December 2007 ~ Travel In Home

The sun sets on 2007

A year doesnt end where it starts ..My last post this year is a tribute to the two cities - one that has shaped me and the other, which I hope will shelter me ..Madras /Chennai and Bangalore. And I thought the setting sun will be an apt metaphor for all that went right and wrong this[...]

by Jour ~ Saturday, December 29, 2007 0 comments

Limburg Cathedral

Yesterday we drove to Limburg, which is an hour down the Autobahn on the way to Mainz. We had seen its cathedral from the road on the way to Mainz and had to go back to check it out.We found convenient (just downhill from the cathedral) but somewhat dingy parking at the City Parkhaus and ventured out into the cold. Limburg is a[...]

by Jour ~ Friday, December 28, 2007 0 comments

Church crawling in Cologne

David has been sick with a nasty cold all week, so we haven't been on any further car trips since my last report. As bad luck would have it, this week has had beautiful weather - clear and sunny every day, although very cold. Highs are in the 20s and the frost is building up in layers so it looks like snow.Blue sky is hard to come[...]

by Jour ~ Friday, December 21, 2007 0 comments

Mainz

On Saturday we took a day trip to Mainz, a cathedral city about an hour and a half southeast of us. David really enjoyed the drive, as it was on the famous Autobahn the entire way. We drove along at about 85mph most of the time, with people whizzing by us in the fast lane at 120mph! It didn't feel very scary, though, since (knock[...]

by Jour ~ Monday, December 17, 2007 0 comments

Mahabalipuram - Tiger Cave

There is neither a tiger nor a dark dingy cave , but located in Saluvankuppam, five kms from Mahabalipuram , are a couple of rock cut temples . The name is derived from a cave temple which has a crown of carved heads of an animal that looks like a tiger It is said that the animal depicted[...]

by Jour ~ Sunday, December 16, 2007 0 comments

Mahabalipuram- Monolithic Temples - The Five Rathas

In school. I had studied about the monolothic temples and often as kids, we had played hide and seek in these caves. Today, the perspective had altered completely .A tribute to the Pandavas of the Mahabharath , the Pallavas have built five Rathas or chariots out of just a single boulder.[...]

by Jour ~ Sunday, December 16, 2007 0 comments

Cologne

We had a very nice day in Cologne yesterday. It was even sunny most of the day! We rode the tram all the way there, which was smooth and not very crowded. We hung out in several different Christmas markets (Cologne has at least five, I think), and tried a new dish:This is schupfnudeln: potato dumplings fried in a pan with sauerkraut[...]

by Jour ~ Friday, December 14, 2007 0 comments

Mahabalipuram- sea , sand ,sculptures and the shore temple

The warmth of Madras is always special .More so, in December when the city is bathed in sunlight after a cold downpour. We were there for the weekend and the weather was just right to get on to the Coromandel Coast .A bit of breeze, lots of birds and blue skies was enough to tempt us[...]

by Jour ~ Wednesday, December 12, 2007 0 comments