Christmas adventures in Germany
Dec. 22nd, 2011 06:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rich_jackoBack from spending half a week in Cologne with the Chivers and Anne WINOLJ. In a nutshell, the first half of the holiday went very well, the second half not quite so well (Bloody Belgians!)
Sunday 18 December - Up early to get down to London. Chilled with free champagne at St Pancras and admired the giant Lego Christmas tree. I had my first Eurotunnel experience (kinda boring - I reckon they should paint animation frames on the sides of the tunnel so it works like a giant zoetrope as you go through it). We changed trains in Brussels and got to Cologne in good time in the evening.
Our hotel was rather swish, with a funky stained glass feature wall in the rooms. We checked in and then wandered around trying to find somewhere open for dinner late on a Sunday. We ended up testing our broken German in a friendly pub where I had goulash. And beer, of course. It had been a long day (and we had a somewhat tired Goblin) so we went straight back to the hotel so we could all go to bed.
Monday 19 December - We went to have a look around the cathedral, which is quite staggeringly enormous, though a lot more impressive on the outside than the inside. Feeling either brave or insane we decided to climb the 533 steps to the top of the south-west tower. Krissy did this with Toby on her back which was an even more impressive feat. The views from the top did not disappoint.
Afterwards we meandered back to our hotel, having a more thorough explore of the three markets along the way. We did the compulsory buying of gluhwein, bratwurst and novelty wooden Christmas items and felt we were definitely doing this Christmas market thing properly :o)
In the evening we went to (not Invader) Zim's restaurant, which was packed so we sat outside by the fire. The guy who served us thought we were mad. The food was fantastic and I ate far too much of it - marinated beef with red cabbage, followed by apple strudel.
Tuesday 20 December - Snow! Well, a little bit of it anyway. Somehow Cologne didn't grind to a halt at the sight of a few flakes in the way Sheffield does. Funny that.
Anyway, we had an early morning to catch the (double-decker!) train out to Dusseldorf, where Ed was meeting people from work for lunch. The rest of us tagged along to check out Dusseldorf's Christmas markets. It isn't anywhere near as attractive a city as Cologne (and I could have done with seeing rather less of its department stores), but the six markets were just as good and each one was decorated in a different way. I stuck with tradition by having bratwurst for lunch and acquiring another two gluhwein mugs along the way :o)
We got back to the hotel and then everything started to go wrong. A Belgian wildcat strike meant that our planned train home on Thursday was cancelled and we were going to lose a day of our holiday. Muttering a great many very rude things about the Belgians, we trekked back out to the station to see if we could re-book, but they had no idea the strike was on (asking them to check the news didn't help) and told us to come back the next day. Still, we had very nice pizza for dinner in a small restaurant that we had to ourselves.
Wednesday 21 December - Went with Ed to the station as soon as the ticket office opened to try to sort tickets before the remaining trains booked up. Half-succeeded. Drank coffee on the cathedral steps - enjoyable on a nice, crisp morning nice but not quite what I had planned to be doing at that time.
Headed back to the hotel for a warm shower and breakfast before checking out. Then began the epic four-train journey home. Cologne - Karlsruhe - Paris - London - Sheffield. Having suffered misinformation, delays and cancellations across Germany, everything started running with the smooth precision of a well-oiled machine the instant we crossed into France. Something's not quite right there.
Celebrated returning to Blighty with a relaxing beer at St Pancras before the last train home. Having been standing or tucked up on the floor by the doors for most of the train journeys, we may have overcompensated slightly by the six of us sprawling out across ten seats. Made it back home around midnight.
I aim to go back, not just because we lost a day and missed out on some of the stuff we wanted to see, but also because in recent years I haven't had holidays abroad nearly as often as I used to and I'd like to get back into the habit. So where next year, and who's up for coming along? :o)
Photos
Sunday 18 December - Up early to get down to London. Chilled with free champagne at St Pancras and admired the giant Lego Christmas tree. I had my first Eurotunnel experience (kinda boring - I reckon they should paint animation frames on the sides of the tunnel so it works like a giant zoetrope as you go through it). We changed trains in Brussels and got to Cologne in good time in the evening.
Our hotel was rather swish, with a funky stained glass feature wall in the rooms. We checked in and then wandered around trying to find somewhere open for dinner late on a Sunday. We ended up testing our broken German in a friendly pub where I had goulash. And beer, of course. It had been a long day (and we had a somewhat tired Goblin) so we went straight back to the hotel so we could all go to bed.
Monday 19 December - We went to have a look around the cathedral, which is quite staggeringly enormous, though a lot more impressive on the outside than the inside. Feeling either brave or insane we decided to climb the 533 steps to the top of the south-west tower. Krissy did this with Toby on her back which was an even more impressive feat. The views from the top did not disappoint.
Afterwards we meandered back to our hotel, having a more thorough explore of the three markets along the way. We did the compulsory buying of gluhwein, bratwurst and novelty wooden Christmas items and felt we were definitely doing this Christmas market thing properly :o)
In the evening we went to (not Invader) Zim's restaurant, which was packed so we sat outside by the fire. The guy who served us thought we were mad. The food was fantastic and I ate far too much of it - marinated beef with red cabbage, followed by apple strudel.
Tuesday 20 December - Snow! Well, a little bit of it anyway. Somehow Cologne didn't grind to a halt at the sight of a few flakes in the way Sheffield does. Funny that.
Anyway, we had an early morning to catch the (double-decker!) train out to Dusseldorf, where Ed was meeting people from work for lunch. The rest of us tagged along to check out Dusseldorf's Christmas markets. It isn't anywhere near as attractive a city as Cologne (and I could have done with seeing rather less of its department stores), but the six markets were just as good and each one was decorated in a different way. I stuck with tradition by having bratwurst for lunch and acquiring another two gluhwein mugs along the way :o)
We got back to the hotel and then everything started to go wrong. A Belgian wildcat strike meant that our planned train home on Thursday was cancelled and we were going to lose a day of our holiday. Muttering a great many very rude things about the Belgians, we trekked back out to the station to see if we could re-book, but they had no idea the strike was on (asking them to check the news didn't help) and told us to come back the next day. Still, we had very nice pizza for dinner in a small restaurant that we had to ourselves.
Wednesday 21 December - Went with Ed to the station as soon as the ticket office opened to try to sort tickets before the remaining trains booked up. Half-succeeded. Drank coffee on the cathedral steps - enjoyable on a nice, crisp morning nice but not quite what I had planned to be doing at that time.
Headed back to the hotel for a warm shower and breakfast before checking out. Then began the epic four-train journey home. Cologne - Karlsruhe - Paris - London - Sheffield. Having suffered misinformation, delays and cancellations across Germany, everything started running with the smooth precision of a well-oiled machine the instant we crossed into France. Something's not quite right there.
Celebrated returning to Blighty with a relaxing beer at St Pancras before the last train home. Having been standing or tucked up on the floor by the doors for most of the train journeys, we may have overcompensated slightly by the six of us sprawling out across ten seats. Made it back home around midnight.
I aim to go back, not just because we lost a day and missed out on some of the stuff we wanted to see, but also because in recent years I haven't had holidays abroad nearly as often as I used to and I'd like to get back into the habit. So where next year, and who's up for coming along? :o)
Photos
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no subject
Date: 2011-12-22 07:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-23 01:25 am (UTC)Funnily enough, the Belgians were also striking over pension reforms. This did come up in conversation at the time.
My objection is not with them going on strike, but with them doing so with virtually no notice. That doesn't happen in this country; our strike was announced plenty in advance and allowed people to plan around it. For me that's what tips the balance between mostly just costing your employer a day's trade and massively inconveniencing the general public.
Had there been even a week's notice, we could've sorted everything out before we left the UK, made alternative arrangements and still travelled back on the day we originally intended. The extra journey time wasn't so bad. The losing a day's holiday and the extra hassle and stress involved were what annoyed me.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-23 09:55 am (UTC)If this strike had been organised sensibly I might have had sympathy for the Belgian workers - but now I couldn't care less about their plight, and I'm not angry at their government or employers. I'm angry at *them* - the workers. It's a spectacular own goal.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-23 11:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-23 01:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-23 09:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-27 02:35 pm (UTC)Now I have 2 lovely lodgers/money fountains/dog sitters, and I'm that bit more fit and healthy than a couple of years ago, it's about time I tried this holiday lark again!