth floor of the station and getting to your platform for the desired train itself needs a skill and it was fun too. We covered few places by foot (as they are near to Hauptbahnhof and weather was good): Haus der Kulturen der Welt (The pregnant Oyster), Schloss Bellevue (A Palace Fit for a President), and Siegessäule (Wings and Weapons).
The pregnant Oyster is a beautiful building with curved and suspended roof, an architectural wonder; open on both sides, it appears to float in mid-air without support!! The Schloss Bellevue is the official residence of the federal president in Berlin.

The Siegessäule, with its golden statue of Victory, is one of the most imposing landmarks in the city, and reflects the city's history in remarkable fashion. There is a small museum depicting entire Europe and a stairway to a viewing platform on the column, it offered a wonderful panoramic view of the city.

Then we took an S Bahn to reach the outskirts of Berlin, the Olympic Stadium. The same stadium hosted the 2006 final match of FIFA World Cup between France and Italy. I never thought in 2006 while watching the finals that one day I will visit this place!! But the happiness didn’t sustain for long as we saw the below poster and couldn’t believe our bad luck, anyways, the outside view itself was majestic; I visualized how it would have been jam-packed on that FINALS game!!!

On the way back, I spotted this ---> instruction on an "automatic toilet", it was indeed craziness, read and enjoy (click the photo to maximize)...

We took a U Bahn and reached a station called kaiserdamm and visited the place which 99% of the Berlin tourist never visit!! It is called Funkturm (Berlin's Eiffel Tower). The Funkturm's steel structure, which is based on that of the Paris Eiffel Tower, was built in 1924, and the tower was first operated in 1926. It is 150m tall and gives a panoramic view of the city at a height of 126m. Due to maintenance, we were not allowed to go up and we dint bother too, as we were expecting to see Berlin from a height of 203m, read on from where it is from :)

Each one of us were tired and exhausted, reached back to the center of the city, Potsdamer Platz, where the City hostel was waiting for us!! It was a wonderful place to stay and was soothing. No idea, how the rain God came to know that we were sheltered, there was a hailstorm for 1.5hrs and it gave a perfect time for us to relax. Sort of worry started, how to execute the evening plan and the clouds paved way and Sun welcomed us to see Berlin! We roamed Potsdamer Platz sometime and saw the city life of Berlin. Continued our roam towards the Parliament house - The Reichstag, it is the seat of the German Bundestag or federal government. There is a big glass dome on top of the Reichstag; the dome has a 360-degree view of the surrounding Berlin cityscape. The main hall of the parliament below can also be seen from the cupola, and natural light from above radiates down to the parliament floor. A large sun shield tracks the movement of the sun electronically and blocks direct sunlight which might bedazzle those below. General public is allowed inside the Reichstag after a vigil security check and only to the visit the dome, it’s a normal seen that one need to wait in a long queue to enter the Reichstag for a minimum period of 1-2hrs. As we are always lucky, the rain helped us and there was less crowd and we stood in queue only for 30mins and reached the dome very soon. We saw the sun set while waiting in queue and the beautiful dusk from the top of Reichstag. Started climbing the dome over a sloping ramp with an audio guide in English, it was too good, once you climb up, an automated message will tell exactly the history of the city landscape in front of view. The finishing remark of the audio tour is the best, it goes like this "The transparency of the glass symbolises the transparency of the German Democratic State", indeed it was transparent!!!
The dome depicted that the places around 360 degree from the Reichstag has its own history, it was amazing. We spend enough time in the dome reading the history and viewing the second world war devastation snaps and were one among the few to leave the dome at 0000Hrs (closing time of the dome). The day went off well with few ups and downs in the schedule as it always happens in a trip. I love that mode of rescheduling the plan with a limited time frame in mind, the challenge is unique and I love to face and beat it!!!!

DAY II: 05-07-2009, Sunday

Checked out City hostel at 900AM and went direct to Sony Center, the latest addition to Berlin's modern infrastructure. Got interested to see a 3D German movie in IMAX 3D Screen and booked the ticket for 1130 show, spend 2 hrs roaming the Brandenburger Tor (TOR is Gate in German), Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas (Place of Remembrance), Unter den Linden (Berlin's Most Beautiful Avenue).
The Brandenburg Gate, Berlin's only remaining city gate, is the true symbol of the city. The sandstone construction, built from 1788-91, has 12 Doric columns and is based on the propylaeum of the Acropolis in Athens. On both sides, six Doric columns support the 11 meter-deep transverse beam, dividing the gate into five passageways. The Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas (means the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe), situated in Berlins city centre, the memorial was built recently in 2000 near the Reichstag and the Brandenburger Tor. The design envisages a Field of Stelae, 2,711 concrete blocks of different heights, structured in a grid pattern and covering nearly 19,000 sq.m of gently sloping ground.
The Unter den Linden, Berlin's magnificent boulevard, the centerpiece of the Old Berlin, leads to all the famous places there: US Embassy, Kennedy museum, Madame Tussauds (wax museum in Berlin) etc.
Rushed back to the IMAX for the movie and it was a different experience, after My Dear Kuttichathan (1983 Tamil 3D movie) this was my 3D movie, 26years to break the gap, that too in Berlin, life is beautiful isn’t it??
Reached Alexanderplatz, the most famous square in Berlin. Alexanderplatz is a must see place, the most important places of interest are in a distance of few meters: Fernsehturm, Berliner Rathaus, Berliner Dom.
The Fernsehturm, lies in the center of Alexanderplatz. We need to buy the ticket to go up the tower and the waiting time to get into was 2Hrs , we decided to go around Alexanderplatz.
By foot reached Berliner Dom, a beautiful church partly destroyed in WWII and reconstructed. Couldn’t go inside for a short tour as we needed to be there on time at Fernsehturm.
The Fernsehturm (TV tower) is the highest building in the city, and one of Berlin's biggest attractions. Its total height is 368 meters, with a viewing platform at a height of 203 mts. 203 mts travel in lift took just 34 secs (6m/s), and the view from there was awesome.

It was 430PM and there was a dilemma whether to go to East side of the Berlin wall, place name: East Side Gallery, portraying Graffiti Art on the Berlin Wall. I was the one compelled everyone and finally we reached the gallery, it was beautiful graffiti work on the Berlin wall and saw the east side checkpoint. Rushed back Hauptbahnhof to catch the 530PM train and we were 15mins early, a wonderful trip came to an end. I was pretty satisfied with the trip, and was recounting the famous quote - "Ich bin ein Berliner" ("I am a Berliner") from John F. Kennedy on a June 26, 1963 speech, I was there on July 04, 2009 ( after 46 yrs and 8 days) !!!