Tuscan Diaries!

Driving to region of Tuscany - just by the thought of it seeemed far, but we had become a "long drive trip" family at this point of life and surely wanted to venture it. We as usual dumped  our car to a situation where things would fall down as you open the trunk. We started off on a nice evening with the plan to halt in France - hence  Drove to France near Mulhouse. We spent the night in a camping place kind - caravan stay very similar to our stay towards Alsace region. We had packed food and it was quick stop over for us.

Next day started to zermatt.. zermatt is no car zone. Hence we drove to reach along the mountains and towards the snow capped.  The way was magical like winter wonderland where the trees and leaves were covered with snow ; green and white everywhere. 
We took the train from Tasch and reached Zermatt    the old town is beautiful and worth a walk . We can witness Matterhorn at a good distance from here and with a beautiful view .there are paths to hike as well and plenty of snow to play around . 

Had a good hot chocolate and walked back to the station to return to Tasch.zermatt is obviously the ski resort  .. Hence if skiing is your thing..  Zermatt is the best 
We took the car back and went to SaaS fee to stay for the nite . We stayed at a hostel with shared kitchen  and shares toilet. Had home made dinner and slept .The owner was a very welcoming guy.

The next day we started to Italy- of course we need to get soak in the Tuscan sun.. But yet, we had some stops ! We were headed to lake Como, but before that had an awesome sledge play on d ice field near our stay place , Not an easy one..  for me it was scary . We returned the sledge to the house owner and returned back  . The return  drive was another magical mania  .It was like driving into Alps which was just white . Both sides were white enough to gape over with awesome photo stops. 

As we drove towards Alps the drive made us enter into Italian border ' dogono' . We entered Italy through Milan and took an exit into Lake como. The drive had many tunnels and also made us view the Italian Alps   which was more clear and literally snow capped .
Lake Como was posh. Classy. Rich and what we can expect from villages surrounded with Villas . There were many villages around  Como, the popular ones are Mennagio and Bellagio  . Yes the inspiration for our Bellagio casino in Lass Vegas. The  cities in como are all cobble stoned with stairs to move up and down. Bellagio seems to have been made up by man in terms of beauty.. The lavender plants all around giving us a soothe feeling ..The beauty of the date trees ..The maintenance of the city along the Lake.. awesome points for photos.. all tells us Bellgaio is by down the rich town.. so is Mennagio.. The posh colour everywhere.. The classic walks..the restaurant buzzling with people. 

Something that i noticed in Italy was  was that dinner or lunch is generally split into prima piatti and second piatti( side course) and obviously a stream of wine.Chianti.  Vino nobile and Brunelo. 

The following day.. We were headed to Florence after a good breakfast in a our hotel in Mennagio where   our room was over looking the Como  .. The sparkling blue clear water . As we neared Florence the weather  changes drastically..  It became warm and the happiness within us to see the sun was growing . We parked outside the ZTL ( zono traffico limito) in Proto Al Prato parking. From there the walk to duomo is 20 min. We walked in the sun and as we near the centre, the city has cobble stoned streets all over. There are high end shops on the way to duomo .The duomo stands tall with its Romansque Architecture boasting as we see it from the narrow streets. Around the duomo there were plenty of tourists clicking photos or walking with a gelato in hand . There are plenty of eateries around the duomo and plenty of souvenir shops.  The duomo for me  is a white and green layered marble structure which is huge and the every cm shouts architecture at it's best.every  colour indicates a reason . Green for hope. Pink for love . There are in between pink slabs of marble too. In Italian architecture according to my knowledge there is always a duomo.. a capable ( tower) and a square at a centre place. Walking around and admiring the duomo. Tower and square is breathtaking. There is also a golden gate which has been sculpted with biblical verses  . There are many restoration works in going

South Of France - Aug 2018

Alsace Region-June 2017

Japanese Garden-Hasselt

Tranquil Japanese garden   featuring a koi pond & events such as tea tastings & floral workshops . A good place to walk around, spend some serene time. The plants and trees depict its purely Japan. The shapes of the leaves, the structure of bamboos and the structure of the ponds are purely Japanese. The entrance is 5 euros per person. The best time to visit the garden is during April, when there are cherry blossom and its world famous during that time of the year . The entire place is full of white and pink and provides a rich atmosphere.

The best days to visit are when there are some workshops on tea, Origami or floral workshops. The website as details of the date for the entire year. Just another place with a twist.

Kinderdijk

Kinderdijk is a village in the the Netherlands' South Holland province, known for its iconic 18th-century windmills. Its water-management network features 19 mills and 3 pumping stations, plus dikes and reservoirs that control flooding in the polder (low-lying land).
I never knew of this jewel until we visited it. I was assuming it would not be much different from Zanse Schaans, but it was . The wind mills and its features were the same, but the view of the 19 mills along the stream with a gloomy back ground made it worth the visit.
We can either walk the path or bicycle or take the ferry that comes across the stream. Walk is the best way as far as I saw. There are plenty of ducks in the stream for kids to enjoy. Its worth visiting one wind mill and understanding the concepts.
At the end, there is a cinema shown on the way Kinderdijk came into existence and a good way to end the day.

Namur & Dinant

Namur / Dinant:

Namur and Dinant are two jewels in the region of Wallonia in Belgium. Namur is a bigger province and Dinant much smaller one. My visit to Dinant is the second time , but this time more concentrated on city and not anywhere else.
Dinant is a small town, the main parts of the place are the Citadel, the river Meuse flowing and the breath taking view of Ardennes. The tour on the Citadel is a worth a visit one time. We can reach the top of Citadel by stairs or through cable cars. By stairs is a bit tiring, but yet worth the effort.
The tour around Citadel had a good spot which was called the crooked room, that shows the entire room in a crooked manner , at one point it looked fun, but it was mostly making my head spin. But a different experience.We have an amazing view of the town and valley from the citadel. It also hosts amazing collection of after war effects .
Dinant also is the place of Adolphe Sax , there are museum of Mr.Sax's developement and the bridge over Meuse consists of a lot of Saxophone that are colored and give a good feeling to the town.

Namur:
The much bigger province in Wallonia , Namur is huge and very famous for the Meuse river and the citadel again. We had a change only to visit the citadel which was a good drive up the mountains and a breath taking view of the city entirely. There is a rose garden up the citadel which really smells good of Rose and its perfume. We did not spend a lot of time there and rather munched upon the ice creams and a walk by the river.

Aachener Weihnachtsmarkt

Aachen Christmas Market- Season of Winter 2015- I heard from colleagues that Aachen Christmas market is the best one and good one in Germany.
It was indeed a good one, around 200 shops being lined up in festive colors , with huge decorations of Christmas and lights all over. It looked like a picture postcard Christmas village.
The shops sold Christmas items that were very different, candles in different shapes, goodies in different taste. The best part was also that the Christmas eateries were awesome, suited for vegetarians. Some of my favorites were nouggets, cauliflower fries and mushroom with sauce.. Yummy. It was a sale period , hence we were able to shop a little that fetched us discount. All in all a Christmas holiday well spent.