Venice is a beautiful and romantic place in Italy, There are lots of possible options to reach it, But as i went from Stuttgart Germany, i will let u know how to travel to Venice from Germany and what all places you can see there !!!
If you are going from Germany, Then Ikarus travels is the only option you got, you can check the ikarus website to see when are the trips to Venice scheduled and at what time!!
Click on this link and you can get more details of it
http://www.ikarus-reisen.de/index.asp?p=156&LascheNr=4#tripbox.
The bus starts from Vaihingen bus stop , S-1 train (Refer the Stuttgart train map which i have uploaded in my previous blogs) and reach there by 8.45pm. The ideal time we would be reaching Venice is 7.00AM, the stopping is called "Tronchetto" on Saturday morning.As usual carry stuffs like toothpaste, small soaps etc with you, which will be very handy.
Venice is place you can roam only in Water, So be prepared for it.. Lets Go now !!!
If you plan for just 1 day visit to Venice, then follow my plans or if you are planning to have a couple of days stay or more then take your own time and have nice time in each and every places...
Take a one day ticket at the ticket counter (which is just a road cross from WC).
It costs around 12€ and is valid for 24 hrs for all water boat travels. Take the first water boat "DM" (diretto Murano) at 8:10 AM from Tronchetto and you will reach "Murano Colonna" stop at around 8:45 AM. Murano is famous for Glass factories and you have lot of them which offer "free visits”. You can see how a glass showpiece (article) is made and can do some shopping. The factories open around 9:00AM and it will take 5-10 minutes walk from Murano stop. Spend 1-2 hours here.
Next journey is towards "Burano" where in you have the famous lays factories. For the same take LN (Laguna Nord) boat from 'Murano Faro' (it is next stop of Murano Colonna and is walk able).The frequency of boats are quite good. It takes about 1/2 an hour to reach there.
Attractions: Colorful masks, lace (embroidery) factories /shops, identical houses of different colors, church. Spend around 1-2 hours here. (Pizza's here cost 2€ per piece and its good and very tasty as well)
The next journey is towards the famous St.Marco Square. For the same take boat to St.Marco square. The boat leaves every 1 hour from Burano to St.Marco square and it is at every 0.30 .ie. 12.30, 1.30, 2.30…
Here you can take the famous Gondola Ride through the narrow canals of Venice. (Gondole - the traditional boats of Venice.. They are usually for couples. But are also available for a group of 6. The oarsman sings traditional Italian folksongs throughout, and take you through the narrow lanes of Venice) But they are expensive and costs 80€ for 6 persons. Also not every oarsman sings Italian Folk Songs.
Next take a boat from St. Marks square to Lido. (Every 10 minutes there is a boat to Lido). The beach is approx 20 minutes walk from the port. Can spend about an hour here.
Take boat back to St. Marks Square.
Take the water boat no 82 or any boat that goes to Tronchetto at around 6:45 PM so that you reach back at 7:15 PM. Every 10 minutes there is a boat to Tronchetto from St.Marco. The bus starts back at 8:00PM and you should be there by 7:45 near the bus.[you have 1/2 an hour to have dinner here]
The ideal time that you would reach Stuttgart is around 6:30 - 7:00 AM on Sunday morning. Relax for the day and continue your routine ;-) As i always suggest its good practice to carry some snacks items and water bottles with you always, Specifically if you are just planning for one day then you shouldn't be wasting too much of time visiting hotels..
In Venice the best option for food is "Pizza", Italy's Pizza are world famous and you can find it st Mark square and other similar places.
T-Shirts and Masks are also famous in Venice, but its little costly and not much affordable ! Best time to visit is between May to September.I went to Venice with my Colleagues there, and when we reached there we got some new friends.. We met with a Indian Doctor who joined with us and spend the whole day with us.. It was ever green moments...
I am uploading the photos which we took there... See How Venice is !!
http://picasaweb.google.co.in/shafathhusain/Venice_Italy#
Beautiful isn't !!
Ok in my next blog i will take you to Salzburg, A beautiful place in Austria !!!
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Say hi to monolisa !
Ask any European traveler or a honey moon couple traveled back from Europe, They will have some sweet memories of PARIS.
Europe stands 1st in Vacation destination and PARIS is one of my favorite destination.
if you ever planned for a Paris trip make sure you have a minimum of 3 to 4 days with you, so that you can roam around all the places in and around the city very peacefully.
Here are some useful information,
You can go to Paris by Eurolines. If you plan sufficiently early, then may be by flight also. You can reach Paris by Ikarus travels also.Better keep Ikarus as the last option as he leaves there in the afternoon and half day will be wasted.
this is the link of that travels
http://www.ikarus-reisen.de/English.htm?p=100
You can find that ikarus is running buses for various destinations. you can trust the company and pay the price for the tickets. we traveled to Paris only through the ikarus as our plan was decided only in the last moment, dont worry about paying the money using postal service. you can trust ikarus-reisen.
To travel inside Paris, have a Metro map of Paris, also a zone map. It is more than enough. It is impossible to manage without these.
You can find metro map here
http://www.aparisguide.com/maps/metro.htm
and zone map here
http://parisbytrain.com/paris-transportation-zone-map/
Reserve any hotel or hostel in city center so that transportation will be easy. Even if we book it a little away from center, then also its not such a big problem as the metro connectivity is too good. if you book the tickets through ikarus then based on your plans you can get your hotel accommodations with breakfast.
if you are some bachelors and just don't want to waste too much of euros then keep some food items ready made in your bags, food stuffs like burgers/breads biscuits and a water bottle will be handy.
Or you can have some nice handy Indian style or foreign style pizza's near the PARIS Central station, this is the place where ikarus will drop you and pick you later.
Here are the interesting places that you can see in PARIS
Grand Arch de La Defense: This is an arch (actually a rectangle built in memory of some soldiers). I was amazed to know that it is an office building n people work inside that. In the night it is good to see it by the light. Also the sky scrapers around it. To reach here you have to get down at the La Defense stop.
Arch de Triomphe: This looks somewhat similar to our India Gate. This was constructed by Napolean as a sign of victory and as a tribute to those who died in war. 12 roads meet at this point and it is an amazing view. To have this marvelous view, we have to climb up the tower by paying the entrance fee.To reach here you have to get down at the Champs Elysees Clemenceau stop.
Champs Elysees: One of the 12 roads joining at the Arch de Triomphe is the Champs Elysees. You can have a walk down this street and it is beautiful (especially during the night). There are many museums in this street – Renault, Peuguot, Daimler Chrysler and Toyota. All are free entrance.
Opera House: Well we don’t get a chance to see the opera because the tickets are always sold out and may be costly too. But you can have a glimpse of the opera house. It is nothing short of any royal palace-nice decorations, grand chandeliers that too with artistic work of French. If you remember the one you had seen in Dil Chahta Hai. It is like that itself, but not as big as that.You have to get down at the Opera stop. The building will be named as ‘Musique Academy’. But i felt this as boring one and not worth the money.
Eiffel Tower: 1 of the 7 wonders. Well it’s altogether a different experience to be on top of it. we can get the view of the entire (most of the ) city Paris from the top of it. Go to top of Eiffel tower at the late afternoon, so that you can see the city by light and by night. There are 4 pillars – East, West, North & South. There are ticket counters at each of the pillars. They give tickets to go the 1st floor, 2nd floor & to the top floor. If many people are there on the top, they stop issuing tickets for some time. So be careful while purchasing the tickets and make sure you take it to the top floor. You can climb till 1st or 2nd floor, but have to take a lift compulsorily from there, or you can also take the elevator directly from the ground floor.
You can get down at the Bir Hakeim stop or Champ de Mars Tour Eiffel stop.
Never miss it.
Boat Ride: The best way to see Paris by lights. Just beside the Eiffel tower there are many counters for boat rides. You can get a ticket in any 1 of them. It will be for 1 hour n the River Seine. Take the boat ride in the night, when the city if full in lights. It is awesome experience. Don’t afford to miss this.if you travel by ikarus then this trip is arranged by the travels itself.
Sacre Coeur: This is one the famous churches in Paris. It is famous because of its architecture.
You have to get down at the Anvers stop for this. From there you can climb up the small hill. Even there is a cable car to go up there.
Notra Dame: This is another famous church. This is the place where Napolean crowned himself as the king. You can also go up the church tower.
You have to get down at the St. Michel or St. Michel Notra Dame stop.Nice one.
Louvre Museum: Well this one of the things not to be missed in Paris. if your are so much art savvy then you definetly need atleast a 3 days to see this museuem completely.. Previously it was a palace. Now it is converted to a museum. It has 2 wings. Each wing is 700m (almost 3/4th of a km) and each wing has 4 floors, so totally (1.5 * 4 ) 6 km. If we have to see everything in the museum, then we have to walk for 16km inside the palace!!!!! That’s humanly impossible in 3 days also. So only look at at the important places in the museum – Mona Lisa, Coronation of Napolean, Napolean Apartments, Greek idols, Italian paintings (hall with endless number of paintings) in order of their preference. There is also audio guide available and if you take it there is a description for each painting - God help the person who listens to the description of all these paintings!!!!! Do not spend more than 4 hours here or else you will get bored and tired and you will not to go anywhere the whole day. Everyday some or the other room of this museum will be closed for maintenance. It is a holiday on Tuesdays.
You have to get down at the Palais Royal Musee de Louvre stop.
i strive harder to go to the luvre museuem just to Say hi to monolisa, but trust me i did not find it so excited, as the monolisa was never looking at me at all...
Invalides: There is Napolean Fort kind of thing here. After looking at everything in Paris, this appears nothing great. But you can go here if you are left with time. It closes at 6.15 in the evening. You can also see the French Parliament. But I do not know whether they will let you in.
You have to get down at the Invalides stop.
Versailles: its a huge place. since we were too much tired visiting luvre, we did not visited this place.. but if you have more time then definetly you can have a visit.
There will be a show in the Palace gardens from 3.30 to 5.00. Mondays the palace is closed. On first Sunday of every month there is no discount and no group tickets available.
To reach here you have to take RER C (named VICK or VERO) from Champ de Mars Tour Eiffel and get down at the Chateau de Versailles (Rive Gauche) stop.
Just remember that Sortie in French is Exit in English, it will be handy.
Just i am uploading very few photos which we took in PARIS,
http://picasaweb.google.co.in/shafathhusain/France_Paris
Did you like it ?
Ok in next blog we will discuss about Venice, A nice beautiful place in italy.
Europe stands 1st in Vacation destination and PARIS is one of my favorite destination.
if you ever planned for a Paris trip make sure you have a minimum of 3 to 4 days with you, so that you can roam around all the places in and around the city very peacefully.
Here are some useful information,
You can go to Paris by Eurolines. If you plan sufficiently early, then may be by flight also. You can reach Paris by Ikarus travels also.Better keep Ikarus as the last option as he leaves there in the afternoon and half day will be wasted.
this is the link of that travels
http://www.ikarus-reisen.de/English.htm?p=100
You can find that ikarus is running buses for various destinations. you can trust the company and pay the price for the tickets. we traveled to Paris only through the ikarus as our plan was decided only in the last moment, dont worry about paying the money using postal service. you can trust ikarus-reisen.
To travel inside Paris, have a Metro map of Paris, also a zone map. It is more than enough. It is impossible to manage without these.
You can find metro map here
http://www.aparisguide.com/maps/metro.htm
and zone map here
http://parisbytrain.com/paris-transportation-zone-map/
Reserve any hotel or hostel in city center so that transportation will be easy. Even if we book it a little away from center, then also its not such a big problem as the metro connectivity is too good. if you book the tickets through ikarus then based on your plans you can get your hotel accommodations with breakfast.
if you are some bachelors and just don't want to waste too much of euros then keep some food items ready made in your bags, food stuffs like burgers/breads biscuits and a water bottle will be handy.
Or you can have some nice handy Indian style or foreign style pizza's near the PARIS Central station, this is the place where ikarus will drop you and pick you later.
Here are the interesting places that you can see in PARIS
Grand Arch de La Defense: This is an arch (actually a rectangle built in memory of some soldiers). I was amazed to know that it is an office building n people work inside that. In the night it is good to see it by the light. Also the sky scrapers around it. To reach here you have to get down at the La Defense stop.
Arch de Triomphe: This looks somewhat similar to our India Gate. This was constructed by Napolean as a sign of victory and as a tribute to those who died in war. 12 roads meet at this point and it is an amazing view. To have this marvelous view, we have to climb up the tower by paying the entrance fee.To reach here you have to get down at the Champs Elysees Clemenceau stop.
Champs Elysees: One of the 12 roads joining at the Arch de Triomphe is the Champs Elysees. You can have a walk down this street and it is beautiful (especially during the night). There are many museums in this street – Renault, Peuguot, Daimler Chrysler and Toyota. All are free entrance.
Opera House: Well we don’t get a chance to see the opera because the tickets are always sold out and may be costly too. But you can have a glimpse of the opera house. It is nothing short of any royal palace-nice decorations, grand chandeliers that too with artistic work of French. If you remember the one you had seen in Dil Chahta Hai. It is like that itself, but not as big as that.You have to get down at the Opera stop. The building will be named as ‘Musique Academy’. But i felt this as boring one and not worth the money.
Eiffel Tower: 1 of the 7 wonders. Well it’s altogether a different experience to be on top of it. we can get the view of the entire (most of the ) city Paris from the top of it. Go to top of Eiffel tower at the late afternoon, so that you can see the city by light and by night. There are 4 pillars – East, West, North & South. There are ticket counters at each of the pillars. They give tickets to go the 1st floor, 2nd floor & to the top floor. If many people are there on the top, they stop issuing tickets for some time. So be careful while purchasing the tickets and make sure you take it to the top floor. You can climb till 1st or 2nd floor, but have to take a lift compulsorily from there, or you can also take the elevator directly from the ground floor.
You can get down at the Bir Hakeim stop or Champ de Mars Tour Eiffel stop.
Never miss it.
Boat Ride: The best way to see Paris by lights. Just beside the Eiffel tower there are many counters for boat rides. You can get a ticket in any 1 of them. It will be for 1 hour n the River Seine. Take the boat ride in the night, when the city if full in lights. It is awesome experience. Don’t afford to miss this.if you travel by ikarus then this trip is arranged by the travels itself.
Sacre Coeur: This is one the famous churches in Paris. It is famous because of its architecture.
You have to get down at the Anvers stop for this. From there you can climb up the small hill. Even there is a cable car to go up there.
Notra Dame: This is another famous church. This is the place where Napolean crowned himself as the king. You can also go up the church tower.
You have to get down at the St. Michel or St. Michel Notra Dame stop.Nice one.
Louvre Museum: Well this one of the things not to be missed in Paris. if your are so much art savvy then you definetly need atleast a 3 days to see this museuem completely.. Previously it was a palace. Now it is converted to a museum. It has 2 wings. Each wing is 700m (almost 3/4th of a km) and each wing has 4 floors, so totally (1.5 * 4 ) 6 km. If we have to see everything in the museum, then we have to walk for 16km inside the palace!!!!! That’s humanly impossible in 3 days also. So only look at at the important places in the museum – Mona Lisa, Coronation of Napolean, Napolean Apartments, Greek idols, Italian paintings (hall with endless number of paintings) in order of their preference. There is also audio guide available and if you take it there is a description for each painting - God help the person who listens to the description of all these paintings!!!!! Do not spend more than 4 hours here or else you will get bored and tired and you will not to go anywhere the whole day. Everyday some or the other room of this museum will be closed for maintenance. It is a holiday on Tuesdays.
You have to get down at the Palais Royal Musee de Louvre stop.
i strive harder to go to the luvre museuem just to Say hi to monolisa, but trust me i did not find it so excited, as the monolisa was never looking at me at all...
Invalides: There is Napolean Fort kind of thing here. After looking at everything in Paris, this appears nothing great. But you can go here if you are left with time. It closes at 6.15 in the evening. You can also see the French Parliament. But I do not know whether they will let you in.
You have to get down at the Invalides stop.
Versailles: its a huge place. since we were too much tired visiting luvre, we did not visited this place.. but if you have more time then definetly you can have a visit.
There will be a show in the Palace gardens from 3.30 to 5.00. Mondays the palace is closed. On first Sunday of every month there is no discount and no group tickets available.
To reach here you have to take RER C (named VICK or VERO) from Champ de Mars Tour Eiffel and get down at the Chateau de Versailles (Rive Gauche) stop.
Just remember that Sortie in French is Exit in English, it will be handy.
Just i am uploading very few photos which we took in PARIS,
http://picasaweb.google.co.in/shafathhusain/France_Paris
Did you like it ?
Ok in next blog we will discuss about Venice, A nice beautiful place in italy.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Travel to German
Germany is my first Onsite visit, like most of the software engineers in india, It was also my dream to travel in Flights. I know all of you will accept that Burning your pocket for a luxurious travel in Lufthansa is not affordable to middle class family.
But a similar offer for a Corporate office will be Exiting you..
Yes, i was given a onsite job by my Company to Germany.. My office is in Stuttgart which is one of best places i have visited. It no need to explain about a first time travel in Flight, and that too landing on one of the biggest Airports like Frankfurt.. Bufferflies were flying full time when i sat in the flight and till i reached Stuttgart.
Life is Stuttgart is very calm and quite during winter, and its fun and exiting during the summer. The only major concern for a indian like me is to see that the streets are seen empty just after 6 or 6.30 in the evening.
Ok, here are the information which i wanted to tell you if you are visting Stuttgart by any chance.
The Hotels in Stuttgart are bit costly if you want to stay in some nice hotels , and its affordable in 2 or 3 start hotels. But if you have planned or you wanted to stay in stuttgart for a week or more than than, the best thing to do is to rent a apartment. There are many agencies running in stuttgart which gives you fully furnished aparments with affordable rate even for 1 week. The most advantage of this is you can cook your own delicisous home made food, there by saving every penny. Use this website http://www.night-and-day.de/ to check for the availabity of the apartments in different areas, if you know where your office is then you can even filter out for the areas. But Dont worry Stuttgart is well connected or has excellent Train facility, its called Bahn in German, you have S-Bahn which are fast trains and U-Bahn which are bit slow rains. Between two extreme locations of Stuttgart you can reach in maximum 45 min.
Attached image you can see the train map of Stuttgart S-Bahn Train.
Getting down at the stopping Schwabsraze you will find Indian market, to buy all groceries starting from rice, dhaall, vegetables etc.
Best time to visit Stuttgart is during the summer, espicially during April to October. October makes me to remember the october festival which will be taking place. The Beer festival one can never forget in his life time.. Lots of stall and lots of fun. Never miss it if you are in Stuttgart during october.
From Entertainment point of view, Stuttgart is little boring place. You can spend nice time if you have a good internet connection at home, (T-Mobile offers cheap wireless internet connections). If you like to play cricket during week ends then take S1 Train and get down at Esslingen, if you roam around esslingen and ask any youth roaming around for the ground, they will show you the path and definelty you will find some of your native friends playing cricket and foot ball.
There are only few place to be seen in stuttgart
1. Tv Tower
2. Ludwisburg Castle
3. Wilhelma zoo (Never miss it)
4. Mercedes-Benz museum (must go place but will cost you 10 - 15 Euros)
5. Porche museum , The newly constructed which attarcts many.
If you take monthy train ticket like our Season tickets in india, then you dont have to worry, but please be aware for the Zones which you have taken ticket. Because i have seen many times you tickets being checked in the train and many times peoples are fined for taking ticket for only 2 Zones and entering 3rd or other zones.
From Stuttgart by using Baden-Wuttenberg ticket you can go around many places.. I will tell you those details in my next blog.
Visosity
Hi,
I ever wondered why peoples sit and write blogs ?? what is that driving them to do.. But many a times while googling around the web i am able to find useful information only through blogs.. all nice informations about travel, insurance, tax etc etc i have got from blogs, it really a good feel to share things.. So i too thought to enter in the world of blogs.
My God, Creating a blog itself a terrific experience for me..
I thought of keeping my blog name as Travel "Viscosity", but with typo error it became "visosity", then i searched in google to find out what the hell is this visosity means now, and i came to know there is no word in dictionary called Visosity, i did a pat on back to myself and said wow dude you find a new word, ;-) The next step was to see how a nice blogs looks, the same googling results in lakhs of pages and the one which i clicked got hanged and it made my explorer to CRASH, Oh My Goodness what a way to start writing a blog !!!
Not letting my hope down, i am going to share all my travel experience of Europe, india..
Trust me you will find it very very useful...
Welcome me to this world of knowledge sharing !
I ever wondered why peoples sit and write blogs ?? what is that driving them to do.. But many a times while googling around the web i am able to find useful information only through blogs.. all nice informations about travel, insurance, tax etc etc i have got from blogs, it really a good feel to share things.. So i too thought to enter in the world of blogs.
My God, Creating a blog itself a terrific experience for me..
I thought of keeping my blog name as Travel "Viscosity", but with typo error it became "visosity", then i searched in google to find out what the hell is this visosity means now, and i came to know there is no word in dictionary called Visosity, i did a pat on back to myself and said wow dude you find a new word, ;-) The next step was to see how a nice blogs looks, the same googling results in lakhs of pages and the one which i clicked got hanged and it made my explorer to CRASH, Oh My Goodness what a way to start writing a blog !!!
Not letting my hope down, i am going to share all my travel experience of Europe, india..
Trust me you will find it very very useful...
Welcome me to this world of knowledge sharing !
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