Chelsea FC StadiumTour

After so many visits to London I finally got the opportunity to do the tour of Chelsea Football Club’s stadium. Chelsea FC, for those who have been living under a rock, is one of the top teams in England’s Premier League and arguably world's most famous football team. Equally famous is "Stamford Bridge", the home of chelsea FC.

If you are in London I highly recommend the Chelsea FC Stadium tour at Stamford Bridge, particularly since most of us can no longer afford to go to games; the cheapest tickets of this much loved team are around 100 pounds. Even if you are a non-football (soccer) fan its still worth going just to see the difference in the Chelsea Team's dressing room and with what they give their opponents to change in.


The stadium (Stamford Bidge) is the most centrally located of all the London football clubs and is easily accessible by the London Bus & the tube (Fulham tube station). The guided tour cost 15 pounds/person which also includes admission to the Chelsea Museum and takes about couple of hours.You start the tour at the Chelsea Museum and go through the press room, Home & Away changing rooms before entering the stadium through the players tunnel.

The team's changing rooms, were surprisingly basic. Each locker in the home changing room was hung with its owner’s shirt. Our tour guide opened the locker of "Ballack" and let us take a peak into it. The lockers are clustered by player's common language.

Next came the moment that was for me the highlight of the visit. You walk out of the players tunnel onto the field to the sound of the roaring crowd. (imagination of course, it was an empty stadium, but still...). I had wondered if a tour of an empty stadium (no crowd, no footballers) would feel a bit, well, empty. But it turned out to be more exciting than the game I had been to last year when Chelsea visited California as part of their US tour.

View from the players tunnel

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Guinness Museum, Dublin, Ireland

So, I was in Ireland for a couple of days. In between the bouts of bad weather and other whatnots, we still managed to do a lot of city touring. Dublin is a fairly interesting city, and one of the highlights of it is oppurtunity tour the Guinness factory. I am not a huge fan of beer, but I did know that Guinness, one of the famous beer, originated from Dublin.

To avoid the long tourist lines we treked out to the Guinness Storehouse fairly early in the morning. The tour itself is a self guided tour and costs 14 euros which is not that expensive considering you get a free pint of beer at the end.

The whole museum is split up into about 7 levels and the building is shaped really cool as well. It’s in the shape of a pint of Guinness which is really cool to look at.

Each level you go up explains all the different ingredients into making the beer etc. In one of level there's a bit of a video section which is interesting but not very interactive, they take your picture and let you email it to your friends and there is an entire floor dedicated to Guiness advertisments which is interesting.

Anyways we finished our self guided tour at the 7th level of the bulding named the Gravity Bar which is the highest point in the Store House and has a look out all over Dublin. This is also where you get your free pint of Guinness. The gravity bar is pretty sweet as you can see the panoramic view of the entire Dublin City skyline from above enjoying your free pint of Guinness beer.

Our complimentary Guinness at the end of the tour

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Dublin in 48 hours

We woke up really early at 5:30am to get ready and take the tube to Victoria station so that we could catch the train to Gatwick Airport. We had an 8:30am flight to Dublin.  We decided to not take the Gatwick express as it’s much more expensive than the regular trains that go there, especially when we had decided to fly the cheap Ryan Air to Ireland, as opposed to the  expensive British Airways, I guess! Anyway, the flight itself was just over an hour and pretty uneventful.This was our first experience flying Ryan air.  Ryan air flights are interesting though because the flight attendants are constantly trying to sell you stuff.

We landed in Dublin on time and the immigration was a breeze, the Immigration officer just stamped a little visa thingy in our passport and we were out. We had decided to take the Airlink bus that goes to the city center . We got off at the O’Connell Street and were greeted by the "Spire of Dublin", which is a large100 foot steel pole in the middle of the road. It seemed to me that it was there for no reason and I was least interested in trying to find out more about the spire.

O'Connell Street and the Dublin Spire

The city is separated by the river Liffey. We were staying at O'Callaghan Davenport hotel at Merrion Square which was on the other side of the river and just a short walk, going across the bridge. The hotel is a bit of an odd historical building, but in a great location.

River Liffey and Ha'Penny bridge

Facade of O'Callaghan Davenport Hotel

After we settled in we decided to go out and explore Dublin.  We headed towards  the St. Stephens park and took a stroll through the park  and we came upto the Grafton Street. Grafton  street is the main shopping street of Dublin. It was pedestrian only and had a lot of the shops. The statue of Molly Malone is on Grafton Street also.

Statue of Molly Malone

Next we went to the Trinity College, oldest university in Ireland and quite popular among tourists, In the old library you can find the famous Book Of Kells.  We skipped the library and just strolled through the grounds 

In the evening we went to the Temple bar area. It is a wonderful area of Dublin, with a lot of history and things to do. You will find a lot of bars here, but more used by the tourists.We got to walk all through that area and see all the little, stores, pubs and some other sites by the river Liffey.  We ended up walking a lot and were pretty tired.  We ended up eating at one of the Kebab shops near the Temple Bar, which was to our surprise, really good

The famous Temple bar

Next day, we had planned on visiting the Dublin Castle and the Guinness storehouse. No visit to Dublin would be complete without a visit to the Guinness storehouse. You can read about our visit here

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London's Borough Market

The weather in London was fantastic. It was cold, cloudy and rainy, a perfect day to go to the Borough Market. The Borough Market is on Borough High Street across the London Bridge tube station. It is London's oldest food market and in terms of London shopping, it’s a foodie paradise.

The market is quite large with buzzing hive of noises, smells, and colors. It was difficult to resist all the stands and stalls which were selling anything from meat & vegetables to chocolates, breads, ice cream ,speciality cheeses, and what not.

The best part about the market were the stands selling chocolate brownies and pies and it’s no coincidence that there’s always a huge gathering of people outside it.

Throughout the market, something is always cooking, whether it’s stew and sizzling meats being grilled or something a little more interesting like ostrich burger.

I tried  the Raclette and the grilled cheese sandwich. Raclette  is  potatoes  topped with melted raclette cheese, which they melt right in front of you and then scrape it over your plate.

Whether you like or don't like markets, you are really missing something if you leave London without walking around the cobblestoned paths of the Borough Market.

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Bellagio and around Lake Como,Italy

Lake Como is approximately 30 miles north of Milan. The lake is surrounded by many towns , all of which are popular with tourists. I took a train from Milan Centrale to Varenna-Essino, which is one of the picturesque little towns on the east shore of Lake Como. This is probably the best starting point to explore the lake, as there are plenty of ferries connecting other towns around the lake.

Varenna , itself is a very lovely place. It has some nice villas and lots of restaurants & cafes. I met few tourists in the train who were staying at Varenna, so I guess its popular with tourists. From the train station I crossed the village by foot and walked to the embarcadero through the lake-front skywalk. After stopping for a gelato I headed towards the ferry port to get to Bellagio.
Bellagio is one of the most distinguished & famous holiday destinations in all of Europe. It should probably be said a celebrity haunt, if you're interested in that sort of thing. I heard Versace family, Sting , Richard Branson and of course our own Mr. Clooney own a villa here.


The ferry ride from Varenna to Bellagio is 8 euros round-trip and takes about 20 mins to get there. 

Bellagio is definitely the prettiest village on Lake Como’s shore. Even today Bellagio is a small village, with cobbled streets that favor foot traffic. The narrow sidewalks angle upwards into the hills and form the center of the town. The main promenade stretches along the waterfront, with the exclusive hotels and quaint cafes facing out towards the lake. There is no shortage of lakeside shopping and dining.

There are many luxurious villas and gardens scattered around its shores. Couple of tourists whom I met in the train were trying to find George Clooney's house. I had no interest where Mr.Clooney lived, and was quite content heading to the nearest gelato shop instead.

Huge ferries dock at Bellagio every few minutes, with different itineraries depending on which village you want to visit that day. The easiest way to get around the lake is by taking the ferries to the various villages.

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24 hours in Milano, Italy

I was in Italy for 3 days for the F1 Italian Grand Prix at Monza. I arrived in Milan in early morning and got a bus from Malapensa Airport to Milan center. Given a choice I always prefer taking an airport bus to the city rather than a subway train, because you get to see the outside whereas in the subway you are in a dark for the entire ride.The walk from the Central station to the taxi stand was interesting, but not far, although when you are a little lost its does seems far. I took a taxi to my hotel and the taxi driver gave me the real Italian taxi ride experience. He was cursing all along at other vehicles, cutting lanes, honking and what not.

I checked-in to my hotel, rested for couple hours before venturing out for some site seeing.

Milan is a big city, but there is not much touristy stuff to do. Most of the tourists who arrive in Milan, actually head north to the Milan lakes. But there are definitely things to do in Milan if you have a day or so, firstly you can see Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper. I was happy to pass this as I have no interest wasting couple of hours standing in line. I took a tram to the Duomo square (Piazza Duomo). At the first glance Duomo (Milan cathedral) looks like any other cathedrals you see in european cities, but a closer look at its facade , its impressive especially the roof. The square was crowded as it also happens to be the main shopping area. I walked around for awhile and came across the popular Milanese cheap food store "Luini " and tried their Panzerotti . Panzerotti are kind of like calzone but deep fried instead, it was very tasty and very cheap too.

Duomo

Square at the Dumo (Piazza Duomo)

Shopping Arcade at the Square

Milan is the fashion capital of Europe and undoubtedly is a fashion shoppers' paradise. The main shopping area is the Fashion Quadrangle (quadrilatero della moda), a set of streets, couple of blocks from Duomo Square. This is the home of all the major high end Italian fashion labels whom our Hollywood starlets shamelessly advertise during the red-carpet events. It was very crowded with the real shoppers as well as window shoppers like me. Some of the streets are pedestrian only and shop windows resembled more like an apartment windows and some stores looked like houses. Compared to Rodeo drive, its definitely a very unique experience to walk around these streets. If you are not a fashionista, you may as well as skip this area, if not its definitely worth a visit.

Main Train Station

Inside the Train Station

I walked around for couple more hours, it was well into the evening and shops started closing down.I was starting to sense the jet-lag at this point so decided to head back to the hotel before gradding a slice of pizza. I had to get up early the next morning to head out to Monza.

You can read about the F1 grand prix here.

On my final day, I ventured out of Milan to the Lake Como area.  You can read my Blog on Bellagio and Lake Como here

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Formula1: Italian Grand Prix' 2008 - Trip Report

Of all the races on the Formula One calendar, the Italian Grand Prix at Monza possibly generates the most buzz, not because of the very energetic and emotional Italian fans (Tifosi) but also due to the heritage and history of the race track itself. The grand prix is held in one of the oldest tracks in Formula 1 on the outskirts of Milan in a small town named Monza .



As I had planned on arriving in Milan early Saturday, I had bought only the race day ticket instead of the usual 2-day ticket ( qualifying + race). My plane touched down in Milan around 8am. Compared to my last F1 race at Montreal, where the entire city including the airport was immersed with F1 fever, there was absolutely no buzz about the F1 in Milan, except for the Ferrari store in downtown Milan which was all about F1, but I guess its like that all 365 days. I was a bit surprised by this but my hotel concierge explained to me in a sentence," Italian Grand Prix happens in Monza, not Milan". Well, that actually made sense.

The grand prix takes place in Monza which is about 10 miles or a 20 min train ride from Milan center. On Sunday there are special trains for the F1 fans to get to Monza from Milan central station. Even though it wasn't raining that day, the sky was grey and there was a continuous faint drizzle. It had rained heavily the previous day, so the track was still wet, and we all had come to terms that this year its going to be a wet race. I arrived at the Milan central station on time to get on the 9:30 am train and was greeted by herds of fans wearing the Ferrari red and also tons of Mclaren fans who had travelled from England. The train ride to Monza was slow and took about 30 mins. I got off the train at the Biassono-Lesmo station around 10am which is close to the track itself.

The race track (autodromo monza) where the the grand prix takes place is inside a park (Parco di Monza). Depending upon what kind of tickets you got, the walk for the station to your grandstand could be anywhere between 15 - 45 mins. Since I had to pick up my tickets from the voucher exchange boothat the paddock entrance, I had to walk all the way to the entrance of the park. The actual entrance to the Monza park was on the other side of the train station so I ended up walking a good 45-60 minutes . Its also confusing if you don't understand Italian, but most the Italian police who were guiding the crowd spoke english, so its better to ask them rather tahn trying to figure out on your own.

The entrance was very crowded with thousands of fans trying to get inside and also lots of vehicles transporting the F1 personnel, media and paddock deliveries were arriving at full force. There were lots of fancy cars entering the paddock too, I presume these were the VIPs & celebrities.

I picked up my ticket, entered the park and went straight to the F1 village. I personally think the highlight of going to a F1 race is visiting the F1 village. This is where all the sponsors and F1 teams display their cars and all other cool F1 stuff which you rarely get to see anywhere else. This year they had Ferrari, Mclaren,Toyota, Honda & Red bull f1 cars on display and many stores selling official F1 related merchandise. There was a long line in the Mercedes Benz booth since they were allowing fans to actually sit inside the cockpit of a Mclaren F1 car, usually we can't get very close to these cars.

Since I had general admission ticket I walked around the race track to find a good place to watch the driver's parade. I always prefer getting a general admission ticket rather than a grand stand ticket, because you get a chance to watch the race from different parts of the track, if you are sitting in a grandstand you will end up watching 90% of the race on big television screens anyway. I also felt that sometimes with a general admission ticket you can find a much better spot to watch the race than the grandstand itself, if not its three times cheaper than the chapest grand stand ticket, so ts a win-win. I was in a bad spot of the track during the drivers parade so couldn't watch the drivers very closely. I walked around awhile and ended up finding a good spot when the race began. Unfortunately I forgot my ear plugs so it was very uncomfortable for the first few laps, till my ears got used to the screeching sounds of the F1 cars. Watching the race with the Italian fans was very different experience, they are indeed a very passionate Ferrari fans as they were booing whenever Hamilton passed and they never stopped booing until the last lap was over. Even though Ferrari did not finish at the top, it looked like all the tifosi went home very happy since the other Italian team, Torro Rosso ended up winning the race.

If you have a General admission ticket, then head down to the Lesmo curve of the race track, they have free stands from where you can sit and watch the cars pass by at a very close distance. Once the race is over you are allowed to enter the track. Everyone ran to the track and were walking around trying to find bits of pieces of the cars that might have dropped during the race. Anyways after everything seemed to end I walked back to the train station, there were Italian police everywhere to control the crowd. We took the same train back to Milan. Even though the weather was not that great, it was a great and fun experience.
Checkout the pics at;
http://picasaweb.google.com/vaishak77/F1ItalianGP08#

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Chicago - The Gotham City

Just saw the newest incarnation of the Batman movie, "The Dark Knight " on IMAX. And Chicago looked absolutely fantastic. The mythical Gotham City, long assumed to be an allegorical Big Apple is unmistakably based on Chicago....Chicago is the Gotham City.

Compared to the last Batman movie, the cinematography of Chicago skyline in this one is awesome . I loved how there wasn't just your typical emphasis on the older buildings. Much of Chicago's modern architecture was showcased. All of the action scenes and street scenes were all authentic Chicago. And you can easily recognize the buildings in Laselle street & Wacker drive. You can even see a Startbucks store in few scenes too. There is a lot of Trump Tower and IBM building in the movie and I believe the Board of Trade Building is Wayne Tower.  Below are some of the pics from my last trip to Chicago

The Bean

Trump Tower

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