Essen to Barkenfeld

Saturday 27th June Humid, partly sunny.  Lots of people at breakfast today, but it's a busy weekend in Duisburg.  It was a day of missed connections!
We missed the first u-bahn to the main station so had to catch a later train to Essen to visit a former coal/coke works.  It was strange using a former coal elevator near Tower 12 (an old mine shaft, pictured above left) to enter the building which is now an information centre and shop, but still complete with all the old machinery (above right).
After having a browse around, we walked alongside the old railway tracks to the coke plant.  The windows of a most unusual-looking school (right) in the distance proved a real eye-teaser.


I loved the Sonnenrad ride (left), which completed two revolutions!  It was a little like sitting in a cable-car except it was attached to a huge wheel which slowly revolved, giving lovely views from the top.  Even Judith enjoyed it, although she hates heights!
We missed the next tram from Zollverein Süd by only two minutes - pictured right: some interesting old houses across the road - but it was enough to make us too late for our train to Barkenfeld, so Judith had to phone her parents re our new arrival time. 
Her father drove us to their home where we had a very late lunch of strawberry cake, strawberries and cream, and coffee at 4 p.m.
We enjoyed our walk around the neighbourhood with their small dog, passing the remains of Judith’s old primary school - not enough children!  We also passed the Green School where Judith’s mum teaches & the Blue School where her father teaches.  He’s due to retire after another half school year, but during the summer holidays, they are going to Mongolia to stay in a yurt!
The town was deliberately designed to be child-friendly - vehicle access is limited to the perimeter of the housing area, and there are lots of paved walkways which are good enough for cycling.  The population is only 10-15,000, not the expected 40-50,000.
We had our BBQ indoors as it started to rain: speck, Bratwurst and salads.  Particularly nice was one of Greek yoghurt, garlic and cucumbers.  We sat outside later on for a couple of hours, it was only just getting dark when we went to bed at 11!

Köln

 Friday 26th June Hot, humid, a little cloudy.  We were surprised to be met by both Jeremy & Judith, she’d caught a late train from Heidelburg the night before.  Unfortunately we had to leave her behind so she could work on her thesis.
We travelled to Köln by train, amazed to see the cathedral right in front of us as we exited the station!  It's got some lovely features - stained glass windows, mosaic floors, soaring arches and treasures including a 12th century golden Polish chest (below). 




However, Bruce felt it was a bit like a mausoleum with so many tombs and monuments to long-dead bishops. 

We walked to the Rhine and sat under a tree to watch the barges and boats go by before visiting the Chocolate Museum.
It's in an interesting setting on a small island that you reach by crossing a bridge some metres above the river, a bit disturbing to realise that during one massive flood, it had been under water!
The museum has some really interesting displays about the whole process of producing chocolate from the seed pods of the cacao plant, and about world trade. You can enjoy the warmth of a small tropical hothouse before proceeding through a miniature factory where you can view the whole process and get a couple of tastes of the results. We were really impressed by the robot that puts solidified chocolates onto a belt which takes them to the wrapping machine. 
Upstairs are displays on moulds, packaging and advertising over the years, also a special display of artifacts from South American civilisations that used cacao.We were more than ready for lunch after that! Then all that remained was to shop for gifts for our African hosts. I was a bit cross that the Deutsche Bank ATM refused our VISA card, they're supposed to be linked to Westpac!
The train back was so crowded it was standing room only, we were on the stairs between the 1st and 2nd class compartments.  Two ladies found that it's cheaper to buy a 1st class ticket than to pay the fine for sitting up there with a 2nd class one! It was obvious why they preferred to be seated though, one had crutches.
Judith had had an eventful day in the flat!  The police had arrested a guy on the ground floor, and the council had sent staff round over complaints about the rubbish that had been put outside. It was the upstairs tenants' turn, but the refuse collectors had deemed some of it not suitable to pick up!  Everyone was very glad when it disappeared a couple of days later!
Our return to the hotel was delayed by a thunderstorm. We went back when it was still lightly raining, and I got pretty wet accidentally walking under a spout of water off the roof - right down my back - brrr!

Xanten

Tuesday June 25th Had a very nice buffet breakfast before meeting up with Jeremy, went to Xanten by train, a place with an interesting history. It's a cathedral city with walls & towers that date from the 16th century.
After climbing up inside the Kriemhildmühle (top right), a working windmill, we walked to the partial reconstruction of the Roman colony, which was founded in the time of Emperor Trajan around 200 A.D.








No one knows which god was worshipped at the Hafenstempel (above left). Other buildings include a Romanesque inn and herb garden (above right) and a large amphitheatre (below left).








Above right: an amazing example of Roman technology - a crane that could lift 9t blocks of stone.
After a cheap €5 lunch at an outdoor restaurant, we visited the Cathedral (left), which has been wonderfully restored since the Second World War. We especially admired the amazing life-size sculptures of the crucifixion outside (above right).
A grassed quadrangle containing an interesting monument is surrounded by beautiful vaulted cloisters behind the cathedral.

Part Three: Germany

Wednesday June 24th Another fine day! We went to the railway station at 11, admiring the Godiva chocolates there but they were too dear: €50/kg! However, we bought some cheap, yummy chocolate-chip brioches and had a nice cup of coffee at the station café!
The ICE train was very comfortable and it was hard to believe it was going very fast at all! There were a couple of interesting events on the way: 1)the lady opposite us apparently had the wrong ticket, and only spoke Spanish which the ticket inspector didn't know. As she was only going to Liège, she was allowed to proceed.
2) After arriving at Aachen, 2 armed policemen entered our carriage and went to speak with a man sitting further forward - but he wasn't arrested or anything!
Liège: a very beautiful traffic overpass by the Station, designed as a gracefully curved suspension bridge. The station was also very attractive.
The Belgian countryside looked pretty, lots of livestock, small fields and as one went east, it became hilly rather than flat.
Part III - Germany
The landscape quickly changed: larger fields, more trees, lots of modern flat-roofed houses even in small villages.
Aachen was interesting at first with lots of allotments containing fancy sheds, some resembling tiny cottages, also some large houses with nice gardens. Unfortunately the rest was ugly!
Köln : We saw a barge go under one of the huge bridges over the Rhine. We changed to a local train here, finding one's platform using the station timetables was SO easy.
On arrival in Duisburg, where was Jeremy? On the opposite platform of course! But we soon met up in the subway, and took the U-bahn to Duissern, the section of the city where he
lives.
After dropping off our things at the hotel, we went for an interesting walk towards the inner harbour (left) past an interesting sculpture (right).










The huge Lego giraffe (above left) outside Legoland is an amazing sight! The Evangelische Kirche (above right) is close to the ruins of the Old Market,(below left) which dates from Roman times.
We enjoyed some yummy ice-creams, very welcome as it was very hot, admiring the bird-woman (right) – a Duisburg emblem.

Second day with Eleanor

Tuesday June 23rd Another lovely fine day! First stop: Palais de Justice, what a massive building with interesting brick-filled pillars. Trapped - a young couple who’d parked too closely behind another car, someone else parked too closely behind them! They tried many manoeuvres to try to get out again, but had to give up! Unfortunately we couldn't push the front car forward either, so they left, good-naturedly, to do some more shopping, hoping that one of the other drivers would return before they got back.









The Musical Instrument Museum is a fascinating place with over 7,000 instruments from all over the world. There are some weird hybrids, e.g. a trombone with 7 bells, a harpsichord/monochord - which looked like someone had tried to jam a one-stringed cello into it, a piano/harp etc. There were some rather odd folk instruments too, like a violin having a covered fingerboard with large metal keys near the base. Videos showing how they are played would be good! Pictured: clavier d’archets, rectangular virginal, hexagonal piano.









On the way back to Grand-Place we passed through this lovely garden (above), before lunching on sandwiches and crispy Belgian waffles at a street table.
The Brussels City Museum contains art works & tapestries dating from the Middle Ages as well as various displays about the history of the city. My favourite: a mediaeval 3-D altar screen on ‘The Life of Christ and of the Virgin” - incredible delicacy of detail.

We took a photo of the city (left) from the top of the tallest car park building before walking to the Place de Palais. Eleanor rested in the gardens, while we visited the remains of the 12th century Coudenberg Palace, buried in 1700 under a market place! Seeing the collapsed ballroom floor (above) & hearing the traffic passing overhead was a bit nerve-wracking. The Rue d’Isabelle (left) used to be above ground, leading to the old market.
After meeting back up again, Bruce & I went to the Atomium (right), whilst Eleanor went to meet boyfriend Ben. We arrived back at St Catherine’s (left) much later than planned: the metro took longer to get to the Atomium than anticipated, we had further to walk due to road works, then to return we left from a different metro station which happened to be further away than it looked on the map + a vital road sign was missing! We also waited 20 minutes to get a train, missed the 1st as it had a different number/route on the front, but found out later it would have done!
We ate traditional Belgian cuisine together, nice but a bit dear + small portions. It was interesting hearing how Eleanor & Ben first met, & that she’s staying with his parents, & the cats she house-sat recently are his sister’s!
A mystery accident near our table: a policeman arrived accompanied by sirens to interview a motorcyclist partly obscured by pavement hoardings. An ambulance arrived
next & took someone away on a stretcher - but we didn't see what had happened.
Before saying our goodbyes at the metro, we went for a little walk in the dusk to visit a famous shopping street – oh dear, rubbish day tomorrow! Someone was a bit camera-shy!

Brussels with Eleanor

Monday 22nd June Nice breakfast of yoghurt, croissants, bread rolls, juice and strong coffee. The waitresses were kept busy pouring coffee, clearing and resetting tables. All the guests except us were French-speaking Africans so we felt quite at home!
As Eleanor had still not turned up 20 minutes after the arranged time to meet, I went downstairs to try to phone her and was successful on the second attempt. She was having problems owing to a faulty Google map, and no-one seemed to know where the hotel was. However, our helpful hotel receptionist soon gave her the right directions, and she arrived very quickly, she’d only been a short distance away! I was touched that they didn’t charge me for the phone calls
After spending some time discussing where to go, we set off for the Cathedral on the metro. It's a great public transport system, a day ticket takes you everywhere within the city. Unfortunately our camera’s batteries went flat, and Eleanor’s were too!

We enjoyed looking at the Bourse and Grand-Place – fantastic buildings, some decorated with gilt. There were some lovely paintings on sale in the square, as well as plants in pots. After buying museum and transport passes, we walked to the palace through some interesting gardens.
We were quite amused by the guards’ slow march, each arm being raised up to horizontal at each step. What a boring job!
The yummy chocolates + beautiful lace in the shop windows were very tempting, but we resisted very well. We only came across the Manneken Pis by accident, nearly missed it as it’s so SMALL, but I really don't understand why everyone raves over it so much, I think it’s rather rude!
We ate some spicey Turkish kebabs for lunch, before returning to the hotel for a rest, our feet were sore after all the cobbles, which are laid in scalloped patterns.
There didn't seem to be a good restaurant near our hotel, it's in rather a grotty neighbourhood, so we returned to town, ending up in a Thai restaurant near St Catherine’s and the Bourse. The food was beautifully served; Bruce had an orchid on his plate + my beef curry was served in a clay pot kept warm over a candle in a bowl.
An amusing incident – a police car stopped in a side-street, a second joined it, blocking the entrance – 2 other motorists tried to enter the street, blocking the main road as they couldn’t get past the police cars! Traffic started building up in the main road, people started honking their horns! Eventually one of the police cars was moved, restoring everything to order!

Part Two: Belgium

Sunday 21st Changeable weather, fine then colder, windy and cloudy.  I got up too early, making the dog rather excited when I went downstairs, she wanted to go outside - but I missed one deadbolt so she had to wait a bit longer!Managed to bypass the Baptist church due to talking too much, realising once we reached the Catholic one that we'd gone to far.  We ended up about 15 minutes late but enjoyed the service plus chatting to some of the friendly congregation and pastor afterwards.  They help an African church in Nairobi by sending teams to teach pastors and Sunday School teachers.
We went to Heathrow by bus after lunch. British Midlands seemed very efficient, but there was a long delay on the tarmac before we were cleared for take off, so the pilot made a big joke out of it.  However, we made up half an hour in flight time due to tail winds!
Part II - Belgium
Our first glimpses of Belgium were interesting: lots of tiny fields, some looking like mediaeval strip-farms, entwined within a cobweb of roads that sprouted clusters of houses along their lengths.  There seemed to be few trees apart from a large area near the city, but there were quite a lot of canals and other waterways. 
At first airport formalities seemed pretty scanty with no arrival forms to fill in.  However, two out of the three queues for non-EU passport-holders were stationary or almost so, so people started moving to the only one that was proceeding quickly.  We decided to do the same.
The charming official only wanted to know whether we were there for business or not, so was interested to hear that we were going to visit our daughter in Belgium, and that we were from NZ, saying, “Old Zeeland is very close!”
It was a little hard to find the right platform for the train, but it was a quick trip to the Midi.  It seems young Belgians love covering things with graffiti, even the train carriages! 
It was also hard to find the right exit out of the Midi station, we thought we’d come out on the other side, so we went in the wrong direction down the street looking for our hotel.  There seemed to be few street signs + my street map was confusing, even the bus stop one didn’t help, so we went back to the station to ask directions.  I also asked at a few places on the way, trying out some French! 
The hotel was a bit grotty, and our room only had a shared toilet, with no bathroom, so we paid a bit more to get a room with a shower.
Dinner was interesting, we went to the next-door Greek restaurant.  It was hard to work out which dish was which + the staff only spoke French - but a kindly Asian girl helped us.  The chef complimented her on her excellent French and it was quite funny how quickly they became a little flirtatious, although he was twice her age! It was a cheap filling meal, so we slept well afterwards, although it was amazingly light outside after 10 p.m.

Sleaford

Saturday 20th Went for a walk with Diane before breakfast to the local shop to get the paper + a few toiletries, it was cloudy & cool. It wasn't one of the 2 days a week when the mobile postman comes so I couldn't buy stamps for my postcards!
We had an uneventful trip to Sleaford to visit Aunty Mary, except we missed the correct turn-off, the exit came up too fast! We tried to find an alternative route from the town centre but couldn't, so returned to the main road to return to the correct exit - so we were a little late for lunch.
It does seem strange that my aunt's now my own height, having lost 6" through severe osteoporosis. She has daily caregivers in to help her with a few tasks but manages most herself. It was fun looking at photos together before returning to Oxford.
Unfortunately the Silverstone Races were on, so we were detoured from Northhampton to Banbury. The roads closer to Oxford were poorly signed + my map wasn't detailed enough so we got a little lost, then it started to rain! It was a relief to suddenly come across Banbury Road at a street I’d walked down going to the doctor’s! Great! The car got taken back to the hirer's after tea.

mothing

Friday 19th A very windy night! We went mothing in the morning, the property owners have 5 moth traps that are set up and checked nearly daily. We saw 53 out of a possible 200 species. On a good day, you can get as many as 90! One species they haven't had there before caused great excitement. Pic: inspecting a moth trap; Elephant & Eyed Hawk Moths.








When we'd finished, we drove to Mannington Hall, a mediaeval moated house, which has a large collection of over 5,000 varieties of roses, ranging from species roses to modern types. Each group of roses is grown in a special area according to their date of origin, including a mediaeval garden, a renaissance garden, a Victorian flower garden and orchard, a knot garden, a trellis garden, a rather bleak 'between the wars' garden, & modern gardens.
You can also view the gardens around the Hall - I felt a bit uncomfortablewalking right past the windows! My favourite was the Scented Garden, designed in an elaborate knot, each bed having a different feature rose + an assortment of herbs giving off delicious scents in the sunshine! The house has some interesting chimneys with bricks laid in lattice patterns + some gargoyles on the eaves!
Garden pics: archway between rose gardens, the Scented Garden.








Diane cooked a huge dinner - a casserole of Lincoln sausages + 10 varieties of vegetables & dried fruit! They're so used to cooking on an Aga range, they find it hard using an electric stove! A. Nellie cooks at home, Diane on holiday. We showed them our NZ pics after tea, I dressed up in my Maasai clothes.

Weybourne

Thursday 18th Woken at 1.20 a.m. by students talking in the street outside, didn't get much more sleep and Bruce got up at 5.45!  After visiting the doctors today, we went to hire a car to drive to Norfolk to visit Aunty Nellie and my cousin Dianne, who were staying there on holiday.
We had a little trouble on the M25, should have got off one junction earlier, got held up in roadworks.  We were surprised to find nobody at home when we arrived, they'd gone for a walk, thinking we'd get there a little later on.
Weybourne is an interesting place, and they were staying in a holiday home that used to be part of a Danish telecommunications set up - an undersea telegraph cable had been laid all the way from Denmark to the UK some years ago. 
The house is set in grounds that are now a nature reserve. Lots of migratory birds visit the area each year, and my aunt and cousin are keen bird-watchers.
We had an interesting walk to the stony beach and along the clifftop path.  Bruce & I came back through the village, passing a windmill and various other interesting buildings on the way.  We love the Norfolk style of building.  Photos below: Honeysuckle Cottage and Ship Inn.

second day in Oxford

Wednesday 17th Hard to sleep in as our room was light by 4! I phoned my other aunts to plan our visits, but had to let Aunty Doreen know we wouldn't be able to get to Cornwall owing to the distance and the shortness of our stay in the UK. We all walked to the university gardens, coming back via the canal towpath, admiring the interesting long boats and gardens right to the water’s edge, picnic furniture ready for use. It was windy but mild.
After lunch, we'd just started to play a Bach cello/piano sonata when my 4th cousin and husband arrived, Derek and Shirley Owen. We looked at the family tree together + some old photos, having a nice chat over afternoon tea. They're about mum and dad’s age, with 3 children born from ’62-68! Derek used to work for the Bible Society as a book-binder. Picture below: Uncle Norman and Aunty Mary.