I went on a short trip “Europe for all” with Thomas cook on 10th June to 17th June 2016. It was worth a memorable tour and would like to pen down some of my thoughts on the same.
Day 1:Arrived at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport . Delicious Dinner at an Indian restaurant, Bhojan at Paris and then check in to our hotel Ibis.
Day 2: We were taken for a guided tour of Paris where a local guide showed us highlights of Paris like the arc de triumph, Champs élysées, Concord square, invalids, Alexander Bridge. Then we visited Eiffel Tower and got to see the beautiful city from the Eiffel Tower. After the Eiffel Tower we got to spend some quality time at our own pace. Then in the afternoon we went to Disneyland, Paris. We enjoyed the rides as well as some shopping for the kids and not to forget the chocolates.
In the evening I had this great opportunity of enjoying the night life of Paris and saw the lido show which was very rich, elegant, extravagant and mesmerizing. We also had the opportunity to the amazing blinging and sparkling of the Eiffel tower at midnight.
Day 3: Thomas cook did a great job coordinating with the airlines and got us our lost bags which seemed like impossible.
We then proceeded to Brussels and visited this fascinating place called mini Europe which had miniatures of around 80 European cities. I and my father loved this interesting place very much.
We than visited the heart of Brussels called the Grand place where we were given a fantastic introduction to the place by our young and energetic tour manager Surjeet Kumar . We visited the maneken pis statue, bought some Belgium chocolates and just soaked in the cities vibrant atmosphere. After dinner at an Indian restaurant we checked in to another beautiful ibis hotel amidst nature.
Day 4: We drove to Cologne the 4th largest city in Germany and visited from inside a very peaceful and magnificent cathedral in Cologne. We were given enough time to enjoy cologne, we shopped, ate, roamed around, took nice pictures before we were driven to another beautiful place called Bopard from where we boarded a memorable cruise on the river Rhine. We cruised amid vineyards and castles capturing the beautiful moments in our memories and later after a sumptuous dinner in Mannheim we checked into our hotel in Ludwigshafen Germany.
Day 5: Next day we drove to Black Forest in Germany where we we’re surprised by treating us with a authentic Black Forest cake on the occasion of the birthday of one or our group members.
We spent lazing around near the lake Titisee and enjoyed the Black Forest area. It was a nice place to do some shopping as well which we didn’t miss. We than crossed Germany and entered into Switzerland and visited the canton of Schaffhausen. Schaffhausen is famous for the biggest waterfalls in Europe known as the Rhine falls; it was a massive waterfall and can be easily called the Niagara falls of Europe. Today also the dinner was fantastic like any other day and to add to it there was another birthday celebration. This made the atmosphere very joyful. We then checked into our hotel in Switzerland and the hotel room was almost as big as an apartment, a luxury for a expensive continent like Europe. Considering that I was travelling with my father who is a senior citizen I really loved the room allocation on the ground floor.
Day 6: we visited mount titlis which was a snow capped Swiss peak 10000 ft above sea level. We experienced Swiss cable cars, one of which was the world’s first rotair cable car and had great fun in snow. The great thing about this excursion was that it all was organized in such a way that my father who has vertigo didn’t even realize when he went up and came down from 10000 ft. This day we had a fantastic Indian chai at a chai shop in Engel berg before going to the mesmerizing city of Lucerne where we saw the lake Lucerne and the river Ruess originating from the lake. The wooden bridge on the river was worth a walk, I am glad my tour manager Surjeet Kumar insisted me to take a walk else I would have missed such a pleasure.
We saw a lion carved out in a big rock and heard the fantastic story behind it which took us on a journey in the past. Then was time for some Swiss shopping which of course was much awaited.
After the last dinner of the tour we were back to the hotel and next day flew back with treasures of memories which will be preserved for times to come.
Day 7: This was the last day of the tour. Sightseeing of Zurich was on the list but we had an ample time on hand and hence we were taken to another beautiful city of Switzerland, Interlaken. We were told that the shooting of many Indian movies of Yash Chopra had taken place here. Couple even photographed themselves on the pose of Kajol and Shahrukh on the scene of DDLJ. It was a beautiful day with the beauty of flower clock, casino and of course, the hooter, where we had the opportunity of having the best coffee. By evening, we were left at the airport by our tour manager right at the check in counter with lots of memories to recall.
It is worth mentioning here that after the great arrangements by Thomas cook, it was our tour manager Mr. Surjeet Kumar who was the reason for not just me but the whole group enjoyed the tour as one family. Surjeet had this amazing ability to keep the whole group together and make everybody feel special and cared. From celebrating birthdays and anniversaries to arranging quizzes and antaksharies, he just left no room for anything more. It was a pleasure for us to be with Thomas cook and thanks again for allocating Mr. Surjeet Kumar to us as our tour manager.
We look forward to our next tour with Thomas cook once we have saved enough.