Unpredictable Weather

Heading towards April end and we had snow showers in the morning. All welcome rituals of spring have been recently concluded like several carnivals and annual duck race. The trees are reviving their lost beauty with   arrival of fresh green leaves. Swaying daffodils, colorful   tulips and cherry blossom bunches seem to say hello spring but cold is yet to say goodbye. It always snows when temperatures hover around zero degree.

Summers in India have arrived with soaring temperatures. It is only April and most part of India is sizzling above forty degrees Celsius. Temperature as high as forty eight degree centigrade has also been recorded, breaking past records. Someone said, God has been so partial to India, reeling under severe heat. But we all forget, in Europe winters are   equally harsh. The Europeans have overcome cold conditions by designing temperature controlled houses, offices, buses and trains. Running hot water is available 24*7. So we do not feel the wrath of cold here even at sub-zero temperatures (sometimes as low as minus fifteen degrees).

 I always remember a song from my childhood taught in school. The lyrics are

“Oh give me a home where the buffalo roam,
Where the deer and the antelope play,
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,
and the skies are not cloudy all day. “

Back then it did not make much sense to me, as I lived in bright and sunny Allahabad. The music teacher was a German nun, Sr. Elizabeth, who use to play piano and we use to sing, it was like any other song which she taught us. But having lived in Luxembourg for over two years now, I very well connect with the song as here “skies are cloudy” so often.

In Luxembourg it rains almost three sixty five days. Though showers are light unlike Indian monsoons where it pours like cats and dogs. An acquaintance has rightly said, “One cannot trust Luxembourg lass and weather”.(loosely translated from Hindi ). Here rain is very unpredictable  ,one moment the sun shines brightly and the very next moment  it  becomes cloudy if not rainy. Luxembourg has only four seasons, spring, summer, autumn and winter accompanied with rain throughout.

PS: Notice the clouds in pics.All pics clicked  by me  on different days and I mostly venture out on sunny days:)

Life without a dishwasher

There is a very interesting explanation of Einstein theory of relatively “Grab hold of a hot pan, second can seem like an hour, Put your hand on a hot woman, an hour can seem like a second. If I have to put it in other words “Take her for a shopping spree and she can walk for hours, tell her to wash dishes and it will make her weak at the knees right away.

According to STATEC report in 1987, 45.3 % homes in Luxembourg had dishwasher and the percentage apparently increased with each passing year. However I came to Luxembourg in 2014 and got a house with no dishwasher. I felt like “the L in my luck has been replaced with an F”.

I want to enjoy cooking but I can't because I don’t have a dishwasher. I want to call my friends more often but I can't because I don’t have a dishwasher.

I want to cuddle and kiss my husband after the long day when we have finished our dinner but instead I am like “I have ants in my pants” because I don’t have a dishwasher.

However I am blessed to have a husband like him. His favourite of all household chores is washing dishes. He says that washing dishes helps him to meditate .And surprisingly I read that according to a study in the journal “MINDFULNESS” washing the dishes can also cleanse your mind .So there is a meditation opportunity at the sink.

So it is rightly said that “what doesn’t kills you makes you stronger”.

Tulip-Mania

Keukenhof in Netherlands, the world famous tulip garden opens to public for a couple of weeks in spring. We were staying in Leiden; a small town near keukenhof, from where the hotel shuttle was suppose to take us to the garden. Since we were the only passengers so the driver was stopping the shuttle at our whims and fancy. It was an unforgettable experience stopping by colourful tulips, yellow daffodils and blue hyacinths fields.

It is a paradise on earth, seven million tulips of eight hundred varieties. It really inspires to grow few in your home, a sight to behold. The eyes never cease to close; it is just the scent and colour of flowers, flowers and more flowers.

The bollywood song “dekha ek khwab” from the movie silsila is shot here. So you may watch the song and  enjoy the beauty of keukenhof. It is a lovely daytrip from Luxembourg  for the entire family. There is a website www.see-eu.info which runs a day trip to kuekenhof.This year it is on 23^rd April ; the day of flower parade.

 There are dedicated theme gardens and pavilions. Each week they keep some activity relevant to the theme. This year theme is ‘Golden Age’; an era when Holland was having colonies and doing flourishing trade across oceans. There are whisper boat tours  which give a close-up view of the fields. Mostly people prefer walking around soaking in the  beauty. But Dutch are into cycling so much; you will find few cyclists too. A bicycle can be rented  at the entrance itself.

Flora 1 - Cherry Blossom

Cherry blossom tree is found everywhere blooming in March and April, the onset of spring in Luxembourg. It is too windy and rainy here; the delicate and beautiful flowers do not stay for long. If you happen to sit under a cherry blossom tree and a whiff of air drifts by the flowers come down as shower of blessings.

As a child, Cherry Blossom for me was shoe polish because of the daily drill for twelve long years one needs to do while attending school. I was awe stuck by trees with beautiful pink and white blossoms, once I arrived in US of A and later came to know it is cherry blossom tree, the national tree of Japan.

In Europe and Luxembourg in particular there is ample flora but little fauna. So in this series I will contribute flowers, plants and trees which I come across. Few I recognize and relate to; rest I  research and make it a point to at least find the name. The trees here are mostly found in higher altitudes of Indian Himalayas, my native place so I recognize few of them but not all.

Vel'oH - Cycling in Luxembourg

Initially it is really amusing, watching people pedalling down in formal suit and tie. During summers you will find so many people cycling around the city streets. Unlike Americans, Europeans are total fitness freak. Obviously in India the poor ride bicycles to work and for daily chores, sweating out in sun not knowing, the rich shell out thousands to burn down calories in gym.

In Luxembourg city there are several velo stations or  in other words , rent a bicycle service. The bicycles are unisex, with three gears. It has a big basket in front  with adjustable seats. One can have a weekly subscription or a yearly pass. At each station there is a terminal for  transaction. The bicycles are  securely attached. While returning you need to be doubly sure if it has been properly latched otherwise it will presume “ rental in progress”.

Once you take the subscription whether short or long term one, it retains   hundred and fifty euro as security, which I presume is the cost of velo. When  the  subscription lapses it gets credit back to your account. I always take seven day ticket which costs one   euro. First half an hour is free thereafter  one euro will  be deducted for each additional hour. Rental bikes are not allowed inside city buses and trains though you may carry personal ones.

Long time back , I was excitingly narrating my velo experience to a friend. She being in India was pretty much aware of the bicycle rental service across Europe. As a   software test engineer   she has worked on the velo project. So you see how the dots join. I am enjoying a ride in Luxembourg with all the  software nuances being taken care of  back home.

The terrain of Luxembourg city is far from flat with Kirchberg plateau on one side and Grund valley in the centre. Recently e-bike has also been introduced. It is a hybrid version with two modes ,one can pedal or ride like a scooter. Sounds interesting, though I still need to have hands on experience. There are designated cycle paths throughout the city. The cycle paths with lots of fresh air and serene city view which I  recommend are

1.Grund-the valley

2.Auchan, Kirchberg to city centre

3. Area around Cloche d’or,  especially in the month of May when yellow mustard flowers are in full bloom.

Note: Velo is French word for bicycle.

Book 1- The Treasure of Skull Island

It is not a regular mystery novel but very similar to  the game you might have played or heard of ‘Treasure Hunt’. During my childhood it used to be a popular game in several birthday parties, where treasure was always a box of chocolate. Only the first three chapters of the book are in sequence, where the author introduces main characters, rest of the book the reader has to read back and forth. At  the end of each chapter the reader has two or more options to choose from.

Excerpts from the book, at the end of chapter three - ‘Now... should I tell him to land at Shark Bay? Turn to 24.Or Needle Rocks? Turn to 17.Or Quickish Sands? Turn to 33.’
Depending on the clues given at the end of   chapter 3, I skipped to Chapter 24.The objective is   to help the hero find the treasure chest. If you   are not attentive reader and miss the hidden clues while reading the protagonist will never find the treasure or may even end up dead
Being into writing I know how much skill and effort is required to write even a small article leave alone the entire book. But this is no ordinary book , here each and every reader can carve out his own story. I find the word end written after so many chapters throughout the book.The path I took chapter1-> chapter2-> chapter3-> chapter32-> chapter12-> chapter37-> chapter4-> chapter27- >chapter 50y

I had a close finish; unluckily 50y had the fake treasure chest. The right option was 50z. Reading this book was a very unique experience for me. It was the first book I ever read of this genre. It kept me  glued, reading word by word as skip reading won’t help. The book cannot be described as a page turner in literal sense, as we have to turn several pages at a time as the story unfolds. One needs to be really   attentive while reading, as the clues are hidden in between lines and accordingly you need to proceed. Though,I found this book in children section of the city library, I presume each one of us will enjoy reading it. 

This is the first post on Book series. Here I will review books which I find really  interesting and  inspiring. My  blog reader can also contribute to this  series.

Melusina – Mermaid of Luxembourg

Last year Luxembourg city got   its very own beautiful   mermaid statue, on the shore of the Alzette river across the Neumunster abbey. The word mermaid sound so very magical and mystical, often read in fairytales. Melusina’s story is one of the several spooky tales of Luxembourg.

I will summarize the story here. Melusina is believed to be the wife of Siegfried, the first count of Luxembourg .Count Siegfried was mesmerised by her beauty, and she agreed to marry him on precondition that she wanted private Saturdays. “Curiosity kills the cat”, the old adage is so very true. Years went by, once Siegfried   peeped into her room on a Saturday and   found the mermaid, Melusina with a fish tail instead of legs. Melusina came to know about it and vanished never to return again. It is said Melusina’s spirit lives   in the valley and she visits Alzette once every seven years. Maybe now to admire her own statue, she may come more often.

Nothing frightening, but I’ll advise all of you must visit the mermaid statue in the grund. It is a 3-D printed sculpture with mauve ceramic tiles coating. In developing country we just watch on television or read in newspaper/magazines about the latest inventions and innovations, but here in developed nations we see the actual implementation and usage of the latest technology which is quite inspiring and admirable.

So now Luxembourg can also boast of its own mermaid, the Melusina. Copenhagen has its own little mermaid, which is a famous tourist attraction. If I need to compare the two, then it is suffice to say the little mermaid of Copenhagen is sculpture in true sense; while Melusina appears to be more geometric in shape than artistic. But in modern times, with technical innovations it gels well with the surroundings. Luxembourg is a modern city ahead of times.