Vividscapes

Marseilles, Cannes and Monaco (4 June to 8 June 2009)

Kannan — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 13:46:42 +0000

A trip to the beautiful French cities of Marseilles and Cannes and the country of Monaco Monte Carlo.

4 Days in the beautiful French cities

Day 1 – Flew from London to Marseilles and roam around Marseilles and take a late train to Cannes.

Day 2 – Travel by train to Monaco and roamed around Monaco

Day 3 – Enjoyed the beaches around Cannes

Day 4 – Travel back to Marseilles and fly back to London

The plan is to visit Marseilles, Cannes and my favorite racing circuit in Monaco,

Weather

The weather all round was pretty good, the temps reaching 26 deg C and a bit humid, so carry some light clothing, you wouldn’t need any warm clothing in the night too as the temps stay around 20+, but expect a lot of sea breeze.

what to eat

France is famous for its bread, you get a lot of Ciabattas and sandwiches, croissants, coffee and what not, there are plenty of restaurants to try out, the Vieux port in Marseilles is all lined up with a ton of eateries on all sides of the U-shaped port, Cannes has its selection of restaurants too in the central market place and Monaco can be a feast with posh restaurants, Pizzearias and crossantieries sprinkled all over the place.

Travel and useful tips

we landed in Marseilles by Ryanair on June 04 late night, there is a shuttle bus “Navette” that takes you from the airport to the central station Marseille St Charles, the cost per person is 7.50Eur and the journey takes 30 mins.

related downloads and useful information

Know more about the attractions below………

What to see in Marseilles

Marseille is a small and beautiful city, we stayed in “Vertigo” hostel (booked via Hostel world), it was a nice and decent place to sleep for the night, had our breakfast and the Marseilles exploration begins.

The Vieux Port founded by the Greeks 2,600 years ago, remains the heart of Marseille with its fish market at Quai des Belges beginning just after sunrise daily.
Fort Saint Nicholas on the south, a French Foreign Legion post, and Fort Saint Jean on the north, now city offices. The three quays around the U-shaped Vieux Port are broad esplanades attracting strollers and dog-walkers.

The Cathedral, a few blocks north of the Vieux Port along the Quai de la Tourette, was the largest church — 460 feet long and 230 feet high under its dome — built in Europe in the 19th centuryThe Cathedral is open from 9 a.m. to noon, 2-5 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday and closed on Monday. Admission is free.

Marseille’s signature is firmly written at Notre Dame de la Garde, the city’s highest location. On top of the 151-foot tall belfry is a bronze statue gilded in gold leaf of the Virgin Mary holding the Baby Jesus with outstretched arms as if to protect the city. At night floodlights shine on the 31-foot tall statue. Inside the church, ship models hang from the ceilings as offerings from seafarers. The interior is layered in gray and maroon marble with mosaics on gold and blue backgrounds. From the parvis, the panorama takes in Marseille basin from the Mediterranean Sea to the west, the Estaque chain to the north, the Etoile chain to the northeast, the mountains of Garlaban and Saint Cyr to the east and southeast and the Marseilleveyre massif to the south. The church is open daily from 7 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Admission is free. It’s about a 45-minute walk, mostly uphill from the port, or take Bus Number 60 that runs between Cours Ballard, adjacent to the port, and the Basilica. The bus ticket is $1.48 (8F; rate for story 1F = $0.185), the price of one bus, metro or tram ticket good for 70 minutes of travel on the city’s transportation system.

We took the Marseille Tour, a toy train like vehicle that takes you to all the places of interest, ticket prices are 8Eur for the Hour and a half trip – route No 1 (Yellow Route), this takes you along the coast, via the cathedrals, and to Notre Dam de la Garde, you can hop off here, and then get the next tour back to the port

Chateau d’If, the 16th-century prison fortress in the bay area on the sea, its a tourist spot now and can be reached by ferry
Admission to the prison is 5EUR. The ferry departs the docks at Quai des Belges, next to the fish market, daily every 90 minutes, starting at 9 a.m., weather permitting, and ending about 4 p.m. The round-trip to d’If is 7EUR, to both d’If and Frioul (the shuttle boat, which also serves the community at Frioul).

What to see in Cannes

We just spent a lot of time in the beaches in Cannes, you have some fine sand beaches to bask in the sun and some museums to visit and a local market near the Cannes SNCF station.

What to see in Monaco Monte Carlo

One of my favourite race tracks from the F1, the country is the second smallest and beautiful sitting between the majestic Alps and the Cool blue Mediterranean sea.

More info on what to see is here in the Wiki – http://wikitravel.org/en/Monaco

Travel Information.

Marseille airport to St charles station – 7.50EUR PP
Marseille tour – route 1 – 8EUR PP
Ferry to Chateau d’If and back – 7EUR PP
Entry to Chateau d’If – 5EUR PP
Train from Marseille to Cannes – 30EUR PP
Train from Cannes to Monaco – 8EUR PP
Monaco Tour – 8EUR PP
Entry Monte Carlo Casino – 10EUR PP

Marseille,Cannes,Monaco Foto Galleria

http://www.vividscapes.com/gallery2/general/main.php?g2_itemId=11309

Chateau d’If

Gower

Kannan — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 10:28:43 +0000

This is another amazing place and a photogenic place to visit in South Wales, its called the Gower peninsula.

Skiing in French Alps (Serre Chevalier)

Kannan — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 14:27:17 +0000

Skiing in Serre Chevalier

Come December and the climate gets colder and one thing that comes to my mind is the sight of fresh white powder sprinkled all over the majestic alps, and am sure the very sight of it makes my feet sway around and eager to put on the skis and slide down the lovely slopes.

I felt it much better to book the Ski trip as a package, you get to forget the headaches of airport transfers, buying lift passes for the ski slopes, searching for good Chalets or hotels to stay and renting the ski equipments, so lot less hassle to bother. We booked with the RocketSki.com group, they had pretty good and very efficient on my last Ski trip.

I booked the trip in September and got some very good deals for this trip. – http://www.rocketski.com

Trip Group

This time the group size was four – Myself, Praveen, Sarvanan, Sanjay.

Weather

Definitely its gonna be cold, but we had blue skies and lovely sun the whole of the week and snow showers in the night on X’mas day 25th to Saturday 27th, the perfect conditions for skiing.

what to eat

There are a lot of mountain restaurants on the Piste that serve some good food and lots of hot chocolate

Travel and useful tips

Take some good ski clothing, i would recommend for some good quality ones to withstand the cold and all other bits and pieces for the ski trip.

One piece of technology that was very useful for us was the Walkie Talkie, we purchased the Cobra MT975 license free PMR446 range ones, these had a range of 12Kms and did a very good job, as myself and Sarvanan had skied before, we hit some higher slopes and still were able to be in contact with the other two for lunch time, the range of these sets were pretty good and we were still in contact from the top of the mountain peak at 2700m to the ski Piste bottom where the other 2 were learning skiing.

Travel Information.

The nearest airports to Serre Chevalier is Grenoble, Lyon or Turin with a transfer time of approx 2 hours, there are lots of Piste maps available all over the place which you can use while skiing to find your best route to ski down and to find new Pistes.

Ski fotos

http://www.vividscapes.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=8606

Snowy way in Nordic Norway (March 21 – 25, 2008)

Kannan — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 17:54:22 +0000

Snowy way in Nordic Norway

5 day Easter holidays in Norway

Easter on a long weekend with a bank holiday as well, what more do you need to plan a trip. This time its a little bit more towards the north pole, yes its Norway. Its the end of winter, the start of the spring season and as its going to be cold, we expected the trip to be more closer to nature.

Our 5 day Itinerary for Norway

Day 1 – Flew into Norway Torp airport, roamed around Oslo

Day 2 – Norway in a nutshell tour of the Fjords.

Day 3 – Trekked up mount Bergen

Day 4 – On the train back to Oslo

Day 5 – Back to London.

Norge, yes another name for Norway is a beautiful country with a lot of Valleys and mountains, I would call it the country of Tunnels, i have not seen such long tunnels and in numerous ones along the way, I almost lost count of how many there were.

Weather in Norway

The peak season actually is during April to July where the months of may and June being the most colourful with all the trees and flowers blossoming.

We were actually a month early and it was also one of the coldest this year at -13 degrees.

Travel and useful tips

We booked all our accommodations through the Hostelworld.com site, this site gives you umpteen choices of hotels and hostels to stay at a very cheap rates.Going around in Norway : Going around in Norway is very easy, just get a local map from the hostel, the local language is Norge but people understand English and can reply back in English.

Norway related downloads and useful information

Norway in a Nutshell Guide

Know more about the attractions below………

The city of Oslo

The trip had an amazing start right from the way we landed in Oslo airport, Ryanair was supposed to land in Torp airport, but due to heavy snow and low visibility, we had to land in Oslo city airport. After much difficult and the plane literally flying like a crow with its wings shaking up and down in the torrential wind and snow, the wheels touched the white tar on the runaway created by the intense snowing. Everybody clapped to have had a successful touch down.

We had breakfast in the airport and took the train to Oslo, checked into the Perminalen hotel.

We had no specific plans in Oslo, Oslo had a lot of Museums, so we did not care to visit them, just started a walk around the city, it was white all over the place, played in the snow in the parks throwing snow at each other.

Norway in a Nutshell Tour – [Day 2]

This is one of the major attraction tours in Norway, advance booking can be done from Raileurope.co.uk, the ticket includes the train from Oslo to Myrdal, From Myrdal you need to take the Flam railway to Flam, this is one of the picturesque route with lots of waterfalls, valleys, gorges and beautiful mountains and houses all along the way, this train even stops along the way for capturing some beautiful scenaries.

Once you reach Flam, you will have an hour there to look around and then a ferry awaits you to take you to Guduvangen, this ferry ride is also another major picturesque ride on the lake valley between two mountains.

From Gudvangen, a bus awaits there and takes you to Voss, from Voss you can take the train to Bergen, all these can be covered in a single day, but we stayed in Bergen for another day.

Bergen Trek – [Day 3]

This day in Bergen was another eventful and exercising day trekking up mount Bergen. We started at 11 in the morning and as we started the ascend we were greeted by the Snow fall, as we went higher up, the snowing became very intense and the path was completely covered in snow, we played, danced, jumped in the snow to our hearts content and reached the peak.

The next day we returned to Oslo and the 5th day returned to London.

Travel Information.

London Airports to Oslo – 1:40 hours by flight

Going around Norway – A lot of intercity trains.

The best way to enjoy Norway is the Norway in a nutshell tour

Adrenalin Adventure in South Wales (Feb 24 – Feb 25, 2007)

Kannan — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 17:38:57 +0000

Need some Adrenalin….Go to South Wales

Trip to South Wales

It all started like this, one of our guys in our Gang, dearly called “Bevuda”, is returning back to Infosys base and he wanted a Car trip before he goes back, so we initially planned for Cornwall, but it was a bit longer drive and after much back and forth for the places, we decided on South Wales, we have already done North Wales.This trip we wanted it to be an Adrenalin filled adventure trip, so here is what we did in south wales.

A brief up of our start……

This time its 7 people and got a Vauxhall Zafira from the rental agency, even though we wanted a Toyota Previa, after much hesitation, all of them squeezed into the car by 10:00Pm and we set sail to catch M4 from our home in London Fields.

The South Wales Trip Gang

Gang – Kannan, Praveen, Srinath, Shashanka, Pratheep, Prakash, Chendhil

It was approx 250 miles drive, so we chose to drive at our own pace, spent a lot of time in the services, as we did not want to reach the Hostel very early. So we reached the Hostel by 6:30Am, the views of the Sea were wonderful, took some wonderful snaps, myself and Srinath started exploring the rocks and caves around there.

Preparations and Things to take.

Take some food items so that you are not hungry thro the journey.
Better to drive in the night as the traffic is less and you will save the day for some sightseeing.
Take detailed print of the maps and routes you need to join M4 from your place and the entry to South Wales.
Please buy a detailed map of South Wales, don’t think you have saved 6£ in not buying one, you will end up paying more for the petrol and the frustration of not knowing where you are.
Ordinance Survey in short OS maps are very good ones and show complete detail.
Have a person who is good in navigation skills in your front seat, believe me you need a person to tell the driver to take a left or right well ahead, else you are sure get some middle finger signs from the car behind you.

How to reach South Wales

Just follow on M4 till the end, you end up into south Wales.

Adventure Activities in South Wales.

Once your into the place, check for the tourist information centre and get a copy of the attractions map and decide on the places

Quad biking :

This is one of the best adventure activities we did in S’Wales. Its basically a 4 wheeled all terrain bike and you need to drive up and down the mountains, through deep crates, down the valley and through thick mud and slush, wow, you would definitely feel you are just thrown out of the bike many a times.Its pure fun and I would recommend it to anybody who has a lil bit of daring to try these stuff. Check this site for more information on Quad biking, its better to call those guys and book the slots in advance. http://www.ritec-valley.co.uk/default.htm

Other Adventures :

There are a lot more adventure activities, just be sure to pick up the leaflets in the hostel or in any attraction site and that will provide you the details of many more attractions like Go-Karting, Paint balling, Shooting, Archery, and many many more.

Other Places around :

Another place worth mentioning is the Aberdulais falls and the Trek in the Valley of Neath, during the Trek you will pass through a lot of small and large water falls and the scenery is really breathtaking.

Going around in South Wales.

Always have the OS map with you and navigate the roads and driving is a pleasure here.

Travel Information.

YMCA Hostel - 15£ per night with Breakfast.

Car Rental - 28£ per day for an Automatic D class car.

The total trip cost us approx 150£ per head.

2 full days in South wales will be an ideal plan, but a weekend trip is also as exciting.

Check out the fotos section to find out more on the enchanting beauty and the adventurous fun that we had in South Wales.

South Wales Foto Galleria

Extravaganza di Natale in Italia (Dec 23 – Dec 27, 2006)

Kannan — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 17:20:07 +0000

Extravaganza di Natale in Italia

5 day X’mas vacations in Italy

Come Christmas and its time for long vacations and holidays and myself being a travel lover and a shutter bug it would have been a shame to stay at home in the cold and rainy English weather. Now the tough decision is to decide on the place, where do we go, the climate should be good and not very cold, it was then a voice from nowhere rang the bells sounding Itallllllyyyyyyy Itallllyyyyyyyy….

Ahhhh yes now we know where to go, its Italy trip, the 5 days of holidays is a wonderful time to cover a lot of Italy and its Christmas, where else can you be other than the holy Vatican city for X’mas.

Read on below to know more details……..

Our 5 day Itinerary for Italy

Day 1 – Flew into Rome, Major attractions : Trevi fountain, Colosseum, Spanish steps, Pantheon, Forum, Arch of Constantine.
Day 2 – Ancient volcano destroyed town of Pompeii in Naples.
Day 3 – St Peters basilica and Vatican city
Day 4 – Leaning tower of Pisa and the prestigious FERRARI Gallery in Maranello.
Day 5 – Venice.

Italy as such, wherever you go, is a beautiful city with architectural splendour visible all over even in small buildings and roads. Now I remember the saying “Rome was not built in a day”, yes its very true.

Traditional drinks of Italy

These were a couple of traditional drinks we tried in Italy. To start with we had zambooka, Grappa, Cashaka in Rome, Lemoncello is traditional to Naples, and the Cocktail of Venice. Haven’t tasted such awesome coffee anywhere till now, had coffee all over Italy and it tasted superb in all the places.Its a worth mention about the food in Italy, the exotic Pastas, Pizzas, lasagne, spaghetti, panini and the different sandwiches still leave an excellent taste in my mouth, haven’t had such wonderful coffee anywhere, now I know why people say Italian Coffee, you need not be a coffee lover to taste it, but one you taste it you would definitely love it.

Travel and useful tips for Italy tour

We booked all our accommodations through the Hostelworld.com site, this site gives you umpteen choices of hotels and hostels to stay at a very cheap rates.Going around in Rome : Going around in Rome is very easy, just get a local map from the hostel or from a local tobacconist.

Metros in Rome : There are only two metro lines Line A and Line B, pretty easy and much less confusion.

Where to buy Metro tickets : There are no special ticket counters for the metro and bus tickets, you need to get tickets for travel in Metros and buses from the local tobacconists, these shops are there in an around all stations, the shops will be called “Tabacchi” and “Metro Tickets” will be displayed on the shops window. Once you have purchased the ticket you can use it the same way you do for the London underground. A 3 day tickets costs 11 Euros. They know very little English!.

Intercity Travel : Intercity travel is one of the easiest and fastest, you have a lot of intercity and Eurostar trains. If you plan for travelling during the peak season, its always advisable to book your tickets online, you’d definitely wouldn’t want to find yourself short of tickets and flop your plans in the last minute. You will find self service machines in all stations and you can choose the destination and book the tickets, Don’t panic, you have display options in English as well.

Intercity Travel Note : If you are travelling by any intercity train other than Eurostar, then you will be given an open ticket for travel and you have to “VALIDATE” the ticket before the journey, you would find small yellow box clinging on to the walls, displaying the time and a slot to insert the ticket, insert the ticket breadth wise any side and it will print the date and time and this is called Validation. Eurostar tickets have the date and time of travel printed on it and the seat numbers as well.

Good links to explore and know more about Italy

Train Italia english website – http://www.trenitalia.com/en/index.html
Circumvesuvian Trains information – http://www.vesuviana.it/infoeng.htm
Online booking for the Tower of PISA – http://www.opapisa.it/boxoffice/index.jsp
Pompei ruins site – http://www.pompeisepolta.com/english/home.htm
Virtual guie to Rome – http://www.italyguides.it/us/roma/rome_italy_travel.htm

Italy related downloads and useful information

Complete set of 3 Train maps of Italy

3 Page PDF ROME Guide

3 Page PDF FLORENCE Guide

3 Page PDF VENICE Guide

Attractions map of POMPEII Scavi ruins

Know more about the attractions below………

Rome and Vatican city – [DAY 1]

The first day of our Italy trip was to get to Rome, check in the hostel, drop all the baggages and then start roaming, went exactly planned.

These were the list of places that we visited on Day 1 of our trip, click on the attraction to know more on that place.

Roman Colosseum: The Flavius amphitheatre is the biggest and most imposing in the Roman world, but is also the most famous monument in Rome and is known as the “Colosseum” or “Coliseum”. Started by Emperor Vespasian of the Flavia family, it was opened by his son Titus in 80 A.D.

The highly ostentatious opening ceremony, lasted one hundred days during which people saw great fights, shows and hunts involving the killing of thousands of animals (5000 according to the historian Suetonius). For the opening, the arena space was filled with water for one of the most fantastic events held in Roman times, naumachias – real sea battles reproducing great battles of the past.

The Arch of Constantine : This Triumphal Arch was dedicated in AD 315 to celebrate Constantine’s victory three years before over his co-emperor, Maxentius.

Constantine claimed he owed his victory to a vision of Christ, but there is nothing Christian about the arch – in fact, most of the medallions, reliefs and statues were scavenged from earlier monuments. There are statues of Dacian prisoners taken from Trajan’s Forum and reliefs of Marcus Aurelius, including one where he distributes bread to the poor.

Trevi Fountain: The Wishing Fountain. At the bottom of the street, backed by the façade of the Palazzo Poli, looms the most stunning of the fountains of Rome: the central figure, the Ocean (by Pietro Bracci) is shown dominating sea horses guided by Tritons, while in the niches on either side are the figures of Abundance (on the left) and Health (on the right), both by Filippo della Valle.

Vatican City : As we went during the X’mas season, we decided to make it for the midnight X’mas mass that is presided by POPE in St Peters basilica, its a privilege to be in the midnight X’mas mass with his holiness.

Got a very good close view of his highness, really a great chance in life.

If you ever plan for an Italy trip during X’mas plan for the midnight X’mas mass as well, for attending the mass you need an invite/ticket, the tickets are not sent by mail or there is no online booking for the mass, you need to send a mail to the Visitors office of the Vatican city and they will confirm your participation by return mail, once you have got the invite mail, you can collect the tickets/invite for the mass from the office a day before the mass before 12 noon, mail address and the address of the Bishops office given below.

Send mail to this ID for X’mas mass invite : nacvisoffrome@pnac.org

Bishops’ Office for United States Visitors to the Vatican :

North American College – Casa Santa Maria
Via dell’UmiltB, 30 – 00187 Rome, Italy
Rome

Tel. 06/ 690.01.821

FAX 011/3906/679-1448

Pompeii Scavi – [DAY 2]

Pompeii is an ancient town near Naples in south of Italy, this town was totally destroyed by a Volcano from the nearby mountain Vesuvius, the remains of this town are now excavated and preserved as an archaeological site. Its worth a visit to this ancient town and its beauty and planning is still visible through the rubble filled streets and broken houses and temples that surround it.

If you are planning a trip to this place from ROME, then you need an entire day for the trip for the travel from ROME to NAPLES and back.

Easiest way to get to the Scavi : Get a Train from ROMA Termini to Naples, Eurostar trains are faster and not that expensive compared to the trains in London, you can get the tickets for Naples in any of the automatic vending machines in the station, plan for the 9Am train to Naples, the travel time from Rome to Naples is approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes.

Naples is also called Piazza di Garibaldi, once you get down the train, walk towards the exit, do not get out of Naples station, before the exit, take a left and you will find the sign boards “CIRCUMVESUVIAN TRAIN”, follow the sign boards and you will get to the circumvesuvian trains ticket office as shown on the image in the right.

You can buy combined tickets for the Scavi and the return train tickets from the tickets office 5 and it costs you approx 17 Euros.

Get down at Pompeii scavi station, its a 35 minute journey from Naples Garibaldi, and the Scavi entrance is just opposite the station exit.

Its advised to take the Circumvesuvian trains due to the frequency and the proximity to the ruins, there are also Trenitalia trains to Scavi, but its a 10 minute walk to the ruins from the train station and the entrance will be through the back of the ruins.

If you have more time and need not rush back to ROME, then you can plan for a bus journey to the top of mount Vesuvius as well, seems like the volcano is still emitting fiery fumes till date.

ROME and surroundings – [DAY 3]

Day 3 was just a ROAM around ROME, we went for the christmas market in vatican, purchased a lot of souvenirs and visited a couple of nearby places. It was 2Pm by then and there was no transport, no busses or metros and getting a Taxi in Italy was the toughest part of our entire trip, may be bcos it was X’mas time.

Finally we got a taxi after an hour of lazy stroll on the Vatican streets and reached the hostel, Srinath, the bevuda [drukard] of our gang wanted to taste the 95% alcohol that was on the bar shelf desperately and somehow the bartender was so kind to make an excellent drink with that 95% alcohol even though it was 5:30Pm and the bar opens only at 6:00Pm, cudos to our excellent and friendly mate there……thanks a lot for him.

Finally we left for the station to get on the Eurostar train to Florence.

Tower of PISA and Ferrari Gallery in Maranello – [DAY - 4]

Day 4 was a bit of run around and a possibly busy and hectic day as we had to cover lot of ground. We started for the 6:57AM train from Florence to Pisa Centrale, we might have missed the train by a minute if we wouldn’t have run to the station.

From the PISA station its approx 15 to 20 mins to the tower by bus, but we took a cab and was 10 euros for 4 people.

We already booked the tickets to the PISA tower online to avoid waste of time in the Qs, we finished the pisa tour and the foto sessions around and started from there back to Florence to pick up our luggages and head to the FERRARI gallery in Maranello.

The Ferrari Gallery in Maranello : Maranello – the Mekka for every real Ferrarista in the world. The hometown of the Ferrari factory and the Scuderia Ferrari is located about 20 kms south of Modena, the famous old city in the Italian Emilia Romagna region (170 kms southeast from Milan). Maranello – Italy’s secret capital – is so important for the region that the small town is signposted right from the exit “Modena Nord” of the A1 motorway from Milan to Bologna.

The factory is located on the Via Abetone Inferiore; this is the very road on which one enters the town if one follows the signposts from the above mentioned motorway exit. Unfortunately, it is normally not possible to visit the factory. Guided tours are sometimes arranged for dealers and their customers; maybe your local authorized Ferrari dealer is willing to provide you with an opportunity to join him on his next visit even if you are not a Ferrari owner – just give it a trial.

Ferrari’s factory museum is to be found in the Via Dino Ferrari. You can find photos of the majority of the automotive exposits on this site; but since the exhibits are changed from time to time, the Galleria is always worth a visit – even if one has already been there once. The Galleria is open daily except on Mondays between 9.30 h and 12.30 h and from 15.00 h to 18.00 h.

There are plenty of memorabilia shops in Maranello. “Warm Up” and “Hors Ligne” are located close to the Galleria Ferrari in the Via Dino Ferrari, “Shopping Formula 1″ can be found in the Via Alfieri, facing the factory entrance. And these are only the most “famous” shops. It is possible to buy official Ferrari merchandising products in the Galleria Ferrari, too, by the way.

The entire day was awesome and everything was exactly as planned and with Swiss precision, again it was a search for Taxi, there were no buses back to the station, after half hour of roaming around the streets of Maranello in the 3 degs cold winter, we found a taxi who could take us to the station, the sad part was that no body knew English in that town and none of us knew to speak Italian.

Cost of the taxi is 30 euros to the station from the gallery.

Next destination is Venice, so got on to the train from Modena to Bologna and to Venice.

Click here to download word document on How to Reach FERRARI GALLERY in Maranello.

Enchanting Venice – [Day 5]

Venice is an enchanting and romantic place with water all over, the moment we got out of the train station, we saw the streets of Venice with water and water taxis and water buses plying on the excellent charm of the city.

No extend of words could describe the beauty and the charm that’s magnificently gleaming on the stretch of water ways around.

We had no specific place, but started our trip to explore Venice by 9AM, best bet is to purchase a day ticket for the boat journeys, get on to a boat, get down in the next stop, explore the nearby places.

Best places in Venice would be the Rialto bridge a famous bridge and tourist spot on top of the river and St Marks Square, you could get to see thousands of pigeons around you, buy a packet of corn for a Euro from the vendor, drop 1 and by the wink of your eye you will be surrounded by a 1000 pigeons. I could say feeding the pigeons was the best of my trips and enjoyed it a lot, with nature the natural way, what else do i need to ask for.

Travel Information.

London Airports to Rome – 2 hours by flight

Going around Italy – A lot of intercity trains.

Check out the fotos section to find out more on the amazing history of Italy.

Italy Foto Galleria

To the Lakes in an English Summer (Jun 23 – Jun 25, 2006)

Kannan — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 16:52:13 +0000

Lakes..Lakes…Lakes….Lakes all around!!

Trip to Lake District

Its a long drafted plan, but we were not able to make it a couple of times, some thing or the other came in the way and the plan was dropped in the nascent stages itself, even now it was on the verge of getting dropped until I got a call one weekday afternoon from the YMCA lakeside Hostel reception.

On a weekend we were actively searching for Hostels in lake district and to our dismay, all of them were booked for the weekend, and the lake side hostel did not have a availability check online, so we decided to mail them regarding the status, it was after 2 days we got a call from the Hostel, they said we have rooms for you guys, we were 10 people in all and the next word i said was am booking it for 10 people.

At last so joyous, I have made the booking for 10 people and we are all set to go, immediately we booked 2 cars as well from Enterprise, I guess it is one of the good Car rentals around……

Now all set and done…. Read on below to know more details……..

A brief up of our start……

We travelled by 2 cars, it is better to go by car if you want to explore as many places and save your precious time.

We all assembled in my house in 41Vangaurd in Hackney, our plan was to start by 9, but Srinath and group not yet in the scene, mobiles not reachable, where the hell did they go???

At last by 9:30 we caught them on phone, due to some signal problem in the underground, they had some delays, poor fellas, cant complain, they have to travel a long distance from sunbery, which in Zone 6, and takes an hour and a half to reach our house.

In the mean time we went to Tesco and picked up croissants, biscuits and fruits for the trip, all r there and the whistle ready to blow, we started of our journey to the LD at 10:30PM Friday and the two cars zoomed out of the 41 Vanguard house.

Arif and myself were the drivers for the Vauxhall Corsa grey class C and Prakash and Babu for their Red Nissan….

Speed limit on the motor way is 70mph, but cant help, we were at 90 to 100mph, who dares to go slow in such excellent roads…

The Lakes Trip Gang

Nissan – Prakash, Babu, Anirban, Srinath, chendhil.

Corsa – Arif, Kannan, Rajiv, Kumar, Pruthvi.

We reached the lakes by early morning 4:30 and took some snaps of the early morning scenaries and reached the YMCA, but the reception opens only at 8:00AM, so had a good sleep in the car and the reception guy turned in at 8:45 and we all checked in to our bunker house, had a shower and started on our journey to explore the Lakes.

Preparations and Things to take.

Take some food items so that you are not hungry thro the journey.
Better to drive in the night as the traffic is less and you will save the day for some sightseeing.
Take detailed print of the maps and routes you need to join M6 from your place and the entry to lake district.
Please buy a detailed map of Lake District, don’t think you have saved 6£ in not buying one, you will end up paying more for the petrol and the frustration of not knowing where you are.
Ordinance Survey in short OS maps are very good ones and show complete detail.
Have a person who is good in navigation skills in your front seat, believe me you need a person to tell the driver to take a left or right well ahead, else you are sure get some middle finger signs from the car behind you.

How to reach Lake District

Lake district is very near from the M6 motorway, some 30 miles from Blackpool, wherever you are from inside London, try to reach M6 motorway and you can zooom your way to Lake district, below is the route details.

Also check Google maps for the route or better if you have Microsoft route map software.

Route from M6 to Lake district.

Keep LEFT onto M6 [19]	37.9 km	M6 / The North West / Coventry (North) / Birmingham
At Exit 4, stay on M6 (West)	37.3 km
At Exit 11, stay on M6 (North)	39.5 km
At Exit 15, stay on M6 (North)	30.9 km
At Exit 18, stay on M6 (North)	30.7 km
At Exit 21A, stay on M6 (North-West)	34.0 km
At Exit 28, stay on M6 (North)	36.3 km
At Exit 33, stay on M6 (North)	29.1 km
At Exit 36, keep LEFT onto Ramp	0.3 km	A590 / A591 / A65 / South Lakes / Kendal / Barrow / Kirkby Lonsdale / Skipton
At roundabout, take the FIRST exit onto A590	5.2 km
Keep LEFT onto Ramp	0.3 km
At roundabout, take the FIRST exit onto A590	9.6 km
At roundabout, take the SECOND exit onto A590	9.5 km
At roundabout, take the FIRST exit onto A590	4.5 km
Rest break (15 mins)
Stay on A590 (West)	1.9 km

Once you are into A590 then check your local map to the place you want to go, you are into lake district now.

Places of Interest in Lake District.

Once your into the place, check for the tourist information centre and get a copy of the attractions map and decide on the places

Lake Windermere :

One of the biggest lakes in the Lake District area and you have boat trips and walks around the Lake.

Hardknott & Wrynrose Pass :

This is one of the places where you need a car to go, the roads are very narrow, preferably have a small car to navigate the steep roads and narrow bends, the drive along this stretch will be very exciting and a test on your driving skills, this is an amazing and awesome place to visit, the roads take you to the top of the Hills where you can get some breathtaking views of the place and you can get a couple of good fotos.

Park your car in the available side spaces and climb the hills, allow some 6 to 7 hours for the entire trip from the start and back to the start place, but believe me you got to visit this Pass, its worth the time.

The route to the Pass is full of streams and creeks and rivers flowing across.

Other Places around :

There are a couple of other places as well, you can go to Kendal, Ambleside, Coinston, but wherever you go is full of Lakes and natural beauty all round.

Going around in Lake District.

Always have the OS map with you and navigate the roads and driving is a pleasure here.

Travel Information.

YMCA Hostel - 15£ per night with Breakfast.

Car Rental - 28£ per day for an Automatic D class car.

The total trip costed us 95£ per head.

2 full days in Lake district will be an ideal plan, but a weekend trip is also as exciting.

Check out the fotos section to find out more on the enchanting beauty of The Lakes in the Lake District.

Lake District Foto Galleria

Enchanting Paris in Summer by Eurostar (Apr 15 – Apr 17, 2006)

Kannan — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 16:40:44 +0000

London to Paris by Eurostar…

Trip to Paris

The plan to make a tour to Paris was born in mid Feb, you need to plan a lot and get your tickets booked well ahead to get good deals, Our trip costed us 190£ for the To and fro Eurostar trip and 3 nights stay in a 2 star hotel, we even booked the Disney land tickets in advance.

Read on below to know more details……..

Eurostar Experience and the Hotel

Do you fancy the long and troublesome process of immigration and hour long Q’s in airport, just for a 1/2 hour trip you end up wasting 2 hours, so now the Eurostar comes in Handy, there is no irritating Q’s, the total immigration process takes only 1/2 hour and everything is finished in Waterloo itself, just walk out of the train in France……..

The amazing fact is the Speed of the train, i guess it reaches 300Kms/h and its fastest on the French side rather than the English side, you have 20mins inside the Euro Tunnel, nothing to see outside, just dark.

The Hotel……….

An arms reach from Gare Du Nord station, its here the Eurostar terminates.

A budget class hotel, if you need a space to keep your luggage and a sleep in the night, then this is the hotel for you, the Rooms are pretty small, so as the lift, has just exact space for two, squeeze yourself to get your friend inside if you don’t want his face going eggs…..

Rooms are small, but very clean rooms and bathrooms, you might be a bit disturbed by the sound of the traffic as the hotel is on the main road.

Places of Interest in Paris

Major attractions in Paris are in listed in this link – http://www.paris-tourist-information.co.uk/Paris-Places-Of-Interest.htm

Sacrecour: (2 to 3 hours)

This is a historical church with its beautiful white domes and gardens, a mile from the station.

Eiffel: (evening to late night)

Reach Eiffel by 3 or 4 in the evening, based on the season the Q might be very long to wait for 1 to 2 hours before you could get a glimpse of the lady at the Billet Counter (Billet is Ticket in French).

Enjoy the Eiffel by climbing up to the second level, and you get a bird’s eye view of the Paris city.

Stay late after dark to enjoy the flashing light effects on Eiffel.

Disney Land: (Full day)

Am falling short of words to explain the beauty of this Park, if you love the exciting and thrilling rides, then the Disney land park is the one for you, you have a lot of themed rides, for example, the Space Mountain, takes you through a mind boggling loop of stars, planets, the sun and the moon……a very memorable one, each ride is unique in its own way…..

Make sure you finish the exciting rides, and as the day goes on you might end up waiting in the Q’s for each ride for even up to an hour, so the fast tickets comes in handy, get the fast tickets and enter the ride in the specified time.

If you finish the park a bit early, you can visit the Walt Disney Studios, fully dedicated for all special effects and simulations you see in the films.

Especially dont miss the rock n roll musical roller coaster, studio tram tour and the Armageddon show.

Reach early to avoid the rush.

Going around in Paris.

You get a 3 or a 5 day Zone 1 to 3 RATP pass and can be purchased in Waterloo Eurostar station itself.

Get more information on the passes on this site – http://www.ratp.info/informer/anglais/paris_visite.php

If you are used to the transportation in London Underground, then you are not for any surprises in Paris except for the names of the stations, which would sound funny to French people, when you sound it, i say this because a beautiful French female was smiling all the way when we tried to read out the station names.

I felt the Metro was a bit more confusing, London underground is very easy and causes less or no confusion.

So take care you read the map and the sign boards well before you get to a train line.

Travel Information.

London Waterloo to Paris Nord – 2h34mins

Going around Paris – Use the RER, RATP and Metro lines to go around.

Check out the fotos section to find out more on the enchanting beauty of Paris

Paris Foto Galleria

Leed Castle – Bonfire Fireworks Special (Nov 05, 2005)

Kannan — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 16:17:32 +0000

November 5th is celeberated as Bonfire day, i can call this as UK Diwali?????. The surroundings are very much similar to diwali, ppl bursting crackers……

The sky is lit up with crackers firing up from many places around…….

Our actual plan to the Leeds castle was on October 30, we has planned for the trip and we happened to have a look at Leeds castle sight again, which we saw some 2 weeks before we planned, we sighted something that said fireworks spectacular show, suddenly all our heads were up, we were praying, let that be on a weekend, we did some digging on the site to find out the date, Alas……it was on Nov 5th Saturday, we were the happiest, immediately we booked the tickets to the show…..(the site said the tickets are fast selling)..as we did not want to miss it…..

We were all set for the next weeks spectacular………

How to Reach Leeds Castle

There are trains every half hour from London Victoria station, check out the site http://www.nationalrail.co.uk for details of the train and the fare.

There are also coaches that operate specials for this show from victoria…..but we did not want just a straight ride, we will go by ourselves…..

Get the train to Bearsted, the journey is approx 1.01 hours.

Once you reach Bearsted, you need to go to Leeds castle, a notice board in the platform said, there is going to be a bus at 10:30, but we were very early, we started home at 6:45 and reached bearsted station at 9:00 itself, as we had a map of the location, we got it from Google, we all decided to walk, its only 3.3 miles.

The morning was very cold, unlike london the country side was wonderful and chilly winds were awesome…

we enjoyed the lovely walk along the winding roads……to reach the Castle…..

Our Trip to the Castle.

Only place of interest there is the Leeds castle……

The frequency of buses are very low, and as the board said, there seems to be only a bus every 1 hour….so take care and plan your trip, i did not see any Black cabs as well, if you love walking, then this is not a deterrent factor…..enjoy walking……

We reached the Castle by 10:00 Am only to be heard that the castle is open only from 12:00Pm because of the shows and the Fun fairs, its open from 10 on other days, but do have a look at the site www.leeds-castle.com before you can start….that gives you the exact schedule…..

Again we started exploring all the roads, and struggled hard to spend time, at last we pushed the clock to 12:00 and finally got an entry through the castle gates…

Went around the castle, its lovely lakes and parks…took photographs, there were so many people on that day.

Finally it was the time for the show, secured a decent place to view the fireworks, also i purchased a Tripod for photographing the fireworks, so set it all and all were ready.

The show began at 6:45 and went on till 7:15.

It was really amazing and awesome, really worth for 13£, and returned back home at 11:00Pm.

Travel Information.

London Victoria to Bearsted – 1.01 Hours (13£ Return).

Bearsted to Leeds Castle - 10Mins by bus. (1.30£ ) or enjoy a walk for 45 mins.

Check out the fotos section to find out more on the enchanting beauty of the Castle and the Fireworks show.

Leeds Castle Foto Galleria

A day with wildlife- Longleat (Sep 17, 2005)

Kannan — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 16:14:09 +0000

Wonderful Wildlife - Longleat

Trip Details

This was a plan made for the week before this one, but fortunately we happened to glimpse at the unfortunate weather conditions in Longleat and postponed our trip to 17-Sep-2005.

The weather was amazingly good, it was a sunny cold morning, absolutely a London kinda morning,

We, a gang of 4 woke up at 4:30 in the morning and set sail for the 6:00 Am service towards London bridge to Waterloo.

Read on below to know more details……..

How to Reach the Jungle…….

There are trains every hour from London Waterloo station and every 20 mins from london paddington, as longleat is more towards the Eastern side of UK, trains from Waterloo take less time than trains from paddington, better take the trains from waterloo and the fares are also cheaper.

check out the site http://www.nationalrail.co.uk for details of the train and the fare.

Get the train through Salisbury, the journey is approx 1.45 minutes to reach Salisbury.

The trains here are really fast………

Once you reach Salisbury, stay in the same platform and take the next train through Warminster, you will reach warminster in 30 minutes.

Warminster is a small town and you wouldnt find the hustle bustle of London buses, we waited for some 5 minutes and decide to take a taxi to Longleat, there are a lot of taxis in the station and the charge is approx 10£ to Longleat for 4 people. You will reach Longleat in 15 minutes and you are there in this wonderful greenery……

On the entrance you have the ticket place, better to take a Passport ticket which allows you entry into all the attractions in Longleat and you lose 27£ if you were to take separately for all attractions.

Places of Interest in longleat.

Safari Park:

All attractions open at 11AM and the best thing to do is to finish the safari park, you need pay a surcharge of 4£ for using the safari bus, you can take your car if you have it.

The safari bus starts at 10 or 11 depending on the season, the first safari, the rush might be a bit less, the safari takes 2Hrs inside the park and is really a wonderful trip to see the animals, none of the animals are caged and they freely roam around, we are the people inside cages (i mean cars and buses).

The bus takes you to all attractions and is sure one to be enjoyed and photographed.

Longleat House:

The next attraction is the longleat house, the house is 465 years old and is good with art work and the items used by the princess and his families.

Bird Show:

There are 4 shows per day and plan your time for the show, this also is the one to be enjoyed for sure, you can see the parrots performing a lot of fun stuff…….a fun time altogether…..after all that’s why we all come here…..to forget the routine software work we do everyday……..

Safari Boat:

If you want to see some seals, birds and some sea lions, you can take this one……its surely a feast for people who love photography and nature…..(I’m one of those……)….

This takes some 15 minutes…….

Other attractions are very small and you can enjoy them fast….

Motion Simulator:

This is one attraction I would recommend to all, its a nice experience, so better see it for yourself rather than me opening the thrill of it….

Finish all the attractions and then get into the Hedge Maze, make sure you finish all before 5, the last entry is somewhere around 5, and don’t think its easy…..takes a lot of time and there are so much and so many ways to get lost inside the maze…..

The experience was awesome, we guys all went in the same direction at first, and then decided to part and find the way to the centre…….Alas…..we dint find the way, we all met at the same point after 10 minutes circling around…….

Going around in Longleat.

All places are very near and you don’t need anything special to get around the place.

It was evening time and we started our way back home, the trip was amazing and this is a place to visit for sure.

Travel Information.

London Waterloo to Salisbury- 1.45 Hours (12£ Return by Group saving option).

Salisbury to Warminster - 30Mins by Train. (get a direct ticket from Waterloo itself).

If you are planning for a single day trip, start early to cover all places.

Check out the fotos section to find out more on the enchanting beauty of Nature at Longleat.

Longleat Foto Galleria