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Benelux 2022!!!

This trip to Europe! Was long overdue!
Not because it was another trip to Europe.
But, because of the countries, we were visiting. We have been planning this route for the last 3 years as I remember. Two years of travel were taken away by corona and the only thing we missed was travelling.
So, before we could plan a trip to any other European country. This had to be struck off my bucket list.
This trip was very unlike the trips we have taken before.
Starting with Antwerp we had a friend, Ambassador, An Artist and our local tour guide that was added into his profile as the day concluded since the way he showcased Antwerp. The cobbled streets, the Parks, the cafés and visiting Caffenation. Caffeination is a speciality coffee pioneer in Belgium.
Jeff Vervellen a barista from Caffenation has won the world championship a couple of times.
by giving us insights into the landmarks we were passing by walking around towards the centre of Antwerp by the end of the day our legs were crushed walking 30K steps on the 1st Day of our trip!
Little did we know it was just the beginning of the warm hospitality from the locals we were going to be meeting ahead of our trip.
Bruges & Gent felt light on the feet.
Exploring the canals and small stores while we walked around to get a feel of the place.
Bruges was beautiful the free shuttle service from the station to the centre of the city is another way of looking around the city before you start to explore on your own.
While gent had interesting graffiti street art and cafés it also had an interesting book store. Booze & Books! With some of the finest alcohol and Designer bottles, you wouldn’t have come across until you visited the store. It was also good to notice Paul John a whiskey from India that has gained an international recognition.
Gent & Bruges reminded me a lot about Scotland a lot with so many castles around.
One looked like the younger side of Scotland while the other seemed like the older side of Scotland.
Brussels on Sunday! Was zooming in with the Ferrari which was on display at the central square for the start of a perfect Sunday!
Sun & Ferraris!
Meeting the local person who we have known for a decade now and for someone who we make sure to visit Brussels. It was nice walking around the Sunday markets, Eating Belgium fries, and having Coffee & Waffles at the Galleria from Aksum Coffee house. Had some local Belgium food.
Luxembourg! We had initially planned to stay here for two days! But ended up doing a day trip from Antwerp.
Luxembourg’s view of the bridge from the centre was breathtaking. Two days would have been more than enough to enjoy the country.
The Netherlands journey began with a lot of delays & going in the wrong direction for us because of a train accident on the other tracks. So, we did explore Delft a small town in the Netherlands close to Antwerp & Amsterdam and known for its blue pottery. And tasted a lot of handmade cheese from the Netherlands while we explored Utrecht too on the same day having hot chocolate from Hop & Stork a popular Chocolate cafe in the Netherlands.
The next destination was Amsterdam!
We had a few local guides here! Giving us a tour of the city!
While we explored one thing with each of the guides!
One day! We took the canal cruise from Amsterdam central with one local guide,
Amsterdam is known as the North of Venice. As the water connects you to the other side of the city too. Quite a few people have started renting out boats since there isn’t enough housing space available.
And had local Dutch food in a restaurant while this day it had poured all day long.
With the other guide, we explored the Straat Museum. It’s a street art museum showcasing about 150 artists from the world and Europe.
We also visited Tony’s chocolate cafe a chocolate brand that’s popular in Amsterdam. While the United States have Hershey’s, Germany has Riter Sport, the UK has Cadbury’s. Amsterdam has Tony’s. Chocolate flowing on the taps at the cafés, chandelier made is tony chocolate wrappers and a store, where you can see the process of chocolate making, this was the sugar rush we needed with the variety of homemade fries we had on our trip! We were the typical tourist!
While walking the streets to get some coffee beans from screaming beans one of the popular speciality coffee that is gaining popularity across the globe!
While purchasing my beans I had an interesting conversation with James who was preparing a cup of V60 of the Guatemala beans I was planning to purchase. While the coffee was being brewed James was speaking about the backpacking trip 14 years ago to India! And the places he visited in India one city that he mentioned! I just couldn’t get over it! Nashik! Part of his cities Of Kumbh Mela! Since I am too from Nashik!
Oh! Wait!
The last local guide we met were schoolmates & classmates with whom we walked around the red light street of Amsterdam and caught up with life in the Netherlands.
While the bicycles were all over the Netherlands. We explored most of our cities by foot and trains to get there. Since with Europe, it’s all about the centre of the city, which can be covered by foot.

Travel to Brussels, Gent & Bruges from Antwerp one-way journey.

Antwerp to Brussels : 45 Min

Antwerp to Bruges: 90 Min

Antwerp to Ghent: 1 Hr.

Antwerp to Luxembourg: 4 Hrs.

Antwerp to Hague :45 Min

Antwerp to Amsterdam: 1 Hr 50 Min

Stay:

Artotel Amasterdam

NH Hotel Antwerp

Cafés:
screamingbeans
tonyschocolonely_nl
joeandthejuice

LoetjeCentraal

Waffles :
vanwonderenstroopwafels

Fries :
houseoffries
mannekenfriet

Chocolate:
tonyschocolonely
puccinibomboni_amsterdam

Bookstore:
waterstones

Visit:
straatmuseum

Experience:
Canalcruise
Bloemenmarkt: World’s only floating flower market

Belgium:
Cities to Visit: #Antwerp #Bruges #Gent #brussels

Travelling to these cities by @eurarail is easy.

Antwerp:

Sightseeing :

AntwerpRailwayStation
Grote Market
City Hall
Het Steen

Cafés:

caffenation_coffee

Gent:
Sightseeing
gravensteencastle
graffartistreet

Cafe:
waycoffeeroasters

mokabongent

Bookstore:
bookznboozegent

Bruges : * Free Shuttle Service available from the station to the Market every 10-15 minutes.

Sightseeing :

FriesMuseum
Belfrytower
Market Square
Groeninge Museum

Cafe:
ilovecoffeebrugge

Luxembourg:
Sightseeing

ViewfromOberstadt

Cafe:
knopescoffee

The Modern Jaipur!

Rajasthan! A side of India! That makes you feel Royal and Rich! A state that has the best Indian food and every hotel is a palace in its on way having an Modern or an old-world charm. This was a trip to Jaipur after a decade. And while the city did not seem to have changed much. The City surprising had quite a few cafes and restaurants opened up. The Patrika Gate, The Palace and the Hawa Mahal we’re so royal. The hotels we stayed at Raas Rajmahal were a modern luxury palace with interiors and architecture just like a palace.
While on our Visit we visited some of the cafes & restaurants that had their specialities.
Spice Court was our only stop for Laal Maas. Steam at Rambagh was an experience. Seated on a first-class coach in a train-shaped restaurant. The Indian platter were very good. They are also known for their pizzas.
We visited The Johri at the Johri Bazaar. They are a pure Veg restaurant with amazing food and interiors. They are also a boutique hotel with about five Suites rooms each named after a gem stone.

Manak (ruby) is hues of pink, Moti (pearl) is white, Sona (gold) is yellow, Neelam (sapphire) is light blue, and Panna (emerald) is pale greenThe Johri is managed by Honawar Hospitality group that has cafes like Pantry & woodside inn that are popular in Mumbai.
We also visited Bar Palladio & Shikaar Bagh restaurant & Bar that’s part of Naraian Niwas Palace an Instagramable destination and in recent times has gained popularity through web series. The interiors have been done up by Dutch designer Marie-Anne Oudejans has kept the essence of Rajasthan and Jaipur in the interiors. The space also has a few interesting designer stores in them that have a lot of Rajasthani elements to it.

Cafes that we enjoyed on our visit were The Curious Life Roasters, Half light Coffee Roaster and Town Coffee. Town Coffee also had a nice gourmet store to satisfy and to experience your home chefs skills.

Curious breakfast and coffee experience was something totally unexpected for Jaipur. Over the next two days we realised Coffee & cafe culture

Is huge here! Something that isn’t read or spoken about so much when you think about Jaipur! 

Another thing that was good to observe was the cafes & restaurants had plenty of books on their shelves to read Curious life Roaster by the owner has an interesting story Neeraj Sheoran the owner & roster While working in the Democratic Republic of Congo, was introduced to coffee roasting and in 2015 began the Curious life Roaster in Jaipur. Half light by is a family-run neighbourhood coffee shop in Jaipur that has been there for the last couple of years..

The Bernina express & moving around Europe.

Bernina Express:

A journey that we had to experience once in our lifetime at least. Should we go to Zurich or should we go from Zurich and with not enough time. We planned out our exit from Zurich and so we did it through from Milan- Tirano to Chur. A four-hour journey going through the shades of greens and blues and tunnels with Lindt chocolates and Cherry liqueur for some company. The journey was lovely with the rains, the views and the comfortable space. A long time ago we had done the Glacier express Zermatt to St. Moritz and while that was covered with snow this journey was more greens, mountains, and waters through the journey. Maybe because more into the Italian region and little of Swiss. The train climbs up to the 2253 m high.

Planning to Travel:

Buy a Eurarail mobile pass: Depending on the days and countries you are travelling buy the pass. If it’s more than one country buy the Global pass.

Next, log in to the app.

And make the entry of all the passengers who would travel along with you.

Passport details and other basic information.

Make one Trip on the app:

Create a trip and add all the passengers.

Choose your preferred train time and soon one QR Ticket would be displayed on the app.

Now keep adding the journeys ( Intercountry, or outer country you would like to take)

And with the preferred time, you will soon have multiple QR Ticket under the first group you made for all your trips.

Now, whenever the Ticket collector comes to view your ticket it’s all there.

Do not buy a swiss pass it’s more expensive.

In case you are travelling with Zurich Via trams, Trains or public transport buy a Zurich card.

For Italy Milan :

Buy the ATM card – This can be used for Trams, Buses and Metro. A convenient fast way of travelling around Milan.

We always use public transport as much as possible to explore the city like a local.

Italy & Swiss 2022!

Already been a week!
The trip was in many ways a Deja Vu experience.
Right from the moment, we landed in the city of Zurich! Seemed like time had stopped moving since we were last here seven years ago.
The roads, the streets, and the stores they seemed like nothing had changed.
We moved around here without google maps.
And since it was Sunday as we walked down the streets, we were predicting the stores that will be coming and just next to that is where we should meet in case we get lost.
As we continued our journey to explore the other side of Switzerland.

Thank God things were different. Else it would have been a crazy holiday experience.
We explored the Italian- Mediterranean side of Switzerland Lugano and Lausanne & Montreux.
Lausanne was known for the Olympic Museum, and Montreux was very much like Como and Lugano was like the typical European small-town charm.
These towns were in their way beautiful and as we travelled to each of them. We could notice many shades of blue water. The narrow streets with colourful structures were some of the things we missed about Europe and travelling in the last couple of years…
Italy – Milan Centrale station seemed to have changed a little. But the structure remained the same. Dumao the cathedral and the shopping centre both were nostalgic experiences. As it was a decade ago or the 1st European trip ever from India was to Italy. The Cafes, the tourist buzz and the stores in this hundred of years old architecture and space were worth revisiting too.
Venice: The Land of Espresso! And coffee for Italy. The San Marco square, the faint memory of remembering the Florian Cafe being a little around that particular column, the walk past the bridges and the boat experience that we did this time from the station that had gone through a complete makeover from the last time we were in Venice in 2012.
We did not do the gondola ride this time as we just had a day in Venice.
Quite a few new stores opened and many remained where they were!
I remember this particular store that would have Ferrari & F1 merchandise and this was the time I was more interested and related Italy with Cars like Ferrari that I wanted to just go and visit this store!
There were too many stories that I relived on this trip to Italy & Switzerland.

Planning to travel around Switzerland. Some of the cities around Zurich & Geneva are mentioned below.

Train Travel from Zurich:

  • Lausanne – 2 Hr 15 Min.
  • Montreux – 15 from Lausanne( 2 Hr 30 Min from Zurich)
  • Lugano – 2 Hr
  • Fribourg  – 1 Hr 30 Min.
  • Lucerne –  45 Min.
  • Bern – 1 Hr.
  • Basel – 1 Hr 10 Min
  • Zermatt – 3 Hr 12 Min
  • St. Moritz – 3 Hr 22 Min

Train Travel from Geneva:

  • Interlaken – 2 Hr 15 min
  • Montreux – 1 Hr 10 Min
  • Lausanne – 45 Min