Europe Trip .The Start.

  We were thinking of Europe trip for some time ,so finally in November 2010 , when Priti gave me the go ahead to plan for the tour some time in 2011, I started googling for  2011 Europe tours. To my surprise,not one company had come out with programme for 2011. It was only in last week of December 2011 that most of them unveiled the 2011 plans.Priti was very keen to see the tulip fields in full bloom . So that started another round of searches on the internet. We found that the place we want to go for tulips was Keukenhof , Lisse,Holland. Also for the year 2011,Tulip season was from 16  March 2011 to 20 May 2011, annual tulip day being on 16 April 2011.This meant that we had to be in Keukenhof between March and May .
The average maximum temperatures in European cities around  March to early May were 07 to 11 deg C. We do not like cold and decided that it was too cold for comfort .Temperatures where we would feel comfortable were around only June and July.This did not meet our tulip season dates . Finally a compromise was arrived at.We decided to take a tour which would put us in Europe as late as possible in May , but definitely in Keukenhof before 20 May . But the moment you compromise you only get the second best potion and we were to experience it first hand on reaching Keukenhof.  Having decided on the dates search started for tours to suit our needs . Almost all the Tours & travel guys had tours planned during those days.Then started the comparative study.Every one had similar packages . The number of countries . the cities to be visited were almost identical with minor changes.Our market survey and comparative study between some of the leading tour brands was finally over . We had zeroed on the Thomas Cook . Once we called , their rep came over habbaha habbaha .They were offering following tours
1,Avismarniya Europe.
2.--------do----------- with Scotland .
3.--------do-----------with France.
4. Along with all the three above packages Egypt, 2 nights 3 days package was available as an add on for Rs 20,000/ in Euro's.
We opted for ,Avismarniya Europe with Scotland and Egypt as an add on .The dates were 07 May 2011 Egypt and reach Rome on 09 May 2011 to join their regular Avismarniya Europe tour with out any add ons.
 We booked the trip in first wek of January 2011 by paying the necessary booking amount .We were in constant touch with Thomas Cook fellows but they did not seem to be in a hurry to collect rest of the money . This was unlike Cox & Kings where one has to pay the full tour cost within 20 days of booking the trip !!
Then came the popular uprising and revolution in Egypt and no visa were being issued. We told them to keep the option open till the last moment .With time the wheels of planning also turned and one by one we got our visa..When even in late April Egypt visa were not being processed we had to drop that from our plans :(
So finally without Egypt , the tour dates ex Mumbai. worked out to 08 May 2011 to 27 May 2011,
All the formalities with Thomas Cook like  handing over the tickets , foreign exchange etc etc were completed by 03May 2011. We felt  that it was too late for our comfort and had some tension . but to them it was all well within time :).
That is how time found us catching Jetlite flight at Nagpur for Mumbai on 08 May 2011.

Our Europe tour had finally started.

Our Europe Trip .

It has been a long long time since I have visited my blog , leave alone wring a new post . But today I am motivated to take up blog writing . I will tell you how this motivation has come about. 
I have been making maps of our road trips since may be 2005 or so. When we did a trip to US Of A I had mapped that as well.The effort was very well appreciated by my self . So now that when we did Europe trip I did so once again . Only this time I did much more with the map than what I had done in mapping the States trip . This time I tried to name the name and locate  every building ,every statue , every painting, every place and every scenery we had photographed. 
This was, as knowledgeable will acknowledge, not easy. I googled for places , searched the google images of each locality where photo was likely to have been taken . Did the same with panoramio.The search took me to lots of blogs , photo galleries , photo collections  by various individuals.This search for information  was an amazing and fascinating and educative  journey. May be as good as our Europe Trip :-) .  It was amazing to see the dedication , enthusiasm, time and effort spent by some of them on their past time , Hobby or whatever name one would want to call their efforts. Some had collection of as many as 25,000 plus photographs they had put on the web. Some had made them free for public , some had made then conditionally public and some had copy righted every image of theirs.
 I did get the required information from various  galleries, collections etc . On names from some , on locations from some on both these from very very few . Blogs with embedded photos by various individuals also did help  .I freely acknowledge their help and contribution .
It was then that I decided to start writing about our trip in the blog. Even while mapping , I had felt that lack of space did hamper what one wanted to say . The map had only sufficient space for dry facts and figures. What it had to offer was totally insufficient to express the feelings and emotions and that, the blog was the place for it. So that was another reason to start this effort . Let us hope I have sufficient tenacity to take it to the logical conclusion.
 Before ending here is the link to what it is all about :
 "Avsmarniya Europe and Scotland"

Map of Our Europe Tour.

We had gone on Europe Trip from 08May 2011 TO 27 May 2011.
As has been our habit I did the mapping of this trip,with a slight difference .
This time We tried to put title tag and map location on every photo . This of course was a very cumbersome and time consuming process .  We did succeed in doing this in about 80% to 90% photos .    It was comparatively easier wherever street views were available.However it was a bit difficult where panoramio blue dots were available . It was almost impossible where neither street view nor panoramio blue dots were not available and so there are still few photos without the tags !!!!
So click here and take the Europe Trip .