Zurich <- Vienna <- Barcelona

The plan...hmmm..[The person who invented this world I hope he knew that it is going to toil with human emotions. As we know the plans in theory and how they work in reality ] ..so the plan was to take a flight from Bergen to Barcelona via Oslo.....but...I barely made it for the flight. Thanks to my confusion of "arrival time" in Oslo as "departure time" from Bergen. But, believe it or not, I arrived at 14:45 for a flight that was leaving Bergen at 15:00 hrs and still made it......well it was a lot and lot of adrenaline rush. The tickets were expensive to start with, didn’t want to spend that much money buying them again.

Barcelona – big and beautiful

With my trip already staring at a high note I finally made it to Barcelona. Took a good night rest and charged my batteries for the sightseeing in coming days.

Barcelona as I would say was warm climatically and hospitality wise too. I bought the tickets for hop-on/hop-off bus that was valid for 2 days. My first stop like everybody else who visits Barcelona was La Sagrada Familia. It is huge, magnificent and beautiful. You know, one could buy tickets online and that way you can avoid and that way you don’t have to queue up. Since I had couple of days in Barcelona I almost went to all the major tourist spots shopped for some souvenirs in Las Ramblas, wandered around in Gothic Quarter, went over to Montjuic, looked down on the City from Tibidabo, watched the various highlights at FCB. Park Güell is excellent mix of architecture and garden art. Visited Casa Batllo, one word for it - work of genius. 

One more thing that happened was the Harley Davidson day. It was organized at the MNAC and there were thousands and thousands of HD bikes all kinds and colours. There were food stalls form various places – Brazil, Argentena, America and Spain to name a few.
To sum it all, one thing that will linger in your mind for days to come or anytime someone mentions Barcelona is Antonio Gaudi.

Vienna – easy to go around

Vienna is comparatively small and easy to go around. Did not take a tour bus, instead walked around to most of the places. They are fairly close by. It has really nice café’s be it for pastry or nice hot drinks to start you morning. Lukily we got a very good deal with the hotel which was minutes walk from the St. Stephen's Cathedral, one of the main tourist attractions. Do visit Schonbrunn Palace and take an audio tour, it is definitely worth it. Also you need to take a train for the palace since its quite off-skirts from the central. Mozart was from what is present Australia so if you happen to have time do attend an Opera, some of them are held in the State Opera House and include quite famous Mozard compositions.

Main attractions: MuseumsQuartier, State Opera House, St. Stephen's Cathedral and Schonbrunn Palace.

We also took an hour train to Bratslava, Slovakia. Once you get off the train take a bus to the centre of the town. It has classy architecture.

Zurich – would love to live there

Zurich is the modern face of Swizerland so don’t expect mountains and valleys. At first it might look a little chaotic since they have small roads with trams and other vehicles going around. But once you look closely its all so organized and very well connected. Do visit the central station, they have beach vollyboll matches there during summer, best part you can watch that for free and you might get some promotional samples for gums and hand creams :) .

Main attaractions: Museum of Art, Old Town (Altstadt), UBS Polybahn, Church of Our Lady and Great Church.  

Do try Fondue in Zurich, a lot of local restaurants around tourist places offer it.

P.S: I could have tiltled the blog as Barcelona - Vienna - Zurich but i think its more catchy the other way round :).

   

Love and Rain

On a rainy day, I gazed upon a window pane,

Looking out at the falling drops of rain,

The sound it makes as it touches the earth,

The sounds it makes as it quenches the thirst,

Falling from the sky and meeting the earth,

That’s how it celebrates the birth,

The birth of an endless cycle of love and trust,

It falls knowing there is someone to hold and gust,

From pure to muddy and then to the sea,

Bonding with earth and yet so free,

They know it has been due for a longtime,

No it has been overdue for a lifetime,

Rain and land so far way, yet so close,

Like lovers they meet and then rains flows,

May be that is how love is supposed to be,

Wait, meet, celebrate and set free,

For true love will return like the rain,

When you need it the most its there to enchain.