Pr-ahaaaaa!!!

Incase you'll are wondering what is Praha - it is the official name for Prague where we went this weekend!! It was really AH-MAZING!!! The beautiful architecture, the cobblestone paths, the yummy food, the drinks..

Our hotel Pav http://www.hotel-pav.cz/en/ was right in the center of everything which made it so easy! Next morning after a huge breakfast buffet we ventured out with a "free" city map and frommers printouts to get "lost" into the city .... Here is our weekend....

Outside our hotel...

The Prague Castle and the Charles bridge

Me on the crowded Charles bridge

As we were walking around, we fell upon this beautiful park...

The view from the top of the park..

The famous Prague castle is not a castle but palace grounds with a lot of palaces, cathedrals, etc. Here is us at the entrance

J outside the Vitus cathedral



For lunch we found a cafe in one of the sqaures...

We decided to try out a cool little restaurant just next to our hotel for dinner and that was the best decision ever! It turned out to be the oldest brewery in Prague. The architecture was wonderful, there were musicians playing everywhere and waiters walked around with their brewed beer and a drink called Becherovka. The food was to die for! Read about U Fleku -http://www.ufleku.cz/en/page.php?page=onas

In the evening we walked to the Wenceslas square where the famous National museum stands. The street was too big and commercialized. Czech out the tram cafe... :)

The view at night!
At a cafe ....

The next day -Me dancing outside the "dancing" building.. this was quite lame..

The city was so well connected by trams... we took a day pass and went everywhere in them!

we went to the Vysehrad castle... again no castle only cathedral *sigh*

It had a beautiful view of the river...

We finally reached the famous and beautiful Old Town Square surrounded with great architectural marvels such as the Tyn Chapel, the St. Nicholas Church and the famous Astronomical Clock. We had the best meal of our lives sitting in one of the cafes there!




I wish I could stay there forever.... but it was time to come back.... buh-bye Prague! Check out some other cool pics in the slideshow on the top.

My birthday!

I had a GREAT birthday this year!!! Thanks to everyone who made it sooo special......

My day started with a FULL English breakfast at http://www.vingtquatre.co.uk/- a cool place in Chelsea, London with Erin and Laura! After the heavy breakfast we walked around for a bit.

I then met my J at Canary Wharf for lunch. We found this cool place which served yummy Indian food in tiffins http://www.tiffinbites.com/. It is based on the Bombay dabbawalla concept (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dabbawala) where the lunch box delivery man picks up food from the office-goers residence and delivers it after a complicated (award worthy) supply chain to the office goer. It was soo much fun!! Check out the man with his tie tucked into his shirt enjoying the chicken tikka and lamb. :)

In the evening we went out for dinner to an EXCELLENT tapas restaurant http://www.theetoncollection.com/restaurants/ebar/ in Little Venice with Niki, Erin, Mike, Laura, Sid, Nelson, Hina, Shikha, Meghan and Kiran.

US

ALL OF US

Day trip - Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, Salisbury, Bath

On Saturday we rented a car and drove out to see Stonehenge and Bath with Kapil's brother Nikhil and cousin Shikha. Mr. Mohan didn't take any time to get used to the stick-shift car and opposite side of the road and off we were. At the last moment we decided to go see the Queen's house - Windsor Castle.

Here are 3 of us outside the entrance..

We then went on the Stonehenge. It is a World Heritage Site believed to be erected in 2200 BC! It looked amazing but not worth 6.50 pounds to see it from close so K and S went in and N and I enjoyed it from the outside. We were planning to buy the t-shirt 'STONEHENGE ROCKS!'

I had read that the Salisbury castle is really good so we headed there and it turned out to be nothing but the ground where the castle once was. The Salisbury cathedral was the famous place so we went there and oh we weren't disappointed - it was BEAUTIFUL! This 750 years old cathedral has the tallest church spire in the UK, contains the world's oldest working clock (from AD 1386) and has one of the four surviving original copies of the Magna Carta. There was a service going on - the music gave it a totally eerie feeling..it was LOVELY!

Bath was beautiful! Great architecture, the river, the Roman baths - absolutely amazing!

Bath at night..

I am-sterdam

This weekend we were off to Amsterdam. (For all the times we sat at the Schiphol airport enroute to India this HAD to be our first European destination!) We got a great deal for a 4 star hotel but it was slightly far from the city center. We were really hungry when we reached and a drive-thru McDs was the only thing open at that time so we 'stood' in the line amongst the cars. :)

The next day we took the train to Amsterdam Centraal (Amsterdam's main station). We bought a day pass called I am-sterdam that allowed us unlimited access to public transport, entry to certain museums and a free canal cruise.

We started our day with the cruise. Did you know that Amsterdam gets it's name because of a dam that was built on the Amstel river? I didn't! And that the water that runs throug the canals is fresh water. And that there are 2500 houseboats in the city. :) We passed through the city's beautiful canals, saw the wonderful architecture and the houseboats.

We just walked around the amazing streets and sat and enjoyed the boats passing by from a cafe by a canal.



It was a nice sunny day but suddenly it started raining so it was time to sit in a tram and go check out the Van Gogh musuem. We were amazed to find out that Van Gogh painted for just about 10 years before he died at a young age of 37.



In the evening we sat in a square full of umbrellas and a lot of bars.

Here is K enjoying his beer.



A nice pic


It was getting dark and it was time to go check out the must-see part of Amsterdam - 'the red-light area'! Never before had I seen anything like this! Females scantily clad standing in doorways which had a red light on top waiting to get to "work". If they were busy either the curtains were drawn or their seats were empty. There were several peep shows also. We couldn't take the pics of the workers.

The next day we met Natali and Samuel (he is doing from GSB and doing his internship in Rotterdam)at Amsterdam. We had such a FUN day! We started the day by going to the Rijksmuseum - The Dutch national musuem. It had many famous paintings including Rembrandt.

Me, Natali and Samuel outside the museum

Here are 4 of us in Vondelpark.

Here are 4 of us trying a "cake" in a "coffee house" :)

We had a picnic at a bench by the canal...

Natali and me in front of a crooked building.

It was finally time to bid Amsterdam good bye.. No photos can do the place justice. For two days we felt like we were living a fairy tale in a doll house.

All I can say is I am-sterdam.