Germany - Freiburg

Welcome to Freiburg, sunny capital of the Black Forest, close to the French and Swiss borders. I made my way to Freiburg by river Rhine, I learnt some interesting facts about the river 15 million tons of goods are transported along the Rhine, Europe’s most important waterway.
Basel of Swiss, Mulhouse of France borders this southern region black-forest city Freiburg. This very city has captured my heart truly. I had to decide between Heidelburg & Freiburg, and these are the five primary reasons why I chose this city.
#1 The water ways that run along the sides of all the main streets on both sides of the road
#2 The way the streets are craved with colored pebbles, u will just love them to walk on

#3 Cathedral was completed in 1513 - making it the only German cathedral to be completed in the Gothic style

#4 Proximity to the Cuckoo clock manufacturing facility ;-)
#5 Last but not the least the Black Forest with its vast forests, open mountain heights and peaks with grandiose vistas, its deep and mysterious cirque lakes and charming valleys.

Few thinks I like during my stay, the hostel we stayed just on the foot hills of the black forest and the Bollenhut traditional hat with its pompoms suits , if the color of the balloon is Red then the girl is unmarried and if its Black she is married.

Koln - Frankfurt

A few pictures taken during the boat ride from Koln to Frankfurt, via Koblenz & Mainz by K-D

ABBA's - "Fernando"

One of the best songs I have listened in a long time, this picture was taken in Koblenz in Germany.

Can you hear the drums Fernando?
I remember long ago another starry night like this
In the firelight Fernando
You were humming to yourself and softly strumming your guitar
I could hear the distant drums
And sounds of bugle calls were coming from afar

They were closer now Fernando
Every hour every minute seemed to last eternally
I was so afraid Fernando
We were young and full of life and none of us prepared to die
And I'm not ashamed to say
The roar of guns and cannons almost made me cry

There was something in the air that night
The stars were bright, Fernando
They were shining there for you and me
For liberty, FernandoThough I never thought that we could lose
There's no regret
If I had to do the same again
I would, my friend, Fernando

Now we're old and grey Fernando
And since many years I haven't seen a rifle in your hand
Can you hear the drums Fernando?
Do you still recall the fateful night we crossed the Rio Grande?
I can see it in your eyes
How proud you were to fight for freedom in this land

There was something in the air that night
The stars were bright, Fernando
They were shining there for you and me
For liberty, FernandoThough I never thought that we could lose
There's no regret
If I had to do the same again
I would, my friend, Fernando
Yes, if I had to do the same again
I would, my friend, Fernando...

Germany - Black Forest - Titisee - Cuckoo clock

Titisee has a very nice lake. The 6 km trek or mountain biking around the lake is the best thing you can imagine for a perfect holiday. This is the place famous for the Cuckoo clock also. Some info about them read on

The story of clock making in the Black Forest begins around 1630. People there had always crafted and carved using the local wood that was one of the few natural resources in the area, especially during the long winters when the land was covered with snow and they could hardly leave their houses.

The first Black Forest Cuckoo Clock was designed and made by Franz Anton Ketterer in the small village of Schönwald near Triberg, Germany, in the depths of the Black Forest. .During the long winter months, the farms were snowed-in and the people had a lot of time to create finely handcrafted cuckoo clocks of many styles with rich and varied carvings.

The clocks that were made in winter were sold by the clock peddlars in the summer months during long journeys throughout Europe. The clocks were secured on a frame and carried on the back. They were works of art, sought after luxuries that conquered the hearts of people all over the world.



This picture show how it was carried by the peddlars for selling them.

Read on more about the Cuckoo Clock story here

Germany - Black Forest - Hinterzarten

Hinterzarten in the middle of Black forest is known for the Ski Jumping. You can have a look at the picture with the launching pad.

Germany - Black Forest - Feldberg

Feldberg is a nice small town in the middle of southern region of the Black forest. The trek is very long to reach this place. I really enjoyed the walk in the woods. U can see from the picture how dense the forest are.

Germany - Black Forest - Schluchsee

This picture was taken in while we are roving our mechanized boat in Lake Schluchsee. This picture is so color rich, the blue color of the water, the red color of the train and the green color of the forest around the lake

A trip to Germany

Unforgettable moments of the trip are the curse down the Rhine river along castles on the stretch for 2 days and a trek & biking in the black forest region in Germay.

First timer & next timer

This is a nice slogan from easyjet inviting people to visit the cities again if they have visited already. Hi what am I looking for from the mountains, yes looking forward for the long weekend. Yes I’m going to Germany again as a next timer for the next 4 days and will be away lost in the black forest region. See u all soon with the updates

Le Tour de France - 2005

Today the Tour de France 2005 departs from Grenoble. I was there with the team to cheer my leader, U can guess who is it from the flag I'm holding with Alex, who is not seen in the picture. Thanks to Alex for getting the flag and allowing me to hold the same. There was lot of delay due to a protest in Grenoble. The itinerary has changed slightly for the stage from Grenoble to Courchevel.

Sky vs Earth @ Grenoble

Thanks to http://maps.google.com and Sony DSCV1

Rainbow

Where is the rainbow which I was looking for in the weekend? Do I get to see it from the caves?

Don't click it

Lets check how many of you can resist this. Don't click is a www.dontclick.it/ very novel way of browsing. I liked this a lot, It's a lot fun to browse the site without any clicking. Happy clicking oops don'tclicking

Mont-Blanc @ 4810 meters

I wasn’t sure what was in store for me back in Grenoble, the small town where I live/work/sleep/blog/party for the moment, when I came back from Chamonix/Mont-Blanc last weekend. From the pictures you could make it how cold it would have been in that place. When I arrived in Grenoble last Sunday night it was too hot, could not catch up with some sleep. Later as the week went on with the dip in temperature I never that in the summer I need pull on my sweater. I see some people with a jacket on the sweater, they should be crazy not to enjoy this nice break in summer. What a swing from 37/35 to 10/12, I’m loving it.

People trying to capture Mont-Blanc

I wish I could also do this, after finishing my paragliding & ski experience, I think I can give it a try. This is an amazing to watch this, I’m amazed with the kind of determination these guys have. Same with the Tour de France, In the middle of peak summer these people cycle for close to 200 km in a day through all terrains in France. Read my previous post on my adventures in Chamonix. This is my 3rd visit to this place, u can read the previous post here.

Inside the ice cave @ the Glacier

This picture was taken at the entrance of the Glacier. It seems Until 1820, the Mer de Glace could be seen from Chamonix. However, each year it retreats little by little and only one part can now be seen. The immense moraines at the edge of the glacier are evidence of this movement, which u can see in the other picture.

La Mer de Glace - The Glacier

With a surface area of 40 km2 and a length of 7 km, this is France’s largest glacier.
Its width varies from 700 to 1950 metres and the thickness of the ice is on average 200 metres, and sometimes exceeds 400 metres.
The Mer de Glace extends over a difference in level of 2500 metres, between the altitudes of 3900 m and 1400 m. Read on further here

Happy Independence day my dear friends

cvraman

Go to yahoo search and then type cvraman, the first link it point is to my blog.
In google it used to point and now its pointing to a different link

Beautiful day

Wake up on a chill morning (lucky to have such a thing in the middle of the summer)

hot Nescafe in a mug,

facing the Brownie-greenish mountains filled with scattered white clouds,

A walk to office from the tram stop on a cloudy day with full thoughts, pickup the phone as you reach you desk and then say “Hello All” … too much ...

Just reminds me of Robert Frosts lines from After Apple-Picking
“The rumbling sound
Of load on load of apples coming in.
For I have had too much
Of apple-picking: I am overtired...”

Bird watching

I know what you are all thinking, yes that did also happen the last weekend, which I’m not going to discuss here anyway, so stop thinking about that. Here I’m to discuss about the bird sanctuary that in Villars-les-dombes. I was accompanied with two angels who are there in the picture.
Birds without borders, is the keyword of this extraordinary 35 acres bird sanctuary with over 2000 birds from the entire planet. This is a perfect place for a picnic also. U can escape for a while and stay in the ponds and stay close to the birds, while you walk around the place. It’s been designed to ensure to present an exceptional visit, respecting the freedom of the birds living there.

Thunderstrom

As I was checking the weather forecast for the week, it had forecast for thunder storm a particular day. On that doomed day I reach home early and sat there waiting to capture the lightning effect & I’m still waiting…better luck next time

This picture was taken when the rain was approaching the town I was living in. You can see the tower in the mountain along with the clear demarcation of rainy area to no rain area.

G Force

Don’t worry it’s not the G force that I experienced due to my racing? It’s the Gala fun I had on the 21st June. Oh yes I went to Karting on the day of Fete de la Musique in the evening after office. Karting was really nice here. I had done Karting in Chennai but its no the same here. Back in India the race I participated we all start to race and try to win, here the winner is adjudged based on his performance and his timing clocked in the stipulated time. The best thing here is we got the printout on the best lap timing and number of laps completed along with the timing recorded for each lap. It’s like watching a real race and we would get an online update on the track. Any guess on the position I was in ?#$%

Then after that it was time to say good bye to M as she is going back to India, so went for a dinner in a Thai restaurant which was a treat from M. After that we wandered in the streets of Grenoble and listening to all sorts of Music that are played on the streets, Every 50-75 meters people had their band and were performing. In a small street close to 4 bands were there giving their performance. Such a nice fun, music from all possible countries are performed, I was surprised to see a solitary guy sitting in a major junction and performing with his Guitar, he was special he was playing nice numbers and was having gr8 fun. Then we reached home and went to sleep watching the full moon and listening to the music that was being played. This picture was taken when I went to Barcelona, this is a Red-Indian group was doing a performance there and the same group was in Grenoble performing on the fête de la musique day.

Fete de la musique - on the the longest day in the year

Fete de la musique : Annual music festival in France and all over the world

Christian Dupavillon has this narration for the event Fete de la musique:

One morning in January 1982, the Director of Music at the Ministry of Culture, Maurice Fleuret, sent me a memo saying that the French owned more than four million musical instruments. Three quarters of these instruments lay deteriorating in cupboards, attics and cellars before departing this life in dustbins and on rubbish tips. I couldn't help but lament their fate.

Afterwards, the memo turned out to be not so sad - indeed, it spawned a great idea. Why couldn't, one day a year, those cellos, guitars, trombones, kettledrums, triangles and big bass drums wake up, be restored, produce sounds, find someone to play them and enchant anyone who cared to listen? Why, on that day, couldn't performers, professionals and amateurs alike, play completely freely indoors and out, everywhere, in public squares, under porches and on covered walkways, areas of school playgrounds and hospital gardens, at entrances to music academies or under cafe awnings just for the sheer pleasure of playing? All that was missing from this mammoth concert was a name, a date and a Prince Charming to awaken Sleeping Beauty.

The first such festival took place on 21 June 1982. It was given the homonym "Faites de la musique", "Make music". The day of the summer solstice, the longest day in the year, was chosen, almost coinciding and thus competing with Saint Jean Day.

To avoid annoying those people who, for one reason or another, loathe music and during nocturnal hours equate it to "disturbing the peace at night", the festival was held from 8.30 p.m. to 9 p.m. The diversity of the performances and large number of "venues" were to make it a totally new experience. Music-lovers swarmed around monuments and thronged streets and squares.

The following year, the time restrictions were dropped. Today, after twenty-three successful years, the festival is firmly established. Orchestras, brass bands, jazz, rock, pop, techno, ethnic, rap and funk music groups, gospel singers, school and church choirs, music-hall performers, musicians from different French regions and indeed from all over the world celebrate music every 21 June.

What is the fête de la musique?
It's the day - it's now a firm fixture - when musicians, whether they're amateurs or professionals, can play wherever they want at any time, day or night. They might choose a station concourse, a school playground, the inside of a cathedral or church, a café, the steps of a town hall, historic building or prefecture, a passage-way, a prison and so on. Amateurs, often nervous when they have to sing or play an instrument in public, have the chance to play freely without feeling self-conscious.

While some professionals criticize it for being a gimmick and others complain that it has been taken over by sponsors and media organizations, the fête de la musique gives anyone who wants to the chance to play or listen to absolutely every type of music. A virtually trouble-free festival of over 15 hundred concerts in a single night!

A world-wide festival
The fête de la musique is becoming increasingly international. Because it's fun, because music alone knows no language or cultural barriers and is free from politics, because of the huge variety of "events" and participants, and because everyone has music of some kind within them even if they don't admit it, this festival could become the world's Number 1 music festival. In 2000 the fête de la musique took place in over a hundred countries, including the 15 countries of the European Union, Poland, Egypt, Syria, Morocco, Cambodia, Vietnam, Congo, Cameroon, Togo, Chile, Nicaragua, and Japan.
That first festival was to set a trend. Such festivals are a brilliant way of focusing attention on an art or indeed a human tragedy. France now has the Journées du patrimoine [Heritage Days] on the last weekend in September, the Printemps des poètes, the Fête du cinéma, Lire en fête [book festival] in October, the week-long Fête de la science in October, launched in 1991, the Techno Parade on the second Saturday in September, and World AIDS Day, first held in 1988. The day will come when all these events will be marked in almanacs just like our saints' days still are.

More interesting

I was flabbergasted to read the following information. Though many a time I used to get confused with the two terms "British India" and "Princely State", I learnt that they are mutually exclusive. If somewhere was in British India it was not a Princely State, and if it was a Princely State it was not in British India. British India was Bombay, Sind, British Baluchistan, North West Frontier Province, Punjab, United Provinces, Central Provinces, Madras, Bihar, Orissa, Bengal and Assam.
What surprised me even more was that there existed 140 large, and 420 small states that made up the rest of India were not part of British India.

Read on more here for more interesting stuff

Why is this?

Germany - English name for Deutschland
Allemagne - French name for Germany
Alemania - Spanish name for Germany
Deutschland - local name for Germany

Does anyone of u know this?

Frankfurt-Lyon air route

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up....

by Robert Frost

Have u tried this?

ICICI bank offers transfer of money from one VISA to another VISA card be it debit or credit card. I tried doing this and this happened successfully from ICICI to my HDFC card and to the account subsequently. This takes close to 3 working days for the transaction to get completed.

This has finally happened

In the recent past there are a few things which happened only now

# After numerous travels in the last 5 years for the first time I had a delayed flight. Lufthansa from Chennai to Frankfurt got delayed by 4 hours
# Last Saturday 7 of us got struck in the lift at close to mid-night, then we managed to call the fire-men and they came to our rescue in 20 minutes
This picture was taken by my brother on the back waters of Kerala

Bourgoin-Jallieu

Bourgoin-Jallieu

On the 5th of June, sunny bright day we all went to Bourgoin-Jallieu near Lyon for a 12km hiking trip. This was taken on the way after 3 hrs of walking near the fields. We saw a lot of berries tree and u know what we would have done?

Journey updates - Glacier express to Polar express

I’m not talking any thing about any express trains here. It’s about my trip to India. Before I went to India I made a trip to Swiss where in I traveled by Glacier express then to India to Chennai aka Madras, Nellore, Chennai, Nellore, Chennai, Bangalore & Chennai where I watched The Polar express then to Grenoble.

The moment I landed in India I made a quick visit to meet G and the same evening left for Nellore for my brother’s engagement, Oh my God I could not withstand the heat at Nellore. I’m still wondering, having born and brought up in Chennai how is it that I was not able to withstand the heat. Engagement went well with close to 80 people attending, Then later in late evening was happy to spend some time with M after a very long gap, one of the happiest moment of the trip.

Then back to Chennai before I start my meetings with banks a visit to the famous Kapaleshwar temple at Mylapore. I had forgotten my HDFC debit card in France and my ICICI card had expired. What a surprise was awaiting me there with financial crunch? Inspite of having money I was not able to use the same, with marriage around the corner and my credit card companies refusing to increase the credit limit, had a tough time for shopping.

Then comes the best part of all the time, While this bank issues going on in one end and I was busy applying visa for the UK, with this Visa(not the bank card), I should be going to Scotland, I don’t know when don’t ask me. I was expecting this to be one of the toughest tasks but on the contrary banks gave me the tough time and I was able to get my Visa with ease. In between all these everyday I used to start from home at 6.30am in the morning and reach late in the night around 11.30 pm, happily distributing the invitation of my brothers marriage, Pat comes the question so when is your marriage, I grin and ask if u have any girl can you refer me and slip from that place before they ask me any futher questions.

Having completed one primary tasks of my visit to India having completed - getting the UK Visa, I have to move ahead for the main task, my brother’s wedding. Now heading back again to Nellore after visiting Srilaks, thanks for the handycam and the perfume Sri, met G, Chand & a few of my friends whom I met after a very long time. The only person whom I missed is P as I could not meet her as planned in Frankfurt airport. Chand and I had met after a very long time. For the last close to 3 yrs. When I’m in town he would be out some where else in the east and when is in town I would be in Europe. So finally we made it a point to met him so work him up at 6.30 in the morning and had a small chat with him. With some tear-filled parting for which I was not prepared, which made me to self-assure that I should be soon coming back to India soon as I miss all this fun & companionship.

Wedding gang

Wedding oh my goodness, I was not prepared for this superub fun fair, I was immensely happy as I met all my family members and friends. This was an occasion where in I was sleeping less than 3 hrs every day for 4 days. This photo is taken with a few family & friends from my Sister-in-law side. After all the fun it was time to come back to Chennai and prepare for my visit to Bangalore.

Bangalore

Bangalore gave me a real sweet surprise in terms of weather. That was the best part of my stay in India considering the weather condition, chill mornings and sunny afternoons and raining evenings. We had a client visit during the same period and this picture was taken from the Ebony 13th floor restaurant, there was a fire some where close by MG Road.

Back to Chennai preparing for my travel back to France watched The Polar Express, with a lot of Kutties (small kids, what are u people thinking #!%). After the movie driving back home got a call from Syam’s which was a sweet surprise. Thanks Syam for the same.

Redesigned

Kindly have a look at my redesigned index. This would give you lil information about the places I have visited. I intend to write about the places I had visited before starting this blog so it can give u an idea of how well u can plan for your trips in Europe. Bon Voyage

Nature

This picture was taken in Munnar by my brother during his visit there

Swiss-France

This is a not so clear picture taken from the aircraft during from travel from Frankfurt to Lyon, this shows the ariel view of the Swiss-France separated by the Lake Geneva