Nothing like old friends

Friends are like wine. The older they are, the better they become! There is nothing like old friends. Over the years, I have been fortunate enough to make some exceedingly good friends and even more lucky that we get together quite often.

Here are some pictures of two very good friends: Shamsher Singh Ahlawat and Vijay David and their wives Nandita and Rita when they visited us a couple of years ago. I should have put up these pictures much earlier, but better late than never.

A quiet evening at home with the Ahlawats in Kottayam  

A boat ride in Cochin with the Davids 

After the boat ride

 Simmy crossing the bridge at Irukanni 

Relaxing at the Sailing Club

Adieu to Europe and onward to Bahrain

We were indeed sad to leave Europe, and particularly Rome. But all good things must come to an end and soon it was time to move on. 

We left our lodgings around 4 in the afternoon on the 13th October. It was just as we were leaving the place that we met our son's classmate and her husband (briefly mentioned in the previous episode). As we were booked on a train leaving for the airport soon, we bade farewell to them quickly and hurriedly walked over to Ottaviano station to catch a train to Termini, from where we were to go to Rome's Fiumicino airport by another train. Though we reached the airport very much ahead of of time, we were very carelesss and reported to the check-in counter rather late. For some reason there was an unusually large crowd of passengers that day, departing to various parts of the world, and the staff at the airport seemed unable to cope with the work load. Progress was painfully slow and even ten minutes before take-off, we were still in the queue! It seemed certain that we would miss the the Qatar Airways flight to Doha and the connecting flight to Manama.

Just then Providence intervened in the form of a young girl who suddenly appeared on the scene like an angel. Like us she too was waiting impatiently in line, chafing at the delay. Though I (and Simmy) had tried to persuade the authorities to let us in because our flight was about to take off, they would not budge. The girl however, suddenly decided that she had had enough. She aggressively broke the queue, went forward, argued with the person on duty, and was soon cleared. Somehow she persuaded them to clear us also, and soon we were charging through the labyrinthine corridors of Fiumicino, to catch the in-house train within the airport which would take us to the tarmac. While doing so, I noticed that she was calling someone intermittently on the mobile, asking them to hold on and telling them that she was on her way. She soon revealed the secret of her success with the airport authorities; apparently she was an off-duty Air Hostess with Qatar Airlines!  And luckily for us she decided to befriend us, thereby enabling us too to catch the flight.

She seemed to be a very nice person, even carrying Simmy's hand-baggage during our sprint to the plane. All that we could gather about her was that she was Tunisian, her name was Unns (or something like that), she had an Italian boy-friend, and that her mother was a French teacher back home in Tunisia.
  

We had a two-hour wait at Doha. As it was early morning, I thought of having some coffee at the restaurant. And that's when I discovered the pathetic purchasing  power of the Indian rupee. The girl at the counter told me disinterestedly that two cups of coffee would cost only one thousand rupees! On hearing this, we hastily decided to forego the coffee.  

Sonny (Simmy's brother) and his wife Leeli were at the airport to receive us and we were soon enjoying a fabulous Kerala lunch at their beautiful apartment in Manama. After almost two months of bland European food, it felt heavenly to dig into some spicy Indian dishes. 

We spent more than a week in Bahrain with them and enjoyed every moment of our stay. Sonny and Leeli were lavish hosts and entertained us regally. They took us all around Bahrain and we got to see (and travel) on the Causeway linking Bahrain  with Saudi Arabia, the Bahrain Race Track, the Grand Mosque, the National Museum and many other places. And above all, we got to eat some great food and drink some exotic beverages, including champagne. They also entertained us at the Royal Golf Club to an enormous buffet lunch, where, much to my surprise, alcohol and pork were openly served!

Bahrain marked the end of our long holiday, and we were back in Cochin on the 23rd October 2013, after a wonderful, enjoyable, exciting and occasionally adventurous sojourn in Europe. 

Entrance to the souk in Manama

Brother and sister pose with me on the Causeway

At the restaurant on the Causeway

Tucking in at the Royal Golf Club

At the Royal Golf Club

In Sonny-Leeli's beautiful house

At the Grand Mosque

With friends at Sonny's house

An exhibit at the National Museum

Waiting for the champagne

Champagne Time!

Rome-The Eternal City

We left Florence on the 5th October 2013, on the last leg of our travels in Europe. It was a comparatively short journey to Rome

The interior of our train to Rome

Comfortable in the train

Wow! Look at the speed! 250 km. per hour

and took less than 3 hours. The Italian countryside was very pretty but the train was going so fast that everything went by in a whirl. At one time I was amazed to see from the display board in the compartment that we were travelling at 250 km. per hour, something unthinkable back home in India.   

The train took us to Tiburtina station, from where we took the metro to Termini, the central station of Rome. A change to another metro line and we were soon in Ottaviano, the station nearest our place of stay near the Vatican. During one of these hops we were once again accosted by a bevy of young girls trying to rob us of our money. By now however, we had become veterans in this game and  shooed them off, much to their chagrin and discomfiture. As they jumped off the train after their futile attempts, I wagged a finger at one of them and I could see her through the window, squirming in embarrassment and disappointment, as the train took off !

It was drizzling lightly when we got off the metro at Ottaviano, and it took us some time to locate the street where our lodging was located. Finally, with the help of a young (and very handsome) Australian priest who was passing by, we got there, much to our relief. The priests in charge of the place (all Malayalees) welcomed us warmly and we soon settled down. As it turned out, the place was situated bang next door to the Vatican-- a great advantage indeed, because for the next week or so most of our activities were centred round the Vatican, the Pope, St.Peter's Square, Vatican Museum, etc.      

Our room in Rome-very cozy

The view from our window. The Vatican wall in the background is just about 200 metres away

We spent more than a week in Rome and in many ways it marked the apogee of our travels in Europe. Just the thought that we were actually in the Eternal City, in the heart of Christendom, made it so exciting. The Vatican was just a stone's throw away and we spent a lot of time, at all times of the day and night, just wandering about the legendary St.Peter's Square. It was so close by that our  supply of drinking water used to be from one of the drinking fountains in the Square! (Water is terribly expensive to buy in Europe-about 1 Euro per bottle; one might as well drink wine!)

Simmy outside St.Peter's

We were quite lucky in that we had the opportunity to see the Pope on five different occasions during our stay in Rome. And during  his weekly Wednesday tour on the Popemobile, we saw him at very close quarters. When he came near us, I got so excited that my camera almost fell out of my hands, I leaned  onto the barricade separating us from the motorcade, and  yelled at the top of my voice,"Papa, Papa, Papa!" I think he heard me, because he turned around, quite startled at my loud voice, but the moment had passed and the Popemobile swept on. I had missed a golden photo-opportunity, but I was too exhilarated to care!
Pope Francis is a truly charismatic personality and I was so glad that we could make it to Rome during his papacy.

Viva il Papa!

Rome was fascinating, particularly the Vatican. We went all around the citadel, visited the Vatican Museum, attended Mass at St.Peter's, walked along the Tiber to Castel San Angelo, saw the Jesuit headquarters, the Colosseum, the Forum Romanum,  the Palatine Hills, the Victor Emmanuel Memorial and of course Trevi Fountain! And towards the end of our stay, we  spent one whole day, just tram-and-bus hopping, seeing various parts of the city. It was very interesting.

During our stay in Rome we also contacted our old friend from Kottayam, Sister Lilly of the Spirituality Centre who is   now in Rome. She came over to our place and we spent an afternoon together. It was good to meet an old friend in Rome! And on the last day, we had a pleasant surprise. Just as we were getting out onto the main street from our apartment, there was a loud shout of "Auntie, auntie" and we saw a young girl rushing out of the lift towards Simmy. "Aren't you Sanat's mother? I was in school with him and I recognised you."  It was incredible to meet our son's friend in distant Rome and we were all thrilled! She and her husband, who are based in London, were also staying at the same place where we were staying.

With Sister Lilly in Rome

Simmy outside the Colosseum

Simmy at the Victor Emmanuel Memorial

Swiss Guards at St.Peter's

Michangelo's Pieta in St.Peter's

Throwing a coin into the Trevi Fountain

Florence- The Jewel of the Renaissance

As with all our internal journeys within Europe, we took the early morning train to Florence, undoubtedly Italy's Jewel of the Renaissance. We stayed in a small but comfortable hotel called the Cavour, which fortunately turned out to be within walking distance of the two places which we desperately wanted to see --the Galleria Degli Uffizi and the Galleria Dell Accademia. Between these two amazing museums are to be found the most incredible pieces of Renaissance Art in the world.  

We spent the greater part of the 3rd and 4th October in the two museums, overawed by the sheer magnificence of it all. The highlights at the Uffizi were the Birth of Venus by Botticelli, da Vinci's Annunciation and Michelangelo's Holy Family. The Galleria Dell Accademia is of course renowned for Michalengelo's David, which was truly spectacular and took our breath away.

The Arno river from the Uffizi

At the Uffizi

Inside the Uffizi

 The magnificent Florence Cathedral

A street scene in Florence

Venice

Rose and Marco had arranged their regular cab driver, a friendly Italian lady (who arrived in a Mercedez-Benz !) to drop us to Milan railway station on the 1st October. The drive from Monza to the station took only about half an hour and soon we were on our way to Venice. The train ride, as usual in most European rail journeys, was very comfortable and just before we were about to reach Venice station, I discovered that our hotel was not really in Venice, but on the mainland, in Marghera, a few kilometres away. We quickly disembarked and after a bit of confusion, found our Hotel, the City of Art Venice Lloyd, though it was bang next door to the station. Maximilian, the receptionist on duty, was a very friendly fellow and soon gave us the low-down on how to get to Venice.

The hotel in Marghera (Venice)

We soon caught a bus and within 20 minutes or so, were in Venice! We spent most of the afternoon wandering around this amazing city, and wound up the day with a gondola ride. As it was quite expensive, (80 Euros), we managed to rope in two elderly Australian ladies to share the gondola with us. A gondola ride in Venice was one of Simmy's lifelong ambitions, and finally, on 1st October 2013, that desire was fulfilled! We caught a bus back to Marghera late in the evening, and after a frugal dinner of rice ( by now I was getting rather sick of pizzas and pastas) in a nearby joint run by Chinese immigrants, retired for the night.

Along the Grand Canal in Venice

An elated Simmy in the gondola

A romantic gondola ride

On a bridge across one of the numerous canals

The gondolier Fernando tries to sing for us 

The next day, 2nd October, was spent mostly visiting the two well-known islands Murano and Burano by boat. Murano is renowned for its exquisite glass-making industry (frightfully expensive though), while Burano specialises in lace-making. It was a really educative experience for us and we got to see both glass-blowing as well as lace-making. We returned to our hotel late in the evening and packed up for our trip to Florence the next morning.

Glass-making in Murano

A canal-cum-street in Burano

The colourful, picturesque houses in Burano

Milan

On board the train to Milan

Our next port-of-call was Milan, across the Alps, in neighbouring Italy. We left Geneva's Cornavin station on the morning of the 26th September 2013. For a long time the train travelled along the banks of Lake Geneva, past beautiful, picturesque places like Lausanne, Montreux, Sion, Brig , etc. and across the Simplon tunnel. We were going across the Alps, and I felt like Hannibal, but minus the elephants!  

Along picturesque Lake Geneva

We arrived in Milan late in the evening, and there was a bit of confusion for some time, because Rose, Simmy's first cousin who was to pick us up, was not to be seen! Soon however, she did arrive and we caught a local train to Monza, where she lives. We arrived on a good day, because the 26th September happened to be her husband Marco's birthday. We had a grand celebration, with good home-cooked Italian food, a cake and of course the mandatory wine! After our protracted wanderings across Europe, it was good to be with family again! The occasion was all the more exciting because Annie auntie, Rose's mother, had come all the way from New York (where she lives) to meet us, having advanced her annual visit to Monza to coincide with our arrival.

    

Celebrating Marco's birthday

We spent the next 4 days in Milan/Monza, with Rose and her family who went out of their way to look after us, despite heavy work schedules. The children Kiran and Anna too were very sweet and did all they could to make us feel at home. Rose took us to see the famous Milan Cathedral, the lesser known cathedral in Monza, and the Piazza Victor Emmanuele, said to be the world's first mall, which was indeed a huge and fascinating place. To top it all, she also took us to see Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper  at   Santa Maria delle Grazie. We also ate out a great deal, enjoying various types of Italian wines in the process. And one day, their maid Santa, even made a huge Italian meal specially for us. It was delicious.

Waiting for our train to Venice at the cavernous Milan railway station