Desi 'light'-packers Episode 5!

04:00 AM

Saturday

Apr 7, 2007 

Dorint Novotel, Schipol, Netherlands

"The canal cruise is starting at 9AM and each trip takes about an hour-and-a-half!", said the brisk guy in the concierge.

"Where is the boarding point?", he asked.

"Just outside the station Amsterdam Centraal",  he replied.

"Oh..Okay! Thank you!",  he said and moved away from the concierge desk to where she was waiting with a small brown crochet handbag, wearing a tan coloured overcoat over a brown cloured 'V' necked tee, with blue-black jeans. 

"You look crisp and fresh today", he said looking at her.

She smiled back, her usual trademark smile with a dimple in one of her cheeks whenever she gives a glorious one. 

"You look wonderful, as always!", she complimented him, with eyes glowing with pride.

They started walking towards the hotel entrance hand in hand expecting a splendid day ahead! As soon as they reached the hotel entrance....

He sat bolt upright when the alarm in his mobile phone, kept on the bedside table started ringing.

"Oh! Is it 4 o' clock already?! I was dreaming is it?", he said in a slumberous-alerted tone.

When he received silence as the reply, he realised that she is not awake as yet, smiling, stretched his hands out to reach his phone to switch the alarm off.

"Wake up! Its already time", he shook her.

"Dont bluff! The alarm hasn't rung yet!", she said in a muffled-shaky voice.

"Ha!Ha!",  he crooned like a rooster and started to giggle.

She sat up on the bed lazily looking at him, he looked at her and his giggles volcanised to fits of uncontrollable laughter.

"There-should-be-an-atom-bomb-kept-right-beneath-your-ear...", was all he could muster trying to suppress his giggles, but before he would finish, she was on top of him with her pillow in hand.

"Don't -you-dare-tease-me", she retorted, between clenched teeth, every word uttered for every blow.

"Stop-hitting-me", he said between blows with strained rising tone for each word, that the 'me' sounded shrilly. She stopped hitting him with the pillow,  "Its time! We have to start!"

The next hour was spent on getting ready and they were out sharp at 6:00 AM for the breakfast lounge. The continental breakfast contained a shuttle to the Schipol airport, twisted fries ( it is an enhancement made with french fries, which is twisted and flavoured with garlic), veggie burger, coke each!

"I am a great fan of twisted fries. Oh! Let me call it garlic fries!", she said, carrying them in a tray to their table in Burger King.

"I know! Do you remember the story of a lady who got snubbed by asking this option back in London?", he asked with a mischievous smile.

She replied with a stern stare, " Do you remember who got bugged in the morning for teasing me?"

"Okay! Let's drop it!", he mumbled and started chatting about the enquiries they had made yesterday in the very same airport, where they were having their breakfast.

"So! Its a shuttle from here at 8:30, a 34 km ride, which would take, say 45 mins...!"

"Wow! Don't say that! I am getting too skittish!"

"...and now we're Off to Keukenhof!"

"Yessssssssss!"

And here are some teasers for the next episode!

Desi 'light'-packers Episode 4

" I had been to Utrecht last time, to meet my client, do you remember?", he asked.

"Yeah", she answered.

"You take a train from Amsterdam to Utrecht. Its a 20 mins ride and you will get a life's worth to watch", he said, "Thats how it is", he added.

"I have heard about it. When I was with IBM, some of my friends travelled to the office here in Utrecht and they have said that the place is pulchritudinous! Didn't realise it then!", she said.
"Yes, I have seen your office. Utrecht a small industrial town. ", he replied.

By this time they were reaching Amsterdam Centraal . They wanted to travel to Schipol Airport, where they have planned to stay in an accomodation nearby. He stood up from his seat and started moving towards the driver's.

"How do I go to Schipol from Amsterdam Centraal?", he asked the driver.

"To Schipol? From Centraal? You have to take a metro train. Its quiet a distance from here. Around 30 mins by train", the driver replied back, he seemed to have lost in thought about something which the hero of our story couldn't comprehend.

"Oh! Is it that far?", he asked.

"Yeah!", the driver replied, totally lost.

When he wanted to resume his way back to the seat with a polite "Thank You!", the driver told him, "I can drop you at the airport! Would you mind waiting for 15 minutes, until I unload all the passengers and their lugguage?"

Startled by the driver's unexpected question and the offer, he was in search for words "Er.... yeah! But how could you do that?"

"The airport is on the way to the garage. So I can drop you if you want", the driver replied.

"Thank you!", he said unable to generate any other word from his totally baffled brain.

" Its not a problem at all", said the cheerful driver.

Awed by the generosity of the coach driver, he told her about the offer . She was surprised on hearing it and reacted in her usual dramatic manner.

Friday

Apr 6, 2007
Schipol, Amsterdam, Holland


It was 5:30PM when the coach driver dropped them in Schipol. They both enquired about the shuttle buses to the hotel and reached the shuttle stand. On their way, they met a cheerful set of people who wished them which theyresponded with equal enthusiasm. When the shuttle arrived, they took their seats and the vehicle started. At the same time there were claps from the people outside and passengers in the shuttle turned to see what caused the applause, to find out a person running to catch the very shuttle which has started to move. The driver applied brakes to stop the bus for the running pasenger!

The two were astonished to see the unfolding scene, with wide-open mouths wondering whether they were dreaming. Their previous trip to this place has made them familiar about the good-natured people, but this was hard to believe. It was 15 minutes by the Accord hotels shuttle to reach Dorint Novotel. They saw the wonderful poster behind the receptionist and smiled secretly of the enquiries that they made, just a few minutes ago, in the airport about their plans for tomorrow.

When they reached their room he said, "Lets call it a day! We have a great day ahead for tomorrow. We need rest!"

Desi 'light'-packers - Episode 2!

... And Windmills....The journey through the country of Holland is a delight. Rotterdam and its picture-perfect settings, as a small town, with sourrounding villages, smaller houses, greens as far and wide one's eyes can stretch, long winding lanes, people with cheerful smiles and windmills wafting their monstrous arms to the brisk and gentle breeze.... A walk along the winding lanes ....


" I think we are seeing an example of how a man can preserve what God has given!", she said standing beneath a windmill staring at it!


"Yeah we are indeed.. he has done it by not overproducing himself, firstly", he said.


She laughed at his light-hearted humour, "Oh..its a serious fact, I've always admired how thinly populated these places are! And that is the reason , they have sooo much more of beautiful landscapes left, with no occupation, adding to the beauty , thus very less polluted" and started walking towards the winding lanes.


"People here give so much importance to nature and have declared vast amount of area as green-zones!". she continued.


"Yes thats a wonderful plan by the government to stop people spoiling the place by construction and has strictly allocated for sight-seeing purposes only!"


She spots a canal from no-where, with water as clear as a crystal and a small un-occupied boat. "Oh! I just want to build a small hut here to live my retirement life!", totally lost at the beauty of the picture spread ahead.




"It may not be possible! This might still be a green zone then!", he said laughing at his own joke.

Then came a rude jolt " The bus will stop here for half-hour. This is a legal stop required before getting into the border of Holland! People can have refreshments here, if need be", announced the driver through his mike.


They both turned their heads around to see the board of Mc Donalds smiling back at them with an inscription "Welcome to the border of Holland!"


"Oh! I almost forgot this! We are still not in Holland!", she said and looked back at him, to find him give a startled look and realised he too was lost in memories. They both smiled and climbed out of the bus.

" I want to have the biscuit, the Mc D guy gave us last time", she said. "It was delicious".


He shook his head disbelievingly, his hair fell on his forehead, he combed again with his fingers "I am not able to believe, you are this childish when you come out!".


"Yeah! Only then you can enjoy without a worry!" she replied with infectious enthusiasm, hopping for every step she took.


They both entered Mc D he asked, "What are you going to have?"


She said, "We haven't packed anything! So a full Mc D veggie meal"



So let them have their meal and we will resume later! :)

Desi 'light'-packers - Episode 1!

Friday 04:15AM
Apr 6, 2007
Paris, France


The two walked out of Hotel Elysees Mermoz, Off Champs Elysees, hand-in-hand with not a worry in the world, feeling as independent as a bird on its flight, with a very exciting plan on their heads, as light as their bags. They boarded a metro train to Haussmann Saint-Lazare from St. Philippe Du Roule, from where they took another train to reach Gallieni. The two reached the ticket counter and bought tickets to board a 07:30 AM Eurolines Coach Service to Amsterdam, Holland.

"I am still not able to believe we are doing this" said one to another

" Yes, we are!" he said.

"Why did I ever buy myself into this plan? " she asked.

He laughed at her admiringly, combing his hair, ruffled by the brisk early morning breeze, with his fingers, which has become habitual.

"If we are going to pull this off, it is going to be a memorable one!", he said.

"Yes ", she replied excitedly and both exchanged excited looks.

"Tickets please", shouted the coach driver. He verified the tickets, helped passengers one by one, to board the coach.

"Here we go! I think we are crazy!", she said.

"I think so too!", he said and took her hand to sit beside her.

And the coach took off sharp at 07:30 towards the early morning sunrise, which showed, what a fine typical spring day it is bound to be! Spring in Europe is nothing but pure bliss! The sprintness in the breeze, brings a fresh inner feeling for walkers, striding by the innocent looking flowers exhibiting their bewitching smile as a bloom! She was looking outside the window watching all these sights trying to take-in and register every pixel of beauty spread in-front of her eye.

"Our eyes are a thousand Digital SLR's put together! I always wonder God's creations... our eyes, the beauty that lies in front of us! ", she said, eyes still outside the window busy capturing whatever it can.

"Why do you say that?", he asked, puzzled.

"When you hold a camera to take a picture of the frame which lies ahead, you will notice how panoramic our eye-view is and how little can these digital state-of-the-art man made machines , pack to a single shot!", she answered.

"Phew! I've realised this many times... but Kudos! beautifully worded!", he said appreciatively.

She turned away from the window still wide-eyed to smile at him. "Thank you!"

Brussels city center

The 10 hour journey continued through the picturesque town of Lille in France , then through Brussels and the industrial town Antwerpen in Belgium with light conversations between the two and a lot of sight-seeing. When the coach wsa nearing the border of Holland, excitement had started mounting again already! The two had travelled to Amsterdam before, the previous year and were so fond of this country for the spellbinding scenic beauty, the helpful people and the careless lifestyle.... And oh! Who can forget the windmills? ......

Ho! Ho!..... Holland!

To be continued...

My travels....

Hello everyone,

Work was keeping me away from my computer. So I could not blog. I was just thinking about my travels through Europe for the past few days. I have travelled a little bit in mainland Europe when I was living in England. It is a beautiful country to live. The people in Europe have great sense of beauty. The houses they build -beautiful is an understatement. They decorate their houses in a very aesthetic way, have great sense for colours, great attention to detail (for eg., nowhere you can see a spot of paint extra when they paint). The houses and everything may be small when compared to US, but the way they keep it looking sparkling clean and tidy, during all times of the day, will tell you how much house-proud they are. The sense of beauty doesn't stop just with the house and the interior decoration, it extends to anything and everything they do....even the tiniest miniscule thing like gift wrapping. One will be astonished to see the care they take in doing even little things. I think the nature and its beauty, the rivers, breathtaking mountains and landscapes, has given people the inspiration to look beautiful ( which ofcourse is in their genes ) , keep, make or build anything beautiful. I think , they have taken nature as their way of life.

English people are very punctual. If they want to make an appointment at 3 o' clock in the afternoon, they reach the place at 2:58, wait for two minutes and then will press your calling bell on dot at three. This is a great thing to learn from them. French are very sharp and clever. They understand what you are about to say even before completing your sentence. One can ask ' Whats a big deal about it?' Most of the french are not that fluent in english. They can understand with only hints from the English we speak which is an extraordinary capability according to me. Dutch people are the most helpful and optimistic I have ever seen. They are very sweet, very very perfect as in the quote 'dutch precision' fully justified. Greek are the most intelligent i have seen. Oooooooooh we actually started to read greek when we were there for just 5 days in the country. Very few people know English and the speed at which they comprehend is amazing and the way they explain back to us makes you dumb! They are too good at mathematics and geometry. Then Swisssssss..... what can I say, with the mixture of French and German , the country looks all charged with positive energy... just enter Zurich airport and you will never feel like coming back! the ppl are sooo helpful, you will never believe, there was a stranger, who gave us a lift to the station Interlaken Ost, when we missed a bus early in the morning deviating from his office route for 10 kms..... this made us feel really good about them.

My memory train would not stop..... wherever we go we have a lot to learn about that country, the place, the people, their culture, which gives us the true insight of what the place is all about .... its a lot different from reading in books and newspapers!

I will continue about the countries and their natural beauty whenever I get some time to blog. Thanks a lot again for reading. Enjoy your day!