Pleasant, Peaceful, Pretty Mechelen

No doubt - Mechelen is Pleasant, Peaceful and Pretty!

Mechelen- This has been a home for us for over a year now. When you prepare to leave a certain place, a flush of memories gathers around the mind and you realize how much the place means to you. Three of us have lived the best part of our lives here! So we do have a very special place for Mechelen in our hearts.

Mechelen gave us peace and we realized how important it is to have a peaceful mind. There is no rush in everyday life..workplace at eye’s distance, school at walk-able distance, supermarket nearby...Relief! Soothing sound of church bells gives positive vibrations...You wake up to see a river (not very clean) which flows in both directions! (They have some controlled flow mechanism I suppose.) Looking at changing colors of the sky from glass windows becomes a routine. And even if it becomes routine, you don’t get bored with it because the vastness of the sky humbles your very existence.

Mechelen brought us very close to Nature. We witnessed changes in Nature in all seasons, spring, summer, autumn and winter. Simply observing patterns of changing nature around was a great joy...My daughter and I had a great time picking up fallen leaves of beautiful trees in fall. It is only here, we witnessed the first snowfall of our life. Spring flowers had put smiles on our faces.

Nature has its own charm!

Changing day time was also quite an experience! In summer, you can experience sunrise at 4 am and sunset at 11 pm. While in winter, it is the other extreme...sunrise at 8 am and sunset at 4 pm.

You live quite a changed lifestyle here. Summer clothing and winter clothing are two different things. But we definitely got bored with wearing jackets and shoes..it’s a burden!

Evening walk around the town was always joyful. The tallest St. Rumbold's Cathedral, old heritage buildings with a maintained style of facades, an open central square will always be remembered.

Every Saturday, a Market like Tulashibag in Pune gets arranged which is called a Grote market. The concept of a shop on wheels is so cool..! They sell various stuff fresh vegetables, fruits, various bakery items, chocolates, flowers, cheese, meat etc, Other day to day items are also sold. Visit to the Grote market is a must on Saturday...it has a kind of cheerful spirit.

Bruul road is the only small shopping street in Mechelen. All shops get closed at 6 pm. And if you enter the shop at 5:55 pm, the shopkeeper will not entertain you!

A special walk to remember is a pleasant trail on old wooden bridge alongside the dyle river. Ducks and their cute ducklings swim through the river..Breeze flowing on the river chills your spirits...This walk is surely a treat to the young souls.

Garden on the bruul road is also very very special...The huge trees have become friends for us. Observing changing patterns with season, picking up fallen leaves, enjoying flower blooms, capturing the greenery and fall colors...everything is so serene over there and you nothing but wonder at the workings of nature.

Well, it is time to say goodbye to Mechelen. And yes...Mechelen’s wonderful nature will surely be missed!.

Venice and Florence - The serene beauty!

Venice and Florence in Italy are the two cities which most people admire the most. They truly describe serene beauty. Here is an insider look into Venice and Florence.

Venezia (popularly known as Venice) is beautiful city surrounded by water, and you feel nothing but nostalgic to reach to a destination which you had come across only in English literature.

Bridges, Gandolas, towers, heritage structures add to the charm of Venice -the water city.  But like any other European city, the pattern is same. City center, royal palace, cathedral or basilica, a big tower, churches. When you understand this pattern, each city starts to look same.
What differentiates Venice is the canals,bridges and narrow roads while roaming in interior areas of the city. There was recent flood in Venice because of which most of the city was under water. Though San Marco (city center) was surrounded by  water, the view was amazing.

Even restaurants were flooded with water. Once in a while,Venice experiences such flood which renews the water in its canals.Otherwise there is peculiar smell of water which surrounds the city.

Talking about Gandolas, one automatically remembers the famous song - Do lafzo ki hai dil ki kahani. Well, the gandola ride is super expensive and the cost of romance with Gandola can make a big hole in the pocket :-)

 Venice is also the town of bridges. Realto bridge is one old famous bridge. The view from the bridge is stunning!

But nothing matches the view of the city from Chamomile tower. Absolutely spectacular play of water, land and buildings!

There are three islands near Venice- Lido, Murano and Burano. Lido has got wonderful sea beach. The beach is filled with lots of sea shells. But sea water is kind of slippery and if you look closely the water looks filled with foam. May be due to pollution or may be due to volcanic eruptions in Italian area.

Anyway,there is artificial sea walk stone structure which gives you feel of entering the sea. If you feel hungry roaming on the beach, Lido also has Budhdha Indian Restaurant (run by an Italian person) which serves good Indian food.

Murano island is famous for glass making furnaces. You can enjoy live show of making of glass articles. All over Venice, beautiful glass articles from Murano are sold as souvenirs.
Unique island is the island of Burano. The tower on the island looks tilted by 30 degrees when viewed from sea water. On this island all the houses are painted beautifully. Hence, walk on the Burano island is quite refreshing. Farming community thrived by tourism live on this island.

The more you travel to various destinations, more you wonder how so many people make a living out of tourism!
Few striking features of Venice:
They serve vegetarian pizza only with Eggplant (Baingan) and Tomato. So if you have hopes that you will get good pizza in Italy (the land of origin of pizza), most probably you will be disappointed.

Desserts served in the restaurants are too good. Mouth relishing one must say!

You don't get hot coffee over here unless you specify. The coffee is mostly lukewarm.The ear of the cup is so small that you cannot hold it with your fingers.

Then the picture of unique dust bins ;-)

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Florence - The serene beauty.
Florence is real serene beauty! One feels the calm in the air..

The cathedral is so big that one cannot capture it in one shot. Quite remarkable architectural beauty.. But the long queue will deter you to enter into the cathedral. Old square has various historical monument...

There is one audio visual depicting the interviews of heroes of Florence who saved many lives in the 1967 floods..True heroes who saved lives of others  by keeping their own lives at stake..! In return, they got life long fulfillment!

Florence has one fort which is closed now, but the look from the top (again!) does freshen you up. If  you are lucky enough, you may get full view of a rainbow from the top.

At the end, one must say...

Italy, you are beautiful! No wonder.. big shot Indian couples tying their knots in the romantic country!

Visiting Prague - The charming beauty!

Visiting Prague - capital city of Czech Republic is must if you are visiting Europe. This (little) big city is truly a charming beauty! We truly were thinking of visiting Prague and fortunately it did get materialized.

"Do you want to go the city center?"

A kind old man asked us...

On the way from Prague airport to hotel, we were discussing the alighting stop of the bus. And the old man somehow managed to understand Marathi ;-)

We said 'Yes!' at once and he started giving the information about the bus stop and further journey. He also helped us to punch the travel ticket in proper way.  Well, we already knew our way to the hotel (Thanks to Google Maps!). But, we acknowledged his help and headed towards the city. It is true that,

A kind gesture from anyone brings us an unexpected joy! And it is also true that joy comes when we expect it very little.

This was a start of wonderful two days journey at Prague. My uncle had suggested me visiting Prague must see places twice (At day time and night time). He is true!

The city view is stunning, both in day light and in artificial light...

We dropped our luggage at the hotel reception and wandered throughout day only to return at night. We didn't get tired because receptionist told us the trick to take a tram on top of Prague castle and
walk downwards.

This was another immense help we received from total stranger!

If we had climbed the steps, we could have got tired quite early. Prague castle is built on top of the hill. It is the residence of Czech President now. We really didn't bother to get inside and wandered most of the time in Park outside.

It boosted my Botany knowledge a little as it is small botanical garden with information on various trees. Thanks to this little park I can now identify Oak, Pine, Maple and Tulip trees (on broader level)! Visiting Prague added trees knowledge in our lives.

This is just like identifying the trees in the neighborhood as we can easily do in India like knowing Banyan (Vad), Peepal, Neem trees etc.

In the park, statue of two kids  I admired most. The bond between them was so visible that I wish everyone of us could cherish the little kid inside us!

Our next destination was the St Vitus Cathedral. We didn't get inside ..but admired the little statues outside.

Most of them depicted age old traditional occupations/ work that Man used to do. Most of them meant physical work!

I also found  our Murali Manohar in that.

In the premises of the cathedral we also saw one water well..It was our pleasure to show the well to daughter as she saw the well first time in her life. I wonder how simple things like water well can just go out of sight where instant water tap is the answer to our thirst. Instant gratification is what we go after while using all the amenities.

Pardon me if I may sound too much philosophical ;-)  Anyway,
Philosophy is at once the most sublime and the most trivial of human pursuits :-)

After going through Prague Castle premises, we headed towards Petrin park. If you are visiting Prague, Petrin tower visit is a must. The receptionist at the hotel had remarked that it is good to get lost once in a while.Truly so, on the way from  Castle to Petrin park, we were searching for the road ahead and we entered history gallery. Stories from the survivors of freedom struggle of Czech Republic were flexed. We immersed ourselves into the stories. Those stories are worth pondering upon and most of the messages to younger generation from old people are true from the heart. They seem very preachy; yet are very logical and true.

We took old structured funicular to go up on top of the hill of the Petrin Park. They haven't replaced the old technology. Instead they preserved it as a gentle ride up the hill. Europe seem appealing to the entire world because Europeans value old things and take tremendous efforts to preserve their heritage. Most of the countries also have a good modern infrastructure to travel easily. No wonder European places are on the bucket list of so many people.

Anyway, I felt like I am climbing the hills of Parvati, Pune (by funicular instead of walk ;-). The lovely fall colors of the trees were very much fascinating. Petrin tower in the premises of park is a small tower quite identical to Eiffel tower. Only thing is that its height is quite less than Eiffel. We took aerial view of beautiful Prague city from top of petrin tower. With aerial view, everything below looks dolls or toy size including our own problems.

For entertainment of our daughter, we entered mirror maze in the Petrin Park. But we also got very much entertained with her. Watching twisted images of our own self was fun!

As we climbed down from the hill it was getting dark. We filled the stomachs at Kathmandu Indian Restaurant. First time tasted  tomato soup with cheese, cream and elayachi. Quite a delicacy to try!
On the way to hotel, in the chilling night, the lights of Charles bridge , Prague castle, Petrin Tower looked amazing! I experienced the feeling that
Amazing sights vanishes physical tiredness!

On the second day, there was not much sight seeing left. Old town square was just at 5 minutes walk from the hotel. It was very vibrant place. Daughter had all the fun as she saw dressed up Panda, Silver Man, Gold Man etc.

Near the square, there is big astronomical clock.I must say it is very unusual one. As there are 25 divisions on the clock. It is also divided into various zones. We couldn't predict how it actually works. If somebody could figure it out for us, we will be very happy.

Next, we headed towards Jewish Synagogues. There are 3-4 synagogues (Jewish temples) in the old town. We saw various synagogues from outside as entering it could have been testing our daughter's patience level.

Next destination was powder tower.Powder tower was kind of old opening gate for the town. (गाव वेश) .  On the way, we tasted Trdelník which is kind of cream roll (less crispier than cream roll) . While visiting Prague, you can find it in every corner. Watching it being prepared  was also great experience.

Nearby powder tower, there was bubble man (mostly seen everywhere in Europe). Daughter had all the fun with bubbles. Bubble man makes a living out of blowing bubbles with the help of row. People voluntarily pay him as he entertains children (as well as adults). 

Taking short rest at the hotel, we headed towards Charles bridge and have a look at it at day time. Evening sky, calm Vltava river were adding charm to this very old bridge. There were many statues on the bridge from one end to the other. When we reached to the bridge, fortunately it was less crowded.

I guess entire economy of Czech Republic is driven by Prague tourism. City looks crowded with tourists. Each and every corner we visited, does have souvenir shops. Restaurants and Cafes look full of people. So many people make a living out of tourism here!

Any way, we also bought colored pencils for daughter and two Bohemian crystals which are as good as diamonds for her.(Bohemia is a region in Czech Republic).

Few striking features of Prague Trip which makes visiting Prague worthwhile.
-It is the city of Trams. Hop on and hop off from tram and roam around!
-Very few traffic signals and cars. Pedestrians have all the privilege to walk on the streets.
-Marijuana - Cannabis ( kind of addictive drug) easily available in the market in the form of biscuits, tea, etc.  :-(
-Open Cement dust bins are peculiar ;-)

If you have extra money in your pocket, you can take city tour in vintage cars

We enjoyed visiting Prague. The charming city, full of nice people, mixed with Natural and Man-Made beauty!

To end this little (?) travelogue of Prague Trip, here is a quote by an anonymous on Prague.

"If European cities were a necklace, Prague would be a diamond among the pearls!"

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If you like this post, you may also like to check other places to visit in Europe:

Visiting Prague:

Visiting Prague - The charming beauty!

Sightseeing Barcelona:

Sightseeing Barcelona - The vibrant beauty !

Portugal Holidays:

Portugal Holidays - The Ultimate Treasure

Reading culture in Germany

Reading culture in Germany

Oostende - Disney Sand Art

Oostende – Disney Sand Art

Venice and Florence - The Serene beauty!

Venice and Florence - The serene beauty!

Sightseeing Barcelona - The vibrant beauty !

This little (big!) travelogue tells places to visit in Barcelona which also includes free things! 

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Allow me to state here how much I love Barcelona, an admirable city, a city full of life, intense, a port open to the past and future. – Le Corbusier 

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I was reading and gathering information on Barcelona as much as I can before reaching there. They say, when you have expectations, you are setting yourself up for the disappointment. In spite having great expectations from the city, it really didn't disappoint. Undoubtedly Spanish city of Barcelona is a vibrant beauty. 

We started off the journey with Mirador da Columbus. Sea facing heighten statue of Columbus mesmerized us as we remembered कोलंबसाचे गर्वगीत by कवी कुसुमाग्रज 

चला उभारा शुभ्र शिडे ती गर्वाने वरती  

कथा या खुळया सागराला  

''अनंत आमुची ध्येयासक्ती अनंत अन आशा  

किनारा तुला पामराला' 

Pointing finger towards the sea, Columbus statue truly tells the indomitable spirit of human aspirations. It was great joy to tell my daughter about the father figure of globalism. 

Next, walking on the sea getaway Rambla De Mar was great joy. The wooden- steel bridge split opened when we reached the other side. The sailing ship cruised outside the gate into the sea. Watching the bridge being split and beautifully built sailing ship was a remarkable moment.   

Inside into the sea there was floating structure of Miraestels - Stargazer by artist Robert Limmos. It is inspired by the poem The Tumbler / El Saltamartí written by Spanish writer Joan Brossa. 

Tumbler 

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A doll 

that has a  

weight in its base and that, 

tipped from its vertical 

position, rights itself 

again. 

  

The people. 

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The Mirastrels surely looks up to the sky!  And conveys the message if you happen to get bogged down by any kind of suffering (tipped from vertical position) you have all the ability to again stand on your feet.(rights itself again). Just look up to the sky!  The perception out of sea facing Columbus and sky facing Mirastrels is just one. From time unknown, both enormous sea and endless sky have been the source of forming unending spirit. 

Poblo Espnyol was our next destination. After entering we thought that we have done a mistake by purchasing the tickets. Surprisingly we could locate very few tourists. There were different facades of homes in Spain from different era. Even the flooring in front of those facades were different. 

 There was large format Audio Visual called Fiesta dedicated to popular festivals from different places around Spain.  Remembering the movie Jindagi Na Milegi Dobara, we could relate to few festivals like Tomatina and Running of the bulls. The Audio Visual is so amazing that we were filled with emotions fascinated by soul of Spain. Nevertheless, our own Indian festivals have the similar vigor and vitality. In fact, at various festivals they form Castells i.e. Human towers just like our Dahi Handi...! They also play Dandia with sticks...We felt Awe! 

Entire art world bow to Spanish painters - Picasso, Dali and Miro. Pablo Espanyol has the collection of paintings of these three and other great artists from Spain as well. We really don't understand anything in paintings as we haven't studied ABCs of art. All the paintings started to look same. Unless and until the meaning behind the painting comes in front and strong color contrast catches the eye, it is difficult to feel connection. After going through almost all paintings we just decided not to visit Picasso museum and Miro Museum in Barcelona. 

By the time we left Poblo Espnyol, it was late evening. Our day had started at 4 am in the morning due to travel to Barcelona, but my daughter had all the enthusiasm to watch the magic fountain show at 9:30 pm at night. We could get small place to sit down as the area was getting densely crowded. The lighting effects, background music and cheering crowd made the atmosphere lively. We watched the show for 15 min and escaped from there as we realized it would be difficult to commute back to hotel quickly. Recently I read the article about Overtourism through FB. It mentioned that, Barcelona has been at the center of the concerns related to over tourism . (Ironically, we were also one of the visitors.) We also read local remarks at 3-4 places - 'Tourists- Go Back Home!' 

Next day was the Antoni Gaudi day for us. He was the Spanish architect who built many remarkable buildings in Barcelona. Sightseeing Barcelona is incomplete without Sagrada Familia. We visited Sagrada Familia in the morning - the most unique cathedral in the entire world! The Man behind building this cathedral is Gaudi. It would need separate chapter to write about Sagrada Familia and Antoni Gaudi. I can just tell I felt sincere respect for Gaudi and felt humbled to know him through his work. Sagrada Familia didn't fail to make a long-lasting impact on us. The work of Sagrada Familia is still going on. If God does not have separate plans for us, we would definitely like to visit Sagrada Familia after 2026 - the year of completion of the cathedral.  

(Note: You may read more about Sagrada Familia and Gaudi House Museum on below link:

Sagrada Familia tour and Gaudi House museum)

Next, we saw Casa Batalio and Casa Mila from outside. These two are unique buildings designed and built by Gaudi. Purchasing the expensive tickets to enter was out of question. By the way, we had purchased Barcelona travel card. And thanks to our own Google maps we could move around the city hopping from one metro to another. Still the sheer amount of walking in the scorching sun was exhausting. Hence, we took resort in Labyrinth Park somewhat outside the city. Running through the maze of small trees was great fun especially for my daughter. We also enjoyed the maze with her... 

La Rambla - words fell short to describe the liveliness of this road. Open Tapas restaurants, souvenir shops, ice cream shops in the middle of the broad foot path adds to the vibrancy of the road. We commuted on this road several times during our stay in Barcelona as our hotel was very near to this road. Tapas are nothing but various Spanish snacks. It was hard to find vegetarian option. But we tried tortilla de patatas and tortilla de spinach (potato and spinach omelets) . I couldn't really devour it because of an egg element. We as Indians have the habit of eating somewhat spicy things. So, finishing that plain tortilla felt like huge burden on me. I could feel sympathy for my daughter as we often force her to finish the things on her plate against her wish. Anyway, we just decided to fill the stomach for remaining days with cheaper Subway option or Indian restaurant. 

After having dinner, we visited La bouqueria market. Various colors of fruits, smoothies, juices, nuts, cheese were eye catching. Fruits and Vegetable markets are always closer to my heart. Whether we are in Pune or Mechelen, generally we don't fail to go to local markets/ stalls for buying fruits and vegetables every weekend. Local markets/stalls are always better than buying in big supermarkets. Anyway, at La bouquria, we purchased small dragon fruit for our daughter and this was the end of fabulous second day at Barcelona. 

Third day started with visit to Park Guell. We couldn't get the tickets as we didn't bother to purchase the tickets online. Nevertheless, the uphill walk to park guell was amazing. Half of the distance had escalators to climb. And some distance we had to climb on our own. There were houses on both sides of the road.  When we reached the top, we could see entire Barcelona. Just amazing view...! 

Some portion of Park Guell was accessible by free entry. We roamed around there. We also visited Gaudi House Museum where Gaudi used to live. The respect for Gaudi just got deeper! 

After coming back, we had lunch in Indian restaurant Bombay Spicy at La Rambla. We were wondering where to go in scorching sun, but we decided to go Pl Espanio, where we entered a mall to beat the heat. Surprisingly there was small exhibition of art work. The colour contrast and themes were eye catching...It was soothing experience. 

Next, we wanted to visit Barcelona Olympics stadium, but our phone batteries got discharged. My husband looked over the paper map of Barcelona to locate the place. We traveled for an hour by train to reach there. And then we realized we were at the wrong place. Decided not to go anywhere now, we headed towards our hotel by metro. But our fate had different plans for us. To cater to our daughter's nature call, we stopped at a station near La Rambla to enter McDonalds. We had nice coffee in nearby shop. Suddenly there was noise of fire crackers. We looked outside... A carnival with giants were marching on the streets of La Rambla. We were ignorant about the annual festival of La Merce taking place in Barcelona during 21st to 24th September 2018. Half an hour passed looking at the wonderful carnival. Giants, traditional music instruments, cheering crowd everything was wonderful. I just remembered our republic day parade at Delhi... 

On the last day, we visited Science Museum. Seven storied building depicting the journey of scientific evolution from microorganism to Robotics. It has good collection of several scientific facts, wonders. Daughter enjoyed it very much as we explained many phenomena to her. Watching primitive man model, dinosaurs' models, robot models and a small rain forest was great experience. The most amazing thing was the live demo of an Octopus opening the bottle lid to eat the fish inside.! It was wonderful example of adaptive intelligence in animals.  

We traveled back to La Rambla to have lunch at Subway. Our back-home flight was in the evening. But I was not done with sightseeing Barcelona yet. We haven't checked all the places to visit in Barcelona. I dragged my husband and daughter to Barcelona cathedral. The inner roads (Barcelona ki Galiya) were lovely. There was small bread and snacks market in Placa Del Pi. In another corner, artists were painting and few paintings were kept for sale. I could feel the connection looking at some of the paintings! When we reached cathedral there was long queue. Saying hello from outside, we headed to catch the bus for the airport. 

Barcelona doesn't fail to amaze with liveliness and surprises. It has arranged farewell for us as we looked at dances organized on the occasion La Merce festival.  

As we headed towards airport, what filled our hearts were wonderful memories of Barcelona...the city touched by Gaudi, full of beautiful people and full of energy!!!  

At the time of take-off, when our daughter said ‘Bye Bye Barcelona...See you again Soon...’  We couldn’t hold our smile...  :-)  

I have covered most places to visit in Barcelona and most of them are free!!

  
I hope you enjoy the city  with this sightseeing Barcelona Guide...!

  

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If you like this post, you may also like to check other places to visit in Europe:

Visiting Prague:

Visiting Prague - The charming beauty!

Sightseeing Barcelona:

Sightseeing Barcelona - The vibrant beauty !

Portugal Holidays:

Portugal Holidays - The Ultimate Treasure

Reading culture in Germany

Reading culture in Germany

Oostende - Disney Sand Art

Oostende – Disney Sand Art

Venice and Florence - The Serene beauty!

Venice and Florence - The serene beauty!