Aachen, Köln, Maastricht, Liege
Marcus and I bought Tchibo Bahn tickets last year and decided to go visit Azman in Aachen. Marcus also wanted to see Köln (because Unter Uns is recorded there..haha) so we planned to go there too.
To be honest though, we didn't have any idea if the plans would work out in the end because of Marcus' job search and whether we'd have money and whether we could fit into Azman's busy schedule. But in the end, everything worked out, so we were happy!
We left on Wednesday (Marcus had to ask permission from the Arbeitsamt of course) and took the 11:09 ICE to Frankfurt, where we changed trains. Oh, the weather was gorgeous on Wednesday. Actually, it had been gorgeous since Sunday, when I begged Marcus to go on a walk with me. Here are some photos:
Blue skies!!
Can you find the bubbles?
Ok, so we finally got to Aachen at around 6pm...Azman picked us up from the train station and we went back to his place, which is extremely conveniently located right next to the university. After resting for a while, we went for dinner with Yun and then Azman showed us Aachen by night...which was very nice but our photos turned out quite blurry :(
Aachen Hauptbahnhof
The next day, we bought a Länderticket for NRW and took the train to Köln. The first thing we did was to see the Dom, because it was highly recommended by Azman and Yun. It took 632 years before it was completed! And all I can say is, being in there makes me feel EXTREMELY tiny. The ceiling is very very high up! We also decided to climb up the tower because Azman said the climb alone is an experience in itself. So we took his word for it. After all, it only cost 1 Euro. We were glad that we went there early because there weren't so many people up there. There were supposed to be 509 steps or so...after about 20 steps, Marcus joked: 'I can't climb anymore. Let's go back!' But of course we didn't. Further up, we met this lady coming down and asked her if it was still a long way to go. She said yes. Hmm...and it was!! We were really half-dead by the time we got to the part with the bells. There was a guy sitting there...we assumed he has to climb up every single day to get there (there is NO lift). Anyway, after going around to see the bells, we continued our climb up. Oh yes, there is A LOT of graffiti on every single bit of the Dom tower. And I mean EVERY SINGLE BIT. I mean ok, it's probably interesting to see the dates and stuff...but I feel bad because it defaces a building which is so old and has so much history. It's really cultural desecration!
Ok, when we THOUGHT we got to the top (the stone steps ended), we were confronted with yet more steps in form of a steel stairway. I still have nightmares about it now! The bad thing is that you can look down...and the view scared me. So, really, DO NOT LOOK DOWN! But after the crazy steel stairs, we got to the top and had a magnificent view of Köln and the Rhein river.
Part of the Dom. You can't fit the whole HUGE thing into a single photo...so here's a photo of one tower.
View of the Rhein and the Eisenbahnbrücke from the top of the Dom
Me and graffiti at the top of the Dom
Marcus at the top of the Dom, in front of safety grilles.
Marcus in front of the Dom
On the way down, we saw a group of little kids..probably Kindergarten age. We felt sorry for them because it's tough enough as adults...but as a teeny weenie kid, it has got to be far worse. Our legs were hurting already, as we finally got to the bottom. We decided to go to the Schokoladenmuseum (chocolate museum) next and walked along the Rhein. They sure have some skinny houses there!
Skinny houses
The Lindt-Imhoff Schokoladenmuseum...we saw how chocolate bunnies are made! And boy is it hard to get from cocoa beans to a bar of chocolate! I will definitely treasure chocolate more now...hahaha!
After the museum visit, Marcus and I went for lunch at KFC. I never eat at KFC in Singapore anymore, but I suddenly had a craving, so we went there for lunch. Well, in the end it didn't taste as good as it did in my imagination but it was ok.
We decided to go to the zoo next. You can already see the donkeys and camels when you cross the overhead bridge from the U-Bahn station...you can also SMELL the zoo of course!
But it was too close to closing time (only 1 hour) and it cost 8 something Euro, so we decided to take a train to Bonn instead. Bonn was pretty small in comparison with Köln and it was really quite hard to imagine that it was once the capital of West Germany. Even the postcards didn't show much. We didn't see much though, only the shops. We didn't want to stay too long, so we grabbed dinner and took the train back to Aachen...
Bonn Hauptbahnhof
A famous building in Bonn but we have no idea what it's called
The next day, Marcus and I bought euregio tickets so that we could go to Maastricht (Netherlands) and Liege (Belgium). The weather wasn't as good as the previous days and I was freezing! We mostly went into shops and somehow time just flew by! We bought all sorts of funny things. For lunch, we had fries, which are typical for Holland. But after that, I kinda really got sick of fries and bread because we had been eating that for days. I also bought a Miffy bun...the raisin eyes fell off as soon as Marcus took the photo! But shopping in Maastricht was really not bad. We didn't see much of the cultural stuff though. They were having a huge market and we couldn't find a bench to sit anywhere...and I mean anywhere! Most people just sat at all the cafes despite not having ordered food there. Everyone had fries in their hands. We finally found some huge stones near H&M and sat down there. 2 guys came by and said something like 'Guten Apetit' while we were eating..haha.
We wanted to take the 15:07 train to Liege but we missed it because we saw a shop that was like Watsons..they even had Watsons water! We spent quite a long time there looking at things. So we decided we would wait for the 16:07 train instead. In the meantime, we waited at McDonalds. Marcus complained that they only had 6 1-Euro items, while in Germany they have 11.
Cooooolllllldddd in Maastricht along the Maas
A church in Maastricht
Miffy bun and me!
Apparently some people cannot read signs
The trains in Holland and Belgium aren't very new. The train station in Liege wasn't very new either, although they are building a new one.As we were in the train, we noticed that in Belgium, there seemed to be plenty of rubbish lying around everywhere...and plenty of backyards looked like abandoned junkyards...kinda slum-like even in some areas. I don't know what I imagined Belgium was like but I sure didn't expect it to be so dirty, even though Azman did tell us that outside the city centres, Belgium wasn't very pretty. But because we were there so late, we didn't have time to go to the city centre in Liege...so we just walked a bit...and boy did the station look chaotic! Everything was dirty and there was a huge pile of shit on the ground. Ugh. We decided to just walk to a park and walk back so that we would be back in Aachen in time for dinner with Azman. There were some nice buildings, but everything else looked very 60s, 70s. The park was...barren except for some trees. But they did have a bench, unlike Maastricht! We couldn't understand any French though.
The train station from the outside
Marcus in front of the park
Barren ground
A bench!!
Some road signs
Azman had a delicious dinner prepared for us...chicken wings and cabbage and rice. Believe me, I was dying to have rice after so many days of fries and bread. I was sooooo happy!! I cannot even describe the feeling! Yummy!
The next day, we went to the Lindt factory to buy some chocolates for Marcus' family and relatives and of course for ourselves. There was a huge golden bunny outside the factory, so it was impossible to miss. There was also a super long queue of people waiting outside. You'd think they'd never ever get another chance to buy chocolates or something! Marcus said this guy had a whole trolley full of huge bags of chocolate! I saw another man with a whole tray of golden bunnies in his trolley, among other things. But we managed to get what we wanted and left in time to catch the train!
Near Azman's house: 'Steel is the future!'
Gold Lindt Bunny
The train to Duisburg was extremely full...ugh..I was getting claustrophobia in the train! There was this Schalke fan in all his Schalke gear...it was funny...and then there were two girls dressed in black and red. One of the girls talked really loudly and we knew everything she brought along for the concert they were going to attend. Ugh.
When we got to Duisburg, we saw many Dortmund fans because Dortmund was playing Nürnberg that day. We took the IC, which meant we weren't stuck with the extremely loud fans. But we didn't get a place to sit, so we had to sit in the bicycle compartment.
The train in Dortmund was a direct one to Leipzig...and it wasn't too crowded...so we did get to enjoy peace and quiet. We also took photos with Hoppy! :)
Me, Hoppy and Marcus in the train
Hoppy and me
Me and Marcus
We were really dead tired by then and our calves were aching like crazy, so we were really happy to be home.
After watching Deutschland Sucht Den Superstar we went to sleep because we were going to visit Marcus' grandma the next day.
The next morning, it was extremely windy and the car refused to start. I begged Marcus to let me bring the other toys because they wanted to see his grandma as well. They were a source of entertainment while we waited for the guy who was supposed to come and help. I put them on the dashboard and Marcus tried to hide because he was embarrassed.
Toys on the dashboard
Marcus trying to hide
Hoppy and the others in the car
We had very good food at his grandma's place. He has nice, friendly relatives. We stayed overnight. Actually we wanted to watch Bridget Jones 2 on RTL in his grandaunt's living room but we both fell asleep halfway, Marcus on the couch and me in the armchair. His grandma came in and thought we were trying to trick her or something but when she asked us and question and we didn't reply, she realised that we were really sleeping like logs. We didn't wake up until his grandaunt came in and said something. Oops. I've never known myself to sleep so soundly...but it happened.
The next morning, we left after breakfast...we washed Hoppy, Nunkey, Prummi, Pummelchen and Piti in a pillowcase after that...because Hoppy had started getting spotty. They all look very clean now! :)
Hoppy and the others after their bath in the washing machine
Marcus-Ersatz and Hoppilina, the only two who didn't need a bath
Marcus and I bought Tchibo Bahn tickets last year and decided to go visit Azman in Aachen. Marcus also wanted to see Köln (because Unter Uns is recorded there..haha) so we planned to go there too.
To be honest though, we didn't have any idea if the plans would work out in the end because of Marcus' job search and whether we'd have money and whether we could fit into Azman's busy schedule. But in the end, everything worked out, so we were happy!
We left on Wednesday (Marcus had to ask permission from the Arbeitsamt of course) and took the 11:09 ICE to Frankfurt, where we changed trains. Oh, the weather was gorgeous on Wednesday. Actually, it had been gorgeous since Sunday, when I begged Marcus to go on a walk with me. Here are some photos:
Blue skies!!
Can you find the bubbles?
Ok, so we finally got to Aachen at around 6pm...Azman picked us up from the train station and we went back to his place, which is extremely conveniently located right next to the university. After resting for a while, we went for dinner with Yun and then Azman showed us Aachen by night...which was very nice but our photos turned out quite blurry :(
Aachen Hauptbahnhof
The next day, we bought a Länderticket for NRW and took the train to Köln. The first thing we did was to see the Dom, because it was highly recommended by Azman and Yun. It took 632 years before it was completed! And all I can say is, being in there makes me feel EXTREMELY tiny. The ceiling is very very high up! We also decided to climb up the tower because Azman said the climb alone is an experience in itself. So we took his word for it. After all, it only cost 1 Euro. We were glad that we went there early because there weren't so many people up there. There were supposed to be 509 steps or so...after about 20 steps, Marcus joked: 'I can't climb anymore. Let's go back!' But of course we didn't. Further up, we met this lady coming down and asked her if it was still a long way to go. She said yes. Hmm...and it was!! We were really half-dead by the time we got to the part with the bells. There was a guy sitting there...we assumed he has to climb up every single day to get there (there is NO lift). Anyway, after going around to see the bells, we continued our climb up. Oh yes, there is A LOT of graffiti on every single bit of the Dom tower. And I mean EVERY SINGLE BIT. I mean ok, it's probably interesting to see the dates and stuff...but I feel bad because it defaces a building which is so old and has so much history. It's really cultural desecration!
Ok, when we THOUGHT we got to the top (the stone steps ended), we were confronted with yet more steps in form of a steel stairway. I still have nightmares about it now! The bad thing is that you can look down...and the view scared me. So, really, DO NOT LOOK DOWN! But after the crazy steel stairs, we got to the top and had a magnificent view of Köln and the Rhein river.
Part of the Dom. You can't fit the whole HUGE thing into a single photo...so here's a photo of one tower.
View of the Rhein and the Eisenbahnbrücke from the top of the Dom
Me and graffiti at the top of the Dom
Marcus at the top of the Dom, in front of safety grilles.
Marcus in front of the Dom
On the way down, we saw a group of little kids..probably Kindergarten age. We felt sorry for them because it's tough enough as adults...but as a teeny weenie kid, it has got to be far worse. Our legs were hurting already, as we finally got to the bottom. We decided to go to the Schokoladenmuseum (chocolate museum) next and walked along the Rhein. They sure have some skinny houses there!
Skinny houses
The Lindt-Imhoff Schokoladenmuseum...we saw how chocolate bunnies are made! And boy is it hard to get from cocoa beans to a bar of chocolate! I will definitely treasure chocolate more now...hahaha!
After the museum visit, Marcus and I went for lunch at KFC. I never eat at KFC in Singapore anymore, but I suddenly had a craving, so we went there for lunch. Well, in the end it didn't taste as good as it did in my imagination but it was ok.
We decided to go to the zoo next. You can already see the donkeys and camels when you cross the overhead bridge from the U-Bahn station...you can also SMELL the zoo of course!
But it was too close to closing time (only 1 hour) and it cost 8 something Euro, so we decided to take a train to Bonn instead. Bonn was pretty small in comparison with Köln and it was really quite hard to imagine that it was once the capital of West Germany. Even the postcards didn't show much. We didn't see much though, only the shops. We didn't want to stay too long, so we grabbed dinner and took the train back to Aachen...
Bonn Hauptbahnhof
A famous building in Bonn but we have no idea what it's called
The next day, Marcus and I bought euregio tickets so that we could go to Maastricht (Netherlands) and Liege (Belgium). The weather wasn't as good as the previous days and I was freezing! We mostly went into shops and somehow time just flew by! We bought all sorts of funny things. For lunch, we had fries, which are typical for Holland. But after that, I kinda really got sick of fries and bread because we had been eating that for days. I also bought a Miffy bun...the raisin eyes fell off as soon as Marcus took the photo! But shopping in Maastricht was really not bad. We didn't see much of the cultural stuff though. They were having a huge market and we couldn't find a bench to sit anywhere...and I mean anywhere! Most people just sat at all the cafes despite not having ordered food there. Everyone had fries in their hands. We finally found some huge stones near H&M and sat down there. 2 guys came by and said something like 'Guten Apetit' while we were eating..haha.
We wanted to take the 15:07 train to Liege but we missed it because we saw a shop that was like Watsons..they even had Watsons water! We spent quite a long time there looking at things. So we decided we would wait for the 16:07 train instead. In the meantime, we waited at McDonalds. Marcus complained that they only had 6 1-Euro items, while in Germany they have 11.
Cooooolllllldddd in Maastricht along the Maas
A church in Maastricht
Miffy bun and me!
Apparently some people cannot read signs
The trains in Holland and Belgium aren't very new. The train station in Liege wasn't very new either, although they are building a new one.As we were in the train, we noticed that in Belgium, there seemed to be plenty of rubbish lying around everywhere...and plenty of backyards looked like abandoned junkyards...kinda slum-like even in some areas. I don't know what I imagined Belgium was like but I sure didn't expect it to be so dirty, even though Azman did tell us that outside the city centres, Belgium wasn't very pretty. But because we were there so late, we didn't have time to go to the city centre in Liege...so we just walked a bit...and boy did the station look chaotic! Everything was dirty and there was a huge pile of shit on the ground. Ugh. We decided to just walk to a park and walk back so that we would be back in Aachen in time for dinner with Azman. There were some nice buildings, but everything else looked very 60s, 70s. The park was...barren except for some trees. But they did have a bench, unlike Maastricht! We couldn't understand any French though.
The train station from the outside
Marcus in front of the park
Barren ground
A bench!!
Some road signs
Azman had a delicious dinner prepared for us...chicken wings and cabbage and rice. Believe me, I was dying to have rice after so many days of fries and bread. I was sooooo happy!! I cannot even describe the feeling! Yummy!
The next day, we went to the Lindt factory to buy some chocolates for Marcus' family and relatives and of course for ourselves. There was a huge golden bunny outside the factory, so it was impossible to miss. There was also a super long queue of people waiting outside. You'd think they'd never ever get another chance to buy chocolates or something! Marcus said this guy had a whole trolley full of huge bags of chocolate! I saw another man with a whole tray of golden bunnies in his trolley, among other things. But we managed to get what we wanted and left in time to catch the train!
Near Azman's house: 'Steel is the future!'
Gold Lindt Bunny
The train to Duisburg was extremely full...ugh..I was getting claustrophobia in the train! There was this Schalke fan in all his Schalke gear...it was funny...and then there were two girls dressed in black and red. One of the girls talked really loudly and we knew everything she brought along for the concert they were going to attend. Ugh.
When we got to Duisburg, we saw many Dortmund fans because Dortmund was playing Nürnberg that day. We took the IC, which meant we weren't stuck with the extremely loud fans. But we didn't get a place to sit, so we had to sit in the bicycle compartment.
The train in Dortmund was a direct one to Leipzig...and it wasn't too crowded...so we did get to enjoy peace and quiet. We also took photos with Hoppy! :)
Me, Hoppy and Marcus in the train
Hoppy and me
Me and Marcus
We were really dead tired by then and our calves were aching like crazy, so we were really happy to be home.
After watching Deutschland Sucht Den Superstar we went to sleep because we were going to visit Marcus' grandma the next day.
The next morning, it was extremely windy and the car refused to start. I begged Marcus to let me bring the other toys because they wanted to see his grandma as well. They were a source of entertainment while we waited for the guy who was supposed to come and help. I put them on the dashboard and Marcus tried to hide because he was embarrassed.
Toys on the dashboard
Marcus trying to hide
Hoppy and the others in the car
We had very good food at his grandma's place. He has nice, friendly relatives. We stayed overnight. Actually we wanted to watch Bridget Jones 2 on RTL in his grandaunt's living room but we both fell asleep halfway, Marcus on the couch and me in the armchair. His grandma came in and thought we were trying to trick her or something but when she asked us and question and we didn't reply, she realised that we were really sleeping like logs. We didn't wake up until his grandaunt came in and said something. Oops. I've never known myself to sleep so soundly...but it happened.
The next morning, we left after breakfast...we washed Hoppy, Nunkey, Prummi, Pummelchen and Piti in a pillowcase after that...because Hoppy had started getting spotty. They all look very clean now! :)
Hoppy and the others after their bath in the washing machine
Marcus-Ersatz and Hoppilina, the only two who didn't need a bath
posted by Samantha @ 7:47 am
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