Europe Travelogue Part 3

We are checking out and heading towards another country but first the city of Cologne or Koln, spelled locally.

Enroute, we boarded a ferry for a Rhine River cruise in Bingen in the Koln-Dusseldorf route. We traced the undulating Rhine as it flowed between cantons, overlooking hills and few dilapidated ghostly castles. In spite of commercial settlements on both sides, the water was pristine, and the trip gave us a break from the continuous bus ride. I went up the upper deck, to capture the river flowing past and to sample a few tidbits from the tuck shop. The ferry was moving fast and that made my hair blow out in all directions.

Came down from the upper deck, to the confined lower deck just in time as we ended our cruise at Bacharach, and with the Rhine river on our side, we were back on our bus for our journey to Koln. 

Koln is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine Westphalia and the 4th most populous city of Germany.

The massive Koln cathedral dominated the landscape as we entered the city. It is the tallest cathedral in the world with its extremely tall spires. The best way to view the spires is probably to lie down on the pavement, or otherwise you risk spraining your neck trying to push it back and look up at the immensely imposing structure.

This city was destroyed almost 60% in WW2 due to persistent bombing by the Allied forces, but some old structures, like the cathedral, had survived.  The Koln Cathedral is a Gothic church, started in 1248, and completed in 1880, and from 1996, it is a designated World Heritage building. The cathedral has the shrines of the Three Kings or the Three Wise Men and is one of the most visited religious sites in Europe.

We roamed about the city, by the side of the river, the souvenir shops. The weather was nice. It was a public holiday in Germany that day so the streets had less traffic and most could be found in front of the cathedral where a mass was going on. This city had been ruled by many different colonial powers over the years but it was and still remains a city of art, culture, science and literature. It has many museums and galleries, which you cannot possibly visit if you are on a 1-day trip.

Koln is also famous for Eu de cologne, the famed perfume, since the 17th century.

The souvenir shops were mostly run by Middle Eastern and Asian population. A lunch at the McDonald’s across the cathedral, which I considered safe as I felt I will know what I am buying and be able consume it fully.

Now we are headed towards Brussels, Belgium.

This time there were no border formalities and we crossed into Belgium mid-afternoon and were in the outskirts of Brussels soon. Our Slovakian driver, who was adept at intercity, inter-country driving, faced his match, the traffic jam. He had to navigate through narrow streets, over tram lines, deftly avoiding trampling any pedestrians or cyclists. On both sides were glass facades housing important buildings of the European Union. Some streets were so narrow that I wondered how could two gigantic buses cross each other without colliding with buildings or the cars parked on the sides. We deboarded near Cathedral of St Michael, Pentagone, at last.

From there we walked to the Grande Place.

The Grand Place in Brussels is steeped in history and dates back to 11^th century. It is the central square of Brussels, surrounded by gilded Baroque guildhalls and the Townhall. The square is thronged by these illustrious buildings, cathedrals, and the King’s Palace which now is converted to a museum, and with many diners and souvenir shops on the pavements. The roads are of paved stones and from the center you can walk into each of the narrow alleys and visit the multitude of local commercial establishments. There were sketch artists and painters who could do a profile of you. You can choose to walk around the area or cycle around. Mostly run by locals, there were a few Asian, and ofcourse Indian run shops too. One of the streets were interesting as it had the local chocolates and ice cream parlors on both its sides. As I was loitering around, I had entered one of the chocolate shops, with a mouthwatering collection, but when I sampled a piece, I didn’t like it much. So good for my wallet, didn’t end up buying.

The Grande Place was crowded and we were warned of pick pocketers, so I was extremely cautious.

It had been a long day so after the Grand Place we headed towards  our hotel on the city outskirts, Wavre town. This hotel had airconditioning so thankfully I could sleep well with the windows tight shut.

Day 5

Our day started with a tour of Mini Europe. Brussels being the administrative headquarters of the European Union, it has a theme park with all the important monuments of Europe built at a miniature scale of 1:25. It represents about 80 cities and 350 buildings. In between are interactive train, trams, cable cars and ship. There is a piece of Berlin wall as well.

Just behind the Mini Europe was the Atomium. The Atomium was built in 1958 during World Trade Fair hosted by Belgium as a tribute to scientific progress and to show its engineering skills. It has 9 stainless steel spheres each interconnected. It was not dismantled after the Trade Fair and continues to pull in visitors even today. The spheres host exhibit halls and restaurants and provides a panoramic view of the city.

We were off to the Grande Place again for more history lessons and to see the Mannekin Pis. It is a tiny statue of a child, which I could have missed easily, if a ceremony had not been going on around it. There are many legends surrounding its origin which dates back to the 15^th century. All about a naked little boy urinating, thus saving the city from either a fire or by defying the onslaught of enemies. The statue had been stolen many times and the original is placed in the Brussels City museum and a replica has been placed for public display in Rue du Chêne/Eikstraat and the pedestrian Rue de l’Étuve/Stoofstraat. It is a symbolic mark for Belgians and their self-derisive nature. There are ceremonies held with the figure dressed up in different costumes from all over the world. I witnessed one such ceremony where the statue was unveiled and folks threw coins towards it, while chanting and whistling. I stood at the outskirts of the crowd, bemused at the frenzy. The crowd was getting thicker and I became wary and quietly exited to walk towards our bus.

Now we are off to Paris.

We reached the border of France in record time, but Google showed some disturbing update. There was a traffic pile up as a road construction was going on and it took us an additional 2 hours to enter France.

Got tired of sitting in the bus for such a long duration of time, the scenery outside was also not impressing me anymore, exhausted probably, but I rallied on.

I watched what seemed to me kans grass which had grown in the intersection, just like wild weed. They seemed to play merrily in the strong wind blowing outside. Staring at it I felt that a recital of a ballet dance was going on with the grass swinging rhythmically in one direction and then suddenly pirouette due to a fast moving vehicle swinging them to another direction. That is how I whiled my time, looking out of the window, and wishing I was a grass with nothing to worry but just dance away.

Instead of the planned Paris city tour, we opted to go and checkin to the hotel and call it a day. The hotel was near the Charles de Gaulle international airport, good rooms and airconditioned so rested well.