EU trip (Holland), Days 16-17

DAY 16 and 17 - A Country of Windmills and Canals

Despite we slept almost closer to the morning light, we got up fairly early to explore Amsterdam and around. We were staying in Zaandam area and had no idea at nighttime where it was. Later we found out that it was the main place to see the famous windmills.

Once ready we drove to the city center of Zaandam, which was on the river. It was a nice walk there however we couldn’t find any information center to get some maps and stuff. One travel agent gave us some information but also sent us to the main station Amsterdam for further info. The drive was about 15 minutes through some under construction roads and a lot of zig zags. When we reached our destination it was hard to find the parking but finally we managed to find one but it was quite an expensive one.

We walked to the station for info and received all necessary advise from the young lady along with the direction maps. We decided to go to the fishing and picturesque villages before exploring the main city. Therefore after walking back to the car we drove off to the first place right on the shores of Sea named as Volendam. This was a very beautiful old village sitting right on the shores; the walk in the tourist village was very interesting. There were several shops and restaurants dotted on the Oceanside some having the sea view, selling either eateries or things for the tourists. The arrangements in the stores were very pretty and village like. The stuff that they sell were mostly different types of windmills, famous Dutch shoes models, models of cows etc. The birds here were very friendly and we all played with the little sparrows, seagulls etc. for a long time. There were small houses in the whole village joined together like artificial Lego houses. The designs did not look different from each other but pretty colors used for the finish gave them a unique look. There were canals everywhere in Holland including these small villages on the sea. Boats looked like a major mean of transport here or at least was one of the major means of transport earlier. We really like Volendam and this few hour’s trips was a memorable one.

We left Volendam and drove towards Edam another beautiful village through the smaller roads. It was a green country but in another manner. I couldn’t really compare Switzerland with Holland, as these are two distinct countries with two entirely different landscapes.  The roads other than the highways were really small but maintained.

Most of the area in this country is well below the sea level and how it has survived centuries is because of the system that they have developed to channelize the water.

Edam was also a wonderful village but different from Volendam as it had the big canal dissecting the town and then smaller canals in few streets. It seemed like a village of medieval time. Very quite and elegant but still people living in it. A few shops here and there but with a great décor. We first drove through the streets wherever we could go and then parked our car to have a walking tour that was worth the effort from tired bodies. We saw the old buildings and streets, stroll on the canal banks and enjoyed the fresh air. Luckily today was the sunny day and we could really enjoy the walks, as when we started the day in the morning it was raining but it stopped by noon since when we started walking.

The first infamous round cheeses were exported from Edam to all corners of the world many centuries ago. Traditional cheese markets take place every week during the high season, and the few remaining cheese warehouses keep the memory of this colorful past alive. Edam is a town rich with history, monumental buildings, beautiful squares, shopping streets and outdoor cafés.

It was 5pm and the shops were closing already like rest of the EU. So we drove off to go to Merken another fishing village.

Let me briefly put some more info about these villages. The historic fishing villages of Volendam and Marken are best known for their characteristic wooden houses, water sports, traditional costumes and fresh fish. Tucked away on the coast of the former Zuiderzee (a North Sea inlet), now the IJsselmeer (Lake IJssel), these villages have preserved their character for many centuries. The quaint houses, winding canals and drawbridges create a truly romantic, winsome atmosphere.

These old villages still have life in them and a very well preserved one. These people really respect their assets and in this case their history and the buildings. You could still see centuries old houses in good shape and livable condition. I found people quite simple here.

After Merken we continued driving to another village, which is on the island joined via road. Here we had to park outside the village in designated parking lots for 10 Euros as there were no visitor cars allowed in the village. The gardens here were one the most beautiful ones as we saw in Swiss but here the difference was that they have converted their small gardens into pieces of art by putting so many different kind of plants in a very artistic manner. It was one amazing sight for us. We walked around and enjoyed the village tour thoroughly. Evening was falling in so we started walking back to the car although we wanted to stay here for more time.

We were staying at one of Waseem’s friends from today for the next two nights. So we drove back to their place that was about 45 minutes from here. GPS took us straight to their location and found that they were out for groceries, usually people don’t come in time when they give a particular time but that’s not us, we are always in time, so we had to wait for 30-40 minutes for them to reach back. They were a very nice family of husband and wife with their three children. I sincerely thank them for their hospitality and for having us at their place.

The evening was spent chatting with our hosts and late at night we crashed into our beds. It was a semi camping kind of a thing as we were using our camping mats and sleeping bags on the floor.

We got up in the morning, got ready, had breakfast and left for Amsterdam on a train for which we had bought tickets the day before when we visited the station information center. Today we were planning to cover Amsterdam as much as we could despite being the rainy day. It started to rain early morning and even when we left for the station that was not too far it was still raining. We used our raincoats and continued. Train took 40 minutes to reach the main station right in the heart of the city. We had bought the full day tickets for the buses or trains for today. Rain didn’t stop at all so we came out and started our walk according to the city walking tour guide from one place to another and from one square to another.

Amsterdam was built several years ago as a fishing village and then rose to the level of one of the modern and important cities of the world. Today I see it as a run down city. This city has big networks of canals in a grid system. Must be an elegantly lay out once but now with time and age it is all getting dirty and is breaking down. There was lot of maintenance and construction going on but my views are according to what I saw and felt about the city. It’s a youngster’s city as smoking of even pot and other stuff is allowed here. So it’s a heaven for drinkers and smokers, as I would call it. Another business is thriving in this town is the sex business, as this business is rated as a trade here. We walked quite a bit in rain when we decided to have a break and for that the best thing to do was to hop on to a bus and enjoy the city while drying the cloths, so we did the same. The bus conductor suggested us a couple of places to see and dropped us off at one point where there was a flea market going on. It was pathetic by the way so we had a coffee break instead and used their bathrooms instead of paying euro a person elsewhere, we used this Euro per person towards our cofee.

We came out and started walking when the rain started off again at great pace. We kept walking in different streets, along the canals and crossed several monuments and squares. It was by afternoon when we decided to go back and get the car for further exploration. We had yet to see the famous windmills. The train came right after we entered the station so after 45 minutes we were driving our car and going towards Zaandam where the famous old-fashioned windmills were located.

We stopped just before a bridge where construction was going on and parked our car on the road and walked across. There were several windmills here making beautiful scenery. The houses were along the water and on the other side few more houses and many wind mills. We took a walk in the pretty village along the water and then through the village. There were a couple of small windmills with in the village as well. And no need to mention that there are smaller sized canals everywhere and the birds of so many kinds were in abundance all over Holland. Rain stopped and gave us a chance to explore this village and enjoy the nature. Green pastures looked absolutely amazing with cows grazing in them. On our return we saw the bridge opened up fully to let one ship go under it and that made kids very excited as well because they had not seen this before. Walk to the car took us 10 minutes and then we headed home.

EU trip (Switzerland), Day 15

DAY 15

It was going to be a long day for us. We packed up everything into the van and I went 10 minutes ahead of the car to return the bicycle that Sajeel brought last night. This was the same bike troubling us last night and I had to stop several times to fix its tire before reaching the shop for return. It was 8’o clock at the return time. We said bye to Sohail and family and drove towards Luzern.

Luzern is a nice city with big lake as one attraction. We spent some time there to walk around and as I mentioned earlier it was just like another EU city if you are not staying there for longer time. This much time gave us a good glimpse of the city and we were able to pick a few souvenirs from there. Luzern’s main attraction was Mt. Titlis that we had explored in the last two days. We also walked around the river and saw the two very old bridges over it. Flowers were the keynote for this city as well and they had plenty of those to massage your eyes with soothing colors.

We left Luzern for Zurich. We planned to spend a few hours in Zurich before driving towards Amsterdam and would make a stop by evening somewhere for the night. The probable stop was after the Black Forest in Germany. But when we reached Zurich we had a lot of trouble finding the appropriate parking and all the more it looked to us a big city and not to be covered in a couple of hours. So we contemplated and decided against staying here. We would leave it for another visit of Switzerland and may land here to start our trip. But still we managed to drive around to have a good feel to take along from Zurich, also paid a Euro each to use the bathroom at the main station.

The next stop in mind was Black Forest, which is the birthplace of the famous Cuckoo Clocks a couple of centuries ago. The GPS was not giving us a proper stop for that so we used the wifi to find some town with in the Black Forest region and started driving towards that place. We crossed into Germany with in the next two hours of driving. The terrain, scenery and architecture changed a bit to give us a German feeling. We took a break at one service center for lunch and continued driving, as the stop was still a couple hours away. We noticed that the traffic had increased on the highways in Germany, roads were very busy by this time and it was already afternoon. We reached the town in BlackForest (Another mountainous region to be covered in another trip to EU) by 5pm. It was to our disappointment that everything was about to close there and this particular town was not the one we intended to reach. And the other town was another 90 miles away into the mountains, and we were not ready to go in an opposite direction at this stage. So we had no choice but either to continue driving or have a stop over for the night, our dream of buying Cuckoo clocks was shattered. If we had stopped then we would be wasting half a day next day while driving to Amsterdam so we decided to reach as close to Holland as possible and then stay somewhere. Our GPS was still showing a good 7 hours drive from where we were.

Anyhow we enjoyed the German highways having no speed limit and we drove really fast on some areas but could not do justice due to busy roads. And then we got stuck in the traffic for about 2 hours; this break was always a tough one for the driver as well as for the passengers. We found the road opened after a good two hours of crawling on the road. But we had some more surprises on the way, the dark clouds started gathering as far as we could see the sky. And it was not far when it started to rain cats and dogs. The rain was very heavy at times and thunderstorm was just half an hour away. It started to get very dark and the thunderstorms really got worst. But with all the obstacles we continued our journey slowly. It was quite late in the evening but now we were not in the mood to stop on the way. We called ahead to Formula 1 hotel in Amsterdam and got the necessary booking of two rooms already. The weather got worst and worst and we had to make couple of unnecessary stops to wait for the better weather conditions as the visibility reduced to zero at times. The drive was treacherous and tiring, it was already more then 12 hours since we started our journey in the morning. The weather remained like that until we finally made it to Amsterdam at about 2am and 18 hours of journey. We just crashed in our beds as soon as we reached our hotel in the Zaandam area.

EU trip (Switzerland), Day 13

DAY 13

Morning was quite clear with some sunny start. We bought some supplies from the super market and then started off to visit Bern the Swiss capital. It is about an hour drive from Interlaken. We had left Interlaken with some very good memories and given a chance would definitely visit this place again.

The drive was alongside the lake for some time and then on a highway through the mountains towards the capital. We would be finishing our drive at Engelberg just at the base of Mt. Titlis and in the Luzern area. Mount Titlis is another famous mountain of Swiss.

We had another task in Bern to find some Halal meat for the feast tonight as my bro and his family was going to the same place via rail and would join us for the dinner. They were on the run for about a month and desperately wanted to eat something like that. After reaching Bern we parked in the main parking in the center of the city just above the main station and went to the info center for some help. Then we started our city walk to cover the major places on foot. It didn’t take us long to complete our tour, hence we started to find some Asian store for the meat. It wasn’t long when we found the appropriate store and bought some good chicken from there, and some more spices those were running out from our kitchen.

Bern is a nice little town with some great tram system in place. It has a lot of historic buildings in the city like most of the other EU cities. All EU cities are trying to sell their Art and Culture that they’ve preserved pretty well. The city tours are usually consisted of few churches, some govt. buildings, a few museums and a few parks. The architecture is very much similar to each other, to be very honest. The other thing they sell is the liberty they provide to the youngsters in terms of drinking and smoking. Switzerland in this sense is very lucky that it has something extra and that is the natural beauty but very well maintained. Bern was just another city in Swiss and I didn’t find anything really special about it. So we moved on to pass Luzern and reach Engelberg, it was another couple of hours from there.

Drive was through some highways with fairly nice views and we made it to Engelberg without anything special but we knew that tonight’s dinner was going to be a good one. Excitement ran through my spine and I couldn’t wait to eat that. We were camping tonight and tomorrow. This was a very pretty little town with a few streams and rivers going through the town. Mountains on both sides, trees and plantation everywhere, flowers filled windows of each and every house. Despite being a tiny town it had a vibrant feeling and the little main street was busy enough. The station was small but it gets busy for a couple of minutes as soon as a train arrives. We were just about the finish using the bathroom facilities at the station when we received a call from my bro that they were just about to arrive in town. What a perfect timing for us to be at the right place at the right time. So just after a couple of minutes here they were. Small World!!

We left the kids at a park to play and burn their excessive energies and went out to find a hotel for them and a campsite for us. Sohail had stayed here before and he wanted to find the same place for themselves so it took us some time to find the same hotel but finally we found it and also got the booking in it. Then we went to find the campsite and that wasn’t difficult to find either. There is only one campsite here and it is next to a hotel and a trailer park. So this facility has all sorts of flavors having all types of accommodation available. They gave us a site in no time and we were quite happy to find this one as we had a full view of a waterfall from the place we selected for us to pitch our tent.

Let me approve of this campsite being the best of all I’ve stayed at and I’ve been to several other campsites. This was best in terms of the bathroom, laundry and other facilities not from the site perspective. The sites were not bad as well but these are in EU and I explained earlier how are the campsites in EU. There was a big laundry room with drying fans in the basement. Bathrooms were excellent having all five star facilities, but for showers we had to pay 2 euro and the showers worked for 4 minutes. The place was extremely clean and they had some nice play areas for children including a small pond with wooden logs for kids to experience with bamboos to float around. Overall I’ll give full marks to this place, a very well organized and managed place.

After finding a good pitch we erected our tent and set up our beds. The evening was quite chilly and we were using our wind blockers or jumpers to protect ourselves. It was late but for us to start cooking the best dinner of our trip. Sohail and family arrived after setting them up at the hotel. We only had a small utensil to cook so we had to make two or three rounds of cooking to cook for everybody. We had all the necessary stuff to cook the meal as we cooked at home but the environment and the place added some extra taste in our food and without doubt this was our best meal in 15 days. We got fresh bread from the camp store to eat with it. An awesome evening and what a finish to a days excursion. We wrapped up and as usual Wasim did the dishes. We had a nice walk in the area to explore it further and after that came back to the tent to call it a day. Another beautiful night and another wonderful day finished. A lot of memories collected to cherish in the years to come. Good Night!!

EU trip (Switzerland), Day 14

DAY 14 – Lets Conquer Mount Titlis

We had a good few hours’ sleep as we slept late last night but still the night was quite comfortable and was not very cold either. Morning was very nice and bright. An opportunity for us to use the best bathrooms once again and we did justice to that. Breakfast was simple with some eggs and bread. Today we would go up to Mt. Titlis via three different cable cars while Sohail and family would go to another ski place on the opposite side via cable cars.

After we were ready we went to the information centre to purchase tickets to Titlis. We got a deal for three adults and three kids for 200 franks and headed to the cable car station that was just half a mile away to catch the cable car. As soon as we got in line a couple of buses came in a lot of rush accumulated behind us. To reach the top there were three stages and at each stage we had to change the cable car. First of all there is a small size cabin that took us to the first stage, it could only accommodate 6 people. The second stage was a big bus kind of cable car that could accommodate 81 standing people. And the third stage was a circular cable car that revolved around while going up and it could also accommodate about 80 standing people. There were stunning views from the cable cars at each stage, but the side windows and glass in all sides of the cable cars were badly scratched as these were used for people going up for skiing in the winters and they carry their gear and skis, which scratched the sides. On the smaller sized cable cars, there were flags of all the countries or may be flags of those countries where there are mountains and glaciers…I’m not sure about that. Anyhow we enjoyed the ride specially the kids. It took about 45 minutes to complete one side but it took us longer to finish one side as due to some problem we were hung in the air for more than 15 minutes in the third stage.

On the last stop we saw a lot of snow. It was very cold up here. There were indoor viewing rooms for people who did not want to go out. But we had purchased the ticket to the Glacier Park as well to have some fun, therefore we had to walk on the snow for some time to catch an open flying chair which took us down for 10 minutes to reach the Glacier Park on one side of the Mount Titlis. These are the similar kind of chairs used by the skiers to go up or down for shorter distances. There were six seats on one flat surface and we were six people so we all sat on one long chair. The flying chair went over glacial surfaces and crevasses; it was terrible to see those holes in the glaciers. There were snow-capped mountains all around; one would feel like at the top of the world here. This 10 minutes flying over the glaciers was very nice, and once we were dropped at the glacier park kids started to get the two rides available there. Both these rides were not like electric rides but in natural settings, one was a tubing over the glacial surface and nice carved slide that took the tube to high speed and then stopped at a place a couple of hundred meters away down in the valley, and the other one was different types of sledges and a sliding area. Both of them were very interesting. Despite being so cold children didn’t want to go back from here. Running in the snow made our feet wet and some parts of cloths were wet too, but the adrenaline rush kept us going in the cold temperatures. We moved back before getting sick because of the cold after a couple of hours of fun in the snow. This reminded us of snowing in Canada when we used to run to the slopes in a park near by, with our sledges. It was an amazing experience. We came back to the main building/station of Titlis and got some snaps outside. Then had a lunch break in the viewing room on the 4^th floor. Day was absolutely clear today and all the mountains in the region were visible with naked eye or with the binocular.

We also visited the Glacier caves here that are nicely carved caves within the glaciers. There was very good lighting arrangement in the ice walls. It was a short walk but worth it.

On the way back we got down on the second stage, as there was a nice lake just 10 minutes walk from the stop. We enjoyed the lake view with stunning surroundings and took a lot of pictures in this area. This hour’s break was very soothing for the eyes due to the fresh green color around and the lake giving us reflection of the mountains. There was abundance of fish in the lake and one could see schools of fish very close to the edges also.

The next stop was on the Engelberg station from where we started this morning. This was the end of a thrilling ride to Mt. Titlis. We walked for half a mile to reach the main street where Sohail joined us and the kids got company. They all rented bicycles to enjoy on the small streets of the town and we headed back to the campsite. Iman and Hassan stayed with us, as they were not big enough to ride bikes on the hilly surface.

The site was full of life with a lot of kids playing in the play areas and running around. Our kids joined them for the fun too. The evening was very pleasant and not cold at all. We enjoyed sitting in the sun for a while, walked on the green pastures and enjoyed the clear view of waterfall just above our camp. A river was passing just behind our tent and was producing rapids and a noise that we didn’t mind rather enjoyed as the music of the environment.

Night was approaching and the rest of the gang also joined us after some time. Tonight we would be cooking Daal Chaawal for all of us. Kids went to play area while we started our cooking. Another delicious meal was served after an hour or so. The environment added a lot of tasted to it without doubt.

After the dinner we all went for bicycle ride / walked further north from our site and crossed some nice fields and golf course. We returned back when it started to get darker. One bike also started to give trouble and its wheel was jamming again and again so it was time to quite cycling for tonight. We all came back to the site and Sohail and family said good-bye and returned to their hotel. We wrapped up as much as we could, as we would be leaving this place the next morning. The night was as interesting as the previous one and we really enjoyed the bedtime talk. Another day and another amazing finish to it.

EU trip (Swiss Alps - Interlaken and Jungfrua Area), Day 11 -12

DAY 11 - 12

When we got up in the morning the clouds were still there but quite high in the sky so it was quite a bright morning and no rain but it could come back any moment. We were to drive to Interlaken today, so we rushed to the bathrooms for early morning jobs and got ready to pack up. We got lucky again as due to the break in rain we were able to clean and pack up or tent and other stuff into the van before it started raining again. We paid our dues at the small camp office quickly and moved out of this town. Interlaken was the next stop a couple of hours away but again through very scenic route. We kept following the GPS directions and ended up at a toll station that claimed 25 franks and we got loaded into a train unknowingly. This turned out to be quite an interesting experience as the train went through many tunnels and made our trip shorter by 30 miles and saved us about an hour roughly. But we came across some very nice areas and water falls falling from great heights, I can’t explain that really. We just sat in our car during this time and enjoyed the scenery or the darkness of the tunnels. As we came out of the train the drive was not much as the lake started on our left.

Interlaken is sandwiched between two lakes, the surroundings are really cool and lush. We had a couple of tough nights so thought of staying at a hotel for a day or so to do some laundry and rest. So we found the information center that told us that there was no place available in any budget hotel or hostel, however he pointed out a tent village where we could rent already erected big tents for the night. So we drove to the booking place that was a hostel too. It was full of young people. The facilities were great with kitchen, laundry, play room, TV room etc. etc. Without any hassle we got a tent with six beds reserved for us for 106 franks, it was quite reasonable owing to the fact that most of the hotels and hostels were packed up. Village was not far from the town and just 1 km from their hostel. We could occupy it not before 4 pm so after getting our place all set up we came back to the main street on bus leaving our car at the tent village, and had a complete round of the city and discovered that due to some local festivities there was a big fireworks at 10 pm. The bus pass was included in our tent rent.

We had a nice lunch / dinner at a Turkish Halal place that we found during our city tour. Food was awesome and filling. When we decided to go back to the tent and bring our car to see the fireworks we got to know that there was no bus available at that time. We got stranded but then saw a taxi, which took us back to the camp while Sajeel and Waseem stayed in the city, as they couldn’t fit into the taxi. I went with my wife and Iman and Hassan back to the camp and drove back to the city. Luckily we found a good parking spot not far from the site of fireworks. The night had become cold, and the fireworks started at 10:30pm but it was a real nice one. It was a treat by this city, and we saw fireworks in the mountains for the first time.

Late night we made it back to our camp. This is when we received call from my elder bro that they were also reaching Interlake but without any kind of booking for the night. It was about 1:30am when their train arrived, Waseem had to go pick them up. He got a tent booked for them from the hostel as well, but when they came the same tent had people already sleeping in it. Finally at 2:30am the attendant from the hostel came himself and sorted it out for us. We slept close to the morning for a few hours only.

Everyone started getting up early morning out of excitement of meeting each other. Now we had my brother, his wife and their two kids with us and they would remain with us for the next four days. This was amazing because there was no plan of meet up or for staying together when they left for EU 10 days ahead of us.

Anyhow we took showers and then prepared breakfast for everyone and had a hearty meal. The famous area of mountains in this region is Jungfrau and is pronounced as yunfrao. Jungfrau is the tallest mountain of this area. From Interlaken there are several routes of mountain trains, which take you to different mountain towns, some are car free zones like Zermatt. So instead of going to one top of the mountain train we took a circular route, which would cover Grindelwald, Kl. Scheidegg, Wengen and Lauterbrunnen. At each of these towns one would have to change the train and hop on to another color of train those are marked for different areas. These are smaller size trains with powerful engines because they have to climb mountains, when you see them from far while going uphill these seem like colored warms moving slowly on the ridges. Our train was not too crowded as it wasn’t the weekend, so we all got seats on the windows. Kids had their cousins so they were over excited anyhow. The development done in Swiss has no words to explain and admire. Their infrastructure is absolutely world class and so is the beauty given to this country by the Almighty.

And the most important thing is how they have preserved it so well. People here are very fond of flowers and plants and you see a lot of different colors of flowers and several types of trees and plants.

We got down at Grindelwald first and had a nice walk in the main and only street of the pollution free town. We also had the lunch break here, and our lunch consisted of fresh bread bought from the bakery eaten with honey, cheese and jam. Breads were very delicious in France and Switzerland and I never had such amazing tastes of breads anywhere.

We hopped on to the next available train to Kl. Scheidegg, going further up into the mountains. This was a small village with lots of man friendly goats on the station itself. What else our kids wanted, they spent a lot of time playing with them. We had a small trekking expedition from here into the green pastures offering abundance of greenery and prettiness. The walk was very easy while going downhill and was difficult uphill. The surroundings were full of fresh air, wet mountain soil, peaks, plants and flowers. Iman made some nice bouquet out of numerous colored flowers growing on each side of the small trek snaking deep into the mountains. We passed some nice water streams and freshened up ourselves with crystal clear chilled water. Temperature kept dropping as we went up into the mountains.

Our last train going back from here was at 5:30 pm and we also had to make another stop so we turned back and came to the station. We wanted to stop at the beautiful town of Lauterbrunen that is the last drivable town in the region. There was one amazing campsite named as Jungfrau Camping, what an amazing natural setting it is sitting in. There are waterfalls visible from where you camp; this was one of the most beautiful campsites I’ve ever seen in the last several years of my camping. This town was very nice and was surrounded by several other waterfalls, 72 to be more precise. A walk in the town was worth it. We came back to the station to catch one of the last trains going back to Interlaken after finishing our excursion. And from Interlaken station we had to make two trips to the Tent Village to transport all of us to the village.

We assembled and then started to cook our dinner, we cooked some rice and daal/channa/lentils combination. It was a weird combination but we loved eating it. The night was interesting. It was not that cold and staying out and cooking was a fun. After the diner we thought of crashing after a hectic day.