A day in Venice, Italy with family

After our fabulous trip to Austria, we headed for Venice in the morning in Vaparetto ride. It was a nice journey in the Adreatic Sea. I was loving the cool air on my face on the speed boat. All around the water, were reddish brownish buildings. 

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View of Venice from the boat

The boat dropped us at the Venice Island. Venice is a very important port. Lots of tours begin from there. Most of the big cruises like Star Cruise start from Venice.

Our excellent experience in Hotel Olympia, one of the Hospitality partners of Winter Olympics @ Austria in 1964 and 1976

After our visit to beautiful Switzerland, we reached Austria. I had heard a lot about the beauty of Austria. The Alps there , are magnificent and hypnotic. We were to stay in Hotel Olympia.

Beauty of Austria

It was a ski resort in the midst of nature.

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Mannekan Pis a symbol of how Julianske saved Brussels from enemy attack

We had gone to Belgium, the capital of Brussels on a special day. It was Mannekan Pis's Birthday! Yes.. what more could we have wanted! We were there on an important day. The whole area of Grand Palace in Belgium was celebrating his 40th birthday.

We were so happy. That day, Mannekan Pis was wearing a beautiful birthday dress. The whole structure was guarded by railings and a fountain below.

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Enjoy nature royally at WelcomHeritage Ashdale in Nainital

I had gone to Nainital this February and liked it so much! With greenery all around and lakes , every view was magnetic. Nainital has become my to do destination every year. When I came to know that WelcomHeritage Ashdale in Nainital, has been launched recently, I get more reasons to visit.

  WelcomHeritage Ashdale

This property was built by the English as their summer residence is now owned by the Royalty of Sahaspur. Its now the part of WelcomHeritage chain of hotels. This boutique property is immersed in nature's beauty all around having green oaks and deodars. Every room has a magnificent view. 

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An evening by the Windsor Castle, London

We had reached London around 12pm. After immigration and getting to our Hotel Thistle London Heathrow, we freshened up and rested for a while. We were a group of some 12 people. All of us decided to head to Windsor Castle and enjoy the area around it. The Palace was closed from inside it being 5pm but still decided to visit the location. It was indeed beautiful!

  Windsor Castle

The whole castle is made with huge grey bricks having lawns by its side.

  Lawns by the Castle

The area around is very neat and clean. We were really eager to go inside but good that at least we could make it to see from outside.

There are shops all around. There is a royal shopping complex which houses premium brands.

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Celebrate Independence Day at world's highest motor able road with The Grand Dragon

I have been wanting to visit Ladakh since years but have been waiting for the appropriate time to come owing to its high altitude and my kids being small. But recently, I came across this perfect package of The Grand Dragon Ladakh which has made me think again to visit the world's highest motor able road.

The package is lucrative and I love the property as it has beautiful views that of snow-capped Khardung La and the Stok Kangri Mountain Range. They provide perfect hospitality where you can immerse in luxury while being in the lap of nature while enjoying local cuisine like the traditional Ladakhi gur gur chai or indulge in some local thukpa, a noodle soup, and momos, Kashmiri Wazwan or you may enjoy regular Indian, Chinese or European as well.

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Thistle London Heathrow, a hotel to experience for comfortable stay and good food

The very first day we landed in London, we had to stay at Thistle London Heathrow. I was curious to see the property. It was near the Airport. It took us only 15-20 minutes to reach there.  There was greenery all around on the way to the hotel.

Thistle London Heathrow

At the entrance, there was lobby and a lounge area by the bar.

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My travel companion: WD My Passport Wireless Pro

As an avid traveler, I am on the go every few days and love to enjoy scenaries, destinations, hotels, resorts, restaurants and food. I also love to capture those remarkable and unforgettable moments of life. Whether I travel solo or with family, I keep working and clicking new photographs, writing my experiences and updating content on my social media channels. So, I consume all the battery of my phone and my camera’s while completing my tasks. For all this I need to be fully equipped every time I travel. When I say equipped, I mean gadgets wise. I need to ensure all my phones, cameras and battery backups are completely charged and storage space is available so that I can work uninterrupted. So, before I went to Europe, my 15 days tour with family, I wanted to ensure I don’t run out of battery and storage space in my camera and phone. I was looking for a reliable alternative for a 15-16 days tour. It was coincidental that I was approached to review the WD My Passport Wireless Pro.

WD My Passport Wireless Pro

Bingo! Here I was with 1 Terabytes memory space with a full battery backup up to 10 hours. Wow! What more could have I asked for!!

While familiarizing myself with the device before I took off, it was so simple to work with. 

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A refreshing experience of Boat Safari at Periyar National Park

It was early morning that we had to start off for our boat safari at Periyar National Park. We boarded the Periyar Tiger Reserve bus from the stand. We were part of a huge queue at 6.30am!
Periyar Tiger Reserve Bus
Long queue in the morning
This tells how popular Periyar National Park is. Bus took us through the jungle.
Jungle on the way to Boat Safari

I was breathing fresh air. It was lush green all over. Soon we stopped at the boat safari boarding point.

Beauty of Periyar National Park
There was lush greenery all around.

Beautiful view
Although the authorities from Xandari Cardamom County had done reservations for us a day prior to our visit, but we had to be present for allocation of our seats. The person from Xandari Cardamom County ensured that we get to sit in the boat. Only then he left. It was so nice and courteous of him!

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Stenaline Cruise , a beautiful experience from Harwich to The Hook of Holland

Cruise! Wow! What an experience it would be! Scenes from movie Titanic, Bollywood movie cruises, Water all around, games, food, deck! All these thoughts were running through our minds when we were about to board the Stenaline Cruise from Harwich to The Hook of Holland.

After spending our beautiful time in London, we had started from London around 3pm. It took some 3.5 hours to reach Harwich. It was an easy transition from the bus to the cruise. After waiting for some time and security checks and entered the cruise.

Soon, we got keys to our cabin and freshened up to rush to the deck

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Meet the past in present and see the future at Time Elevator in Rome

Rome was not built in a day! This is the saying that I have been hearing since my childhood. Roman Civilization is the oldest civilization is what I used to study in my history books. Now I was going to see Rome with my eyes and that too with my family!!! There were three important things that we had planned to cover  Time Elevator, Colosseum Palace, Trevi Fountain and more. Time Elevator was a major attraction for all of us.  I was super excited. Kids were excited because they could relate to time machine of Doremon. Ha ha! So, we all were set to go in the past.

 

Time Elevator

 

We got seated in hall and wore headphones and selected the language of our choice 'English' from various options like English, Spanish, Italian, Russian, French and German. This was a 5D movie so we had worn goggles to enjoy it the most.

 

 

Soon the movie started from the story that dated about 3000 years ago about two little infants who were ordered to be killed in the jungle but by God's grace, they were saved and raised by a mother wolf. That was the start of the Roman Empire and the story took us to the era of Michalle Angelo playing with Sistine Chapel ceiling and Juliar Ceaser.

 

How the fall of Roman Empire happened and Rennaisance came into being. Time Elevator took us to each era and made us feel the part of same through simulative technology. Kids enjoyed too and I hope they gathered knowledge as well. When in history books they will read all this, their concepts will get more clear.

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Experience at The Top of Europe, Jungfrau in Switzerland

We had been planning for Jungfrau, Top of Europe since two three months. We really wanted to visit. But owing to its height, travel time and the cold, we were a bit skeptical about it. But, but... all our apprehensions vanished once we reached there after only mere two hours journey.

We were left awestruck when we reached at the Top!!!! During our train journey, we had asked the ticket collector about how to go about the trip to Jungfraujoch.

Starting of the TOUR

She told us to simply follow the 'TOUR' signage. We exactly did the same and the whole trip around Jungfrau was convenient and hassle free. We had got passports for The Top of Europe and there was a page showing the tour.

We ensured to see all 10 points mentioned on it. They were all on the 'TOUR' signage.

Everything is well managed there and appropriate signages of restaurants, shops, tourist points, toilets, everything is clearly mentioned.

Jungfrau Panaroma

Kid trying to feel the ambiance at Jungfrau Panaroma

Junfgrau Panaroma offers a 4 minute story. It provides a 360-degree panorama of the mountain world that you could never see otherwise – 365 days a year.

Visitors race with the camera through clouds, sink into ice crevices or fall into heaps of snow. With the big screens all around, you would get immersed totally and the feeling of avalanche coming to you and the sound effects is a different experience altogether.

Jungfrau, Top of Europe

Sphinx which is the view point and also the Watch Shop Kirchhofer. We didn't buy anything from there. But, its said that the watches there are cheaper than everywhere else.

Alpine Sensation

Alpine Sensation was greatly informative.

Alpine Sensation

With individual images, sound and light, this tour presents the past and present of Tourism.

This was Guyer Zeller's phenomenal idea and extreme efforts made that this area is accessible to all in the world and that the world is able to enjoy The Top of Europe!

Ice Palace in Jungfrau is a must must visit

Two mountain guides from Grindewald and Wengen begin to hew out an enormous cavern in the ice. The cavern covers an area of over 1000 m sq. Some parts of ice palace move up to 15 cm per year.

Ice Palace at Jungfrau
You would see many ice sculptures all around. Some depicting a scene, others made in memory of important personalities.

Charlie Chaplin and the boy

World of Penguins at Ice Palace

You have to be fully covered there as well. The temperature maintained is well below melting point of ice of course. But, it is tolerable. We spent some good half an hour there. Clicking photographs and enjoying the art work on sculptures.

Aletsch Glacier, the snow fun

It was really amazing! We had good layers of clothes along with jackets, caps and gloves. But the wind was chilling and cutting. We walked up a little on the snow.

It was super cold. The area was a bit slippery at the start but then we could step well on the snow.

Poor Visibility

View from there was fantastic!

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