Letters To Koko

 Dear Koko,  In the last chapter I told you about how we arrived at Amsterdam, so now let's focus on what we did there.  There were a number of things-to-do in Amsterdam (sans the hash browns of course), of which the first thing on our list was the Rijk Museum . As with all our bookings, we always do them in advance, preferably through the museum website. This time was no exception and we got the tickets. I was very excited to see The Girl with the Pearl Earring by Vermeer. It was only when we reached the museum that we found out that the painting has been shifted to another museum in Netherlands, but we did not have enough time to put that in our itinerary now. I was a little bummed for sure, but the museum is so beautiful and so many other wonderful things to offer that I soon forgot this slight heartburn.  Located on Museumstraat (as the name suggests, all major museums are on this street), it was an easy bus ride from our hotel. Boy, was it windy and chilly, we w...

 Dearest gentle Koko,  (Yes, I just completed watching Bridgerton, which nowadays you roll your eyes at - "again! Bridgerton, so boring ." But I was so tempted to start a letter with this address ) So on to the next part of our trip. We reached Amsterdam's Schiphol airport with a confidence which only we have. We had purchased the I Amsterdam card, so we were assured that we can just step into any transport that we like. We were only in for a rude shock - Amsterdam is not for the faint hearted. After the initial confusion, we took on "the small walk" to our hotel from the station.  It was the initial enthusiasm which made us exclaim- "Look that is Rembrandt's house" ; "The canal is so beautiful" ; "Oh these houses are right out of a postcard" ; "Look at these cute cyclists". That's where I draw the line. There is nothing, I repeat, nothing more ferocious than a cyclist in Amsterdam. They are absolute hooligans. The...

 Dear Koko,  I would say I had the privilege of travelling with the most enthusiastic 9 YO ever on the most high-octane Euro trip ever. While we wanted to be lazy and relaxed, we ended up packing our days with so much to do, and you kept up at every step. There was never a complaint from you. I am so happy that you adjusted so fast and so well. I know you had a lot of fun, so did I. In fact we had so much fun that one letter would not justify what we did.  I had in fact kept in mind about our letters so I had kept a short journal of sorts, which I will now transfer to your letters. So here is the first in the series. Let us start at the beginning. This trip did not start now when we took our flight and set foot far away from home. This vacation started months ago when we first started planning. Each of us had opinions which were tugging us in three different directions so zeroing in one place which covers all our interest areas was the first hurdle to cross.  Once we...

  Hi Koko, Last night we were having a strange conversation. I was scrolling through old photographs of vacations and you suddenly said, “I have been to these places, but I don’t remember.” I can see that dejected and languishing look on your face.  And I thought to myself, your excuse is that you were too young, what is my excuse for having these memories lost? So I will try to think back and write to you some memories which are unique to us when we visited these places. I am not going to go all Lonely Planet on you and explain which flight we took and what famous sights we saw, but I will be talking more about what made our trip to these places special. We made distinct and once-in-a-life-time experiences here. Maybe, some day, when things are better and we can freely move about again, we will go to distant lands again – to make new memories. Till then, let me regale you about the old ones.  Let me start with one particular experience in the last awesome trip that we t...