Since all enjoyed my 1st part thought I can come up with the next. During our travel in the coach on the 1st day I think we had to introduce ourselves to the rest of our group. The tour manager will call out the names of each family & everyone had to go to the front of the bus & use the mike to introduce . we had to say our names, about the family, what you do, our hobbies etc. One from the family had to either say a joke or sing a song. We had many good singers & bathroom singers too. we used to play antakshari too. The manager will sometimes come up with some questions & the one who got the answer right was given a small prize too. I was unlucky in that. PV sang his Surangani medley one day. Watched the movie Jab thak he jaan one day in the coach!!
Next day , that is on 22nd,got ready early in the morning & started our tour at 8. went to Pisa .1st was the Square of Miracles. Then we saw the leaning tower of Pisa. After the photo session there we had time for shopping. Did a bit of shopping( both actual & window). Pinocchio is from Pisa & we could find many pinocchio items there. There were small tent type structures from where could buy a few things. Besides mementos we bought some fresh fruits to have as snacks to take care of my sugar fluctuations. That is the only place in the entire trip that we saw a fruit stall !!
I wanted to buy a memory card for my camera as I was not sure how much capacity mine will have. But couldn't get one suitable for mine. My guide said I can get it from Florance.So I was keeping my fingrs crossed that it will last till then.
We had our lunch at Asoka. After lunch we went on a city tour of Florance. We got down at a square on a hill top to get a bird's eye view of the place. There was a replica of David's Statue there. As we got down most were attracted towards not the statue but to a ferrari parked there. Most took photos near that:-) Saw the biggest cathedral-Duomo,Bapistery with the gates to Paradise. It had sculputre of Adam & Eve, Caine & Abel & many other stories. After that we checked in to our hotel-Sheraton in Padova.
On 23rd we started a bit early 7.45 to be exact( thanks to my notes) to Venice. I was looking forward to going to Venice. I was fascinated by the photos that chettan or Appan chettan had. Had a boat ride through the back waters. We went to St Mark's square. There were people(men & women) dressed in their carnival dress with masks on their face & Japanese type fan in their hands. I was reminded of the mask & fan that we saw in the Tibetan settlement in Coorg. They won't allow us to take their photos unless we pay them. One of the ladies started singing Churaliya he ..... & some other Hindi songs seeing us. By the way we were greeted in many places in our tour with namaste. Many guides used to say a few Hindi words like chalo(dheere chalo, jaldi chalo etc).
Then we had the boat ride in the canals- its called Gondola ride. The tour manager decided who will go with whom. I was a bit disappointed with our team- Mr srivastava & family. Somehow I didn't feel at home with them. The 1st question Mr S had was how much PV earns! May be that put me off. The ride was nice except when we go under the bridge when he tilts the boat a bit so that it doesn't touch the bridge.None of us except PV knew swimming.( changed referring him as He to PV).
After that we were taken to Murano glass factory where they had a demo of making things in glass. It was so fascinating how he made a horse in minutes by hand. We were taken to their showroom, such pretty items. Glass with Gold inlay( hope it is the correct word) work on them. so no need to say they are quite expensive. Like the fox( munthiri pulikkum) we all left the place saying it is difficult to carry home as it is breakable.
We had lunch in one of the boats with live ltalian music. We had Pao bhaji & veg fried rice that day.
We left for Austria by 1 pm & reached there by 5.45 or so. Stayed in a hotel in Innsbruck . Forgot to note the name of the hotel we stayed. Oh suddenly I remembered it was Novotel. One strange thing about the room was the WC was a separate room from the bathroom. Never seen like that anywhere else.
Next day we went to the famous Swarovski museum & their outlet. No need to say it was amazing & expensive.
That is the only place we visited in Austria.
That is enough for today.Wait & watch for the next part.
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