Follow my blog with Bloglovin In the Country of Symphony - AUSTRIA Sometime in mid-nineties, my young journalist brother Ambar returned from an official trip to Austria. He invited us to a party, where, over sips on Scotch, he shared his wonderful moments amidst the beauty of nature in Salzburg. With a glint,  mesmerized and carried away, I listened. The scenes from the musical classic ‘Sound of Music’ flashed across in pieces. But somewhere the traveler in me felt jealous. The very thought that I never get what I long for kept on recurring at the back of my mind. It is true that we humans do not get everything we long for in our lifetime. But this was amongst very special and dear to my longings.   So while preparing my itinerary for the Europe tour in 2017, I requested my sister and brother in law to join us from Frankfurt, where they stay. We drove down the autobahn, with Arindam at wheel, from Frankfurt to Switzerland and after spending 3 days there we moved into Aus...

Holland 2 - Museums of two famous residents Rembrandt & Anne Frank The Jewish Market in Amsterdam buzzed in the morning. The food stalls, in particular, were tempting. I don’t exactly remember what I had, but some titbits definitely to satiate a desire normally triggered by delectable display of street foods. After hanging around in the market for a brief period, we took a Line 9 tram to Waterlooplein stop. We got down at the corner of the street leading to Rembrandt House. My knowledge on Rembrandt was very limited at that ti me. I only knew that he was a Dutch artist. My stupid brain seemed to have advised me against spending money and watching some paintings of a single artist. Instead I preferred to relax on a bench in the open overlooking a canal below with a cup of coffee and enjoy the sight of tourist laden motorboats streaming past. My wife, on the other hand, had studied a lot about Rembrandt before coming to Amsterdam. She briefed me and also convinced me in cha...