Thursday Challange #4

This Week the Thursday Challenge is GOLDEN.
I can only think of the sun when someone says the word Gold ... Here are a few snaps that I clicked in the course of my travels ....



Sunset turns the St Lawerence River into molten gold



Rays of the rising sun like golden arrows over the River Ganges at Rishikesh



The sun turns the Eaton School into a Golden Yellow



Book Review - Adrift - A Junket Junkie in Europe

Author: Puneetinder Kaur Sidhu
Publishers: Leadstart Publishing
Price:150/-

As most of you know, I am an incurable travel addict. I have to go on a trip at least once every 3-4 months or I am left feeling extremely dissatisfied and restless with my life. I am also a sucker for travelogues so when Blog Adda had "Adrift – A Junket Junkie in Europe" up for review I grabbed it in a flash!

"Adrift – A Junket Junkie in Europe" is written by Puneetinder, a thirty something travel enthusiast who spent a very happy summer traveling through Europe. As someone who has just spend a month travelling across UK and Canada, I was very keen to read what a fellow travel enthusiast had written!

Personally, the reason this book apealed to me was because my and Puneetinder’s views on travel are very similar. Like her I am perpetually afflicted with the travel itch, the never ending desire to explore, experience and relish whatever the world has to offer us both in terms of travel destinations and culinary delights. Like her, I also treat travel as an escape from the mundane and sometimes unpleasant realities of life. It is a “soothing balm and the light at the end of the tether” as Puneetinder rightly points out. Like me Puneetinder also believes in letting her heart rule her mind as far as travel goes and believes more in unchartered random travels that characterize a true travel gypsy rather than following a fixed boring itinerary.

One fine day, Puneetinder decides that she is not too satisfied by the way life is turning out. Naturally she chooses travel to escape her problems! She had an unutilized air ticket to London which she promptly puts to good use. Before she sets out, she lays down a few cardinal rules of travel such as “I shall avoid all tour operators” (something I whole heartedly agree to!); and other equally important dictates’ such as avoiding all summer romances on the way,avoiding consumption of fast food and seeing too many places in a day!

While in London, her aunt in Germany offers her indefinite stay at her house provided Puneetinder cooks Indian meals for the family! Puneetinder promptly takes up the offer and hence begins her travels across Europe as she hops from one country to the next, staying with various cousins and friends scattered across the continent. 

In true sense of adventure, she shuns journeys by air or rail and instead uses “Mitfahrzentrale “a car pooling service that enables her to travel across Europe in a much more cost effective manner. Among other countries, she covers Sweden, Hungary France and Austria where she falls head over heels in love with Vienna.

The style of writing is very simple yet the descriptions make you feel as if you are actually seeing the places through her eyes. Her joy as she savors the different cultures, cuisines and places is almost palpable. The book is rather a delightful amalgam of anecdotes and interesting descriptions of the places she has been to. She shows us the “Asli Europe” as Shahrukh khan says in DDLJ. Puneetinder has a wry sense of humor and a very happy go lucky attitude - two things that always make a good traveler , and the two things that make this book such a pleasure to read.

I do have one complaint regarding this book. The book doesn’t have a normal Index but a few lines explaining what each chapter contains. While some people might appreciate this, I don’t really like the idea much! It was like knowing the end of a movie before you even begin to watch it! I like to keep the expectancy alive as I read a book.

However this book is a delightful read for anyone who has even the slight love for travel running in their veins!

This review is a part of the Book Reviews Program at BlogAdda.com. Participate now to get free books!

London Diaries(6) :Westminister Abbey

Westminister Abbey ... An ancient church steeped in history ... A place of Royal coronations and burials and most recently the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.

Most of the people who go to Westminster, just look at the whole Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, Westminister Abbey Trafalgar square bit from a tourist bus and content themselves by clicking a few snaps from the outside. But if you are a lover of architecture and history, Westminster Abbey is something you should not miss.

It’s truly an architectural masterpiece. The marvelous gothic architecture, the breathtaking sculptures, the carvings, the high vaulted Roof, the magnificent altar and the beautiful stained glass windows all come together to lend it a almost hallowed beauty. Westminster Abbey is a working church and services are still held every day. Inspire of the multitude of tourists walking about, everything was very hushed and peaceful. As I walked around the Abbey,an unbelievable sense of tranquality stole over me. I sat down for a few minutes near the high altar  and in those few minutes of quietude I felt a lot more serene than I have felt in a long time.

Apart from the obvious architectural magnificence, another thing that had attracted me to the Abbey was the poets” corner -A corner in the Abby that contains burials and memorials of many British poets such as Chaucer, Tennyson, Robert Browning, John Masefield, William Camden, , Rudyard Kipling, Thomas Hardy are also buried here. Charles Dickens John Milton, William Wordsworth, John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Robert Burns, William Blake, T.S. Eliot Jane Austen, William Shakespeare, etc.

Unfortunately taking pictures is not allowed inside the Abbey – I was bitterly disappointed as I would have wanted nothing more than to capture the magnificence of what I was viewing on my camera.

Here are a few of the pics I clicked of the outside  

Wordless Wednesday - 13: Love in the Sky !

Quebec City - Canada

London Diaries (5):Down the Downing Street

Across the Westminster Bridge lies the Big Ben and the houses of parliament. I chose a warm sunny day to walk across the bridge to reach the big Ben.

Next to it is the imposing House of Parliament. Its a great deal of effort to go inside - you need a whole lot of permissions so I just contented myself by clicking photographs from the outside.

A short walk down the street is 10 Downing Street. Off course its a extremely high security zone and we couldn't click any pictures except of the fierce looking policemen !



Just across downing street was a tribute to the women who fought in world war 2