May 6 – Disembarkation in Southampton & Trains to Brussels and Cologne Today started early, we both got up at 6:30am. Breakfast was busy in the Royal Court (buffet) today; everyone’s eating at the same time and most are not going to the dining room. Still it was not overcrowded.
HAL Cruiser’s Note: The Royal Court buffet still uses trays. No Novo paranoia on RMS Queen Mary 2. (Yes this big ocean liner is still designated as a Royal Mail Ship because she carries at least one sack of mail on each crossing.) Wonder if HAL’s great tray ban will last? To be honest I don’t really care as I seldom take more than one plate at a time anyway. Tray or no tray, machs nichts, literally ‘means nothing’, as the Pennsylvania Deutch would say. (Because the English are notoriously bad at pronouncing other languages you may know my people as the Pennsylvania Dutch. We are actually Deutch (German)).
After breakfast we returned to our rooms because the QM2, while she may be very civilized in most of her procedures, is definitely in the stone age of disembarkation.
HAL Cruiser’s Note – Part 2 In the spirit of fair play. Cunard still makes you vacate your room by 8:30am and go to a public room designated by your departure. HAL’s procedure of allowing you to stay in your room until you are called for disembarkation is far superior, not to mention, way more genteel. Additionally, the muster area for the Saint Pancras Train Station, as well as all the airports and other rail stations) was the Royal Court Theater, Deck 3. This is a totally unsuitable are for a disembarkation assembly. It’s the balcony of the main showroom and, although it has many seats available, none are accessible without negotiating stairs and crawling down aisles of theater style chairs. Picture several hundred people of all ages and conditions trying to get their carry on (in this case carry off) luggage to some location where they can keep an eye on it. I saw several near disasters involving people with mobility challenges. The alternative is to stand in the lobby with your luggage, another difficult situation for the same people. Score big points for HAL on this one because compared to the tray issue, this is way more dangerous and inconvenient even for the able bodied.
Diana and I, being able bodied, just stood along the wall with our luggage until we were called. On the plus side, we were called right on time as listed in our disembarkation letter. Only 1,500 of the 2,400+ people are getting off in Southampton because the ship is going on to Homburg and there are lots of Germans on board. Lots less troops to shuffle about.
We walked through the brand new pier area to the luggage collection area. It’s a very well organized and easy facility to negotiate, something that was not so true of the previous facility. Gently sloping and very wide ramps take you down to your luggage. After claiming the luggage we headed to the security point. We didn’t need a porter because we packed with being able to handle our own luggage in mind. We’re taking too many trains and transfers to need assistance at every place.
Since we had cleared immigration on the ship, we zipped through the terminal to our bus and began our first journey of the day up the M system to London. This was accomplished in 2.5 hours, the last 5-8 miles in London taking almost an hour of that time. Traffic in the city is terrible. Far worse than any US city I’ve ever been in and I’ve been in most of the larger cities in all 50 states. There’s a special fee to driver your vehicle in London and still the traffic is bad. That last few miles would have taken even longer but some of the streets have special bus lanes that allowed us to bypass some of the congestion.
We arrived at St. Pancras station early enough to change our tickets to the 1pm train. This is great because the next Eurostar to Brussels isn’t until almost 5pm. And then we would only have 30 minutes to catch the train to Cologne and that’s the last one of the day. Since we can go earlier that won’t be a problem.
The ride through the Chunnel is fast and smooth. The train moves so fast it takes only 20 minutes to go completely under the English Channel to mainland Europe. The scenery in France and Belgium was green farmland, small villages and woods. Very pretty indeed. On the way they served us drinks and lunch. You could have wine, soda, coffee or tea for beverages. Each comes with a bottle of water as well. The main course was a stuffed chicken breast or pasta with cream sauce that they called a roulade. I had the chicken, Diana had the pasta and both were very good. It wasn’t haute cuisine but it wasn’t airline food either. It was very comparable to a well-prepared meal at a mid-level restaurant, Chili’s or Applebee’s for example. Altogether enjoyable, especially when you remember that you’re eating at almost 170-kph crossing Europe.
We arrived in Brussels on time and we went to the ticket counter to see if there was an earlier train to Cologne. There were two, one left in 5 minutes and the other 1 hour. Getting the ticket and hustling to a train in 5 minutes with all our luggage didn’t seem like a good idea so I opted for the one in an hour. This will still get us there 2 hours before my original schedule. I knew this was possible but I also have experienced significant disembarkation delays so I made the original reservation on the conservative side so we’d be sure to make them. Then I had the option to change to an earlier train if I could. This worked out in both cases.
We are riding the Thaly’s train to Brussels. Like Eurostar and ICE, these trains are fast, smooth and comfortable. This one was no exception. They served drinks and a snack on the way. When we arrived in Brussels it was raining. Fortunately the Cologne Hilton is only about 200 feet from the train station and at least half of that was under the cover of a building. We pulled our luggage to the hotel and checked in. It’s a very nice hotel indeed. We booked it as a B & B and I’m glad I did because what I paid to add breakfast for both of us on that plan was less than the cost of breakfast for one on the menu.
The staff at the hotel is very attentive and everyone speaks English very well. We ate dinner in the Konrad Restaurant in the hotel and our waiter’s English had almost no German accent. In fact he sounded a little Southern. Turns out he had spent a year as an exchange student in Virginia. The food was excellent. Diana had a Caesar salad with bacon. She pronounced the bacon as great. She is not really a fan of Canadian or British style bacon and was glad that the hotel had adopted very good American style bacon. I opted for something called a beef roast ‘Cologne style’. It was a small piece of beef about 2 inches square and 6-7 inches long with a toping of mustard dressing that was roasted in place. It was delicious! The mustard topping wasn’t overpowering, adding just a bit of tanginess to the tender and juicy beef. The sautéed fresh green beans and cabbage served with it were done just right as well. An excellent meal. I’ve never eaten in a Hilton Hotel restaurant before, I tend to avoid hotel restaurants, but if they’re all like this I should reconsider that position. (See, and people say I’m stubborn and set in my ways.)
After dinner it was almost 10pm so we decided to turn in and get some sleep. We had to call housekeeping to get the down filled duvet off the bed and substitute a top sheet and blanket.
Hotel Accommodation Note: Who decided that good hotels and nice cruise ships have to have duvets on their beds? I find that they are way too hot to sleep under and since many of them are down filled, Diana’s allergic to them. She travels with an antiallergenic pillowcase so down pillows are not a problem but the duvet has to go! On the ships and in the hotels a call to housekeeping usually results in the beds being converted to top sheets with a blanket. We double up the blanket on Diana’s side and I sleep under just the top sheet. That way the room can be kept warm enough for her and still cool enough for me. Works great. Not possible with the duvet as any of it is too warm for both of us and Diana certainly does not want me to fold my half onto her.
On our last long cruise to the Med and Black Seas we took our own fitted bottom sheet for the bed. It made the bed much more comfortable as it did not continually have to retucked in after I rip the blanket and top sheet off so my feet can stick out. The only disadvantage to this is that you have to wash your own sheet. Not really a problem as I do laundry in the ship’s facilities anyway. We usually take our own non-allergenic soap with us as well.
May 7 – Cologne, Germany & Night Train to Vienna It’s rainy and cool today. It’s not raining steadily or hard, just drizzling off and on. We went down to breakfast about 9:30am and were pleasantly surprised at the quality of the buffet included with our meals. They had all the things you’d expect to make an English breakfast. The sausages, although completely different from those on Cunard were great as well. They had cereals that must be European because I didn’t recognize most of them, but they had some American standbys too.
We were stalling around waiting for it to warm up a little before we ventured out. At noon, check our time, we packed up and gave the luggage to the staff and headed out to tour the Cologne Cathedral because the building itself is a UNESCO World Heritage Sight.
The Cologne Bishopric has its roots in early Christianity. The first known bishop, Maternus, is mentioned in documents from 313AD. (Sorry I’m not switching to CE as political correctness is of little interest to me.) Under the current cathedral they have found the foundations of a double choir structure dating from 870. In 1164 the remains of the Three Magi were transferred to Cologne and a large, elaborate reliquary was constructed to contain them. These relics made the Cologne Cathedral the most popular pilgrimage church in the world for Christians.
It was decided that a more magnificent structure was appropriate to properly honor the Magi and in 1248 the current building was begun. Construction was halted for much of the Medieval Period and the entire structure was not finished until 1880. It’s a Gothic structure and is typical of the style. Huge columns supporting narrow naves produce a very dark interior. Because the towers have such a large diameter they do not appear to be that tall. In reality they are the second tallest church spires in the world. The state of engineering math and construction techniques in the Gothic period was very rudimentary by today’s standards so everything was overbuilt to insure it would stand. Not too far into the future columns were made much thinner and windows larger enabling exactly the same configuration to be much lighter and airier.
The layout is very typical but larger. It has a 5-aisle floor plan. The center nave is twice as wide as the four side aisles. The inner two side aisles for a U-shaped ambulatory starting at the apse. The outer two aisles stop at the transept as that space is broken up into seven chapels that make up the outer wall of the ambulatory. The central nave terminates at the transept where the choir starts and beyond the choir is the Shrine of the Three Kings and then the high altar. The central nave is one of the tallest every built in the Gothic period. The Beauvais Cathedral in France is the same height and it has partially collapsed and required remedial engineering to remain standing. No such trouble here in Germany.
The Shrine of the Three Kings is remarkable. (I prefer Magi, but they use kings. Most translations of Matthew use either Magi or Wise Men.) It’s a large oak box, about the size of three caskets placed side-by-side but a little taller. Around the edges gothic architectural details and figures carved from white Carrera marble have been attached. The effect is somewhat like Wedgwood’s famous Jasper Ware. The figures are all Biblical characters, except for the three magi themselves. They are mentioned in the Scriptures but not named. The names Melchior, Caspar and Balthasar have come down to us by tradition. Also tradition sets their number at three because three gifts are mentioned, their number us never mentioned.
At the intersection of the leftmost aisle and the transept is a wonderful altar. It was originally in the Convent of St. Clare but was moved here when that structure was deconsecrated and demolished. It’s the oldest surviving altar with a permanent tabernacle attached. It is more complicated than your usual triptych in that it has extra panels in the wings that allow it to be opened in three different configurations. The wings exposed today show the 12 Apostles. The central section of the middle section never changes. It shows Jesus at the top and below the moment of transubstantiation during a Roman Catholic Mass. In their theology this is the moment in the Mass when the wafer and wine actually become the blood of Jesus. Some Protestant denominations have kept that idea but many have not.
The cathedral has 12 doors, three on each façade, probably a reference to the 12 gates of the New Jerusalem of Revelation. The western façade is the main entrance (as it is in most Cathedrals) and the center door is huge. Once again, it doesn’t look so big because of the massive overall size of the church but it is over 30 feet wide and over 92 feet high. That’s nearly the height of a 9-story building. The theme of this largest of all the doors is pre-redemption life. Appropriately the very tip of the tympanum (the section between the top lintel of the doors and the peak of the arch) has two scenes from the Garden of Eden. On the left Adam and Eve are enjoying the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. On the right they are hiding in shame from God as He visits the garden. And as they say, ‘It’s been all downhill since then!’.
In the plaza outside the western entrance is a full size model of the finial used on the tops of the two spires. It’s almost 25 feet tall yet it looks tiny on the top of the spires. The cathedral has 11 bells 4 of which are from the Medieval Era. The St. Peter’s bell weighs 24 tons and is the largest free-swinging bell in the world. How’d you like to be the poor guy assigned to tug the rope on that one.
The church is very dark inside and all my attempts to capture the nave were unsuccessful. If it had been a sunnier day I might have had some luck.
When we exited through the west what do you suppose we saw just across the plaza? That’s right, the US Embassy, MacDonald’s. We wanted to grab a quick bite and this is the place. Here in Cologne they have a sandwich I’ve never seen before ‘der M’. It an oval shaped patty, about a third of a pound, on a rectangular roll with cross hatch groves making about one inch diamond shapes in the crust. It’s real bread, more like a Kaiser roll than a hamburger bun. Yikes!! It was the best thing I’ve ever eaten in a MacDonald’s. Watch for it at a location near you.
One other European item that I don’t remember seeing in the states, a little Ford 2-seat runabout like a Mazda Miata only it looks a little larger. Very stylish indeed. No wonder Ford’s international sales have saved it from the problems of GM and Chrysler.
Oh yes, they still manufacture 4711 here, the product that’s responsible for most men’s scents being called cologne. In the early 1700s, Johann Farina, an Italian expat, formulated a fragrance he called ‘Eau de Cologne’ (water of cologne). The name was later changed to 4711, the house number of the new owner of the company. Nevertheless, the original name coined the word be now use for men’s smelly stuff.
We returned to the hotel to collect our luggage and sat in the lobby for a while because it was too early to head for the train. I worked on my laptop and Diana read the schedule for our tour to Oberammergau.
At about 7:15pm we went to the station and found the track for the train to Vienna. It arrived a few minutes late and we got on board with all our luggage. Unfortunately, European trains, while very efficient and fast, do not make provision for luggage. On cars with chairs there are limited racks at the doors and the overheads will accommodate carry on size bags. On this train our luggage rides in the room with us. This is not good news as the room is very small and our luggage is somewhat large. We managed to get it and ourselves in but when the attendant got our tickets he said that with the current conditions he wouldn’t be able to fold our two beds. Well, I’ve slept sitting up before I guess I can do it again.
A snack was waiting for us on our small table, a pear, bottle of water and a chocolate. We also found an order form for breakfast. When the attendant came back to collect our breakfast order he told me he had figured out the bed problem. Luckily our room is a triple. If we fold out the bottom bed and put our luggage on it, he can fold out the other two beds for sleeping. That’s exactly what we did.
Wouldn’t you know that the one train we want to sleep on would be the only one that does not have a silky smooth ride? This is not one of the ‘Premier Trains’ like the Eurostar or Thalys, it’s run by the German train system and runs on regular tracks, not the special high-speed track. It’s not as fast and not nearly as smooth. We did sleep off and on but it was not a restful night.
In the morning our breakfast arrived at 8:00am. We had ordered rolls, sliced meat and cheese, yogurt and coffee. It was very good. The bread over here is extra special for some reason. I didn’t order it, but the attendant included a small tube of liverwurst. I love the stuff and this one was excellent.
May 8 – Vienna, Austria The train arrived on time and after our 20 minute cab ride across town we were checking in at the AM Konzerthaus Hotel. I was afraid that we would have to wait for our room but amazingly check in time at this hotel is 10am. After a short time of dealing with our luggage we both decided to take a nap.
We have to rearrange our luggage for the bus tour. We’ll leave some of it here at the hotel because the bus limits us to one suitcase and their small bag. We’re going to leave our rolling duffels and my backpack here at the hotel.
We had dinner at the hotel and then returned to the room. Diana’s going to deal with her luggage repacking and I’m going to name my picture files and write.
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