Globetrotting in the 21st Century

 

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.

Museums of Geneva are not very big. Some are open by appointment only. Some are free to enter. There is no air conditioning, and some sections (specially art galleries) are closed during hot days. Watch and clocks are main subjects of many museums.

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.

The train has a top velocity of 330 kilometers per hour. The ride is very smooth and scenic.

 

Gare de Leon is the last stop for TGV Lyria in Paris. It is a historic train station, capable of stationing modern highspeed trains. There is Metro station underneath the train station. One thing I did not like about the station is that you have to pay to use the washroom.

Milan is the fashion capital of Italy. Milano Centrale is the central train station of Milan. It is a beautiful historic building retrofitted to station modern highspeed trains. 

One high rise building in Milan is really praiseworthy. It has live trees all along the sides of the building up to top floor. It is an excellent example of urban forestation. If this concept propagates to all the urban centers of the world, it will surely put a dent on global warming.

Transit system of Milan consists of subway trains, streetcars and buses. But Milanos are nostalgic of their wooden streetcars. So they are still a part of their transit system alongside modern vehicles.

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.

Trains from Chamonix train station goes all the way to river which is formed by melted snow of the glacier. Trains are like giant theme park trains and they have special geared wheels underneath for greater traction. The train ride is really scenic.