EU trip (Swiss Alps), Day 10

DAY 10

I opened the tent windows to admire nature, light was perfect for photography but I just looked it through my eyes, as I wanted to absorb it as much as possible. I could hear the small stream gushing through the rocks just behind our camp; the water was as clean as it could be. Water coming from the springs and glaciers is such transparent color that you only see it in the mountains, it is, as if it is cleaned by the rocks and the falls. The dew washed up green color to make it brighter, and the clouds started to gather to start a whole day rainfall. The early morning dew washed our tent surface and there were some drops seeped into the tent. What an amazing experience that was to get up in the morning in your tent in the Alps.

Everyone got up one by one and enjoyed the scenery around us.

We got ready and prepared breakfast comprising of eggs, french bread etc. and filled up our stomachs for the long day. The rain started right after that. While coming out of the site we stopped at the small cabin office and checked the forecast, it was not looking good, as rain would only stop the next day afternoon. What could stop us? We had already put on our rains coats and were enjoying the drops falling on them and making a nice sound into our ears like continuous ringing bells. We crossed the river towards the town and then had to make another stop in rain as the train crossing turned red. The train took some time to come, kids enjoyed it more than us as they were standing just next to the crossing and watching the train pass by. Once we came to the station we contemplated our decision of going to Zermatt today, as we wouldn’t be able to see a glimpse of Matterhorn the famous EU Mountain due to the bad weather. It would not be fun to take the cable car to go further into the mountains either when one could not see anything around. Anyhow we decided to stick to our plan and would roam around at Zermatt and surroundings rather then going to the higher altitude. So I bought the train tickets and we hoped onto the next available train, which ran every 20 minutes. The ride was fun and the excitement kept growing for Zermatt.

Once we reached the destination we got to know that Zermatt was a much bigger place than Tasche, so Tasche is being used as a parking lot to go to Zermatt in fact. Zermatt is a car free town and the only transport available there are either horse carts or a few electric taxis but no petrol cars are allowed. Hence there is no pollution and as it is, on the mountains with wooded slopes and glaciers in sight creating such an impressive environment. A wonderful town seems like a fairytale. As soon as we came out of the station, fresh and cool air welcomed us but off course the rain was added in it for the time being. I love rain anyhow and it didn’t bother us a bit, though Waseem was upset about it as he sees clouds and rain year round in the UK. We visited the information desk close to the station and they pointed out a few areas of interest for us to visit.

We started our walk in the rain and really admired the way flowers were hung by the windows and balconies in each and every house and building in the town. The flowers were blooming and were in several colors, one could only imagine such beauty but cant really explain it in words. The main street had shops on either side and it climbed up with a backdrop of mountains. There were nice hotels and restaurants up there. A river dissected the town into two parts. We visited the oldest part of the town dating back to 16^th century having small wooden huts still preserved. Shops décor was nice and we felt like we were on a real mountain village. Window-shopping was a real fun but ended up with some purchases like souvenirs and stuff. For me outdoor stores always attracted me and I took full advantage of the rainy day.

The rain stopped for some time and then we spent a lot of time on the river bridge, from where the Matterhorn could be seen. But no luck for today, we could see most of it but the tip part, but that was good enough site for us.

We wanted to trek for some time so we crossed the town towards the mountains and at the end of the town had a lunch break with the sand witches we were carrying. Not to forget the rain had started again and the clouds were again very thick and low. The walk was pretty flat and not demanding at the moment. We came across a setup where they had the tree climbing, zips and tarzan swings. Children got stuck there so we signed up Iman and Sajeel on the children course first. They were put on with harnesses and started their adventure. I would recommend that to everyone, as it was a very good experience. They really did well and enjoyed it to the maximum. Once they completed one go of their three levels we also wanted to do the adults area. Waseem could not take care of Hassan so my wife had to quit and then Sajeel and myself went for the two hours of adventure; while Iman kept engaged herself for repeat of the levels she had completed. I couldn’t really explain the excitement, as it was a lifetime experience climbing the trees, going through zip chords up to 110 meters long. Rain had somehow stopped for some time for us to enjoy the experience. There were several different kind of obstacles some 20-30 feet or higher from the ground. Some of them went over the water streams and the river. When we completed the whole thing we had a sense of achievement for the day or rather for the trip.

Waseem had ordered some chips n stuff already when we joined them on the outdoor tables. My shoulders and arms were really tired because of the exertion, as we used those muscles in this adventure, which are hardly used in daily life. But it was full time fun and we loved it.

The rain picked up again right after we were done here. We started walking back towards the town. We saw a big group of children learning mountain biking on the way and they were small aged kids and 20-30 in number, it was an interesting sight. We rushed back to the town and started to have more peek into the stores as there was only half an hour left before they close. It was raining very heavy and continuous by now, the clouds were really dark and thunderous. But the environment was really cool and enjoyable. It was getting quite cold by the evening. So we decided to go back to Tasche. Train was in the next 20 minutes so we used the bathrooms there and enjoyed the last sights of Zermatt before saying goodbye.

Once we reached Tasche the rain got even heavier, the clouds even darker as the evening fell in. We walked to the camp and it took us just 10 minutes. But as soon as the kids got into the camp we got to know that there was water gathered under the tent as it was right above a slight depression on the ground but due to very heavy rain the water accumulated under it. The rain had been playing around with us the whole day in a positive manner and it stopped whenever we needed it to be, so we were heard again and the rain gave a 10 minutes break to do what ever we can, in that time frame.

I made a quick decision to move our tent to higher ground though that was also very wet but no water there at least. We put the kids in the car and removed the self-inflatable mats from the camp, dried them and put them into the car too. This commando action took us exactly 10-15 minutes and we were all set up at the new and better location. The rain started yet again. We parked the car closer to the tent and used the tarp to give a shelter in front of the tent for some cooking etc. It was already dark by the time this effort was over. Night was going to be definitely a very cold one. Rain was heavy and continuous. I found some long sticks from the trees to give my shelter some extra strength that worked very well and our kitchen got established under the newly built canopy. It was time to cook some quick food tonight; therefore we decided to make some nice gravy from the tinned chickpeas. Dinner was served with in 30 minutes in the tent and we had already put on the heater to reduce the cold in side. Once everything was done I removed the canopy and put an extra layer on top of the tent to protect from the rain making its way into the tent through seepage. It was an enjoyable dinner. Iman and Hassan were already asleep due to the fatigued day. Everyone’s shoes were wet and cold and I was just using the spare slippers the whole time and now my feet had turned blue but there was yet another trip to the rest room due to call of nature that you don’t have a control on. Night was very interesting and cold and noisy due to rain falling on top.

EU trip (Switzerland), Days 8,9

DAY 8

All Swiss

Switzerland has been a fairytale country for me since my childhood and this was the first time we got a chance to visit it. Therefore I made sure that we were having a few days secured for Switzerland to admire its beauty. Name Alps has developed a repo of being a fairytale place with all those green mountains and cows grazing in the meadows. A big chunk of Switzerland is covered with Alps and the same range of mountains is shared with France and Austria. The most popular areas remain with the Swiss not only because these are more beautiful but also the way these have been developed and marketed in the world. Swiss remains one the most expensive places to visit due to the influx of the people visiting it. I found Swiss people generally very helpful with a few exceptions during our trip.

We were staying at Formula 1 hotel closer to Disneyland after leaving Disney very late in the evening yesterday. This place was a small village with some basic facilities. We took shower early morning to leave by 8am for our long drive to Geneva. For that we would be crossing a big chunk of France to enter into Switzerland. There are not many cities in this side of France. The drive took us about 7 hours to complete. We crossed many picturesque areas including the French Alps. The drive was a pleasure and not hectic at all. Highways are very well maintained in France and also in the Swiss, probably the best in Europe.

We had booked another Formula 1 hotel for the night on the French side. Geneva is at the border of France and Switzerland and their sister cities really merge into each other and it is difficult to identify whether you are in France or Swiss. We drove straight to the hotel but then thought of changing our booking to another hotel on Swiss side. We tried but couldn’t get a hold of the hotel reception as it kept going on the answering machine. So we thought we would go to Geneva and then will try from there, otherwise we will come back to this hotel for the night. Geneva was about 20 minutes drive from here through very beautiful green fields and low hills. Once in Geneva, we could only make out that we were in Geneva by their tram system and the number plates on the cars. One thing we noticed as soon as we entered the Swiss side is that people love the bicycles and generally are very healthy. You hardly saw any obesity in Swiss people – a very admirable thing.

We drove around to find the Tourist Info Center and got a good parking spot as well, which was a hard to find thing in this city. We parked right at the river coming from Geneva Lake and on just a 5 minutes walk from the main station and the info center. We walked up to the center and got all the info required for our trip. The girl was very nice and polite, no wonder their tourism is really developed. Those people really care about their country and promote it well. After getting info the Starbucks coffee and usage of their well-maintained washrooms was the highlight. Everyone was fresh and charged up with the Starbucks coffee when we finally came out of the café. Once we were done we started the city tour. First of all, their famous fountain in the Lake Geneva that you find in many of Geneva post cards and a walk on the shores of the lake. It is a nice city with many historic buildings and some modern areas. Being birds and animal lovers this place was heaven for the kids as there were several types of birds on the lake including the graceful Swans, ducks and off course the Seagulls. Kids loved them and didn’t want to move away from there. Next we saw some of their old monuments and the flower clock on one bank of the river just next to the park. I don’t need to mention again and again that this country is lush green. The old town tour was also very pleasant through narrow streets going up and down. After a couple of hours of old city tour we came back to the river and started our walk towards the car. It was time to find some grocery store, as we were short on some supplies. It was just 6 ‘o clock but in Europe this remained a big problem that everything closed by this time and you could only see some petrol pump convenience stores or a few others open. So as expected we found most of the city closed. At one gas station some gentleman gave us directions to one Asian store and we made it straight to that place. In the mean time Wasim realized that he left the gas lid cover and one set of spare keys at the station, so we quickly drove back and found them waiting for us at the counter. We drove back again to the Asian store to purchase some supplies that we did, and started driving back to the hotel.

Hotel was clean and was good enough for us to spend the night. Though we had some challenge finding something to eat in the evening as everything was shut down and the places those were open, were not meeting our criteria of food. Hence we had to take some French bread with honey and jam for dinner to call it a day.

DAY 9

Alps Waiting

We were planning to reach Tasche today, which is just below Zermatt (one of the most beautiful car free town). Tasche is the last drivable town in this area of Swiss Alps. But we would be covering Lausanne and Montreux on the way. And also would drive through Geneva to have a driving tour of the city area that we did not cover the day before.

We took the car for a wash in the outskirts of Geneva and then drove towards Lausanne. The road was very nice with some views of Lake Geneva and on the left the baby Alps, as I would call them, but with very green grape wines very beautifully lined up on the slopes of the hills in straight lines. Green color was looking very bright in the sunny day.  Lausanne is at only 45 minutes and the drive was along the Geneva Lake only, we stopped at the lake, received some information and the kids got a chance to play in the garden. They enjoyed playing in the wooden big play gym. Coop was just in front of the park so we bought some bread for the camping starting tonight. It was a nice little town on lake Geneva.

From here the highway started climbing a bit and you could see Montreux from the highway itself. Pretty views of the city but we didn’t have time to stop here as we were running late to reach our campsite in Tasche to secure one spot for us. So we continued driving up into the Alps. Spectacular scenery started from here and the mountains really showed off their beauty. Green carpeted slopes with jungles on some. Waterfalls welcomed us at many corners. Soon we were driving on the side of a river with mountains on both sides. The scenery was so absorbing that one would not notice and reached the destination in no time without tiring out. That’s exactly what happened in our case and we reached the small village of Tasche in no time. There were rivers and waterfalls around this area. The most famous mountain of Europe i.e. The Matterhorn is just above Zermatt. We finished formalities at the counter and proceeded to find a good spot to camp.

Let me fill-in for people who are like us and used to camping in North America. People may think that camping is same everywhere, however I found camping different everywhere. The camping in North America is entirely different from the one in Europe. The main difference is the privacy provided and the secludedness offered in America and Canada while camping. You could get sites with less privacy if you book late or with total privacy if you book early. A fire pit is a must at the campsite and a campfire or bonfire is a tradition if you camp. Camping in North America offers a feel of away from the city even if the sites are very close to the town, however camping in EU is like camping in each other’s garden. There are flat green patches on which everyone camps. There are no defined boundaries or numbers for each campsite. So you choose where you would like to camp and that’s it. There is no privacy or even a concept of it. So while camping here you are in the middle of a big gathering. But everyone is interested in his or her own stuff and no one bothers what’s going on under their nose in or around the next camp.

So here we were looking at green patches almost full but according to the reception there was room for many more camps amongst the others. So we found a good enough spot for us and pitched our tent. It was a green and pretty place all the more when we came from the desert city of Dubai where it’s hard to find greenery. After putting up our tent we setup beds for everyone and then the dinner preparations started. Today was the first day we were trying our butane gas stove bought from the UK. It worked very well and proved its worth, food got ready quickly and timely. Wasim went to the only village store and brought some delicious cherries and a couple of other things. Everyone enjoyed the meal thoroughly. 

We went for a stroll in the village and saw some nice old farmhouses and fruit trees. We also visited the station and came back to our camp. It was time to go to sleep now. Night was chilly and we also tried out the butane heater that Waseem purchased in UK before our arrival, it worked really well and helped us keeping our tent warm. I tucked up kids into their sleeping bags and jumped into mine to get some rest and to warm up as my hands were freezing by now.

EU trip (Disneyland Paris), Days 5-7

DAY 5-7

This was the big day for children; we were going to the Disneyland Paris to start our four days visit. We left our hotel in the morning; we were about 45 minutes away from the Disneyland. At 8 ‘o clock we were at the reception of Crocket Ranch Disney. We collected our tickets to the Disneyland Park and Disney Studios from here and rushed to the park, as the cottage was to be available at 3’o clock.

There are two parks in Disney Paris, one is called as Disneyland Park and the other one is Disney Studios. Our package included the self-catering cottage at the Ranch and tickets for both the parks. I was amazed to see how beautifully they have setup these properties and no wonder they are en cashing big on their characters, which they developed in several years.

We entered the park and it looked almost the same to me as it was in California. Kids were loving it and running from one place to the other with excitement right after we entered the place. We started off with the Disneyland Park as it has more to offer for younger kids. Having 11, 7 and 3 with us, this was the best choice to start. There were Disney characters all over. Lots of shops on the main New York Street selling different stuff in a beautiful setup.

In the afternoon we came to our cottage to check in and found the place superb. There were two small room, one with queen size bed, the other with a bunk bed for children and an open concept kitchen with sitting area that could be converted into another queen bed.

I can’t really explain how much the kids had during these few days. They rode almost all the rides and saw a number of shows. Iman was able to get her pictures with the famous princesses though she had to stay in the queue with Uncle Wasim for a couple of hours but the excitement did not change during that time. We visited our Ranch’s beautiful pool and had loads of fun. Disney studios was also very exciting. Overall it was a great experience and everyone thoroughly enjoyed this stay. It rained a few times during the day and also at night but we were fully prepared for it with our raincoats etc. It didn’t bother us at all and during the rain we found shorter and fewer lines for the rides. Each day we entered Disney the earliest and left it the latest. This is our way of enjoying whenever we go to such parts.

It was evening when we signed out from the Disney area. We were to go towards Switzerland crossing the whole of France. Night was already falling in; we had a booking at one F1 hotel on the way in a small town. It took us about an hour to reach the hotel. We settled in and went out to find some food for us. The evening was great as we sat out until late night and rain made us go in our room for some well-deserved rest.

EU trip (Dubai - England - Paris), Days 1-4

EU Trip

DAY 1-3

When I was a child I read some travel books in which the writers roamed around Europe and camped at different lakes and at different mountain places, since that time  I always dreamed of such a trip for myself. Though in all these years I never got a chance to make it due to one reason or the other. 

This year I had planned to do it while my family was suppose to be away for vacations in Pakistan. But by the turn of the events they also tagged along and now we all were heading to UK from where our trip started. It was high time to have this dream trip coming true, the only difference was that it was going to be a family trip, a mixture of camping, excursion, disney, and luxury. I had to plan with all sorts of activities so that everybody could enjoy the trip. With kids between the ages of 3 and 11 a lot of varied activities were required to spend the 35 days trip.

The plan was to drive across a few countries of Western Europe including France, Switzerland (our main priority), Holland, Belgium and then back to England. We would finish with a week’s trip to Scotland and then back to Dubai via London.

Our luggage was quite a bit because we were carrying our camping gear with us. None of our friends in EU or England had any camping gear, as they are not into such activities. Therefore, when we landed at Gatwick we had 3 big suitcases filled only with camping stuff in addition to our other luggage. And whatever we couldn’t carry with us we had to buy that stuff from the UK.

My friend Tariq dropped us off at the airport with his loaded Pajero with our luggage. Kids were excited and they didn’t trouble us on getting up early morning at 5:30 and in no time they were all ready, I presume they didn’t even sleep properly out of this journeys excitement. It was our first time traveling through the new terminal 3 at Dubai Airport so we kept some time for exploring it. Boarding cards were already printed so we checked-in without any hassle and fairly quickly. After exploring the duty free for some time we stopped at Marhaba lounge to have some refreshments and ended up with a full breakfast buffet. We were all stuffed when we started more walk through the shops at the new duty free area. They have done it pretty nicely to say the least.

Flight was not bad with kids getting some goodies to play with and for us there was a good lunch. Children enjoyed the onboard entertainments provided by the airline and watched their favorite movies also. We landed at London Gatwick at 1400 Hrs, and after collecting our luggage from the belts came out in the lounge. Wasim was waiting for us at the door and he was also accompanying us for the first leg of our journey through EU. He was all excited and had kept his ride ready for the long haul trip. The drive back to his place was just over an hour from the airport but it took us about 3 hours due to some traffic at the famous M25 and then a stop at the Outlet Mall on the way. You really find some good deals on stuff from the outlet malls if you dig for them. Before reaching home we picked up some dinner from a Turkish Donner place as Wasim’s family was visiting Pakistan.

There were a couple of days before we start our EU travel, and these couple of days were kept deliberately to complete preparations and check the stuff bought in the UK. The main supplies that we bought from there were a butane gas Stove and a Heater with their extra cylinders, sleeping mats (self inflatable ones), sleeping bag for Wasim and an extra long sleeping mat, disposable plates etc., toiletries, groceries etc. We spent these couple of days going to different shops for these items and made sure to load our Chrysler Voyager’s central compartments with our kitchen related and cooking items. The days flew by while we finished preparations for the trip. The checklist had all tick marks in the required column. We were all set to leave for the fairy now.

DAY 4

We would be entering EU via France. For going to France we had booked a ferry from Dower to Calais starting at 7:45am so we had to leave very early in the morning as we were in Milton Keynes which is some couple of hours from the Dover port. So we left at 5:00am to be there in time, we comfortably made it to Dover city very much in time, however there was a huge traffic jam in Dover that made us late to catch our booked fairy. By the time we reached the check-in place it was 8:30am already so we had to board a later ferry at 9:15am. We had paid priority boarding so we became the first car to board the ship at 9:15. After parking our car in the ship we went up to the dinning room to get some breakfast and enjoy the morning aboard this fairy. It was our first time carrying our car in the ferry so kids were real excited with this new experience. We kept wondering how they could fit so many buses, rvs and cars into this ferry.

We had very few choices for the breakfast as most of the things were not Halal, therefore we ended up taking some eggs, toasts, butter, jam, coffee and some potato wedges though we couldn’t even finish everything we bought. The taste was just about ok so we gulped to fill up enough. After the breakfast we started to explored the ship, the deck was very cold so we couldn’t spend much time on it, but went through the rest of the ship a couple of times before the journey ended at Calais.

We were the first one to come out at Calais as we were the first one loaded into the ship. Surprisingly no one checked any documents while boarding and no one even checked our docs while getting into France. Wasim was driving at this time, our car was a right-hand drive vehicle, although in EU there are left-hand drive vehicles so he took some time to getting used to the change. Paris was a couple of hours drive from Calais.

We were six people and we were almost on a budget trip other than the Disney days, therefore we had booked a Formula 1 hotel and found it to be the best possible accommodation for us and for our budget. Best thing about this chain of hotels is that these could be booked online or one could just walk in to, to get a bed. These are non-serviced rooms as there is not much staff available to take orders; there were only one or two people on duty who would do everything. You just need to put your credit card into the slot to get your number to enter your room; it is as simple as that. Each room had a queen size bed and a bunk on top of it. Other then this there was just one television and a washbasin in the room. There was a small dining area and basic food available in the lobby through vending machines. Showers and WCs were shared for each floor but more then enough for one floor as during our whole trip which had a few nights at different Formula 1s we never had to wait for one to get vacant. A microwave in the dining room was a plus for us as we had a lot of cooked frozen food with us. We had cooked a number of dishes in our stay at Milton Keynes while we were preparing for the journey to avoid the Halal food problem for as many days as possible. This hotel suited our budget and also due to the fact that we could freely do what we wanted. France has about 300 of such hotels and a few in the rest of EU. Two rooms rent was just 80 and some odd Euros, which is a good price for six people to stay anywhere in EU, the plus was each time we got two rooms that was convenient for us. It took us some time to find our hotel primarily, but when we found it, it was more than our expectations.

We had a plan to visit a few places in Paris that afternoon. For doing that we left our car at the hotel and started our walk to the station to catch a metro that was supposed to be just 10 minutes away. But it turned out to be more than that due to not knowing the exact directions to the station. We had a disadvantage of having no knowledge of French though kids helped us in this department. A Bangladeshi gentleman became our guide from here and he was so courteous that he missed his station to take us to our first tourist attraction. Language barrier got resolved for some time at least.

We visited a number of places until late into the night which are listed below

A para missing here.............

We rode the double decker, subway etc. and enjoyed the night to the full. We had long walks in Paris famous streets and headed back to the hotel via subway. It was very late at night when we reached our station but while getting out of the station took the wrong staircase to reach the different side of the station. It suddenly looked different but we had only visited this place once so we were not sure about the directions. We walked for about 15 minutes and then found someone on the street, after asked about the directions he told us we were going entirely on the wrong side. He was a gentleman and walked with us to a near by place where a few other people were chatting. They discussed our situation and offered us to drop us off at our hotel. It was quite a tough decision for us to whether go with them or not. All the more they had to take two cars, as we were seven people. We contemplated this for some time and then our gut feel told us to go ahead as the people really looked decent. We divided ourselves into two groups and off we went. The guys we were riding with was a new Muslim, he was a roman catholic before converting and was French national. His story was very interesting. He told us once he converted to Islam his family almost disowned him and so did he to them. But as he grew closer to the religion and studied about it he understood that he was suppose to be taking care of his parents as it is one of the main principles of Islam. So he did go back to his parents and extended his help to take care of them. They happily accepted it and now he goes to see them every now and then and took good care of them. He was an awesome person and very kind at heart. Those gentlemen dropped us at the hotel soon after his story ended. It was about 3am when we entered our room. The main challenge we faced in this exercise was to communicate with them, as all they knew was French and a very little English. Anyhow an interesting and tiring day ended.

(In progress)

Taste Sand Early Morning 15th may 2009

The temperature in the UAE is rising tremendously, making the day off road drives extremely difficult. Therefore we had a early morning run in the desert on Friday. We left at 4am and were out of the desert by 9am. Here are some pictures from the trip.

Pulling a Pathfinder from a ditch

Entering desert after deflating tires to 15psi

Side Slopping

Side Slopping

All shots taken are of moving vehicles.