Vikram Chadaga

Statistics of the trip:

Date: 30th November 2006 to 3rd December 2006
Team: Balaji Venkataseshan, Prashanth Raghavendra and Vikram Chadaga
Places Visited in Norway: Oslo, Kongsberg, Myrdal, Flam
Number of Nights slept: 2 out of 5 (best use of vacation time )

Craziest things done:

• Slept in the train station
• Watched Seinfeld on my laptop in the train station
• Partied till 3AM and watched Seinfeld in the train station till 8AM
• Climbed snow covered mountain with sports shoe at -5deg C with a heavy bag!

Click below to view the photos:

• Day 1: Around Oslo
• Day 2: Trek at Kongsberg
• Day 3: Oslo -> Myrdal -> Flam
• Day 4: Flam -> Myrdal -> Stuttgart

Prashanth and I write about the whole journey, Balaji adds his unique comments, so read on!

29th November 2006, 11:17 PM

Route:

Stuttgart (23:05) to Mannheim (23:43) – Train
Mannheim (23:48) to Mainz (00:31) – Train
Mainz (03:45) to Frankfurt hahn (04:55) – Bus
Frankfurt hahn (06:30) to Oslo Torp Sandefjord (8:30) – Air

Oh Boy! That was my first expression looking at the itinerary. Whole night no sleep

Right now traveling in the ICE train at the speed of 250Kmph I can feel my ears pop every 5 min.

30th November 2006, 5:22 AM

We have reached the Frankfurt Hahn airport. We just had the security check-in and they threw out my deodorant, shampoo and my toothpaste and Prashanth’s deodorant. But Balaji knew all about it and was prepared to stink right from the beginning!!!

Before this we had a wait of 3 hours in the Mainz Train station.

Prashanth and I watched Seinfeld Season 2 and didn’t realize how time flew. Big Balaji tried to fit himself in a small chair and tried to sleep!

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Trip Statistics:

Number of days : 4 (17^th to 20^th November 2006)
The Machine : Alfa Romeo 159
Distance Traveled : 2700KMS
Max Speed : 220 Kmph
Route :

Onward Journey: Stuttgart -> Switzerland -> Milano -> Rome
Return Journey: Rome -> Pisa -> Milano -> Switzerland -> Stuttgart

Team : Ajay Shetty, Chidananda Nagaraj, Jaffar Mohammed Shiraj, Mahesh Nagaraja and Vikram Chadaga

Click here to view all photos .

Five of us had decided to go to Rome by car. I was the only driver with a valid driver’s license. Our initial plan was to cover Naples, Rome, Pisa, may be Venice. With only 4 days in hand I think this was being too optimistic. I hadn’t driven a car since I had come to Germany and I was waiting to drive a car, should I also add the “Autobahn’s” of Germany was another factor!

Day 1: 17^th November 2006

We had booked a compact car from Sixt car rentals, and a compact car included something like a Mercedes A-class or a VW Golf. 5 people in this compact car would have been a little to tough. We decided to upgrade the car the next segment. To our luck we got a free upgrade to an Alfa Romeo 159, it’s a diesel car and I think it has all the features one can think about, Navigation, Parking assist, Cruise control, 6 gears, almost everything! I was surprised it didn’t come with an auto pilot

We guys were totally thrilled with the car! So “She” was my babe for the next 4 days!

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Information about Strasbourg:

Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace région of northeastern France, with approximately 650,000 inhabitants in the metropolitan area in 1999. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the préfecture (capital) of the Bas-Rhin département.

The city’s Germanic name means “town (at the crossing) of roads”. Stras- is cognate to the English street from the German equivalent of the word, Straße, while -bourg from the German -burg (“fortress, town”) is cognate to the English borough.

Strasbourg is an important centre of manufacturing and engineering, as well as of road, rail and river communications.

Strasbourg is the seat of the Council of Europe, of the European Court of Human Rights and of the European Parliament, though the latter also holds sessions in Brussels.

Read more about the place here.

The journey:

Team: Dogan Vardar, Kayin Pinar Burcu and myself.

I had met Burcu in the Bosch shuttle bus. All of us being new to Germany wanted to travel different place. We decided to goto Strasbourg, France. I had heard a lot about the place from my other colleagues.

Strasbourg is not too far from Stuttgart. Its about 2 hours by train from here. We decided to go on a Saturday. Unfortunately the weather was bad in Strasbourg that day. Nevertheless the place is very beautiful. We left Stuttgart at 9:11 AM and reached Strasbourg at 11:02AM.

It was very cold and also raining But the weather didn’t bother us too much as the city is very beautiful.

We head straight to the information center, get a city map and head out!

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The Team: Mahesh Nagaraja, Chidananda Nagaraj, Hemanth Nirvani, Shetty Ajay, Raj Poornima & Me.

The Adventure: We had to catch the 6:18AM train from the main station to Tuttlingen. I miss the train from Feuerbach (where I stay) to the main station. Try to cycle half way in the dark at 5:50AM, I have no idea which way to go. Finally cycled till another station and luckily get a train at 6:05AM. I reach the main station at 6:15AM… these guys were waiting for me. In the last min I buy the ticket… insert the money, Chidananda says you run… I’ll get the ticket. Unfortunately he picks up only the ticket for my bicycle and he forgets to collect the ticket for me. We still didnt realize this.

Poornima, Chidananda, Hemanth, and I get into the train. Mahesh and Shetty still outside the train finishing their last puff, try to get into the train now… but its too late… the doors of the train doesnt open.

Worst part Mahesh has the ticket for the 5 of them, and I have my ticket (still dont know that I dont have my ticket, I have only the cycle ticket).

We were hoping that no one checks till we get off the train in the next station.

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