FELLOWSHIP IN EUROPE -The PHRT- 182 way
Going to Europe along with your fellow tablers is a dream for most of us in the tabling fraternity. Last year our then IRO –Tr. Abhijit Bora initiated a dialogue with our twinning tables across the world to visit Pune and experience Indian hospitality and more so Pune tabling. It was this invitation which prompted the tablers of Tubingen-Reutlingen182 to visit us last year and we hosted our fellow tablers and families for four to five days. An immediate invitation from our German friends followed which prompted a lot of us to visit them this year.
Tour Highlights After months of planning and
1. 11 tablers including 8 couples and seven organisation we decided to go on a children. twelve day trip along with our families. 2. 12 days of fellowship and bonding. In fact at some stages, due to our busy3. Vienna, Salsburg, Cologne, Heidelburg, work schedules, we thought that ourStuttgart, Tubingen, Reutlingen visited. 4. Joint fellowship night with Austrian Tablers trip was only going a remain a dream, 5. Joint meeting with Tubingen 182. but it was the pure tabling sprit and 6. Release of PHRT 182’s 100th meeting pin. dedication of our tablers that our 7. Indian flag hoisted at Mercedes Benz HQ. dream turned into a reality. On the 24th of June we finalised the names, the places and the tentative itenary of the tour and decided to leave on the 27th of July 2008 for Vienna.
The fellowship tour started from Pune with us deciding to go altogether by bus on the 27th Afternoon. As each of the families drove to the meeting point, they were welcomed with a lot of cheer.The excitement of the next 12 days could be felt on the bus from Pune to Mumbai as the ladies could not stop talking of their earlier experiences and new shopping lists.
We landed in Vienna at 05:35 am and reached the hotel by approximately 6:30 am. The rooms were to be allocated by
2:00 pm as per European standards and hence we had organised two rooms where the babies, children and ladies could freshen up. This went as per plan only for the first 20 minutes until hunger struck and the ladies opened the thaplas, khakras, chutneys, farsans and sweets in the traditional Indian way. We then headed off to a park just adjacent to our hotel. Amidst the scenic surroundings of lawn mounds was a small pond with many ducks. The children had a good time feeding the ducks. After this we all feasted on mouth-watering ice-creams, while waiting for the tram which would take us to the city centre. But we kept waiting for the next tram as 10 am Sunday morning was the perfect time to start our
day with a couple of glasses of beer. We ultimately got to the City-centre and
it was a long, pleasant stroll on the narrow streets of the city, which ended again with a chilled glass of beer followed by a light lunch. Later we went back to the hotel to unpack and change and take a short cat nap. In the evening we set out to explore another square and ended the day with a early dinner comprising of pizzas, salads, risottos and kebabs.
The next morning, Abhijit and his daughter Cherry joined us at our hotel. After all our Pure vegetarian friends fested on a sumptuous breakfast – “ Eggs are Vegetarian “ we all assembled at the hotel lobby and left for the city tour organized for us. It was a nice sunny morning and our first stop was the Belvedere palace along with the botanical gardens. We then we drove through the city to see various buildings like the parliament, library, city hall while we captured a few pictures. We opted for a lunch break at the amusement park where all the ladies freaked out on all the exciting rides including the Ferris Wheel, Carrousel Ride, Water Boat, Bomb ride etc etc etc. We then visited the Schonbrunn palace and the guide gave us a very nice tour explaining about each room, their character, the history of the family, the queen, the grand wedding and various other important events that occurred during that era. We were also pleased to see Indian paintings in the Palace- I guess we Indian have always been well connected. After this we rushed to the Schonbrunn zoo which was a treat for the children and us parents to see a variety of animals including giraffes, bisons, polar bear lion, tigers, penguins and every other type of animal one could think of -white peacock- it was simply fabulous. We then rushed to the hotel where we changed in a jiffy and caught the tram back to the city to meet tablers from Vienna.
It was a lovely evening organised by Tabler Harry where we all introduced ourselves and
our families to one another. We also exchanged flags and pins while the we guzzled down gallons of beer. This was followed by an extremely sumptuous dinner.
While some of us took our families back to the hotel others waited back and had a
couple of shots with the Austrians. It was indeed an evening filled with excitement, happiness and surprise.
The next day we all were up by 6:00 a.m. ‘coz we had to drive to Salzburg by bus. After having another “Pure Vegetarian Breakfast” at the hotel we all left for Salzburg which was a 5 hour journey filled with desi music, and of course desi snacks. The countryside was extraordinarily scenic, well landscaped hillocks, beautiful houses and crystal clear water bodies. We took a short snack break with some heavy cakes, waffles, sandwiches and pasta all resulting in a nap on the bus and before we knew it we were at Salzburg. We started the city tour with the beautiful Mirabel gardens and then walked across the river to see Mozart’s birth place and the church. The city tour was over in the next three hours and we walked through the narrow streets of Salzburg charmed by the size and vibration of the city. After a short burger nap at Mc Donalds, we headed back to the Bus and returned to Vienna. As it was pretty late, we requested to be dropped of at the City Centre where ended our day with dinner at a Chinese restaurant.
The next day was relatively relaxed. The first few hours we spent on packing since we had to leave the same afternoon for cologne. Later we all left the hotel at 11:00a.m. to go to the city centre to do some last minute shopping. We grabbed a bite at the city- centre and then went back to the hotel to pick up our bags and then headed for the airport. It was about an hour and a half to reach Cologne by air. The children were give some scribble pad and colouring books at the aircraft, so this kept them busy till we reached Cologne. We reached Cologne at around 8:30pm and the ladies made some delicious Indian food at the hotel. Later a few of our friends decided to explore the night life of Cologne and got back to the hotel at three the next morning.
After a lavish breakfast at the hotel, we were all set for the Cologne sight-seeing tour. We first headed off to the Panorma cruise on the river Rhine. It was an one and a half hour cruise and then visited the Cologne cathedral. It was a nice cathedral with beautiful stained glass. We then grabbed a bite on the street outside the cathedral before visiting the old town hall and then the Diocesan museum. Here we were joined by the Tubingen Tabler Till who accompanied us for the rest of the day. This was a day long tour and we reached the hotel by 5:00 pm only
to be informed by the ladies that they wanted to explore the neighbouring mall to explore their wallets and they did just that as the were there the next morning as well – obviously as they had not visited each and every the shops. The next day we were joined by Pooja alias Kaj alias Abhijit’s wife and there was loads of excitement at the Breakfast table with each of us telling her what she had
missed out on and how we had not missed her. Later it was time to visit the mall and before we knew it we were bag boys for our wives and by twelve we were so stressed out that we decided to have lunch at the mall. Late afternoon we freshened up at the hotel and were out at five to visit the chocolate museum and the beer garten. It was a fun filled evening as we took the kids to a small play-area adjacent to the beer-garten which had a small water-body to amuse the children. We then had our dinner at an Indian restaurant “Jaipur” where we had satisfied Indian bellies along with a very fat bill.
The next day we had our breakfast at the hotel and then headed off to Tubingen by bus. This was a 6 hour drive from Cologne to Tubingen, however some friendly advice from tabler Till ensured our halt at Heidelburg where we took a 2hour halt at the palace. The Castle here is located on a hill and it was a one of the steepest climbs we had ever encountered as the prams kept going the other way. Ultimately when we reached the pinnacle we found our climb to be worth every while as the view was breathtaking from every angle.
Finally we reached Tubigin at 6:00p.m. and each and every host was waiting to welcome us. In typical German fasion they gave us a sheet of paper with their snaps,names, addresses and their contact no. in case we got lost. They also clicked our family picture with our names for their reference and ultimately showed us how to be a good Indian Boy. We then headed off to our respective hosts’ residence. My host was Stefen and Annette Lachenmann. The same evening there was a house dinner and Tablers/Hosts staying closeby hosted a common dinner for their hosts. We went to Jens’s house where tabler Dhawal Shah was staying and feasted on some barbeque, salads while the children played on the lawn.
On Sunday, our fellow Germans had organised a Picnic and a visit to the Hohenzollern Castle. We all were ready at around 10:00a.m. and met at the Tubingen castle by 11:30 to take the shuttle up to the castle. As we waited outside the castle for our tickets we all feasted on some ice-creams. It was about 45min tour inside the castle. The castle tour was followed by a lovely picnic where each host had brought some home cooked food. They had nice variety of cakes and sandwiches and fruit platter. They also got some Frisbees and balls for the kids to play.
Later we returned back to our hosts house, and freshened up for a pool party at Tabler Frank’s house. The food here was made by a West Indian Chef and was pure Vegetarian to cater to our Taste Buds. The evening ensured a few of us in the swimming pool while the rest guzzled some beer as the night progressed.
On we went to a neighbouring host’s place for breakfast, from thereon we went sightseeing. There we could hire bicycles and go for a short ride. The cycles also had a small seat so as to carry our children too. We also walked through the narrow lanes of Tubingen and visited a nice small church and then had a nice meal at a nearby restaurant. After this we spent the afternoon at the shopping malls along the streets. We then went for a nice boat ride at the bridge, where we met that morning. The boat ride was disrupted towards the end due to a sudden downpour and most of us ran for cover to the closet location. The evening plan altered and we had dinner with our hosts.
On Tuesday we drove down to Stuttgart, to visit the Mercedes Benz museum. It was one of the best museums we had ever seen. The whole tour around the museum took us about 2 to 2.5hours which flew by very fast as we got engrossed in the history of cars right from the vintage to the future.
The afternoon was what most of us had been looking forward to – Visiting the Mercedes Benz plant. As the ladies proceeded for what the do best- spend money, we tablers were driven the the Merc plant which has an area of 2.2sq. km. We were given a very warm welcome by the Head of Indian Operation and even the Indian flag was hosted for our visited, thus making us feel extremely proud. The plant visit started with a ten minute AV presentation on the plant and lasted for a couple of hours where we were shown the body shop which was 99% automised and the assembly line which boggled our minds. By the time all of us stepped out of the plant all our fellow industrialists were full of ideas for their Pune plants.
That same evening we had our 100th table meeting along with Tubingen-Reutlingen 182 which was a joint meeting. The meeting was organised in the Tubingen tower which was a dungeon in the earlier years. The meeting was one of the most memorable meeting our table as had as Chairman Vikas exchanged flags released our 100th meeting pin, presented our token of appreciation to the German Tablers with hand crafted Elephants and RTI beer mugs which were engraved with both the table logos. It was an evening filled with loud cheer, claps and
flashes.
Our last day in Tubingen was absolutely amazing-like they say save the best for the last. We left home at about ten to visit our hosts workplace from where we were picked up by steven who escorted us into the serene hills of Tubingen for some adventure sports – The Dare Devil Types which included rope climbing, walking swinging, swaying etc etc etc.
After the initial hesitation and leg pulling we all decided to go for it and harnessed ourselves before we were given the safety drill. Some of us actually did the advanced stages as well as this rope-climbing adventure had 8 levels. The whole day was spent amongst the trees by the tablers while the wives and kids played on the open field adjacent to the park.
After a very adventurous afternoon, we proceeded to an apple winery owned by one of the tablers father where we were showed the process of apple wine. This was followed by some sumptuous onion cake which is the speciality of the area. The night moved on slowly as we chatted with one another and invited each of our hosts to visit us in India.
The next morning we left Tubingen by six am for Stuttgart as we had an early flight back to India via Vienna. It was truly a memorable trip as enjoyed ourselves thoroughly and we gelled extremely well with one another to return back as a stronger and larger family.
Compiled and Written by
Amol Hatkar Fellowship Convener –PHRT 182
Going to Europe along with your fellow tablers is a dream for most of us in the tabling fraternity. Last year our then IRO –Tr. Abhijit Bora initiated a dialogue with our twinning tables across the world to visit Pune and experience Indian hospitality and more so Pune tabling. It was this invitation which prompted the tablers of Tubingen-Reutlingen182 to visit us last year and we hosted our fellow tablers and families for four to five days. An immediate invitation from our German friends followed which prompted a lot of us to visit them this year.
Tour Highlights After months of planning and
1. 11 tablers including 8 couples and seven organisation we decided to go on a children. twelve day trip along with our families. 2. 12 days of fellowship and bonding. In fact at some stages, due to our busy3. Vienna, Salsburg, Cologne, Heidelburg, work schedules, we thought that ourStuttgart, Tubingen, Reutlingen visited. 4. Joint fellowship night with Austrian Tablers trip was only going a remain a dream, 5. Joint meeting with Tubingen 182. but it was the pure tabling sprit and 6. Release of PHRT 182’s 100th meeting pin. dedication of our tablers that our 7. Indian flag hoisted at Mercedes Benz HQ. dream turned into a reality. On the 24th of June we finalised the names, the places and the tentative itenary of the tour and decided to leave on the 27th of July 2008 for Vienna.
The fellowship tour started from Pune with us deciding to go altogether by bus on the 27th Afternoon. As each of the families drove to the meeting point, they were welcomed with a lot of cheer.The excitement of the next 12 days could be felt on the bus from Pune to Mumbai as the ladies could not stop talking of their earlier experiences and new shopping lists.
We landed in Vienna at 05:35 am and reached the hotel by approximately 6:30 am. The rooms were to be allocated by
2:00 pm as per European standards and hence we had organised two rooms where the babies, children and ladies could freshen up. This went as per plan only for the first 20 minutes until hunger struck and the ladies opened the thaplas, khakras, chutneys, farsans and sweets in the traditional Indian way. We then headed off to a park just adjacent to our hotel. Amidst the scenic surroundings of lawn mounds was a small pond with many ducks. The children had a good time feeding the ducks. After this we all feasted on mouth-watering ice-creams, while waiting for the tram which would take us to the city centre. But we kept waiting for the next tram as 10 am Sunday morning was the perfect time to start our
day with a couple of glasses of beer. We ultimately got to the City-centre and
it was a long, pleasant stroll on the narrow streets of the city, which ended again with a chilled glass of beer followed by a light lunch. Later we went back to the hotel to unpack and change and take a short cat nap. In the evening we set out to explore another square and ended the day with a early dinner comprising of pizzas, salads, risottos and kebabs.
The next morning, Abhijit and his daughter Cherry joined us at our hotel. After all our Pure vegetarian friends fested on a sumptuous breakfast – “ Eggs are Vegetarian “ we all assembled at the hotel lobby and left for the city tour organized for us. It was a nice sunny morning and our first stop was the Belvedere palace along with the botanical gardens. We then we drove through the city to see various buildings like the parliament, library, city hall while we captured a few pictures. We opted for a lunch break at the amusement park where all the ladies freaked out on all the exciting rides including the Ferris Wheel, Carrousel Ride, Water Boat, Bomb ride etc etc etc. We then visited the Schonbrunn palace and the guide gave us a very nice tour explaining about each room, their character, the history of the family, the queen, the grand wedding and various other important events that occurred during that era. We were also pleased to see Indian paintings in the Palace- I guess we Indian have always been well connected. After this we rushed to the Schonbrunn zoo which was a treat for the children and us parents to see a variety of animals including giraffes, bisons, polar bear lion, tigers, penguins and every other type of animal one could think of -white peacock- it was simply fabulous. We then rushed to the hotel where we changed in a jiffy and caught the tram back to the city to meet tablers from Vienna.
It was a lovely evening organised by Tabler Harry where we all introduced ourselves and
our families to one another. We also exchanged flags and pins while the we guzzled down gallons of beer. This was followed by an extremely sumptuous dinner.
While some of us took our families back to the hotel others waited back and had a
couple of shots with the Austrians. It was indeed an evening filled with excitement, happiness and surprise.
The next day we all were up by 6:00 a.m. ‘coz we had to drive to Salzburg by bus. After having another “Pure Vegetarian Breakfast” at the hotel we all left for Salzburg which was a 5 hour journey filled with desi music, and of course desi snacks. The countryside was extraordinarily scenic, well landscaped hillocks, beautiful houses and crystal clear water bodies. We took a short snack break with some heavy cakes, waffles, sandwiches and pasta all resulting in a nap on the bus and before we knew it we were at Salzburg. We started the city tour with the beautiful Mirabel gardens and then walked across the river to see Mozart’s birth place and the church. The city tour was over in the next three hours and we walked through the narrow streets of Salzburg charmed by the size and vibration of the city. After a short burger nap at Mc Donalds, we headed back to the Bus and returned to Vienna. As it was pretty late, we requested to be dropped of at the City Centre where ended our day with dinner at a Chinese restaurant.
The next day was relatively relaxed. The first few hours we spent on packing since we had to leave the same afternoon for cologne. Later we all left the hotel at 11:00a.m. to go to the city centre to do some last minute shopping. We grabbed a bite at the city- centre and then went back to the hotel to pick up our bags and then headed for the airport. It was about an hour and a half to reach Cologne by air. The children were give some scribble pad and colouring books at the aircraft, so this kept them busy till we reached Cologne. We reached Cologne at around 8:30pm and the ladies made some delicious Indian food at the hotel. Later a few of our friends decided to explore the night life of Cologne and got back to the hotel at three the next morning.
After a lavish breakfast at the hotel, we were all set for the Cologne sight-seeing tour. We first headed off to the Panorma cruise on the river Rhine. It was an one and a half hour cruise and then visited the Cologne cathedral. It was a nice cathedral with beautiful stained glass. We then grabbed a bite on the street outside the cathedral before visiting the old town hall and then the Diocesan museum. Here we were joined by the Tubingen Tabler Till who accompanied us for the rest of the day. This was a day long tour and we reached the hotel by 5:00 pm only
to be informed by the ladies that they wanted to explore the neighbouring mall to explore their wallets and they did just that as the were there the next morning as well – obviously as they had not visited each and every the shops. The next day we were joined by Pooja alias Kaj alias Abhijit’s wife and there was loads of excitement at the Breakfast table with each of us telling her what she had
missed out on and how we had not missed her. Later it was time to visit the mall and before we knew it we were bag boys for our wives and by twelve we were so stressed out that we decided to have lunch at the mall. Late afternoon we freshened up at the hotel and were out at five to visit the chocolate museum and the beer garten. It was a fun filled evening as we took the kids to a small play-area adjacent to the beer-garten which had a small water-body to amuse the children. We then had our dinner at an Indian restaurant “Jaipur” where we had satisfied Indian bellies along with a very fat bill.
The next day we had our breakfast at the hotel and then headed off to Tubingen by bus. This was a 6 hour drive from Cologne to Tubingen, however some friendly advice from tabler Till ensured our halt at Heidelburg where we took a 2hour halt at the palace. The Castle here is located on a hill and it was a one of the steepest climbs we had ever encountered as the prams kept going the other way. Ultimately when we reached the pinnacle we found our climb to be worth every while as the view was breathtaking from every angle.
Finally we reached Tubigin at 6:00p.m. and each and every host was waiting to welcome us. In typical German fasion they gave us a sheet of paper with their snaps,names, addresses and their contact no. in case we got lost. They also clicked our family picture with our names for their reference and ultimately showed us how to be a good Indian Boy. We then headed off to our respective hosts’ residence. My host was Stefen and Annette Lachenmann. The same evening there was a house dinner and Tablers/Hosts staying closeby hosted a common dinner for their hosts. We went to Jens’s house where tabler Dhawal Shah was staying and feasted on some barbeque, salads while the children played on the lawn.
On Sunday, our fellow Germans had organised a Picnic and a visit to the Hohenzollern Castle. We all were ready at around 10:00a.m. and met at the Tubingen castle by 11:30 to take the shuttle up to the castle. As we waited outside the castle for our tickets we all feasted on some ice-creams. It was about 45min tour inside the castle. The castle tour was followed by a lovely picnic where each host had brought some home cooked food. They had nice variety of cakes and sandwiches and fruit platter. They also got some Frisbees and balls for the kids to play.
Later we returned back to our hosts house, and freshened up for a pool party at Tabler Frank’s house. The food here was made by a West Indian Chef and was pure Vegetarian to cater to our Taste Buds. The evening ensured a few of us in the swimming pool while the rest guzzled some beer as the night progressed.
On we went to a neighbouring host’s place for breakfast, from thereon we went sightseeing. There we could hire bicycles and go for a short ride. The cycles also had a small seat so as to carry our children too. We also walked through the narrow lanes of Tubingen and visited a nice small church and then had a nice meal at a nearby restaurant. After this we spent the afternoon at the shopping malls along the streets. We then went for a nice boat ride at the bridge, where we met that morning. The boat ride was disrupted towards the end due to a sudden downpour and most of us ran for cover to the closet location. The evening plan altered and we had dinner with our hosts.
On Tuesday we drove down to Stuttgart, to visit the Mercedes Benz museum. It was one of the best museums we had ever seen. The whole tour around the museum took us about 2 to 2.5hours which flew by very fast as we got engrossed in the history of cars right from the vintage to the future.
The afternoon was what most of us had been looking forward to – Visiting the Mercedes Benz plant. As the ladies proceeded for what the do best- spend money, we tablers were driven the the Merc plant which has an area of 2.2sq. km. We were given a very warm welcome by the Head of Indian Operation and even the Indian flag was hosted for our visited, thus making us feel extremely proud. The plant visit started with a ten minute AV presentation on the plant and lasted for a couple of hours where we were shown the body shop which was 99% automised and the assembly line which boggled our minds. By the time all of us stepped out of the plant all our fellow industrialists were full of ideas for their Pune plants.
That same evening we had our 100th table meeting along with Tubingen-Reutlingen 182 which was a joint meeting. The meeting was organised in the Tubingen tower which was a dungeon in the earlier years. The meeting was one of the most memorable meeting our table as had as Chairman Vikas exchanged flags released our 100th meeting pin, presented our token of appreciation to the German Tablers with hand crafted Elephants and RTI beer mugs which were engraved with both the table logos. It was an evening filled with loud cheer, claps and
flashes.
Our last day in Tubingen was absolutely amazing-like they say save the best for the last. We left home at about ten to visit our hosts workplace from where we were picked up by steven who escorted us into the serene hills of Tubingen for some adventure sports – The Dare Devil Types which included rope climbing, walking swinging, swaying etc etc etc.
After the initial hesitation and leg pulling we all decided to go for it and harnessed ourselves before we were given the safety drill. Some of us actually did the advanced stages as well as this rope-climbing adventure had 8 levels. The whole day was spent amongst the trees by the tablers while the wives and kids played on the open field adjacent to the park.
After a very adventurous afternoon, we proceeded to an apple winery owned by one of the tablers father where we were showed the process of apple wine. This was followed by some sumptuous onion cake which is the speciality of the area. The night moved on slowly as we chatted with one another and invited each of our hosts to visit us in India.
The next morning we left Tubingen by six am for Stuttgart as we had an early flight back to India via Vienna. It was truly a memorable trip as enjoyed ourselves thoroughly and we gelled extremely well with one another to return back as a stronger and larger family.
Compiled and Written by
Amol Hatkar Fellowship Convener –PHRT 182
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