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| On the street looking for Beethoven's house |
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| Bonn |
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| Bonn |
I started off unable to find the Rhine. That was embarrassing as it is rather large. I also walked back and forth down a cobbled street in Bonn (pulling my luggage) trying to find Beethoven's house. Then I failed to find a bakery. In Bonn this is almost as embarrassing as not finding the Rhine. When I got to the station I couldn't find anyone to ask whether my ticket was valid on any train or not. The first train to pull in was very sleek. It was going to take about 10 minutes to zoom across the Koln. I didn't get on. The next train looked as if it had been built in about 1850. I got on. It stopped everywhere. The German women hiking group got on and started chatting with me very loudly. I didn't understand them. They told me to get off at the wrong stop. I didn't.
In Koln I did find the Rhine. It's very large. I tried to find a park bench, but couldn't and so sat on a wall watching the boats go past. I then looked for a nice restaurant for lunch and failed. I ended up back at the station and ate at Curry Wurst Express.
The train back to Paris was great (apart from the rather long delay in Brussels when it broke down). I did find my hotel without a problem. Sha had asked me to buy her a particular present from Paris. I therefore did some googling to find out where to go. It turned out that I needed to go to Gare Montpanasse and the shop was about the close. I leapt on the Metro and travelled across Paris, jumped out and ... found that I'd come to the wrong place. There are two shops. One in Montpanasse that doesn't stock what Sha wanted and one very close to the Gare Du Nord. Unfortunately, I couldn't get back in time :( Sorry Sha.
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| Bonn |
Instead of being jammed in the metro again I decided to walk back. That was a bit crazy. I got lost, but ate in a place called Hippopotamus. Google says that walk is 8km, but I think that my route was not the most direct. I walked past the Jardin du Luxembourg, the Sorbonne, past Notre Dame, the Hotel de Ville, across to the Centre Pomipdou (twice as I seemed to have gone around in a circle at that point), stopped in a smelly cheese shop ... oh, I also bought a postcard for Eddy, but I can't find a stamp. I was told to go to a tabac. So I went into one that seemed very French (just like in Amelie). They didn't have international stamps. So, another thing that I couldn't get. Then I walked through the African area. That was interesting. Lots of African guys having their hair cut. Finally, I'm back at the hotel.
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| Arrival into Koln |
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| The scary Koln cathedral |
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| Finally, I found the Rhine |
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| Koln |
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| For Sha ... you can get Asian food in Europe! |
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| Or you can eat German food! |
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| Doesn't really need a caption -- got to Paris! |
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| Hotel de Ville |
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| My hotel! |
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| The view from my window! |
Today, grandma and I went for a drive to the Cwmcarn forest drive. It was great! Very misty. Very cold. We finally found somewhere to eat in a "rather scruffy" pub (as grandma called it) in a place called Risca. Then I dropped grandma off back at home and got very lost finding a fish.
Lots of fun driving down small Welsh roads today. We seemed to spend half the time reversing to let somebody go past. Luckily my hire car seems terribly posh and has a reversing camera! We finally found the place and had a fun walk along the cliff tops to see the light houses. 
Yesterday I managed to catch an early train from Paris to St Pancras. Grandma wanted to know who St Pancras was. Apparently he was Saint Pancras of Rome who was beheaded at the age of 14. Some "relics" ended up in a church in London. That church became Saint Pancras, the region of London did and then the railway station did.
In the evening Grandma, Faith, Mel ate a cucumelon and took part in the pub quiz. We didn't come last!
On my last trip to Paris I wanted to see the Catacombs, but I couldn't find them. So, this morning I headed off early to hunt them down. Actually, they're easy to spot because of the length of the queue leading from the entrance. I waited an hour in the queue which was fine although I was next to a very annoying Australian family.
The Catacombs were definitely worth a visit. I enjoyed walking through the long underground tunnels and then I got to the bones. I had read that there were millions of people buried there, but that doesn't mean much until you see them. Piles and piles and piles of bones. I can understand piles of bones, but why did someone stack them so neatly?
