Beyond Here

I had first seen the swiss cowbells in one of Yash Chopra's movies - DDLJ. And the area that comes closest to the Switzerland as how I imagined it to be, the land of cowbells, was - Appenzell. There were sloping hills, churches with spike towers, cows with cowbells... When we drove towards Appenzell, it was raining. I was a little disappointed. But even with the clouds and rains, it was wonderful. And so disappointment gave way to smiles as we drove towards this place. I was looking forward to walking around in these hills. The clouds cleared up the following day. And so we woke up early eager to step out and do some walks into the country side. To say that Appenzell is beautiful would be an understatement. It was almost magical after the rains from the previous day. When we landed in Switzerland, one of the fellow travellers had quipped - "So are they landing our plane onto a farm or something". That is exactly how it felt - there were green sloping hills all around. ...

Had my first good access to internet today - in Venice right now. The Switzerland part of the trip just ended and it could not have been better. Till I get back to San Diego, here is something to feast your eyes on. Chapel Bridge in Luzern Lake Geneva at Montreux And here is a quick one of Venice too... Grand Canal at Venice

I am finally going on a vacation we have been planning for almost 5 months now. After a lot of roadblocks, buts and ifs, we have everything worked out. The plan is to spend 11 days in Switzerland - Luzern, Appenzell, Lausanne, Lauterbrunnen. My parents will be joining us there while we wander about in the "Yash Chopra country". And then Sunit and I head off for 10 days to Italy - Venice, Florence and Rome. I can't wait to see the Sistine Chapel and walk around the Coloseum. And sit on the Spanish Steps. We get back on 4th of July. We are not likely to have any internet access, if I do I will post some pictures. Else I will see you all after the trip. Happy blogging till then !!

Spring was wonderful last year around our apartment. There had been plenty of rain, and flowers were in plenty all around. The hill opposite our apartment driveway was covered with big purple flowers. There were bright pink flowers along the sidewalk too. But the flowers that most caught my fancy were a little way down the hill. Everyday as I would drive to work, I would pass this beautiful patch of orange california poppies and reddish-pink flowers. And I would think I have to walk down there someday. So one of the weekends, we decided to take a walk down the hill and look at them closely. Here are the pictures from that walk - as you can see we were wonderfully rewarded. The rains weren't all that good this year. I waited for the patch to bloom this year, but there were very few flowers :-(

Everytime I think about San Diego, I feel lucky that I have spent the last 6.5 years in such a beautiful place. And when I tend to be forgetting, this place reinforces the same time and again. Like the fact, that I can go for my morning walks to the Torrey Pines State Park and Beach, which is just 2-3 miles from our apartment. Every so often, when the realization dawns, I drag Sunit or some friend to the place. The state park and beach are next to each other. The beach is infact visible from the hill where we rent our apartment. Its a long stretch of brown sand and while the section right next to the road is crowded, if one walks towards the state park there are fewer people and quieter moments to enjoy. The park is more rugged, with extensive cliffs and canyon formations. And it is also the home to the Torrey Pine, a rare tree in US (and from where the park gets its name). There are a number of short and long trails in the park that take to different scenic overlooks. Last time we dra...

I have been meaning to change the name of my blog for a long time now. No special reason - "Travel Memoirs" was always meant to be a temporary name till I came up with something I could associate more with. So here it is - the new avatar for my blog - "BEYOND HERE". For places which were represented in old world maps as "Beyond here there be dragons..." For that feeling within, to reach beyond whats around. And for places beyond here which beckon me... P.S. The link remains the same. The basic theme remains the same. Just the name changes. After all, whats in a name!

There is another thing Everglades is famous for and quite possibly why it is called everglades or sometimes the "river of grass". The sawgrass found in the park is not stuck to the ground but is floating and making its way to the ocean continuously. The water flows slowly from a lake in the north to the Florida bay in the south, covering a distance of close to a 100 miles. Since the water is shallow and flows over limestone, the sawgrass found here is also flowing at a very slow rate (or so they say, because the rate at which it is flowing is so slow, that it was unnoticeable to the human eye). The Skeleton Forest amidst the sawgrass Endless views of this can be seen at the Pahayokee Overlook which is a boardwalk to a bridge that overlooks this "river of grass" A bridge across nowhere - to the Pahayokee Overlook Also interesting is the Mahagony Hammock trail. Its a boardwalk to a small hammock (small groups of trees) which is home to the oldest mahogany tree in US. ...