Glimpse of Vatican City

We landed in Rome and were really excited. It was our first trip to Italy. We were welcomed by a tourist guide who took us to our hotel and on the way kept talking about our plan for the next couple of days.

On our way to hotel.. The freeways in Rome

Rome - Freeway

It was very similar to our freeways. The interesting fact is that there were very few people who spoke English. We found it little difficult to manage in English. 

Absolutely clueless, we were going in the car to our hotel. It was interesting drive, struggling to know how far the hotel is from the airport, trying to explain what we wanted to see to our guide, talking about vegetarian food. 

All our struggle, the travel, tiredness was all paid off when we stepped inside the Basillica. My god!!! I have no words to explain my feeling. It was absolute wonder. If you get a chance, I would recommend everyone to visit St. Peter's Basillica at Vatican City, Rome. 

I was moved when I stood before the church. Fantastic architecture. No words to talk about the painting by famous artists like Michealangelo. Its one of a kind architecture. 

View of Rome from the tomb 

The Sanctum at the Church

3D Painting on the Ceiling 

Michaelangelo's Painting describing Evolution of Mankind

This used to be the library at Sisteen Chappel

Capitol - By Michaelangelo, Massive construction

I couldn't come out of that place. It was very very beautiful and massive. Such ancient structures, the new culture was all such a great experience. The food was amazing. The pizzas were just sooooo good. Italian food big hit. We loved our stay in Rome. It was a short period in Rome yet very memorable. If you get a chance, please visit this place. Absolutely amazing!

Yangtze River

Ni hao!!!! Welcome back to the third important place in Wuhan - Yangtze River ( ChangJiang - Long river) The river is the longest river in Asia and actually yellow in color. It turned yellow because of industrial pollution and various other reasons. But its really very beautiful. The Yangtze river that cuts north and south China and runs across the important cities of Wuhan.  The interesting fact about the name Wuhan is that it was derived from its 3 most important cities. "Wu" from Wuchang and "Han" from Hankou and Hanyang. The river contributes a major part for the industrial income. So many container ships keep passing this river everyday...

The cities are connected with each other by bridges. They are called the 1st, 2nd and 3rd bridge.  This river is very ferocious. The water runs very fast. To get more detailed information, check out this site. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yangtze_River 

There is an interesting clip here...

This connects Wuchang and Hankou.  When you notice it carefully, you can actually see all modes of transportation possibilities. There is water, air, rail and road transport that is possible. 

Closer look at the bridge...

Can you see the tracks? So this is one and water transport clearly visible. The first layer of the bridge is the road transport and of course air transport is also evident.  Interesting right??? I have not seen such architecture that combines all modes of transportation. 

These are some interesting points about the river and bridge.

GuiYuan Si - GuiYuan Temple

This is very famous in Wuhan. It is said to be famous for luck and prosperity. There were lot of Chinese Gods, Buddha, huge laughing Buddha which was very cute.

GUIYUAN TEMPLE - GUIYUAN SI

The entrance of this temple has this pond filled with turtles. Turtles are supposed to depict long life. So every temple in China has turtle in front of their premises. Not only temples, people keep it at home, shops, etc.

Incense burning place in front of temple. Similar to Indian practice they have such practices too...

Nangwu O mi tofo - Give Power to People who believe in this statement

Unique Bhudda Statue where both front and back had same pose

GUESS WAT???? World's Largest Jade 

We are vegetarians and temples are the only places where you get pure vegetarian dish. And beleive me, the food was very delicious and very healthy too...

First Step in a Literally Foreign World......

Many of us would have traveled to many parts of the world. When it is time to travel we get kind of nervous about the new place, the food, the culture etc. But with one strong base - that is language - English - we face any country boldly and with confidence. But this one country, we were literally foreigners. Language unknown, culture unknown, traditions unfamiliar..... Very interesting country. Rich in history, tradition, value system....

Did you guess the country yet???????? Yes its The land of Forbidden City - China. We had fun in China. It was totally new experience.

Our first step in Beijing airport - cool breeze, wonderful weather, we were boarding our flight to a city called Wuhan, capital of Hubei province. It is located in central China


Why I chose to write about this place first is because we visited this as our first tourist spot in the city.

YELLOW CRANE TOWER - WUHAN

For details on Yellow crane tower, google gives you lots of info. I am here to discuss about things that amazed me about the places we visited. There are 3 floors and each floor depicted a theme. It had a beautiful view of the entire city from the top most floor. 

There is a huge bell under the red shed. People will gather on Chinese New Year to welcome the new year by ringing this bell. People flock here every new year to ring the bell. They beleive that if they ring their bell at the time of the birth of the new year, their life will be filled with joy, health and wealth.

Panoramic view of the city from the 5th floor of the tower. Fresh breeze blowing on a pleasant day. 

The cranes, thats is standing on top of a turtle is believed to be the Saviour of the city called Wuchang in Wuhan. The tower is name after the yellow cranes. The turtle and the snake helped the crane to save the city from floods. 

In Wuhan, one shouldn miss 3 most important places to visit

1. Yellow Crane Tower - Huang He Lou

2. Yangtze River - Chang Jiang

3. GuiYuan Temple - GuiYuan Si

These are the most important places in the city. 

This post covers just one of the 3 important places. Will come up with the other two with more pics ...

See you soon with more new places and more interesting info..

An attempt to take a professional photo..

This hibiscus was my first garden flower. Looking at these flowers,makes me feel so fresh and lively.. The color, the freshness, the fragrance mixed with the mild fragrance of the watered soil.... Woooww! What a pleasure to our senses. I am sure everyone would agree with me on this... I gazed at this flower for a long time and admired its beauty. I couldn stop taking a picture of this beauty. I had watered it just then. It looked so perfect with those tiny droplets on it. I have two plants of this variety and they bear lovely flowers .

Gardening was an easy task I thought. But now I realise its lot of effort and time. I love to spend time in my garden. This is my first garden.  All this while, I just had some plants in pots and I was not able to give proper attention then, but now, I have this garden and I want to take care of it :-).

This is one section of my garden. Coming to the other part,

She is my other beauty. Can you imagine the color combination? So gorgeous looking rose. Actually, these plants were already planted before I came. So I am not gonna take credit for growing this plant. But I took the advantage to enjoy this nature's gift.

Next this tiny little bud,

When I first came to this house, I was so thrilled to see these plants and flowers... Its a great feeling to stand next to these plants in the morn and smell the freshness. Imagine a cup of coffee with such beautiful flowers!!!!!!!!!!!!
Isnt that relaxing??????? Keep relaxing with my first set of flowers and I will be back with more....