The train system here in Europe is huge and wonderfully modern. The stations support InterCity Express (cool looking bullet trains), InterCity trains (almost as fast and cool), Regional Trains (often double decker) and every other variety right down to little 2 carriage jobs that shuttle locals around like a bus. And they are run by multiple companies who share the lines (although Germany is dominated by the Govt system).
In contrast to the incredibly efficient Italian system, one of the most surprising things about the train system in Germany has been the frequently late trains and the relaxed attitude everyone takes about it. Considering that when you make bookings when the system usually only gives you 8 or 9 minute transfer times between platforms, the fact that nearly all our trains in Germany have been at least 5 minutes late (and often much longer) has been a little alarming.
While waiting at Mannheim, our connection to Cologne was over 15 minutes late when this train pulled in. I was only slightly concerned as I understand the locals have gotten over their habit of loading people onto cattle trucks.
But soon enough our train rolled in and we were off to Cologne. We knew we were in Cologne when we saw the advertising in the station. Remember this from the ’70’s:
I suppose the Colognians are very careful about spelling. You can see they have used ‘isch’ to indicate that 4711 comes from Cologne where we might more naturally use ‘ic’. But that would make 4711 out as Colognic water which doesn’t have the same marketing appeal.
Now at some point we have to address the topic of German food. There was a theory I have developed that I was keen to explore. After 20 years of travelling to America (surely one of the most hateful destinations for someone who actually enjoys tasty food) I had concluded that the American cuisine is actually German. In the USA food is heavy with added potato and cheese even in sunny places like California. When there I eat Mexican as much as possible, but the heavy diet is unavoidable. So to explore this theory we felt we had to venture into a traditional German restaurant:
It was as yummy as it looks. But the locals were lapping it up. So after this experience we chose Tapas for our last night in Germany……
We did find a great market in Munich where we loaded up with bread, cheese and sausage for the next train leg. We did see an ‘exotic’ fruit stand which had really weird stuff like bananas and oranges. It sort of illustrates the happy go lucky German attitude to vitamins and fibre.
A surprising thing to find in Cologne was an exhibition of German romance (yes, you read that right). The main bridge across the Rhine is weighed down with what seems like millions of padlocks put there by couples. At least it proves the fence is well made.
Now Cologne is another place that took a fair pounding in the war and the Cathedral had to be rebuilt nearly from scratch. And it is a big bugger.
Now the clue to the dark black colour of a cathedral where much of the stonework is less than 70 years old is found by looking at the map. There is a town up the road called Solingen which is a name every bloke should remember from having it stamped into the blade of his pocket knife when he was a boy. While Cologne is all clean and green now, it is right in the middle of Germany’s coal and steel belt – the industrial heart. The cathedral is being slowly cleaned of all the accumulated soot – it is naturally a lovely light sandstone like you see in Sydney. The little square entrance to the underground car park in the lower right hand corner of the photo shows the colour the cathedral should be. It’s a big job, but I’m sure there is a model in the Karcher range that is up to it.
But the coal industry here seems to have passed on with no particular regrets, you can still see the odd little coal fired power station from the train (easily identifiable by the coal elevators), but they are surrounded by windmills. So good news for the Gippslanders and Novacastrians there – the wires and infrastructure doesn’t go to waste after the switch away from coal. France is even more so, on the drive between Brussels and Amiens (about 250 km) we were rarely out of sight of windmills, there were hundred of them.
So the blog has happily skipped from Cologne in Germany to Amiens in France with barely a mention of Belgium.
This is Belgium:
So there, I have mentioned it.