’s been a busy few days so this will be a big blog
entry. Grab a coffee and come back when
you are ready!
Only two days ago we were in Bruges eating another HUGE and
delicious breakfast. It was a sunny day
yet again (so lucky!) and the market square was actually full of market stalls,
so we wandered down to buy some food – sausages (Greg), fruit (me), and lots of
cheese (both of us). The kids meanwhile
found a lolly stall – 3.20 Euros for ½ kg of lollies of their choice, which was
like heaven! We visited the
Historium, a multi-media history of old Bruges experience which Greg did not
think much of but the kids and I, obviously less discerning, quite enjoyed!
Our host Albina gave us the left over croissants and bread
for lunch (knowing how much we appreciated her baking!) and we drove off toward
Trier. Our late lunch stop along the way
was at Waterloo. The kids and I chose to
climb the 226 steps to the top of the Lion Monument, and we also visited the
Panorama – a huge piece of art in the round dating from the 19th
century complete with smoke and gunfire!
Greg opted to have a nap while we did our exploring, and I did think as
I climbed the 226 steps that he’d made a smart decision! It was still sunny so we enjoyed our picnic
lunch of left over croissants (still delicious) with cheese, ham and mustard,
followed by crisp apples, strawberries and grapes!
Our journey to Trier went well until the end when there was
a bit of a traffic jam (Casper, you would be proud of how well we are doing
with our right hand driving thanks to your expert training!) and it was dark by
the time we found the hostel. Actually
the GPS took us to the wrong street, even though I’d definitely selected the right one – Greg had to get out and ask
at the nearby supermarket and it finally found it. It was called Hillies Hostel and I wouldn’t
recommend it. It cost half as much as
our B & B in Bruges (without any
breakfast!) and although I’d booked a four bed dorm we were in put into a six
bed one. Our companions were a girl from
Cologne and a boy from Greece, who turned out to snore like a champion; I’ve never
heard anyone snore so loudly, or for so long, in my entire life. Needless to say none of us slept well. To add insult to injury although we’d paid
for linen (which was of the attractive nylon variety) we didn’t get a towel,
and reception is only open for two hours a day (we’d made it by the skin of our
teeth to check in) – Bella and I decided to use our bed sheet the next day rather
than rough it like the boys! We had a
room with a private bathroom which meant one toilet and shower for six
people. It was a bit old and grotty. Oh,
and the wifi didn’t work. You can gather
that we were not impressed!
In the morning we woke up to a misty Trier (it was a chilly
5 degrees) and bought a pastry from the bakery next door then set out to
explore the fabulous Roman ruins in Trier.
The only downside of this was that we couldn’t use our gloves while we
ate as they were so sticky, and it was very
chilly on our fingers without them! (Bella
and I both picked up a pair of 10 euro leather gloves in Bruges which are
wonderful). The ruins are seriously impressive, and we also walked to Karl Marx’s
birthplace. We had thought we might
visit this museum but there was a sign out saying opening was delayed due to
some renovations, and we couldn’t linger, so we set off to Berlin. It was 740km and the GPS estimated our
arrival around 4.30pm.
We really like our GPS but she has some flaws. She doesn’t
talk too much, which Greg appreciates. She likes to give us a warning at 2.2km
but sometimes choses to wait until 400m, which on a busy road can make things a
bit challenging. Other times she doesn’t
say anything at all, clearly thinking it’s an easy matter to follow the blue
line on the screen and we don’t need any other assistance! When she does wait until 400m she is very insistent.
“Veer left at the fork”; “Veer LEFT at
the fork”; “VEER LEFT AT THE FORK”. So we
tend to respond to her – “yes, yes, we are veering! Keep your pants on!” Just out of Trier we encountered road works
and the autobahn was closed. We
detoured, the GPS re-routed, and gave us instructions which led us safely back
to… the closed autobahn. We ignored her
entreaties to “do a U-turn as soon as possible” and tried several different
ways, each time allowing her to lead us back – to the bloody closed
autobahn! So I devised a cunning plan
that we would just drive in one direction and when she stopped insisting we turn
around the GPS would re-route and we would be OK. Well, the result of this bit of genius
thinking led us to drive for about an hour in a totally unknown direction (all
I know is, we were somewhere on the Rhine River!) without her giving in. We eventually stopped at a small town near a
restaurant and Greg insisted I take the map in for directions. I would happily have done this if we actually
had a map, but in fact all I had was a double page spread in the Lonely Planet
Europe on a Shoestring map, which didn’t even have the place we were in, let
alone the road we were on. I thought
they would laugh us out of town, and this caused Greg and I to have our first
serious verbal navigation disagreement for the trip! In case you are wondering why the hell we
don’t have a map, well we have tried to buy a general Europe one several times
(along the lines of the whole of Australia ones you can get which at least have
major roads on it) but it appears they don’t exist, or at least we can’t find
one. Anyway, I put our destination back
into the GPS, and voila, she decided to give us a new route which thankfully didn’t involve returning to the closed
section of the autobahn. However, she
was clearly peeved with us, and led us through a series of small country roads
barely wide enough for two cars and through a variety of small towns, up hills
and into the clouds – we couldn’t say it wasn’t scenic but we still had no
bloody idea of where we were! Eventually
she relented and let us back onto the autobahn.
In Holland, Belgium and Luxemburg the GPS had also displayed
the speed required – although we still double checked with any signs we saw
(not as numerous as at home). However in
Germany on the autobahns there was generally no speed limit displayed very few
signs. There were three lanes and we
tended to travel in the far right, with the other slow vehicles travelling at
130km an hour – the far left lane had cars whizzing by so fast we couldn’t
believe it. Occasionally we would see a
sign (or the GPS would suddenly show a speed) and most people would slow down
to that speed – but as soon as they could, it was back to 200km an hour or
more. Crazy! So it was no surprise that about an hour into
our return to the autobahn all three lanes slowed to 10kms an hour (if we were
lucky). For more than an hour
and a half! Ambulances squeezed
by. But as always, when we finally got
to the end of the road block, there was no sign of what had occurred. It was frustrating. So now our arrival into Berlin was looking at
being 6.30pm. It got dark early (around 5pm) and still cars
were travelling at over 200km per hour with just their headlights to show the
way. And then… another accident. It took us about 40 minutes to reach the
detour (the accident was still far ahead).
As always, the GPS was insistent that we turn around. I don’t know how to get on top of this as the
GPS had actually registered the accident had occurred. We ignored her requests to u-turn and just
decided to follow the cars in front, which involved a very convoluted journey
through at least three small villages before we re-joined the autobahn. By now our arrival time was 9pm. We were all a bit over autobahns. They are clearly over-rated – going fast is
no good if you get stopped for hours!
And we could only imagine that any accidents that occur would be very
serious ones that speed.
FINALLY we reached Berlin and our youth hostel, the JGH
Hostel in Antwerpenstrasse. And to our
delight, the four bed room we booked was actually just four beds, it was clean
and fresh, and our price included breakfast!
We like it! The kids crashed
while Greg and I had a late supper at the local Italian restaurant and a
soothing beer J
Today we had breakfast (probably the best we’ve ever had at
a youth hostel – simple but tasty and there is plenty of it, bread, meat,
cheese, cereal, yoghurt, fruit, juice, tea and coffee! Then we took the train into the city to find
the Fat Tyre Bike tours. Greg and I had
done three tours with this company in Paris in 2011 and loved it, so we hoped
the kids would also enjoy exploring the city by bike too. It took us a while to find the office and we
were worried we’d miss the tour, but happily we found it on time and set off to
explore Berlin. It was a crisp Autumn
day and not exactly sunny, but not raining either! We all enjoyed the tour – the stop for lunch
toward the end (which has to include German beer of course!) makes the return
ride free and easy! We made some new
friends – an Aussie Gus, and two Scots (father and daughter) Douglas and Lyn. It was a lovely day and very relaxing to be
on a bike after hours in the car yesterday!
Oh by the way, please admire our new hats - both from second hand shops in Bruges!
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