Switzerland Diaries - Day 2 : The DDLJ trail

My excitement level on day 2 was super high as we were going to do the much awaited Golden Pass route and relive the DDLJ days. Having grown up in India in 90s on the staple diet of Bollywood, DDLJ has always been the dessert in the menu. I have seen the movie over and over again and have probably not left any chance to throw the dialogue 'Bade bade deshon mein aisi choti choti baatein hoti rehti hai senorita..'. So having put on the best dress that I had carried with me, we checked out of our B&B after a small talk with the owner Veronic, and rushed towards to Montreux Les Plances station. The Golden Pass train was to leave at 944 am from Montruex and we wanted to reach in time so as to get the perfect seat. As soon as we reached the Les Plances station, the husband realised that there was no train to Montreux at that hour so we rushed back to the B&B to catch a bus but the bus had just left. By this time I was panicking so we called Veronic who assured us that if we walk down the road, we would reach the station in time. 

Now normally the husband would keep away from anything remotely connected to SRK but me being an ardent fan and also a bit annoyed at the lack of planning, he kept walking. Soon we were at the station, and we saw the Golden Pass Line train arriving at the station. 

Golden Pass Panoramic Line

Golden Pass Classic Train

The Golden Pass Line has three legs but we were planning to do Montreux to Zweisimmen today. You can take the Golden Pass Classic train that offers a retro style experience. The other option is to take the panoramic ones which havewindows right upto the top offering a full view of the amazing scenery outside. We chose the latter. Whichever one you choose, its important to check the timetable and plan the day accordingly. We had a six day pass for Switzerland, so we did not have to buy a separate ticket for this. However you can also book the seat in advance to make sure you are assured of a window seat or the seats right at the front of the train. The lady at the booking counter kindly advised us that we could save some money and yet get window seats if we arrived on time so we took the chance. 

Having gone back and forth in the coaches and swapping seats two or three times, we finally settled on a unreserved window seat. Starting with Montruex, the train climbs up the lake and slowly moves into the Alpine forests and the picturesque villages with pretty houses loaded with flowers. The whole scenery appears as if God has splashed bright vibrant colours on his canvas -  divine blue sky, fresh green landscapes, the grey mountains with snow capped peaks, wood brown houses and bright yellow, pink, purple, red flowers, it all unfolds slowly in front of your eyes transporting you to fairy tale landscapes. This really is the best of Switzerland with the mountains, the villages, the rushing waterways and then the views of the terraced vineyards with the Alps defining the horizon. An absolute treat to the eyes.

You can get down at any of the stops, go around the town and take the next train ahead. Montbovan is a very pretty town on the route. You can also make a stop in Rossinière to see the Grand Chalet with its 113 windows that look out over this beautiful region or get down at Château-d’Oex and take a hot air balloon and rise up to the sky. The names of the villages then change from French into German as we move along. 

Having got an amazing seat in the panoramic train, we decided to go all the way upto Zweisimmen, keep our luggage in the lockers and then make our way back on the DDLJ trail. Remeber to carry coins else you will not be able to use the station lockers.
When we reached Zweisimmen, we stowed away the bags in the locker and I was all ready for the photo shoot. My research on the internet told me that this is the place where Kajol aka Simran misses her train to Zurich because of SRK aka Raj delays her at the platform shop while she buys cow bell thus starting the epic road trip towards Zurich. I also tried to enact running after a train, although the train was pretty much stationery and the husband was pretty embarrassed by my behaviour. I also took a photo of the shop outside the station where Kajol goes to buy the cowbell (although I very much think that it could have been any shop in whole of Switzerland). We also went around the town which was absolutely beautiful - lush green landscapes and eye popping flowers around the wooden chalets.

Missing the train

Shop near the station where Kajol goes to buy a cow bell

Around the town

Next stop on our journey was Saanen. A significant romantic part of the movie has been shot in the the beautiful villages of Saanen & Gstaad.  The St. Mauritius Church in Saanen features in the famous scene where Rahul and Simran pray together but apparently the interior of the church was shot at the St. Grat Church church in the village of Montbovon (which we skipped).

Church at Saanen

Saanen village is also absolutely stunning, and that is evident from the station. Some quick search on internet told me that this is the platform where Raj and Simran wait to catch the next train to reach Zurich.  The place on the right hand side of the station is where Kajol sits and is busy sending post cards back home. I rested there for a while reminiscing that scene.

Then there is a airstrip almost adjacent to the railway station. This features in the “Mere Khwabon mein jo aaye” song where SRK runs behind a airplane. I have to say that the husband, who absolutely despises SRK, was anything but reluctant to re-enact the scene but after much persistence and persuasion, he agreed to pose with a airplane on the strip.

The next destination was the bridge which is also situated right next to the railway station. This is the place were the most favourite 'Palat Palat Palat' scene was shot. We took several photos on the bridge and I also requested the husband to call out 'Palat' as I walked away but I kind of turned back and looked the first time itself lest he changed his mind to stop me the third time.  This bridge also appears in 'Tujhe dekha toh ye jaana sanam' when Kajol dances in a long black dress with SRK in a black suit.

"Agar ye tujhe pyaar karti hai toh ye palat ke dekhegi"

If you love walking trails then you can also walk from Saanen to Gstaad and its a pretty walk along the river. We didnt know that at the time and we took the train instead. Gstaad is a popular ski destination but we were in Switzerland in August and the only thing on my mind that day as DDLJ. Its a small yet charming town and you can go around the town probably in an hour or so. The main promenade is a car-free one and is lined up with amazing gourmet restaurants and touristy shops, a bit overpriced as well. Husband and I were starving by now so we decided to sit down and have a lunch before I continue my mad chase around DDLJ.

Part of the song 'Zara Sa Jhoom Loon Main' was shot on this promenade where Kajol runs around a bit drunk. It also features towards the end of the song where both of them return in a horse carriage. Also on the street is the Early Beck shop where Kajol turns the shop upside down creating a havoc.

Gstaad Promenade

 Gstaad Promenade

Early Beck Shop

We went around this beautiful town soaking the Alpine beauty before we made our way back to Zweisimmen. The natural beauty along this entire route from Montruex to Zweisimmen is far beyond what words can express and if you are in Switzerland, you cannot miss this trail, if not for love of DDLJ, then atleast for the love of Switzerland.

We picked up our luggage and took the Golden Pass train along the next trail - Zweisimmen to Interlaken. Interlaken is a very popular tourist destination and the main gateway to the popular mountains of the Bernese Oberland region. Its surrounded by lakes - Lake Thun and Lake Brienz and it seemed to be a fairly big town as we walked around the main street. There are major photo opportunities with stunning Jungfrau mountain in the background. Along this road you can also spot the famous Victoria Jungfrau hotel which now even has a 'Yash Chopra' suit.

In front of this hotel is also shot the famous scene where SRK plays a prank on Kajol (after the ruk ja o dil diwane night) and sprays water on her face while giving her a rose.

View of the Junfrau mountain

This is the place where SRK plays a prank on Kajol

Victoria Junfrau Hotel

This was the end of day 2 as we were super exhausted running, jumping and going around soaking the beauty. We had a swiss speaciality for dinner called 'Rosti' and made our way to our hotel.

Switzerland Diaries - Day 1 : Montreux

As soon as the train leaves the Geneva station, the calm and tranquil blue water of the Lake Geneva peeks through the train window. The train pretty much goes on the periphery of the lake via Lausanne. Throughout the one hour odd journey time, you can see the glimpses of the fresh blue water of lake Geneva either right besides the rail tracks or sometimes far away hidden in the trees and pretty houses of the towns and villages passing by, but you hardly lose sight of the lake. This is when you start the realise the sheer magnanimity of the lake.There is no surprise that this is the largest water body in Switzerland.

We were quite settled in our seat, but the train slid into the Montreux station and we got down. Our Bed&Breakfast was further inside the town near Montreux Les Plances. Upon enquiring on how to get there we realised two things - firstly, we had to go to platform number 8 and secondly it needs to be pronounced in a more sophisticated manner, something like 'la pla' and not 'les plances' as we were calling it.. Anyways, the train was a very pretty looking train and almost had a vintage look and feel with it. On the adjacent platform was standing the panoramic view train of the Golden Pass which was even more amazing but the husband told me that I had to wait till tomorrow to board that so I made peace with our train.

The train was heading to 'Rocher-de-naye' but we just had one stop and the B&B was located in no time which is quite an amazing fact as the husband refuses to use Google maps and insists on following the paper map and the road signs. Upon reaching the main door, we were a bit confused as we couldn't find the door bell nor was there any sign of the owner. Then we realised that there was a letter left in the name of the husband detailing the code to open the door and other instructions on how to reach the owner should we need any kind of assistance. I wonder if I could ever gather so much faith that I leave my house keys on the door for a stranger and the answer was outright no, so I didn't give it any further thought.

We didn't waste time settling down mostly because we were starving. We went to train station and the same train (which had headed to Rocher-de-Naye) was now heading back to Montreux . The first thing on our agenda was to walk along the lake promenade to 'Chateau de chillon' but first we sat down at a lakeside cafe at stuffed ourselves with the only vegetarian panini available there.

The lakeside promenade is one of the most beautiful walking paths I've seen. We decided to walk all along the path, from the visitor centre to Chateau de Chillon which is about an hour walk and has wonderful photo opportunities. The combination of the very well maintained paths, very immaculate gardens, Lake Geneva with some of the Swiss Alps as a background, is very stunning.  This lovely paved walk along the banks of Lake Geneva is lined with flower beds on one side and grand old hotels and restaurants and a mall on the other. The colour combinations, as well as the combination of flowers and leaves is really well done. Any keen gardener or botanist would enjoy stopping and looking at the variety, and all others like me would just embrace the vibrant colours. The water is mesmerisingly blue. The lake is so huge that it looks like a sea, and one can see only water up till the horizon. There were some people swimming and splashing water in the lake. The flowers, the sculptures along the way, small plazas to take a little rest, coffee or ice cream carts and benches to sit down and enjoy the views, all of this helps pace your energy. The Chateau de Chillon starts popping up in the background half way in the walk but it took us about an hour to actually reach the castle.

After spending sometime at the castle, we decided to take the train back but we were not sure of the train frequency so we hit the road instead in hope of finding a bus stop to take us to the main town back. As we were on the road, we could hear the train whistle so we ran down towards the station by the stairs as fast as we could, but the train moved on. The next train was only an hour later so we climbed back up and continued our journey on the road. We then took the bus 201 which has a good frequency (every 10-15 minutes). Husband and I were a bit confused with the zones and stops due to our lack of homework & specially because the ticket machine wasn't taking credit cards or notes but only coins. Looking at our confused faces, a kind old local got up and explained us in broken english. Upon finding out that we were some coins short, he put his hands in his pockets and handed us some coins. We were overwhelmed by his kindness but obviously we could not accept this so we asked the bus driver if he had any change. He told us that easiest way was that we get down, buy the ticket from the bus stop machine which accepted cards and then take the next bus. In all this confusion, we were almost at the main town, so we just decided to walk the rest of the path. We were exhausted and dehydrated due to an early start, long walk and a very sunny day so we sat down and had a icecream before making our way back to the hotel.

If you are a Freddie Mercury fan , Montreux gives you an opportunity to visit the Queen's museum and experience how the band made its music. There is also a cruise on Lake Geneva that one can do on the lake but we decided to skip it. If you have some spare time, you can also take the cog railway up to Rocher-de-naye to get some stunning views of Lake Geneva. 

The husband was keen to try some local food. Now usually, I am pretty sceptical of such ideas because usually we end up in restaurants that only manage to serve me some soup or salad in vegetarian options. But this time husband suggested we try 'Cheese fondue' so I gladly obliged. Whether or not you are in as much love with cheese as I am, you cannot leave Switzerland without dipping into a fondue. A pot of gooey melted cheese is placed in centre over a slow burn while the diners dip in cubes of bread using a two-pronged fondue forks. Traditionally the Swiss eat it only in winter, but visitors are forgiven to eat it whenever they want.  The cheese melt could be a mix of variety of cheeses - the one we took was Gruyere and a normal cheese. The husband and I were stuffed after the fondue but who doesn't have some space for a dessert.

After thanking the restaurant owner for a wonderful dinner, we made our way back to the B&B. Tomorrow was going to be a DDLJ day, so I had to get some good sleep ...

At the lake, before starting the walk

Freddie Mercury Memorial

 Its a sunny day, jackets are off

Enjoying the view 

The castle pops in the background at a distance

Flowers along the promenade

 Figurines along the walk 

 Almost there

 Chateau de Chillon

Cheese Fondue

 

Switzerland Diaries - Day 1 : Geneva to Montreux

As soon as the plane touched down and we were out on the tarmac, there was a certain sense of calmness and peace in the air. Geneva (or Genève as it often referred to) is the second most populated city in Switzerland and has the presence of numerous international organisations including the UN headquarters. Having relished on a fresh chocolate brioche, coffee and a swiss chocolate on the plane, the husband was keen to use his red book gifted by Her Majesty, The Queen to beat me at the immigration queue. Fortunately for me (and unfortunately for him) there weren't too many non-EU people in my plane, and I was soon greeted by a very warm & friendly 'Bonjour' at the immigration desk. The official language in the city and the canton of Geneva is French as its in the French speaking part of Switzerland. The immigration officer asked some questions on how many days I was visiting, which places etc. and thud - he stamped the passport. 'Au Revoir', he said. I had no clue what that meant but I gathered from his actions that I could leave and since I had no objection to that - 'Thanks and Bye' I said. Thinking back now I could have made an attempt to respond in French specially because - Immigration Officer + French + Polite = Impossible Combination. But later I found out that Swiss French are not really 'French' in any way and in fact they dont like to be called French at all. Anyways, thanks to this rare element in the periodic table and his super fast clearance techniques, I actually beat the husband in the immigration queue.

In most of the cities that I have travelled in Europe, the airports have always been extremely well connected to the city via extremely good and convenient public transport. This is such a stark contrast to what I have grown up seeing in India - now they built a whole new terminal in Mumbai and then they built the new Metro line and the two are far from connected. When I first heard of this 'Airport Road' station on Metro, I could not believe that we as a country had come so far that we were so well planned that one could now come out of the flight and directly board the train to the destination. Naturally this myth was busted very soon when I first landed on that new terminal. The station is so far that the person might collapse either due to fatigue or dehydration or both if he decided to drag his bags from airport to the station, but I digress.

Geneva airport, offcourse, was super well connected and all we needed to do was come out of the airport, lookup the train timings, and climb down the escalator where the train would be waiting for us. The husband and I did not plan to stay in Geneva, so we ran towards the next train for Montreaux which was due to start in five minutes (Like I said before, we are always running).

As soon as the train started, there was an announcement that the next station is 'Geneva'. The husband and I were confused & worried both - confused as we had already just landed in Geneva sometime ago and worried if we were in the right train. Whilst we were thinking this in our mind in a very low volume unaware if there was any decibel limit put on the thought volume in this country, the couple sitting next to us shouted at the top of their voice 'But aren't we already in Geneva. Is this train going in circles!'. I mean its one thing to have foolish thoughts but another to say them loud, but I figured they were Americans by the loudness of their voice so I let it be. As the train was coming to a halt, the husband made an impromptu plan to get down at Geneva (meaning the main station) and go around the town for a while. Now normally it would be impossible to make me get up from a window seat in a train but I am always up for walking around a new city so we pulled our backpacks from the racks above and ran to the door lest it shut on our face before we could get down (Like I said, we are always running).

Geneva has a vibrant feel - its sleek and cosmopolitan yet quaint and cultural. As soon as you step out of the main train station, its amazing to see the trams and the cycles both going side by side making way for each other. Numerous watch shops of you-name-it brands line both sides of the road. In between, the time machines are interrupted by the aroma of the dark chocolates reminding you that you are in Switzerland. The husband was fascinated by neither - he stopped and stared at a glass shelf filled with Swiss knives. The criminal psychologist will view this husband's enchantment differently but I am just a poor software engineer so I remind him that our austerity measures mean that we can only have a hand bag so we cannot carry back the swiss knife home in the cabin baggage, so we move on. While walking to the Lake Geneva, the husband stopped and pointed at numerous hotels where he had stayed on his multiple business trips to Geneva during the good times of the bank. I had no way to verify so I nodded my head and trudged along.

After about a good fifteen minutes walk with our heavy backpacks, we finally reached the Lake and it was totally worth it. The lake is so big that you can only see a vast expanse of clean blue water as far as your sight can travel. About 60% of the lake is in Switzerland and 40% is in France. Multiple ferries traverse the water each day and are often used by commuters. We stood over the Mont Blanc bridge - whilst there is nothing extra ordinary about this bridge, we got amazing views of the lake and its situated over the river Rhone at the point where it meets Lake Geneva. The name of this bridge is given to honour the mountain that overlooks the city from afar. You can also see the famous fountain from the bridge. Unfortunately for us, the fountain wasn't on that day so we satisfied ourselves by enjoying the views of the lake. The bridge is well decorated with the flags for all the twenty six cantons of Switzerland which adds colour to the pristine blue water of the lake below. There are several options for cruises and even paddle boats to get around the lake if one wants. There is so much more to do and see in Geneva but our tryst with Geneva was limited today as we started to make our way back to the train station to catch the next train to Montreux. There is always a next time..

At Geneva Airport - Am busy clicking photos while the husband looks for the next train

The Swiss Knife shelf that caught the husbands attention

Lake Geneva  

Canton Flags on the Bridge 

Switzerland Diaries - Day 1 : Fly Away !

No matter what time our flight is, we are always late. That is how our trips usually start. We never need to specially plan to recreate the famous DDLJ scene, where Shahrukh Khan aka Raj helps Kajol aka Simran to jump on to a moving train before the journey of their life begins. Offcourse, we like to be a bit original here and have modified this epic scene to 'Raj' and 'Simran' running together to catch the flight. OK, I get it, I am nowhere close to Kajol and there can be only one SRK, but what the hell, we were flying to the land where Bollywood romances so its perfectly alright to be a bit filmy.

The excitement has started to seep in when our Interrail Golden Pass tickets had arrived. Now depending on the itinerary, country of residence, places of interests to visit etc. you need to carefully sit down and decide which is the most suitable option.

For starters, there is a Interrail pass that can be used by European citizens and official residents of EU. The Interrail Global Pass is for trains and ferries for over 30 countries and it wasn't really of our interest as we were travelling only in Switzerland. So we looked up the Interrail One Country Pass for Switzerland. You cannot use the Interrail One country Pass to travel in your own country of residence. For us however, we found the perfect option of the 6 flexi days pass - meaning we could use it on any 6 days on as many trains within a month. There are several benefits of having this pass which are listed on the Interrail website. But the most important one is that you get to travel in the heart of Switzerland on the Golden Pass scenic train from Montreaux to Lucerne. If you are in Switzerland, I would recommend not to miss this amazing experience and recreate your DDLJ memories. The only point to note is that this ticket is not valid on most mountain railways. So if you are only planning to do the mountains then it may not be economical to buy this. For non-EU citizens, a Eurail Pass can be bought (Link).  Either ways, please ensure that you fill your personal details correctly as they will be printed on your pass. There is no option to print this pass, it is mailed in paper form, so allow enough time for delivery. The other two options are Swiss Rail Pass or the Swiss Half fare Card. Again depending on how and where you plan to travel and what you want to see, some amount of planning and analysis is required before deciding the best option.

This task was left to the husband under the pretext that he has travelled to Switzerland before and that he has a proven higher IQ than me. Some days later, while travelling to Matterhorn, I would question the economics of the InterRail One country pass versus the Swiss Rail Pass before settling back on my seat and enjoying the amazing views outside.

Where Mumbai is struggling to build a second airport ever since I remember, London has five airports in different directions and all but one are pretty far away from where we live. Now the husband and I had vowed to make this trip a leisure trip, which is almost impossible with the kind of travellers both of us are. But trying to keep up with our promise, we booked our flight from the London City airport at 830 am which is significantly late considering that usually our outbound flights are at inhumane timings in the morning and also that this airport is barely fifteen minutes away from our house. But we were running late. Locks - check, gas off - check, boiler switched off - check, iron unplugged - check, plants watered - check, I quickly finished all my checks while waiting for the Uber and we zoomed towards the airport.

Husband and I are backpackers and after several discussions on the weather in Switzerland we had finally come to a conclusion that we needed to take summer clothes but also take warm layers as we had planned to go up the mountains, goggles but also scarfs and gloves, sandals but also sport shoes, meaning in short we had to stuff a lot into the tiny backpack that we carry. It was like preparing for the worst but hoping for the best. The London City airport is quite small and since we did not have anything to check-in, we were past the security fairly quickly and in no time we were at the gate. 

London doesn't have an outward immigration check unlike Mumbai, the visa is usually just checked at the gate by the airline authorities. The husband has now taken an oath of allegiance to the queen and in return he has been awarded a red book that gets him a visa free  entry into the EU. My passport, on the other hand, was examined with hawk eyed suspicion before allowing me into the waiting area. 

Then it was time..to fly away with the Swiss Air hospitality onto Bollywoods second home

The Wimbledon Experience - Part 3

Link to Wimbledon Experience Part 1 & Part 2


The security tent was in sight, so the excitement level in the group was sky rocketing. Our queue cards were checked one last time to make sure we had not jumped the queue in the 4 hour or so long wait. Just as we were about to be allowed for security check, the 'Head' gets a call from another head (head hunter in this case) and decides that it is absolutely the perfect time to give an interview for which he gets told off by the steward. There are no left luggage facilities inside the grounds and only one bag per person upto specific size is allowed past the security check point. The husband had also pre-warned 'Thakur' that alcohol could be taken into the ground only to the equivalent of one bottle of wine/champagne or two cans of beer and 'Thakur' had used this excuse to pretty much gulp down all the cans of beer during this waiting time.

Once past the security check point there is a flight of stairs, stairways to heaven if I may say so because they take you up to the bridge, across the road and into the AELTC. The entry ticket to the grounds is twenty five pounds in cash only, therefore its important to carry enough cash as you dont want to be turned away from the ticket counter after standing hours in the sun and the rain.

When we entered the grounds, the play had stopped due to rain. The husband promptly directed everyone to get done with the shopping in the Wimbledon store. Everything inside the store is obviously overpriced - keyrings, magnets, tshirts, towels, water-bottles, bags etc. but we went berserk shopping. Although knowing very well that you are being ripped off, its almost impossible to come out of the store empty handed, I guess this is also part of the experience. To reduce the guilt of spending enormous amount of cash in the store, the husband took us to the HSBC stall. Apparently all HSBC customers get a coupon for a free strawberry & cream bowl at any food stall on the ground. Now the husband being a veteran member of the bank suggested we avail this offer and spend some money instead on the other overpriced thing sold at Wimbledon - a glass of Pimm's. The Wimbledon experience is incomplete if you dont settle down on the Henman Hill  with a bowl of strawberries&cream or pimm's.

The play was resumed by now and we we were done with the touristy stuff, so we did what we actually came to Wimbledon for - we watched a few games on the outside courts. We settled down on court number 11 and watched the ladies single game of Navarro who beat Marina Erakovic. You can feel the power of the game when you watch it live. Then there was a mens double game where Rohan Bopanna was playing. Everytime Bopanna was scoring a point, POITR, Head & Thakur were shouting and cheering at the top of their voice which I think was making him really uncomfortable. While watching the game, POITR had settled down not very far from a pretty Indian lady whom he promptly tagged as Bopanna's wife. Determined to prove that he is right, POITR pulled out his phone, googled 'Rohan Bopanna wife', went to the 'Images' tab and shoved their marriage picture on our faces. Now first of all, no one looks really how they appear in their marriage pictures so there was no way to really confirm but we did not want to get embarrassed further so we accepted his analysis. Only if IT showed so much efficiency at work! We had watched a few games by now, and we were getting restless as Federer was going to play the last game on the centre court and we were desperate to watch him play but we did not have the tickets for the centre court.

Very little is known about the second queue, the resales queue that is found at the top of the complex near the Hellman Hill. This queue is to resale the tickets from people who had the show court tickets but have left the ground, and this resale money is given for charity. Prices are pretty low - in the range of 10-20 pounds. The husband was obviously well versed with the resale routine and we all paraded to line up in the queue. The resale queue was quite big as no one wanted to leave the chance of watching the man himself, Federer play on the Centre Court. We were alternating to queue up and watch some games. Suddenly while Gluten Free, husband and I had stepped away to watch a Leander Paes game, one of the stewards came around asking if anyone was interested in Court 1 tickets. The Head made a decision and moved to the Court 1 queue and we got 6 tickets to court 1 where Djokovic was about to play.

We did not get 6 tickets in the same place so we had to split 4-2. When we entered the Court 1, Venus Williams was wrapping up her victory against Daria. When Djokovic entered the ground, there was a huge cheer in the court. Unfortunately, it was not his day and he got off to a bad start. Sam Querrey's serve was nonreturnable and even djokovic's finesse could not help him win the points and he lost one game after another until he lost the first set.

The husband was getting restless as the Federer match was drawing close and decided to step out of the Court No. 1 to give a try for the centre court tickets. After another game, Thakur decided to join him too. Djokivic had now lost another two games in the second set when the husband suddenly asks us to make a mad dash towards the resale queue. Now, no one is allowed to get up, move, come in or leave while the game is on, so we had to wait until Djokovic lost another game to Sam Querrey. We ran towards the resale queue.

I cannot tell you for sure but probably due to the rain showers and frequent start and stop of play, a lot of people who probably had got in the morning had left and the resale queue had moved pretty fast since the husband had joined. We all sneaked in one by one and we could not believe that we got tickets to the centre court for a Federer game. By now, the rain gods were showering their love again and Djokivic's game on Court No. 1 was suspended, what a perfect time to get out we thought ! The centre court roof was on, game was set to begin and we settled down to watch Federer game.

Gluten Free took out his bottle of wine and poured some for the husband in plastic cups. Two American girls sitting beside Gluten Free were throroughly impressed by his meticulous planning. While Gluten Free was busy leaving no stone unturned in impressing them further, I was engrossed in the Federer game.

Federer's serve is top class, his forehand has power, his back hand is like a whip. His sense of speed, his reactions to the moves, his footwork, and his degree of placement is so good that it just flows effortlessly and brings out the beauty of his game. So much is said and written about his play that I need not say more. All I can say is if you haven't watched this man play live, please do, on the grass court of Wimbledon and as dramatic as it sounds, it is near religious experience. Federer eventually won the game and one item of watching Federer play live was ticked off the bucket list.

All in all, Wimbledon is something that one has to experience as it cannot be described. Its something that I keep coming back for as I cant get enough. As for now, I take back wonderful memories and a whole bunch of photos, until next year...

After crossing the security tent

Stairways to heaven

Watching Bopanna play

Novac Djokovic - ready to play

Federer at his best

Centre court roof is on

Henman Hill

The Wimbledon Experience - Part 2

The Wimbledon Experience Part-1 link here

Part - 2

As soon as we settled down in the queue, there was high amount of random banter from the diverse group. The discussion started by a friendly argument about a not so friendly subject - business versus IT. Now 'Thakur' and I are on the business side (often referred to as the arrogant, demanding end users) and the 'Head' and the 'POITR' are on the IT side (often referred to as the lazy, non-delivering coders). 'Thakur' and I suspect that there is a imminent IT non-cooperation movement going on in the office, the head of which was with us in the Wimbledon Queue (hence the name - the 'Head'). Like for example, the other day, a critical production bug was raised by the business at around 5:30 pm, to which his answer was - 'Its past the close of business'. Now, I find it quite funny how IT in our office defines the close of business for the business but needless to say, our request was ignored. Also, in our project we reverse engineer, or rather, are forced to. So the IT develop a new code, then write the design documents and then tell the business to document the requirement accordingly, but I digress.

In all this banter, the husband and the 'Gluten Free' decide to stay at a distance, lest they would get pulled into an ugly battle. As time passes by, different people have different demands. The 'Head' demands a pack of playing cards and the husband obliges him with one due to the meticulous planning done in the morning. I demand a good hot coffee from a van standing in the golf park. The bags open and the 'Head' shows off the midnight trip done to the Tesco store. Barring a few odd food vans parked in the golf course, there are not many food options when you are in the queue, so its a good idea to stock up.

Suddenly, the 'Thakur', who mind you had not even brought a bottle of water, demands chilled beer. The good thing about the queue is once you have the queue card, you can step out for a while, which turned out to be a bad thing for 'Thakur' as he was commissioned to go back to the Sainsbury store near the Southfield station to get some cash accompanied with a variety demand of drinks. Meanwhile, I manage to get a hot mocha that helps me to keep warm as I can see dark clouds gathering up in the sky.

Hot coffee, cool breeze, crisps (oh yeah, I am in Britain and I don't call them chips) and cupcakes - it was a perfect combination for me, but not for 'Gluten Free' who refused to eat it. I personally believe that its absolutely rude to decline if someone offers a double chocolate muffin with chocolate chips, no matter how full you are. All of us had our mouths wide open and eyes rolling rigorously when the 'Gluten Free' did not obey this simple rule of 'muffins and cakes' and made us highly suspicious of whether he was from Mars. 

'Gluten Free' tells us that the polite decline was due to the fact that he only has gluten free food. I sympathise with him on his dietary restrictions but am secretly happy that I can gulp down his share of muffin too. Just then, he adds that this whole gluten free thing is voluntary, meaning he is not really allergic to gluten and all of us become suspicious again, this time we feel he has come from a even far off place, probably Pluto. The group gets a new topic to discuss on why anyone would give up the pure joy of eating gluten filled food and jokes about Gluten Free's food habits about being gluten free will last till the end of the day.

Its time, the gates open and the queue starts moving. The excitement in the ground doubles up. Since we were 'just above the ground capacity', our queue starts and stops intermittently. The stewards know exactly where to take the queue around in an serpentine fashion. When the queue stops moving, we put down our mats and settle down quickly, when it moves, we move barefoot picking up our stuff - the pure joy of walking barefoot on the fresh, green, manicured grass is just beyond words. This goes on for a while and the queue has moved significantly. 'Thakur' is now back in the queue grinning ear to ear with a box of chilled beer cans in his hands.

As like on most London days, the rain gods decide do their job and there is a hustle bustle on the ground. The mats are lifted, the chairs are folded, the umbrellas are opened up and the raincoats are on. 'Gluten Free' takes out his Wimbledon special umbrella and everyone is quite jealous that he has one. Later on we find out that the umbrella was lent to him by his friend few years back which he never managed to return. All of us make a mental note of never to lend him anything.

Just then a police patrol chopper hovers above the golf park. Everyone starts waving to the chopper - now I don't get it, who on earth waves to the police for fun but this is Wimbledon so I dont question and I wave back towards them. The play inside the Wimbledon park has halted and the queue intake has slowed down. Around two and half hours have passed now and we are inside the first gate after a thorough check of our queue cards while the rain and the sun continue to play hide and seek.

Once inside the first gate, there was a similar wait but there were some fun things to do. First of all, we all took a mandatory group photo with a nice Wimbledon gate in the background. There are some small screens put up which were showing some fun interviews with the players. There were plenty of stalls - like one was giving out free drinks, Haagen-Dazs had a fun photo booth where you could take photos and put a centre court background, HSBC has a mini tennis court to pass time. Another one and half hour passes by quickly and we are now hungry.

I have been extremely efficient and packed sandwiches filled with home made green chutney for the chutney. Everyone gulps them down telling me how delicious they are but I am pretty sure that it was a factor of their hunger. 'POITR' takes out the second set of muffins, this time Gluten Free eats them too ! As the queue moves further, we can almost see the finish line.

We have survived the queue and we are there. A small security check now stands in between us and the Wimbledon Park !!

When the rain gods showered some love on us

Dog patrols on the queue

We have passed the first gate !!

So apt for the Wimbledon .. Patience is really rewarded !

Passing some time at the photo booth ...

We are there !! Just need to pass that security check tent !!

The Wimbledon Experience - Part 1

Wimbledon is not just any tennis tournament but its a experience.

A large number of tickets for the tournament are sold on lottery for which you need to apply by post in advance by December in a ballot process  - something that extremely confusing and is beyond the discipline of the husband and me, both. So unless you are Sachin Tendulkar who miraculously shows up with a finale ticket at the centre court every year, the only other affordable way to get the tickets is to queue.

Wimbledon is one of the few major sports in UK where one can still buy the premium tickets on the day of play and its pretty fun queuing. A limited number of tickets are available daily for Court 1, Court 2 and the Centre Court except the last few days of the tournament. Queuing is such an integral part of Wimbledon and is often referred to as - 'The Queue for the The Championships' and it has pretty strict rules as well.

The approval - The plan for the Wimbledon starts with choosing a right day when you hope that the sun gods would shine upon you - which in London is almost an impossible task. Now the husband being a keen follower of almost every sport on the earth and specially Tennis, kept moving the day by studying the rain forecasts. Eventually, he settled on Friday. Considering that I am not a doctor who saves any lives, getting a day off should be a very easy task no ? Wrong. Apparently the fate of the whole bank whose shares are already trading at a pretty low price rests on me showing up at work. Finally after many meetings armed with power point proposals on who can help save the bank in my absence for a day, my leave was approved.

The Group - There are plenty of ardent tennis fans who show up on their own however we Indians like to flock in groups. I think the fun of queuing just multiplies with the number of people, the quirkier the better. So the husband, his colleague (lets call him 'Gluten Free (GF)'), two of my colleagues (lets name the first one as 'Head of the IT non-cooperation movement - Head' and the other one as 'Thakur'), friend of the IT Support ('Protector of the IT realm' - POITR)  and I, we all paraded to the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (AELTC). More on these names later.

Planning the route - The husband usually always has a plan and in this case knew exactly when to get there and how. There was much discussion on when to reach the grounds for queuing. The really really ardent fans start queuing the day before - which means they basically set up tents and camp overnight. There is a high probability that you will get tickets to the show courts if you camp. There is a second lot who arrive around 5 am the same day, and they almost surely get in and watch matches on court 3 to 19 but if they are lucky, they also get tickets to the show court. The husband vetoed both the options and explained that we needed to start at 830 am sharp. This was a feat in itself - getting 6 Indians living at different places to get to a place in time.

So everyone except the Gluten Free (who lives in Waterloo - not sure how they came up with the name because none of the loos here have water but I digress) decided to meet at the Canary Wharf station on the platform. Now anyone who has lived in Mumbai and travelled in the local trains in the era without cell phones would have atleast, once in life, used the best meeting point on the platform - 'below the indicator'. Now the 'Thakur' who is from Delhi could not fathom this concept and later on used this excuse for being late even though the platform is barely 200 metres with just 2 indicators.

Mind the gap - 'Mind the Gap' is an announcement often heard on the tube network to warn the commuter of the one feet black hole between the tube and the platform. Sometimes, so big is the distance that it should actually be called a valley, but I digress. Talking about the tube, the AELTC is not very close from the Wimbledon tube station. In fact, its closest from the station called Southfields on the District Line (Green line). So we took the Jubilee Line from Canary Wharf to Westminister. From Westminister, we took the train to Earls Court, then another train to Southfields. We were running late and the odds were against us. Just as we thought that we were getting there, there was an announcement in the tube that the destination of the tube has changed.

I mean, coming from Mumbai, I have done numerous mad dashes moving platform to platform because the local train driver thought it would be fun to bring the train onto a totally different platform but ever heard of the train changing the destination !! Anyways, we got down and the Parson Green station and guess what, the whole train was empty, meaning the whole train was going to watch Wimbledon. The next District Line train finally took us to Southfields where Gluten Free was waiting for us.

Approach - When you come out of the Southfields, I suggest that make a mad dash towards the Wimbledon Park Golf Club - this is where the queue is housed. Every slow step that you take towards the queue is another 10 people ahead of you in the queue.

At Wimbledon, Cash is King. You can only buy the tickets in cash so be prepared. Inspite of clear 'onboarding' instructions given the day before, the 'Thakur' did not have any cash, infact he did not bring anything, not even a bag with water. He had strolled lazily with just a jacket on and hands in his pocket - hence the name bestowed upon him - 'Thakur'. Now Thakur wanted to spend further 5 mins withdrawing cash meaning getting pushed back by atleast 200 people. After much social pressure and absolute disdain showed by the husband, he succumbed and kept walking with us. No one wanted to piss off the husband as he was the only one who seemed to be our ticket to Wimbledon.

Finally in the queue - When you reach there, you will see a number of honorary stewards who will explain you the process of queuing. The first thing you should do is go to the steward who holds a big purple flag with a big 'Q' written on it. This is where the serpentine queue is right now and as soon as you spot the flag, go to the steward and beg for the Queue Card. Once you get the queue card, preserve this more than a pot of gold as you will be asked to show this queeu card atleast 2-3 times to make sure you not trying to sneak in. Each queue card has a date and the number - this is your number in the queue and this ticket is non-transferable. Also each person gets only one queue card, so there is no way you can save spots for any other 'Thakurs' who plan to come late. The queue has strict rules and you will be literally given a 'Guide to Queuing' with a queue Code of Conduct. Apart from the usual 'do not jump the queue', the queue code of conduct has some very interesting rules like - barbecues and fires are not permitted or even rules laid out for pizza take-aways or loud music should not be played but use headphones instead. All in all, an extremely meticulously planned and amazingly executed queuing process.

Our number was around 8700 and were standing in the K9 queue. The stewards told us that we were 'just above' the ground capacity so that means that when the first lot goes in, the next in line will be allowed in on the basis of 'one out one in' basis. When we asked what was the 'capacity', the only answer we got was we were 'just over' so we let it pass. The husband as always, was fully prepared with enough mattresses for 6 people to rests their bums on so we settled down. This was just the beginning of the much fun-filled day ahead.

Southfields Station converted to a huge tennis court

On route to the queue

The Queue

Queue Cards

Rejoicing after being handed over the queue card

Settled down