Ok…let me start with the Bangalore airport security check in.

We went in. there was no mention of the invitation letter. I was very happy once the immigration was stamped. We went in for the security check in. put our baggage and jackets on the conveyor belt. Then we saw…oops…everyone else had a tag on their bags. we dint. We got a tag and fastened it to our bags. The security then stamped his seal. Then we went …oops again….that was the wrong tag. It was the British airways and not air France. We managed to find and air France lady and got our tags and put it. The luggage was thru with the security check now. We waited for them to check us up. They checked us….and there we went…oops again…the boarding pass had gone along with the conveyor belt safely kept inside the bag. Took permission, got it out, and got it stamped. Finally cane into the hall where the boarding announcements were being made.

Fish market. That’s what it was. Too crowded. Loud announcements. People talking so much. Made a call to tell everyone that all was done. Then finally managed to find a seat. Sat there for a long time. Most of the time was fiddling with the mobile messaging.
Found a duty free shop with nice shawls. Just went and asked how much it costed. 1000 he said. I just turned around and walked away.
Was very hungry. Managed to drink some water. Then came the announcements for our flight. We dint realise it was seat wise and were waiting god knows for what. Then we realised (a little late tho) that we had to board and then went in. I had securely kept passport and everything inside. But had to keep taking it out a 1000 times. I think by the time I am back the passport holder will be in tatters.

Got our seats. One aisle and one next to it. It was a four seater. Had a tv, pillow, remote control for the light and a shawl. The tv dint switch on till take off. The announcements had so much of a French accent that it was just too difficult to understand what they were saying. I am not sure abt the other flights as I have not flown international before, but I found the seat very small and of course uncomfortable. I was in the aisle seat. If prashanth had to sit his legs would go for a toss as there was absolutely no space.
We were dead hungry and kept wishing that they would serve some food. The stuff on tv was not too good. They supplied us with head phones, cloth to cover eyes while sleepin(donno what its called) and ear plugs. The tv had musics, cartoon, movies, one hindi movie(pathetic amesha patel one), games and the camera from the flight below(which would show us how it looked below the flight).nothing was interesting.

Finally the food arrived. Don’t remember what was there. It was veg. some sandwitch, jam, yogurt and water. I guess something else was also there but I don’t remember.we ate and finally went to sleep at 4 AM IST.slept quite well for sometime. But then it was too cold and leg was not at all comfortable as there was no leg rest.got up and walked up and down to reduce the back and leg pain. Tried to sleep again. Somehow managed to get some sleep. morning came. Switched on tv. Watched some movie for sometime. Then came the breakfast at 6:30 paris time.it had idli, vada, sambhar, bread, some fried stuff, strawberry jam, yogurt and nuts, semiya upma(must have been abt 2 spoons of upma).had it. Was too full.also had some coffee…tasted yuck.they gave an orange juice packet. Kept it aside to drink later. Was watching movie. Took out the juice to drink…yuck it was. Just kept it aside. Went to the restroom. QQQQQ….looooonnnnnnnnnnggggggg queue.waited. finally got chance. After that came back to seat. And waited.some idiot at the back seat I think spilt the juice. It came flowing to our place and made my legs sticky. Landed at charles de gaule the paris airport at 8:45 paris time.

Kept following the crowd. Reached the terminal F. were supposed to go to terminal D. A,B,C,F are there but no D. no one was there to ask. Stood in a queue that said non European passports. But then someone said we had to go somewhere else. We left the long queue and went out,. A kind lady told us to get back into the queue because that was the right thing to do. Then we found some Indians in the queue. Asked them and confirmed that we were at the right place. The long queue moved quite fast. Got immigration cleared at paris. Now what. We dint know. We went in search of terminal D. it was so far. We asked in some counter of air france. They said go to terminal D but they dint know if after immigration we had to do anything else.so we walked.
There were conveyor belt kind of moving things for people to walk. We just stand on it and it takes u to the other end of the room. We wanted to try it. So we took that instead of just walking across.we had a real long walk. The airport looked as tho it was almost the size of Bangalore itself.finally we got to know that we had done all formalities and had to only do the security check in after which we cant come out. Our flight was at 1:05 and it was just 10:30. our back packs were getting heavy.
We first figured out where the restroom was so that we could use it when we wanted.then we took a trolly. Put all our stuff onto that. It was much easier now..we went into many duty free shops.found many cute and nice stuff but too costly.just admired everything and sat down. We were hungry again. Took out bread. Had 2 slices each. Went to the restroom. Washed face. Combed hair and freshened up. It was 12. so we went for the security check in. by the time we finished that it was 12:20. again a fish market and this time no place to stand also. Flight was delayed by abt 15 mins. Finally boarded the flight at 1:20. got one widow and the next seat in a 3 seater. This time it was very nice to see the take off from the window and the clouds. Snow capped mountains I n heaven. That’s what it looked like.gods live there….deepthi says.we were hungry again. Finally after abt 15 mins of sleep got one sandwich and water(which I was dying for). Then slept again. It was time to land. So got up. Watched the landing thru the window.

Guess what….air france dint give us chocolates that they give during take off and landing. I had a tough time with the ear block and swallowing spit.

Landed at Frankfurt at 3. this was very late. 30 mins delay. The cab person would wait only for 30 mins. We ran to the baggage back). Ran to the revolving door from which we came.oops!!!! the door stopped moving and a voice started saying pls step back. We realized that it was only for entering and the exit was elsewhere. We came out with the luggage with great difficulty.ran to info counter. Asked them that were there any other formalities or we could leave and we were told that we could leave. We ran to terminal E. dint find SAP cab driver. Searhed all over. Dint find. We decided to wait for 10 more mins else we would call Christian. But then …lö behold!!!there was the man standing. We went to him and he told us that one more guy from amsterdam was coming. So we had to wait for him. That took ten more mins. Then we left to the cab. It was a Mercedes benz. Sooper car. Sat in it. Changed the sim. Called home. Spoke. Then slept. Then watched the scenes outside.
Germany Is really green. Very beautiful.the cars were too small.i donno why. Maybe because we were in a big car. But no…the cars were really too small.if prashanth was there he would have known the names. If sangu was there we would have made fun of the german people for using such small cars when they made some of the best cars in the world.anyways…no one was there. So I just could imagine and go to sleep.

It was a very long drive from Frankfurt to walldorf.it took 1:15hrs. but then when Christian told us that it was 200 kms…I felt we reached very fast. That Amsterdam guy was dropped off at holiday inn and we went to hotel ambiente.

Checked in.sooper room. Of course the fan that u can see was there for the first day. But today after the room cleaning they have taken it away.beds are really soft.
I was in room 325 and she got room 322.we took the lift. Came to the room.cannot unpack because we will move to apartment on Saturday. So just opened potti….just to find that unpacking was unavoidable….pulikachal had played holi.

Took out everything. Then remembered that we had to call up Christian. Did so and he said he will come in half hour. So left everything as such. Ran and took a quick bath. Thanks to prashanth that I knew how to use the bathtub without dirtying the bathroom and other etiquettes. So could mange a quick freshening up. Wore black pant and dark blue top.

Ran down to find chrisitian already waiting. He offered to take us to Heidelberg asian food shop when we badly wanted to go to aldi(a store close to the hotel where the stuff was supposed to be too good). We anyway went with him and just ot some rice, haldirams bhelpuri and channa masala of mtr(don’t ask why we bought all that when I had so much of food stuff…I donno). Then we went to another shop. Got 2 apples, 2 bananas and some milk).came back to hotel…of course in christian’s car.

Gave mc home. Spoke. Ate apple and banana. Washed all the pulikachal and other usedclothes. put it for drying.cleaned up all the mess. Layed out all stuff required for next day. Went to sleep at abt 11. had worn socks sweater and gloves. So no problem. Warm sweet sleep.

That was day 1.

Day 2:
Got up at 5:30.rushed to bathroom.
Took bath in bathtub.put on clothes.made sandwiches with pulikachal and bread. Packed it for lunch.did some stretching exercises. Sit ups made my legs freeze. Cleaned up room.locked luggage. Left for breakfast at 7:00. had cornflakes, some kind of bread, orange juice, fruit salad, coffee. Got a banana back to room.took pics of room. Christian promised to pick us up at 8:45. so got ready and left.
Had forgotten to take camera on day 1. so made sure I took that. Had also met ranjini on day 1. today met nalini and one more guy from SAP.
Met Christian. Asked in reception if I could leave food items in cupboard. Asked them route to station and to SAP office.
Went with Christian to office. Tried to take pics from car. But the camera conked up. We went round all the buildings in walldorf and also some other industrial stuff in walldorf. Then the same in rot. Landscape was beautiful..
Went into office. Got introduced to many people. Went to have coffee with Christian. Got our seats somewhere. Then was not able to use the german keyboard.then not able to connect to messenger. Not able to call on wan phone. Whew!!!bad day it was. Somehow managed to speak to prashanth for 2 mins I guess. Then went for lunch with Christian. Access card dint work. Got it activated. Then had some salads, yogurt, one pice bread and the sandwich that I prepared.it was too much. Extra filling. The canteen was far away from the seats. In another building. So could not get the yogurt to the table as prashanth had suggested. The food was not all that bad. There was some more veg stuff like fried potatoes. But I dint take. By mistake took an apple.dint know it was charged. Then went and kept it back saying sorry.
Tried to fill water in glass.lifted off the whole tray instead of a glass. Then filled of full hot water by mistake. Finally managed to get proper water. Then left the stuff on the conveyor belt that took the dirty plates away.
Came back to seat. Had to copy the photos as I had to reset the camera to make it work. Copied it locally. But could not put it on my system. Struggled the whole day. Then deepthi told me one website which I have used. Hopefully it works. Planned that this weekend we visit only germany with moitreiyee.
Had some coffee. Went back to seat when Christian said we could leave. So we packed . took the laptops with us. Went to christian’s house.picked up his wife. Left to see the rhine vally. Went up the hill. Freezing it was. But absolutely beautiful. Heidelberg is supposed to be a very romantic city. That was true. We saw the city from the topmost point on the hill. Took snaps
There was a machine. If u put a 5 cents coin it would imprint the Heidelberg castle on it and pop it out.took a snap of it. Saw the funicular(a winch is what we call it or a cable car I guess). We saw the turbine kind of thing used to run it also. The drove down. On the way had a view of the castle and then the heielberg town. Then we were dropped back at hotel. Came in. called prashanth. Had some bread slices with pulikachal.washed clothes(today no fan to make it dry so hope it dries). Now typing. Neck is aching. Its very late. So not going to do any packing or anything more.
my skin is going very dry. Looks like I will need a lot of moisturiser. The bottle that I got may not be enough. Will buy some later from the nearby shop called aldi
in that shop called aldi, sweaters and all are so nice. Jackets. Even socks are so nice. It costs abt 8 euros. Cant buy because they r very heavy. Wont be able to carry it back. Will c if I can do something abt it.
the fruits and vegetables here are so fresh and pleasing that if u go to the shop u wont feel like leaving anything. Got a green apple on the first day and ate. It was so sweet. Will see if I can get something when I am coming back. But again have to chk to see weight….major problem with it.
donno how we are going to get the laptop. We thought now that we have to take the laptop why not make use of it. We have one laptop each for us in the office. So we plan to take it to the room everyday. Only in the weekends we will lock it at office as we wont be there in the hotel and it is not safe to leave it there.
iron box is of good use. First day when I had to change there was no casual wear without wrinkles. I ironed it. I think due to the chillness it was a little damp. So light steam…or I donno if it was smoke came out. I got scared. Switched it off. What if some fire alarm starts.but then used it again today.kept switching it off and using. Real good use.
today I am wearing the light coloured trouser with the formal striped shirt.today onwards I decided that the sweater is not of use. It is only to wear when I sleep. I am wearing the jacket and socks. I will carry the gloves.
gloves are too irritating. If I wear it I cant press the button of the camera the cell phone nothing. I cant even open the camera bag.
I am not using the handbag still. There is so much to carry to office that it does not fit in the handbag. So carrying the back pack only.
here in germany even in the office they keep asking us to lock everythin in draws. I thought there no one would steal anything like in India. But now I feel India is better.
I have not yet opened the body soap, the shampoo. Because I have to shift rooms on Sunday. And it is difficult to shift opened stuff. Using the soap that they have provided. It’s a liquid. That’s what is used with the bathtub and everything.
had head bath today. In bathtub again
not using the hawai chappal much because the floor is carpeted.should see when I shift the room.
daddy had got a clock come radio from US. That same kind of thing is there in the room . since I have used that a lot I dint have any trouble setting time and alarm for myself and deepthi. Thanks to daddy
mom’s pulikachal rocks. Have been eating it like mad. Its almost over now. May last one more day. Also had the mixture. Dint open all the packets due to the room shift. Right now munching on the mixture.:)
last but not the least….everything is there.but no company. U see something and suddenly u want to turn and tell someone something…u find u r alone. Its terrible to be alone. Its only 3 days now and I am already missing everyone badly.

Tomorrow Christian will come of at 8. so have to sleep now and get up at 5.tata. bye bye. Will keep u posted. As I have the laptop I can type offline. And I have net connection also . till I have that I can post it also.

Tweet This Post

This weekend was to venice…it started of in a hurry. We had our train at 6:41 at walldorf. We had to leave office by the 4:40 shuttle. But at the last min…someone called us to ask some official stuff…and we missed the shuttle from rot to walldorf. We waited for the next one. That was at 5:12. got into it. Got down at the walldorf office. Ran to the hotel. Went to room. Dint have time for bath (which we planned): got ready. Took bags.packed all required stuff(had kept it ready.but had to do some last min changes due to some last min ideas).booked a taxi from hotel to station. Reached station. Got into train.met Moitreyee in train. Very soon we had to get down at Heidelberg. Then we switched to the munich train. This was an IC train. We thought it was the fast train (but that was ICE.we mistook it..and we were so happy that we were actually going to go in the fast train ).
We got into the compartment and sat down. People were smoking so much. It was too suffocating. Prashanth called up. I told him I got into the train. But it was suffocating. He told me that the non smoking compartment is different. Find out and go there. Thank god. We did that. it was much better. Seats were just too comfortable.it was supposed to be a 2.5 hr journey. So I dint want to sleep. I took out my novel. Read a lot. Then woke others up when station came. Got down. Had to wait for 1 hr for next train at munich station. So went into all shops in station. Felt badly like eating chocolate. So bought one for myself and ate. Also ate the bun that I had with me.then one apple. Dinner was done.
Before leaving hotel I had kept a choco drink ready to drink and go so that I don’t feel hungry. Thank god I did that. it really helped.
Got into the train to Venice. Sat down at our reserved seats. Then we realized we were in the wrong compartment. This compartment would be detached after some stations and only the rest will travel to Venice (atleast that’s what I understood)..so we went to our compartment. The guy (who smelled horribly)in our coupe told us that this is the wrong train. I clarified with a ticket checker that we were at the right place. Finally we settled down and went to sleep. Night one more girl came to our coupe. This girl was going to st lucia Venice and we had our tickets to mestre Venice. We had to go to st lucia from mestre. So I asked her how she was going. She said the same train would go. So we also went and got down there directly.

We had to spend almost 1 hr at info desk because of the crowd. And finally I don’t think we got enough info…because we still dint know what to do. We decided to take a water bus to murano island.so we took water bus 42.
We got down at the island and were ushered into a glass factory where they demoed how they made all those glass stuff. It was amazing. Dint click photos…because flash was not allowed and I dint know how to turn of the auto flash. So I thought forget it.that man made a glass horse in just 1 min…it was like making something out of clay..
Then we went into a glass store. One more Indian group…one girl by mistake broke an expensive glass tumbler. So we thought it was safer to walk out.
We were told there are a lot of thieves and pick pockets and people who will try to steal passports etc.
Ya…so since there were thieves I decided to put my bad in the front . tho it was a little funny it served the purpose. I dint have to be worried.
We then walked along the streets. It was having lots of glass shops. We were not allowed to take photos inside the glass shops. But we dint know. After we took a few photos we were told. So it was ok.
Venice is famous for its masks. I got some inexpensive ones. Hope I can get them without breaking them.
We went Into almost every shop. Then we asked directions to a church. Went there. Church was closed for afternoon. Then took a boat or its called water bus…to st marico. On the way Moitreyee and me discussed what we should do once we get there…
By the way, when we got down at station we had taken a day pass. So we could go in any water boat after that for the whole day.
We had to validate the pass in a machine that would stamp that days date. Then we could get into the boats.

In st marico we walked to the basallica…a church.
Had to keep luggage in some far away place and come back. No photography allowed inside. Beautiful church. So many paintings and all. But not too big. So took abt 10 mins. Then we walked to the museum opposite to basallica. We had some discussion on the entrance fees etc. finally we decided to take the 12 euro entrance that was for 3 museums in the same campus and for a palace that was a little away. But that lady gave it to us for 6.5 euros each. I still donno why she reduced the price. Anyway..good for us.

We saw the museum. Was full of old Italian history.ok ok it was. Then we were tired. Came out. Had some bun and apple. Walked towards palace seeing the shops…but it was time up. So dint go to palace. Checked out abt boats back to station because we had to go back to mestre. We got finally a crowded (like a horrible Indian bus) boat to st lucia. We went there to the ticket counter and asked if we could take the same train from st lucia instead of mestre. They said it was fine and told us the time. We had to wait for 2 hrs in the station. Did some apple eating.
Got into train.
These seats were better than the one in which we came. We were the only ones in the coupe. But again someone came and told the wagon numbers had changed. So we had to shift. Stil we had good seats. Went to the WC(water closet…or restroom) came back and slept. Ok ok sleep, not too good. Got down at munich. Took train to bruchsal. But that stupid train was delayed by 1.5 hrs. I had planned to go to the speyer technical museum and visit the imax theatre and all. All plan gone for toss.
This also made us miss our connecting train from bruchsal to walldorf. So we got down not at bruchsal but at karlsruhe. We went to the ticket counter. Stood in q for 15 mins. Finally got the info abt next train which was half hour later. So again ate bun and apple.
Called prashnath and told that the train was delayed and not to worry .
Then got into that train and reached walldorf by 1PM:…where as we were supposed to reach by 10.

Took a taxi. This guy took of turn somewhere. He dint know route to hotel and he dint understand English either. Finally we told him to take us back to station. It was 10 euros in the meter. We told him we will pay only 5 as to hotel it will cost only 5. then we waited. There were no other taxis. In a few mins,…this guy found out how to go to the hotel and came and called us. We went. He took us to hotel. It costed 5.8 euros. He took only .8 euros from us.
Finally we were back at hotel by 1:30.
I came into room. Took out calling card and called both homes. Then took bath. Washed some clothes.
Cleaned up room. Cut nails.
Made magi noodles for myself. Made chutney from chutney powder that mom gave…sooper it was.

Then weighed all the things I had to see if I was overweight in luggage. Thank god. I don’t think I was.
I then finished perry mason novel. Did some music practice. Then ate one unknown fruit (forgot to take a snap of it…will take next time)I only know it was edible because I took it from the breakfast table. I donno what it was but.
Then read satsaritam.made a list of what all I had to do when I was packing back to Bangalore.
Also made a list of people for whom I had to buy chocos(it was much bigger than I thought)…so that I could buy calculatively not increasing the weight in my bag.
Also did some pranayama yesterday night and today morning. Today morning I did some exercises also.
Today onwards getting paruppu podi to eat in office.it is in a tupper ware box. So easy to get and use.
Also using the payatha maavu for bath…I got to finish all that before I come. Cant carry all that weight back.

I am already counting down the day to be back…
16 more day to go

Tweet This Post

Ok…so let me explain all that i remember
On Friday we were at office. Suddenly we decided that we will go to Heidelberg in the evening with anu, moi, vatsa and nitesh. But it so happened that it got late at office for moi. So we told them that we badly needd to buy a calling card and hence we would go to walldorf and they could carry on.
We walked to the rot station thru the jungle.it was time for the train.we ran to get tickets from the automatic machine. Vatsa used that machine so fast that I could hardly understand what he did. But there was no time to ask him. We had to go to the other platform. We ran. Finally got into the train. Vatsa explained how to get the ticket. But it make too much sense. We had to get down in the next station itself.
Got down. That’s when daddy called on mobile. I was so happy that I forgot that I was going to buy the calling card. So I said that I will go to the hotel and give a missed call and that daddy should call to landline.
After talking we decided to walk to hotel. When we turned and looked we dint know which way to go. So we thought we will take a taxi(we had asked in the hotel before abt it and had found out that it was better to do so).when we reached the hotel we realized this guy does not know English. We somehow understood and paid him and got off.
By this time I had realized that I had to go out and so could not talk to daddy from room. So I kept giving missed calls so that they would call back and I could talk to them. Finally when they called I was so busy with the taxi driver that I told them to call back after 2 mins.
We waited to cross the road and the signal never turned green. Then a lady came by, changed the signal herself and walked across…what fools we were…waiting there for so long.
Then again daddy called. i told them that I will call the next day(felt extremely guilty later for being so rude) because it was getting late and the shop where we would get the calling card would close.
We then started walking to the shop. It was supposed to be an Indian restaurant near SAP building. We dint know how to walk to SAP. We started off. There were hardly few people on the streets. We managed to ask some people half in German and half English and somehow reached SAP. Then we realised, walldorf is full of SAP. We dint know where the shop was. We found one person her and there from SAP going home. We asked one guy. He took us thru the parking lot to the other side of the road and showed us how to go. Again we had a signal. But this time we knew we had to change it ourselves..we walked…and walked and walked…nothing on streets.no one and no shop too. Then we found a group of guys. We asked them. They said it was in the next road and not this one(we vowed never to talk to group of guys after that)…we walked…or almost ran to the next road. We still dint find it. It was pitch dark by now with no one on streets. But thank god we found one soul in front of one of the SAP offices. He told us that we were on the right road and that we just needed to go further down. We went. And there it was….by god’s grace it was open. Went in. got the card. 2 of them each. He had many cards and we chose the one that suited us. We were so scared and tensed that we dint even think of eating anything. Just took it and started walking back. We reached the SAP office. But now we were in a fix. While coming that guy got us thru the parking lot. Now we dint know how to get back onto that particular road. We again found 2 women at SAP office. And one of them actually walked with us to show us how to get to the road that was familiar to us. God bless her soul. We were half relieved. We walked back to hotel. Once we reached we were so …I donno wat..indescribable…we just crashed In bed(after calling up home tho).

On Saturday morning got up and got ready. Left to bad schornborn to meet moitreyee and then took the train from there to Heidelberg.(took a long time with another lady to figure out how to take the weekend pass that was valid for 5 people for the whole weekend).the weekend pass was valid in all trains that we planned to take and in buses and trams.
We reached Heidelberg. Deepthi wanted to buy a camera and for that we had to go to media markt. Vatsa told us to take tram 41. we took it. Were busy clicking pictures.
The trams and trains …and I guess the uses also have an announcement system that keeps telling which the next stop is. And also the same is displayed. So it is not at all a problem.
After clicking all snaps we realiyed the bus was coming back to where we got in from. So that was the wrong tram…fine. We got down. Asked many people where we could find the media markt. Finally someone told us. It was far away. Do we decided to finish the shopping where we were and then move on to media markt.
We went to many shops. All costly. But did a lot of window shopping. we went to kaufhof. Then to a cheaper shop shown by one girl called DM. there moi and deepthi got some stuff. Me dint. Then we went to wool worth. A huge shop. Me found lots of stuff there and got all that I wanted there.
Then we moved on to media markt. Got into tram 4.but we had to get the same tram that was going the other directon. So got down in the next stop. Took the same tram on the other side. Reahced there being helped by an old lady. Went to media markt. Deepthi got her camera. Me got something for my hubby. Then we went around that huge shopping mall for the rest of the day till 8. Ate the bread that I had taken. The other girls got themselves some non veg stuff there. We had one ice cream also.
Returned home. Again dead tired. Freezing cold it was at night.

Sunday moring left a little late. Went to bad schornborn. Now deepthi had a camera so clicked so many photos.took a train to karlsruhe.went to service point there. Took 1.5 hours discussing with the person in the station abt various possibilities of booking tickets for the rest of our weekends at cheap rates. Got a lot of print outs.
Sat in train from karlsruhe to offenburg and analyzed the prints and decided that we will do the bookings for all the weekends as soon as we reach Freiberg.
From offenburrg we got another train to lahr. From lahr we followed one guy who took us to the bus. The bus took us to emindingen. It was a one hour journey and we had our lunch that we had bought at karlsruhe station in the bus. I had some juice and bread. then we took the next train to Freiberg.
We did our ticket bookings here. It took so long. We hardly had any time there.Freiberg is black forest. It is in the border of swiss. So it is very beautiful. We took a map from the station. Took some snaps. Took tram number 1 that goes to littenwelle. Got down at romerhauf…that’s what it was I guess. then started walking. Saw lots of scenery. But time was not enough. Had to come back. Ate almost all the mixture.
Took the tram 1 back to station. Ate some blakforest cake at the station. Went to the restroom payin 80 cents.Took train to offenburg. The train was delayed by almost 10 mins. So as soon as we reached the station people ran like running race to the other platform for the next train. We just followed the crowd. It was a mad rush. We anyway made it to the next train. it was so cold that we were shivering. Cold not sleep as we would miss the station. Somehow then got down at walldorf at 10 and took a taxi back to hotel. Called home and went flat on bed.

Today was in office. Went to walldorf office walking in the morning. Then took the SAP shuttle to rot. In the afternoon we had meetings at walldorf. Some nice discussions abt some nice stuff coming up. Then we were back home dropped by Christian. He took us to Indian garden(which we showed him the way). Got one new calling card. After that we were back at hotel. we walked to aldi. Got some stuff. Did some magi and coffe cooking. Had it. Now its very late. Time to go to bed.

x

Tweet This Post

Ok…so let me start of from Friday. After a dinner on Thursday night we planned to go a little late to office. So we took only the 9 O clock shuttle. Since we went late I made sandwiches for evening(nothing much…just put margarine in between bread slices and made 4 such sandwiches). I did some packing also for the weekend trip. The bag had become pretty heavy. Could not help it. Then went to office.
At office in the afternoon we went to the SAP shop where we could buy some retractors and back packs and all that wit sap logo on it. I found everything to be too expensive. And also I already had all those things. I dint want to simply buy it and not be able to carry it back to India. So I just did window shopping when my colleagues(anu, moi, deep) did the shopping.
Moi tried using her amex card in the atm, typed in wrong pin and the card got stuck and locked. She finally managed to remove the card. But unfortunately she can’t draw cash now.
Then we went for lunch. We were in the university block. the lunch looked too good with a lot of international variety. I am sorry…I forgot to mention. this sap shop is not in rot but at walldorf. We had gone all the way to walldorf. When I saw the lunch itself I was doubtful if it was for free. We asked and found it was not…obviously…there was too much to give free.
Then we decided to come back to rot and have lunch. On the way back all of them decided that they were not hungry and so dint want lunch. But I was too hungry. So I told them I will get down at building 3 directly and have lunch and then join them. I went for lunch and was eating when moi decided to have lunch and came and joined me. We finished and ran to a meeting that was scheduled at 1:30. we slept nicely in the meeting.

Then the day went on dragging. Lots of work was also there. But no mood to do it.
Finally it was 4:40 and time to leave. Deepthi suddenly said lets leave at 5:12. so we decided to leave a little late. We left by the 5:12 shuttle and reached walldorf office. When we started walking to ambiente from there we saw ranjini who was leaving to India on Sunday and was supposed to give me all her food stuff. I asked her to leave it at the reception if at all she could not give it to me on that day. We then walked to hotel.

I had almost finished my packing. So I just charged my mobile and camera batteries and all that. I ate a un some yogurt(not some …a lot of it) and also..something else…I forgot. Also had some ribbon pakkoda that mom had given. Then I spoke to prashanth . after that I went and took bath(as we could not take bath the next morning) and got dressed.then went to the reception and gave my clothes for laundry thinking that by the time I am back from paris the laundry will be done. But then she said she will give it to me only on Tuesday as it was weekend. I thought its ok and gave it.

After that I was done….so sat and read satsaritam, then sophies world and then also…before taking bath I had done pranayama and exercise that I had missed in the morning.
After all this I still had one and half hours to go. So I went to sleep. for one hour I slept. Then got up. It was too difficult to get up. Anyway..got up…booked taxi. Went to ranjini’s room to ask if she had packed the food stuff. But her lead had come to visit her. So she was busy. So I told her it was ok and came back. Did some last minute stuffing into bag. Put on socks gloves jacket and all. Had filled a 1.5 litre bottle with water from office. Put that also into the bag. Whew!!!heavy it was. Anyway…carried it to the taxi and left to station. Met moi there.
The train came at 10:58. got in and reached heidelberg. There we waited for train for sometime. got into the next train and sat in our seats. Two other men were there in our coupe who were aready fast asleep. We sat down. I spoke to prashanth again. My throat was doing some nonsense. I was wishing I don’t get cold. Then I switched off mobile and went to sleep.
We got up at paris.we were there finally. We already had the map of the metro trains and the RER(sub urban trains) with us. We went, got a metro pass for 2 days that was valid in all metros, rers, buses etc in paris. Then we got infor how to get to our hotel.we wet to the first metro station.

I think the paris metro system is one of the most wonderful and efficient things that I have seen. We dint have to ask a single person for any directions. We had the map and we just followed sign boards. The metro als was very frequent and very fast. It was more like India here. A little dirty. But life not as dull as germany.
The train doors shut in such a speed that wewere scared and we used to rush in and out of the train fearing we might get stuck between doors.
Trains were crowded and the stoppings were only for abt few seconds.
We have not walked to any destination…because we found that instead of asking people how to go to a plce if we found it on the metro map and followed those directions it would make it very easy. Tho we might have walked the same distance inside metro stations as much maybe from one place to another…we felt atleast sure of where we were going.

So we first went to our hotel that I had booked. That guy said we can’t check in at that time. We had to check in only at 2pm. We tried fighting with him…but useless. So we just used the rest room and freshened up. Then we took out some stuff that we dint need and left it at the reception and told him we will come back only at night and will check in at that time.he also gave us some maps and some directions.
Then he also gave us the Disney land tickets.but we had to pay him only half the money the rest we had to pay at Disney land showing this and they would give us the actual ticket.

Moi decided that she dint want to come with us. She wanted to see the palace of Versailles. We had to decided between Disney land and the palace as it was too far to cover both places. So she went there and me and deep went to Disney. We reached Disney at 10.we were so excited that we literally ran in. we were running abt trying to find the counter where we had to get the proper tickets. By the time we finished all this it was 10:50. anyway we ran in. picked up one Disney map. We could not decide where to go. So we went and stood in a q for the train that would take us thru Disney land. As we were waiting we saw some performances far away by some Disney characters and halooween pumpkins and all. Then we got into the train. got down at fantasy land. Needless to say we kept clicking pics at every point.

It was drizzling continuosly. We dint care. We went in. went to some castle of sleeping beaty and all. Then the snow white castle was good. It was too kiddish… but stikll I enjoyed it. We also watched a 3d movie….very nice…even the seats and all had effects…when required the seats would shake. Fun it was. Then we went around some shops…too costly. So dint bother to buy anything. But held the soft toy for sometime
Huge samba from lion king…very cute soft toy. And there were donalds and mickey. I took pictures of those but dint dare to buy all that stuff which had a tag…”made in china”

Then we were done with Disney land at 2:45. Every ride had a q. half the time went in waiting in q.

We got the next train to Eiffel tower. We were supposed to meet moi there at 4:30. we reached but moi was not there. We waited for 20 mins. So many trains came. But she dint come. I got tensed. She was alone also. I had given her my phone number and also the address to hotel. But still.. we thought she might have come earlier and gone outside the station. So we also went. We went to many hotels…horrible costly stuff.one cuppochino was 8.5 euros.by this time my throat was in a horrible state and I felt I might get fever. Needed something hot to drink. But it was too costly to buy there.

I decided that we go back to the station. Finally moi came and landed(whew!!!what a reflief)..she said she was late…but could not cal up. anways she was there.

We walked to Eiffel. The took a long time to search where the river boa ride was. Finally found one. She said 9 uros and that it would start in 10 mins. By the time we saw a coffee shop that served coffee cheap …just 2 euros( that’s just abt 110 bucks)…anyway…went there. I got a coffee (horrible one) and deepthi got some finger chips. Then we decided to go and find out if there were any cheaper boat rides. By the time we did that we realised 2 things…
There were only 2 boat rides
One was for 9 euros and one was 10
And the 9 euro one had already started and if we waited it we had to wait for one more hour..
Sooooo….we went for the 10 euro one. We sat next to the window in the boat. It started.it was a beautiful one hour boat ride on the sienne river showing us the whole of paris . it had an instrument that had commentary in 7 languages. After sometime we decided to go and sit at the dock outside so that we could get better pictures. It was cold. But as too good. One hour of great time.
Then it was night and Eiffel tower was glowing like gold. We ran to it. We stood in the q that was for taking the ticket to go to the top.we took 1 hr in the q. the 30 mins to go in q to the top.then we were there in tha crowd. On top of Eiffel..cold wind blowing hard. But beautiful paris in front of us. Sooperb view.
After taking snaps we came down(that also had long q). we were out of all this at abt 10. we decided to go to champs eleysee. We took a metro. Went there. We saw arc the triomphe from far. But then decided that there was nothing to go near and see. So we returned to hotel: just brushed. Spoke to prashanth and fell asleep on the bed.

Got up at 5. took bath . Woke moi. And I went back to sleep. they both got ready . I got up at 6:45 combed hair and was ready at designated time of 7 for breakfast. Unfortunately I forgot to take pics of the room. It was small. But suffient and clean. Very small bathroom. But was spic and span.

Breakfast was included in the costs. We went. I had 2 cups hot coffee. I had asked prashanth previous night if I need to take crocin. He said he dint think so and to take it only if it was necessary. I had not taken. Anyway I dint have fever. So I was happy. I had one croissant. And something else was there I forgot wat.
We then settled hotel bill and checked out at 7:45.

We went to station and took metro to louver museum. We were at louver. Immediately we started corresponding its resemblances to wat was there in the da vinci code book. Stood in q for ticket. Counter opened by 9. then we were in louver. We already had a map with the floor plan of louver. Since it was too big to cover in one day we had decided parts of it which we wanted to see. We went in and put our bags in the cloak room.
We marched towards the first item we wanted to see.
But we dint find the map too friendly. We searched for most of the stuff so much that by that time we had almost covered the whole museum.it was too tiring.
We saw the monalisa and other important stuff.
We got out of there at abt 12:50. we then went to notre dame.
We went to notre dame des champs….but that was the wrong place we had to go to notre dame st michaele…but this was paris…so no pros. We took the metro. There we were in front of notre dame. That’s when sangu messaged saying”we r back from ooty.give mc and we will call”. I gave a missed call but they dint call. Said they wanted to have coffee.hmm…

We went into notre dame. And then sangu called. Use of mobiles was prohibited inside. So I just picked the call and told her that I was in church and that we will talk later. photography was supposed to be prohibited. But we saw every one was clinking pics. So we also clicked. We then got out of it. Then I spoke to sangu mom and dad.but since I was on roaming dint speak for too long.

We then had a little discussion on if we had time to go to soccer cour. We decided on going there. We again went to metro got some clarifications….and went to soccer cour. By now trains were crowded like mad.no breathing space also.

Soccre cour was too much. We did not have time to go up the funicular (winch) and all that. So we just took some snaps. We saw that some people were trying to stop other people (tho I dint know if they were asking for money…I was scared). I took out all valuables and put into my dress). When we came down they asked us to wear some thread in the hand saying African tradition. I just said sorry some other time and ran off.
On the way back to station we found some shops. Cheap stuff. Cute things. I found a beautiful bracelet…6 euros…but u all know I am slow with my maths…I took too long to see if in rupees it was too costly or what…y then it was time up. So I just left it and walked to station. We reached the station and boarded the train that we were to take back to germany. We had booking. But we had not reserved seats. We found some nice seats and sat down. After sometime I called prashanth. Then after talking to him I thought I would go to the train canteen and buy some water because I was dead thirsty. On my way…I saw that the seats were not so good. Then we realised…we were in first class compartment. We then moved to a second class. On the way we saw the canteen guy with the trolley and I bought one kutty bottle of water for 2.4 euros(heart breaking).there were no seats to sit. We kept moving thru compartments. Finally each of us found a place ad sat down. I took out a book and started reading,.after sometime I was hungry….ok..i forgot…I had carried 3 buns, the sandwiches, half bread loaf and 4 apples. This was my food for 2 days.all on the run. No stopping for food. Ate when in q when in train and all that.

I took out some bread and ate in train. then put on mp3 songs and closed eyes for a while.while going to paris in the train I had some pain in the knee due to the cramped way of sitting. It had been paining throught the trip. Now it was very bad. I checked that there was no swelling and all.so I hope it is no problem.

Throat was dry again. So took out and ate one halls.

Then resumed book reading. After sometime sitting made my back ache. So I was standing and reading. Then we reached Mannheim at 10:20. we went to mcdonalds. I had a coffee…nice hot hot…
Then we went to our next train hat left at abt 11. we reached walldorf at 11:30. we had already told hotel to arrange for a taxi. We went back to hotel. I spoke to prashanth for a few mins. Brushed teeth and just collapsed on the bed.

I had actually visited paris…I still cant belive it.

Paris is a great place. I wished i had my family with me there. I would have enjoyed ten fold more. It was half made of Indians…everywhere I found Indians. It’s a great place. And if possible…someday…I would want to go there again with full family…prashanth , his parents sangu mom and dad….i wish we get that chance…

Tweet This Post

So…let me start.

Took a few print outs on Friday in the office. There was some last minute work that was to be done and hence we could not leave office by the 4:40 shuttle. Christian offered to drop us at the hotel. We had not prepared for the weekend as Thursday evening also had been busy. I had to buy my food stuff. So we asked to be dropped at aldi(shop next to hotel). We reached aldi by 5:15. I just had to pick up a loaf of bread. Deepthi wanted to buy some t-shirts. I got my bread and went to the hotel.
This weekend I had work. Shwetha(another girl who was coming with us to Salzburg) wanted to have sambhar made by me. She said she will come to my room. We could have dinner together and then we could leave from there together. So I had to make rice and sambhar.
I went to the room and spoke to mom, dad and sangu. And then again spoke to hubby and mom in law.
After this I took bath. Changed. Did some packing for the weekend. Made some sanwitches (just out of butter and dhania podi that mom had given). Charged the mobile and batteries and all.
It was time. I had to start making dinner. Else it would get late. I made rice, sambhar and some curry. This took sometime by which time shwetha was already at my room. Deepthi also joined in. we had dinner. Then I washed the vessels and cleaned up the kitchen.
We had booked a cab. So we finallty got into it and left to the station at 9:40 pM.
The train was there in no time. We were on our way to karlsruhe. Moitreyee and anupama (the other two girls who were coming with us to Salzburg) got into the train at bad shornborn.
All of us had enough warm clothing on as we knew that it was going to be pretty cold at Salzburg.

We got down at karlsruhe. Waited for the next train. Then we were on board the train to Salzburg. There was some confusion abt the train seat number and wagon numbers as 2 trains had been combined and people with reservation were standing (we did not actually understand what the confusion was). Anu realized that she did not have a reservation. But we got seats in one coupe. We just sat down. No one said anything and we managed it that way till the end of the journey.
In the middle of the night we were woken up by some passport checking german police. That guy looked suspicious. We had heard of people who were duped and the passports were stolen. Anyway…this guy was finally genuine.
We reached salzburg by 4:44 in the morning.

We were a bit too early. Nothing was open. We found paid restrooms. We went there to freshen up. We had to still wait. The information counter would open only at 8:45. so we went around to see if at least some coffee shops were open. No. nothing. So we were back at station. Put our bags on benches and went to sleep sitting there. We slept for abt an hour and a half. At 6:30 some ticket counter opened. But there we would not get the Salzburg card that we anted. This card would be both for transport all around the city and it would also cater as entrée pass to most of the important sight seeing places. We were planning to visit the ice caves. We knew that this was very far from the city. At abt 7 we started re considering our thoughts. Going to ice caves would mean almost going no where else. So we decided against it. Although it was supposed to be too good.

We ventured out of the station into a super market. Looked around. Then were back at the station at 8:45. as soon as the counter for information opened we just barged in. the lady gave us a map and a pamphlet abut the places to visit. We also got the Salzburg card. We felt that was the first achievement. We ran to the nearest bus stop to take the first available bus to helbrunn castle. Yes that was our first destination.

We reached there and it was raining. But the place was beautiful. The trees were changing colour of their leaves. It was autumn. We don’t get to see this season in India. The scenery was just awesome. We clicked some snaps and went to the castle. The castle was just a house kind of thing. But the main attraction here was that there were some hidden fountains that was built in those days by an arc bishop. This was a guided tour and would start at 10. we were there by 9:30. so we ran thru the castle (with some audio that they gave us that kept telling us abt each room). Then started the guided tour. Tho we could not understand the English that the guy spoke, we understood so much that the arc bishop had some hidden fountains built in to the place. It was fun. The guide would explain something and suddenly turn on the fountain. And the fountain could just be anywhere. Maybe from the roof, from under ur legs, from the walls on the sides…just anywhere. We kept getting wet. And people kept running away from the fountains. I once found myself stuck in between three fountains. I was not getting wet. But if I moved I would. People were all around me watching what I would do. I dint have a big problem as I loved getting wet…so just walked thru the fountain. I had anyway put my camera in as soon as we had entered so that it might not get wet. I feel I enjoyed more because of that as I concentrated on what was going on than trying to click a pic of everything. The four friends who came with me had clicked enough photos so I dint feel it necessary to take my own pics.

After this we again ran to the bus stop. Next destination was a cable car. Bus guy did not accept the Salzburg card as this place was out of the city. So we paid and got in. it was worth it. It was a cabin that went on ropes from below the mountain to the tip of the mountain. Too good view and awesome feeling. At the top we could get out walk on the mountain. Was cold. Wind blowing badly. There was a small restaurant. We had nice hot coffee there. Then took the next cable car downward. This was really a great experience.

We then took the bus to the city. This was called the old town. The city was too small. So buses dint ply too much in the interiors. Everything was 5 mins walk from each other. We reached the city by abt 12.
We walked to the church. We saw horse carts (those royal types). These are major modes of transport out there. The cathedral was really nice. Huge one.We also saw some men who had painted themselves and were standing on the streets making actions and stuff. People would admire that and give them money. They were really good at their expressions.
After that,
we went into a gallery. Here there were pics of different people, kids, babies etc sleeping. The whole gallery was filled with these paintings. I dint find it too interesting. What all of us really liked abt the gallery was the high fundu restrooms

we came out. All of them wanted to eat. I took out my bread. Which I had been eating now and then when I was hungry. Others went to a near by restaurant and got some burger and some other stuff and ate it.

Next we went to hohen slazburg castle. We had to see many more things and there was no time. So instead of walking uphill, we took the funicular. It was just a small cabin that would move like a train to the castle top. The view of the city from the castle top was very nice. I dint click too many snaps of the castle as Prashanth had already the castle from all angles. Inside the castle was not too interesting. Nothing much. A display of hand made puppets. Then a museum( very dry and boring historical stuff). So we again took the funicular down.

Next we had to go to the mirabell gardens. We decided to take a bus. But by the time we found the bus stop we actually reached mirabell. So we entered. The garden was huge and nice. But we were exhausted. Deepthi just sat in a bench. There was another historical museum. Moi and shwetha went in. anu and I went exploring the park. We were not interested in looking at the palace. We had seen many castles now and they all looked the same. So we just settled down in the park talking.

After sometime we all got back together and decided to visit the Mozart’s birth place. We went round and round in search of it. We reached it to find out that it was right opposite to the place from where we started. We went in and got to know that it was closed as it was 5:30 PM already and also there was some concert arranged so no entrée. On the way I had spoken to Prashanth. He had asked me to check out a pizza place next to the Mozart’s birth place. We did not find that. We got bugged. So we walked to one of the main streets of Salzburg( I don’t remember the name. it starts with G). this is like bangalore’s MG road.

We reached there. Settled down at a restaurant. I ordered an ice cream and anu ordered wine. Others were busy looking at some shops nearby. I had anyway decded against a shopping anything,. So I dint bother. we sat there for abt 1.5 hrs. then we paid and left. All shops were closed. It was 7:30. we walked in the street doing window shopping. Stuff was just too expensive..

We then went to the salzbach river. I forgot to mention this. The river flows right thru the old town. So when we first came to old town that’s what we saw. We sat on the river bank for sometime. Then we walked to the bus stop to go to the station. We took bus 1 to the station. This time we all had reservations. We sat down and just dozed off.

At 2AM there was going to be a shift in timings. The day light saving was being stopped and so we had to shift our watches to one hour earlier. Because of this we had some confusions as to what time will the train reach etc. it reached at 4:40 or so (actually given timings only…but was somehow adjusted to the new time shift…very difficult to explain…so just forget it). We had reached Mannheim. We then took the next train to walldorf. Took a taxi from the station back to the room.

I called Prashanth and spoke. I could hardly speak as I was so sleepy and dozing off.after talking to him I went to sleep. Slept for about 2 hrs. got up. Made some magi noodles and chutney(with amma’s chutney powder). Had it. Had bath. Cleaned up room kitchen and all. Got dressed. No one was willing to come out as they were all tired. So I decided that I will go on my own. And this time my destination was the sinsheim museum.

Tweet This Post

Then got into the train. Took 20 mins to reach the next place called..hmmm…something..i forgot…long name. there I got into a bus. That bus went on for 50 mins. Got down at sinsheim. This station was so deserted.i found out how to get to my platform. I waited there for the train. No one around. It was already 2 PM. The train dint turn up. Waited for 30 mins. Then I thought it is no point waiting. I found a woman on the other platform. I shouted out to her to ask her if she knows English. And fortunately she did know. She told me that for a week there would not be any trains on this route as there was some construction going on. I was so irritated. I went to her platform and she told me that the best is to walk to the museum. I asked her for directions , shouted out a thanks and headed off on my journey. And it was quite a journey. I walked for 40 mins on such a deserted highway. It was really scary. But my intention to reach the museum was so high that I just moved on. On the way I noticed a MC donalds, burger king, subway etc. finally…I saw the museum…ran to the entrance. It was almost 3PM. I took a ticket. I wanted watch the movie in the IMAX. I was told that it is at 4. so I ran into the museum
It was a spectacle with vintage cars, race cars, bikes, and lots of such stuff. managed to click some self snaps. I enjoyed it. They had models of huge aeroplanes and all. It was great. All that travel was worth it. There were 2 parts of the museum. I ran around both (including the shopping part) and was at the theatre at 4. it was a 3D movie on space shuttles. A documentary. But it was really good. The 3D effect gave real life to t and I felt I was in space.
4:45 it got over. I rushed out. Went to the restroom and decided to leave. Walked back on the deserted road. It was getting dark very fast. I was hungry. Prashanth had told me that the veg sandwich at subway is good try it. I was never ale to do it before. Today I was on my own. So I stopped at subway. Took a sandwich. Walked to the station. Ths time my walk was only 25 mins.i was there much before the time for the bus. I sat there and ate my sandwich. The place was really deserted.then came the bus after a long wait of 30 mins. I got in. called Prashanth from the bus to tell him to go to bed as it would be too late before I reach back.
I reached the train station by abt 7PM. From here I had to take a train to Heidelberg. From there to walldorf. At each station the waiting time was 15 mins. I reached walldorf by abt 8. no taxi anywhere. I waited. But still nothing. It was too late and so no buses at this time. I dint know what to do. I started walking. This road was the most deserted of all. There was not a single soul. And it was dark. I was not even sure if I was walking in the right direction. I saw the sign boards and kept following it. It was really scary. Walked a little ran a little. Reached the hotel by 8:30PM. Whew!!what an adventure. Just gave a missed call to Prashanth to say I was back.
I did not think he would be awake. He was. And he called. I was more than happy to talk to him. After that I just drank a glass of milk and collapsed on the bed.
That was my last weekend in germany. I would be back in Bangalore in 2 more days. This gave me really sweet dreams and I slept just too well that night

Tweet This Post

Ok…let me start with the Bangalore airport security check in.

We went in. there was no mention of the invitation letter. I was very happy once the immigration was stamped. We went in for the security check in. put our baggage and jackets on the coveyor belt. Then we saw…oops…everyone else had a tag on their bags.we dint. We got a tag and fastened it to our bags. The security then stamped his seal. Then we went …oops again….that was the wrong tag. It was the british airways and not air france. We managed to find and air france lady and got our tags and put it. The luggage was thru with the security check now. We waited for them to check us up. They checked us….and there we went…oops again…the boarding pass had gone along with the conveyor belt safely kept inside the bag. Took permission got it out and got it stamped. Finally cane into the hall where the boarding announcements were being made.

Fish market….. That’s what it was. Too crowded. Loud announcements. People talking so much. Made a call to tell everyone that all was done. Then finaly managed to find a seat. Sat there for a long time. Most of the time was fiddling with the mobile messaging.
Found a duty free shop with nice shawls. Just went and asked how much it costed. 1000 he said. I Just turned around and walked away.
Was very hungry. Managed to drink some water. Then came the announcements for our flight. We dint realise it was seat wise and were waiting god knows for what. Then we realised (a little late tho) that we had to board and then went in. I had securely kept passport and everything inside. But had to keep taking it out a 1000 times. I think by the time I am back the passport holder will be in tatters.

Got our seats. One aisle and one next to it. It was a four seater. Had a tv, pillow, remote control for the light and a shawl. The tv dint switch on till take off. The announcements had so much of a French accent that it was just too difficult to understand wat they were saying. I am not sure abt the other flights as I have not flown international before, but I found the seat very small and of course uncomfortable. I was in the aisle seat. If prashanth had to sit his legs would go for a toss as there was absolutely no space.
We were dead hungry and kept wishing that they would serve some food. The stuff on tv was not too good. They supplied us with head phones, cloth to cover eyes while sleepin(donno what its called) and ear plugs. The tv had musics, cartoon, movies, one hindi movie(pathetic amesha patel one), games and the camera from the flight below(which would show us how it looked below the flight).nothing was interesting.

Finally the food arrived. Don’t remember what was there. It was veg. some sandwitch, jam, yogurt and water. I guess something else was also there but I don’t remember.we ate and finally went to sleep at 4 AM IST.slept quite well for sometime. But then it was too cold and leg was not at all comfortable as there was no leg rest.got up and walked up and down to reduce the back and leg pain. Tried to sleep again. Somehow managed to get some sleep. morning came. Switched on tv. Watched some movie for sometime. Then came the breakfast at 6:30 paris time.it had idli, vada, sambhar, bread, some fried stuff, strawberry jam, yogurt and nuts, semiya upma(must have been abt 2 spoons of upma).had it. Was too full.also had some coffee…tasted yuck.they gave an orange juice packet. Kept it aside to drink later. Was watching movie. Took out the juice to drink…yuck it was. Just kept it aside. Went to the loo. QQQQQ….looooonnnnnnnnnnggggggg queue.waited. finally got chance. After that came back to seat. And waited.some idiot at the back seat I think spilt the juice. It came flowing to our place and made my legs sticky. Landed at charles de gaule the paris airport at 8:45 paris time.

Kept following the crowd. Reached the terminal F. were supposed to go to terminal D. A,B,C,F are there but no D. no one was there to ask. Stood in a queue that said non European passports. But then someone said we had to go somewhere else. We left the long queue and went out,. A kind lady told us to get back into the queue because that was the right thing to do. Then we found some Indians in the queue. Asked them and confirmed that we were at the right place. The long queue moved quite fast. Got immigration cleared at paris. Now what. We dint know. We went in search of terminal D. it was so far. We asked in some counter of air france. They said go to terminal D but they dint know if after immigration we had to do anything else.so we walked.
There were conveyor belt kind of moving things for people to walk. We just stand on it and it takes u to the other end of the room. We wanted to try it. So we took that instead of just walking across.we had a real long walk. The airport looked as tho it was almost the size of Bangalore itself.finally we got to know that we had done all formalities and had to only do the security check in after which we cant come out. Our flight was at 1:05 and it was just 10:30. our back packs were getting heavy.
We first figured out where the restroom was so that we could use it when we wanted.then we took a trolly. Put all our stuff onto that. It was much easier now..we went into many duty free shops.found many cute and nice stuff but too costly.juat admired everything and sat down. We were hungry again. Took out bread. Had 2 slices each. Went to the retroom. Washed face. Combed hair and freshened up. It was 12. so we went for the security check in. by the time we finished that it was 12:20. again a fish market and this time no place to stand also. Flight was delayed by abt 15 nins. Finally boarded the flight at 1:20. got one widow and the next seat in a 3 seater. This time it was very nce to see the take off from the window and the clouds. Snow capped mountains In heaven. That’s what it looked like.gods live there….deepthi says.we were hungry again. Finally after abt 15 mins of sleep got one sandwitch and water(which I was dying for). Then slept again. It was time to land. So got up. Watched the landing thru the window.

Guess what….air france dint give us chocolates that they give during take off and landing. I had a tough time with the ear block and swallowing spit.

Landed at Frankfurt at 3. this was very late. 30 mins delay. The cab person would wait only for 30 mins. We ran to the baggage back). Ran to the revolving door from which we came.oops!!!! the door stopped moving and a voice started saying pls step back. We realized that it was only for entering and the exit was elsewhere. We came out with the luggage with great difficulty.ran to info counter. Asked them that were there any other formalities or we could leave and we were told that we could leave. We ran to terminal E. dint find SAP cab driver. Searhed all over. Dint find. We decided to wait for 10 more mins else we would call Christian. But then …lö behold!!!there was the man standing. We went to him and he told us that one more guy from amsterdam was coming. So we had to wait for him. That took ten more mins. Then we left to the cab. It was a Mercedes benz. Sooper car. Sat in it. Changed the sim. Called home. Spoke. Then slept. Then watched the scenes outside.
Germany Is really green. Very beautiful.the cars were too small.i donno why. Maybe because we were in a big car. But no…the cars were really too small.if prashanth was there he would have known the names. If sangu was there we would have made fun of the german people for using such small cars when they made some of the best cars in the world.anyways…no one was there. So I just could imagine and go to sleep.

It was a very long drive from Frankfurt to walldorf.it took 1:15hrs. but then when Christian told us that it was 200 kms…I felt we reached very fast. That Amsterdam guy was dropped off at holiday inn and we went to hotel ambiente.

Checked in.sooper room. Have a look at the photos. Of course the fan that u can see was there for the first day. But today after the room cleabning they have taken it away.beds are really soft.
I was in room 325 and she got room 322.we took the lift. Came to the room.cannot unpack because we will move to apartment on Saturday. So just opened potti….just to find that unpacking was unavoidable….pulikachal had played holi.

Took out everything. Then remembered that we had to call up Christian. Did so and he said he will come in half hour. So left everything as such. Ran and took a quick bath. Thanks to prashanth that I knew how to use the bathtub without dirtying the bathroom and other etiquettes. So could mange a quick freshening up. Wore black pant and dark blue top.

Ran down to find chrisitian already waiting. He offered to take us to Heidelberg asian food shop when we badly wanted to go to aldi(a store close to the hotel where the stuff was supposed to be too good). We anyway went with him and just ot some rice, haldirams bhelpuri and channa masala of mtr(don’t ask why we bought all that when I had so much of food stuff…I donno). Then we went to another shop. Got 2 apples, 2 bananas and some milk).came back to hotel…of course in christian’s car.

Gave a missed call home. Spoke. Ate apple and banana. Washed all the pulikachal and other used clothes.put it for drying.cleaned up all the mess. Layed out all stuff required for next day. Went to sleep at abt 11. had worn socks sweater and gloves. So no problem. Warm sweet sleep.

That was day 1.

Day 2:
Got up at 5:30.got ready……made sandwitches with pulikachal and bread. Packed it for lunch.did some stretching exercises. Sit ups made my legs freeze. Cleaned up room.locked luggage. Left for breakfast at 7:00. had cornflakes, some kind of bread, orange juice, fruit salad, coffee. Got a banana back to room.took pics of room. Christian promised to pick us up at 8:45. so got ready and left.
Had forgotten to take camera on day 1. so made sure I took that. Had also met ranjini on day 1. today met nalini and one more guy from SAP.
Met Christian. Asked in reception if I could leave food items in cupboard. Asked them route to station and to SAP office.
Went with Christian to office. Tried to take pics from car. But the camera conked up. We went round all the buildings in walldorf and also some other industrial stuff in walldorf. Then the same in rot. Landscape was beautiful..
Went into office. Got introduced to many people. Went to have coffee with Christian. Got our seats somewhere. 

I  was not able to use the german keyboard……then not able to connect to messenger. ….Not able to call on wan phone. Whew!!!bad day it was. Somehow managed to speak to prashanth for 2 mins I guess. Then went for lunch with Christian. Access card dint work. Got it activated. Then had some salads, yogurt, one pice bread and the sanwitch that I prepared.it was too much. Extra filling. The canteen was far away from the seats. In another building. So could not get the yogurt to the table as prashanth had suggested. The food was not all that bad. There was some more veg stuff like fried potatoes. But I dint take. By mistake took an apple.dint know it was charged. Then went and kept it back saying sorry.
Tried to fill water in glass.lifted off the whole tray instead of a glass. Then filled of full hot water by mistake. Finally managed to get proper water. Then left the stuff on the conveyor belt that took the dirty plates away.
Came back to seat. Had to copy the photos as I had to reset the camera to make it work. Copied it locally. But could not put it on my system. Struggled the whole day. Then deepthi told me one website which I have used. Hopefully it works. Planned that this weekend we visit only germany with moitreiyee.
Had some coffee. Went back to seat when Christian said we could leave. So we packed . took the laptops with us. Went to christian’s house.picked up his wife. Left to see the rhine vally. Went up the hill. Freezing it was. But absolutely beautiful. Heidelberg is supposed to be a very romantic city. That was true. We saw the city from the topmost point on the hill. Took snaps
There was a machine. If u put a 5 cents coin it would imprint the Heidelberg castle on it and pop it out.took a snap of it. Saw the funicular(a winch is what we call it or a cable car I guess). We saw the turbine kind of thing used to run it also. The drove down. On the way had a view of the castle and then the heielberg town. Then we were dropped back at hotel. 

Called prashanth. Had some bread slices with pulikachal.washed some clothes(today no fan to make it dry so hope it dries). Now typin. Neck is aching. Its very late. So not going to do any packing or anything more. Tomorrow Christian will come of at 8. so have to sleep now and get up at 5.tata. bye bye. Will keep u posted. As I have the laptop I can type offline.

Tweet This Post

We walked to the rot station thru the jungle.it was time for the train.we ran to get tickets from the automatic machine. Vatsa used that machine so fast that I could hardly understand what he did. But there was no time to ask him. We had to go to the other platform. We ran. Finally got into the train. Vatsa explained how to get the ticket. But it make too much sense. We had to get down in the next station itself.

Got down. That’s when daddy called on mobile. I was so happy that I forgot that I was going to buy the calling card. So I said that I will go to the hotel and give a missed call and that daddy should call to landline.

After talking we decided to walk to hotel. When we turned and looked we dint know which way to go. So we thought we will take a taxi(we had asked in the hotel before abt it and had found out that it was better to do so).when we reached the hotel we realized this guy does not know English. We somehow understood and paid him and got off.

By this time I had realiyed that I had to go out and so could not talk to daddy from room. So I kept giving missed calls so that they would call back and I could talk to them. Finally when they called I was so busy with the taxi driver that I told them to call back after 2 mins.
The we waited to cross the road and the signal never turned green. then a lady came by, changed the signal herself and walked across…what fools we were…waiting there for so long.

Then again daddy called.i told them that I will call the next day(felt extremely guilty later for being so rude) because it was getting late and the shop where we would get the calling card would close.
We then started walking to the shop. It was supposed to be an Indian restaurant near SAP building. We dint know how to walk to SAP. We started off. There were hardly few people on the streets.we managed to ask some people half in german and half englisha and somehow reached SAP. Then we realised, walldorf is full of SAP. We dint knw where the shop was. We found one person her and there from SAP going home. We asked one guy. He took us thru the parking lot to the other side of the road and showed us how to go. Again we had a signal. but this time we knew we had to change it ourselves..we walked…and walked and walked…nothing on streets.no one and no shop too. Then we found a group of guys. We asked them. They said it was in the next road and not this one(we vowed never to talk to group of guys after that)…we walked…or almost ran to the next road. We still dint find it. It was pitch dark by now with no one on streets. But thank god we found one soul in front of one of the SAP offices. He told us that we were on the right road and that we just needed to go further down.

We went. And there it was….by god’s grace it was open. Went in. got the card. 2 of them each. He had many cards and we chose the one that suited us. We were so scared and tensed that we dint even think of eating anything. Just took it and started walking back. We reached the SAP office. But now we were in a fix. While coming that guy got us thru the parking lot. Now we dint know how to get back onto that particular road. We again found 2 women at SAP office. And one of them actually walked with us to show us how to get to the road that was familiar to us. God bless her soul. We were half relieved. We walked back to hotel. Once we reached we were so …I donno wat..indescrbable…we just crashed In bed(after calling up home tho).

On Saturday morning got up and got ready. Left to bad schornborn to meet moitreyee and then took the train from there to Heidelberg.(took a long time with another lady to figure out how to take the weekend pass that was valid for 5 people for the whole weekend).the weekend pass was valid in all trains that we planned to take and in buses and trams.
We reaced Heidelberg. Deepthi wanted to buy a camera and for that we had to go to media markt. Vatsa told us to take tram 41. we took it. Were busy clicking pictures.
The trams and trains …and I guess the uses also have an announcement system that keeps telling which the next stop is. And also the same is displayed. So it is not at all a problem.
After clicking all snaps we realiyed the bus was coming back to where we got in from. So that was the wrong tram…fine. We got down. Asked many people where we could find the media markt. Finally someone told us. It was far away. Do we decided to finish the shopping where we were and then move on to media markt.
We went to many shops. All costly……. But did a lot of window shopping.we went to kaufhof. Then to a cheaper shop shown by one girl called DM. there moi and deepthi got some stuff. Me dint. Then we went to wool worth. A huge shop. Me found lots of stuff there and got all that I wanted there.
Then we moved on to media markt. Got into tram 4.but we had to get the same tram that was going the other directon. So got down in the next stop. Took the same tram on the other side. Reahced there being helped by an old lady. Went to media markt. Deepthi got her camera. Me got something for my hubby. Then we went around that huge shopping mall for the rest of the day till 8. ate the bread that I had taken. The other girls got themselves some non veg stuff there. We had one ice cream also.
Returned home. Again dead tired. Freezing cold it was at night.

Sunday moring left a little late. Went to bad schornborn. Now deepthi had a camera so clicked so many photos.took a train to karlsruhe.went to service point there. Took 1.5 hours discussing with the person in the station abt various possibilities of booking tickets for the reest of our weekends at cheap rates. Got a lot of print outs.
Sat in train from karlsruhe to offenburg and analyzed the prints and decided that we will do the bookings for all the weekends as soon as we reach Freiberg.
From offenburrg we got another train to lahr. From lahr we followed one guy who took us to the bus. The bus took us to emindingen. It was a one hour journey and we had our lunch that we had bought at karlsruhe station in the bus. I had some juice and bread.then we took the next train to Freiberg. Freiverg is black forest. It is in the border of swiss. So is very beautiful. We took a map from the station. Took some snaps. Took tram number 1 that goes to littenwelle. Got down at romerhauf…that’s what it was I gues.then started walking. Saw lots of scenery. But time was not enough. Had to come back. Ate almost all the mixture.
Took the tram 1 back to station. Ate some blacforest cake at the station. Went to the restroom payin 80 cents.Took train to offenburg. The train was delayed by almost 10 mins. So as soon as we reached the station people ran like running race to the other platform for the next train. We just followed the crowd. It was a mad rush. We anyway made it to the next train. it was so cold that we were shivering. Cold not sleep as we would miss the station. Somehow then got down at walldorf at 10 and took a taxi back to hotel. Called home and went flat on bad.

Today was in iffice. Went to walldorf office walking in the morning. Then took the SAP shuttle to rot. In the afternoon we had meetings at walldorf. Some nice discussions abt some nice stuff coming up. Then we were back home dropped by Christian. He took us to Indian garden(which we showed him the way). Got one new calling card. Then after we were back at hotel we walked to aldi. Got some stuff. Did some magi and coffe cooking. Had it. Now its very late. Time to go to bed.

Tweet This Post

 the fruits and vegetables here are so fresh and pleasing that if u go to the shop u wont feel like leaving anything. Got a green apple on the first day and ate. It was so sweet. Will see if I can get something when I am coming back. But again have to chk to see weight….major problem with it.

 donno how we are going to get the laptop. We thought now that we have to take the laptop why not make use of it. We have one laptop each for us in the office. So we plan to take it to the room everyday. Only in the weekends we will lock it at office as we wont be there in the hotel and it is not safe to leave it there.

 iron box is of good use. First day when I had to change there was no casual wear without wrinkles. I ironed it. I think due to the chillness it was a little damp. So light steam…or I donno if it was smoke came out. I got scared. Switched it off. What if some fire alarm starts.but then used it again today.kept switching it off and using. Real good use.

gloves are too irritating. If I wear it I cant press the button of the camera the cell phone nothing. I cant even open the camera bag.

I am not using the handbag still. There is so much to carry to office that it does not fit in the handbag. So carrying the back pack only.

here in germany even in the office they keep asking us to lock everythin in draws. I thought there no one would steal anything like in India. But now I feel India is better.

daddy had got a clock come radio from US……. That same kind of thing is there in the room . since I have used that a lot I dint have any trouble setting time and alarm for myself and deepthi. Thanks to daddy

mom’s pulikachal rocks. Have been eating it like mad. Its almost over now. May last one more day. Also had the mixture. Dint open all the packets due to the room shift. Right now munching on the mixture.:)

 last but not the least….everything is there.but no company. U see something and suddenly u want to turn and tell someone something…u find u r alone. Its terrible to be alone. Its only 3 days now and I am already missing everyone badly.

Tweet This Post