Breaking the Bread

When we plan a multi-day trip, we usually choose a good hotel to stay which has breakfast facility. One of the main reasons is that, if you start the day with a good breakfast, that alone will keep your spirits high throughout the day. It is also the time for you as a family to recollect some of the beautiful moments from the previous day.

Considering this, on our first ever trip to Europe as a family we decided to follow the same plan. After experiencing the joy of European breakfast in Germany in a hotel, our next stop was at one of the most enchanting tourist destinations in the world, Switzerland! 

We decided to try something different this time. We found a lovely apartment at Bern through Booking.com with the option of breakfast included. The description spoke about bread, eggs, jams and a few other associated items available for breakfast. We were quite happy with the deal and also the location, as it was perfectly placed to reach the attractions we wanted to cover while being there in Swiss.

After crossing the border of Germany and Switzerland, we made a quick stop at the famous Rhine falls. By evening we reached our place of stay at Bern. It was not dark yet since it was summer. The instruction from the apartment owner was clear on how to access the apartment. We followed that and settled ourselves well for the night. 

We woke up the next day and just like how we experienced breakfast in previous hotels, we were hoping to see a welcoming spread of morning delicacies. Nothing happened. We tried contacting the owner and that was when reality struck. The description in Booking.com apparently meant, breakfast items were available in the apartment, but we had to prepare that ourselves! Bread was placed on the kitchen table. Eggs, jam and butter were in the fridge. Cooking utensils, oil and rest were available at our disposal in the house for us to make the breakfast. Coffee powder, tea bags and sugar were neatly sitting on one corner of the table, and they seemed to be mocking at our misery.

As soon as we recovered from the initial shock, we decided to prepare the breakfast. We got the eggs done. Coffee was also prepared and finally it was time to have them all together with the bread. We opened the packet of bread, which was dark brown in colour, seasoned with wholegrains. Those were the times, when we were yet to be fully into brown bread-based diet. Nevertheless, we were game to experiment this new type of bread. 

That was when shocker number two greeted us. We felt the bread was as hard as a piece of plywood that we thought we will need an axe to break it! Even after we managed to break the bread to pieces, the greatest challenge was to eat it. It won't be an understatement if I said, that was the most tasteless bread we ever had in our life! Since we were getting late and had to have something, we managed to gulp down the thing they called bread and headed out to our destination for the day.

A lesson well learned not to blindly trust and guess everything written on travel sites. When in doubt, ask! 

Happy travels...

Know Thy Drive - Part II

Imagine this. You are at the car rental office at your holiday destination. You verified the model of the car, the accessories, and a few other features before heading out. You are most likely to forget one important aspect about the trip, the tolls you need to pay enroute. Depending on the geography you are travelling, you may come across tolls for roads, bridges and even tunnels.

Many countries have automated toll payment system in the form of a RFID tag stuck on to the vehicle. All what you are required to do is to top up the tag and it will automatically pay the toll for you. If you are lucky, the car you are renting may already have enough balance on the tag, so that you do not have to pay for it. We were lucky once!

In places where the tag system is not present, you could still pay using a credit card or even cash. Ensure that you understand how much money you need to have with you and be prepared for the number of tolls you need to pay on the way. A simple search in Google should give you an idea, if you know the route that you are planning to take.

Another important aspect to be considered is if you plan to drive inside city limits. In most of the super busy cities in the world, an additional fees called congestion charges apply. You need to be aware of this because you will end up paying a lot more than you planned as the budget for your car rental. The best alternative for this is to rely on public transport, provided, the city has an established infrastructure. Most of the advanced cities today boast a well-connected public transport system. Not just that, you will save loads of money on parking charges as well, if you opt for public transport. 

During a recent trip to UK from Dubai, one of the first experiences with my rented car was the difference in the driving side. While I drove on the right side in Dubai, it was the opposite in UK. I was used to driving on the left, back home in India. But since I had been driving in Dubai for a decade and a half, it took a few minutes for me to get used to the left side driving, especially in the structured driving environment of UK unlike in India. 

The trick is to take it slow, get a feel of the drive and then zip forward. I also distinctly remember one of my team leads telling a client of ours while we were in Atlanta to do whatever she wanted in India, except driving. If you are someone who are used to a structured way of driving, I can guarantee that you will have no idea what hits you in India, literally and figuratively! There could be comparable stories from across the countries in the world. Be aware of these.

It is obvious that you need to get familiarised with the controls of your rented car before you start, since it could make or break your journey if you commit mistakes. Also ensure that you are familiar with the road rules including speed signs and strictly follow them. 

During one of our trips to Switzerland we had a unique experience. While driving into one among the hundreds of tunnels in Swiss, a lady in the lane behind us started flashing the lights. While initially I was confused, when I saw her overtaking us and showing the signs to have the lights on, I remembered the rule in the tunnels to have lights turned on. Non-compliance of the rule would have invited hefty fines. God bless her!

Another interesting experience was when we stopped to refill petrol in Scotland. My son got out and wanted to help me with filling of the fuel. The man at the counter yelled from the window saying it was illegal to have young children near the fuel dispenser due to the hazard of gas inhalation! Learnings galore when you are on the road.

Last but never the least, always have the emergency contacts handy, including roadside assistance, police, and ambulance. It will also help to have contact details of car insurance as well as information about the embassy of your country in the event of an emergency.

Above all, the fundamental rule to be kept in mind while travelling is to apply common sense! Take care and enjoy your trip.

Bon Voyage!

Know thy Drive – Part I

What is one of the first things that come to your mind when you plan your vacation? If you belong to a ‘tribe’ where my family proudly associate us with, you will be looking for the options to drive. While we are yet to explore the likes of a caravan on a vacation trip, looking at a car to rent is one of the top priorities, especially if we are planning for a road trip.

Along with exploring the options for hotels to stay, service providers or aggregators such as Booking.com is what we frequently use for planning. We also look at direct rental options in websites for Avis, Budget etc. and do a comparison of the offers provided to take a decision.

In case, if your organisation has tie-ups with these car rental companies, that can be a third option to look at the offers and decide. While looking at the established brands such as Avis and Budget is an easy option, always remember that there could be good local car rental companies in many countries who could offer better deals. So do not forget to check out all options before you take a final call. Trust me, it will have a considerable impact on your travel budget.

Another factor to consider while booking a car rental is the choice of accessories. Depending on your needs, accessories could range from the need to get a car seat or booster seat, GPS to help you with the routes if you have any challenge with getting maps on your mobile phone, winter specific options including snow tires if needed and the likes of these. Insurance is another crucial point that you need to consider which has various bifurcations that needs to be checked before taking the kind of package you need for the trip.

Depending on the number of people in your group and the kind of terrains you plan to cover, the type of vehicle is an important choice that you need to make. It can range from a hatch-back to a sedan to an SUV based on the plan. Depending on your choice, the price will also be varying, and you need to keep an eye on the budget accordingly.

One of the most important points to remember is the rules regarding driving license at the country or countries you plan to drive. In certain cases, the driving license you have in your current country may be valid at least for a brief period in the country of your travel. That will work out to be favourable for you. In other cases, you may have to take an International Driving Permit (IDP) to be driving legally in that country. Please always check for the latest rules before you decide which license be enough for you. I would like to give a friendly warning here that please do not depend entirely on AI or even news updates that come in the top search results in Google for this information. In most cases, the official government websites are dependable sources for this information.

These are many more aspects of your drive that contribute to a meaningful, hassle-free vacation. Since this is a vast area to talk about, I shall cover the remaining areas in part II of this topic.

Till then, do plan well and have a fantastic vacation.

Cheers!

Know thy Route

I hope you remember me mentioning in my last topic on this series about how we as a family get excited about road trips. Having said that, planning to drive during a vacation comes with its own share of huge responsibilities. If you have booked a tour operator, you will have nothing to worry about the planning. But the moment you decide to take the wheel yourself, there are a whole lot of aspects involved that need to be considered.

It all starts with a simple decision of what is the origin and destination of your road trip. Where would you like to start the drive where do you want to end it. Everything else in between are just pit stops, some short ones and others longer. We call this route planning. We usually avoid driving through cities, if feasible, and plan the trip through more scenic routes to enjoy the best what nature has to offer us.

Let us not forget the fact that while on a vacation, especially to a location you had never been before, everything is new for you. Every single bit is an experience. The question that begs to be answered is what is important for you or your family to include in the route you planned.

Obviously, there will be numerous choices, and it is easy to get lost. Here is where you apply the delicate balancing act of considering the wishes of each one of the family members so that you don’t end up disappointing someone. One of the recent road trips we did from London to Scotland, we combined a mix of beautiful villages which Ruby and I adored along with castles and other attractions, many of which were shooting locations for Harry Potter movies. Kids went wild with that!

You can start with making a list of well-known attractions on your route. It is so easy these days with tonnes of information available on internet. Travel blogs, websites such as Trip Advisor and various other sources give you lot of details and make it easy for you to come up with an initial list. The challenge will be to short list the attractions and align it as closely as possible to the route you planned. Else you will end up in too much of deviations costing you time and money.

Just make sure that you take the advice from various sources with a pinch of salt, since people usually write based on their personal experiences which may or may not apply to you. Some of the best examples are hotel reviews where what could be a perfect experience for you may be totally unacceptable for another traveller. Hence your decisions based on another person’s experience may not always be correct. The value attributed to attractions are another classic case. What could be an out-of-the-world experience for you could just be another tick in the box for someone. Choose wisely.

Remember to have a Plan B ready to respond to any changes while you are on the trip. Anything can go wrong in an unplanned trip. Weather changes, road closures, incorrect understanding of the information you obtained, accidental route deviations and what not? During our last trip in Scotland, we planned to reach the beautiful Isle of Skye by crossing a bridge from the mainland but were stupefied as we drove into a small port town of Mallaig which was the dead-end. The only option was to take a ferry to the island from the port which unfortunately we could not, since the ferry was full by the time our turn reached. We got the amount refunded, but Plan A did not work out that day. Instead, we explored the lovely town of Mallaig where we could even experience ‘The Jacobite Steam Train’ better known as Hogwarts Express!

 

Vacations should be all about fun. There will always be unknowns. All what we need to remind ourselves is not to fret if something goes wrong, instead be prepared and adapt accordingly.

 

The elf has many more stories to tell you. Until next time, drive safe and have fun!

 

Back in Time - A breath-taking journey through UK!

I love reading and I distinctly remember my school days when a wonderful world of fantasy unveiling in my mind through all the animated series of story books. They painted a vivid picture of castles, palaces, fairy lands, life lived to the fullest by the prince, princesses and the royals. All these and more truly came to life when we decided to explore London and Scotland through our absolutely stunning 16 days of travel through UK.

Lovely winding roads, lush green landscapes, giant but gentle mountains, waterfalls, winds that carry you in its arms, strawberry picking, historical artefacts ranging from dinosaur fossils through the mother of all diamonds Koh-i-Noor, castles, palaces and what not! We thank God for a wonderful vacation literally through a fairy land and a lovely time together as family.

Quick specs of our trip:

Date: 03 Aug to 18 Aug 2024

Arrival: 03 Aug 2024 at Stanstead Airport (LHR was absolutely not feasible to avail staff travel benefits)

Departure: 18 Aug 2024 from Newcastle Airport (Initial departure plan was Glasgow but later changed to Newcastle where staff travel could be availed. Was only an additional 3 hours from Glasgow by road)

Mode of Transport: 5 days in London - Travelled only on public transport in London. You do not really need any other mode of transport in the city since the London Underground (metro) and the suburban trains (Dockland Light Railway - DLR) are well connected and easily accessible across the city. Most of the major attractions are at walking distance to the train station. The weather was also lovely though Londoners consider this as their summer, for us when we go from Dubai, it is a beautiful weather indeed! You could either buy Oyster card which is a multi-modal transport card or simply use any of your bank cards which has as Wi-Fi logo on it which you could tap on the gunnebo gates or equivalent at the stations.

Glimpses of London

State rooms of Buckingham Palace takes you to a world of luxury you may have never experienced in your lifetime! If you love to explore everything in the state rooms, you could spend the whole day if you like. Else you could reasonably finish in 3 hours. Ten minutes from the palace is Westminster Cathedral, a 121 year old beautiful church.

A tour of Tower of London is an absolute must have! This is a castle built by William the Conqueror in AD 1078, served as the royal residence, a mint, a jail as well as a fortress where precious jewels are stored including the most famous diamond the world has ever known, Koh-i-Noor! Don't get surprised if you get a feeling on and off that you are living in 11th century. Just a word of caution, for people who are claustrophobic, you may find it a bit of a challenge. Nevertheless, it is an experience worth every moment. The greatest feeling for me personally was to see Koh-i-Noor at my hand's length! The Tower Bridge which many people call as London Bridge is at a stone's throw away from Tower of London. Natural History Museum was our next step where my kids, 12 years and 8 years befriended dinosaurs from the past and learned a few elements of animal kingdom up close and personal!

St Paul's Cathedral is the seat of Bishop of London. This is another massive and beautiful church built in 17th century. We took the famous London double decker bus to the church for the experience of it. London as you may know is infamous for its weather, hence carry a small umbrella in your bag, it will come handy if it rains. We then checked if the clock is working well by saying hi to the Big Ben and the adjacent Parliament square. Explored some more of the city and of course did some shopping at the famous Oxford Street.

From London to Scotland

After 5 days in London, we hired a car from Avis / Budget nearby where we stayed and drove to Cheltenham. Gloucester Cathedral, a 12th century architectural marvel, made even more famous by Harry Potter series, awaited us. Be aware of the risk of getting lost in the magnificence of the cathedral that if you are not cautious you will end up spending a whole day there! We managed to get out after a few hours and headed to a location where natural beauty is at its peak as the name itself says. It was Peak District National Park. After a while we headed to York, but not before stopping at a friend's place at Sheffield.

The National Railway Museum in York is the place to be if you really want to feel immersed in the olden days where steam run locomotives and other types of trains operated. Even the tallest among us will feel dwarfed in front of these massive engineering marvels.

Further up North, after crossing the coastal region of Amble we stopped at Warkworth Castle, bringing life to some of the fantasy stories I mentioned in the beginning of the story. You get a glimpse of life lived by royals during the yester years. Alnwick Castle, one of the best-preserved castles was destined to be our next stop. The life and times of Percy family unfolds here, probably one of the most powerful families after the King of UK. A pleasant surprise to see a Buckingham-like state rooms here as well.

On the road again to reach Dunfermline, which once was the capital of Kingdom of Scotland and less than an hour from Edinburgh where J K Rowling wrote most of Harry Potter. Some more shopping around in the city before heading to Cairnie fruit farm at Cupar, a 40 minutes’ drive from Dunfermline. I cannot literally explain the happiness of those strawberries when they saw us that they literally jumped into our basket! Strawberry picking is such fun! Further up, after a quick stop at a wheat farm, enjoying the cool breeze near the Tay Bridge in Dundee and browsing through unique wines at Cairn o' Mohr a local winery and passing by Lochaber waterpower project commissioned in 1929 we finally arrived at Spean Bridge, our place of stay for the next four days.

From that day onwards, we got ourselves locked in a fairy tale. This is the only way to define our days in Scotland! Everywhere you go, nature will pamper you with the most beautiful of sights that you will literally be mesmerised! The cold clear water along with countless pebbles at Loch Lochy, third-deepest lake of Scotland next to Loch Ness famous for the monster story, a small yet lovely looking waterfall at Inverness, an absolutely out-of-the world location experience gifted by Eilean Donan Castle, the simple yet sweet port town of Mallaig, watching the Harry Potter fame Jacobite Steam train in action and exploring the incredible terrains at Isle of Skye, every one of these experiences left us with lasting memories for a lifetime!

We thank all our well-wishers who prayed, helped and supported through this journey of a lifetime!

Fun Fact: This is the approximate distance from Thiruvananthapuram in South India to Taj Mahal in North India by road!