28/5 Strolling

Monday 28^th May 2012

Today we walked in the opposite direction to stroll through the main park.  Then strolled the old city streets once more.  We were earlier today so there were not so many people to jostle past. Nothing unusual to report . . but here are some pictures :)

St Lambert's - below is the famous twisted spire, caused by accident due to using green timber

Monument to the town charter commemorates the Battle of Worringen

Following victory the children turned cartwheels and the local children turn cartwheels for money.  A cartwheeling person is the symbol of the city

The Schlossturm.  The only remaining tower of a large castle.

Cute streets. Love the bells on the front of the pink house below.

More crowds

Hmmmm..... I dunno.  Maybe they take their donkey everywhere?

27/5 Gay pride and all that jazz

Sunday 27

Chris has got a bit of a head cold and made a late start. The Derby football game was on in Perth and he had it on the radio through internet. West Coast thrashed Fremantle, who managed a new lowest score. We spoke to  Amanda and Steph (and grandbabies) on Skype, can’t wait to see them again, getting very close now.

We went for a wander to the old port area which has been revamped with some interesting architecture. 

They have left the old cranes both here and in other places along the Rhine as a nod to the past.

Discovered it is Christopher Street Day which is Europe’s Gay Pride festival.  We had noticed that the hotel restaurant was overly represented by gay men these last couple of mornings and now we know why.  A great party atmosphere and lots of stalls all along the waterfront.  We did see the tail end of a parade although there were only people walking, nothing really exciting.

Gay Pride morphed over the years to include Lesbians, then Bi and Transexuals. By this time the group was known as GLBT. As we sat on the grass watching a veritable Noah's Ark of couples walking past, it was apparent that there are all these and far more out there.

There were a number of stalls selling all sorts of stuff (but not fridge magnets). The leather posing pouches started at over 100 euros. To save time on small talk at gay bars, they were selling bracelets that specified the particular preferences of the wearer. As Seinfelt says . . not that there is anything wrong with that.

It feels like everyman and his dog is out in the old city area enjoying the sunshine.  It really is packed.  There are bands set up in different squares and it is very difficult to get past all the people who stand around enjoying the atmosphere.  We sat for some time listening to a jazz band. (below)

Interior of St Andreas

Caryatids

City Pissoir (for men only - no doors, just creative wall placement to protect modesty)

Back to the hotel for dinner.

26/5 Dusseldorf dreaming

Saturday 26 Gemuttligheid on the Rhine (hearty good times)

Just getting used to life after Elisabeth L

Brekky was a good start – all the usual plus smoked trout. Went for a bit of a walk down to the Rhine – it was a hot day and everywhere was packed with people listening to music, milling around or just enjoying the weather. The beer was flowing and there were groups of youngsters (under 40 that is) many of them wearing club shirts and being boisterous but nothing like loutish or aggressive behaviour.

So many people enjoying the sunshine

Waterfront of the longest bar in the world

The old city is known as the Biggest Bar in the World because of the number of eating and drinking places. There were lots of parks and open space, particularly along the Rhine. We saw a big rubber boat that looked as though they were going white water rafting but not that many pleasure craft. There were some very good fridge magnets but all quite expensive.

Elector Johann (Jan) Wellem

I just don't know .....

Great living sculpture

Triton statue at the end of the Konigsallee - canal/avenue commissioned by Napoleon

Bismarck

We stocked up on ham cheese salmon etc for Sunday and the public holiday on Monday. We are in rather a good hotel for once and have a fridge in our room.

25/5 Chocolate dreams, hunting lodge and an ark

Friday 25 Bruhl Cologne and Dusseldorf

We slid the bags downstairs quite easily and checked out. Elisabeth took us to the hunting lodge of Clements Augustus, Falkonlust, which was similar to the schloss but smaller in scale. We had to wear rough felt  bootees over our shoes to protect the flooring, which made for a very slippery exploration. It was interesting to learn something about hunting herons with falcons, which was regarded as a very suitable kingly sport. The hunters bred the falcons and the herons and released about 3 or 4 falcons to bring down a heron, which would then be tagged and released.

The decoration in each of these rooms was beautiful.  Unfortunately, no cameras allowed inside.  If you want to see what you are missing, you will have to google it or make the journey to Bruhl.

Front view

Side view

Back view, with the Falconry buildings on the right and the horse stables on the left.

The chapel, which was grotto style

We drove back up to Cologne and parked in a huge underground parking area beneath the new crane-shaped buildings on the waterfront. We then came up near the chocolate museum, which was a wealth of information about all aspects of the cocoa plants and the history of chocolate, including slavery and piracy as well as the attempts to establish “fair trade” in cocoa which does not exploit children and poor families. There was a 2 storey indoor rainforest, a complete chocolate production works making Lindt chocolates . . . . . and FINALLY a shop where you could buy some.

Noah's Ark.  Didn't go inside, it floats from location to location spreading the word.  Heaps of animal noises coming from the loud speakers.

We wandered about a bit and then relocated the car still within the same carpark and came up further along the river where Elisabeth found us another restaurant with river views.  Once again . . not over expensive and very pleasant to sit with a beer, a mousaka  and a cappuccino and watch the boats go past on the Rhine.

After three days of being far too kind to us, Elisabeth then drove us up to Düsseldorf, where we had booked into a very nice and inexpensive hotel barely 200m from the main station. We were sad to see her go and hope one day they will find their way Down Under where we can reciprocate her extremely kind hospitality. We heard this morning that friends from our first cruise, who had invited us to visit them in Hawaii, had been removed from a cruise ship near Brisbane after Jane had a serious stroke, and is still in intensive care after a month. 

This afternoon I rang Air Asia in Paris and was told that we have been booked on Malaysian Airlines on 21 June. So there rests another problem.

24/5 Eau de Cologne

Thursday 24 Cologne

We had bought yoghurt last night so there was no need for anyone to venture out. The internet shop outside doesn’t open until 10 – we are still waiting for advice from the insurer about how to reinstate our house insurance, which has expired. I emailed Air Malaysia last night to see if they will tell us if they have a booking for us, since we are apparently not going to hear anything from Air Asia.

Elisabeth fetched us at 9.30 and went to buy her partner a birthday present. This gave me the chance to dart off and buy her the orchid she had admired on the first day. Then it was off to Cologne. We had vistas of the Gothic cathedral from various angles, including down. Elisabeth kindly went to a lot of trouble to drive us around and even took us up a tower that afforded sweeping views of the cathedral, Cologne as a whole and even the surrounding area, although it was a bit murky that far out.

It is certainly a very attractive cathedral, part shiny clean, part scaffolded and part grimy. In circling the cathedral we saw a lot of interesting architecture, figures on the corner of buildings, hanging off walls etc (see photos). Also old pubs, which set us to searching for somewhere to have a worst and a beer. Elisabeth found us a nice shady restaurant where we had sausages and herring respectively, with the local beer, called Colsh, which comes in little 200ml glasses.

Nutcracker

We then came across the showroom at the famous address 4711 – yes its called Eau de COLOGNE which is where we are. We had no idea it was there. Bit of history: the street number was issued during the French occupation when they went down all the streets numbering each building with chalk.  Elisabeth treated J to a spray pack.

Finally, after emulating the trailer park girls for most of the day, we got to go into the cathedral (which is rightly very famous, which might be how it survived the war in which Cologne was heavily bombed). 

The side entrance

Top of the front

Front - Bottom half

Cologne is somewhat similar to Rome, where it is impossible to dig anywhere without unearthing major ancient constructions or ruins. We passed a couple of excavation sites where archaeologists were laboriously watering and sifting their way through sandy rubble looking for fragments of bones and pottery. At least, that is what they were finding. Apparently this was about the northernmost limit of the Roman empire.

Working on Roman buildings

Just as Elizabth said that this building is favoured as a wedding venue- out came a wedding party.

This whetted our thirst and led to a rest in a coffee shop in one of the nearby streets. I have to say how surprised we are that we can afford to eat out and drink coffee in such places in Germany- it is certainly cheaper than Aus. You may be tired of hearing this but . . why do we pay so much??

Fairy tale fountain.  The trolls do all the work for the girl

Panels underneath show them butchering (above), baking (below) woodworking,cleaning etc.  Very sweet.

We headed out to a well-off area next to the river with some very nice houses, probably typical of houses on the Mandurah canals. What was interesting was the very heavy watertight doors at street level and even sliding steel screens to block floodwaters from the upstairs balconies. The late afternoon stretches on past 9pm here and we lingered for some time watching people cycling and jogging past, or enjoying the sandy “beach” next to the river. We hadn’t noticed before just how fast the river was running – boats that lost power went shooting off downstream and apparently there are whirlpools. So although it looks inviting, swimming opportunities are limited and very dangerous.

Heavy waterproof doors in the high wall

Metal runs for the waterproof shutters/door panels in case of flood

Historic riverside pub (above/below)

Elisabeth dropped us off just before 8, which gave me time to catch the local internet shop, where we found that the insurer had decided that they COULD offer us the opportunity to pay with Bpay . . . before close of business on 24/5. By the time we received this, it was 25/6 in Aus already L However, we got the wifi details from the landlord and managed to skype the payment through.

We skipped dinner and jumped into bed.

Will he fit in the lugguage?????  Will he fit in the house?????

23/5 A very Bonny Day (funny)

Wednesday 23 Bonn

My day started badly . . . . stop laughing Stephie. I headed off early to the supermarket that we hadn’t been to in order to get some muesli and yoghurt for brekky. This all went well until I realised that all the shops and stalls had opened while I was inside and everything looked different. Where the hell did we stay last night? Round and round and up and down until I tracked back to within sight of the supermarket and started again.

(J says: *sigh* I really shouldn't let him out on his own. lol)

I made it back to the unit and while fiddling with the large bunch of keys, dropped one yoghurt, which split and sprayed yoghurt all over the steps and ricocheted onto my pants. I said The word and then dropped the other one. Another splatter on pants and steps. I took half the stuff upstairs , tore off a bundle of toilet roll, back down to smear the yoghurt off and fetch the rest back up. The stairs are incredibly steep and narrow and curved. We had to get a chef from the restaurant downstairs to carry the biggest bag up yesterday.

There was enough yoghurt left to enable us to digest the muesli and then we tried to remember what time Elisabeth was coming to collect us – she had said 9.30 but when she left she said 10.30. J looked out at 9.30 and glimpsed the black Audi arriving so we hurried down and headed off to Bonn, about half an hour away. We had a walk around, looking at the architecture and squares.

 We then had a walk round the house where Beethoven was born, which had been set up as a sort of museum filled with musical instruments and objects he had owned or paintings of him and his family and friends.

Beethoven's birthplace

After a bit more of a walk we stopped for a coffee and cake in a square, watching people walking by and generally feeling very cosmopolitan and European. We then walked through the university and looked at the broad park behind, and on to another cathedral.

University is housed in a rather grand chateau(schloss)

Cathedral (above) and cloisters (below)

Section of original city wall

We retrieved the car and took a scenic detour down the East bank of the Rhine to the Grand Kahuna hotel. This was quite striking and even the trip downstairs to the opulent toilets was well worthwhile. This was round about when we discovered that Elisabeth and I had been supporting the same software products for Wang computers in the 1990s, her in Bonn and me in Canberra.

Moby Dick, goes from city to Sea World

Outside we noticed a strange looking glass cabinet out in the open between the car park and the river. On closer inspection, it turned out to be an unlocked outdoor library!! You just took books out and replaced them or added new books whenever you chose. Several people came and used the facility in the few moments we stood there.  Can you imagine trying that in Perth? J was struck by the restaurant outside our hotel in Mainz, which just left its outdoor chairs and tables sitting on the footpath overnight. In Perth they would either be stolen or set alight.

What a great idea

Next Elisabeth took us back to the chateau or schloss (although it was called a borg because there had been an old fort on the same spot). It had belonged to a remarkable man named Clement Augustus who had been a duke and a bishop in the 18^th century. He was one of 9 dukes who were allowed to vote to elect the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, which comprised most of Europe.  This left him the 3^rd most powerful man in Europe, after the Pope and the Emperor.

Elisabeth kindly bought us tickets for the guided English tour of the chateau, which had been built to serve as a reception centre for important visitors. It was designed to impress and that it certainly did. Elisabeth had told us that it had an amazing staircase but that understated just what a huge and sensational entrance it provided.

The guide did a splendid job of describing and explaining all aspects of the chateau and the lives of the inhabitants. The entry chamber looked for all the world to have a domed ceiling, but it is apparently flat and the “dome” is the product of clever illusion by the painter. (Who took only 14 days to paint it - amazing) The huge dining room had an upstairs gallery for musicians and ordinary local people who were allowed to come in and watch the Duke entertaining his important guests. The Germans call this “eating with the eyes”.

The property had been the official reception centre for the West German government during the period when Germany was divided and only the most important international figures were received there. Typically, there would be dinners for about 500. The chateau, the associated hunting lodge and the respective gardens and grounds of the two properties are collectively included in the UN World Heritage List as the finest examples of 18^th century grand properties. We weren’t allowed to touch anything to preserve the excellent quality of the marble finish and the silk or leather wallpaper. No photographs allowed.  The best I can find for you to see images is the following link.
http://www.schlossbruehl.de/media/raw/Kap3_Bruehl_kleiner_neu.pdf or try http://www.schlossbruehl.de/Home which is in German but has some good images.

The hunting lodge had closed already but we had a look from the outside before being driven to Elisabeth’s lovely unit for dinner. She had prepared a culinary treat with chilled carrot and ginger soup, marinated chicken kebabs and a sinful yoghurt/cream with strawberries and strawberry coulee. We had a sat and chat and then she drove us back to the unit.

Elizabeth's lovely house companion