Haarlem

Monday 18th April
It was another lovely day, but unfortunately I was feeling very tired and was struggling a bit with a migraine that had started the previous day.

We went out mid-morning into the town centre, found a carpark in a parking building and went for a walk down the streets to the ten Boom museum. Deep shadows still filled some of the narrow streets due to the tall buildings blocking out the morning sunshine.
Unfortunately we found out that the museum is closed on Mondays, so we decided to try again the next day as we had the whole morning available.
So we went on a wander around the shopping area – lots of shops stocking clothing and shoes, and a range of others too of course. There were so many bicycles either being ridden or parked in the streets, often in one of the many bicycle parks
There was a very bustling market full of all kinds of interesting things and I enjoyed hearing Kay enquiring about prices at a stall, and the gutteral reply. The Town Hall is one of the imposing buildings surrounding the market place. We went for a coffee inside one of them before continuing our walk.



Guess what we saw on one street corner! (LH pic.) Inside an arched passage off another street we spied the fresh green of a spring garden - we found a plaque on the wall which said that it was the site of a former convent. Further on we saw a most unusual-looking building at the end of a long, narrow alleyway.
The many canals intersecting the city are very beautiful with a variety of boats and bridges. On the way back to the car park we came across a tiny car parked on the pavement!

After lunch, we went out for a good walk, passing by an old fortification and German gun positions from the Second World War before reaching the Spoorbaam river. Many people were out walking dogs, some several together – in fact, for some people it is their occupation, walking dogs for people who live in apartment buildings but work all day. There was a lot of traffic on the river, and one barge looked particularly low in the water, it appeared to be full of concrete! One could almost imagine you were out in the countryside walking beside the river as the houses drop back some way. Many people come here to escape their urban surroundings and to enjoy a bit of peace and quiet.
We followed a canal back into Haarlem and enjoyed looking at the lock gates and interesting housing round and about. Soon we were back to the statue of the boy with his finger in the dyke. You can see just how unrealistic this is when you have seen the real dykes.



Some of the streets had some really interesting houses and some were at a much higher level than the canals.

Further on we walked beside a very dank smelling canal that had houses with quite substantial gardens on the opposite side to us. The path on our side of the canal bordered quite a larger marshy strip of land that has been allowed to remain as part of the green belt. There were quite a few wetland birds around.
After dinner we watched a couple of videos before going to bed rather later than usual. It had been a wonderful day.

The fascinating city of Koblenz

Wednesday April 13th
We wrapped up warmly after breakfast and went for a long walk. Koblenz was in the throes of preparing for a major floral festival that would last for 6 months, but we wouldn’t be able to enjoy it. The town was full of bustle and bunting, teams of workmen were everywhere, sometimes obstructing the streets and thoroughfares and causing some of the usual sights to be closed off.
We found that there was a really modern shopping centre, well-laid out for pedestrians, quite close to the hotel.

Near the bank was an interesting fountain (pic 1) designed as a fantastical mythical ship, I think the caption read that it was from Gulliver’s Travels. Interestingly enough, there were still some old buildings about, such as these pics of some fascinating buildings, one at each corner of a crossroads (pics 2-4).
We soon reached the old part of town, and would have liked to have gone inside Liebfraukirche, one of the many twin-spired churches, but the morning service was on. We passed other interesting buildings and churches before arriving at the Mosel River (pic 1). We followed it downstream to the point where it flows into the Rhine - Deutches Eck. This was partly obstructed by the workmen putting up a huge marquee and other things in time for the festival opening on the Friday. We were still able to visit the huge statue of Kaiser Wilhelm II. The original one had been destroyed during the First World War, but it was rebuilt some time later. It is colossal and you climb up lots of steps into the structure and get marvellous views over Koblenz and the rivers (pic 3 view up the Rhine). The wind was biting though so we didn’t stay too long.







We walked alongside the Rhine past monuments and many different types of buildings including the Kurfürstliches Schloss (2) to Pfaffendorfer Bridge which we crossed to reach the old town of Ehrenbreitstein. There are wonderful views up and down the Rhine river - pictured view towards castle and fort. It was fun to reach the other side several storeys higher than the street underneath.
To drive the cold away, we had coffee and cake at a really interesting café which doubled as an Italian Coffee Machine Museum. The proprietors had been involved in coffee-making in Italy and had emigrated to Germany time ago with their collection of machines and books. They also had an incredible variety of gateaux - but I've no idea what the different ones were called!
We wandered around the oldest part of the small town, and were rather sad that we were just one day too early to visit Beethoven’s mother’s house (pic 3).
Before climbing the hill to the castle and fort, parts of which date back 1000 years, we visited the museum briefly and I was quite amused when the lady on duty asked me whether we were Dutch (I must have a very strange accent when I speak German)!
A route was marked on our map through a tunnel above the museum. A plaque just inside explained that the tunnel had been dug as an air-raid shelter and could accommodate many people. We followed it a little way in, expecting at any moment to see a sign to say that it was closed, or a light switch, but neither appeared, so we went back to the opening, only to find that some workmen had closed off the path down the hill as they were resealing it – they rather grumpily allowed us to pass.
So we started the climb by following a road up the hill. The climb is reasonably steep and winds around a very craggy hill. The castle and fort stand on top of steep precipices – a good defence. The road is walled on the outside edge and there are many small apertures that make good frames for photos across the river.

Unfortunately, owing to the preparations for the floral festival, we couldn’t visit inside the buildings, so had to content ourselves with looking at the views before going all the way back down again. Another way up to the castle is a cable car from the other side of the river, but on this day they weren’t in use apart from ferrying some of the many workmen up and down. You can see them crossing the river in the following photo, also you can see the statue at Deutsches Eck. The second picture is of a historic building in Ehrenbreitstein, then one of a little marina on that side of the bridge.

Back down the hill, we found a Turkish café in Ehrenbreitstein where we enjoyed doner kebabs before walking back to the bridge to Neustadt. We took a different route back through the old part of town before returning to our hotel at 5. The first pic is of the Town Hall from inside the interior courtyard, the second of some lovely old buildings in a nearby square, then Florinsmarkt.








The Hoegg Hotel caught my eye with its lovely paintwork and form.
As we were still feeling rather full after our Turkish lunch, we bought a couple of buns at a nearby bakery to eat in our room later on for supper, and just drank cold water before going to bed.

South Germany

Saturday 9th April
We left the hotel not too long after breakfast. It was good that it was so close to Le Midi Station. We bought some food at a small supermarket at the railway station before making our way to the Thalys platform. The journey to Cologne takes less than two hours, and the train is very comfortable. You hardly realise just how fast the train is going. There is a digital display of the speed between the carriages. I think the fastest we went was around 170kph.

The first photo is taken on the way into Liege - the track was quite high above the streets at one point, as you can see. At the railway station was a large globe, apparently there as part of an ecological expo.
We were rather surprised when the train ground to a halt some time before we were due to arrive in Cologne. An announcement came over the loudspeakers saying that there was a problem with a train ahead of us on the line. A little while later, we were told that the track was closed to Cologne due to a demonstration. They first told us we might be delayed by up to half an hour – as there was 40 minutes between our trains, I thought we might just get there on time. But then they started saying that it could take 3/4 hour to get moving again! Oh dear, what to do? I sent our son Jeremy a text to say that we were delayed by a demonstration and that I might need him to phone our friend Ingrid who was going to meet us in Ulm if we missed our train. I only had enough money left on the phone for another text or two.
We started up again 35 minutes after stopping and soon arrived at a small platform (Stoltz Rheinland) that was covered with people – a huge collection of police in bright yellow jackets surrounding a mob of protesters. Apparently they had interfered with a previous train and so the railway company refused to let any more trains proceed until the police had got the demonstrators off the tracks. There were a few announcements about onward connections to various trains, and eventually they came to ours – they said it was being held at Platform 6.
Unfortunately we were one of the last off our train, and by the time we reached our platform, the train had already gone. On looking at the timetable, we found out that the next to Ulm was a whole 2 hours away. I sent Jeremy another text and he agreed to phone Ingrid to let her know.
We had some books to read so that kept us occupied. It wasn’t a very warm day but it was OK. The photos include one at Siegburg/Bonn station, a country town on the way to Frankfurt and two photos in Mannheim. One town before we reached Mannheim was called Waldhof and had some interesting brown and white churches. Further south we passed through some more rugged terrain – in fact it later turned out to be the Swabian Alps. Geislingen was quite a large and attractive town up in narrow valley in the mountains, with plenty of traditional houses with brown roofs and up to 3 rows of dormer windows.
We arrived in Ulm just after 5 to be met by a smiling Ingrid, her husband Bernhard and youngest daughter Friedericke. We decided that, owing to the lateness of our arrival, that we’d just go straight to their home in Horgenzell.
Unfortunately they had already left home by the time Jeremy was able to try to contact them, and the daughter Veronika who’d been left behind to take care of things tried sending them a text – but they had the cell phone switched off! Eventually, after waiting at the station without seeing us, they’d switched it on to phone home to see if there were any messages, and found out that we’d been delayed. So they decided to do a bit more shopping, much to Friedericke’s delight!
We eventually arrived around 6.30, and had a lovely meal. Afterwards, we walked to Kapel, another portion of the little village where their church is. The population of Horgenzell is around 300.