Euro Trip

Next station Bandra. Next station Dadar. Next station Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus. Next station…..and scene. Doesn’t seem like an interesting story, does it? For a while, it started to become overly familiar for me. Before I reached the end, I decided to change a few stations. 

Bored as if I were watching Manmohan Singh host a talk show, Europe came calling. She was enticing. She seemed so gorgeous and completely within my league. I knew I could get her and I went for it.

My brother who had already tested a few parts and resided in Frankfurt, Germany, and I embarked on a 45 day Eurotrip. 10-12 cities welcomed us with open arms and kisses.

With the burning itch of having being bitten by the travel bug, we began. Our first destination –

Zurich

Zurich Hauptbanhoff is a grand station. It’s a place for art as well as trains. The day we arrived, it had a car hanging from its tall ceiling as part of a promotion and the day we left it had a small market in the lobby.

Picked up by a friend, we made our way to his apartment. Quite naturally, being from Mumbai, I noticed the lightness of the air. The horizon appeared further away and much clearer. Another thing that took me by surprise was the traffic. There wasn’t too much. It was organized and they actually stopped at signals. They also allowed pedestrians to pass without honking and actually smiling. I was most definitely out of India and loved it.

It was our first stop on this trip and we thought we’d take it slow. We barely managed to caress the surface of what the city had to offer. 

Almost a day was spent admiring the wild life present at Zurich Zooh! A huge place, it took away the slight guilt I might have felt at the concept of keeping animals in zoos. 

The animals had plenty of space to roam around; some as much as humans did, which I realized as a peacock walked by brushing my leg. It was free to roam and for the duration of this trip, so was I.

Madagascar was just a few metres away. The Zooh! had an enclosure for tropical animals. 

The heat in the enclosure was a little more than bearable and my brother and I decided our love for animals isn’t that strong.

The Zurich Lake runs through the city, adding to its beauty. As we walked along it, hung out a bit, we witnessed strange sights. One of which was this…

But it was a Wassertaxi ride (boat ride) across the river that was the source of a bit of hilarity. A young couple with their excited little child sat behind us in the ‘water taxi.’ 

It wasn’t the loudness of the kid that was irksome but the comment made by the dad as we passed by a man quietly in his boat, fishing. As I looked upon him with envy, dreaming of the day I’d be able to relax in the sun in my own boat thus, the ‘dad’ said “Look. He’s sitting alone in the hot sun. What a LOSER!” My bro and I looked at each other, shook our heads and went and sat on another seat.

We decided, it was time to head out of Zurich but not before visiting Sprungli. The chain we wanted to sit and drink hot chocolate at was closed. We had to make do with the one in the subway. But if the macaroons that we ate were better at the Sprunlgi above, then those weren't macaroons. They were keys to heaven. The light and airy ‘Luxembergerlis’ were worth every converted Euro. The pamphlet of Sprungli advises you to please enjoy immediately. That’s one pamphlet you do want to listen to.

We enjoyed our few days in Zurich with friends. The city’s streets offer endless possibilities to walk into wonder. In fact the adjective ‘quaint streets’ holds true for most of the cities we went to.  

Our next stop : Milan