SECOND IMPRESSION OF BELGIUM
Last month, from 23rd to 27th I visited Belgium and The Netherlands to attend a conference on official business. This was my second visit to Europe. It was only today that I filled in the details of those days in the diary I maintain. That triggered memories of the four days. Here, then, are my "second impressions" of my European sojourn !
On 23rd January, I left home at around 11:00 p.m. in the night. The Air France flight to Paris from Bangalore takes off in the early hours of the morning. After completing the immigration formalities and the security check, I plonked myself in front of one TV in the airport. A news channel was on and I found the experience surreal : watching a news channel in the airport at 12:00 a.m. in the night.
Eventually, it was time to board the plane. I found my seat and put in my Samsonite back pack in the overhead bin. Behind my seat, a bespectacled middle aged gentleman behind me helped a younger co-passenger load his luggage first. This display of courtesy when most of us would be looking to keep our luggage first struck me as unusual. The middle aged man was not your usual traveller, it appeared. So it turned out to be : he introduced himself to the youngster as a man from Jerusalem. He asked what the youngster was doing (he was a student on his way to US), what he liked, where he came from, etc. In the matter of a few minutes, the atmosphere behind me was relaxed and informal !
Unfortunately, I did not get his name. Seeing his display of courtesy, I pulled up my seat ahead whenever I felt that he wanted to get up and move. He did that a couple of times and once I also joined him in the rear of the plane. We didn't speak, though. He was busy speaking to the steward and asking about distances and duration. I could see the lights of a city below. It was probably a city in Turkey, as that is what the map indicated.
Somewhere during the journey, my eyes also closed for a brief nap, though not a comfortable one. The plane was running half an hour late. I was booked for the TGV train to Brussels and without the delay, I had time of slightly more than an hour. By the time the flight landed and the bus came to take us to the airport from the terminal, it was already 9:25 a.m. - and my train was at 9:40 a.m. ! Mentally, I was cursing the bus driver who seemed to be the slowest one in all of Paris !!
At the immigration counter, I also had to check where the TGV station was ! The attendant I asked was not too hopeful of me making it on time. My watch showed that it was 9:35 a.m. already and I rushed following the signs. I was in a state of high alert, bordering on panic, but not quite panicky ! I hadn't anticipated that things could get this tight during the transit !
The station is actually below the ground level and on the escalator heading downstairs, I saw that I was literally a minute away from scheduled departure. My eyes began wildly searching for information about the train to Brussels on the screens. I found the train number soon. This was when, for the first time in my life, I was glad to see a "Retard" sign for a train !! The word was French, but I didn't need any Frenchman to tell me that the train was delayed !
In fact, when I went to the ticket counter to get my boarding pass, it was confirmed that the train was indeed an hour delayed. This gave me time to get my breath back and settle down to some extent ! On my way to the station, I had asked a young man where the station was and he had replied in English that he didn't know either ! Murphy's law had hit me. I met this young man again and he asked me about my train.
We got around talking. He was a Rumanian artist who had to take a train to a French town to inaugurate his new book. He was desperately looking for a place where he could smoke a cigarette in the public "no-smoking" zone ! I told him not to take the risk of smoking in the toilet : I was sure there were smoke detectors. Instead, I suggested that he could go out of the airport and then come back in. His eyes brightened when I gave him this idea. He asked me to join him for a beer ! I told him that I was a teetotaller and he sounded disappointed at that.
Soon, the lady at TGV counter approached me and said that the train would be coming soon. Standing in the station, exposed to the elements made me feel the cold. The temperature was in single digits and when I exhaled I could see my breath forming a plume of warm air. I noticed that even the Europeans felt the cold. Clearly, this was the European winter at its best - or worst !
The TGV train runs at an average speed of more than 200 kmph to cover the 336 km distance in an hour and a half. Please see http://www.o-keating.com/hsr/thalys.htm for details. Inside the train, the journey is rather smooth and at least I did not feel the speed. A young man served coffee and snacks during the journey. There was a dustbin in the side, concealed. I had a side seat.
I have travelled in local trains and trains in India and could not help but compare the cleanliness. However, we also pay for it in Europe as http://www.raileurope.com/us/rail/point_to_point/results.htm?cobrand=public&fn=fsRequest&c=USD&itemId=-1&r=0&F0=Paris+Cdg+Airport&T0=Brussels&m0=3&d0=25&t0=morning&nA=1&nC=0&nY=0&nS=0&s=Search shows. In India, the train ticket is meant to cater for rich and poor alike. So naturally, the fares have to be low. There should be a way of combining social concern and hygiene and cleanliness on our trains also.
In this train, for groups, there were also four seaters with a table in the center in the cabin. I spent time watching the French countryside. There were gentle undulating, green meadows and an unfamiliar looking tree. This tree grows tall with a single trunk and then forks upwards, rather like the prongs of a fork. I seem to recall that the leaves were drooping, but I could be mistaken.
The train went to Lille and then actually came back. When it came back, I was mildly confused. In which direction was the train really headed ?! At around 12:25 p.m. I was in Brussels, as promised. I had to go to Brugge and by now I was game for another train journey ! I booked the tickets and caught the train at around 12:50 p.m. By 1:45 p.m. or so, I was in Brugge. I took the bus to reach the Centrum, the market place in Brugge. The town has retained much of the old architecture that characterized the first half of the twentieth century. The houses have sloping roofs, probably to keep off the snow and also high doors and ceilings. This is probably to insulate the house against the winter. It feels nice to see that the architecture has been retained so well. There are quite a few churches and museums in Brugge.
The market place has quaint cobblestones for its pavements. I spent time locating my hotel and also taking the opportunity to roam around the place. There were chocolate shops and also a Tintin souvenir shop ! I checked in to the hotel near the "Burg", a place for chariots and victorias to stop. http://www.brugge.be/internet/en/index.htm has information about Brugge.
That afternoon, I met a colleague, a counterpart in the software quality assurance field and in the evening I had to go to Eindhoven with him. It was just as well that I had his company. There are a couple of train changes to be done. One was in Antwerp, which looks like a modern city compared to Brugge.
The train journey in Belgium is a comfortable one. The network is well established and I found that students and professionals alike take the trains to move from place to place. Of course, cars would give more flexibility to people, but if that is not an issue, the trains are convenient and link the towns well.
We reached Eindhoven at close to 9 p.m. The town looks modern and lively. Just outside the railway station is the Centrum, the city center where restaurants of different cuisines are present to satisfy all tastes. My colleague and I ate dinner at a Lebanese place. I settled for falafel, the Lebanese bread.
The next morning, my boss and I were at Veldhoven. There was an old monastery that has been converted into a hotel called the Koningshof. The conference was in this hotel. The hotel is spread out and contains corridor after corridor. I checked in and also found a few old acquaintances at the conference. The conference had a couple of interesting topics, the most interesting being the sessions on using Agile development methodology in projects.
The conference was for two days. On the morning of the second day, I went for a walk. At 6:45 in the morning, the weather was cold, but pleasant enough. I also sent email using the Internet facilities at the hotel. During lunch time, my boss showed me a lake behind the hotel. It looks quite pretty. At the end of the second day, we took a taxi back to Eindhoven. From there, a colleague and I took the train to Schiphol airport.
The directions at Schiphol are well marked. My colleague and I were booked in different airport hotels and we had to take the airport shuttle to the hotels. The same hotel chain managed both hotels and we found the counter of this hotel chain thanks to the clear directions at the airport. Standing outside at 7:00 p.m. when a breeze blew, I shivered in spite of myself and the warm jacket I wore. The temperature was 3 degrees Celsius, the coldest weather that I have ever experienced !
At the hotel in Amsterdam, I ate a dinner of lasagna with my boss. Then it was time to go to sleep. We took the early morning shuttle to check in to the flight to Paris. Amsterdam in the early morning looked well lit. In Paris, my boss was impressed with the changes in Charles De Galle airport. In his previous experience, he had found the airport unhelpful, but now the hi-speed train to the terminal, the directions and the information kiosks all served to change his opinion about the airport.
The flight back home was the roughest that I have experienced. The turbulence was quite a lot. I felt a little nausea after I ate, but there was no damage done.
After three days of an interesting trip, I was back home.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
NOTE:
I had originally written this blog in another site. Since that site is no longer accessible, I am uploading it in this blog at http://fewidlethoughts.blogspot.in/ using the same date as the original blog dates.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
===== COMMON TEXT FOR ALL BLOGS =====
++++++ BEGINS ++++++
When I created my first blog, I thought I was
being clever by being "anonymous" and let my
opinions speak for themselves (see the archive !)
Imagine my embarrassment when I saw my name
displayed ! So now, while I still retain the blog
name as "Anonymous Expressions", I will only
request you to ignore my name and concentrate on
my opinions instead !
ALL COPYRIGHTS AND TRADEMARKS ARE ACKNOWLEDGED
AS THE PROPERTIES OF THEIR OWNERS.
The opinions expressed in the Weblogs are my
personal opinions. Please tell me if you spot any
factual mistakes or don't like the way I have
expressed a view. If I can see your point, I will
correct the mistake. You can email me at
kiran.suma@gmail.com.
++++++ ENDS ++++++
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
Last month, from 23rd to 27th I visited Belgium and The Netherlands to attend a conference on official business. This was my second visit to Europe. It was only today that I filled in the details of those days in the diary I maintain. That triggered memories of the four days. Here, then, are my "second impressions" of my European sojourn !
On 23rd January, I left home at around 11:00 p.m. in the night. The Air France flight to Paris from Bangalore takes off in the early hours of the morning. After completing the immigration formalities and the security check, I plonked myself in front of one TV in the airport. A news channel was on and I found the experience surreal : watching a news channel in the airport at 12:00 a.m. in the night.
Eventually, it was time to board the plane. I found my seat and put in my Samsonite back pack in the overhead bin. Behind my seat, a bespectacled middle aged gentleman behind me helped a younger co-passenger load his luggage first. This display of courtesy when most of us would be looking to keep our luggage first struck me as unusual. The middle aged man was not your usual traveller, it appeared. So it turned out to be : he introduced himself to the youngster as a man from Jerusalem. He asked what the youngster was doing (he was a student on his way to US), what he liked, where he came from, etc. In the matter of a few minutes, the atmosphere behind me was relaxed and informal !
Unfortunately, I did not get his name. Seeing his display of courtesy, I pulled up my seat ahead whenever I felt that he wanted to get up and move. He did that a couple of times and once I also joined him in the rear of the plane. We didn't speak, though. He was busy speaking to the steward and asking about distances and duration. I could see the lights of a city below. It was probably a city in Turkey, as that is what the map indicated.
Somewhere during the journey, my eyes also closed for a brief nap, though not a comfortable one. The plane was running half an hour late. I was booked for the TGV train to Brussels and without the delay, I had time of slightly more than an hour. By the time the flight landed and the bus came to take us to the airport from the terminal, it was already 9:25 a.m. - and my train was at 9:40 a.m. ! Mentally, I was cursing the bus driver who seemed to be the slowest one in all of Paris !!
At the immigration counter, I also had to check where the TGV station was ! The attendant I asked was not too hopeful of me making it on time. My watch showed that it was 9:35 a.m. already and I rushed following the signs. I was in a state of high alert, bordering on panic, but not quite panicky ! I hadn't anticipated that things could get this tight during the transit !
The station is actually below the ground level and on the escalator heading downstairs, I saw that I was literally a minute away from scheduled departure. My eyes began wildly searching for information about the train to Brussels on the screens. I found the train number soon. This was when, for the first time in my life, I was glad to see a "Retard" sign for a train !! The word was French, but I didn't need any Frenchman to tell me that the train was delayed !
In fact, when I went to the ticket counter to get my boarding pass, it was confirmed that the train was indeed an hour delayed. This gave me time to get my breath back and settle down to some extent ! On my way to the station, I had asked a young man where the station was and he had replied in English that he didn't know either ! Murphy's law had hit me. I met this young man again and he asked me about my train.
We got around talking. He was a Rumanian artist who had to take a train to a French town to inaugurate his new book. He was desperately looking for a place where he could smoke a cigarette in the public "no-smoking" zone ! I told him not to take the risk of smoking in the toilet : I was sure there were smoke detectors. Instead, I suggested that he could go out of the airport and then come back in. His eyes brightened when I gave him this idea. He asked me to join him for a beer ! I told him that I was a teetotaller and he sounded disappointed at that.
Soon, the lady at TGV counter approached me and said that the train would be coming soon. Standing in the station, exposed to the elements made me feel the cold. The temperature was in single digits and when I exhaled I could see my breath forming a plume of warm air. I noticed that even the Europeans felt the cold. Clearly, this was the European winter at its best - or worst !
The TGV train runs at an average speed of more than 200 kmph to cover the 336 km distance in an hour and a half. Please see http://www.o-keating.com/hsr/thalys.htm for details. Inside the train, the journey is rather smooth and at least I did not feel the speed. A young man served coffee and snacks during the journey. There was a dustbin in the side, concealed. I had a side seat.
I have travelled in local trains and trains in India and could not help but compare the cleanliness. However, we also pay for it in Europe as http://www.raileurope.com/us/rail/point_to_point/results.htm?cobrand=public&fn=fsRequest&c=USD&itemId=-1&r=0&F0=Paris+Cdg+Airport&T0=Brussels&m0=3&d0=25&t0=morning&nA=1&nC=0&nY=0&nS=0&s=Search shows. In India, the train ticket is meant to cater for rich and poor alike. So naturally, the fares have to be low. There should be a way of combining social concern and hygiene and cleanliness on our trains also.
In this train, for groups, there were also four seaters with a table in the center in the cabin. I spent time watching the French countryside. There were gentle undulating, green meadows and an unfamiliar looking tree. This tree grows tall with a single trunk and then forks upwards, rather like the prongs of a fork. I seem to recall that the leaves were drooping, but I could be mistaken.
The train went to Lille and then actually came back. When it came back, I was mildly confused. In which direction was the train really headed ?! At around 12:25 p.m. I was in Brussels, as promised. I had to go to Brugge and by now I was game for another train journey ! I booked the tickets and caught the train at around 12:50 p.m. By 1:45 p.m. or so, I was in Brugge. I took the bus to reach the Centrum, the market place in Brugge. The town has retained much of the old architecture that characterized the first half of the twentieth century. The houses have sloping roofs, probably to keep off the snow and also high doors and ceilings. This is probably to insulate the house against the winter. It feels nice to see that the architecture has been retained so well. There are quite a few churches and museums in Brugge.
The market place has quaint cobblestones for its pavements. I spent time locating my hotel and also taking the opportunity to roam around the place. There were chocolate shops and also a Tintin souvenir shop ! I checked in to the hotel near the "Burg", a place for chariots and victorias to stop. http://www.brugge.be/internet/en/index.htm has information about Brugge.
That afternoon, I met a colleague, a counterpart in the software quality assurance field and in the evening I had to go to Eindhoven with him. It was just as well that I had his company. There are a couple of train changes to be done. One was in Antwerp, which looks like a modern city compared to Brugge.
The train journey in Belgium is a comfortable one. The network is well established and I found that students and professionals alike take the trains to move from place to place. Of course, cars would give more flexibility to people, but if that is not an issue, the trains are convenient and link the towns well.
We reached Eindhoven at close to 9 p.m. The town looks modern and lively. Just outside the railway station is the Centrum, the city center where restaurants of different cuisines are present to satisfy all tastes. My colleague and I ate dinner at a Lebanese place. I settled for falafel, the Lebanese bread.
The next morning, my boss and I were at Veldhoven. There was an old monastery that has been converted into a hotel called the Koningshof. The conference was in this hotel. The hotel is spread out and contains corridor after corridor. I checked in and also found a few old acquaintances at the conference. The conference had a couple of interesting topics, the most interesting being the sessions on using Agile development methodology in projects.
The conference was for two days. On the morning of the second day, I went for a walk. At 6:45 in the morning, the weather was cold, but pleasant enough. I also sent email using the Internet facilities at the hotel. During lunch time, my boss showed me a lake behind the hotel. It looks quite pretty. At the end of the second day, we took a taxi back to Eindhoven. From there, a colleague and I took the train to Schiphol airport.
The directions at Schiphol are well marked. My colleague and I were booked in different airport hotels and we had to take the airport shuttle to the hotels. The same hotel chain managed both hotels and we found the counter of this hotel chain thanks to the clear directions at the airport. Standing outside at 7:00 p.m. when a breeze blew, I shivered in spite of myself and the warm jacket I wore. The temperature was 3 degrees Celsius, the coldest weather that I have ever experienced !
At the hotel in Amsterdam, I ate a dinner of lasagna with my boss. Then it was time to go to sleep. We took the early morning shuttle to check in to the flight to Paris. Amsterdam in the early morning looked well lit. In Paris, my boss was impressed with the changes in Charles De Galle airport. In his previous experience, he had found the airport unhelpful, but now the hi-speed train to the terminal, the directions and the information kiosks all served to change his opinion about the airport.
The flight back home was the roughest that I have experienced. The turbulence was quite a lot. I felt a little nausea after I ate, but there was no damage done.
After three days of an interesting trip, I was back home.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
NOTE:
I had originally written this blog in another site. Since that site is no longer accessible, I am uploading it in this blog at http://fewidlethoughts.blogspot.in/ using the same date as the original blog dates.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
===== COMMON TEXT FOR ALL BLOGS =====
++++++ BEGINS ++++++
When I created my first blog, I thought I was
being clever by being "anonymous" and let my
opinions speak for themselves (see the archive !)
Imagine my embarrassment when I saw my name
displayed ! So now, while I still retain the blog
name as "Anonymous Expressions", I will only
request you to ignore my name and concentrate on
my opinions instead !
ALL COPYRIGHTS AND TRADEMARKS ARE ACKNOWLEDGED
AS THE PROPERTIES OF THEIR OWNERS.
The opinions expressed in the Weblogs are my
personal opinions. Please tell me if you spot any
factual mistakes or don't like the way I have
expressed a view. If I can see your point, I will
correct the mistake. You can email me at
kiran.suma@gmail.com.
++++++ ENDS ++++++
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
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