Over the Pond in Europe

Lovely Europe Vacation the past 2 weeks

Eating Belgian Waffles and Belgian Chocolate in Brussels

La Grand Place in the heart of Brussels with diff architecture styles.

The Atomium representing an iron crystal built for the 1958 World's Fair.

Handmade mechanical Cuckoo clocks in Black Forest area of Germany. Home of the cuckoo clock. Quite the sight. Never seen so many types before. Hundreds of them on the walls.

Enjoying the Spray at Rhine Falls

An ice cave at 10,00ft in the swiss alps

Helping to prop up the Broken Chair monument opposite the UN in Geneva.😜

Reminder to politicians visiting the UN about the dangers of landmines.

The Flower Clock in Geneva

The Palace of Versailles with its 2300 rooms. And the lovely 200 hectare Garden of Versailles around it with its fountains and sculptures. His old home, the Louvre, got too small for Louis xiv, the sun king. So he filled in a swamp near his old hunting lodge and built himself a massive new home.

Arc-de-Triomphe at the end of Champs-Élysées. The streets radiating out from the arch give it a star-like appearance.

Napoleon wanted to march his victorious army through this arch but was defeated in Waterloo long before its completion.

The immediate area around the arch is one of the most accident prone in the world so no insurance company will cover any accidents within a blue line drawn there.

Eiffel Tower looks the best at night all lit up and reflected in the Sienne river. It blinks for 5 mins on the hour between 11pm-1am too.

Had an awesome view of Paris from the top of Eiffel during the day.

Paris has some impressive architecture.

I guess you can touch the top of the I M Pei's Pyramid in front of the Louvre.

omg, we've all been lied to as preschoolers -
London Bridge is not falling down and has not for many centuries!!! 🤣

I guess once upon a time it was made of wood, but now it's a vanilla stone bridge.

Tower Bridge behind looked elegant. I guess most tourists confuse Tower Bridge with London Bridge.

The Tower of London houses the Crown Jewels

The queen certainly gets the biggest house.

Turns out she does not even live in London but in the city of Westminister. She has to get permission to enter London.

So, i been to London but did not get to look at the queen, unlike my grandpa who got to actually meet with her.

All I can say is that the queen was in the building when we toured Windsor Castle. The Royal Standard flies above to indicate she is in residence.

Nifty castle, very ornate and grand.

Part of me was kinda hoping to see a couple of cats (descendants of the ones who chased a mouse under her chair!!)

"Taking the waters at Bath"

- The Roman Baths at Bath of Jane Austen fame, where the aristocracy, gentry et al. gathered to socialize or be "healed" by the geothermal waters.

Later the doctors started promoting seawater over the Bath waters so folks started going to Brighton.

Sophisticated structures built around the subterranean geothermal spring waters at Bath during Roman Britain era were excavated much later on.

Unlike the rest of England with its brick houses, the entire city of Bath is built using the honey-colored limestone native to Bath - Bathstone - even the roofs. So the city has a rather interesting look.

Stonehenge in the Salisbury Plains

No explanation needed.

I got to Milk a Cow - How about That!

I got to learn how to milk a cow at a dairy farm on the outskirts of Chennai. How about that!!

It felt a bit strange but some milk did squirt out.

I'm hanging out with a 1 month old calf named Raja.

Topped off with some tasty Nongu's

Cancun Vacation

In front of Playa Delfines

Kan Kun

Cancun in the Yucatan Peninsula, was our New Year destination this winter.

The Mayans called it "Kan Kun" or the nest of snakes, the Spanish changed it to Cancun.

Cancun used to be an uninhabited area of beautiful beaches, snakes, mangrove forests and wetlands before it became the resort and theme-park filled tourist attraction of today.

Playa Delfines


The beaches at Cancun are absolutely OUTSTANDING and beyond expectations. The best beach by far was Playa Delfines.  It's a public beach so there are no towering hotel chain right behind you. The fine white sand is silky smooth to the touch, probably due to the limestone nature of the shore. The water was at a perfect temperature or around 75-80 C, neither hot nor cold, and a far cry from the usually cold beaches one finds in the US, especially in the Bay Area where I live.  It was shallow for almost 1/4 mile so one could walk all the way on the sandy floor of the sea, in just waist deep water and enjoy the waves breaking around your body. One can stand in that water all day long it seems, and I enjoyed a full 2.5 hours in the water without even considering a break.

The view of the sapphire ocean and the waves frothing and cascading one behind the other was an absolute delight. On the beach were cute little Palapas (huts) which offered some shade from those seeking shade from the not-at-all-hot sun.

The beach is home to lots of native fauna and flora. Above us, flocks of seagulls were playing around by forming patterns in their flight and swooping down almost to the level of the sea. A few just hovered in the air a few feet above the sea, almost like hummingbirds.  Herons, Egrets, ibis, spoonbills, and cormorants also flew overhead. An Osprey (seahawk) swooped down and caught a fish in its claws. This beach is also home to nesting Ridley turtles in season. Now that is something I would love to see.

Water Water Everywhere!!

The touristy part of Cancun is essentially a strip of land nestled between the Carribean Sea and the Nichupte Lagoon in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. The strip is just packed with resorts and hotels all catering to tourists. Come New Year, almost every other hotel had midnight fireworks, so from the balcony, you could see a series of fireworks launched from each hotel all the way to the horizon. It was an interesting spectacle.

There were also obviously lots of "touristy" beach activities to enjoy.

I went Kayaking on the morning of the Dec 31st in one of the other beaches on the Caribbean Sea. Little fish even nibbled at your feet as you stood in the waves near the shore, which was a little startling at first. The view was magnificent.

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In the evening, I got a chance to enjoy the hotel pool as well. 

Then it was  Parasailing SkyRiding on the morning of the 1st Jan above the Nichupte Lagoon. 

I had some extremely yummy and very authentic Mexican food in Cancun. I can't believe they don't have the same here in the US.  One was at the Tres Marias roadside cafe in downtown Cancun. I enjoyed some delicious vegetarian tacos while my parents went for a veggie burrito. The freshly made guacamole was the best I've ever had. We ate there twice as we enjoyed their food so much.

During our Chichen Itza tour, the bus had stopped at La Casona de Valladolid, in the town of Valladolid. The restaurant served up a buffet with enough offerings for even us vegetarians. The Cactus Salad was especially something new and quite tasty.

A Plunge into Mayan Civilization - Chichen Itza

Chichen Itza

Chichen Itza is a Kukulcan Mayan Archeological structure built around 900 AD and has made it to the list of the new seven wonders of the world. Many ancient civilizations such as the Mayans, were passionate and quite good at astronomy and their pyramids reflected astrological events. Serpents are especially important in the Mayan culture, even our tour bus has a giant serpent on the side. During the two equinoxes, the light and shadows effects are such that it appears as though a giant serpent is slithering down the central staircase on the north face of the pyramid. It is the great serpent, Kukulcan, descending to earth to visit us mere mortals.

There is a whole complex of temples and other structures around the central pyramid known as El Castillo. Inside is the famed Jaguar Throne. Unfortunately, visitors are no longer allowed to climb the stairs these last 12 years. It is a magnificent structure, but also the site to a lot of human sacrifices by the Mayans, which is a little disquieting. The Mayans sure went to great lengths to appease their spirit world. Archeologists are discovering connected caves, tunnels, and cenotes (natural sinkholes) as they attempt to unravel the mystery of their civilization and structures.

The South face of the pyramid shows both the restored and unrestored portions of the pyramid

Unrestored and Restored Parts of Pyramid

other structures in the complex

marketplace

Cenotes are subterranean natural sinkholes, filled with water and found all over the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. The Chichen Itza complex itself has a Cenote called the Sacred Cenote. We visited another Cenote near Velocidad.

 

Shell Fossil embedded in ceiling of Cenote

A Giant Serpent on the side of the Tour Bus

Overall a short but very interesting vacation. Loved, loved it, especially the amazing beaches.