Last day in Germany

Monday 29th June  After checking out of our hotel, we took our bags to Jeremy's (left) then went to the North Duisburg Industrial Park.  This factory was closed 20 years ago, but used to make iron using coke from the Essen plant. 
Interesting sights: small fish in a ground-level storage bunker - how did they get there? trees and shrubs taking over the buildings and old railway tracks; a large wind sail near two cooling ponds (right); gas pipes stretching for kilometres over the countryside!  We climbed 253 stairs to the top of the furnace structure.  Our souvenir - a €5 flattened and embossed with the plant name by turning a handle!
After a brief rest at Jeremy’s, we went out to let Judith work uninterrupted.  It was SO hot, over 30°, that I got a really bad headache.  I wanted to get my hair cut before landing in Africa, but it turned out that but Monday is hairdressers' day off in Duisburg.
We took some books to the Botanic Gardens to read in the shade, but had to move off the grass when Jeremy got bitten by ants to some semi-reclining seats.
After repacking our bags and wrapping gifts, we caught the U-bahn to Düsseldorf. It was fun riding high above the pavements and roads in the free twin-carriage Sky Train, suspended below a curved concrete span, from the station to our terminal!After a search to find the right check-in desk, we enjoyed a good coffee and doughnuts with chocolate & hazelnuts inside before wandering around an interesting photographic display about immigrants living in various parts of the world.  It took a long time to pass through security, but we were happy to use some €2 vouchers to buy sweets for the Maasai children.

A long bike ride

Sunday 28th June Humid and cloudy today. No opportunity for church today, breakfast wasn't until 10!
We went on 17km bike ride, my first time on a bike for nearly 30 years!



Our first stop was Wulfen, which has an interesting old church and statue.
On the way to Schloss Lembeck, we passed this old boundary stone (left).

We spent some time at the schloss (above right), several groups of impressive old buildings built in 1687, two on islands in a moat (right). The gardens are renowned for rhododendrons in spring, but are well worth visiting at any time of year.
Interesting places on the way back: a refreshing foot spring, built in 72 hours by a church youth group by order of the Archbishop; Lembeck village – old hand-pump for horse trough (below) outside the church, used to be the village water supply too; Wiesenthal hotel - Judith used to work there in the holidays; roadside strawberry stall - bought some to eat with ice-cream and to take back to Duisburg.
Once back in Duisburg, Jeremy biked home from the Hauptbahnhof, we took the U-bahn but were delayed at Duissern trying to get the station lift to work. A 10-year old girl in a wheelchair wouldn’t let Bruce carry her up the stairs, so she and her mother returned to the Hauptbahnhof to use the lift there! Jeremy wondered why we were so late.
We had a yummy dinner of tapas and the Spanish version of crème brulée by the harbour. The waiters helped us move to another table covered by an umbrella when it started to rain!
We arrived back at our hotel about 9.30, but were kept awake by noisy people in the middle of the night. It was hard to wake up the next day!

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!

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.