It very exciting to travel in Europe. The regions are all different with different languages. Yet there is a nice harmony among the countries. Countries are tourist friendly. No wonder Europe enjoys the largest percentage of tourist revenue in the world.
Pre pandemic London, February 2019.
The underground is crowded as usual. London subway system is the oldest in the world and it is very extensive. But it is not very clean. London is very old city, like most major European cities. Europeans are eager to preserve their heritage. Travelling from North America, it feels like Europeans are living in a time capsule, yet very modern. London has some of the finest museums of the world. Amazingly there is no entrance fee. Stone henge is great place to visit. It is only an hour and change bus ride from London.
After the pandemic the travel season picked up in spring of 2022. The airline and airports were in chaos. Too many travellers. Many travellers lost their luggages. So, passengers began to carry only carry on luggages. That became a problem for airlines. Eventually, airlines brought the situation under control by reducing scheduled flights.
Airbus A220 played a major role in post pandemic travel. Airlines were using this 100-150 seater planes for destinations with fewer passengers. This fuel efficient plane is a comfortable cute little plane. It is unfortunate that Bombardier couldn’t keep the plane. Canadian investors and governments lost billions of dollars in the development of the plane
Geneva in July 2022
It was extremely hot.All of Europe was having a record hot year. Many countries were dealing with uncontrollable forest fires. Switzerland was no different. Geneva has a great transit system. You can go about anywhere via train, ferry and/or bus. Restaurant food is more expensive than that of Milan or Paris. American franchise restaurants are doing good business in Europe. Most of their menu items are lab created and survey tested. So, they have a certain standard taste and quality. But they are quite expensive. A cup of coffee and a donut in Dunkin Donut will cost four or five times than that in United States. Yet the restaurants are very busy.
There is a way around high-priced restaurant food. Migros is the answer. It is a Swiss grocery store chain, originally started as co-operative in Zürich. Every Swiss resident is entitled to receive one free share of the company. The company keeps only 5 percent of the profit. The rest is returned to the customers as price reduction. They sell a varieties of breakfast items. You can pick up some tasty croissants, a cup of coffee, a banana, an apple and pay a fraction for you breakfast.
CERN is great place to visit when you are in Geneva. They offer free guided tour. However, wait times are a bit longer. The actual accelerator is underground (mostly under Swiss farmlands) The visitors are not taken there. You get to see the data center and museum. They are still reminiscing the discovery of Higg’s Boson and selling actual data tapes as souvenirs.
Lake Geneva is the main attraction of Geneva. The boat cruise in the lake is very pleasant. Specially, in a very hot summer day, the breeze is a bonus on the top of sightseeing. The boat gets very close to the fountain.
Taking TGV Lyria (highspeed train) from Geneva to Paris is very exciting for a traveler from North America. European cities are well connected by highspeed trains. While in North America, planes are the preferable mode of transportation between major cities. Obviously, trains are more environmentally friendly than planes.
Piazza del Duomo is a historic cite of Milan you will not be able avoid if you are visiting the city.
Chamonix-Mont-Blanc is a small French town located on the foothills of Mont Blanc. A cable car ride will take you to top of the mountain. And at the peak, another cable car will take you to Italian Alps. At the peak, it is all snow covered mountains and you need a heavy winter jacket to comfortably make the trip. There was clear sign of global worming and snow covering much less than it was supposed to be.