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“Cathedrals and Castles” |
We move on today. Amsterdam is about to become even more chaotic this weekend as it's the Queens Birthday and everyone it seems, it heading into Amsterdam. Time for us to leave. We investigated trains to Cologne but transport here is just SO expensive. So..... we decided to hitch out. Something I haven't done for many many years.
We found out where the correct place is to stand [you are only allowed to hitchhike at designated spots]. We took the metro to the 'spot' and stuck out a thumb and our handmade sign to Germany!!! What a day this was to be. Our first lift only took 20 minutes. A little Nissan 'something' with a very tiny Slovakian guy driving. He dropped us at Utrecht or just outside it. We stood at a great hitching spot for about half an hour until the cops very kindly told us we weren't allowed to be there!!! Told us where to go, on the other side of a river. Not much good considering it's the wrong spot for outgoing cars. We stood there for 2hours. No lifts. Then a local on a bicycle told us we were in the wrong place!!!! We should be on the other side of town totally!!! Took a tram there [didn't pay] and eventually found the right place. We got a lift around 3pm to Hertgonbosch. Were dropped at a petrol station. Next lift was quick. A Belgian businessman, to Eindhoven. Were dropped at another petrol station and once again, stood for about 2 and a half hours!!!! Got pretty cold here. At 6.30pm, after almost thinking we were going to be sleeping in the petrol station shop, a Kosovo guy picked us up and took us to his home town of Venlo. Which just happens to be one the main train stations on the border of Netherlands and Germany. Caught train from here to Cologne arriving at 10pm!! As we stepped out of Cologne Hoofbaan we were met with the awesome sight of Cologne Cathedral. An incredible sight. Our hostel was just 5 minutes around the corner....
We found a hostel which was literally 2 minutes from the main station and what do you know, right opposite the Hilton!!! We were clapped out from our day in mixed weather, sun during the day and cold in the evening. We found our room and crashed out totally.
28th April
Woke up with the mother of all headaches. Maybe the beer we'd had last night! I'm not used to it yet. As we're travelling on a super budget we made our own breakfast of coffee and biscuits [David has stocked up on 100 or so little packets from the ship on the way over]!! So, we hit the city. The grand Dom first as it was right outside our hostel. WHAT a spectacular church this is. Pretty dirty and grimy from all the pollution but still spectacular. We then took a walk down the Rhine, where all the cruises go from. It's not like I remember it all on my last trip here. It actually seemed pretty drab this time. There's a lot of construction going on and it takes away from the attractiveness of the city. There's not really too much to do in Cologne, the Dom being being the main centre of attraction here for most people. We return to our hostel in the early evening to find we had a full room of people. A great bunch actually. A Canadian, A Brazilian, A Korean and us. All chatty, friendly and so keen to share all their travel experiences. Oh ja, just outside the Dom is a very interesting display6 of "The Trash People". A mobile work of art consisting of life-size scupltures made from trash! According to the blurb: "...we produce trash and will become trash". They are life-size images of ourselves. Very interesting and very unique. After Cologne this display will be moving onto NY and then onto Antartica. They will then have done all the continents. Back in the hostel we drank 2 bottles of beer each that we'd discovered at the supermarket. The cheapest place to buy them.
Sat 29th April
We wanted to stay in Cologne an extra night but were out of luck. Fully booked. So... change of plan. Where to now??? Train travel is just so expensive here that we were a bit reluctant to hand over Euro40 plus for another train ticket. The very helpful hostel guy then told us about the Wochendende Ticket. What a godsend this was to be for us. On this ticket, which costs Euro30 you get unlimited travel in Germany on a Saturday or Sunday and the ticket can be used for up to 5 people. Hence Euro30 divided by 5. By far the cheapest train ticket we'd come across. So.... we decided on the spot, to head for Frankfurt. Within 1 hour we'd bought a ticket and we sitting on the train towards the next destination. On the train a chap approached us and asked if we "had a ticket he could share and travel on". Obviously, knowing about this Wochenende Ticket deal, we roped him on our ticket, which brought our trip down to Euro10 each.
The train to Frankfurt was just so scenic. The line runs all the say along the Rhine from Koblenz. Very hilly with loads of castles and churches and pretty little villages nestled on the river edge. A bit of a tourist mecca judging from all the tourist buses we saw. Suddenly we heard a garbled message in German and everyone began scuttling around and packing up their luggage!! What's going on?? Turned out that there was an unscheduled change of train. We quickly packed away the lunch we had just unpacked and ran off the train. The next train was actually the subway train directly into Frankfurt.
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mark101 says:
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