Relaxing a La France!!

My sojourn over in Bavaria, where I visited a food festival in a small village, watched some beach volleyball and ate cake, I had an interesting journey to France.

I took the train to Augsburg where I picked up a rideshare. People put a message online about where they are going and when, and if it suits you you pay to join them. Far cheaper than a train, this ride took me to Geneva in about six hours and I let some interesting people on the way. From there it was a 30 minute journey with my friends to a small town called Publier on Lac Léman, in the Savoie Region of France. It was four countries in one day, and quite the trek.

Lac Léman at sunset.

 I had a wonderful days and enjoyed some unexpected hospitality. Tried the local cheese, the local fish, the local mini-golf course with little luck. One day I was taken up to the nearby mountains where it was trés beau, and there were lots of goats and people with bmxes. The chairlifts had an attachment and they would take them up the moutain and ride them down.

Mountain village around 30 minutes from the lake.

 We also visited a quaint lakeside village full of flowers called Yvoire. A very beautiful little town indeed. The whole region is beautiful. I didn't get up to much else and yesterday moved on to Lyon. It's hot here, the European summer has finally arrived. But the trip is about to enter a new phase. More of that after Lyon....

Lac Léman, at a town called Yvoire

Colognee - the Dom, the art, the past.

Wilkommen to Germany! It's been a little while since I blogged and I apologise. I am on sabaitcal this week in the Bavarian countryside you see, but I did visit Cologne last week and recognise that I have an obligation to blog! 

On a more serious note, it appears I left the UK just before all hell broke loose. As an outside it is hard to comprehend how this just broke out. I know the government isn't so popular and has been making a lot of spending cuts, but from my understand the employment situation, at the moment, wasn't too bad. So now it seems a state of lawlessness has arrived and well, I have a lot of friends in the UK. I can only hope they stay safe.

Cologne is an interesting place. It is without doubt a big city, and along with that comes all the things that big cities contain. I was especially taken aback by the homelessness I saw there. Europe is struggling at the moment, but Germany is supposedly doing the best. So it was a little surprising and confronting because it was very clear and visable in Cologne. 

Typical square in Colgne.

 On the other side of the coin, it's a city with a lot to see and do. Many churches, inlcuding the 'Dom', one of the tallest churches on the planet if I'm not mistaken. Then there are lots of little squares and places for a meal out in the sun (ok, not so much when I was there, out in the rain?). Many people walk the street with a beer in their hand, this seems almost the norm in Cologne, even at 930am. There is no law against it.
So plenty of tourists in Cologne, there is also a series of Galleries and Museums as well to keep anyone interested for days.

The face of Colgne, the exterior to the Dom.

 And here we have the grandest of all churches and attractions in Cologne, the 'Dom'. The present building dates back to around the 12th century and has a lot of medieval and gothis influences. And it is really really tall! Inside are some beautiful stained glass windows, altars, small chapels dotting the far end, an organ that perches precariously some eight to ten metres in the air above the pews. I did a self guided tour and that took me over an hour. There were throngs and throngs of tourists yes, but wow, what a building!

Amazing windows in the Dom.

 Other churches were interesting too, including and espcially that of St Gerome, a Catholic church. There also is a grand bridge over the Rhine River. This was totally destroyed during World War II. The bombings devasted Cologne, however they dilberately kept the Dom untouched.

Bridge over the Rhine.

I also visited a museum for ecclesiastical artifacts including windows and statues. Very interesting, as was a gallery/museum to KatheKollwitz. Her art is a collection of sculpture, charcoal and etchings, with a very sad, sombre nature to them. Much of the work was done between the two world wars, and is very bleak. The lack of colour does not help, but at the same time her expression of pain and loss is very very moving. I was very glad to see this exhibition, I felt a connection not experienced with much of the modern art I have viewed on this trip. The time between wars was esepcially bleak for Germany, and this is certainly shown in Kollwitz's moving works.

El de Haus - basement/prison area in the Museum to Documet National Socialism.

Finally I visited something even darker, the Museum to Document National Socialism, or to the time of the Nazi Party. It is housed in a former gestapo building and prison, and the cells are as they were in the late 1930s through to the end of the Second World War. The prisoners' writings are still on the walls and translations are on display, it's very well done, creepy, moving, and add your own superlative here.
Upstairs is almost exclusively in German and documents the rise of the Nazi party and life in Germany under them. So with out the translation a fair bit is lost, the provided pamphlet was only basic.  Confronting but worth a visit. Full credit to Germany, they don't ignore their past and pretend it didn't happen.

So now only a short time in Europe is left, on Sunday I travel to France. Just over a week there and then I will be returning to Japan, so stay tuned!

Lovely, Lush Luxembourg

Hello folks.
I am writing from Cologne, Germany... Yes I do get around. But here I am to tell you about my time in Luxembourg, where I have just spent the last three days.

Aqueducts used to bring water, now trains to Luxembourg.

 I arrived in Luxembourg on the first of August after my Eurostar journey from early morning London. I was lucky enough to be the only person boarding the train to get my bags fully searched, and nearly missed the thing because of it. Still, soon I was on the 300kmph Eurostar hurtling towards the continent. I remember we entered the chunnel but there was no exciting fanfare as I imagined or an announcement that we were entering it, it just started. Then I woke up five minutes before Brussels!
After that it was three hours to Luxembourg I think. The capital was built on top of a giant rock in 963 AD and since then thez have burrowed into the rock to create tunnels which I visited called casemates. A small section is open and there are a lot of tunnels.
There's a few nice churches as well to visit and a plethora of museums and galleries. I took a Luxembourg Card and for 10 Euros could enter as many as I had time for in one day. The History of the City of Luxembourg Museum is one, that like some of its counterparts is built in a modernised building, that also goes into the rock. It showcases the city, as well it might with that title. The view across Luxembourg, across the valley is breathtaking. The rail bridges are very long and have a Roman-aqueduct design to them so they really suit the city.

Castle at Vianden.

 On the second day I ventured out with some friends I made in Vietnam (and then again bumped into them by pure coincidence in China) to other towns in Luxembourg. At Vianden is a stunning castle on a hill which was chok-full of people revelling in a medieval festival. The countryside is also gorgeous and perfect for a picnic. Then in a place called Remich it was time for mini-golf!

View of casemates, Luxembourg city.

As for the copius hours I spent looing at modern art... well I'm not sure I gained anything but an increased dislike for it! soooo pretentious! Someone puts a postcard over an old photo of Humphrey Bougart and that is apaprently art? Pish and Tosh I say. And galleries pay for that sort of thing! Then there was a 15 minute video entitled '15 minutes in Busan' as one guy is filmed, poorly, being put into various statue positions by two othes.

They are taking the piss right??

BUT Luxembourg is a little gem. That's all I can say. If medieval villages and cities is your thing, and you are running out of European countries you haven't yet been too, it might be for you. I think it's often over looked, and don't think it should be.

London - The Royals, Westminster and one last but of Geeking Out!

Well folks, I have around 12 hours left in Great Britain. It's funny, I have had 24 days here (not including the two before I went to Cameroon) yet I write from you so tired and this endless feeling of moving dragging me down. What to make of this place? It feels somehow different to the previous three visits. Maybe it's because I am tried and my shoulder hurts, I don't know. I arrived yesterday afternoon, and after catching up with an old friend I did some sight-seeing today.

Doctor Who Experience.

 I am styaing at a pretty grotty hostel all said, and sleep last night and I had about 3 hours sleep in total. However I am more concerned about tonight as I have to rise at 4.45am, around an hour after I finally fell asleep last night. Hopefully the others in my dorm will be quieter and less... weird tonight.
It was only one person really.

Ok the Doctor Who Experience. Told to go and see it by a few people I did. And as a fan of the original series more than the new one I felt let down. There is a sort of interactive mini-theme park section where Matt Smith has recorded video and you go from TARDIS console room to Dalek Motehrship and other places. I guess that's what the 18-20 pound entrance is for. Yes that's right. This had something to do with my dissatisfaction.
However for kids I imagine it's a complete hoot, and there is a couple of things from the first 26 years of the programme, but it's mostly based on the 2010 series with Matt Smith. What can I say? I'm a hard man to please! Madame Tussaud's is almost 30 pounds! The UK really fleeces people for any sort of tourist attraction.

Buckingham Palace.

 I walked around in London for a bit and saw Westminster Abbey, very impressive and gothic indeed, but not open on a Sunday. Then a walk around St James Park - 24 degrees today so everyone out in the best weather I have had all the time I have been here. Nearby was Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, again brilliant buildings steeped in English History. Then to Buckingham Palace, lots of tourists everywhere. Oh the Throngs! It seems the biggest groups here are Spanish and Italian. Oxford street as busy as I remember it - more so. Whew time to get my tired carcus back here to my grotty hostel.

Westminster Abbey.

Tomorrow, 620am, the Eurostar. I hit the continent! I am making my way to Brussels and then to Luxembourg tomorrow... back on trains, which I am very happy ab out. So, until my next blog...