catching up - easter trip

What a fortnight its been!

We'd been roaming around western Europe over the Easter weekend. In the need of a desparate break from monotonous life of getting up, going to work, coming back and sleeping, Easter Loong Weekend was a welcome break for all of us. Nikunj, Ravi & I set out on the Friday dawn and crossed the English channel in the First ferry of the day. Many people having similar ideas made the ferry house-full, well almost. The infinity of the ocean has intrigued me always. We all know that the streach of the English channel isn't that great and people swim across, but when you actually come face to face with it, the blue ocean grows on you. As the ferry moves swiftly across, the wind on the deck was chilling.

Around at lunch time we reached Antwerp. The diamond capital of the world. Trendy people with Palm! The detachment to Alcohol & non-veg food still continued so couldn't try it. The decision still holds - hence happy. Anyways, moving along from Diamond Capital to the "freedom" capital of the world! I'Amsterdam. Netherlands - the home of ABN, ING A couple of friends were joining us from there. I've always been blessed with people who like to Roam/Eat/Drink. Amsterdam's canal walk was good - although a bit smelly. Don't know whether that was the pot freely selling around us or the red-lights. No wonder it gravitates artistic people from around the world.

We planned to see Deltawerken dams in the morning, which prevent the Dutchland from sea-floods. But somehow the TomTom didn't support our plans, it wasn't showing us the drive we expected. We ended up in Rotterdam. Euromast was good fun. Clean sky gave us a clear view of the largest port in Europe. The drive from Rotterdam to Dortmund didn't take too long - thanks to German motorways. Germany is quite aptly the home the best car manufacturers, that I could name. Driving at close to 200 kmph we were amazed by a couple of cars zooming past us. BMWs, Audis, Mercs !! Dortmunds night was good as it had just won a football match against Koln which we were visiting the next day. Koln cathedral and avoiding motorway drives were good. Luxembourg city was very quiet for us. The stupifyingly less number of people clearly surprised us. Tomtom again surprised us by taking us to the Old city with narrow roads. Heavy dinners all around.

The next morning was very foggy. All the way right upto Brussels. Atomium & Eurotrip for friends who hadn't been there. We waited outside had lunch with an Italian girl working at Atomium. Quite enlightening, working 10 days in a month just to support herself.

We were quite early to check-in for our ferry. The trip came to an end we cribbed about the holidays ending. Pics here

The office has been busy for these days. Weekend was busy as well as laundry was staring at me since a couple of weeks. Shed some perspiration in doing the garden - destruction more than trimming.

Walking home this evening - was staring at the clear blue sky. The frequency of flights taking off,landing and passing over London leave many trail-blaizing white streaks in the sky. They left me wondering whether those lines contain some encoded message in them. Could see some patterns - try it yourself and ..

Wonder