Off to the Western Front

So this morning we leave Hotel Friends in Köln. First we are going to spend a little time having a quick look at the old town. When we went in yesterday we passed the car park for the Zoo and right next to it is located the Cable Car that runs over to the Rhinepark across one of the main road bridges and the Rhine River! So as we have to go past it, we figured we may as well check it out. Very affordable at €6 each return. We hadn't really planned on what we would do on the other side - just as well. Up came the wind and down came the rain. So much so that they stopped the cable cars! Gosh, yes, there was some wind, but nothing like when we were going up to the Great Wall of China or to the Reichenbach falls in Switzerland - still I guess it pays to play it safe.

So we waited on the other side above the Rhinepark for the weather to clear some - its too wet to try to do anything here. After about 20 minutes we get the all-clear and so head back across the river. Back to the car. And still the weather continues. Nothing else for it - its time to hit the road. We don't have long enough to be rushing about in the rain from one site to another, so we will just have to try to come back this way after we leave Stephi later in the year - after all the Putschli's have put out the welcome mat and invitation!

We head north. We had decided not to go to Belgium but as Michael is trying to maximise his time touring the Western Front battlefields, we changed our minds and are headed for Kortrijk so we can have a look around Iepres (Ypres). And because the non-motorway option adds 2 hours and then some to the trip, we decide to do the boring thing today and take the motorway. Our entry onto the motorway however was far from boring for bearing down on the traffic from the other direction was about 350 Harley Davidson motorcycles. Go the H.O.G.S!

Now, motorways in Europe and especially in Germany are a beast unto themselves. They criss cross the countryside forever intertwined - looping around and over and under each other. You can make a trip from one side of Germany to the other in any direction without ever leaving the monotony of a motorway. As Kate says "in 400 m veer right and at the end of the road, take the motorway". I can't tell you how many times we heard that today! I am not joking - it would have to have been in excess of two dozen,

The scenery is changing as we go further north and closer to the coast. Not so much in the landforms, there are still forested rolling hills, open fields either with close to mature corn growing, or paddocks of feed just cut, still lying on the ground, drying.No, the change is in the colours and the vegetation. The Poplars, Ash and Aspen trees have begun to lose their leaves. What are remaining on these trees as well as some others are beginning to turn. I am actually looking forward to autumn in Europe because we never get the spectacle of the changing leaves back at home in Queensland where most of our trees are evergreen. The architecture too is changing - this close to the coast the snow falls will be smaller and and the buildings do not have such sharply pitched roofs, and they are built much closer to the ground - not like the standard two stories we have been seeing for the last couple of weeks.

And in order to get to Kortrijk, we actually enter the Netherlands on one motorway en-route to yet another one. Yes, our route cuts across a small protrusion form the main land mass in the south east of the Netherlands - entering near the town of Bocholtz and exiting close to Nieuwdorp in the west. As we come in to Belgium the wind has really picked up. It is not raining this far north, but there is some angry god, picking up all the fallen leaves and fair hurling them at the traffic as though to emphasise how insignificant it is in the world place! I'm guessing there will be plenty to pick out of the grille when we arrive.

We are now passing or travelling with many more drivers from Great Britain - the most we have seen since leaving the island. I guess that most of them are headed for Oostende in The Netherlands or Calais in France in order to get a boat or train home! The roads in Belgium are wide, mainly in very good condition with tidy verges - something that isn't very common once you are away from the city centre of big cities or near tourist attractions. It makes a nice change.

We find our accommodation easily thanks to Kate - without her it might have been a different story though - the road is so wide here that you can't read the street names on the other side of the road, and there are hedges all along the road edge - the Hotel Ter Linde is behind one such hedge! The hotel is small and personable with a very warm welcome from our hostess. Michael goes for a walk after sitting in the car for much of the day. He finds evidence of locals with a quirky nature around the area. On his return he says there are a few dinner options back towards the town itself.

About 8 pm we head off. We stop at the Sakura Japans Restaurant (as it is titled). I am a little worried that we don't have reservations as there are heaps of cars here, but I need not have worried. There are three other groups there, and we make a fourth. First thing that happened when we entered was that we were given kimonos to wear. Each group had a different colour and ours were white and traditionally patterned. Then we are seated along one edge of an open cooking plate - there are two of these under one large canopy (and another two that I can see in the room). Each can seat seven people. The group opposite us are Belgian and in red kimonos and are quite chatty between themselves.

The people at the other plate on the opposite end of the canopy however are chatting to us as well as the others at their plate. Nice. The menu is presented and you can order either a set menu or a la carte. We are happy to try one of the set menus and we choose:
Michael - Menu 2
Sushi
Tonijin mit diverse groenten (Veal with assorted vegetables)
Lamskroontje met noedels (Lamb cutlets with noodles)
Dessert (Ice Cream wit fresh fruits)
Maria - Menu 1
Tempura mixed
Scampi, inktvis mit diverse groenten (Prawns and calamari strips with assorted vegetables)
Gevulde runds rolletjes met noedels (Stuffed beef rolls with noodles)
Chinese green tea

Michael's sushi consisted of fried tofu and rice wrapped in nori, tuna and rice and prawn and rice. My tempura had mushroom, sweet potato, capsicum, a piece of fish and a fan of deep fried noodles that was as stunning to look at as to taste.

Now, to say the food was good is the understatement of the year. It was fabulous. But it was not just the food, rather, it was the whole package of the cooking in front of us with the freshest ingredients and lovely fresh flavours of garlic and ginger and shallot and light soy and rice wine and then some! Our chef was Sin Yang Ming and it was fascinating to watch him at work. You have to be a real chef to put yourself on display in front of your diners like a Japanese Teppanyaki chef does. And its not only the food preparation, its the artisitc flair that goes along with it - the drumming of the salt shakers, the twirling of the pepper pot, the skillful way he rolled the omelette - and the way I caught my piece in my mouth - first go! It was the theatre of the slicing, the juggling of the knives and the flare of the flambéed meat.

This, along with the shared conversation of our fellow diners, made it a night to remember.
We are sorry we did not get the other people's names - but their company is DOCA design in nearby Roeselare here in Belgium.
PS Emailed them the pic this morning and now I have names! L to R Marta (Polish girlfriend of) Dominiek, son of Brigitte and Robert!

Köln

Oh, I am so tired. Michael wakes me at 9:30 am. "Do you want to come down to breakfast?" "Uh uh" I groan as I pull the doona higher and snuggle in. Bugger I thought, I really should eat something - "Hang on, I'm coming". In for a quick shower to a bathroom that is the size of a postage stamp! The room we have here at Hotel Friends is lovely - 6th floor, looking out over parklands towards the spires of the Köln Dom (not back over the chemical park), it is very tastefully decorated - modern and large. The beds are so comfortable and the pillows wonderful - don't laugh, we get good pillows in maybe 1/4 hotels only! (Yes, Hels, bring your microfibre pillow!!)

But the bathroom is tiny. The door opening almost touches the toilet seat next to that is the shower and between the shower and the door is the basin. It measures literally 4' x 4'!

Breakfast at €10 a head is on the upper end of what we have been paying, but it is worth it. Juices, hot and cold dishes including a hot vegetable medley, nice rolls and croissants, fresh fruit - and a good selection of it, plus the usual cereals, toast and nutella! Coffee is good - in fact this morning coffee is very good! (If you get my drift!)

Breakfast over it is back to the room to finalise the blog and upload the photos, time also to print the details of my rail ticket and our accommodation for the next couple of days while we know we can have access to a printer. Michael strolls down to the local Aldi to replenish or water and snack supplies. We check in with Gen on Skype - thanks DM who has just taken her and the mower down to have it repaired. And then Hels is online. 50 minutes later, lots of giggles and some half plans made, we sign off. Yep, she is just as excited as me!

This afternoon we go in to Cologne. Kaiser Wilhelm is riding confidently into the City atop one of the bridges over the Rhine. Gosh he gets around. Truly he must have been 'the Great' to have such an outpouring of sentiment that is reflected in all the memorials around. Too bad our leaders of today do not command such respect!

And while like all the other major cities in Europe, the roads are a mess, there is plenty of underground parking in Cologne - like under the Kölner Dom (Cathedral)! We have no trouble negotiating the dug up streets and signage is very clear which is a lovely change. So down into the depths under the 175m towers we go. Plenty of parking here and close to the lifts as well.

You come up from the carpark right next to the south tower of the Dom. It literally takes your breath away as you step into the square and have this tall edifice tower over you. To see the top of the tower up this close you have to throw your head back - all the way back! You can go up this tower to see the Dom and the city from on high - and so off Michael goes to climb the 509 steps! There as no way I was going to be able to climb up that many (and make it down to the bottom alive - hm, what would they do if someone had a heart attack halfway up, or at the top - bugger, should have gone - maybe I could have been rescued by some hnadsome fireman!!)

On the way up he passes the belfry with the huge bells ready to peal out the quarter hours and sing the hours to the heavens. The largest is the St Peter Bell that weighs in at a very hefty 24,000 kgs. And still up he goes until he is at the very base of the spire itself. Fascinating to look up from here too. The photos of the bells are not clear enough to put on here.

Michael complains that it was hard to get a good photo from up top because of the safety cages and the bird wire - however, I don't think he has done such a bad job!

We are peckish after our first look through the Dom. Initially we head out to the plaza to get some tourist information from the Visitor Centre and we stop for a coffee, then looking at the menu at the Cafe Reichard decide to have something to eat. We are contemplating that we might try for a river cruise by night tonight and so decide to just have something light. Michael opts for Berner rösti mit gebratenen, mageren Speckstreifen und Spiegeleiern (Swiss rösti with slices of bacon and fried eggs) while I choose Genfer Rösti mit frschen Kräutchampignons und Crème fraîche (Swiss rösti with herb mushrooms). It was perfect - enough to fill the hollows without being too heavy. The service is great too - Michael's gross black coffee is in a silver pot!

We were going to head back to the hotel, but the light has changed and the front of the Dom is now bathed in the late glow of the afternoon, so we dash back in for a few last pics. It is amazing how different a space can look given changing light! The rays of light that are streaming through the window spaces without stained glass are surely the light from on high, beckoning us to reflect.

In our travels around the various cathedrals and churches we have collected a great number of photos of gargoyles and grotesques. The difference being that gargoyles gush water from the guttering systems while the grotesques are merely ornamental and have no practical purpose. Today is no different. I think that this could easily be yet another book that is printed when we return! This one on the western facade of the Kölner Dom is a little different - a shy mermaidish type of charachter with her arms across her breast.

Driving an English car on the continent draws lots of looks. Whenever there is a double take, Michael usually pretends to be driving as well in an exaggerated form of oversteering! It always gets a laugh and today was no different - there was this young lass on the tram travelling next to us who was getting such a kick out of it that she started to take a video of him - and so, he promptly took her photo, taking the video! What a dag.

On the drive back to the hotel we get a chance to see a little more of Köln and realise that there is a real juxtaposition here in this city - the industrial and the green parks, large suurbs and a tight inner CBD area, stately old buildings that sit comfortably aside new gleaming examples of modern architecture!

Anyhow, we got back to the hotel just after 7:30pm and promptly set about continuing the planning of our respective journeys for the next few days. So, until next issue...auf weiderschein.

Our family is well spread

Hotel Marjani where we stayed last night was remote - on the outskirts of Wennigsen with the only other enterprise that had any sort of life being McDonalds! And the kids in their souped up vroom vrooms also found it late at night. But thankfully, not for too long!

We both slept like logs. Last night we were both busy planning for the first week of September - Michael for his time on the Western Front sites and me for Paris with Hels. Gosh, today it is only 3 more sleeps for her - and i think that she is as excited as me!! There is so much to see and do in gay Paree - we'll have out work cut out for an exhausting 4 days methinks!!

Today will be a quieter day. Leaving Wennigsen for Köln, we don't plan to do too much and hope to arrive earlier in the afternoon. But not before we travel back the wa in came in for a couple of kilometres to have a look at a windmill we could see yesterday from the motorway. We can see it as soon as we turn on to the side road that I thought would leads us to it. This one is on private property and obviously not working - its sails are broken. Nevertheless, it is old and as astructure, still commands the landscape around it. Makes for some nice photographs as well! Later we pass others dating from the same period, that are still in use.

So we turn on Kate and head for the west. And despite our dislike of the motorways, today we are just wanting to get to its Köln and as the motorway option is a 3 hour trip and the non-motorway is a 5 hour trip we choose the former. Pity because the slower route would take us across a river - oh well, another day! Still, the day in a pleasant 23°C as we head out, so all is good in our world. We are making good time, travelling through some really scenic areas. This is still rural farming land, but there are more and more forested areas between the towns that are now a couple of kilometres apart.

We are back in the land of the steep tiled roofs - an indication that they can get quite heavy snowfalls here in the winter. The villages and towns seen from the distance and the isolation of the motorway present a postcard view. Wooded hills behind them, church steeples and terracotta tiles, large barns, fruit trees and the patchwork of farming lands - some harvested, others not - make it so. Its the sort of postcard view that you could have been sent in the 1950s with the tones in sepia before the advent of the digital camera.

We see castles and chateaux in the hills, but none really close enough to get a good photo. And then this monument comes in to view - or maybe I should say starts to come into view. It is MASSIVE. I mean REALLY really huge. So now the question is, do we leave the motorway to go have alook or not? In repsonse to my question, Michael says "If you want to" - huh! Thats all the encouragement I need! So away to the right down the exit I spin. At the bottom, I tap Kate looking for "Places of Interest near you - Tourist Attractions". This is a really handy in-built tool, with the only drawback being that it is in the local language. I never studied German, so it is a bit of a guess. I tap one and realise straight away once she computes the route that it is the wrong one - she wanted me to turn away from the monument that now towers above us high on the nearby hill. Ah, maybe this one as I tap Kaiser-Wilhelm-Denkmal an der Porta Westfalica - yep, thats it!

The Kaiser Wilhelm monument stands as big as the man himself, who benevolently holds his hand out over (part of) the area that he governed. He was known as Wilhelm the Great. And the monument is 88 m high with the statue standing under a canopy of sandstone. It was built in 1892 - 96 at the phenomenal cost of 830,000 goldmarks! In todays terms, 1 goldmark is equivalent to 9.86 euros!

And the setting is at the top of a graded forest walk up the last 350 m to the top of the hill. Nice and cool to walk up through, and when you get to the top - there the monument is, towering heavily above you. The views from the top courtyard around the former Prussian province of Westphalia are stupendous. Ah yes, over this land and much more I held power. Following the death of Kaiser Wilhelm an order went out through the country for monuments to be built and this one in Westphalia is the result of a competition. As a school group of young children arrive Michael hurries to get the last photos so we can head off before we are bothered by them! Ah, and the autumn colours are beginning to show - it will be lovely to see them considering that in Queensland most of our trees are evergreen!

Back on to the motoray and it turns out that we may as well have taken the longer non-Motorway route. The traffic is abominable. It seems that there are major roadworks around every other bend - most prevalently near the exits to major cities. EVERY DARN ONE OF THEM! We lose almost an hour to them over the course of the journey this afternoon. Road rage is unheard of though - I mean you could vent all you want, but you are still trapped on an eight lane divided road going no-where, slowly! So, we just leave the car in first and crawl along with the rest of the ants.

We arrived in Köln and finally find the Hotel Friends - Kate had initally directed us to another outer very rural suburb and we couldn't find anything resembling any sort of accommodation. Eventually we reach the correct area after travelling through the surrounding area of the ChemPark - yep, we are on the fringe of a large industrial complex where there are huge chemical plants. Names like Bayer and lots of power plants, phospphorus processors etc. We get checked in and then prepared to catch up with another of our ‘extended’ (read exchange student) family. We were off to Königswinter to visit Felicitas and meet the rest of her family for the first time.

It is a 40 minute drive to Königswinter from here - mostly back on the motorways. They criss-cross the country at huge clover leaf and peel away intersections that make anything we have back in Australia look puny and insignificant. There are many times when on a longish journey, that you switch from one to another to another again. As we come off the motorway into Königswinter, we are greeted by the view of the Schloß Drachenfels and the ruins of an earlier castle of the same name. We had fogotten that there was a castle here. The light is fading, and against the wan evening, they look amazing. And maybe even more amazing is the Hotel Petersburg on a facing hilltop. Check out the article for the story on this beauty - (thinking; hmmm wonder if we can stay there?)!

We turn down towards the river (The Rhine) and then up a narrow street to get to their house. It is amazingly beautiful and we think that maybe we should be staying here in Königswinter instead of Köln - its a bugger that we only have a year and have to make such choices :(

Felicitas and her mother Martina and father Matthias greet us warmly. Felicitas and her dad speak good English and her mum some English, but she understands more. With Felicitas translating we have a great night. A tour of their home also shows us how much work they have done since Gen was here - it is large by European standards and has lots of open airy spaces - so nice. The house itself dates back to the early 1800s.

HOME COOKING - can't beat it. While we love the great restaurant food we are having, there is nothing better that having a home-cooked meal in a family home. And the ladies have prepared a veritable feast. We have spinach quiche and one with sausage and cheese, tomato and mozzarella with the yummiest balsamic sauce, lots of fresh vege sticks (celery, khol rabi, carrot, spring onion, capsicum) with a variety of dips, a plate of cold meats that the Germans do so well, cheese and fruits and breads. Felicitas' good friend Bastion turns up later. Gen has met him when she was here all those years ago.

We drink bottle after bottle of their neighbour's white wine - gosh it is so easy to drink. Encouraged by Bastion, I even taste the local Köln beer Kölsch - and it really is not too bad at all - maybe I could get used to this one! Light in taste and not too bitter. We show them the latest photos of the family including the most-beautiful-little-girl-in-the-world, and photos of our house - we had not realised just how much work we have done to it since Felicitas left 6 years ago -my god, where has that time gone!

Finally, knowing that they all have to work tomorrow, we make our goodbyes just before 1 am promising to try to get back before we leave for home. Felicitas and Bastion are off to Tanzania on Saturday for two weeks to visit a good friend. I will pass on my brothers address to here in Ofcolaco in South Africa as well - they are looking to do a bit of travel in the area and have a real humanitarian take on life. Felicitas has just completed her dissertation for university - her studies are in the area of disabled children and her thesis is based around Thalidomide and needs. So now it is 2 am and I need to get some sleep. Believe it or not, Michael is already asleep and snoring soundly behind me. Goodnight!