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| Bruges Goose (really?) |
Tim’s girlfriend Jess finally arrived, very weary, having
experienced her own set of adventures.
Dinner had been booked at The Rose, a gastro pub, which had been given
rave reviews. Unfortunately, it was
pretty clear upon our arrival that a number of various Christmas functions were
taking place and the noise was increasing with every round of shots that were
taken. We decided to give up and return
home with takeaway kebabs for dinner.
Welcome to London, Jess!
The next morning Michael and I headed to Orpington, leaving
Tim and Jess to their own devices.
Margaret had kindly agreed to store some of Michael’s work gear so that
we didn’t have to carry it with us for the next leg of our journey. Margaret’s daughters and families were there
to celebrate Peter’s birthday and we had a lovely cup of tea with them. On our way back through the Orpington
shopping strip we were lucky enough to see the Christmas parade riding through. There were two Santa Clauses riding in pony
traps with an assortment of elves escorting them. It was all rather fun.
Michael and I took the chance to take in the Columbia Road
flower market on the Sunday morning. It
is always good there and I was able to see real mistletoe for the first
time. I had only ever seen the plastic
mistletoe that Michael’s mother decorates her hall with every Christmas. We met Tim and Jess at Spitalfields Market
and had a good pub lunch. Then it was
off to Brick Lane to show them the markets there.
We checked out of our apartment in Fulham Broadway and moved
to the Ibis near Euston Station. Michael
and I took a walk around Spa Fields, a lovely little area that Tim and I had
stumbled upon the previous week. There
is a very nice food market held daily and we enjoyed lunch al fresco.
Later, we met Tim and Jess at the Euston Tap
House, a bar that specialises in boutique beer, which Michael has been dying to
try. They then went out for dinner with
friends leaving Michael and I to dine alone.
We found a really nice family run Italian restaurant and had a great
meal, all the while being entertained by a group of young ladies at the next
table who talked loudly in Ali G accents.
23 Minutes In
Brussels
We met bright and early in the hotel lobby. The idea was a leisurely walk to St Pancras
International where we would have breakfast before boarding the Eurostar for
Brussels. We arrived at the station and
had our breakfast before Michael went to check out where we needed to go to pass
through customs. He arrived back and
told us that the queue was very large and that they were already prioritising
our train’s passengers. Poor Jess didn’t
even have time to gulp down her tea. Off
we dash to the line and make our way through customs into the bag x-raying
area. Three of us go through without a
hitch before Michael is pulled aside and told that his bag needs to be
searched. By this time, the final
boarding calls are being made, so I sent Tim and Jess ahead to board while I
waited for Michael. Michael, in his
wisdom, had decided to go all Crocodile Dundee and pack three knives (after
losing our picnic knife in London last trip) and these of course had showed up
on the x-ray machine. In all fairness,
he had been carrying these knives since leaving Dublin and this was the first
time that they had been a problem. Now
of course, once they had found the knives, they then kept looking and found all
the spare batteries that Michael was carrying, which, if you didn’t know
Michael, would look suspicious as why does anyone need to carry their body
weight in spare batteries? Michael,
meanwhile, is telling them to keep the knives and batteries, just let him get
on the train. I am sure that this just
made the search go slower. All the time
the announcements are getting more urgent and by now I am thinking do I wait
for him or do I get on the train?
Finally, they let him keep the knives and batteries and he has to repack
his bag at the speed of light. He joins
me just as they announce that the train is about to depart. We literally fly up the ramp and on to the
train, just making it before the doors close.
I don’t think my heart stopped hammering for the first 10 minutes of the
ride.
We arrived in Brussels and then had the fun of trying to
find our hotel. We dragged our bags up
and down the city before deciding that a taxi might be a good idea. It was just as well, as we had been trudging
in totally the wrong direction. We
dropped our bags off at the Ibis and then headed out to find the Old Town. There were a number of Christmas markets
taking place and we stopped along the way so that Tim and Jess could try some
frites. Michael and I headed off on an
art nouveau walk, which took in some wonderful sights especially The Metropolitan
Hotel. I have now added this to my
mental list of all the wonderful places that we will stay when our Lotto
numbers come up.
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| Pismanis dressed for Christmas |
In the evening we watched a light show set to music on the
local church. The colours were
beautiful.
The following day, Michael and I had breakfast at the
wonderful art nouveau café Le Cirio. The
surroundings were beautiful and I had my first Belgian waffle, which was
smothered in cream at least 3 inches high.
To make the morning perfect, a greyhound was standing at the table next
to ours while his owners ate. I love the
way Europeans are generally welcoming towards animals. We did laugh when we saw that the café cat
didn’t emerge until the greyhound had left!
We spent the day wandering the shops and had the most
decadent afternoon tea at Neuhaus. This
consisted of a pot of hot chocolate, (basically melted chocolate with cream), 2
chocolate cakes and assorted chocolates and biscuits. We could only manage the drink and cakes so
they kindly gave us a doggy bag for the rest.
It was unbelievably good.
The one thing that I thought was slightly disappointing was
that there was no Christmas market in the Grand Place and the only decorations
were a Christmas tree that had been donated by Riga and a full sized nativity
scene complete with live animals. It
wasn’t until we were walking through the area one evening that we stumbled on
the most amazing light show. Every
building in the Grand Place was lit with the most beautiful array of colours
and all set to fabulous classical music.
The show went for 10 minutes and held the spectators spellbound. It was without doubt, one of the most
spectacular things I have witnessed. It
brought the buildings alive.
The Belfry of Bruges
Merry Christmas one and all – our third away from home! Up early with time for a quick Skype session
with everyone back in Australia. Then it
was off for a short train trip to the beautiful city of Bruges. We arrived and circumnavigated the city with
our bags in tow before finally finding our hotel. I think Tim and Jess are getting the hang of
dragging their bags along cobblestones now.
We found a café for breakfast and then it was off to explore the city.
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| Chocolate Nativity Scene (is there any better) |
The Christmas market was open and Michael and I had a lovely
time trying gluhwein and hot dough balls dusted with icing sugar. We also tried hot Chouffe Coffee Liquor –
yum! It was a great day, made even
better by the fact that there were no large crowds so it was very relaxing
walking around the city. Unfortunately
we didn’t get to see Fidel, the most famous dog of Bruges, as he was wisely
keeping indoors out of the cold.
We had a lovely dinner in an underground cellar restaurant
although I think that we had a little too much to drink. Well, it was Christmas.
On Boxing Day, Michael and I attended the exhibition The War
in Pictures/Bruges at War at the Stadshallen.
It was a very good exhibition highlighting the occupation of Bruges by
the German navy in World War 1 and the damage the city suffered.
We also visited the Basilica of the Holy Blood, which we had
somehow managed to miss on our last visit.
It is a beautiful church, which houses the venerated relic of Christ,
his blood, which was collected by Joseph of Arimathea. The relic was on display, guarded by a priest,
and people were invited to approach and offer a prayer. It was moving to watch the procession of
people, both young and old, offering their prayers.
We kept the day nice and relaxed as Tim had booked a very
special restaurant for our belated Christmas dinner and we were all looking
forward to it. The restaurant, Den
Gouden Harynck (The Golden Herring) had rave reviews and so we used it as an
excuse to get out of our walking boots and actually dress up for a meal. We decided on a four-course meal and selected
an appropriate wine to accompany it.
Michael, who hadn’t been feeling well during the day, only lasted for
the first two courses before he took ill and had to leave. Tim, who also hadn’t been feeling well, went
steadily down hill as the meal went on.
Only Jess and I valiantly forged ahead, Jess finishing off Michael’s venison
and me finishing off Michael’s dessert (chocolate orange – my absolute
favourite!). To make matters worse, as
we were trying to make a hasty exit before Tim face planted on the table, the
owners of the restaurant decided to be super friendly and tell us all about the
history of the restaurant as they were tickled pink that our surname was
Herring. Poor Tim – I didn’t think that
he would make it back to the hotel without passing out. It was such a shame that both men took ill on
the one night that we had something special arranged.
Berliner Star
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| Guess who found some snow |
Another early morning wake up call, as we needed to catch
the train from Bruges to Brussels to connect with the train that would take us
to Cologne. Michael was much better
however still not 100% whilst poor Tim was worse than ever. The first two train journeys were uneventful
and we arrived in time at Cologne to make our connection to Berlin. We waited on the train platform in the
designated area for our carriage and when the train arrived there was the usual
surge forward to board the train.
Michael made it on board with his bag and mine and I was just about to board
when the train door shut. Tim, Jess and
I were left stranded on the platform with at least a dozen other passengers and
no amount of pushing the automatic door button would make the door open. People were yelling, trying to attract the
guard’s attention, as the train was due to leave at any moment. When it became apparent that the door was not
going to open, we all galloped to the next carriage to try and board
there. To our absolute horror that
carriage door started to close as well.
Luckily a man holding a baby in his arms wedged himself in the doorway
like Hercules keeping it open just enough for people to scramble through. Thereafter followed the ludicrous sight of
two carriages worth of people trying to board through one entrance before the
train departed. I managed to board,
closely followed by Jess and Tim just before the train took off. We then had to negotiate our way through 2
train carriages crammed with people in the aisles. It was absolute mayhem. I finally found my seat next to Michael after
about 20 minutes of pushing my way through the crowd. Michael’s only comment, as he looked up from
his book, was that he was starting to get worried about his lunch (I was
carrying the sandwiches). Tim and Jess finally clawed their way to their seats
some 15 minutes after me. Poor Jess had
actually had a girl climb completely over the top of her. Luckily we had reserved seating, as the
aisles were crammed with people. It was
so disappointing as our previous travels on German trains had been
wonderful. Tim was looking sicker by the
minute.
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| Alexanderplatz |
We arrived at Berlin after a six-hour journey from
Cologne. We had seen snow all through the
countryside and we were surprised that there had been a light fall of snow in
Berlin and some remained on the ground.
We took a taxi to our apartment, as by this stage all we wanted to do
was get Tim inside to rest. We were on
the 5th floor with no lift.
Yes, 104 steps up with our luggage.
I don’t know who looked more dismayed – Tim looking like death warmed up
or poor Jess. Our host, who must have
been in his late 60’s took pity on Jess and helped her carry her bag (whilst
telling her that he had just had an operation) and then returned to help
me. By the time we reached the top of
the stairs I was seriously questioning why we had booked this apartment. Luckily for us, what we found was easily the
nicest place we have stayed anywhere. A
very large, two bedroom, two bathroom, two balconies, large study, large lounge
and large fully equipped kitchen – an absolute delight.
We all slept in after our previous day’s adventures and
Michael woke feeling himself again. Tim
was much better but still not 100%. We
took a walk into the city along the banks of the River Spree to see the
Reichstag. Tim wanted to see the
Brandenburg Gate however when we arrived, we were unable to walk through as
they were setting up the big stage ready for the New Year’s Eve concert. We walked along Unter den Linden and I was
pleased to see that a lot of the work that was being done for the new train
line has been completed although there is still more to finish off. There was an enormous Christmas market at
Alexanderplatz, which was probably the best we had seen on this trip so
far. We finished with a trip to
Checkpoint Charlie so that Tim and Jess could have a look at one of the museums
there.
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| Check Point Charlie |
The next day we awoke to a winter wonderland. Heavy snow had fallen overnight and our
balconies were completely blanketed in white.
Tim and Jess were thrilled to see snow and even I was excited. That excitement lasted approximately two
hours until I slipped on the ice and fell heavily on my back, hitting my head
and then I remembered why I had been so glad to leave the Canadian winters
behind me!
Michael and I headed over to the East Side Gallery and were
disappointed to see that many of the pieces are now being covered by
graffiti. I don’t mind if the graffiti
is artistic and interesting but the pointless tagging just vandalises some very
good works. The iconic Trabant crashing
through the wall is still pretty much intact along with Brezhnev kissing
Honecker.
We revisited the Holocaust memorial and I was horrified to
see people climbing the steles to take selfies.
Up until now I had thought that the worst selfie I had seen taken was by
someone climbing on the altar of St Paul’s Cathedral in London however this
just took the biscuit. I guess some
people just don’t have any common sense or respect.
The Museum Island was somewhere Michael and I missed on our
last visit so we decided to make up for that.
Firstly we visited the Pergamon Museum, as I wanted to see the replica
Ishtar Gate. It was every bit as
fabulous as I had hoped it would be – breathtaking in scale and such beautiful
colours. There were also many other
beautiful Islamic artworks on display.
The Neues Museum was next on the list to see the famous
Nefertiti Bust. I was surprised at just
how mesmerising this limestone bust was.
It was simply stunning and a very beautiful piece of work.
The Altes Museum was full of German artwork with some lovely
sculptures. Both the Neues and the Altes
Museums have been beautifully restored, having been badly damaged during
WW2.
We also visited the Palace of Tears which was the former
border crossing station at the Berlin Friedrichstrasse railway station, where
East Germans said goodbye to their families and visitors going back to West
Germany. There were heartbreaking
displays depicting what it was like living in the divided city.
On New Year’s Eve, Michael and I took a walk around the city
and visited the Silent Heroes Museum.
This museum is dedicated to the Germans who helped persecuted Jews stay
alive under the Nazi’s. These were
people who hid, fed or helped Jews escape often at considerable danger to
themselves. Many remarkable stories were
detailed and one left marvelling at the courage of some people.
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| Boxes of empty fireworks |
Fireworks are not banned in Germany, so as the day progressed
we saw more and more groups of children and adults lighting firecrackers,
especially bangers. There was a steady
cacophony from about 4.00pm onwards reaching a crescendo from 11.00pm through
to 2.00am. Unbelievable. I couldn’t help wondering how many people
were injured during that time. We viewed
the midnight fireworks displays from our balcony and noise was deafening. Tim and Jess took the opportunity to see some
Berlin nightlife, heading out at 2.00am to go clubbing and they had tickets to
see a DJ at 6.00am! Oh, to be young
again!
New Year’s Day was quiet with not much open and Tim and Jess
sleeping the sleep of the dead. Michael
and I found one gallery that was open – the Gemaldegalerie, so we spent the
afternoon wandering around paintings ranging from the 13th to 18th
centuries. There was a particularly
interesting copy of the Hieronymus Bosch triptych The Last Judgement. We had seen the original on our trip to
Vienna, however this gallery has a copy attributed to Lucas Cranach the Elder.
A La Parisienne
It was with trepidation that we waited on the platform for
our train to Mannheim, as the memory of our trip from Cologne to Berlin was
fresh in our minds. The train arrived
and we everyone boarded our carriage in an orderly manner. It was when we were seated that we realised
that Michael had inadvertently booked first class tickets for us so we had a
very comfortable journey with no one camped in the aisles. We changed at Mannheim for our connection to
Paris and this leg of the journey was even more comfortable with food and
drinks being served. It is definitely
the way to travel.
We arrived at Gare de Paris-Est and walked along the cobbled
streets to find our apartment in Republique.
We were on the 4th floor – no lift. Yes, 77 steps up with our luggage. I have now imposed a 3 floor limit on our
apartment stays. I keep telling Michael
that this old, grey mare just ain’t what she used to be! Luckily, once again our apartment was very
nice. This time it was a two bedroom,
split level apartment. The only negative
was that Tim and Jess’ s bedroom was accessed by a very steep staircase, which
was more like a ladder, so they had to be extremely cautious going up and down.
The following day we all set off to explore some of the main
sights of Paris. We did lots of walking
starting with the Marais and the Hotel de Ville. Then it was off to Notre Dame Cathedral
walking along the Seine to the Louvre.
We finished with a stroll along the Champs-Elysees to the Arc de
Triomphe. I am not sure that Tim and
Jess really wanted to do all that walking however at least they got a good
overview of the city.
Sunday was once again the free museum day. We always seem to time our visit to coincide
with this. We took Tim and Jess to see
the Musee d’Orsay and they enjoyed wandering around looking at the artworks and
I was able to show them my favourite sculpture of the White Bear. We then took them to the Eiffel Tower where
we set them free to roam the city on their own.
Michael and I finally made it to Montmartre to see the Sacre
Coeur Basilica. We had only viewed it
from a distance on previous visits however, this time we took the funicular to
the top and walked through the church.
The church is quite beautiful however the most spectacular thing is the
view from the hill. Even though it was a
misty day you could quite clearly see the panorama of Paris spread before
you.
We stopped at a café on the way down the hill and Michael
ordered two coffees. The waitress had a
hard time understanding him, which surprised me, as most of the French seem
able to understand his gestures at least, if not his pronunciation. It then dawned on us both that we were in a
café staffed by the hearing impaired.
The poor waitress had been trying to lip read Michael’s appalling
French. Needless to say, we ended up
with something completely different to what we ordered, however, it was very
peaceful there!
One evening, we decided to dine at little restaurant in our
street. The four of us arrived and were
greeted by the owner who spoke very little English. This didn’t worry us as Michael always
carries his trusty French dictionary with him.
The owner did his best to explain the menu, expressively pantomiming
each dish and between his explanations and the dictionary we were able to place
our orders. Three of us ordered the
curried pork dish and we settled back with our wine to await the arrival of our
dinner. The owner came out of the kitchen
and in rapid fire French started to animatedly tell us something. Between the four of us, each picking up the
odd word, we managed to work out that the pork was not possible but that was as
far as we could understand. The owner,
seeing our incomprehension, turned to a gentleman at the next table and
obviously asked him to translate for us.
The gentleman looked at us and said “ze pork ‘as exploded in ze
kitchen. Now you will ‘ave veal”. Veal we did indeed have, and it was very
nice. The meal was so good that Michael
and I vowed to return again if we could.
The following evening, Tim wanted to try a restaurant called
Chez Janou that had been recommended to him by a friend. We had a wonderful meal and the restaurant
was packed to the rafters. The best part
however was the dessert. We ordered a
chocolate mousse and the waiter brought out a mixing bowl of mousse the size of
a motorcycle helmet and a bowl. You are
then allowed to serve yourself as much you like. Three helpings later and we were all feeling
totally full. Luckily we had 4 flights of stairs to climb to burn off some of
the calories.
Je suis Charlie
Michael and I undertook a walking tour of the various
passages in Paris. We wandered many of
these historic arcades, some in disrepair whilst others have been fully
restored. Most of them are
architecturally beautiful and full of interesting shops, galleries, boutiques
and cafes. Whilst we were wandering
around we became aware of sirens. At
first, just a few police cars followed by more and more until it became obvious
that something had happened. Michael and
I kept on with our walk whilst musing on what might have occurred. When we walked home that evening, we walked
past the Statue of Republic on the Place de la Republique and could see people
gathered there. Michael commented that
it must be a protest (we had seen several on our previous trips to Paris) and
so we just continued home.
We were
absolutely horrified to read in the news about the attack on Charlie
Hebdo. It seems that we were actually
not far from where the attack to place.
The gathering of people we had seen was the start of the vigil that
10,000 people attended. Our main worry
was that Tim and Jess had gone out for the day and then onto dinner and it was
an anxious wait until they finally arrived home, totally oblivious as to what
had happened.
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| tributes to slain Charlie Hebdo victims |
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| Republique comments around the statute |
We had a farewell lunch for Tim and Jess at Chez Janou. The meal was once again fantastic although we
refrained from ordering the mousse this time.
It is possible to have too much of a good thing.
It was sad to put them in the taxi that would take them to
Gare du Nord where they would catch the train to Charles de Gaulle airport,
however I couldn’t help feeling a little relieved that they were leaving
Paris. The gunmen that attacked Charlie
Hebdo were still at large and suddenly the city just didn’t feel as safe as it
did before. I hope that they enjoyed
their time with us. We certainly enjoyed
having their company.
Michael and I were enjoying our final walk around Paris when
about 6 police vans hurtled past with sirens blaring. This was followed by wave after wave of
police vans, police cars and motorcycles until the air reverberated with a
cacophony of noise. In all, at least 60
vehicles passed us and I saw one police driver wearing a black ski mask – very
scary looking. By now, we had come to
the conclusion that they had found the Charlie Hebdo attackers and were on
their way to confront them. All I wanted
to do was get off the streets so we headed back to our apartment. We were dismayed to discover on the news that
there was a siege taking placing 3 kms from where we were staying and that was
where the police we had seen were rushing.
Michael and I returned to the restaurant of the exploding
pork and had the restaurant totally to ourselves for most of the evening. The streets were very quiet and I think that
a lot of people just didn’t want to be out and about given the events of the
past 3 days. Nevertheless, we had an
excellent meal and the owner was delighted to see us again and performed his
pantomime explanations with vigour.
