A trip with Amita! One to remember!

 

Been out of the country since July 22nd until today. Amita successfully concluded a grueling journey in medicine that started with undergrad college premedical classes, then medical school followed by a three year residency and capped with a fellowship in endocrinology. The young lady has been through a lot and earned every bit of her career achievements through sheer dedication. It was time to take a break before she starts the next chapter of her life which would be practicing what she has been trained for. She wanted to do a mother daughter trip and then a solo adventure. I am just returning after that first part and she started off to the latter today.

July 22nd I drove to San Francisco and that evening we took the flight to London. For a long time I had deferred a trip to London. It had just not interested me. I used to joke that the only reason I would go there was if I got a private audience with the Queen! Now of course the Queen who I admired for several reasons is no more. I simply went because my queen, my darling daughter, wanted to go. It was a delightful experience staying with my nephew Salil and his lovely wife Cookie( Pooja). The young couple despite their busy work schedules were very hospitable and made us feel at home. I took a liking to Pimms that Salil introduced me to. The walks through some of London’s famous streets and landmarks were highly enjoyable. In addition we had a chance to spend some quality time with my dear cousin Uma and her family as well as my dear classmate Deepa and her husband Ashish. 3 days on UK’s capital seemed entirely worth the visit meeting all these lovely people.

From London we were on the train to Edinburgh. The stone paved streets of Edinburgh were charming. We walked and we walked every day till legs were tired. The hike to Arthur’s seat was quite certainly one of my most favorite adventures of this trip. The panoramic views of the city of Edinburgh and the surrounding sea were incredible but more than that it was the hike going up there through the wildflower laden meadows that was delightful. I was having so much fun that I wasn’t daunted looking at how far the top of the mountain appeared. Another memorable highlight of our stay in Edinburgh was the high tea at Brown’s right upon our arrival into the city. The scones with clotted cream would get me hooked on for rest of our trip. We returned to the city one more time after four days outing in the Isle of Skye. And at that time we visited the oldest surviving Scottish Inn established in the seventeenth century: the Sheep Heid Inn. In its earlier days its patrons were the Scottish royals. Despite the fact that they had run out of the sticky pudding we still enjoyed a good dinner in this historical setting and I even got to try my hand at bowling. A young student from Kerala, Haresh showed us around the place enthusiastically. He confided in Amita how nice he felt to see me in a saree. 

Isle of Skye! I concluded at the end of four days that it was Isle of Paradise! There was a tranquility in this place that cannot be described in words. Miles and miles of lush green meadows, grazing sheep in white, brown and black colors, the highland cows, castles, cliffs and endless sea shoresides beckoned to just keep driving on those roads all day long. The locals were very friendly folks making it all the more endearing. Had a good share of the sticky pudding and tried their Cullen skink during the stay. I would have readily extended the stay on the isle if Amita had agreed. But she decided we should do something else in our remainder days. Although until the last day in Scotland we weren’t sure where we were going next. 

We took the flight from Edinburgh to Amsterdam and from there proceeded by train to Brussels. The AirB&B accommodation in the city proved to be an anticlimax to what we had experienced thus far in Scotland. We hauled our heavy bags on uneven paved streets to reach this place and then had to carry them up eight flights of really narrow stairs to our apartment. The place was well lit with skylights in every room but it fell short in several ways. Torn bed linen, worn out towels in dark colors that weren’t convincingly clean, ripped floors, absent basic amenities like soap, shampoo exposed how spoiled we had become to expect certain standards in such situations. Barring the living arrangements we had a great time in our 3 days in Belgium. A guided day tour in a bus to Bruges and Ghent was fun and gave Amita a much needed break from the driving she had single handedly done in Scotland. One day was spent in the company of Shivi Ravindran who I had been introduced to through the saree group we were previously on.  We have remained in touch even after quitting the group. She was gracious to spend an entire day with us, showing us around Brussels for first half of the day and then taking us to her home on the outskirts of the city, introducing us to her husband Ravi. Ravi made tea for us, the best I’ve had ever. Shivi treated us to a couple of compositions on the piano. The couple came to the city for dinner with us at their favorite Italian place before going back to their home. It was a memorable encounter. Of course a visit to Belgium without a taste of their chocolate would be incomplete. Shivi had promptly introduced us to one of the best handmade chocolates during our walking tour in Brussels that morning. During the same walking tour a young man had walked up to me gushing about my saree and asking if he could take a picture of me with his wife who was smitten with the saree. “ Beautiful dress! India, right?” he complimented excitedly. 

Another indulgence in Belgium worth a mention is the waffle. Shivi told us there is no such thing as a Belgian waffle. There is Brussels waffle that uses a batter, it is airier, lighter and served with toppings. One popular and typical Belgian topping is speculos which has ginger and cinnamon flavors. Other type of waffle is Liege waffle which uses a dough and is denser. It is usually coated with caramel sugar. 

Yet another culinary staple in Belgium is frites! Wrongly known worldwide as French fries this item originated in Wallacia which is in French speaking region of Belgium. 

From Brussels we took a train back to Amsterdam. Ravi helped us find a good hotel near Sciphol airport. That became our base for the next seven days. We made full use of the public transport of the country, within Amsterdam and other cities like Rotterdam, Utrecht, Kinderdijk, Zaanse Schans. Trains, buses, trams, ferries ( waterbus), we did it all. In addition we did a canal boat cruise in Utrecht with my nephew Sandeep who is recently there on an extended work assignment. On another day we took a bus to a coastal town of Volendam, rented bikes there and biked to another seaside town Maarken, totaling nearly 40 kms of biking within 6 hours. On the way we also visited a highly popular cheese farm and factory: Henri Willig. Within Amsterdam a tour of the Van Gogh museum and the Anne Frank Huis and museum were memorable experiences. At both places extraordinary human experiences were impressed on the mind. Something that calls for a lot of pondering before putting into words. The evenings watching boats in the canals and nightlife dining on the sides of the canals was a thing of beauty. The grand finale was an exotic lunch at this place called De Kas. This was an old greenhouse since 1927 converted into a restaurant in 2001. Most of the ingredients used in their menu come from their own greenhouse and garden on site and another on the outskirts of Amsterdam. The menu changes daily and is a surprise. Every single item put on our table was a thing of art. Very novel, very unique and intriguing. A very special experience indeed! 

Having done this three week adventure with Amita it was time for me to come home. She left the hotel at 5:00 am to board her train to London for another week with Salil and Cookie. I took the flight to Dallas and now will board the final leg of travel to Bakersfield. 

Oh, and somewhere in the midst of this trip, I turned 60 ! 

T