My Ruminations

 It’s been long time I haven’t written anything about any place though visited quite a few places. In May, we went to Finland and explored Helsinki and Rovaniemi ( famously known for Santa Claus Village).Then back to India, we explored Amritsar and Jaisalmer. I love photography. Now,  I don’t want to put pictures of specific places and write about it. This blog is full of random pictures I took in my trips. So Guess the places 😀 

Santa Claus Village, Rovaniemi

Angry Birds Park, Rovaniemi

Tallinn, Estonia

Sibelius Monument, Helsinki

Helsinki, Finland

Suomenlinna Fortress, Helsinki

Suomenlinna Fortress

Letters to Santa @ Santa office, Rovaniemi 

Reindeer at Elf farm, Rovaniemi

We cross the Arctic Circle, Finland

Finland

Sometimes, the beauty captured by the eyes can’t be captured by camera or phone. Here are some of the pictures of Amritsar and Jaisalmer.

Golden Temple, Amritsar

Wagah-Attari border, Amritsar

Jallianwala bagh

Sand Dunes at ……. Jaisalmer 

Abandoned village of Kuldhara, Jaisalmer

Haunted Village Kuldhara visited by flock of tourists

Suryagarh, Jaisalmer

Mandir, Palace, Jaisalmer

Bada Bagh, Jaisalmer

Balasinor

Do you know India has a Jurassic Park? Yes, you read it right and India’s Jurassic park is in Gujarat . It is about 90 km from Ahmedabad in the village of Raiyoli in Balasinor. From Ahmedabad, it takes around 2-2.5 hours to reach.  There are fossils remains, and bones found by the Paleontologists (scientist who studies the history of life on Earth through the fossil record) in Balasinor. 

Balasinor

Princess Aailya of the Royal Family of Balasinor is the promoter of the site and because of her efforts, the Gujarat Tourism opened a Dinosaur Fossil Park and Dinosaur Museum in Balasinor. We went to Balasinor on a weekend trip. We stayed at Garden Palace Heritage Homestays which is run by the Royal Family of Balasinor. The Dinosaur Fossil Park is the actual site where the remains of dinosaurs were found. A place where the dinosaur had nested and lived more than 65 million years ago. The entry to the fossil park is free.

Fossil Park

Fossil of a Dinosaur

 

Fossil

The main fun is exploring the museum. After buying the entrance ticket, we went to see the museum which is fully air-conditioned. The museum is nicely maintained.  At the Entrance, there is a dinosaur statue which moves. There are 3-D and 5-D shows. There are many galleries displaying the fossils exhibits and details on Dinosaurs. I was really surprised to read there that the women of the Raiyoli village used to use the egg of the dinosaur to crush their spices. 

The moving dinosaur 

Life-size Dinosaur

In the museum, the remains of Dinosaur

Eggs of a Dinosaur

Eggs of a Dinosaur

There is a souvenir shop also. This is one of the museums where the kids will enjoy a lot. It was an educational as well as an entertaining trip.
 

Bergen - Norway

In my previous blog, I wrote about Oslo, Norway. This blog is about our visit to Bergen in Norway. The trip was memorable so I remember everything about it, though it will be a year of the visit in May. 

To reach Bergen from Oslo by train, it takes around 7 hours. The journey offers beautiful views of the fjords, rivers, lakes and snow-capped mountains.

View from the train

View from the train

The train passes through Finse Station which is the highest station (4000 feet above sea level) of Norway. We could see many tourists with ski equipment getting down at Finse Station. At the Myrdal Station, the train halts for around 10 minutes. We got down to click few pictures, there was snow everywhere. The weather was very cold with cloudy weather and a bit of drizzling. 

Finse Station

Myrdal Station

Our hotel in Bergen was walking distance from the station.  After taking some rest at the hotel, we went to explore the nearby areas. We went to the famous and scenic wharf with old and wooden buildings in different colours known as “Bryggen”. It is on the UNESCO’s list of world heritage site. There are some shops, galleries, museums and restaurant on this wharf. We bought some woollen caps from the shops. For us the best thing was, we could find Indian restaurants in Oslo and Bergen easily and they offered very delicious Indian food, though costly.

Bryggen

Bergen

Next day, we had a fjord tour in the afternoon. The fjord tour was from Bergen (Zachariasbryggen) to Mostraumen and back. The tour takes around 3 hours. It was drizzling that day and we were not carrying our umbrellas. The weather was very cold. Our caps and jackets saved us from getting wet.  Inside the cruise, it was warm. We went exploring on the deck only after an hour. While buying coffee from the shop in the cruise, the shopkeeper told us this weather is the best to explore the fjords as one can see the waterfalls everywhere. The cruise came to a halt at a big waterfall for ten to fifteen minutes and all the tourists were on the deck to click pictures of surrounding areas and waterfall. The fjord tour was amazing. 

What a beautiful place to live!

Waterfall

A big waterfall

We went to explore Floyen the next day. Floyen is one of the mountains of Bergen. There is a cable car from Bergen which takes you to the top. There is a viewpoint which gives spectacular view of the city. There are playgrounds for children. My little one was totally busy playing there. There are also some goats which roam here and there. One can pat them, if they want to. This place is good for hiking and walking. We went to explore the beautiful lake Skomakerdiket.  Before heading back, we had ice-creams at a shop. 

lake Skomakerdiket

Goats at Floyen

Playground at Floyen

View of Bergen city from Floyen

Bergen zoo is small but it was fun exploring it.

Bergen Zoo

We also went for a day trip to a small village called Flam. I will write about it in my next blog.

 

 

 

 

Europe- Norway

This year in May, we went to Norway and Switzerland. It was an official trip to Norway for my hubby, he went there for a conference and we accompanied him. It was my wish to visit Switzerland so from Norway, we went to Switzerland. It was 2 weeks trip.  This blog is all about Norway – Oslo. In Norway, we went to the capital city - Oslo and then to Bergen. We stayed at Thon Hotel in Oslo. On our first day in Oslo, we went to explore the nearby places. 

Bronze Statue of Tiger

 In the front of the Oslo Central Station, there is a big bronze statue of a tiger and a play area nearby.  After clicking some pics there, we went to the harbour and from there, we could see the Oslo Opera House.

Play Area 

 Oslo Opera House

                                                                      

Next day, we went to see the Royal Palace. Entry inside was not allowed.  

The Royal Palace at Oslo

                                                                      

  The road in front of the Royal Palace

Exploring the city, by walking is altogether a different experience with the footpath so nice and clean. The flower pots on the footpath added beauty to the roads.

The roads and the footpath with beautiful flower pots

 After our visit to the palace, we went to the harbour and took a ferry to Bygdoy. It is a peninsula situated on the western side of Oslo.

Bygdoy

View from the harbour

                                                               

There are some museums in Bygdoy which are worth visiting. We went to Kon-Tiki Museum and Fram Museum.

Outside the museum

Kon-Tiki Museum

After returning back to the harbour, we went to EKT Rideskole Husdyrpark. We took a bus ride from the Central Station and a short walk to reach this beautiful farm. My daughter enjoyed a lot there. The people working there were very friendly.  Petting a rabbit, goat and horse was fun. There is also a nice park across the EKT.

EKT Rideskole Husdyrpark

Farm

Play area inside the farm 

From EKT, We took a bus ride back to Oslo Station and then went to Akershus Castle walking. The castle is free to enter and offers some nice views of the port areas and fjord.

View  

View of a cruise from the castle

Akershus Castle

Akershus Fortress

Next day, We had our train to Bergen. The train ride from Oslo to Bergen is breathtaking. Often described as Europe’s most beautiful train journey, it takes you through some of Scandinavia’s beautiful landscape.  We had booked a family coach and our coach was quite empty. There was only one more family. They were also Indians. The coach had a play area for kids and my daughter was sitting there, reading book, and playing. It took around 7 hours to reach Bergen. I will write about Bergen in my next blog.