Belgium Weekender 7

Day 2.

Another day fighting with sleep, I couldn’t get up before 9. Had breakfast in the hotel itself, which was included in the rent.

10 AM: Checked out, kept my bag at the hotel for taking it back in the evening. Got the yellow line again to change to Green bus, and the plan for the day was clear. I want to finish off Louver museum, and then may be a bit roaming around the other routes.

11:30 AM: I got down in front of the Louver Museum. The queue was not big enough except for the security check outside.
I collected a map of the huge museum (snap) with the ticket. I could easily compare it with The British Museum for the space, but I will have to praise the latter for the diversity of things they got!

So, I had no plans to see the whole museum. My main aims were to cover the sculpture and painting galleries, for they are the European special! I accept my lack of sense to appreciate the paintings, as for me, the oil painting of our old school master (that is the first I am seeing as a painting) is as complex as Monalisa :) ! Even for sculptures, I can’t boast my taste. I have seen enough in Kerala and Tamilnad temples, which for me as so complex. So just a single sculpture of Venus (it is also broken a bit by time) doesn’t appeal that much still I took its picture with the crowd around so that I won’t be blamed for my stupidity:).

My main aim was to see that picture which became World famous because of its publicity, and something else which I don’t understand. And for me, if I am compelled to look and pay for something I can’t explain why, it is a trick of publicity :). It was amazing(snap), a small photo and a huge crowd around it, like Aiswarya Rai surrounded by photographers! They were allowing to take snaps, so I think it may be a fake picture also! How do any of us know?

I could see people taking pictures everywhere, even at places where there is a board which says no photos.

I finished up, and went in to many other parts of the museum and saw many more things in my attempt to find an exit :). I think it is another French trick!

1:30 PM: At last, I succeeded in finding an exit to come to the main area, under the pyramid (I think, u may have seen it in the film Da Vinci code).

Another blunder under the pyramid as I got some romance fever from around, and decided to buy a perfume under the very Museum Louver. There were some shops selling them, and got in to a very classic one. I saw some incense candles and perfumes. My romance started melting by the heat of Price tags. As I was almost about to leave, I saw a small gift cart sort of a thing to my surprise priced at € 22,50 ! It had four pieces, one flower and one candle and two more containers-sort-of near each of them. My creativity told me that the perfume near candle will smell like the candle and the perfume near the flower smell like the flower. I asked the shop keeper, ‘Is it perfume?’ and he nodded Yes. I very clearly tried to tell him in English as well as by actions that I want to buy a gift for my wife, and looking for perfume. I want to make sure that the perfume is feminine.

As he started packing, I was back to Earth noticed the so-thought-container near the candle look like a cap for the candle and the other, cap for the dry flower. The shop-keeper was busy packing it with the gift thread and all(snap).

I jumped on him and again showed another mime to ask if they are just caps, no-spray-no-liquid perfumes for body? He broke my heart saying that it is a candle and flower set!
I apologised and he got the message :).

1:45 PM: Took green bus again, to get down at Notre Dame church. Roamed around there, it was a long queue again, to go to the top. I skipped that, went around buying some souvenirs. I spotted a pancake shop, and for lunch had one pancake (snap), lemon and sugar and ate it standing on the road side.

2:30 PM: I am done with my main items. There may be many things in Paris which is a must see, but I don’t know. I took another bus route (the blue one) to just go for a full round, sat inside sipping a pepsi(from the vending machine inside the bus). I also had the Milk Bikis bought yesterday from Indian stores. That completed my lunch. It started raining outside and so I remained inside the bottom floor of the base than going to the open top deck.

3:30 PM: I shifted to Green bus and it went again through Eiffel Tower and Arc De Triumph, for having a last look. It got redirected in between due to some demonstrations and the driver couldn’t communicate back to my query that he will take another route and drop me at my destination to catch the yellow bus. But anyway he did.

4:50 PM: I shifted to the Yellow bus at Opera, after one round to be dropped at the Nord station.

5:40 PM: I got down at Nord, walked to the hotel, and collected my bag. Had a glance in to a couple of shops for seeing if I can get any gifts.

6:00 PM: I was at the station by 6. I took a handful of pics to make a stitched long landscape shot, a policeman came to me and said no photography allowed. Though there were no signs on this anywhere, I apologised and kept the camera back. The train started at 6:22 PM and left me at Brussels Zuid by 7:40 PM. Back home, uploaded my pictures, again to office tomorrow morning…. :(. Slept around 1:45 AM.

Tailpiece :

(1) Novelist Guy de Maupassant — who claimed to hate the Eiffel tower — supposedly ate lunch at the Tower's restaurant every day. When asked why, he answered that it was the one place in Paris where you couldn't see the Tower :)

(2) Eiffel had a permit for the tower to stand for 20 years, meaning it would have had to be dismantled in 1909, when its ownership would revert to the City of Paris. The City had planned to tear it down (part of the original contest rules for designing a tower was that it could be easily demolished) but as the tower proved valuable for communication purposes, it was allowed to remain after the expiration of the permit.
(3) Just putting a snap of the dustbins in Paris. I didn’t mean anything. If it resembles something to you…… I will say ,’you dirty mind’ :p !

Belgium Weekender 6

It was only 9:15 AM Saturday when I came out of Paris Gare du Nord station (snap). I had the route to an ibis hotel nearby from my colleague. So walked towards it only to find that the ‘cheap rate’ he mentioned was €79 per night! This would have been a place I would have confirmed if I were with Krithi. But now, as a bachelor, I need something just better than a dormitory. I went out on room hunt, and kept checking all hotels in all cut roads on my random route. Most of them were €89, €129, €119, and €99…

But my hunt didn’t last long, before I got a place for €59. I went in actually seeing €45, but that was rate for a common bathroom accommodation. I would have gone for that if it was London, but I was not that sure how this would have been maintained. Also, if I take the €59 room, he offered me an immediate check-in. And once I kept my luggage and came out, I realised that I am just 100m away from the Nord station (I had come around completing a full circle in my search) where I have to again catch the train Sunday evening.

Now, the main constraint for me was time, and I was always monitoring and planning with the time. So better thought it will be worth to continue based on time.

10:00 AM: I started from my hotel for exploring Paris and my plan was to finish Eiffel Tower today for sure and then get around Arc de Triumph. There are these hop-on hop-off buses; I think I had mentioned how they work when I tried the same in London. They become the best choice when you have very less time to explore a place, say, a couple of days, or only one day.

I got one in Paris, which works with four routes (four colour coded buses for each route) and charges €29 for two days to explore Paris in all four buses routes. Their frequency was less than 15 minutes, and so you never have to wait for a bus. It works this way: their yellow bus covers the Nord (means North) rail station, some areas like Moulin Rouge and have a common point to share with their green bus. Green bus covers the Museum Louver, Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triumph, Notre Dame Church and some key areas of Paris. This is the bus, which has common point with other two routes: orange and blue. So basically, you can see that the mainly used one will be the Green and the others just form connections to the rail stations or to have a look some extra places in Paris in case you have time.

So for me, I have to take the yellow one, find the common point where I will get the Green, and change for Eiffel Tower. This was my highest priority not just because I just wanted to see that for sure; but the fact that there is a lot of waiting time to get in and I don’t want to take that risk tomorrow.

12:30 PM:I reached the Eiffel Tower (snap). There are four counters on the Tower’s four base pillars, and a long queue at each one of them. The last time I have seen such a long queue (outside India) was in Sydney during the New Year fireworks. But that queue was for getting their liquor ration, inside the Botanical Garden premises.

The average wait time was written as 30-45 minutes. But that wait gave me enough time to feel the surroundings. I could see a lot of couples than the lone wanderers like me. They are all, except a very few, in the excitement of standing at the bottom of this World Wonder. They were enjoying excitement with the togetherness, the ‘French’ way! At this point, I have a suggestion to anyone going to Paris – never go alone if you are married!

1:00 PM : Almost reaching the end of my wait for tickets, I noticed everybody walking to the counter with some money and then taking the purse out and fetching more money. I realised the reason only after reaching near the counter. The fare written in front of the counter and also displayed in the electronic board is 4€. It is written in small fonts that the fare is 7.7€ for going to the topmost point! So this 4€ is to go till the 2nd floor, that is the second horizontal line (if you remember the rough structure). Now, I will introduce you to Eiffel Tower before I start climbing:

The building of a 300-meter tower was conceived in preparation for the Universal Exposition of 1889. The assembly of the pillars began on July 1 1887, and was completed in only twenty-two months (snap below)!

Now, I can take the 700 steps to climb the first 115 meters, that is, till the second floor. That is, climbing our Pazhani malai paying Rs.200! Or, taking the steps to climb the Sydney Tower! I can as well wait in another queue for an elevator to take me up till that.
But there waits another much longer, unavoidable queue at the second floor to take me to the top most point another 276 metre high. There is no steps up there, elevator is the only way up.

I started climbing the steps. The only food I had was a waffle with a coffee in the train’s restaurant! So it was almost like a pilgrimage. I straightaway stood in the other queue up in the second floor and that was another 30 mins! I reached the top by 2:20.

2:20 PM : I reached the topmost point of Eiffel Tower.Enjoy the view, the couples ‘French’ing around you, take a view snaps, and then time for another queue to go down! I took the elevator from the second floor to the ground too, as I was too tired and hungry to come down the 700 steps.

3:15 PM: I came down. Tried to find something to eat, and got some French fries and coke – right under the Eiffel Tower, for 6 €!

4:00 PM: I finished walking around the area of Eiffel Tower and bought some souvenirs from the young Indian guys and took the Green bus

4:30 PM: Got down at the Champs-Élysées. The Champs-Élysées is the most prestigious and broadest avenues in Paris. And with its cinemas, cafés and luxurious shops (you know of what), this is said to the second most expensive strip of real estate in the World just next to New York City’s fifth Avenue. The rent goes to around Rs. 6 crore per year for a 1000 sq.ft of business space !

Again, it has nothing to do with me and I never knew about this place before . So it doesn’t matter. I got down here since I felt the place is glamorous with the Arc De triumph at the other end (snap).

Before starting the walk towards the Arc, tried get in to divider the middle of the road to take a snap, and two guys busy taking pictures behind me greeted, ‘Mate, where are you in Australia?’ in a typical Aussie accent !

I was amazed. How do they know I have an Aussie connection? I put the thought aloud, and they had caught me with my Aussie Open cap! Now you know what an Aussie is! I just introduced myself, and didn’t forget to convey my love to Australia especially the Aussies. They helped me to take my snap with the Arc behind me at distance. They are from Sydney itself, had come on an European trip.

I continued with my walk to the Arc, it was pretty crowded – the walkway (snap) and the road too (snap)!

5:30 PM: I reached the Arc taking pictures and doing some window shopping. It was also crowded for going to the top, and dropped that plan. I had to take the next Green bus to get the last Yellow connecting bus.

The yellow bus’s return journey consists of Moulin Rouge and those areas too. Moulin Rouge also had a long queue for entry, for the Saturday night ‘show’(snap).

7:00 PM: I got down at Nord and walked back to the hotel. Back at the hotel, left souvenir load, and out then for another walk. Just opposite to the hotel, the street slowly started looking like some downtown street of Pondicherry(snap). I am seeing confused desis, ladies in ‘western attire’ (they think so) to meet the local competition, and some ‘malligai poo’ on the hair and hard lipstick and a heavy coat of talcum powder, which will tell the whole story how confused they are :).

And obviously, the pram drama is always there. The prams are meant to keep the baby freer and give him so freedom to enjoy the ride with out distraction from the main conversations, and give the couple also some more ‘privacy’. Again it keeps the dress and hair out of mess.

We use it to show off that we got one, the baby is always with us and the pram mostly becomes a shopping cart. So, I could see only the mess worsens! Now, imagine the baby sitting in the pram with grocery bags hanging all around him! I also saw a guy struggling with a pram at the Eiffel Tower where the mother and kid were enjoying the views. I couldn’t stop laughing!

Now, I tried some Indian shop, tried to get a couple of pickle bottles (to make up for my loss at Frankfurt). Then, seeing a board ‘Hotel Saravanah Bhavan’,I tried to peep in for some food (as my only food was one plate of French Fries). I was tempted with the menu and ordered dosai and poori (2.5 € each). I also ordered for a filter coffee too! I did two mistakes: I forgot it is Paris, and I forgot this name ‘Saravana Bhavan’ (an extra ‘h’ makes it no better) never go well for me. I had to pay for it. The dosai was not very bad, but the poori spoiled the whole show. It was like the whole dough has fallen in to the hot oil while making the dough! For my hunger I ate the dosai, and poori seemed to take more energy to eat than what it could generate.

I wasted the poori almost all, in spite of my hunger; Mr.Hotel owner-cum-waiter-cum-maybe-cook-also doesn’t seem to be bothered about it. He is in his World, speaking dirty Tamil (with a proud expression in his face that say, ‘see, I speak Tamil’), serving the two-three customers this junk-old-food. Any French guy eating here to get a feel of India will have a ‘good’ impression for sure!

10:00 PM : Walked around again, bought one bottle of water (here also it is only bottled water you can drink. Again, no cans or drinking water sources available other than the bottle-packed in shops or vending machines) and a pack of Milk Bikis from one of the Indian shops (Rs.10 pack costs 1.5 €) and came back to the hotel.

11:00 PM: I was too tired and slept almost immediately.

Belgium Weekender 5

It was a sunny day, my second weekend starting. The Thalys train took off from Brussels-Zuid (Zuid just means South in French) station around 7:40AM. I realised in a few minutes that I am going at a speed, which I have never travelled in land before! I could see the cars in the freeway are been overtaken like a bus overtakes a pedestrian (Later found out that, the train use to go at 200-300 kmph, and this is not the fastest around here)! In less than 90 mins, covering 310 kms non-stop, I was in Gare du Nord station, around 9.

I got down the train and was walking towards the central platform, one of the police officers from the group who were randomly checking, stopped me and announced: ‘Passport, please!’
Once I showed my passport, he started asking an immigration officers’ regular questions, and at last asked,
‘Do you have your hotel address where you are going to stay?’

‘He got me’, I thought, and politely replied with a smile,
‘I have come here for a weekend, yet to see if I could get an accommodation somewhere’

The smile returned with my passport, and I am cleared for being in Paris!
* * * * * * *
Paris was something I would have loved to visit while I was in London, given that I had the permission to enter France without any more paper work. But they needed an extra visa, and that means I have to skip my working time, which was not possible in my 3 months stay.

Now, when the Belgium trip was finalised (that is, once I realised that I can’t say no to this trip, but only can decrease the term from a proposed 3 months to 6 weeks), my first place in my mind was Paris! The biggest hurdle for me was the ‘white card’, which came in the middle. If it were a business visa, I could travel around freely in Schengen countries, but I heard it is not possible if I am going in Work permit unless I get my white card. I am here in Work permit as per company rules, and as I mentioned it takes minimum 4 weeks for getting a white card. So again, I was thinking I will have to plan some travel inside Belgium and come back.

Then one day, out of curiosity, I went in to the government sites for reading the condition of how they define the importance of White card. It was a pleasant surprise for me to see that white card is required to roam around in Schengen countries only if my visa is Single Entry! Then I realised that many of us have single entry visas and that is why it became a general rule that the person travelling on Work Permit can’t travel out of Belgium unless he gets the White card! It was a Tuesday and I had no doubts that I am going to Paris at the earliest.
Booked my tickets on Friday evening after checking and making sure that no deal is on and I will have to pay the same amount if I am going next weekend or the weekend after that. The only unplanned part was, as I mentioned to the policeman, the accommodation.

Belgium Weekender 4

My first weekend in Belgium! It was a Sunny Saturday! As usual, the earliest I could start on a weekend is around 10. I have an idea on where all I have to go, but all according to a couple of Dutch maps I have. I couldn’t find a detailed map in English, all in Dutch or French!

The only way I can reach city from Evere is by bus. I took route 63 around 11, and got down at De Brookeré, its last stop around 11:30. I had no plans other than wandering around for the first 2 hours just following the pointers and then see how far I have covered. I saw a couple of Pizza huts on the way, and that relieved me of my tension for lunch.

I was following pointers for Grand Place, which is a sort of old Brussels Centre place. The pointers seem to vanish when I reach one point and then I go in another direction looking for the same pointers! Again I will come around the same area and the pointers for Grand Place vanish!

In that looping, I walked through some of the shopping streets with chocolate making shops, Fresh Waffle shops, etc. The same waffle piece if I buy in packed form from a supermarket will cost less than 25 cents; here it costs € 1,60 – more than 6 times! I decided to try it once, to taste the hot Belgian waffle and I think I fell in love with it! Fro, that moment, if for any reason, I happen to pass a fresh waffle shop, and I get the smell, I loose €1,60!

Another surprise I got during the walk through the shopping areas was a lot of beggars, Turkish girls, roaming around with an empty Coke can begging for money. I also got a painful site of a fair lady sitting with his about 7-year old son in the middle of the street, with an empty can in front of her ! I couldn’t really believe it! You can see them and say they had been thrown out to the streets from a far better condition and her face says she is not yet adjusted to this state! The other Turkish girls – sometimes women with infants – have no hesitation in begging! I am not sure what reason, but they would have to flee from their homeland and end up as refugees here. Anyway, I made up my mind saying why not I sympathise to any beggars in India who is in a worser situation.

I decided that one of those funny junctions is what is Grand Place, and even convinced that Brussels’ best glory is that small junction :)!

Then followed the rest of the pointers to see the symbol of Brussels – Mannekens Pis. It was a statue of a little boy doing what the name says. The statue is been there for centuries and there are many stories behind the making of this status. The story I liked is : ‘a man had lost his little son. He found the child after two days near the place where now the fountain of manneken-pis can be seen. When the father spotted his child, the latter was peeing. As a token of gratitude the father had the fountain with a statue of a peeing boy constructed.’

There was a huge crowd taking snaps in front of it, and they led me to the real Grand Place! I had no way to photograph its full glory in one shot! I miss my 28mm lens of my SLR :(. I enjoyed the place and stood there for more than an hour!

I was actually always coming very near to this place, so near that I could see this through a narrow street entry. Being built and preserved for more than a couple of centuries, its entry roads are all narrow.

Had my lunch in Pizza hut, it cost me around €10 for a medium pizza with coke. Now, I had one more thing to be finished for sure today – the atomium. I could see it from our apartment (as we live in 8th floor) far away. So just tried to find out what it is, and found its name is Atomium - that is all I know about atomium J!
* * * * * * *
I have seen all cities build a tall structure for people go up and have a look at the whole city. I think, this is Brussel’s version of the same. The only difference is that it is outside the ‘downtown’. Also known as the ‘Eiffel Tower of Brussel for the fact that this was also planned to originally last for only 6 months, below is what Wiki says about Atomium:

“Built for the 1958 Brussels World's Fair (Expo '58), the 103-metre (335-foot) tall Atomium monument represents a unit cell of an iron crystal (body-centred cubic), magnified 165 billion times, with vertical body diagonal, with tubes along the 12 edges of the cube and from all 8 vertices to the centre.
Nine steel spheres 18 metres in diameter connect via tubes with escalators as long as 35 m, among the longest in Europe. Windows in the top sphere provide a panoramic view of Brussels. Other spheres have 1950s exhibitions. Three upper spheres lacking vertical support are not open to the public for safety reasons”
* * * * * * *
This was the first time I ever got in to the metro train and tram (which sometimes go underground on layer above the trains), my jump card could be used anywhere.

I had almost concluded that the trains are pretty slow here, before trying this metro train. Though Evere is only 10kms from the city centre, it is outside the metro network and the only way to reach the city, is by bus.

I tried to see the dutch map and made out the station where I can get a direct train to Atomium, and took a tram to the station. The train was going fast enough to my concept of European standard. It dropped me in Atomium’s nearest station……. in 10 minutes! This train also changed its direction in between, as my Evere-Halle local train.

A few minutes walk to the bottom of the structure, and a queue to get the ticket costing € 9, and another queue for the lift to the top. Had a view of the Brussels city, came down and tried to go in to the other molecules climbing the steps. After coming out, I just had a walk around the peaceful greenery. Took a train back to the city, continued walking seeing the Palace, and some more of the old structures in the downtown.

Had another waffle before taking 63 back to Evere.

Tailpiece: The electric female plug sockets are of this configuration:

That means male pin will look like our Indian one with no earth pin, and will have a hole for Earth. The shaded dot is a pin in the female part, which really looks funny! They had just intentionally done this to make it unique. And it is all in a small projection inwards and none of our plug with Earth will get in there (that makes it not follow the standard usage of electricians – male and female pin :D). I got a European adapter, which won’t work here!
Then had only one way of getting out of the dependency for using others’ pins – trim one of the Indian multi pins I have to fit in to this; It all went fine, and the first testing, unexpectedly the metal parts touch each other in between and it dripped! No power! We tried to reset our internal drip boards; and it is not working. After a little bit of panic, we found there is another main board in the basement and reset it!