Michael Faye Adventures 2014.

Monday 15^th September, 2014……..Well if we thought getting out of the Paris Metro and onto the international rail tracks was challenging you want to try Belgium trains…..they are a nightmare as they change the platforms on you and nothing is spoken in English…..we got to Brugge station this morning in plenty of time for our train to Antwerp, sitting on the station with hundreds of other people, the departure time came and went with no train and then a train came in and many folk got on to the train, then the information board changed and all of a sudden there were people running in all directions, and many people getting off the train. Then I realised we were the only people on the platform so Michael quickly asked a cleaner who told us the platform had been changed…well talk about run with my big pack on my back and the lap top in one hand and my day pack in the other (Michael has had to buy a pull along bag as his ribs are very painful after the fall off the bike)….we got to the platform with only one door left open on the train and they made us run the full length of the platform to go through that one door, thus we just made it…..then in Antwerp we got talking to a local girl and she said they never change the departure platform for Amsterdam….once again we waited and Michael and I kept thinking we will watch for people running and sure enough they started running so again we ran and just followed the local girl as we knew she was going to Amsterdam also…got on the train and we had seat numbers but lots of people didn’t have seat numbers, thus we ended up scrunched in the baggage compartment with the baggage as others were in our seats, as again we only just made it to the train…..talk about exhausting……then on the train to Amsterdam they announced there was a problem with the brakes on the train so we sat and sat but they did announce that in English…eventually we made it to Amsterdam…..24 hours earlier we realised we had no information as to where we had to embark on our river cruise boat so we Googled that and got ourselves some directions…..however this turned out to be the easiest bit of the day as the directions were spot on…..come out of the station with the city behind you, turn right and keep walking until you see the Movienpick Hotel and there tied up dockside was our boat…Travelmarvel Jewel……they said we couldn’t have our cabins until 3 pm but we off loaded our baggage and oh boy was I pleased to get my pack off my back…..I have to concede that my days of carrying a load on my back are over!! Once on board they had lunch for us and we relaxed and we thought, oh boy have we earned this….right on 3 pm we got our cabin, on the upper deck with ranch sliders…..not a big boat as river cruising is very different to ocean cruising……162 passengers, mostly Aussies with about a dozen Kiwis…..and so we relaxed before dinner……a very good chef on board and free wine with dinner...oh boy we are going to have to pace ourselves…

M & F

Tuesday, 16^th September, 2014…….Still in Amsterdam….. breki…lovely buffet and they even serve champagne but we keep away from that!! Off the boat and we walked further along Amsterdam Harbour to board one of the glass topped boats for our tour of Amsterdam…Michael stayed on board our boat (Jewel) to rest…..I really enjoyed the cruise around the canals passing by Anne Frank’s house, the Heineken Brewery, Rijksmuseum….all the things I have done before on other trips to Amsterdam….I would love to have gone back to Rijksmuseum again as that is my favourite, but time, time!! We had a very good guide……700,000 people live in inner Amsterdam but there are 1 million bikes, 200,000 bikes stolen each year and 10,000 end up in the canal…at one point we went past a dredge with all the crumpled bikes on the deck….we were told there are 3 dredges constantly dredging the canals in Amsterdam….but oh the bikes……our guide said the cyclists have the king of the road mentality and they treat pedestrian crossings as decoration…a very good description I thought….our guide also commented how much the sanctions on Russia has affected Holland in that they have a big export market of fruit and veges to Russia and they have had to dump all the perished crops that they can’t export to Russia now….Then we boarded a bus which took us to the flower market, cheese tasting shops etc and we had free time to wander…..I loved the marujana starter kits that were there for sale!! Back on the bus and we were driven to Utrecht where our boat had berthed and we reboarded…..Michael really enjoyed watching the crew manoeuvre the boat….And so today we left the Amsterdam Harbour, picked up the boat again in Utrecht and then cruised the rest of the day and night arriving in Cologne….a total of 265 kms……dinner in the evening is service with a menu choice and free wine…..and I reiterate a very good chef…he is Austrian…all the crew, including the captain, are Hungarian or Romanian…..no entertainment tonight, a pianist in the lounge which is very relaxing with after dinner coffee…..M & F

Wednesday 17^th September, 2014……Breki and then on a walking tour in Cologne….. Germany’s 4^th largest city…..our boat is tied up in down town Cologne….again a very good guide……we are amazed at how the pollution has affected the Cathedral since we were last here, sadly, it really is black now……The three crowns on the Cities coat of arms refer to the 3 wise men whose bones are said to be kept in the golden Sarcophagus in the Cologne Cathedral….what amazed us both is the Roman ruins that have been unearthered in Cologne since we were last here…..a mosaic floor of a Roman Villa in mint condition…..our guide said in the old days when new buildings were being built you stood there with beer for the bull dozer driver or whoever and fed them beer if any Roman ruins came to light but he said that doesn’t work now and they are unearthing lots of treasures but he said a lot has been lost because of previous attitude towards these treasures….I thought that sounded familiar…….haven’t we been down this road too with the Maori sites…..we went into a brewery and did a beer tasting…Kolsch Beer…..even if it was 10 am in the morning but we weren’t the only ones drinking…beer houses everywhere and already many folk had taken up their seats…..I don’t remember so many beer houses from previous visits to Cologne but we really did enjoy our trip here today and the weather was great…the guide kept saying how lucky we were with the weather as they have had a bad summer…..he showed us the level of where the 1995 flood went too, absolutely incredible but he went on to say that the Rhine used to be 100 metres wider and villages were not built to the water’s edge as they are today…..back on board we cruised from Cologne to Koblenz sitting up on the sundeck of the boat and the cruise director gave us a commentary as we passed by many points of interest…cruised by the city of Bonn which was the capital during the war years and late, until the capital was removed back to Berlin in 1990….lots of vineyards starting to appear…lots of castles too….super hot up on deck….another pleasant dinner …..we always sit with different folk in the dining room which makes life interesting…..Cologne to Koblenz 96 kms……M & F