[chetan_l]

Originally Posted by rst89

I loved the detailed planning you had done for the trip. Kudos to you!

Thanks much Rohit, appreciate it! Were you on a holiday too? Would love to read your travelogue if you publish it. I will also go thru your Combodia report shortly.

Originally Posted by rst89

There is a company which offers free walking tours in the cities you have visited like Munich and Amsterdam. They are New Europe Tours
I would definitely recommend you to them next time you visit Europe or somewhere else.

Yes, I had considered Sandeman's walking tours, but will opt for it when on my solo trips!

Continuing on to my travelogue:

8th May 2017
It has been my wife's childhood dream to visit the Tulip Gardens - one of her two 'must-sees' in the itinerary; the other being Switzerland (anywhere in Switzerland). Her birthday falls on the 9th of May and so I had decided that I would take her to Keukenhof on her birthday. So, today would be a day for the museums!

Having met the Hindochas the previous evening, we all decided to meet up at the Van Gogh museum on the morning. After a home-cooked breakfast, we caught the local trams to Museumplein. Despite having the IAmsterdam card, one needs to wait in line to get the visitor pass in each of the museums. So, after a thankfully not-too-long wait, we got admission to the museum that honors the Dutch master, and has a rich display of several of his masterpieces. With the audio guide in hand, one can get to relive the tumultuous and maverick life journey of Van Gogh.

After spending a couple of hours inside the museum, we enjoyed an outing out in the sunshine near the IAmsterdam sign - a tourist hotspot! You cannot get a decent picture of yourself without somebody photobombing you badly, and so the only way for you to get your picture is "to do unto others before they do unto you!"

Anyway, we also purchased the tickets for Rijksmuseum since it is not covered in the IAmsterdam card. The museum tour was worth every cent as you take in the magnificent art, sculptures and installations on display. To the discerning museum-buff, you can spend days here without having your fill. We, on the other hand, had other plans and wanted to visit Zaanse Schaans and the Dutch windmills in the afternoon. So, we cut short our tour of the museum and after grabbing a quick lunch, took a public transport bus out to Zaandam.

I will post a photo-collage of our museum visits below and in the next post, will talk a little bit more about our visit to Zaandam.


Before signing off this post, take a look at yet another music band playing the Rasputin and other songs; it was lovely watching a bunch of school kids enjoying the scene on their school outing! (A small but important detail - all kids had a bright fluorescent vest with the emergency phone number printed on them; it is a simple but thoughtful aspect that I found speaks volumes about how the western world organizes things!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0xTosEeQ4U

[pinin]

One thing to note in most of Europe is that the rest-rooms all over are mostly pay-and-use types. And if you have a fairly weak bladder, be ready to keep a lot of small change with you.

I fail to understand this - especially considering the fact that Europe is so people centric. Even in public places (example - Mall) where one may expect large number of people the number of rest rooms are very limited.

One more thing about Europe which I find difficult to digest is the high cost of bottled water. Its extremely expensive to buy one even in countries where it is perfectly safe to drink tap water. I guess it has to do with the cost of bottling and distribution.

Regards,
Pinin

[chetan_l]

Originally Posted by pinin

I fail to understand this - especially considering the fact that Europe is so people centric. Even in public places (example - Mall) where one may expect large number of people the number of rest rooms are very limited.

I guess it helps in maintenance and upkeep of the restrooms. I noticed that in some places it is not mandatory to pay, but they have 'tipping boxes' for you to drop your coins!

Originally Posted by pinin

One more thing about Europe which I find difficult to digest is the high cost of bottled water. Its extremely expensive to buy one even in countries where it is perfectly safe to drink tap water. I guess it has to do with the cost of bottling and distribution.

Quite right. That said, there is a huge difference between buying a single bottle from a convenience store versus buying a packed bunch from a large retail store. While you pay upwards of a couple of Euros for a 1 liter bottle, I purchased a pack of six 1 liter bottles @ about 30 cents a bottle! Useful when you have a car or you stay at one place for a few days.

----------
Continuing...

You step out of the bus and step into a time-warp when you enter Zaanse Schans. It is a throw-back to the times bygone. The windmills, several of which continue to be operational, is a real testimony to how things were made centuries back - be it the oil & paint mills, the saw mills, spice grinders, and so on. Based on the time of your visit, you will get to see a few windmills doing actual work while a local worked gives you the lowdown behind the technology. We made in on time to catch the paint mill and the oil mill function before winding down for the day.

The whole region is beautiful and indicative of the typical rural Dutch scene: water ways, green pastures, barns, wooden houses, workshops, a bakery, warehouses, and a few interesting and interactive museums thrown in. Oh, and the cheese factory and biscuit factory! We had a great time with perfect weather smiling down on us.

After having our fill, we returned back to Amsterdam city and pretty much called it a day. I will post a few pictures of the afternoon's sights:

[jaaz]

Good going! I should thank you for such a wonderful travelogue. I have almost made up my mind for a group tour (for practical reasons), but after going through the travelogue, tempting for DIY. Anxiously waiting for your continuation of the journey. I have exactly a month to plan, sort of ad hoc, unlike your meticulous way of doing things. Will be happy to get in touch, If you're free. PM me, to catch up personally.

[Jeroen]

Glad to see you enjoying my home country, the Netherlands! If you have any specific questions I will be happy to answer.


On the matter of paying for toilets. Not always, but then you will usually find a saucer on a little table and you are supposed to tip Euro 0,30 - 0,50.

A lot of the toilet facilities are outsourced to specialized company. That,'s how they make their money and you typically get a very clean well kept toilet.

Bottles water is expensive anywhere in Europe because .....I honestly don't know, but I feel its a bit of a racket and somebody is earning a truck load of money. Especially as you can drink tapwater just about anywhere in Europe.

Having a bottle of water with you is a bit of a craze. When we grew up, even at university, nobody had bottled water. You might actually not drink water sometimes for several hours. These days people think they will become hydrated unless they drink water all the time. Maybe in some parts of the world and in some climates, but not in Western Europe.
Jeroen

[chetan_l]

Originally Posted by jaaz

I have almost made up my mind for a group tour (for practical reasons), but after going through the travelogue, tempting for DIY. Anxiously waiting for your continuation of the journey. I have exactly a month to plan, sort of ad hoc, unlike your meticulous way of doing things.

@Jazz: Glad to connect with you! Look forward to hearing from you post your trip, here on Team-BHP!

Originally Posted by Jeroen

Glad to see you enjoying my home country, the Netherlands!

How could I not?
Such a lovely country, and I shall make a second visit sometime soon. Quite a few more places in my list, and Giethoorn stands right at the top.

Originally Posted by Jeroen

Bottles water is expensive anywhere in Europe because ....

The first time I experienced this was when I was traveling to the USA on my first International visit via Schiphol, more than 15 years back. As I was walking across the airport to board my next flight, I felt thirsty. Not knowing much about water fountains being available, I bought a bottle of water for something close to 3 Euros. I was quite shocked at the price, and right after purchasing, I turned around to find a water fountain nearby! :(

The second surprise was when I noticed a bottle of beer at a cheaper price! And, the third surprise was when I opened the bottle to drink "sparkling water" instead of just good-ole plain water!

Now, I am better informed!

[chetan_l]

9th May 2018
Today was my wife's birthday. And what better day than today to take her to her dream place - the Keukenhof gardens!

My initial plan was to rent a car and drive down to Keukenhof. We would have the Hindochas for company as well and we could have taken a few ad-hoc detours when needed. However, I felt that driving inside Amsterdam would be a little tricky with a few narrow lanes and the tram lines and cyclists all around. If I had familiarized myself for a few days, maybe I could have ventured. Instead, we decided to take an organized bus tour, especially since the tour package included a stopover at a Tulip garden.

One more tip: while there are many booking offices of the same tourist operators and all of them were offering some good discounts on spot booking, I found that booking online was indeed cheaper. In fact, I made our booking thru my mobile phone, standing right outside one of the booking offices the previous day!

So, on the morning of the 9th, we headed out towards the Centraal station after having some home-cooked breakfast, and met up with the Hindochas. We boarded a double-decker AC bus which was almost quite full. Our guide was a seasoned veteran who gave commentary in both Spanish and English. He was knowledgeable but he did carry a stand-offish attitude against a few tourists (mostly Asians), while he was quite genial with the rest! :(


En route, the tour took us to a Tulip farm, which had a packaged program for tourists. This included a video presentation on the whole process of growing, plucking, packing and distributing the Tulip bulbs all over the world. They also had a few curios and cheese for sale; and of course, flowers too! Only thing is that by the second week of May, almost all Tulips are already harvested and we missed out on potentially lush flower beds if only we had visited earlier!


After spending some time at the farm, the bus made its way towards the Keukenhof gardens in Lisse. What can I say about the world's foremost Tulip Garden? The enormity, the meticulous designing of the flower beds, the elaborate display shows dedicated to various genes of flora, the unending riot of colors? My wife was on cloud 9, covering almost the whole garden (not humanely possible though)!

[chetan_l]

We had a few hours to cover the gardens and also finish our lunch inside. We regrouped with the Hindochas and the rest of the fellow travelers to head back to the city, and we were back well in before the evening. This allowed us to move on to the next schedule in our tour - the inimitable Heineken Experience! The Heineken Experience is a guided interactive tour of the first Heineken brewery, which is no longer functional except to act as a fun & cheerful tour of your senses. There are several sections/rooms where different guides take you through the history of the company, the brewing process, a tasting room and a discotheque to unwind with the complementary mugs of brew they offer you at the end of the tour! It is also fun to try your hand on learning how to draught the perfect Heineken!


The Hindochas were leaving to Brussels the next day, where they would stay for a couple of nights (also visiting Ghent and Antwerp on day 2). They would reach Paris on the morning of 12th May. On the other hand, we had an extra day in Amsterdam and we would leave to Brussels on morning of the 11th and after a whirlwind tour of the city, we would head over to Paris.

We decided to take our Amsterdam canal cruise next, which was part of our IAmsterdam card offer. The Hindochas had already used up their canal cruise option on 7th May, the day 1 of their tour. So, we parted ways, deciding to regroup in Paris on the 12th May.

We chose to board the cruise boat from the stop right outside the Heineken brewery. Apart from a very young Indian couple and a few tourists from Israel, the boat was near empty. After a brief wait, our ageing Dutch captain decided he had to move on and we cruised through the intricate canal network of Amsterdam. It was a leisurely cruise, and we took in the different sights of the city with an audio guide giving us a low-down on the places as we visited each spot...it took me a little while before realizing that the audio recording was out-of-whack with the actual spots and was telling stories about places that we had left behind us some five minutes back!


Landing back at our start point of the tour, we headed out to the Taj Restaurant right behind the Heineken brewery for a sumptuous Indian dinner - we liked this place much better than Saravana Bhavan. Our quite dinner got noisy when a huge gang of Indians - looking very rich and pompous - were led in by a famous political leader from Andhra. It was a typically boisterous desi crowd, with everyone talking over each other, creating a cacophony of noises. We felt pretty much at home

[chetan_l]

10th May 2017
Today would be our last day at Netherlands, and we were right mid-way through our travel plan. For today, we had no fixed schedule or plan - we just wanted to stroll though the city and take in the lifestyle of the Dutch people living in Amsterdam. After a lazy breakfast, we headed out to a place that my wife was intrigued and wanted to visit - the Diamond Museum. This museum houses replicas of some of the largest and most famous diamonds in the world, complete with their back-stories and the history of diamond mining. I think the overall experience here is a little underwhelming.


After having had her satisfaction at the diamond museum, we next headed out to the famous flower market. The Bloemenmarkt is a 150 year old flower market that has floating decks displaying of flowers of all kinds, as well as shops selling typical curios and souvenirs. We found a few items on bargain and purchased them. From there, we just ambled around inside the city, spending some time people-watching as we walked over towards Rembrandtplein. We ate street food from the several carts around the area, before moving over to the historic residential quarters of Begijnhof. This place has a series of historical houses built around a courtyard. It continues to be inhabited by pious churchgoers who indulge the curious tourists as long as they do not interfere much with their daily living. (We wouldn't like tourists walking down our streets peering into our houses and taking our photos, would we?)

Thereafter, we moved to the Albert Cuyp Market, 100+ year old street market full of bargain stores selling clothers, groceries, antiques and what not. Today, this market is reputed to be the largest day-time market in Europe! Once there, I had to try the famous Stroopwafel - I definitely liked the stuff and had my fill.


In the evening, we took a tram back to Jordaan, where the Anne Frank House and Museum is located. If you want to visit the Anne Frank museum, you have to make a reservation weeks in advance, or stand in very long lines to purchase the available tickets from the store-front. We decided we would not visit the house, and instead, just strolled through the beautiful area before heading back to our house, for one last evening in Amsterdam.

We did catch up on the laundry and packing since we had a very early morning train to board the next day...

[chetan_l]

11th May 2017
Our next destination was Paris. And the train from Amsterdam to Paris goes via Brussels. Why not include a city break in the de-facto capital of the European Union then? With this in mind, I had booked a very early morning hi-speed French Thalys train from Amsterdam Centraal, departing at 7:17 and arriving in Brussels Midi by 9:08. For the leg from Brussels to Paris, we would depart from the Midi station again at 18:43, arriving in Paris Gare du Nord at 20:05 hrs. This allowed us almost 9+ hours to catch a whirlwind tour of Brussels.

We woke early and freshened up without disturbing our host in the bedroom next door and sneaked out of the apartment a little after 6 AM. After leaving the apartment, we just shut the front door behind us and then the main entry door as well. Oh yes, this was agreed upon previously with our host and you would get used to such arrangements if you stay in apartments in Europe! (The arrangement at Lucerne was even more interesting - more on that later). We then boarded a tram to the Centraal Station simply because the tram stop was outside our door and the tram would drop us right in from of the train station. It was only the pain of hauling our luggage which was wearing us down. Another challenge was hauling the luggage up and down the very narrow stairs four floors to our apartment!

Anyway, we made it to the station well on time. For this leg, I had booked a seat in the first class. It was quite an experience zooming through the countryside at speeds of up to 300 kmph in the sheer comfort of those huge recliner seats, eating a well-put together breakfast served on our table!


On arriving at the Midi (South) station, we left our luggage at a luggage locker before making our way across to the underground metro connecting the South station with the Central. Now, it is highly unfair to see Brussels within just 8 - 9 hours; one requires several dedicated days to explore and take in the magnificent city. We couldn't afford it. So, our plan was to do a typical touristy thing and board a Hop-On-Hop-Off tour of Brussels! There are two separate lines; one that covers the north part of the city (Blue Route) and the other concentrating more on the south and east part of the city (Red Route). These routes have several points of interest which we knew we couldn't visit all. I had picked on two important stops to cover - first was the Atomium and Mini-Europe on the Blue line, and the next was the Grand-Place complex on the Red line.

A collage of our HOHO bus trip:


Passing thru the streets of Brussels, it looked to carry all the charm of medieval Europe, vibrantly juxtaposed by Modern buildings and architecture! We did not get down at Rogier shopping center or the Royal green houses and lakes, and instead, got down at the Atomium. We purchased the combo-tickets to cover Mini-Europe along with Atomium and headed in to visit the landmark architecture of Brussels. It is quite fun switching escalators and elevators as we are taken thru a converted museum that recreates the world as it was in 1958 when the building was built. Some of the escalators take you thru psychedelic lighting and it is quite fun; almost like you are in the sets of Star Wars!


After spending some good time there, we next walked over to the Mini-Europe park which houses about 350 buildings from across 80 European cities in a 1:25 miniature scale model. We had pretty high expectations thinking it would be fun to get to see most of Europe on a miniature scale, but honestly, it gets boring pretty soon. We stopped enjoying after a while and decided to board the HOHO bus back to Central station where we would change over to the red line.


Arriving back at Central, we crossed over a couple of streets to catch the Red line bus from it's start point. One thing to note - being the house of several European union associations and banks, and having faced multiple threats from terrorism, Brussels was very heavily guarded. We could see soldiers carrying assault rifles and full-protective gear in most of the important landmarks, especially around the train stations. It was both unnerving and comforting at the same time.

On the Red line, we got down at the stop for the Grand-Place complex, and walked down the few blocks to reach the historic square. This is perhaps the most important historic tourist spot in Brussels and is considered as one of the most beautiful squares in Europe! Surrounded by heritage buildings like the Town Hall, King's House, and the houses of the Grand Place, the square itself was filled with a flea market on the day of our visit. Imagine our surprise when we heard a local vendor call out "moongphali...moongphali le lo...taaza taaza moongphali" and thrust a bag full of peanuts under our nose! The guy was a seasoned veteran who brings on his charm and speaks in over 12 international languages - enough to sell his wares at least! We fell for his charms as well and purchased a bag full of peanuts for 3 Euros!


After our whirlwind tour of Brussels, we headed back to the South train station, retrieved our bags and took the train to Paris Gare du Nord.

If ever you are in Europe and are feeling nostalgic, just head to the Paris North train station and walk down the street in parallel. From Saravana Bhavan to Krishna Bhavan; from Thalapakatti Biriyani to Madras Cafe; from Sree Palace selling sarees to Ragawa Tailors stitching blouses and Prabha Coiffure doing your haircut, you will feel completely at home - as did we! We had an excellent South Indian dinner at the Sangeetha Restaurant, and spent at least another 45 minutes afterward chatting with the genial owner!

It was quite late by the time we hailed an Uber to take us to our apartment in the 5th Arrondissement, just south of the River Seine, and a beautiful part of the city! Our host was a genial French PHD student who was doing some esoteric research in the world of molecular biology. We were pretty beat up by the time we hit our beds for the night!

[MandarMax]

Loved your writing and the pictures so far. Equally impressive is your meticulous planning. Great stuff!

I am doing a similar route exactly one year after you - planning to fly to Europe around last week of April till mid-May, and your blog would prove really useful.

I might send you a private message next week if you do not mind. Would be useful to get any further insights, and since I think I'm already a bit late with respect to visas and tickets, your insights could help me to come up with a plan quickly.

[chetan_l]

Originally Posted by MandarMax

I am doing a similar route exactly one year after you - planning to fly to Europe around last week of April till mid-May, and your blog would prove really useful.

@MandarMax: it was good speaking with you and we hope to see your travelogue soon. Happy travels!

12th May 2017
PARIS

The city of lights. The city of love. The capital of fashion. The city for walking. The city of a thousand other things!

Some may say Paris is overhyped. A few may even hate it!

But to experience Paris and to say "Paris, je t'aime", you need to take in the city with your eyes open and your heart willing. You need to overlook the litter in the metro stations and the stench in a few grime-filled areas (bane of any large city). If you are willing to look beyond her warts, like a true lover, Paris opens her soul to you. She will cajole you, secude you, and make you a lover once again. I fell for Paris - hook, line and sinker!

Of all the cities we went to during our trip - Munich, Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris and Lucerne, I would love to revisit any of them by chance, but I will surely visit Paris once more by design. What we saw in three days was just a teaser, a hint of what Paris has in store. Like a seductress, Paris will make you yearn to go back to her.

Sigh.

Back to the travelogue.

Paris is so very popular with the tourists, and most tourists do flock to its major attractions in droves. To avoid the overcrowding at the gates, many sights and events allow their tickets to be booked online. So, when you have the facility to book a ticket in advance, the tourists outdo each other and put in their reservations first. So much so that the top of the summit access at the Eiffel Tower gets sold out a good 2 months in advance at times!

So, what does one do? One books the ticket three months in advance! Knowing that we will be reaching Paris on 11th, I had booked a late evening Summit access tickets for the 12th of May. I think I booked the tickets exactly 90 days in advance when the booking dates opened up!

I had also booked two other places for our two other days, spacing each one out. So, day 1 would be Eiffel during sunset, day 2 would be a night show at Lido de Paris, and day 3 would be a guided tour of Opera Garniere. I skipped the museum at Louvre, the palace of Versailles and a hundred other places from the itinerary simply because we wouldn't have the time. As I said, I know I will visit Paris again for sure, and so maybe the next time.

Today being day 1, I wanted us to just take in the historic and magnificent sights around Ile-de-la-cite; the very center of Paris. Now, Paris has an excellent metro train system that connects major parts of the city - but going around underground within Paris would be a crime when the city above you is just breathtakingly beautiful. I chose to tour the city using its excellent bus service, even if it meant it would take a few minutes longer, a few hops extra, and a few tickets more.

Our house for the 4 nights in Paris was in the beautiful residential district of the 5th arrondissement.

It was a short bus ride in the morning that took us just outside the Notre-Dame Cathedral. Alighting from the bus and taking in the magnificent Gothic church on the river Seine amidst the beautiful environs cannot be described in words. I knew there would be crowds, but still, I wasn't prepared for the really long lines!


No matter how much the cathedral was calling out to us, it would be a crime to waste a few precious hours waiting in lines. So, we reluctantly chose to just walk around the surroundings, taking in the magnificent sights of the magical city.



The lines at Sainte Chapelle were thankfully shorter, and this meant we could enter into the simply magnificent exhibition of stained glass paintings in a truly French-Gothic building!



From there, we went walking further to Pont Neuf and Place Dauphine. The famous amorous love-locks which were earlier adorning the Pont des Artes bridge are now removed because of the damage it is doing to the structure of the bridge itself. So, people promptly moved their locks over to Pont Neuf!


It was lunch time when we neared Pont Neuf. After spending a few minutes on the banks of the Seine, we deicided to have our lunch. There was an Indian restaurant nearby, but the menu and prices didn't look attractive. So we just ate some local food from a street-side bakery and made our way across the Seine towards Louvre.

To be continued...

Post-script: By the way, not all lovers are of the hopelessly romantic kind...I could spot a few smart ones who had put in number locks instead of the ones with keys which you throw into the Seine after locking. Er, makes it easy to come back and unlock yourself right? (I hope my wife is not reading this! )

[MandarMax]

Originally Posted by chetan_l

@MandarMax: it was good speaking with you and we hope to see your travelogue soon. Happy travels!

Thank you, sir! It was a pleasure talking to you and I'm grateful for the tremendous guidance you have provided to me. I will continue to be in touch. I also hope to meet you personally some day.

[chetan_l]

Originally Posted by MandarMax

Thank you, sir! It was a pleasure talking to you and I'm grateful for the tremendous guidance you have provided to me. I will continue to be in touch. I also hope to meet you personally some day.

Definitely @Mandar, do ping me if you are in Bangalore and we can meet up!

Continuing:

It started raining by the time we had our lunch and the downpour was quite heavy. It was our first stint with some heavy rain, though there was a mild shower in Munich once. Not bad for early May!

We could have gone to Louvre, but it would have meant we had to dedicate quite a bit of time inside the museum. Plus, I hadn't purchased the tickets online. So, we just took in the Louvre from the outside while we waited for the rain to cease.


We decided to walk around a bit and thereafter took a rickshaw as we headed across towards the beautiful Place de la Concorde and the Pont Alexandre bridge, on towards Eiffel Tower.


We were a little tired and there was a bit of steady rain - else, this route has to be done by walk. The next time!

Reaching Eiffel by evening, we had a lot of time to kill. So we took the customary Seine river cruise which took us along a leisurely cruise, taking in the vistas of Paris from the river!


Returning back to Eiffel, we took some rest at the Champ de Mars park till it was time for us to go to our access point.


I had booked a slot for 8 PM since the sunset will be a little after 9 and I wanted to capture the golden hours from the tower. However, it was quite a long wait for the skies to darken!



Me waiting for the sun to set, Indian style! (Thankfully, I was not the only one doing so)


(There is always a difference between intent and execution for an amateur photographer like me )

We took a bus midway to our apartment but midway, we sighted an Indian restaurant. We decided to get down and have our lunch there. We then took an Uber from there back home, after a long but satisfying first day in Paris!

[chetan_l]

13th May 2017

After what had been almost 14-15 days of non-stop travel, my wife was feeling tired and wanted to take some rest. But, that would mean I would lose precious hours in Paris! So, with her taking rest, I decided to head over on a solo visit to the Montmartre district for today. I would be back at our apartment for a late lunch, and we would go to the Champs Elysses in the evening for a show at the Lido de Paris.

The Sacre-Coeur church at Montmartre can be accessed either via the funicular from the bottom, or one has to climb several stairs to reach the top. Checking for reviews on TripAdvisor, you realize that this area is notorious for crime. There are several organized gangs that tie a 'rakhi' on your hand as soon as you enter the area and demand tens of Euros for the bands! If you refuse, they will force you to pay, at times employing threats or even physical force! However, if you research carefully, you can enter this church from behind using the Montmartre bus - an eco-friendly minibus that plys the Montmartre interiors. So, I decided to take this option, which was a very smooth experience. I strongly recommend you try this option if you are visiting Montmartre - apparently, the cops are in with the gangs and turn a blind eye to the plight of the tourists!

Again, I took the buses to reach the area instead of the metros - I would recommend this strongly as well.

I had been practising a little bit of French in anticipation of this tour, and I thought I should try it out today. On boarding a fairly crowded bus, I found an empty window seat with an elderly gentleman occupying the aisle seat. I decided to try my French on him. Here is roughly how our conversation went (recreated with liberal use of google translate today!):

Me: Excusez-moi. Pouvez-vous s'il vous plaît me donner un peu d'espace pour entrer? ("Excuse me. Can you please give me some space to enter?")

Gentleman: (Smiles and makes way)

Me: Merci beaucoup ("Thanks much")

--some silence--

Me: Viens-tu de Paris? ("Are you from Paris?")

Gentleman: (No response)

Me: Ta ville est très belle ("Your city is very beautiful!")

Gentleman: (Looks at me and nods sagely)

--some more silence--

Me: C'est ma première visite à Paris. ("This is my first visit to Paris")
Me: Je viens d'Inde ("I am from India")

Gentleman: [In perfect British English] - "Forgive me son! This is my first visit to Paris and I have absolutely no knowledge of your beautiful language. Do you speak English?"

Me:
I went on to apologize profusely and had a pleasant chat with the Gentleman from Bristol!

----------

Here are a few photos of the Sacre Coeur church and the nearby artists village. This place is so famous that it is a tourist hotspot with tons of people descending on the place. The crowds almost everywhere in Paris was a little overwhelming!






I strolled around the beautiful area for a few hours, taking in the various landmarks, sights and serene residential areas. The metro stations around here are a relic from bygone times (no photos from my side!).

I then headed back to our apartment and had a home made lunch. My wife was feeling rested and relaxed. We then left to the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs Elysses a little after our lunch.

The Champs Elysses street is a shopper's paradise - if you have tons of money in your bank, that is.





For an early dinner, we decided to try out the food at the famous and upscale Laduree cafe & bakery. The food was pretty good but very highly over-priced. We had to wait for a long time before we could be seated!




I had booked the 9 PM show at Lido de Paris, which was a spectacular event! I would highly recommend the experience. (We are not supposed to take photographs of the show and so nothing to show here).



We returned to our apartment a little late in the night and called it a day! Day two, was also very satisfying!