Monday 2nd June

Monika took d*** to her doctor's surgery as he has been getting very swollen ankles each evening. The doc diagnosed that he wasn’t drinking enough water & with the medication his kidney wasn’t working fast enough so he must drink 3L a day of water. Had a lazy afternoon & in the evening we went to a Greek restaurant where we had a gargantuan meal nominally for 3 people but enough for the 5000 in reality. We took home 2 large pieces of meat for Peter’s lunch on the next day.

Tuesday 3rd June

After farewelling Peter we were driven by Monika to catch a local bus into town & there caught the 11.15 bus to Cologne. This was nearly empty & we had an excellent ride there via Munster & Dortmund. The first 200km were across the plain but then we entered wooded hills & valleys & even saw the odd village from the autobahns. We entered the Ruhr & saw much more evidence of industry with plants everywhere. One of the other major features of the landscape is the number of large wind turbines & also the masses of solar cells on farm & factory roofs. We also passed one nuclear power station & crossed several large canals with their Rhine barges.

The long distance buses apparently are a new feature of German life as before all long distance travel internally was by train, which is very expensive. Bus stations are situated at train stations & are very basic in most cases, just a few bus stands. There are several bus lines but the organisation is pretty chaotic as it is still in its infancy. Given the excellent road system & the cheapness of buses it will be hard for the rail system to compete at the bottom end, where we travel.

Our hotel is quite near the bus station but we took a cab & were there in 5 minutes. d*** was still pretty crook so didn’t go out again but Jane went to get a meal but came back disappointed so we both went without dinner.

Wednesday 4th June

Jane’s birthday.

Up at 7am for breakfast downstairs & then walked to the huge cathedral which was quite quiet & very interesting. Then on to the bus station to see if we could find the stand for our bus tomorrow morning but without much luck. Apparently we have been booked via another town rather than directly but we can’t see where that one leaves from so we will have to trust to luck tomorrow.

Then down to the Rhine for a sit down overlooking the huge river cruise boats before wandering into the old town. This proved worthwhile although all the buildings are post war as the city was largely flattened. The streets are narrow but quite picturesque & we found a Vietnamese restaurant & St Martin’s church, a gothic one restored in the 1980s & with Roman ruins in the crypt showing how it was built on the site of a huge Roman warehouse complex.

After some refreshment in a cafe on a square, we walked up to the Wallraf-Richartz Museum to get out of very light rain. What a gem of an art gallery it was, 3 floors of works from the 1300s until the early 1900s all labelled in German & English. The 1st floor had a most excellent collection of Cologne based painters from the Middle Ages, all of works on religious themes but all beautifully restored & lit.

Then on to the Baroque period with works from Dutch & Flemish painters dominating & finally, on the 3rd floor, a range of 19th & 20th century works including some great Impressionist, Symbolic & Pointillist works. We were there for about 3 hours but it was well worth the effort. Looking down from the museum we overlooked an excavated area across the road of the Jewish quarter with some parts from the Roman era.

That evening we had a celebratory dinner at the Vietnamese restaurant & very pleasant it was too.