Exploring Europe: From Switzerland to Belgium via the Autobahn

The chasing of dreams did neither end at Switzerland nor peak. The trip is now halfway done but still keeping me on my toes! So did my work after the last blog…

Austria: Touch & go!

After our lunch at Vaduz, we headed towards Innsbruck, Austria which was the destination for the day. The rains were back and definitely wet and chilly! Before we had our short city tour, we visited the world-famous Swarovski Kristallwelten (Swarovski crystal world) founded by Daniel Swarovski are leaders (magicians!) in cutting crystal glass into fashion, jewelry accessories. They are also leaders in manufacturing optical devices and glass cutting tools. The museum displays artworks of not only Swarovski but also prominent artists who are commissioned by the museum to build artworks. The experience is definitely enthralling and out of this world. The crystal sculptures will definitely make your jaw drop! One of the artworks was a combination of billions of unique patterns. The pattern changes every thirty seconds or so. It means that the pattern I saw can never be seen again by anyone in this lifetime. There are fashion accessories made of crystals, crystal structures of 7 wonders of modern world One needs to have patience along with good time. At the end of the exhibit, they have their factory outlet where you can buy souvenirs. One can easily spend 2-3 hours depending on one’s interest.

The Swarovski crystal world

Amidst rains, we headed towards Innsbruck where we went to the city center for shopping and see the famous Goldenes Dachl/The golden roof. The building which served as residence for the Tyrolean sovereigns in 15^th century. The roof was decorated with 2657 copper tiles to mark the Emperor Maximillian I’s wedding with Bianca. This emperor and his queen used this balcony to observe festivals, tournaments, and other events that took place in the square below. The Altstadt or the old city is filled with more Gothic structures for you to explore. We had our dinner and retired to our rooms. There is also Top of Innsbruck which has a cable car or a famous geo trail for the adventure junkies. The trek passes via Austria’s largest nature park, Karwendel. The cable car ride is definitely is worthy for the views it has to offer of the entire valley including the nature park and city of Innsbruck. The next day was another travel day. We bid bye to Innsbruck with a hope to return again and hopefully also ride the famous Oriental Express!

Exploring the city of Innsbruck

Autobahn: The Germany that I saw & peek into Strasbourg

Lake Titisee & the Autobahn

After starting from Innsbruck, we soon entered Germany and were driving on the world-famous autobahn. We were planned to drive through the famous Dark forests of Germany with a lunch stop at lake Titisee. The cold began to catch up and I had one of the tastiest hot chocolates on the banks of lake Titisee. We reached our destination for the day, Strasbourg which is a border town between France and Germany. Strasbourg also happens to be the seat or capital of European Union. This city also has multiple canals which one can explore with the boat rides. There was no sign of any rains in Strasbourg so we had a nice long walk through the city, market and the Notre Dame Strasbourg. The cathedral is definitely huge! Since it was late and we were on tight schedule we did not enter the building but only shopped around and clicked photos before heading towards the restaurant for dinner and later heading to our hotel

Strasbourg

Passing by the wealthiest country of Europe: Luxembourg

After spending a night in Strasbourg, it was time to head northwest towards the land of Beer and Dark chocolates Belgium! On our way we were scheduled to pass via Luxembourg where we had our city orientation tour and stopped by for lunch. Luxembourg is yet another small land locked country which is ruled by a monarchy and hence the only grand duchy remaining in the world! The city of Luxembourg is filled with architectures and is a dream for photographers. There is the La Passerelle, The Grand Palace, Museum of modern art, The Notre Dame Cathedral, Statue of Charlotte. The city tour ended with a wonderful lunch! Which was definitely the best yet given the cold weather and rains. After lunch we continued our Journey towards Brussels.

Luxembourg

Belgium & Netherlands

Belgium & Netherlands are some of the advanced and sophisticated countries of EU. Belgium is famous for its waffles, fries, dark chocolates & beer. On the other hand Netherlands is famous for its dairy products.

Brussels welcomed us in the evening with drizzles and cold wind. It was definitely chilly to walk around the town looking at the architecture and enjoying the weather. We visited the famous Atomium which was built as part of the world science fair in 1954. It represents the iron crystal when magnified 165 billion times! I wonder why do we not have such fairs in 21^st century? It is mainly a photo stop. If you have time & interest you can buy tickets and enter the structure where a restaurant is located.

The Atomium

The next day we travelled to the Netherlands to visit Madurodam in The Hauge and Amsterdam. Madurodam is a 1:25 scale model replicas of famous Dutch landmarks, historical cities and large developments. The park was opened in 1952 and has since been visited by tens of millions of visitors. The entirety of net proceeds from the park go towards various charities in the Netherlands. It built by the parents of George Maduro from the Royal family of Netherlands (The Antillians) who was a law student at Curacao who fought against the occupational forces of Nazi Germany (German Reich) as a lieutenant in the Dutch army and re-captured a key position of villa ‘Leeuwenburg’ from the Germans with just a platoon that would later delay the capturing of The Hauge by a week. He was captured and sent to a concentration camp where he was released after 6 months but he joined the resistance forces. He was sent to the camps multiple times until 1945 but used to escape and rejoin the forces. He was the key corroborator who helped many allied pilots and jews to escape to the United Kingdom and Spain. He was captured by Nazis again and again only to escape but in February 1945 he died of Typhus while being held at Dachau concentration camp. The very camp was liberated by the American troops three months later. He was the only son to their parents. He gave it all. His acts of bravery did not go unnoticed and was awarded Knight 4th-class of the Military Order of William, which was awarded posthumously.

The theme park of Madurodam definitely brings out the child within you. I for some reason which I cannot remember knew about this place from a very young age & visiting it was definitely mesmerizing. It is a completely functional city with working airports, seaports, train stations etc. One can easily spend 2-3 hours exploring every nook and corner of this theme park. It opens at 11AM everyday and the tickets can be bought at the counter.

Madurodam, The Hauge

We further headed towards the Amsterdam where we had a city tour on a cruise boat along the canals. It is a guided tour where the Captain of the boat shows us all the famous buildings and also narrates the details about them. Amsterdam is a city of canals, bicycles and trams. Since most of the land is flat in the Netherlands, they have prioritized cycling over all modes of transport. The cyclists have the highest priority and dedicated lanes in the country. You can see them Zooming past. One needs to be very careful while crossing of the cyclists than cars here.

Amsterdam-City of canals

The city of Amsterdam lies below sea level. They have constructed dams and canals to re-claim the land from sea hence you can see that the buildings are very narrow but have multiple floors even in the older part of the town. In the city of Amsterdam which is connected by flights from every major city in the world one can explore the Jordaan which is the small island that has still maintained its ancient charm. If you are interested in history then definitely the Anne Frank house, the art enthusiasts can visit the Van Gogh Museum, the shipping museum and many more museums! The beer lovers can visit the Heineken headquarters if interested in the beer museum.

We headed back to Brussels after our cruise and next day visited the famous Grand Palace and the Mannequin piss statue which has very interesting background. Usually it is naked but on special occasions they do dress it up. The streets around the Mannequin piss statue have the best places to buy chocolates, fries, waffles and souvenirs. We further passed by the Palace of justice which is currently under renovation while heading to our lunch. Post lunch we started our journey towards Paris which was the last city of this trip. We will read about it in the next blog, until then explore my Instagram page and older blogs!

Brussels-Belgium

Hotel & restaurant suggestions:

PS: Many Pakistani restaurants are passed on as Indian restaurants in Europe so these were the ones which I visited was sure that were operated by Indians within the countries that I visited in this blog.

A Million Moments