Pompeii-Pisa

Naples- Pompeii
Had a real early start to make our way to Termini to board a train to Naples. The Eurostar train was very comfortable. It is double the cost of Trenitalia trains where the seats are not reserved.
Reached Naples Central station (Napoli Centrale). We boarded a local subway train going to Sorrento to reach Pompeii. The Pompeii Scavi (ruins) is situated just two minutes walk from the station. Once we reached there, there were audio headsets available that you had to use in conjunction with the maps, to understand, what each place represents. For an extra 3 euros, you could use a guide. We took the guide option to save us time and hassle of looking through the maps.
Pompeii takes its name from the fact that it’s road led to the sea.
In Pompeii we saw the ancient, sustainable lifestyle there. Men urinated in fire to produce ammonia to be used to cleaning clothes and shoes. The slave quarters with no windows. The take away outlets and bakeries. The dining and garden area where the rich met to wine and dine. The steam room (sauna), the market, the brothels etc.
Life was hard for the slaves, mostly Jews from Jerusalem, comfortable for the rich. A slave could make money and buy freedom. There are in total 8 gates, of which seven were closed at night and only one remain open in the night for trading, all the other gates are closed. There are small marble stones on the roads to illuminate the path at night. Greek and Roman Temples not too far away from each other, dead body of men, dogs and a pregnant woman.
The rich people in Pompeii lived in East and West side, close to the sea and thereby more hours of brightness. The poor lived in the north and south side and it would get dark by 4pm.
After finishing with our tour, we had lunch and got back to Naples Centrale via train. Once in Naples, we decided not to venture outside the station, as the city is well known for thugs, mafia etc, much more notorious than Rome. We booked our tickets to Roma Centrale, but did not realize we did not have a seat booking; it’s just a ticket to travel. This is Trenitalia! Each compartments had sub-compartments with six seats and a space above to store luggage, outside each sub-compartment, there is a seat. Subu travelled standing most of the time. Whilst I, the privileged one, managed to find a seat outside the sub compartment.
We got to Roma Termini and got back to our hotel room, to plan for the next day. We decided to visit the famous the Leaning Tower of Pisa and spend the night in Pisa, rather than visit Florence.
It’s time to bid good-bye to Rome, city not only know for it’s art and monuments, but also for the people who are proud of their culture and not to mention the Italian cuisine.
Pisa
We reached Pisa at around 11.00am and deposited our luggage in the hotel, went away to wander. We decided to walk to the Leaning Tower, rather than take the public transport.
We walked through narrow streets, filled with tourists, shops and café. Spent time at the leaning tower and walked through the shopping centre. There is not much in Pisa to look around. We got back to our room and decided to take it easy. Attached is a photo explaining the details of the leaning tower.

When in Rome .. Sleep Hungry

Rome Day 1
Nothing much to blog about Day 3 in Europe. Pretty much spent the whole morning in Amsterdam Hotel, made our way to Airport, spent some time in airport, had a drink or two and boarded the flight for Rome. Reached rome and made our way to the Hotel in the Taxi that was sent by the Hotel. It cost us 60 Euros, bit we thought it was worth it because the only other way to reach was ..
Train from Airport to Termini (A central point or Terminus like dadar or flinders street station)
Termini to Flaminio in Metro Train
Flaminio to Montebello in a non-Metro train
Montebello to Serenissimo in a Bus
When we were explained the above route by the Hotel reception, we thought 60 euros sounded good.
Reached the Hotel and did what I do best, especially after long journey, slept like a log until morning, did not even bother about Dinner.
Rome Day 2
We made our way to the Collesuem through the above mentioned means of transport. It was fun exploring Rome this way. All the major tourist attraction is located just outside the station. As we stepped outside the Coloseo station, there were standing the remains of the magnificient Colloseum structure.
It takes a while to soak in the view of this great structure. We were greeted by a lady who asked us if we speak English, and when we responded with a “yes”, she started talking to us about taking a tour for 25 Euros per person. Since this is Easter Monday, there were more people at the Collesuem. To save time waiting in the queue to buy the entry ticket, we decided to take a guided tour.
The guide was a Chinese lady, speaking English and Italian fluently. She went through the history of building the Collesuem and the purpose of it etc. Given the amount of information she was giving, I was thinking that it would take more than a few days to understand the history behind building the Collesuem and the very purpose of building it.
We explored the Collesuem for more than an hour, admiring the beauty. Then we explored the Roman Forum. Had lunch outside the Roman Forum and then decided to make our bookings to get to Pompeii.
Made our Train bookings for Naples to get to Pompeii, then boarded the train to go to a few other attractions like Republica, Fontana Del Tritoni and a place called Spangna that has a few attractions like Trevi Fountain and Piazza Novona. Did the first two that was the end of our day
When we were about to board the train, to go to Spagna, we went into the train and because it was too crowded we decided to come out of the train. As the door closed, a young guy was pointing to my waist pouch from inside the train. I was not sure why he was doing that, that’s when Sunitha found the zip of the waist pouch open. I checked inside and found my wallet gone. Thankfully the passport in it was intact. After the initial shock, we thought at least we have money in Sunitha’s purse that was inside her handbag. We thought all we have to do now is cancel my credit card and we will be ok. We had another shock in store. Sunitha checked inside her handbag and her purse was gone too J … Obviously it might have occurred at different times. But the person who stole her purse was very skillful. He had managed to put his hand inside her handbag that has two magnetic buttons to close it and he had picked the purse from the many items that were inside it. All this without her even noticing anything.
There goes our day. We had 20 euros, that Sunitha had stashed away. We asked a few people and found our way to the nearest police station (will write another blog of our experience at the station). By the time we finished all formalities and reached the closest station to our Hotel, we had missed the last Bus J .. We called Hotel and asked the reception to send a Taxi. The Taxi cost us 10 euros, we are left with 10 euros. I will need the 10 euros to make my way to the nearest western union outlet by Bus and Train, to collect the money that hopefully Sangeeta and Rahul would have sent. We have not informed them yet. We have to wait for a couple of hours more when it is 6:00 AM Melbourne time to ask them to send me some money J. In case you are wondering what we did for Dinner, The hotel restaurant is closed because of Easter, cannot order food from outside as we have no money. We skipped dinner a couple of times before as we did not feel like eating, this time dinner has decided to skip us J …

Amsterdam Day 2

Amsterdam Day 2
After a long sleep, we were up early in the morning. Could not wait for oHorestaurant to open as we were very Hungry. While we were waiting, took a walk near the Hotel side streets, a few people walking their dogs around. Decided to take it easy in the morning and went back to the room after breakfast. Left Hotel at 11:00 AM and went to Dam square. It was damp square as it was showering constantly. Once the rain subsided, walked along Dam Square. Made our way to the Bus for the tour to Keukenhof Tulip Gardens.
The bus journey was interesting. While were passing the Airport, saw a plane Taxi’ing on top of a bridge as the Bus went through underneath. They have built the airport such that there is a highway in between and the planes ate parked on both sides of the highway. Planes use the bridge to get from one side to the other.
Reached Keukenhof in about an hour and was amazed to see the beautiful Tulips in the Garden. This year it had not reached full bloom at this time. They are expecting it to reach full bloom on 24th of April. The Keukenhof Tulip gardens are open only for 3 months every year from mid march to mid may.
With Tulips, we were told that the bulbs are the most important. The flower has to be removed to retain the bulb. These days it is done using machines. Millions of flowers are removed from the bulbs every autumn.


Close to the Tulip Gardens there was a field full of Daffodils. It was a 15 mins walk from the Gardens. We took a walk in the rain as we did not want to miss it. We wanted to desperately click some photos in the fields. Usually this time of the year there are tulips in the field too. You can see lines of Yellow, Red and Pink. We could see only Yellow, but still worth it.
Once we reached Netherlands city centre, we had 2 hours to kill before the red light district opens up. We went to the Madam Tussads meuseum. The best part of the meuseum was a place called Dungeons. Whe you enter this dark spooky looking place, you see some scary look figures. There was this particular chained up man with scarred, freaky white face and bleeding from his face. People could not help but stare at him. Sending shivers down your spine, this man starts screaming and jumping and comes close to you and stares at you. Sunitha had a hard time as he noticed how scared she was, and would not go away, was standing close to her all the time. That was a fun experience.
It did not end there, we were sent in and freaky things were happening all around. Doors moving, screaming sounds, people from inside cages touching you. Upside down hanging, tortured dead bodies. I wanted it to end there. Once it ended, I thought. Boy… that was Fun !!!

The highlight of the day, or should I say the lowlight of the red light district was something that left a lasting impression. While we were walking through the red light zone (marked with three red lights on a pole as you enter). We saw some strip clubs, sex shops, homosexual theatres etc and we were thinking that it is not too bad and all that talk might have been just hype.
When we walked through the side lanes, there were glass cabins, with bright red lights, with women standing (in bikinis) and waving to people from the glass. The room had a single bed and a wash area, was completely tiled. It looked like a bathroom with a bed in bright red light.
It was shocking, and somewhat disgusting as well. The women looked like dolls, maybe it was the make-up with the lights. Sunitha actually thought that it was a moving doll when we passed the first glass cabin.
That ended day two and today (day three) we have to catch a flight to Rome. It will be a lazy morning and at 1:30 PM we all be boarding the flight. Watch out for day three.

Tour of Amsterdam - Day 1

Filled with anxiety and excitement, we boarded Sangeeta’s car (who was going to drop us to the airport). We reached the airport very early and after check-in had to kill 2 hours. As people say, time flies…it really did and the moment to board the aircraft came. Our first holiday trip abroad, slowly sinking in, we boarded Qantas flight to Singapore.
The flight was for 7hrs and boy was the flight boring!!! We killed time watching movies like Avatar and Twilight – New Moon. We could hardly sleep, as the leg space was so cramped. However, we did not let this dampen our spirits as this was our first holiday trip abroad.
We landed in Singapore and barely had time to kill, as our connecting flight to Amsterdam was within 2hrs. Having boarded KLM flight to Amsterdam, we realized how close we were to reaching our destination, although it took 13hrs, it hardly seemed to matter. We were surprised as to how very few Indians we saw in the flight to Amsterdam, apart from Subu and Myself, I can confidently say, there were none.
Amsterdam airport is called the Schipol airport, which is located in a place called Schipol. We reached the Amsterdam airport and realized that the airport in itself was small, however as we stepped out, we were amazed at the size of plaza which is right outside the airport. Good marketing gimmick!!!
We obtained information regarding the bus that could take us to our lodging place, which is 15kms away from the Amsterdam City Centre. Little did we realize that this 15kms would mean travelling 1hr via bus.
We were provided with the information of the bus that could take us to our place of lodging. As we stepped outside the airport, we were welcome by the biting cold, 3 degress, which we were unprepared for.

As we kept walking to our bus stop, something interesting happened. An Indian, Sardarji approached us, trying to make a small talk. He then told us that he is waiting for his relative/friend to pick him up, but has not arrived until now, and was a bit worried. Subu asked him to approach the Information help desk, but the Indian said that he did and they were of not much help. We asked him to use his mobile and he said, he did not carry one. Subu then told him to use the pay phone, and guess what he only had a few euros to spare and that he did not have their address, but just a contact number. We kept clicking photos, however the Indian would not move from his place. Feeling sorry for him, we used our phone to call his relatives in Canada and get a local Amsterdam contact number, called the local contact and “All is well”….
We boarded our bus, and in our excitement, started clicking photos. The bus driver told us that we are not meant to take photos on the bus..seems weird, but we did not question his authority!!
Reached the Hotel, located in a place called Uithoorn (Pronounced Oi-Tore-En, I think, could not get it completely right). It is abour 10Kms from Apt and 15 Kms from Amsterdam City Centre. We now understand that Uithoorn is not even considered Amsterdam. It is a separate Town. Gives an idea of how small a place Netherlands is.
The hotel was cosy, the room not really great but good enough.

There was a Harley Davidson in the lobby. Plenty of photos of Marilyn Monroe, Katherine Hepburn and other old stars.

We freshened up, had breakfast and left for Amsterdam City Centre. When we asked the Hotel receptionist the best way to reach the City Centre, she asks which City Centre? Amsterdam? It began to sink in that although we were 10-15 Kms from Amsterdam, THIS WAS NOT AMSTERDAM.
Reached Amsterdam City and drove through the 100’s Meuseums and funny enough that the City was bustling with activity inspite of being Good Friday. We wanted to take photos of just about everything. The City had a cultural but modern feel. The buildings were all old architecture, typical European. Not too many modern buildings. There is a picture of myself with the Heinekan office in the background.
Another great thing about Amsterdam is the amount of ppl you see riding bicycles. Thousands of bicycles ride through the city with Buses , Cars and Trams. We saw a Bicycle park in the city with four floors (space enough to park 80 cars full of bicycles).
Took a Canal cruise through the City. Went to the Van Gogh Meusem. Had Lunch in a nice restaurant, where the Chef was happy to cook us some vegetarian dishes not in the Menu. Had a Spanish Shiraz with the lunch. Made our way back to the Hotel and slept for almost 12 hours. Its 6:00 AM on 3rd April, ready to explore Amsterdam.