Paris: The City of Lights

There are two reasons why Paris is called the City of lights. One refers to the literal lights that adorn the French capital and the other most significant reason is metaphorical. Paris was indeed the city that ushered in the era of enlightenment and brought forth the light of knowledge and cognisance to the dark world of the middle ages and hence given birth to the modern world as we know it today. Thereby Paris is the only city in the world that could be called The city of Light or La Ville-Lumiere as the French call it.

Paris was the one city more than any other i was looking forward to visiting on this trip. It was the one city whose ideals and principals were similar to mine.I had waited with bated breath for the day i would go to Paris in the same way a pilgrim waits for his pilgrimage. And finally after much anxiety and wait the day finally came.

November 21, 2009, Saturday

Day 1 : The Tower and the Church

The ascent of the plane over the blanket of clouds brought the view of the rising sun. It shone bright orange as if it had never been obscured at all. The plane soared through the early morning sky and finally made it to the Charles de Gaulle airport at Paris. As i got down the air was filled with the scent of autumn and expectations.

The first impression one got of Paris was that of a very cosmopolitan city. Of course there were tourists armed with maps from virtually every corner of the world but there was also a sizable African population in the city. The French had ruled over a major part of Africa and unlike the English and other powers had a very close relationship with their colonized people as the French believed in not just 'ruling' their colonies but assimilating them into the French way of life.The colonized people not only inherited the French language and laws but also French culture and sensibilities. This synthesis was very strong and led to the creation of an extensive Francophone commonwealth and as a result you see a lot of African people from the former colonies in the French capital with African appearance but distinctly French sensibility.This cross-synthesis was just fascinating to watch.

As I got ready to explore the city the first stop was the monument that symbolized the city for many.

The Eiffel Tower they say was more despised than loved during its early days. The famous French writer Guy de Maupassant even went onto say when asked if he would visit the tower that he would certainly visit it as it was the only place in Paris where this hideous tower wont be visible to him! As I walk up the steps of the Palace Chaillot i see why it faced so much resistance. Paris is a very flat city with great neo-classical buildings all around with a pattern of beige exterior and blue roof tops. The pattern is broken only by Gustave Eiffel's tower. This thin ,wiry almost skeletal thing pokes into the sky almost mocking at the buildings around. However Parisians soon saw the beauty of this metal monster and soon took a liking to it and now it is the emblem of Paris if not France. As one French minister at the time exclaimed, the spiralling tower symbolises the facts that 'humanity gravitates towards ascension'. What a beautiful thought indeed.

Its an open secret in Paris that the best view of the Eiffel tower is from the palace Chaillot balcony. Since its built on top of a natural hill it gives a unique vantage point for viewing the tower. Even Hitler knew about this vantage point as he headed straight to it when his German army had conquered the city during WWII. Alas thats where his tryst with the tower ended as the lifts were down the day he visited and the little man could not summon his energy to try the stairs and all he got to do was pose in front of the tower from the Palais chaillot balcony. I wanted to go a notch higher than Hitler and try going to the top of the tower.

As i got down from the Palais Chillot balcony the splendid fountains of the 'Jardin de Trocadero' came into view. The waters gleaming from the fountains provided a soothing music to the ears. As i advanced down the garden the tower seemed to be growing bigger with each step and finally as i crossed the Pont d'Iena the tower came into full view. You actually have to stand underneath the tower to comprehend how big it actually is. It almost occupies the size of a small football field! As with any weekend morning it was full with tourists. As all tourists i did the most touristy thing to do in Paris - go to the top of the tower.

However it was not as easy. The line for the top had snaked several times around the foot of the tower and reminded me of the queues we are used to back in India with cricket matches. Indeed it took me a good two hours to finally get to the lift at the base of one of the foots. As i stood in the queue a bunch of American teenage girls had come to stand behind me and were constantly blabbering about their love life. I was having a hard time deciding which was more annoying - the queue or the blabbering of these girls. Anyway the couple of hours easily sped by as i took in the splendid view of the surrounding area on offer.

As the lift pulled us to the top of the tower, the city seemed to spread all around us. At first it was area surrounding the tower and then a bit further and finally when we reached the top we could see almost the whole of the city. The view from the top was simply exhilarating. You can almost see all of Paris' attractions from there. The tower also had a restaurant inside interestingly called 'Jules Verne' which people say is one of the most sought after restaurants in the world and need a prior appointment sometimes months in advance. The tower also has some souvenir shops. While the view from the top is great i focused on the area immediately surrounding the tower.

People generally appreciate the tower and forget its immediate surrounding which is equally stunning. At one end of the tower there is the beautiful Palais Chaillot and the Trocedero Gardens as described earlier and on the opposite side the beautiful Champs des Mars garden is laid out. The Champs des Mars garden has a peace memorial at its entrance which is ironic as the garden in fact is named after the roman God of war - Mars! The naming of the garden is due to the formidable Ecole Millitaire building in front of it. Ecole Millitaire is one of the oldest military schools in the world boasting of alumnus such as Napoleon who by the way completed his two year course at the school in just one year - a sure sign of his future greatness i guess.

Talking about Napoleon he is buried quite close to the Ecole Millitaire, in the resplendent ambiance of the Les Invalides. The Invalides is basically a place for injured soldiers and also serves as a war museum. What better place to bury a man who lived all his life fighting wars. His tomb like the man himself is a bit different. He is laid inside the gold plated dome of the main building with successive layers of the rarest of wooden caskets. What do they say about little men with huge egos!

As i navigated through the heart of Paris i reached what is the real historic centre- the island in between the curving Siene river called Ile de la Cite. This island is where everything started and the city of paris was founded as a Roman outpost in the first century BC. The island has some magnificent buildings but the real attraction is the Notre Dame Cathedral. This Cathedral which took 200 years in the making is a curious mixture of Gothic and French architectural styles. While the towering spire owes itself to the Gothic style, the unique and revolutionary flying buttresses on the sides is typically french - very creative and very aesthetic. This cathedral created quite a stir during its times and was revolutionary too as it became a sort of template for churches around the world which were mostly Gothic in nature up until then. Hence it is sometimes called the mother of all modern cathedrals.


The inside of the cathedral is filled with beautifully carved statues and chapels and the real highlight are the rose tinted glasses adorning the upper echelons. Sadly since the sun was not shining i could not see the real splendor of these glasses. They were awesome nevertheless. As i looked into the alter it reminded me once again of Napoleon who was crowned here , in fact he crowned himself as legend goes that he deemed even the pope - the usual 'crowner' of kings - not worthy enough to crown him and did the honor himself!

As evening engulfed the city i had just enough time to go across the street from Notre Dame and visit the Palais de Justice which was in medieval times was used to dispense justice to the citizens of the city. The building was typical of medieval French architecture with a prominent blue colored dome. What was most impressive were the gates which were huge and gold plated. The gates of justice indeed i thought.

November 22, 2009, Sunday

Day 2 : Tracing the Axe Historique

Every European city they say has a historic axis, a line that cuts through the heart of the city around which history , architecture and culture revolve. Some are prominent while others are not. Paris of all European cities has a very prominent historic axis or as they say in French Axe Historique. It was this Axe Historique that i was about to explore on the second day of the trip. And this axis starts at the greatest museum in the world.


The Louvre is by far the greatest art museum in the world. It is the kind of place every lover of art dreams of. As i sat in the metro heading for the museum the rumbling of the metro wheels seemed to echo the rumbling in my heart. It almost seemed surreal as i got off and started to enter the premises of the Louvre. The waking sun was beaming down on the magnificent Louvre. As i entered its glorious courtyard - the Cour Napoleon or the Napoleon court - the entire setting just got me hooked. The gigantic glass pyramid in the center was gleaning in the early morning sunlight. The glass pyramid like the Eiffel tower a century ago has come under a lot of criticism. But after 20 years of existence it has become an integral part of the Parisian landscape.

The real beauty of the glass pyramid is not above but below ground. As i entered through the spiralled steps inside the pyramid the entire lobby of the museum came into view. For a 800 year old former palace the lobby looked very modern. As the architect of the pyramid IM Pei explained nothing above ground could match the palace hence he decided to elaborate below the ground. The lobby had three distinct entrances for each of the three wings. I headed straight for the Denon wing as i knew that was were all the show stoppers were present.

The Denon wing started with a slew of Greece sculptures and led the way to the magnificent stair case of Winged victory. This must be one of the most sensational entrances to any building anywhere. As i stood at the foot of the staircase the view was awe inspiring. Beautifully crafted stairs climbed up to the headless statue of the winged Greek Goddess Victory. It was a hair raising experience as i could feel the goose bumps on my skin. The statue was created in the 2nd century BC and is a great example of Greek art. Winged Victory as the statue is famously known is in fact the first of the famed three great ladies of Louvre, the other two being Mona Lisa and the statue of Venus de Milo.


The Louvre can be quite intimidating for a first time visitor so it was important for me to get my positional bearings right. Once i reached the staircase of Winged victory i knew i had the map of the Denon wing covered as before coming i had studied the map of the Louvre and the staircase was an important guidance point for me. I swiftly moved across the corridor and entered the famed Grand gallery. The gallery almost seemed to vanish into infinity like one of the paintings of the many renaissance Italian masters it adorns. It was a truly awesome sight. The walls on either side were dedicated to Italian masters chiefly Leonardo da vinci mainly of the renaissance period. The theme of all the paintings was religious and specifically dealt with Mary and Jesus at various stages of the New testament. It was simply unbelievable for me to be striding along this famed gallery and looking at all these pieces of art.


At about midway through the Grand gallery there are couple of small entrances that led me to the most precious possession of the Louvre - the Mona Lisa. The room that housed the Mona Lisa seemed to be an odd place for me to house the famed painting. The walls of the room were filled with huge paintings and the Mona Lisa seemed rather small in comparision. In fact the painting right opposite to the Mona Lisa is the famous 'Wedding feast at Cana' painting which is probably the largest painting in the museum covering the entire area of the wall. Still the Mona Lisa looked as beautiful as ever and kept me guessing whether she was smiling or not.


From the room of the Mona Lisa i navigated to few more rooms which were adorned with the paintings of French artists chiefly Jacques Louis David and housed some really famous paintings. As i did not have enough time i was quickly rushing past most of these beautiful paintings and felt a pang of guilt as i felt i was insulting these great works of art by not giving them a proper audience.

As i finished touring the Denon wing it was time to go to the Sully wing to catch the last of the great ladies of Louvre - the statue of Venus de Milo. As i headed down, the area had already got very crowded in front of the famed statue. The statue was from 2nd century BC and was devoid of any hands or ornaments. Still it looked so magnificent that one just kept staring at her in amazement. It might be true that the Greek Gods were more powerful than the Godesses but the Godesses it seemed had got all the statues!

I then moved onto the Richelieu wing and was instantly smitten by the slew of Greek statues present there. As i had great fascination for Greek antiquity seeing all these great pieces of art was making my day. Each statue demanded instant attention from me and i had to persuade myself to part company after a glance or two. Then i went into the famed Napoleon apartments which is the only part of the museum that still seemed 'royal' as it housed the apartment of Napoleon and is a testament to the luxury and opulence of that time. I quickly breezed through the Egyptian and Mesopotamian sections of the Louvre and finally convinced myself that i had seen enough and prepared to leave.

As i exited the Louvre i was onto the Axe Historique again. The next stop on the axis was the Arc des Carousel built by Napoleon to commemorate his military victories. From the Carousal the axis opened into the beautiful Jardin des Tuileries or the Tuileries gardens. It was not the best time for gardens in Paris but the Tuileries with their unique arrangement and famed statues was instantly likable. The fountain in the middle was surrounded by hundreds of pigeons which gave the place a very serene feel. Moving on from the gardens the axis led me to the historic, famous and infamous square of the Place de la Concorde.


Before the revolution the Place de la Concorde had the statue of the Equestrian king Louis XV. However with all other things in Paris it completely changed after the revolution. During the revolution the people became judge , jury and executioner and the square became the epicenter of the revolution and had the infamous Guillotine placed instead of the statue and thousands of people were executed here. The foundations of the revolution were indeed soaked in blood - lots of it. Legend has it that the square became so much soaked in blood that cattle refused to pass over its surface. Both the King and Queen were Guillotined here , also even some revolutionaries such as Danton, Charlotte Cordey and Robespierre were executed here. The revolutionaries wanted equality both in life as well as death too. Just remembering those times sent a chill though my bones. However after the revolution the Guillotine has been replaced by an ancient Obelisk from Egypt by Napoleon.

The fascinating Obelisk at the Place de la Concorde is the oldest monument in paris - its about 3000 years old and formerly stood at the banks of Nile in Thebes in Egypt. The story of its arrival is equally fascinating. Before Napoleon embarked on his conquest of Egypt, his wife Josephine in one of those utterances that should go down in the all time list of naive statements seemed to have asked Napoleon to bring her a little obelisk if he ever went to Thebes. So when a queen wants an obelisk she will get an obelisk. As a result the magnificent obelisk sits atop the Place de la Concorde overlooking the Axe Historique.

To the north of the Place de la Concorde there is the famed Crillon Hotel which is one of those ultra expensive hotels where you probably cannot afford to stay if you have to ask how much. The hotel has a bit of history too. The last queen of France Marie Antoinette it seems played cards there during her leisure and the Nazis set up their head quarters there when they occupied Paris during WWII.

The Place de la Concorde opens into the famous avenue , Champs Elysees . Named after the mythical Greek heaven where the immortal stayed it extends the Axe Historique. The Avenue is filled with various shops and is a delightful place if you are quite into shopping. It is adorned by some of the biggest brands in the fashion industry. Strolling through the avenue i remembered that Paris was also the fashion capital of the world.

Strolling through the Champs Elysees i came across various intersecting roads that were named after various French presidents, war heroes and even US Presidents and British Prime ministers. Interestingly not even one was named after any French King or queen or any religious leader. This was a pleasant discovery for me and made me realize that France unlike most other European countries i had toured was a republic. Indeed it can claim to be the mother of all republics and this republican tradition is reflected in the naming of its streets and avenues. The French revolution was basically fought on the slogan of Liberty , Equality and Fraternity. This was not a mere slogan for the French, it was their guiding principle. Hence in the age of enlightenment ushered in by the revolution only people who achieved on their own accord and hardwork deserved to be recognized. The monarchy that thrived on archaic principles and lottery of birth was done away with and reason replaced tradition and religion. The French completely cut off their relationship with the past and started afresh and in this new world of theirs Kings and Queens had no place. Irrespective of nationality people who were real achievers were honored above Kings and Popes. This i mulled is reflected in the names of Parisian streets.

The Champs Elysees finally ends at the foot of the Arc de Troimphe. This magnificent arc partly inspired by the arcs of the romans was commissioned by Napoleon and was completed only after his death. The people of France love Napoleon too much. This is another instance of that love and the fact that they completed the monument even after his death shows their affection for the man. The Arc is a tribute to the military history of France. Coming from India i felt odd as in India war is despised, even our epics deplore war. However here in France its as if people celebrated the wars that they fought. This monument indeed shows what a culture of war the French had. The French like their great European rivals England and Germany prided themselves on having a real war culture. No wonder the French refer to their country as the Fatherland instead of the Feminine Motherland. You just have to look around and see that the heroes are all really war heroes from Napoleon to Charles de Gaulle. The Arc therefore symbolizes the War culture of France and it was just fascinating to experience that. The Arc also concludes the famed Axe Historique of Paris and i was both happy and amazed that i was able to track this famed Axe Historique of Paris. It was a dream come true.


No city in the world is tied irrevocably to a particular date than Paris is with the year 1789. It was the year of the revolution. Everything in Paris changed after that date. The King was not God anymore, palaces became public museums and libraries, churches turned from places of worship of God to the sanctuary of esteemed citizens, God was relagated to history. If the revolution was the clataclysmic fire then the spark was the fall of the Bastille on 14th July 1789. As i got off at the Bastille metro station, the walls of the station were painted with the stirring events of that day - Parisian mobs demolishing the Bastille walls. It showed how strongly Parisians still feel about that day of their history. The Bastille ofcourse is not there anymore. Instead the Place de la Bastille is adorned by a magnificent July column which reminds everyone of that historic july day. Behind the column is the Bastille opera which unlike the main opera of Paris - the oppulant Opera Garnier - is very much a people's opera with shops and a mall inside it representing its republican orientation.

It takes just a crossing of the Siene river from the Place de la Bastille to get into the famed Latin Quarter of Paris. If the bastille represented the spark of the revolutionary Cannon then surely the ammunation was prepared in the bylanes and Cafes of the Latin Quarter. The Latin Quarter is filled with colleges and universities and is very much a place for students and intellectuals. It was in the cafes and streets of this area that enlightened thinkers began envisaging a new world order. Thinkers such as Voltaire, Jean Jacques Rousseau and Jean Paul Satre debated endlessly about the futility of the existing feudal order and the need to usher in the rule of the people. Though many of them did'nt live to see the revolution they had done their bit to inspire a whole nation and in the process move the wheels of history.

Walking in the Latin quarter is a real joy. Everywhere you go you find avenues teeming with students and beautiful scholastic buildings. Interestingly its called the Latin quarter because the students in the good old times used to communicate with each other in Latin up until , you guessed it right the revolution when like all other things it too changed and French became the language of communication much to the relief of the students i imagine.

The Latin quarter has some important monuments like the Pantheon which started out as a church but along came the revolution and religion shall we say fell down in the popularity ratings and it was turned into a place for the burial of France's greatest citizens a la its namesake in Rome. Hence noted frenchmen and woman like Voltaire,Rousseau and Madam Curie are buried here. The heading at the entrance 'To great men the grateful nation' sums up the purpose of the monument.

A short walk from the Pantheon is the beautifully laid out Luxemborg Gardens. However since it was late in the day the entry was barred. Moving along the streets of the Latin quarter i came to the Saint Sulpice church. It is the second biggest church in Paris however has come into prominence recently due to its figuring in the controversial Da vinci code book and movie. The hoards of tourists present there had come because of this connection. Hence everybody ignored the main alter and rushed to a corner of the church that has a marking of Roseline - Paris's version of the Prime meridian. Since the French dint like the English they did not agree to their Prime meridian at Grenwich hence they decided to have their own Prime meridian and hence the Roseline which cuts across Paris from north to south. The Roseline's path is marked by 135 bronze medallions placed in the ground all along the Roseline. In fact i managed to see one in the Louvre also! A few paces from the Saint Sulpice is the oldest church in Paris, older than Notre Dame - the Saint Germain de Pres. The church is about 1500 years old and is one of the oldest in the whole of Europe.

With this the second and most hectic day of the trip came to an end and as usual i was overcome with a mixture of emotions - happy, contented and very tired.

November 23, 2009, Monday

Day3 : The Farewell

Within the bat of an eyelid two days had passed and I had'nt even realised it. The last day i started by covering some minor Parisian attractions. Minor here is a relative term, each of these monuments can be a centerpiece attraction in any other city in the world.

The day started by the visit to the Madeline church just north of the Place de la Concorde. On the face of it its a church dedicated to Mary Magdalene (Madeline is french for Magdaline) however it looked more of a Greek alter with huge beautifully crafted collonades on either side. It provided a superb view of the Place de la concord and the Crillion hotel.

Moving up the street from the Madeline i came to the main opera of Paris officially known as the National Opera however know popularly as the Opera Garnier after its designer Charles Garnier. One look at its oppulance was enough to convince that it was a good thing that it was built after the revolution. For if it had stood there during 1789 it would have been the first building to be torn down. There was nothing remotely republican about it and looked a very snobbish place frequented by wealthy aristocrats. Luckily if it, it was built after the revolution and it has survived. The opera looked absolutely regal with gold plated statues at its four ends and oozed luxury and opulence from very pore. Just a short walk from the opera is the Place de la Vendome. One of the most upmarket areas of paris housing the whos who of the fashion and hospitallity industry. The most famous establishment there is the Hotel Ritz , a very high end hotel frequented by many celebreties and state dignitaries. Interestingly it was also the hotel from which the ill fated lady Diana left amid the paparazzis before her unfortunate car crash.


The last stop on the trip was to the famous Monmarte area of Paris. This area is very different to the rest of Paris and almost feels like an outback area. Monmarte is famous for its artists and the famous Sacre Coeur church. The church is located on top of a hill and offers a delightful view of the city. The church was unlike any other Parisian churches and since it is relatively new had a very different architecture with magnificent domes.


As the trip finally came to an end i was filled with mixed emotions. I was filled with immense happiness that a long held dream had come true and also departing such a beautiful place made me very sad.With this mixed bag of emotions i bid farewell to Paris as i silently muttered Au Revoir under my breath.

Oslo: The Land of Peace makers

History is full of contradictions. Consider this. The middle east is home to not one but three of the world's main religions , each of them espousing the cause of peace in the world but now it is one of the most chaotic regions in the world. On the other hand Scandinavia was home to some of the most barbaric tribes in the world who looted and plundered the civilized world. But look at it now, each country is a beacon for human rights and stands for peaceful existence! If Scandinavia is the abode of peace then surely Norway and indeed its capital city Oslo has a prime place. Oslo in fact is the place where the Nobel peace price is adjudged and given and can rightfully claim to be the city of peace makers. Oslo then was my next stop.

October 17, 2009, Saturday

The bus screeched to a halt at the Oslo Bus terminal as the driver excitedly gesticulated that we had reached our destination. It was five-thirty in the morning and it was terribly cold outside. I quickly rushed indoors into the warm clinch of the terminal. It must have been near to day break i thought but outside it looked the Sun would take a bit longer. And finally the Sun came out slowly at eight as if even he too was wary of the cold he was stepping into.

With the arrival of morning we started our way to explore the city. As we stepped outside the bus terminal what surprised us were two enormous sky scrapers that leapt to the sky. They were the twin towers of the SAS Raddison hotel. They were mighty tall by European standards and showed that Oslo unlike Copenhagen and Berlin will offer more modern buildings.The tourist information center was just outside the central station and it was housed in a beautiful tall structure which was truly unique. As we exited it armed with city maps we felt the adrenaline rush that usually accompanies such trips.


First stop on the trip was at the Oslo Opera. Operas are such an important part of any European city, every city here seems to have one. The Oslo opera was a newly built white edifice with sharp lines marking the edges. the design was nothing i had seen before as it instantly caught the gaze of the viewer. The backwater on whose shore it stood glistened with its shadow. Then we headed to the Oslo cathedral which stood at the start of the main street in Oslo called the 'Karl Johans Gate'. The cathedral true to its Scandinavian roots had a magnificent very tall spire which leapt into the air and stood head and shoulders above the nearby buildings. It reminded one of the medieval times where it was prohibited by law to build buildings taller than churches and cathedral which is the reason why most European cities are 'flat'.


Then we started to walk down the Karl Johans gate and entered the heart of the city. Europe through its Streets is simply fascinating.Streets in Europe not only serve a utilitarian purpose, they are canvases on which layer upon layer of history and culture are painted. Hence any city in Europe has a main street which represents its distinct History. Be it the famed Champs Elysee in Paris or the Stroget in Copenhagen or the Karl Johans Gate , they tell the story of their cities if only you are patient enough to listen.

As i walked down the street numerous facets of the city came into view. Modern coffee shops sat side by side to ancient markets, Shopping districts selling the most expensive goods abutted grand churches. A little further down the road we came across the Oslo parliament building. It was a pretty strange place to have a parliament i thought as it was right in center of the main shopping district. The building itself was magnificent as its stone edifice represented the power it embodied within. Adjacent to the Parliament was the famous Grand hotel which is famous as the place where all Nobel peace prize laureates lodge when they are in the city to collect their prize. A wave from its famed balcony is more or less a ritual performed by every winner they say. Come December and we will see President Obama atop that balcony!

Further down the street you have the beautiful Norwegian national theatre which hosted and continues to host some of the greatest plays ever written. Opposite to it stood a neo-classical building with beautiful carvings of Greek mythology. it turned out to be the Oslo University whose sprawling campus lay behind the building. Its a oft repeated theme in Europe , all buildings of culture and knowledge tend to have Greek architecture. Greek still represents high-art and knowledge it seems.


The Karl Johans gate finally ended at the footsteps of the beautiful Norwegian Royal palace. The Palace was not unlike the other palaces i had seen but seemed to look a bit smaller compared to the others. However what it lost out in stature it more than made up in ambiance. It was housed in a most magnificent green expanse that sprawled to all sides. What more this Garden was the address of most of the foreign embassies in Oslo. The trees in the garden cast a golden shade on us as their leaves had turned golden due to the coming of autumn.

Although Alfred Nobel was Swedish, at the time of his death Norway and Sweden were still united. As he bequeathed his wealth in the form of the Nobel prize they continued to be held simultaneously in Stockholm and in Oslo. While Stockholm gave out all the prizes the very important peace prize was given out by Oslo as Norway was considered to be more impartial than Sweden. This is one of the main reasons Oslo and indeed Norway has come to be regarded as an important place which houses the legacy of peace. This legacy of peace is further propagated by Norway by convening important peace treaties and mediating as an interlocutor in conflict ridden countries of the world such as Sri Lanka. Nobel's legacy as well as the supreme efforts put in by Norway in the way of peace has given Norway the right to be called the land of peace makers.

The Nobel Peace center is one of the most visited sites in Oslo and we headed their next. The center is quite new as it was inaugurated in 2008 and it is housed in a former railway station. The White colored building is apt for the setting as it welcomes visitors with open arms. The ground floor was dedicated to this year's winner Barack Obama. It had a host of interactive media which covered his upbringing , his speeches and other important milestones in his life. The exhibition was titled 'From King to Obama' and as the title suggests the exhibition looked at Obama as the logical conclusion of what Martin Luther King started four decades ago. However the exhibition could still not convince me that Obama deserved the peace prize. The decision has come in for much criticism and rightly so however we should not go overboard and ridicule the institution of the Nobel peace prize as the world of ours is in need of strong and honest institutions and the Nobel peace prize could be one of them.



The second floor of the peace center was dedicated to last year's winner Martti Ahtisaari. The top most floor was the one that caught my attention. It was a dark room with small portraits of past Nobel prize winners suspended on electronic poles. Each portrait gave information of the awardee and his or her achievements and the year of their winning it. The whole setting had a blessed aura to it as i felt i was standing in a place of pilgrimage with saints all around.

As we exited the Nobel Peace center, the twin towers of the City town hall with its distinct clock came into view. It was no ordinary town hall, it is the venue for the Nobel peace prize distribution ceremony. The building was beautifully constructed and it overlooked the harbour and seemed to welcome visitors from far of lands. Numerous Nobel awardees must have been in that building i thought.

As we exited Nobel's land we took the cruise and went to the island Bygdoy which houses most of the city's museums. The Fram museum was our first stop there as it featured a ship used by intrepid adventurers who tried to reach the South and North poles. One such traveller was a Norwegian Amundsen who was the first man to reach the South pole. Norwegians are proud of their prowess of the seas and are especially proud of their ancestors - the Vikings - who travelled far of lands using their ships and were trend setters for the rest of Europe. A special museum called the 'Viking Museum' is dedicated to them which contains some really old viking ships , one of them from the tenth century which were probably the first of their king built anywhere in Europe.

Last stop on our tour was the single biggest attraction of Oslo - the Vigeland Sculpture park. This eponymous park was named after Gustav Vigeland contains more than 200 statues representing the various stages of human life. Here the sculptures illustrate aspects of human daily life like joy, sorrow, anger etc and human relationships as seen by the sculptures. A 50 feet tall monolith of 121 human figures is the center piece of the park which in the setting sun looked truly beautiful and one almost got into a philosophical mode looking at it.

With the setting of the sun we had finished our tour of Oslo. A small city with big ideals and an attitude to match those ideals. As often with other tours I take back not something material for the material thing fades off like the dew on a sunny morning. Instead i take back things of the mind that will remain long after the sun has set.

Copenhagen: Between two Europes

Copenhagen has a unique distinction among European cities. It sits at the gateway of what essentially are two Europes - Scandinavian Europe and Continental Europe - and it inherits a bit of both. Indeed Copenhagen can be described as the most Scandinavian of all Continental cities and the most Continental of all Scandinavian cities! It was to this great city of synthesis that I headed to next on my EuroTrip.

October 3, 2009, Saturday

The Chill of the October night pierced the skin like a needle. I looked at the watch, it read, 2.30 AM. We were at the main bus terminal at Gothenburg. A familiar feeling of excitement had gripped me. As I boarded the bus the warmness inside was soothing.The bus was on its way and the journey was underway. The journey went off pretty well as the bus cut through the pretty Swedish countryside cloaked in the light glow of the moonlight. Soon we were passing through quaint little towns and finally made it to the Oresund bridge which connects Sweden and Denmark.

The bus pulled up at the central bus stand in Copenhagen early in the morning. However the rain which is a constant companion of any traveler in Europe had followed us much to our displeasure, at leaset the forecast in the afternoon was better i consoled myself. Undeterred by the pouring rain we went through to the nearby Grand Central station. The station looked more continental in nature and was very well organized so as to help travelers. Right from the tourist information desks to Forex counters to Eat outs , everything was arranged to make the visitors feel welcomed.

As we headed out of the station, i realised that the train station in spite of all the modernity inside had a really old-fashioned elegant look to it from the outside which was really pleasing to the eyes, a welcome break from all the modern glass and concrete structures we see around most of the time. It was by far the prettiest railway station i had ever seen. Outside the Grand central station the magnificent obelisk of the Liberty memorial greeted us to the city. How far the obelisk has traveled i thought to myself remembering that it was basically an Egyptian work of art commissioned by the great Pharaohs more than two thousand years ago which was later imitated by European artists around various cities. So much has it been replicated here in Europe that people consider it to be an invention of European art.


From the outset it appeared that the color Red was the theme of the city as most of the old and beautiful buildings had a distinct motif of red exterior and green spiraling roofs. this motif was repeated with subtle variations across the city much to the amazement of the visitors.

Copenhagen is one of the big walking cities of Europe or indeed the world. The city is big,however that does not discourage you from walking as each street and bend has something in store for you. So we set out on our foot through the heart of the city. First we approached the famed Town hall square called Radhuspladsen which is famous for the various gatherings like concerts/protest that happen in the city. In fact it looked it was recovering from a concert the previous night as the stage there looked fresh. Beside the town hall was the spectacular statue of the 'Lure blowers'. The Lure is a distinctly Scandinavian musical instrument which is a cross between a trumpet and a horn. The statue consisted of two Lure blowers playing the instrument in unison. Strangely the statues lacked symmetry as one of the statues seemed to be 'squeezed' beside the other. The reason for this is that initially there was just one blower before another was added for company a few years later!

As we trudged through the heart of the city we entered the main political district - rather it was an island which was formed by a beautiful canal. The island contained the Christianborg Palace which was a former royal palace now converted to house the danish parliament. A parliament housed inside a royal palace - It was symbolic of the constitutional monarchy type of political system existing in Denmark i thought. However as is associated with Parliaments around the world this did not have any strict security squadrons around and was fairly open to the general public. Of course this is the safe and assured first world after all.

Then we headed to the Danish National museum adjacent to the parliament building. In true traditions of European cities Copenhagen too had a wonderful museum. It housed artifacts belonging to every possible theme, right from stone age to bronze age to the middle ages to the modern age. And they were all arranged very meticulously. As we came out from the museum the rain seemed to have taken a break and given us a well needed respite.

Next we started on the trail of the royal area of Copenhagen. We started by going to the Amalienborg Palace which is the winter home of the danish royal family. In fact it was not just one palace but four of them. Each arranged so as to form a rhombus whose one tip pointed to the Royal Opera across the harbor and the opposite end pointed to the very beautiful Marmorkirken or the Marble Church. The setting was reminiscent of the St.Peters square at the Vatican which has a huge central square with the St Peter's cathedral at the top. The Amalienborg palace was guarded by stoic looking danish royal guards again reminding one of the royal Swiss guards at the Vatican. They were really serious looking and too serious for our liking as one of them even refused to pose for our camera!

It was noon now and it was time for the famous change of guard at the Palace as the current guards were replaced by the guards from the neighboring Rosenborg Castle. This is a routine event here but has attracted the tourists very much, so that its become sort of a marque event in the city. As we saw the change of guard one was amazed by the discipline of the guards on the one hand and the rampant symbolism that still existed in constitutional monarchies like Denmark. The guards i don't think serve any practical purpose but still they are persisted in deference to tradition.

One of the Palaces is converted to a royal museum and we went in to be awed by the richness of the danish royalty. Also striking was the reverence the danish people had for their royalty. This was in marked contrast to say England where the royal family is the butt of jokes. But here there were souvenirs being created out of the royals.

Next we headed to the Marmorkirken which looked absolutely stunning. The inspiration of Vatican's St. Peter's church was everywhere. Right from the huge dome at the top to the statuettes of saints on the parapets to the white marble construction. The dome was magnificent from the inside too as it looked as if it stood without any support and carried paintings of various biblical events. The calmness inside was a bit eeire compared to the hustle outside.


Following the royal line we headed to the stunning Rosenborg Castle which was housed in the equally stunning Rosenborg Garden. The garden was beautifully laid out dotted by beautiful trees all around. The garden it seemed competed with the palace for attracting visitors. The palace itself looked very elegant with a red exterior and tall spires. It was also attractive for a different reason too - it contained the danish crown jewels. As we went through the methodically arranged royal rooms we were again impressed by the wealth of the danish royalty. However it also raised a question as to how any person could attain this wealth by just winning the lottery of birth when other more talented persons could just gaze at them as commoners. So crumbles the royal cookie i guess.

As we exited the Rosenborg castle we were left with a tough decision to make. Either to continue with exploring the rest of the city's minor attractions or go onto see the stunning Kronborg Castle at Helsingør (or Elsinore in English) 50 KM away from the city. The castle was also called 'Hamlet's Castle' as it was immortalized by Shakespeare's Hamlet who set his tragic prince and his story in the castle. For a Shakespeare buff like me it was a chance not to be missed. But can we make the far-off distance to make the 4PM entrance deadline at the castle. As Hamlet would have said - To go or not to go that was the question!

Finally we decided to take the chance and headed our way to Hamlet's Elsinore. Thanks to the brilliant danish train system we were there at the Castle before it closed for the day. The Castle they say is amongst the best in Europe with a distinctly Post-renaissance architecture. It was placed at the edge of baltic sea resembling a fortress intimidating any opposing army that set eyes on it. As we approached the Castle we felt the real magnitude of it. The stormy weather on the outside was an apt setting for this great castle as it gave an almost mysthical feel to the whole place. The castle was surrounded by a moat which in itself was amazing to behold. Of course such a spectacular castle needed an equally spectacular moat!

As we crossed the moat i realised what an expedition filled with danger it must have been for opposing soldiers to cross the moat, the very moat we were just breezing through at the moment. As we entered the premises of the castle we proceeded to enter it through a beautifully carved gateway with couple of exquisitely carved statues. Once inside we soon headed to the central courtyard.

The Central courtyard brought back memories of Shakespeare's Hamlet. My first memory of the play was a movie i saw in grainy black and white in the early 90s. I still remember the scene at the beginning of the movie when King Hamlet's ghost arrives to meet the young Prince Hamlet. The scene is so vividly etched in memory that i can almost see it happening in front of my eyes. I could not believe that i am at the very legendary place where Hamlet was set. A look at the courtyard set me thinking if the famous climactic sword fighting scene was set here. It must have been i thought to myself, feeling a sense of numbness that one feels when one is face to face with History. As if in a trance i was transported into the middle ages, into the world of the tragic Prince Hamlet. Alas the trance had to end as our time to depart rushed upon us. As we returned to the city the memories of Elsinore rode with us and it will be sometime before i part from it.

Back in the city it was time to catch a much needed dinner and then we started a stroll through the longest pedestrian shopping area in Europe - Strøget. The street gave a distinctly Continental - more specifically Italian feel. The winding car free alleys punctuated by beautiful buildings and squares , the mingling of streets into streets as if like the merging of small brooks everything gave a feeling as if one was in Rome or Florence. The street was essentially a shopping area and was lined on both sides by all kinds of shops, it even had a small area for musicians to show their musical skills.

Strøget starts at the main town hall square and cuts through the centre of the city finally ending at another big square called the Kongens Nytorv (The Kings New Square). As we exited into Kongons Nytorv we were surprised to find a street exhibition underway. This exhibition with the theme '100 places to see before they disappear' displayed a set of 100 of the most amazing photographs ever taken from around the world. It also included a couple from India too. We jumped from one amazing photo to another like school kids as we took in the myriad pictures laid out. Suddenly we realised that we had a bus to catch. Hurriedly we made our way back to where we started - to the central bus stand - and sat in our return bus.

As I looked outside from my bus at the city outside that sat between the two Europes it made me really happy that i was privileged enough to visit such a unique city. As the bus chugged along I closed my eyes to relive the memories of a wonderful day which will last for a long time.

Berlin: 'Ich bin ein Berliner'

Berlin has a strange liaison with History. At times History has showered it with great Kings and Kingdoms and at times inflicted it with the worst of dictators. It has been once bombed into the stone ages and at others it has rushed into the 21st century. For a time it was a city divided and now it is a city united. Berlin surely has got both the good and bad glances of history.

If there was one country and one city which defined 20th century History it has to be Germany and it has to be Berlin. At the turn of the 20th century Germany was a nation newly forged and as all newly formed nations, was brimming with energy and passion to reach the high table of world politics. When the world failed to acknowledge it as a genuine power and worst still tried to humiliate it, the world faced the wrath of German anger. Anger, that resulted in two world wars. After the wars the world saw a different aspect of Germany as it channelized its genius into producing technological innovations and finally attained the right to sit at the political high table, finally achieving its aim as the world acknowledged its true worth. The ultimate acknowledgment coming from President Kennedy as he famously said in his speech in Berlin “Ich bin ein Berliner” or “I am a Berliner” equating all the free men around the world to Berliners hence paying the city the ultimate complement of being an abode of freedom and liberty. Berlin had come a long way, from being the home of Nazi terror to being called the home of all free men.

These were some of my thoughts as I geared myself to visit Berlin. My first visit to a major European city. I was a bit nervous as to what to expect of Berlin. So with nervousness and expectations I boarded the bus from Gothenburg, Sweden. The bus journey was pretty uneventful except that we passed through a small Swedish town called Lund which gave an entirely new meaning to the word ‘sleepy little town’. This town was little alright but it looked like having gone to sleep by 8PM as the streets were totally deserted. Anyway, we passed through the town and took a connecting bus to the southernmost Swedish town of Malmo. From there we headed over the Oresund Bridge which is actually more than 10 miles long and bridges Sweden and Denmark. From Denmark to the German border we took a cruiser (with our bus parked in its ground floor!). Once in Germany we took the world famous autobahns which landed us in the German capital city by daybreak, albeit a little travel weary.

September 5, 2009, Saturday

The German city was just waking up to the morning drizzle that had come to welcome us. The central bus station where we landed looked a bit small for a big city but maybe that was due in part to the highly sophisticated train and underground metro facility of the city. As we walked a few yards from the bus station we encountered the first of Berlin’s U-Bahns – the famed underground metro. The station was called Kaiserdamm, probably a reference to the King I thought (Kaiser is King in German and a later day modification of the name Caesar).

From Kaiserdamm we took a metro to our hostel in West Berlin. The journey hit home the advantages of underground metros since we traversed the entire distance to our hostel in a matter of minutes. After we freshened up in the hostel, we embarked on our first destination – the Olympic Stadium.

The Olympic stadium was commissioned for the 1936 Berlin Olympics by the Fuhrer Adolf Hitler himself. It was built less for the Olympics and more as a propaganda tool for the Nazi administration. It apparently represented the superiority of the German race but nobody told that to the African-American sprinter Jesse Owens who made a mockery of Hitler’s race theory by bagging four Golds. Anyway, coming back to the stadium, like so many of Berlin’s other buildings was built in a neo-classical architecture resembling the ancient buildings of Ancient Greece. It is structured like a large circular citadel with a pair of gigantic twin pillars at the entrance which held the Olympic rings with thin but strong wires which gave it an appearance of being hung mid-air. The whole setting set my mind racing on a flashback, as I imagined how it must have felt marching into it in that summer of 1936. Also I remembered that this was the exact spot where three years ago Italy lifted the Football World Cup and a fortnight ago, Usain Bolt had broken the 100m World record. So this place was not just about the past but also very much of the present.

Next we headed to the centre of the city. To the Brandenburg Gate, at the Pariser Platz. As we exited the U-Bahn and arrived over ground, the magnificent Brandenburg gate rose in front of us. It looked every bit as magnificent as it looked on TV. The Gate was styled like an old Greek temple with huge columns and magnificent flanks which were adorned with sculptures depicting Greek mythology. But the crowning glory was really the statue of the Greek Goddess of Victory Nike riding atop a Quadriga (chariot drawn four horses). It looked as if the Goddess was for real and she was galloping into Berlin atop her chariot. The statue was first installed by the Prussians after a victory over the French and the square was named ‘Pariser Platz’ or Paris Square to commemorate the victory. Apparently the Goddess looked straight ahead towards the royal palace then. However the Goddess no longer looks straight, she instead gazes slightly towards her left and has her eyes fixed firmly on the French embassy there. The reason is very interesting. As everyone knows the Germans and French had never got along well and were always afoot to put each other down. In this vein Napoleon after his victory over the Prussians in his usual arrogant manner took the statue of the Goddess and had her placed in the Louvre museum. Now if you know the Germans, they do not like such an act. Hence when the Prussians

beat the French the next time around they got back their beloved statue and sat her atop the Brandenburg gate again, however with a slight modification. The head of the Goddess was lightly tilted to the left and made to face the French embassy as if mocking them in disgust. Who says the Germans lack a sense of humor!

We exited the classical elegance of the Brandenburg gate and began the trail of Nazi Germany. The Nazi’s victimized a lot of people during their time but none more so than the Jewish people. To remember their suffering a memorial has been constructed. And its not any ordinary memorial, it is different and controversial too. It is made of a seemingly random set of stones arranged next to each other. In the architect’s words, these stones are not random and they represent the Anti-Semitic mentality of the German people. Hence at the beginning the stones are hidden from view with only a trace visible over ground, this representing the deep seated but invisible Anti-Semitic mentality at the beginning of the 20th century. Gradually the stones start to emerge from the ground and grow taller and taller; this represents Germany between the wars when the Anti-Semitic feeling was at its peak. Further the stones begin to shorten again

and finally get buried in the ground, this representing the removal of Anti-Semitism from German minds post the war. Also, the ground is uneven giving the visitor a sense of imbalance and claustrophobia to give us a sense of idea as to how the Jews must have felt when hey were persecuted. I found the concept of the memorial very moving; maybe we should have similar ones in India too.

Close by we reached an empty parking lot covered with grass. Looked pretty calm on the outside but in fact underneath it hid Hitler’s infamous bunker. The last Nazi lair. Just standing in that place sent a chill through my bones. Right next to it is a recycle bin which experts say was the place where Hitler and his partner Eva Braun were burnt in after they had committed suicide. It was a study in contrast, the Jewish victims had a memorial erected and next to it the chief perpetrator did not have even a trace of memorial, in fact his memorial was a recycle bin which was perfectly appropriate. Moving on we found some of the former Nazi offices which now hold departments of the German government like the Luftwaffe head quarters which now houses the German Finance ministry. Also in view was the office of the notorious Gestapo. One look at the grim old building was enough to imagine the dread it wrought on its victims. Simply chilling.

Then we entered the Berlin of the cold war era. Again history came back racing into the mind and I imagined what it might have been to live in a divided city. This part of Berlin contains remnants of the Berlin wall and also some checkpoints which were hot beds of activity during that era. Talking about Check points we came across an important one called ‘Checkpoint Charlie’. As you can guess by the name it was a check point manned by the Americans and was witnessed to numerous border skirmishes, escapes, stories and what not. Either side of the checkpoint we had tall buildings which believe it or not housed the spies of West and East Germany. Imagine what a West Berliner might have felt 25 years ago to walk at this checkpoint and being spied on by the notorious East German Stasi. Strange times they were!

After a quick lunch at a nearby eat out we entered another Berlin. This was Royal Berlin. I almost felt a sense of surrealism. We were entering and exiting different eras of the same city, each one looking completely distinct from the other but still right next to each other. Truly amazing.


I have to admit, I was not expecting Berlin to have a royal side to it. But I was pleasantly surprised. After all Berlin was the capital of the mighty Prussian Empire and before that of the Holy Roman Empire. Any way we first headed to the Gendarmenmarkt which was a beautiful square bordered on three sides by beautiful churches. It looked so elegant with beautiful Baroque statues in the middle. The architecture of two of the churches – one German and the other French with the German one slightly taller! - looked post renaissance whereas the third had a classical style to it.


From one beautiful square we went to another one. This square was called the Bebelplatz. It had a church at one corner which looked to have been modeled on the Pantheon in Rome with circular exterior and a dome. Adjacent to it was the famous German Opera which apparently Herr Hitler had a liking to; so much so that he ordered it to be rebuilt as the war was still raging on! As pleasant as the square looks it has an infamous history, so infamous that it is named after that infamous incident. It is the shameful ‘Book burning’ incident. This incident happened during the peak of Nazi domination when students Humboldt University across the road were so incited by the talk of Joseph Goebbels – the chief Nazi propagandist – that they came out of the university onto the square and burned 20,000 books written by Jewish authors. This is a testament to the almost hypnotic power the Nazi’s held over the German people, even the brightest of minds could not resist their brain washing. A plaque on the square quotes a German scholar of the time prophesying “Once you start setting books on fire it does not take long to start setting people on fire”. How tragically true he was. Strangely however this story has a happy ending and shows an important facet of the German psyche. Later Students at the university felt so ashamed by what their predecessors had done that they vowed to set right their mistake by selling books outside their university foot paths to make up for the insult caused to books and knowledge. Till date they have sold close to half a million copies. This shows the true repentance the German people have for the deeds of past. They did not shut their eyes on the past as some of us would have done; instead they recognized their mistakes and gave their all to set it right. That takes a lot of courage and we have something to learn from it.

Adjacent to the Humboldt University stands the memorial for the German soldiers who died in the great wars. As with the Jewish memorial even this ran into controversy with some people seeing it as a way of condoning German war crimes. However that argument was refuted by the German government most notably the current chancellor who has argued for the memorial on grounds of humanity and that it in no way tries to endorse German war crimes but remembers the innocent Germans killed in the war – both armed and civilian. The memorial is not very extensive; it just contains a compelling statue of a mother holding onto her dying son. A truly remarkable way to remember the people deceased in the war with the message being - whatever the politics of the war the man killed by the war was somebody’s son after all.

Across the war memorial we step onto a small bridge which takes us to the Museumsinsel which is a small island formed by the Spree river which houses the best of Berlin’s museum. In addition to the museums it also houses a magnificent Church. Across the Museum Island there is the famous Alexanderplatz TV tower, the tallest structure in Berlin, just near the TV tower there was a beautiful fountain which was a tribute to the Greek God Poseidon or Neptune as the Romans would have called. Greek God of Sea, who better to have a fountain dedicated to I thought. Water gushed from Poseidon as beautiful carved Sirens enjoyed the ambiance taking up the gushing water. Some how, I felt the fountain more compelling than the gigantic TV tower. Maybe my fascination for all things classical I guess!

By the time the Sun started to end his day, we seemed to complete the Circle we started in the morning. We were back at the Pariser Platz. This time however we headed to the last spot of the day. The German Reichstag. A building no wonder everybody saw on TV everyday. Now that it’s got the glass dome atop it has become a prime tourist attraction here in Berlin. We marched along the trail of the Reichstag which had been trodden by countless Kings and Queens and diplomats and sooner than we realized the supreme edifice of the Reichstag came into view.

Bathed in the golden light of the setting sun, the Reichstag looked almost floating in another world. It welcomed the visitors with the slogan ‘Dem Deutschen Volke’ – To the German People – etched on its entrance. Our high spirits were dampened by the long queues that lined up the entrance. Any way we waited patiently for about an hour until we were permitted inside the building. The air inside felt heavy with history. Numerous diplomatic battles and power struggles have been fought in these corridors, many a borders have been drawn and redrawn, fates of Kings and Kingdoms decided in these premises. No wonder the atmosphere looks solemn and serious. We were then cramped into a huge elevator and taken to the terrace to view and indeed walk the famous glass dome.

The dome was a huge glass structure resembling a circular ramp with people jostling along its way. As one went higher and higher one got the best view of Berlin. All the places we had travelled in the morning were clearly visible now. But the dome was not constructed for looking out; it was meant for looking in. Yes, the dome gave a good view of the German parliament beneath. As I looked below I saw rows and rows of empty seats with an image of a huge eagle – the German Emblem - hanging in the background. As the architect Norman Foster explained his master piece, when ever the members of the Reichstag forget the reason they are inside, they just have to look up and see the people on the dome. What a beautiful thought.

The tiresome day ended there and we all got a well deserved sleep. We were off early the next morning to cover the last and arguably the single most famous tourist spot in Berlin. The Berlin Wall.

September 6, 2009, Sunday

Walls are not pleasant things. They create physical barriers and more damagingly mental barriers. For almost three decades the Berlin wall did just that. It was a ploy devised by Stalin to usurp West Berlin into East Germany but it failed and became the prime flash point of the cold war. It was not very popular as can be judged from the numerous graffiti illustrations painted along its length which decries it and calls for it to be broken. However as the cold war raged on, the foundations of the wall strengthened and no amount of deaths and protests could shake it. However with the cooling of the cold war towards the end of the 80s the wall showed cracks for the first time. These cracks were then broken open by Berliners from both sides as the wall came crashing down. Now that the wall is finally broken, one can see the absolute absurdity of it and can only wonder at the human talent for self-deceit and self-destruction. As one of the graffiti’s of the wall flashed ‘The world is too small for walls’.

After the wall it was time to trace our steps back and bid Berlin adieu. As I sat in the bus to head home, a multitude of thoughts and images engulfed me. The deriding glance of Goddess Nike at Pariser Platz, the claustrophobic stones of the Jewish memorial, the chilling air over Hitler’s bunker, the beautiful royal squares, the pose of Poseidon, the majesty of the Reichstag, the solemnness of the Berlin wall. In response all I was able to do was look back and say Auf Wiedersehen.

Off the Ground

From the edge of Iberia in the west to the frontiers of Siberia in the east, from the Baltic in the north to the Balkans in the south, Europe sprawls the center of the earth almost demanding destiny its central role in the world. For countless centuries it has been the proverbial ‘west’ which has competed against the ‘east’, sometimes beating it and sometimes beaten by it.

Europe is the crucible of cultures, the home of great discoveries and inventions, the land of great men and their deeds, the leader in the pack whom every one wanted to beat. Personally for me, Europe was the promise I made to myself when I was a kid. And finally the time has come when i visit this land of my dreams.

August 22, 2009, Saturday

The car zooms past the avenue leading to the Bangalore International Airport which appears almost fleetingly outside my window. It is the first time I have visited the new airport and it looks sparklingly new. As I step outside with luggage in my hand the whole experience seems surreal, almost dreamlike. I have arrived five hours before the flight which is at 2.05 AM. This gives me an excellent opportunity to look around the place and I am mighty impressed by what I see. To be honest I had not seen many airports. The only one I had memory of visiting was the old Bangalore airport which was small and cozy. Compared to it this was a giant leap. Travelling for me always meant chaos, used to as I was with railway stations and bus platforms. Hence standing in this brand new airport was a shock to my system.

Soon the initial shock was worn off by the reality of the impending travel. I had never travelled alone, never ever. Let alone outside the country not even out of town. I was always around people and was always in my comfort zone so to speak. What I was embarking on was truly novel and nervous for me. Once I bid everyone good bye and crossed the line and went inside the check in area of the airport I felt lonely. It was the loneliest I had ever felt.

In my nervousness I mumbled and fumbled through the check in and all the other procedures and then sat in line near the port of my air plane. Seeing fellow travelers around me I felt easy. As I waited there I watched around with curiosity. There were Indian couples, there were foreigners, single travelers like me, toddlers who played around as if in a playground. After an hour’s wait the Lufthansa cabin crew came along and everyone gazed at them as if they were the performers for that night, in a way they were! Soon everyone was in a line to board the plane. The novice that I was I did not realize the call for queuing quickly enough and was relegated to the end of the queue. I rushed to the end of the queue lest I miss the flight. Then eventually the line wound down and soon I found myself inside the belly of the massive Boeing 747. The inside seemed a bit crammed by all the passengers wanting to board the flight. I eventually settled at the penultimate row at a window seat.

This was my first flight, I was growing nervous again. How will the take off be? Should I take some precautions? As I juggled with these questions the flight made a steady start. Like a fast bowler sizing his run up the plane was slowly getting into its groove. It built momentum and speed and suddenly there was an announcement by the captain ’30 seconds to takeoff’. My heartbeat went up a notch. 30 second seemed like 30 minutes. As the big bird lifted its head and spread its wing it cut through the air and dived into the sky. Finally it was off the ground.

The ground seemed to be moving away rapidly. First the magnificent airport and then the city came into view. The city sparkled like a jewel in the dark crown of the night. Soon we were enveloped by the clouds and the ground became a distant memory. The monitor read the height as 30000 feet; I was literally on cloud nine.

The rest of the night went by quietly with me tossing and turning in my seat – I can never sleep in a chair even if it’s in an air plane. When day broke I lifted the hood of the window to find what seemed like land bordered by sea. I looked up at the monitor for help and it showed that we had just passed the black sea and had just entered Eastern Europe! I kept thinking about the travelers of the past who would risk their lives and spent years traversing Europe and Asia. And here we were lesser mortal hopping across these vast lands as if it were a child’s play!

Soon Bucharest became Sophia and Sophia became Budapest and eventually we were knocking the doors of Germany. Germany arrived and soon our destination of Frankfurt seemed almost in front of us. Soon Frankfurt came into view as the descent began. And what I saw was truly breathtaking. The weather was clear and the morning sun kissed the German city which glowed in a golden color. It was like a picture postcard with neatly cut roads amidst green fields and beautiful houses. It almost seemed like an aerial view that I saw of the tour de France. It was one of the most beautiful scenes I had ever seen. Finally our plane touched down on the run way and I set my foot on German soil.

23 August, 2009, Sunday

Just the previous night I felt I was in a dream and clearly after landing in Frankfurt I hadn’t woken up from it! The German city looked quintessentially German, very precise and very clean. The airport seemed like a world fair with people from almost all nationalities in its premises. As I had four hours of transit I decided to checkout the place. I roamed far and long inside this huge airport which made the one at Bangalore seem like a dwarf. The people seemed to be in different moods. Some like me were happy to be there while others were anxious about their next flight while still others went about their business as if it was a routine. The airport looked almost like a mall as it was dotted with innumerable shops and stores. I went into many stores and was shocked by the prices on the items there. This was no surprise as I kept multiplying everything by 70!

I went into what looked like a bookshop and found the morning editions of some of the legendary German news papers I had heard about, the Bild and Die Ziet. As I browsed through the airport I came across a huge eating place called ‘Goethe’ presumably named after the great German philosopher Goethe I thought. And sure enough it was, with the statue of the great man at the center.

As I roamed around the place I had something to drink which cost me a whopping 3.4 Euros. This is Europe after all I consoled myself. The port of my flight was announced and it turned out to be a port innocently named A40. Being early to any place was a habit of mine as I am paranoid of being late. I headed to this port a good one hour prior to the boarding time. What a good decision it was! As I followed the signpost towards A40 I realized that the size of the Frankfurt airport cannot be overstated. It felt like I was being deported to another city. I must have known as soon as I saw the elevator towards A40 as to the distance from it. It was huge, I kept going and going and going like the energizer bunny and A40 never came. By the time I hit A27 I was exhausted, I felt compelled to take a break but I soldiered on. A35 was my next pitstop where I paused for a minute before moving on again. As it turned out A40 was the last in its line of port and by the time I reached it I was totally exhausted and ready to tumble into the flight. Tumble in I did as I boarded the flight to Gothenburg which seemed a tad puny compared to its burly Boeing 747 cousin which I had boarded early that morning.

This flight was pretty uneventful save for the burger and the sweet Swedish lady I met on board. She was very friendly and as is my wont dragged her into a conversation which ranged from the weather of northern Europe to the lakes of Scandinavia to the archipelago of western Sweden. I was pleasantly surprised by the casual nature of the Swedes and their remarkable ability to strike conversations with complete strangers like me. The flight headed along without being disturbed by our friendly conversation and buzzed through Hanover and Hamburg. Cities that I had always heard about and seen on TV were passing right beneath me!

Finally Gothenburg arrived wrapped in a blanket of cloud and the plane touched down. I collected my baggage and was wished a happy stay in Sweden by my good Swedish friend. Here I was finally in Europe and the Euro Trip I had always dreamt about had started. What happens next? Stay tuned…