Holland - Amsterdam, Keukenhof, Madurodam & Zanse Chans

22nd April 2011 - 25th April 2011

We were on a 4 day trip to Netherlands during the Easter weekend. I wasn't very sure if i would really like Amsterdam.

This was my first vacation to a European country. We had decided on what places to visit in advance, but hadn't worked how we would get there and other details. We were not so prepared for the trip. 

· Surprisingly getting to London Gatwick Airport from our place Ilford was very easy (only if you are traveling light) using public transport and quite economical.

· Easy jet flights were on time, no delays and quite comfortable. 

· No issues in getting to the Hotel citizenM from Amsterdam Schipol Airport. Public transport is quite good in Netherlands. All the places are well connected.. Trams, Buses, Trains, Cruises.

· citizenM was a pretty hi-fi hotel. The room was pretty small but it had hi-fundoo techniques to control the electronics and mood settings inside the room. The only downside of it is that it’s about 30mins from the Amsterdam Centraal Station, and that’s the place you need to be at to get to other locations within Netherlands.

22^th April 2011 – Amsterdam Night life

·         Checked in to the hotel.  After a quick dinner at the hotel, we were out to enjoy the planned Canal Cruise. We managed to not find the place on time, Amsterdam centraal station police misguided us and we kept walking in the opposite direction for about 2km. Never mind we were quite chilled out and bindaas and clicked some pictures around the centraal station (amazing architecture).

·         Sex Museum – Spent about an hour here and it has got pretty interesting displays. Liking or disliking it would depend on your attitude.

·         Walked around the Dam square for quite some time until mid-night and got a tram back to the hotel. Amsterdam is a pretty safe place.

23^rd April 2011 – Keukenhof,  Madurodam, 100 Hightlights Cruise

·         Keukenhof, Lisse - After a heavy breakfast at the hotel, we got to the Amsterdam Centraal Station by 11 to visit my dream location of blooming tulips during spring. We had pre-booked keukenhof entrée tickets + bus from schipol airport plaza to save ourselves from getting stuck in long queues. Buying a combi ticket was a bad idea as we had a 24hr pass which would have allowed us to take the bus to keukenhof for free. Pre-book tickets to enter keukenhof garden https://ticketing2.wheretocard.nl/keukenhof/ctrl/orderentry?language=en

·          You can find a loads of information about keukenhof here http://www.keukenhof.nl/

I was quite upset about the fact that we had not seen the fields with tulips instead we were walking endlessly in the garden (I had seen quite a few gardens of this kind in the US). We thought of renting a bike to go around the fields, as it was a weekend and there were many visitors around we would have to wait for the bike and we decided to walk. Finally got to see the fields full of red, yellow, white, purple, pink, orange…. Colored tulips… and it was amazing to experience the moment. Clicked loads of pictures and that’s when I was back to my bubbly mood. My dear husband Vinay, had to put up with me until then with my grumpy mood. Sorry.

·         Madurodam – Miniature city of Holland- We took bus 54 to from keukenhof to Leiden central and then a train to Den Haag Central, and then Tram 9 to Madurodam. Overall journey took about 1.30hrs. 24hr pass is valid across the country on all buses and trams. You will have to buy train tickets separately.

Madurodam is an awesome creation, loads of hard work has gone into it, would be nice if the tourists respect that and stop touching the miniatures and leaning onto them for pictures.  You will need a minimum of 2hrs to see all the models and read thru the guide book and follow the route suggested, would be easier.

Back to Amsterdaam Centraal from Den Haag Centraal and then tram back to the hotel.

·         Holland International Canal Cruise – 100 Highlights Cruise: Our canal cruise ticket din’t go waste as we had missed it the previous day, the lovely amsterdammer operating the cruise let us take the tour the next day with the same voucher. This was a pleasant cruise through the canals in Amsterdam with a little bit of explanation around the area. Good way to relax after a long day.  I wasn’t particularly excited about this one though. Don’t buy the expensive tickets for this trip.

24^th April 2011 – Zaanse Schans and Amsterdam Joyride Tours (Bike tour), Red Light District

·         Zaanse Schans – This is the place to be at if you like a combination of water, windmills and fields. I loved this place. Very calm, peaceful. We took a train from Amsterdam Centraal Station to Koog Zaandijk, make sure your train stops at this location as we missed to do so and ended up going up until Alkmaar(cheese factory, if you are interested you might want to stop over here) and had to come back for about 15mins.  Walked around for quite a bit and decided to rent a bike, I was quite nervous about riding a bike and to my luck I ended up getting a bike that was not suiting for my height, I had hard time to get started, once I got around it it was joyful ride around to see the place is less time.

·         Amsterdam Joyride tours - www.joyridetours.nl/ This was the best of all that we had done until now, I was very comfortable riding a bike by now and the bike we got to from the joyride tours was a good one with gears and perfect for my height. We ended up learning a lot of history around Amsterdam Netherlands starting from 1400s and until now.. & it was quite interesting. Joyride tour is a must do if you are a visiting Amsterdam for the first time. We got to see the smallest house in the whole of Europe, 1meter width and 4 floors and a couple are staying over there. It took about 3hrs for the tour to finish. Surprisingly we were not tired at all. It was great experience.

·         Red Light District – Came back to the hotel, freshened up a bit and we headed over to the red light district after dinner. Weather was very pleasant and we walked and spent time around the Dam Square and red light district and one of the good pubs around until 1am. Took a night bus back to the hotel. Night bus charges are almost double the regular ticket prices.

http://www.gvb.nl/english/Pages/default.aspx - For information around the public transport in Netherlands.  Go for a 2 or 3 days Pass depending on your stay.

If you don’t mind spending a little more money when compared to hotel on accommodation, I would recommend renting a house boat, it would definitely be a wonderful experience.

25th April 2011 – Back to London with loads of memories from Holland. I would definitely go back again.

Should i buy a DSLR ?

My first digital camera Sony T5. I have been using this point and shoot camera since 2006 and i don't repent for doing so, it gave me atmost comfort while taking pictures.
It dint make a big difference as i have never been very serious about photography until now.
We thought about upgrading our digital camera to a good one as Sony T5 has gotten really old.
The tough part begins from the moment you think of buying a new camera as there are loads of options out in the market and you invariably end up reading reviews and talking to friends seeking their advices.
I did the same, asked for suggestions and advices from friends and colleagues. My lovely friends and colleagues gave me loads of very very useful suggestions and lot of information on what i needed to know before i decide on the brand and DSLR camera model.

I have tried to capture most of the advices here:

This suggestion/information was from my colleague Praveen, who is quite keen on photography:

 The SLR generally takes pictures that are less awesome than a point and shoot. The purpose of an SLR is to have the privilege of better techniques. What I mean by that is...
Aperture adjustment
Exposure control
Time variation... and so on.

All this means that you have to plan your shot and invest that time before shooting. In most photo shoots, there is quite a lot of time spent on setting up a photo shoot and post processing which brings the awesomeness to the pictures. If its all about taking out the camera and just shooting, the point and shoot will win hands down. This is also because they have a default optimization algorithm built in which 'tries' to bring the awesomeness to the picture.

So... If you're buying an SLR, be prepared to give it that time, before and after taking your pictures.

To understand an SLR, think about a computer. The SLR body is like the RAM. The lens is like the processor. The memory card is like the hard drive. The prices can also be pretty much equated the same way. Spend more on lenses than the body. Go for the 550D if you have the budget, or the 500D is more than enough to begin with.

Coming to the lenses…

You WILL need 18-55mm, which is the range for normal indoor kind of pictures, where the subject is pretty close to you. When you get outdoors, you will need up to 200mm. This is about a range where you can frame someone's face from across a narrow road. Therefore you will need a range from 18mm to 200mm. Lens are available in plenty. You can get an 18-55mm lens and another 55-200mm lens. Or… you could get one 18-200mm, instead of the other two.
At this point, think that all the three lenses will perform the same way. The only difference here is that the 18-55mm is smaller in size and lighter in weight when compared to the other two. Therefore you can save yourself from carrying the zoom all the time.
On the other hand, if you buy the 18-200mm, you may NEVER have to switch lenses but will have to bear the weight all the time.

All you have to think about is, whether you want portability or power.

If you are looking for the power of an SLR, yet want it to be very handy. Sony has launched its latest series called NEX. These are SLR cameras that are manufactured like a point and shoot. They come with interchangeable lenses too, so that you can go on experimenting with it. The quality of images are much better than your normal point and shoot and also give you the privileges of SLRs. Prices depend on your lens and the body you choose.
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A colleague of mine Rixt Wiersma : canon G12 - if you don't want to spend your money on an expensive SLR, this is your best option!http://www.dpreview.com/news/1009/10091412canong12.asp

Another collegue of mine Anand Vishwanath: 
If u r gonna take snaps of food on the plate and glasses of wine any point n shoot is enuff. I think Canon G12 is the way to go. Agree with Rixt.. no point spending so much on an SLR if you are not planning to go Professional ! 

A good friend of mine Pradeep Kuppala:  
The BEST Rated SLR is D7000. Take a Look. Once for life time, but like some said..if you want to shoot your wine n food..Any Point n shoot wil do ..LOL!! 

A good friend of mine Mahesh Marineni :

This purely depends upon your skills & Interest, I believe D7000 is more expensive and its for highly professionals. If you are an entry level to SLR, then opt for mid range SLR's like D3100/D5000(this would be out of market now), D90 falls just above mid range SLR's which is professional... Hope this helps... But one suggestion from my learning experience, Don't get the default Lenses as part of Body.. Go for a good lens....

ICC World Cup 2011 Finals- IND v/s SriLanka

Original plan was to meet up at Divya and Anil's place by 9AM and have fun watching the match.

1st Innings at 106 Icon Building :
Over slept a bit, sort of screwed up the original plan.. but we did manage to not miss even a single moment of the match. Decorated living room with Indian flags..Painted faces..2 cases of Becks, half a bottle of pimms, 2 big packets of crisps..... Indians managed to restrict Lankans to not go beyond 274. Seemed like a easily achievable score.. Packed everything that we needed to keep us high and enthu and some junk to go with it.. and we started rushing to get to Anil  & Divya's place to get back to the original plan.. awesome spirit everyone.. grazie
2nd Innings at 2D Valebrook: Lunch from Dominos, horrible cheese sticks, pizza was alright.. but wasn't enough though (blame me for that, scusa)
Everyone were literally mourning after we lost Veeru and Sachin's wickets.. :(((, Gambhir & Kohli with their terrific performance brought everyone back to life..face painting activity picked up again. Photo shoot in between...
Enjoyed the way our boys taught lankans a lesson..and stood up as champions of the world in cricket ... Shouting, screaming, dancing, i was high for most part of the day and thoroughly enjoyed it. After all World cup happens once in 4 years.. can't miss out on the moment.
Loads of pictures.. cake to celebrate the victory at the end was a great idea....Sur sur batti surprise at the end was amazing to wrap up the day ..

Dinner at some panjab (pa.... version of punjab i suppose) place was pathetic.. we had no choice did we.. :p..
"SourceCode" Movie was too complicated for me to understand.. I must say i did manage to follow Inception :D.. Ted snoared enough in the theatre.. Highlights at 11.30pm was like a feast.. finally crashed at 2am i guess.

Sunday was mostly chill out kind of a day.. nothing much to mention apart from the ginger teas, dosas and paddus with chutneys..

Monday - Ugadi - Dinner at Vam and Priya's place was awesome.. i was missing Obbattu a lot..and vinu was missing uddina vada a lot.. so thanks for the efforts and yummy food.. and i cant forget to say thanks to Avi for making us laugh like the craziest people on earth.. Crashed really late again and woke up with bad headache.. :(((((

2nd April 2011 - World Cup Finals

I have chosen the ICC world cup finals match as the topic to start blogging in public.... its been a while since the event has happened, better late than never :)