A date with animals - The London Zoo

Saturday, 5 October 2013 0 comments

You may be a bit surprised with the topic of this post but believe me a visit to the zoo can be as refreshing for adults as it is for children. After all we all have a little child in us hidden somewhere deep inside. Anyway the real purpose of myself heading towards the zoo was the digital SLR camera I had just bought and what could be a better place than the famous London zoo to practice my photographic skills.



London zoo houses a collection of 755 species of animals, with 16,802 individuals, making it one of the largest collections in the United Kingdom. It is situated in central London at the northern edge of Regent's Park.
I started my tour with an encounter to our ancestors, the gorillas. The gorilla kingdom is home to a group of western lowland gorillas, and consists of a large, moated island with an indoor gym for the gorillas to use.




Not very far from that place were a group of miniature monkey naughtily jumping around the trees and I managed to get some candid shots of them.








Next on display was a very ornamental bird. Not very sure of it's species but I managed to catch a good shot it dancing around.





You can see on right there is a zoo keeper doing a show with a hawk.








And look at this portrait of this pretty little bird. I consider this my best shot on this trip but do let me know what do you think of this.









Our good old Giraffe!












Where are they all looking?

You too?










 And finally it was time to wrap up my trip with a tour of the aquarium. This aquarium has been in the zoo since 1853 and this was world's first public aquarium. In fact the word aquarium originated at London zoo itself.















Notting Hill Carnival: A day of music, dance and revelry

Tuesday, 27 August 2013 0 comments

Notting Hill Carnival is the world's biggest street festival held annually at Notting Hill, London led primarily by the west Indian community. I heard a lot about this event during my many visits to UK and it has been on my things to do list since quite some long time. Finally I got the chance to plan a visit to this crazy festival during this bank holiday when I was working on a project at UK. Just to give an idea of the scale of this festival there are around twenty miles of vibrant colourful costumes surrounding over 40 static sound systems, hundreds of Caribbean food stalls, over 40,000 volunteers and over 1 million Notting Hill carnival revellers.

I took a train from Solihull to London Marylebone and planned to use the tube to reach the Notting Hill tube station where I thought the main action would be. While boarding the tube I discovered that they closed the Notting hill station and I had to get down one station before that which was Bays water. The moment I got out of the Bays water tube station I was swamped by a crowd of revellers moving towards Notting hill. The whole street was flooded with beer guzzling revellers whistling and making noise. There was no traffic on the streets as the whole area was closed for traffic because of the carnival. As we approached Notting Hill we could hear the loud musical sounds coming from the carnival.

The carnival goes through a circular route of around 20 kilometres and I had reached one end of the route close to the point where it starts. I managed to find a good spot to stand and barely managed to sneak in closer to the street and decided to put my camera to action. I have nothing more to say except that these pictures speak for themselves. A truly mesmerizing experience. They say that if you can't visit the carnival at Rio Notting hill is the next best things you can go to.




Watch out this space for more coverage of London events right from London zoo to Latin dance festival to air shows. London never fails to entertain you.


 















Trip to Paris: The City Of Romance

Sunday, 12 May 2013 0 comments

A trip to Paris was always on my agenda right from my childhood days. My fascination with France and Paris in particular was primarily due to it's reputation as the most cultural and romantic of all cities in world. It is also said to be the city of lovers…the most romantic place on earth, and French is the language of love. With so much love flowing around we were destined to visit Paris some day or other. We spent days looking for the best flight and hotel deals and booked our 2 day holiday for Paris. Finally one fine afternoon we landed at the Charles de gaulle airport at Paris. Our first encounter with Paris was not so nice. The airport was looking pretty dirty and messed up. Determined not to have this first experience spoil our impression of Paris we ignored it and quickly forgot about it. We were told that if you don't know french, communication can be a challenge and by now we had realized that it was indeed true. At some of the places we felt that as if people are deliberately trying to avoid speaking English despite knowing it. Having known about the long history of enmity between France and England we assumed that probably it has to do with this historical discord between the two countries. We decided to use the Paris metro to travel to our hotel which was in central Paris. Finally after struggling for about 2 hours and getting lost at a few places we managed to reach the hotel. By this time it was late afternoon so we decided to cover the Eiffel Tower straightaway as we were keen to get a view of Paris in evening.

At the base of Eiffel Tower
When we first arrived at Eiffel tower we were pretty disappointed by looking at this ugly and dull looking iron structure standing tall in the afternoon sun. The 300m high Eiffel Tower is probably the most famous landmark in the world, and is the capital’s most visited attraction. The cast-iron tower was built for the 1889 World Fair and the centenary of the 1789 Revolution and was named after its designer, Gustave Eiffel. It took over two years to construct using some 18,000 pieces of metal and 2,500,000 rivets. It was the tallest structure in the world until New York’s Empire State Building was constructed in the 1930s. There was a long queue to get to the top of the tower and there is a series of interconnecting lifts which get you to the top. They do have stairs as well in case you want to get a little more adventurous. There were long queues all over and by the time we got to the top it was sunset time. Once you reach the top you feel the vibrations and shaking's of the tower as it's an iron structure. We could see lovely views of the city from the tower and even tried to identify a few attractions we had planned to visit next day. We could also see amazing view of the scene river just below the tower, the clear blue water and many cruises going on the river.

The Glittering Eiffel Tower


































By the time we got down the tower and it was pitch dark and the Eiffel Tower was completely transformed. It was densely illuminated by bright lights from top to bottom and we were completely mesmerized to see a different Eiffel Tower glittering like gold. We were told that some 20,000 flashbulbs light up the edifice at night. There were some moving searchlights at the top which were continuously revolving and it's visible from quite a distance.


We decided to go for a cruise of the seine river next and as the darkness engulfed Paris it was truly metamorphosed into the city of romance. There were lot of floating boat hotels parked on both sides of the river and we could see people dining and dancing on those boats. The cruise boat had search lights fitted on both sides and there were historical building brightly illuminated wherever we went. All these cruise boats take a circular route from the Eiffel Tower, down past the Louvre Museum, Notre Dame Cathedral, botanical gardens then back up the other bank past Musee D'orsay. Unfortunately I don't have much photos from this trip but I've some nice videos which I'll post some time later.

We decided to spend our next entire day exploring the historical and cultural attractions of Paris atop an open top bus. Our first halt was the Louvre which is one of the finest museums in the world of art and holds treasures from the Egyptians, Etruscans, Greeks, Romans, Middle Eastern and Islamic cultures. With more than 8 million visitors each year, the Louvre is the world's most visited museum worldwide.

Our main intent at Louvre was to catch a glimpse of the famous painting of Monalisa. We barely had enough time to just locate the painting catch a quick glimpse and come out. We were a bit disappointed to see the painting as it was beyond our understanding as to why is this painting so famous. In fact there were many much more enticing and spectacular paintings spread all around the museum. In fact more than the museum artifacts we liked the entrance of the museum which is built as a glass pyramid. The pyramid and the underground lobby beneath it were created because of a series of problems with the Louvre's original main entrance, which could no longer handle the enormous number of visitors on an everyday basis. Visitors entering through the pyramid descend into the spacious lobby then re-ascend into the main Louvre buildings. The construction of the pyramid triggered considerable controversy because many people felt that the futuristic edifice looked quite out of place in front of the Louvre Museum with its classical architecture.
The glass pyramid entrance - Louvre Museum

The Inverted Pyramid
The Inverted Pyramid (visible in the picture on left) is a skylight constructed in the Carrousel du Louvre shopping mall in front of the Louvre Museum in France. The Inverted Pyramid figures prominently on the concluding pages of Dan Brown's international bestseller The Da Vinci Code. The protagonist of his novel, Robert Langdon, reads esoteric symbolism into the two pyramids: The Inverted Pyramid is perceived as a Chalice, a feminine symbol, whereas the stone pyramid below is interpreted as a Blade, a masculine symbol: the whole structure could thus express the union of the genders.

Fountains in Concorde Square
Our next halt was the Concorde square (Place de la Concorde) is one of the major public squares in Paris. There are two famous landmarks which you can see in these pictures below: The fountains and The Obelisk. The two fountains in the Place de la Concorde have been the most famous of the fountains built during the time of Louis-Philippe, and came to symbolize the fountains in Paris. Both fountains had the same form: a stone basin; six figures of tritons or naiads holding fish spouting water; six seated allegorical figures, their feet on the prows of ships, supporting the pedestal, of the circular vasque; four statues of different forms of genius in arts or crafts supporting the upper inverted upper vasque; whose water shot up and then cascaded down to the lower vasque and then the basin.

Obelisk visible on extreme left
The center of the Place is occupied by a giant Egyptian obelisk decorated with hieroglyphics exalting the reign of the pharaoh Ramesses II. It is one of two the Egyptian government gave to the French in the 19th century. The obelisk itself is a yellow granite column which rises 23 metres (75 ft) high, including the base, and weighs over 250 metric tons (280 short tons).

Notre Dame Cathedral
Our next halt was Arc de Triomphe and we could find similarities to our own India gate or gateway of India after looking at it. Under the Arc de Triomphe lies the grave of an unknown soldier. Napoleon ordered its construction in 1809 as a monument to the Republican armies. The arch is 50m high and 45m wide and bears the names of Napoleon’s victories, and is decorated with a frieze of battle scenes and sculptures.

Our next halt was the famous Notre Dame Cathedral which is a masterpiece of Gothic architecture. It was constructed between 1163 and 1334, with a huge investment of time and money which was a reflection of the city’s prosperity at the time. It was plundered during the French Revolution and since the 19th century, restoration works have been going on to restore its former glory. It was here that Henry VI was crowned, Napoleon declared himself Emperor, and it also hosted the beatification of Joan of Arc. There was some choir which was in progress inside the cathedral and we were enthralled by the mystical music flowing around. (A choir is a musical ensemble of singers.)

Sacre Coeur church
 Finally we headed towards our last halt for the day which was Sacre Coeur church. The Sacre Coeur church is perched atop the highest point in Paris and affords spectacular views of the whole city, and is a favorite among artists who spend hours painting the perfect picture of the city. The church is crowned by a distinctive 83 m dome, and a 84 m high bell-tower shelters an 18.5 ton bell with a 850 kg clapper. By this time we did not have any energy left to climb all those stairs to reach the church so we just spent some time on the stairs itself.

And our next halt was .... well it''s something you should really go and experience. Any guesses? Oh yes I'm talking about the traditional Paris cabaret. Some of the most famous cabarets worth mentioning are Lido de Paris, Le Moulin Rouge, Crazy Horse Paris etc. The Lido which remains the most popular of all has hosted a score of renowned performers over the years, from Elton John to Shirley Mac Laine. The mainstay revue, famed for its elaborate, elegant costumes and multicultural twists, features 60 dancers, 600 costumes and 23 different sets. For romantics, no visit to the city of lights would be complete without a night at the original Moulin Rouge cabaret which has inspired scores of Hollywood homages. One of the racier traditional Paris cabarets, the Crazy Horse prides itself on its distinctly burlesque aesthetic and more contemporary style. Crazy Horse is strictly for adults, whereas older teenagers might be brought along for a show at the Moulin Rouge or Lido.

Paris remains one of the attractions which has something for everybody. The city remains a favorite destination for tourists looking for a historical, cultural or romantic experience. It's an equally exciting destination for honeymooners as well as couples trying to rejuvenate their romance. Au revoir Paris and I'll be back someday for sure.

Trip to Switzerland 3 - Returning via Bern, Zurich and Alps

Thursday, 9 May 2013 0 comments

This was the 4th day of our Swiss visit and our stay at Interlaken was over. We had planned to fly back home via Zurich itself but while returning to Zurich from Interlaken we decided to take a slightly different route and made a quick stopover at Berne, the capital of Switzerland. As you can see from this trip map on the right we had made a similar stopover at the lake city of Lucerne while going to Interlaken but could not cover much other than roaming around lake Lucerne for a while. We were lucky to get around 4-5 hours to spend at Berne and we decided to make the best use of it.

A Colorful Street in Berne
Berne is a medieval city which sits on a peninsula formed by the winding course of the river Aare. The remarkable design coherence of the Berne's old town has earned it a place on the UNESCO World Heritage List. It features 4 miles of arcaded walkways along streets decked out with fountains and clock-towers. There is something very special about Berne's numerous clock towers littered along the walkways. All of them are fitted with very old astronomical clocks with sophisticated features. It is probably from those times that Swiss watches have made their mark all over world. Fountains that once provided the municipal water supply are still found every block or so in the main streets. 

Lake Zurich
After finishing our flash trip of Berne we headed towards Zurich by a connecting train. Zurich which is the largest city of Switzerland is situated besides Lake Zurich, where the lake flows into the River Limmat , in the north of Switzerland. You can see me standing besides lake Zurich in the picture on the left. 

Zürich offers a unique mixture of attractions – over 50 museums and more than 100 art galleries, international fashion labels and the most flamboyant and lively nightlife in Switzerland. Recreational activities range from a visit to the riverside and lakeside bathing areas in the very heart of the city, to a spectacular hike on the Uetliberg mountain.

A Working clock in a real garden
We had only 3-4 hours at our disposal before catching our flight back to London so we decided to first have a cruise at Lake Zurich. By the time we had done so many cruises that the excitement of lake cruises was starting to fade out. There are some nice walkways around the lake and you can see me standing around one such area where they have created this artistic real clock ticking in the middle of a beautiful garden.

Trams in Zurich
After the lake cruise we just decided to walk around the train station and we were amazed the find the kind of fashion boutiques available on the street. Zürich’s shopping mile has contributed largely to the city's reputation as an El Dorado for shoppers and is a top address for international fashion labels, jewelry and watches. We later found out that we were actually roaming an area called Bahnhofstrasse which has the mile-long street of banks featuring exclusive fashion boutiques, department stores and street cafes invites passers-by to linger. We were a bit surprised to see many posters of our very own Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai's posters endorsing some Swiss watch at a few places in the street. I highly recommend anybody visiting Zurich to roam around this area at least once.

Alps from the Plane Window
 Finally it was time to catch our easy-jet flight back to London Luton. We were lucky to catch some amazing views of Alps while flying over it. This is the final blog on my Swiss blog series and I leave you now with some amazing pictures of Alps taken from the window of my plane. Please keep on checking this space for my next blog series on Paris, Disneyland and Austria.



Good Bye Alps

 
Lazy Traveller © 2013