Recently, we got a glossy pamphlet with daily newspaper and thought to check it out. So went yesterday evening its a nice store neither too big nor too small maybe size of 7-11 (US) or G20 (FR) to give you a fair idea(about size).

Issue that is making me write this blog is finding a rack full of Barilla pasta at the store called “SPINACH“. Prices are not very high for these pastas around 85 Rupees for 500 grams (it is only 1 Euro in FR).The biggest disappointment was as we checked price of Olive oil which is 800 Rupees for a 700/750ml bottle. All I am sure it is Extra TAX Indian government imposes on importing Olive oil from EU (Greece or Spain in most cases). No way we are going to make pasta in India forget the price and availability of a good cheese which is one of the essential ingredient in making of pasta. Coming to cheese though our nation produces enough milk neither we have weather nor the technology to make cheese like emmental, ricotta, mozrilla, parmesan, roquefort or mascarpone. All you get here from local market is cheddar Ogh!. There are some stores in South-Mumbai where I am told you get other varieties for a price. Need to check before I comment.

Bookmark It

Wish you all happy & prosperous New Year.Its time to write almost last entry for this year.

For quite a while was thinking to write about 2005 year diary. Hmm…………not able to write with this dull and grey sky and no need to mention the cold at Paris but wait………… seems some ray of light is trying to reach my desk which I do not want to loose, hope that will keep my spirit high while writing this.

2005 started with the longest vacation I ever had so far in my career. It was six week India trip and an escape from cold Europe. It was not a vacation after all, as my younger brother was getting married.

Coming back to Paris we did traveled asusual in the first half.We have been to Germany, Austria, Spain and Portugal.It was superb with excellent weather and good food.

Pamela did a great job which I was not able to accomplish from quite a long. She made sure my parents visit Paris. And yes…they did came in mid-August for 4 weeks. Organizing their first trip abroad was not perfect; starting with floods in Mumbai, not able to get cheap tickets & with delayed baggage service by airlines in Paris etc. But at the end hope they had good time in Paris.

We celebrated Pooja and Diwali this year at Maison de l’Inde. And yes, one more thing not to forget… inspite of my disliking of france & french, I ended up joining French class.

Being crazy did major change to this web site. Anywayz, this holiday season is highlight with visit to Vedanta Society at Gretz. Need to see how I end up this year.

Once again best wishes and keep visiting.

Bookmark It

Also I need to find a cheap solution to restore pictures from Smart Media. It looks like there is a well suited option commercial for 40 Euros. But I am still looking around for a free one if I can as I am not going to use the same again.

Stay tuned for experiences from Madrid, Granada, Seville and Lisbon.

Bookmark It

We headed towards Colombo Shopping Mall which is one of the largest shopping mall in Europe and built very recently. After being mall rats for a while we bought some and had lunch there in one fast food Mexican place. Depositing those shopping bags to hotel we went to Baixa again. We walked more in Baixa streets and then headed towards Belem. The weather in Lisbon being till far was with overcast all the time and temperature much lower than Spain, we took a long walk along the river side.

Before going back to Lisbon we entered the famous Paties House dating back to 1837. Oh! Those paties they are so good and mouth watering I feel like tasting them now as I am writing. Resturant is really big inside and with very reasonable prices. It should top the list for going to Belem.

For dinner we had some fusion food which had Indian spices with Portugal taste in Chaido. The restaurants are too small and packed so there is always someone waiting near the door.

Bookmark It

Last day at Seville… After checking out from the hotel we took a bus and got down next to the Casino of Exposition. But today it is a public holiday at Seville which we did not knew, so the roads were quite empty at 9 in the morning. After getting down from the bus we walked towards Plaza de Espana. Plaza de Espana was built for 1929 world expo. Lots of Latin American countries joined that expo. The world expo was not a success as that year was marked as first financial disaster of the Great Depression as U.S. securities lost $26 billion.

The famous tile work of Andalusia is at its best here. There are maps of Spain from that time; the benches, the small decorative bridges are really beautiful. We walked along the great corridors of Spanish Pavilion. From there we walked to Alcazar while we saw the university and the famous 5star hotel. The university used to be a cigarette factory before.

King Pedro Castile in the 1360′s with his mistress Maria de Padilla, lived in and ruled from the Alcazar. Pedro embarked upon a complete rebuilding of the palace, employing workmen from Granada and utilising fragments of earlier Moorish buildings in Seville, Cordoba and Valencia. The comparison between Alhambra is like comparing apple and orange. This is build with lot of confusing room. The outside garden is really beautiful which worth a stroll.

As that day was religious holiday with procession and big gathering of people around the cathedral. We walked along the cathedral towards city hall and further. After lunch we rested inside a café for 2 hours to beat the scorching heat.

We took a bus to visit Basilic of Macarena, the weeping Mary which is world famous. We walked back all the way from there to Plaza de Espana. It is better to visit west facing Plaza de Espana in the evening for photos.

After all that walking we were really tired and exhausted. We had tapas again for dinner next to our hotel. It was a better place with street side seating. We really enjoyed my food with cool breeze and watching people on the street.

Taxi ride to the bus stop for Lisbon was a good choice at late night. But waiting for the midnight bus was not fun. But the overnight bus ride was not bad.

Bookmark It

Back from Cordoba around 4PM in the afternoon to Seville. We went to buy ticket for next phase of journey that was between Seville and Lisbon. Oh! That was too hot and sweating experience to summarize in short. Back to hotel being boiled with afternoon heat we got freshen up.

We started our evening stroll starting from Puente de San Telmo towards Triana around 9PM, the other side of the river a common Seville neighborhood. On our way we saw the ‘Torre del Oro’. After a while went to a tapas bar which was crowded with local people. Here the server notes down your order and price with a chalk in front of you on the desk while you have your food standing. Around midnight we left Triana as we could not find any flamenco music sounds. This is the only thing which we could not listen to in this trip of ours. We came back walking near to cathedral and took picture of the bell tower (in night mode). At this hour city was still crowded with tourists as well as locals giving a feeling that night is still young.

Bookmark It

When we started planning for Andalusia we did not thought of Cordoba first. But later friends who had been there suggested visiting Cordoba.

We walked from our hotel on the busy morning streets of Seville to reach the train station. We bought ticket for AVE (fast train) to Cordoba. The fair is not at all expensive compared to French standard as it costs almost similar from Paris CDG airport to city center. The train service is really good and train travels in high speed.

Cordoba’s main attraction is its Mezquita(Mosque). This is a living history of Cordoba as it transforms from one culture and religion to other. It was one of the first big city that was built by Moorish rulers in Spain at 10th century. These leaders wanted to build a mosque for their religion. Earlier the mosque was small but with time as Cordoba prospered, it was extended to accommodate more people.

The double arch with red and white stripes makes a very immense effect to the visitors. These double arches are purely for decorative purpose but it is so unique. Later days when Christians gained their control over Cordoba this was converted to a Church with very little modification giving it a feeling of church inside the mosque.

The `Mihrab` traditionally had two functions in Islamic worship, first it indicated the direction of Mecca (therefore prayer) and it also amplified the words of the Imam, the prayer leader. But The Cordoba Mosque Mihrab looks south in the same way as the Damascus mosque and not south east in the direction of Mecca. This one is very beautifully decorated with Islamic arts of gold on marble.

From there we went around various streets exploring beautiful patios of Cordoba. Best time is early May to visit the same. There is a competition for most beautiful patio in Cordoba, which means lots of patios to check out in early May.

We had a light snack of fruits and juice near to Alcazar. The afternoon was scorching hot. After waiting a good amount of time for the public bus we took a taxi back to train station. The ride in the AC car was worth (4 Euros) every penny as the outside was burning at 40 C.

Bookmark It

We took a morning bus from Granada to Seville; we reached Seville around 11AM. The bus ride was around 2 hours and 45 minutes. From that IntercityBus stop to our hotel (again Novotel) we took again local public bus. But we got down 2 stops before the actual stop which ended up with a walk along the nice boulevard of Seville.

As we reached before afternoon there was no non-smoking room available to us. So left our luggages & went to a Mall next to our hotel.We had our lunch that day at McDonald which is really a restaurant where you don’t feel like you are eating 99 cent burgers. Hmm……….money well spent for the interior decoration of this McDo, may be one of those new one where McDo is fighting back to win its market share.

We started our sightscene around 5PM after fresh up with the Cathedral of Seville which has its entry in ‘Guinesses book of world Records’. Its really BIG we had been to Vatican (Rome) and St. Paul in London but this one is really special. All the money, gold, silver and what not poured from New-World shows its mark. May be like those of Birla Temples of India – more the money bigger and whiter it is with marble . But any way I am not going to question human’s faith and its relation with God like poet Shri. Harivansh Rai Bachchan. The treasury collection is awesome. The craftsmanship of wood, marble, glass and others are really superb. There are so many things inside to pay attention to. The Bell tower is the only remain from the old mosque on which this cathedral was built after the moors were defaulted.

Getting out of Cathedral, we walked on Santa Cruz district. It is the old part of the city. The lanes are really narrow; some of them reminded me of Vanaras and Calcutta. It has special purpose: as the houses are so close they do not get sunlight that much which makes them cooler than the new city. There are lots of nice little parks and patios with orange trees one of the speciality of Andalusia. These trees serves the purpose of shade as it has got very dense leaves. But we were told these oranges are very bitter .

The evenings are really special in Seville when every body is out to take a stroll. It is really nice to enjoy watching people while sipping something cooler and biting tapas.This city is very lively & warm too.Here, temperature is very high in afternoon around 40C & it cools down by evening 7-8PM with a cool breeze.

In the evening we ended up walking on the Bridge of Triana after passing the bull fight Arena. We had Paella for dinner. Paella is a rice-based speciality which is laced with saffron, paprika and can contain intriguing morsels of seafood, meat and vegetable.It was almost midnight but there were lots of people even toddlers along with their parents on the side walk.

While walking back toward the bus stop for hotel we came across a resturant with lots of tempting , mouth watering desserts kept near the window on the road side. As this place was too crowded with locals & tourists we didnot found any place to sit & have dessert.But, we were also no less… we managed to get two chairs to sit & ordered for the same(just imagine how tempting it could be that without table & proper arrangment we had our dessert).Anyway, we enjoyed it very much…..something we can never forget.

Bookmark It

We did not book our tickets for Alhambra before coming to Granada. There can be 8,000 visitors inside Alhambra in a given day. Out of those 8,000 around 6,500 are sold over internet & phone. So for us, it meant getting up early and queuing up in the morning. As it was Monday and not peak of tourist season… we were lucky.

Alhambra has main 4 sites to visit. The main attraction is of course “Palacios Nazaries” the best preserved Moorish Palace in Europe. The palace is quite intact from all the wars that were fought between Christians and Moorish (Arab Muslim from North Africa). The war ended at 1429. I heard lots of tour guides mostly Japanese comparing this to Taj Mahal. As I have never been to Taj Mahal I can not say for certain but I am quite sure it is not that close to Taj Mahal in beauty. Still the works of Moorish artists are really very appreciable.

We spent a good amount of time in Palacios Nazaries, from there we went to Generalife via beautiful garden of roses. From there we visited ‘Palace of Charles V’ and ‘Alcazaba’. This makes the four attraction of Alhambra.

After siesta, we went to the Cathedral and walked around there. That evening while strolling we came across Mexican Restaurant – “Chile Grande”. The food was really excellent which reminded me of my Californian days.

Bookmark It

Around 5 PM, we headed out from hotel, it was still very hot and bright. We walked towards Plaza Nueva. We entered into two churches while walking along the Darro River. They were small churches compared to the cathedral but also have nice wood work. Then we walked uphill towards St Nicolas Church in El Albaicín

.

It is on hill top from where you can have a great view of Alhambra at the sunset. The cobble stone roads are really narrow. There are lots of tourists at that view point in the evening so are gypsies. They were playing music and selling their art works.

As we had time before the sunset we walked down a bit and went to Sacromonte. There are gypsy caves most of which are now converted into houses. But there is one part left for historic and touristy purpose.

Then we came back to The Church of San Nicolás. I am quite sure if you been there recently you must be knowing Bill Clinton also re-visited this place while he was President as he was here once as a young student. Well even with out his historic visit this place at the sunset is really great to look at the red fort – Alhambra.

This is one of the photos that were there in that Smart Card Media with which we had problem. It would have been very sad if thoses photos were not recovered.

Well I must admit this time the vegetarian place recommended by Rick Steve was good for dinner.

Bookmark It