Woke up at 8:30 to take a shower and pack. Slept like a baby, but not enough :o) I always say that though. The weather is cool again. When I told Ellen and Fons how hot it was at
home, they could not believe it! Me
either…..I am sorry for everyone there, but am SO GLAD I’m not there!!
Their cleaning lady came and they told me she was very
nervous about having to speak any English.
I told them to tell her that her English has to be better than my Dutch,
haha! But, we said our “hellos” and then
she got to work. When they had their cup
of coffee together, I simply packed all my million suitcases. Ugh!!
The drive to Münster was uneventful and we found my train
with no problem. It was sad to say good
bye. I will have to come again and
hopefully John will be able to come with me next time! Now I am on the train with all my luggage
(ugh!) and am on my way to Brussels. The
hotel appears to be just across the street.
I surely hope so because otherwise it will be a pain in the butt to get
everything where I need it to be!
Purposefully chose this hotel because of its proximity to the train
station, since I need to be up and going early on Monday to meet John in Paris
:o) More later….going to eat my
sandwich!
My trip to Köln was a little cramped. I sat in a 6-seat
compartment that had 4 of us and everyone was very nice. A couple from South Africa and one German
gentleman. I don’t like sitting in those
kinds of places because it is such a pain to store luggage. I wound up having to leave my huge suitcase
in the hallway.
After that, got off and found the platform for my next
train. It is very organized. There is a constant schedule and it’s
posted. So, unless there is a weird
reason for change, you know where your train will arrive. Also, so that people can be where their car
is (so they don’t have to walk through the entire train with their luggage),
there is a diagram of the train cars. In
this way you know where to stand so you can hop right on.
We were all nice and comfy standing in our
area, waiting and they announced it was changing. The train, for some reason, was back-to-front. We were supposed to get on between B and
A. Then they announced it would be at F…..all
the way down the other end of the platform! So several hundred yards!
Yikes! And, I seriously got stuck
behind two of the slowest, most passive people on the planet. Not that anyone is ever rude….it’s all nice
and orderly. But….these people were like
snails. Cautiously sliding along, meekly
waiting for people to pass by instead of walking on in the “lane” that was
going our way. The man behind us was unhappy about it all. I was kind of worried that we would have to get on at another car and walk all the way through. Rude train etiquette. Eventually we got on.
And they blocked the aisle trying to decide where on earth they might
put their two pieces of luggage. I had
an idea, but it was impolite :o)
I realized, as I passed them in the aisle, that my seat was
in the opposite direction. Oops! Not a big deal….those two were still
struggling to get their luggage put away, so I just slid back around them. No one else had been able to go by. They were a disaster, hahaha!!
I had booked in the quiet car, which was nice. The only other guy in there took a nap. I read a book (not worth mentioning…the premise
had possibilities but the ending was lame!!) and looked out the windows when we
pulled into towns.
It occurred to me as I got off the train that I had
absolutely NO idea where my hotel was.
There were four exits at each corner and more in the middle. That meant I had about 10 exits to choose
from. Ugh! With all my luggage. Ugh!!
Apparently, my guardian angel knew where s/he was going because I chose
a way and just walked. Looked across the
street and there was my hotel! Pshew!!
I checked in and then had a very quiet evening in. Ellen had made sure I had some food, so I
munched on that, browsed the computer, decided what to do over the weekend, and
then went to bed early! Aaaaah! Vacation :o)
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