3 days, 2 trains, 1 city (Jaipur to Goa)

Jaipur to Goa: 22/09/16-24/09/16

How we survived two 17 hour train journeys & 12 hours in Mumbai:

Sweaty, tired and disheveled after our first 17hr train - outside Gate of India

After the craziness of Delhi, Agra and Jaipur, we booked our journey onto Kerala. We we contemplating how exactly to do this journey, as the straight train down the coast is a total of about 32 hours nonstop. We wanted to see as much of India as possible, but this wasn't easy in only a month. We settled on kind of breaking up the journey, by taking a train from Jaipur to Mumbai, and then Mumbai to Goa (with 12 hours in Mumbai). I think I possibly went delusional during those 12 hours, and I'll explain why. I felt like this whole section of our travels needed its own blog post, because a train journey in India is like visiting a city all in itself. 

Trains in India: Cheap, long and full of stories

Up to this point we had been on 2 trains, both fairly short journeys, from Delhi - Agra and Agra - Jaipur. We both enjoyed the journey; getting your own bed/seat, meeting different people with varying amounts of English and amazing stories, eating the questionable train cuisine. We had to take the train to Goa as it was the cheapest option and probably most comfortable. Honestly, the trains in India have been the best on our journey so far. Saying this however, if you don't stand in the exact position on the platform where your coach will be, it's doubtful you'll make it on the train as the whole length of the train is insanely long and trying to run up the platform with an 18kg bag on your back, in the rain, might just kill you. 

Both the trains we got were night trains, which were the best type as you can kill at least 8 hours by sleeping. If you upgrade to 2nd class you get a private curtain around your bed, but staying in 3rd class you get to experience people's feet in your face, and the most enjoyable part: snoring. Apart from this, sleeping on an Indian train has been a better experience than many hostels we have stayed in, so I can't complain at all. 

Train 1 (Jaipur - Mumbai): The first of our night trains. It was remarkably on time, and we settled down to our bunks, with the curious eyes of many Indian ladies and families upon us. We haven't had any problems at all on Indian trains (with creepy old guys etc, like you find watching you on the streets), and on this train we had a nice older couple in the bunks next to us. When Bob went off to the loo (another fun train experience - you can choose between a squat loo and a 'western' loo, both filled up to your ankles in water), the older man looked at me and in very broken English said 'Beautiful. Beautiful couple. You are Diana and Charles'. Now, I don't know if he knew much about British royalty, but I don't know if being compared to those two is really the best thing. However, I laughed and thanked him as he continued the say how beautiful we were. 

Spot the difference...

Mumbai: So the first train journey went without a hitch. It was fairly comfortable, and before we knew it the 17 hours were up and we'd reached Mumbai. Maybe it was the broken sleep I had, or the lack of food, or maybe just because I'm always grumpy when I wake up, but Mumbai is up there in my list of least favourite cities. It could be because we spent 12 hours there with not much to do between trains, but it was drizzling and loud and full of traffic. The train station was probably the nicest part of the area we were in, and is even a Unesco Heritage Site, which made it interesting. 

The pretty Mumbai Railway Station

We left our bags at a luggage drop in the station (thank God for that, else we would have been even more miserable walking around the city) and set off to get some breakfast. The streets outside were manic, so the little McDonalds across the road caught our eye, and we went to get some much needed food. After using the WiFi and refuelling, we set off to explore. It seemed somewhat calmer than Delhi, but reminded me a bit too much of London, with the grey atmosphere, huge buildings and masses of people + traffic. We walked up to the Gateway of India, a now tourist attraction built in honour of the arrival of King George V and Queen Mary, built in 1924. It was nice to see,and an amazing place to people watch. We sat for maybe an hour or two opposite the gate, watching photographers trying to get people to take and buy their photos and lots of tourists and locals taking selfies. 

This is also where we encountered the phenomenon of people wanting to take our photos. Whilst walking across the square, a group of local teenagers cam up to us with a selfie stick and a phone. I thought they would as us to take a group photo of them, but no. They wanted selfies with us. We took maybe 4 photos with them, and then they said goodbye and left. I found this so strange - who would want a photo with 2 random, sweaty, red British people. Are the going to put them on Facebook? We were then asked to take maybe 4 or 5 professional photos with different families, and older women. We later learned that it's apparently looked highly upon if you have a photo with a Westerner in your home; something I still don't really understand. 

Mumbai's British influence - the
Taj Mahal Palace hotel

After exhausting the gate and the streets around it, we still had about 6 hours to kill. After wondering what to do now, we decided we would see a movie. The best way to kill time in a foreign place, when you don't have much money or any way to get about. Luckily Mumbai shows films in the original language (with English subtitles) so we went to see the Magnificent Seven. As soon as we settled into the seats, we had to get right back up again to honour India and listen to the national anthem. The film was good, apart from the added subtitles whenever anybody smoked saying 'smoking kills'. It was a cowboy movie, everyone was smoking most of the time. 

We then left the cinema, and with 3 more hours left, decided to go back to McDonalds and use the WiFi again. It was opposite the train station, and it was raining harder at this point. We walked to the cafe through a cricket ground and through the busy Bombay rush hour. By the time we had to get our train, it was pouring. Not English pouring, but Indian, monsoon season pouring. The walk to the platform wasn't exactly covered, so we had to dodge huge raindrops and puddles to get onto the train, which was then an hour late. Safe to say, we were soaked, tired, and looking forward to our bed. 

Train 2 (Mumbai - Goa): We found our seats, shoved our bags under them and settled down for another 17 or so hour journey. We were met by a group of older men walking up and down the carriage, being loud and laughing. They would occasionally sit on someones bunk to have a chat. One guy (red hair, looked like a TV presenter) sat down next to Bob. I think he was trying to speak in English although we didn't understand, and then took out some paper, drew Bob's name on it, and gave it to us like he'd just given us a piece of art. He laughed, a lot, whilst we were still looking very confused. He left, and the man sitting next to me simply whispered 'they are drunk, it's OK'. Drinking isn't a big thing in most parts of India, as it's very frowned upon by the Muslim community, so it was all very hush-hush. 

Our bed for 2 days -
more comfortable than they look

When it was time for dinner, we decided to order some train food, which consisted of a tray of rotti, rice and some sort of curry. We only got one between us as we weren't particularly hungry. When it came, the rest of our carriage looked at us sadly, maybe as if they thought we couldn't afford 2 meals (to be fair we did look a bit disheveled and tired after 12 hours stuck in Mumbai). We were then given some Indian cake, more bread, a samosa and the spiciest Bombay mix I've ever had (we couldn't eat it) by the kind people in the carriage. Again, the journey wasn't very eventful, although we arrived in Goa sleepy, hungry and with buzzing ears. 

Who knew I could write so much about a train journey?? It was possibly the longest (feeling at least) part of our travels so far so I guess there was plenty to write! 



It took us to Goa, an entirely different part of India...

Ciao!! Sarah

Arriving in India (Delhi, Agra and Jaipur)

Delhi, Agra and Jaipur: 14/09/16 - 22/09/16

A crazy culture shock and our arrival into New Delhi

We took an 8 hour, fairly uneventful plane journey from Amsterdam to New Delhi, which was the first stop on our tour of Asia. To be honest, I had no idea what to expect as I'd never visited this part of the world before. Bob had been about 5 years ago with college, but only to the south, so wanted to experience a bit more. The standard Indian visa allows 30 days in the country so that's what we stuck to. We quickly learnt during our travels that we're pretty bad at planning but we had a vague idea of our plan for India (not really knowing how to travel in between or where to stay), and it went a bit like: 

New Delhi

Agra and Taj Mahal

Jaipur

Goa

Kerala (Fort Cochin)

Madurai

We were pretty good at sticking to this, and visited all of these places eventually but added a quick stop in Mumbai in between Jaipur and Goa. So this post will be about the first week and a half that we spent in the north of India, which were very busy, crazy and eventful. 

Landing in New Delhi and adjusting to the madness

Crazy Delhi!

We booked a cheap hostel before we landed in Delhi so we could throw our bags in first thing and not have the stress of not knowing where we were staying. After what was maybe 2 hours trying to get through immigration in the airport, we took a taxi through the city and ended up in the narrowest, busiest, cramped road I've ever been on. You could just get the taxi through the mounds of tuk-tuks, stalls and people pushing their way through the street. Our hostel was at the end of a narrow side road that the taxi couldn't get down, so we had to make our way past the many eyes staring at us, past the rankest smelling open public toilet and down to the hostel. The place itself was nice and the room was surprisingly quiet for the road we'd just walked down. We settled down and tried to get our bearings (which didn't really work) and decided we needed some food. 

We were a bit reluctant to leave the hotel, because the mix of heat, noise and smells was somewhat overpowering for our first impression. However, we made our way back down the alley and towards a restaurant. We had to jump over potholes, dogs and people but eventually found somewhere to eat. It was our first authentic Indian curry and it was pretty good! After food, we decided to get back to the hostel and work out what we were going to do for the next month. 

We quickly learnt that most people who approach you/you talk to are trying to sell you something. We spoke to a few people who were just genuinely interested in talking but about 90% of the time they had something to sell. Our first experience was this was with the hostel owner, who was nice, but seemed to get more annoyed with us as we didn't want to book his tour of Delhi, Agra and Jaipur. We also didn't want to buy the travel guide he offered us as, even though it would have been useful, it would have been hard lugging around a huge travel book. We did use this book to plan some more of India though, as we decided the best option was to get trains between cities (seemed safest, cheapest and quickest (after flying)).

Getting ready for the Taj in Delhi

As we didn't have a lot of time in India, we decided to only spend a few days in the first 3 cities. We started with 3 days in Delhi, and on our second day there went to work out how to book a train. Luckily the train station was a stones throw away from our hostel. We crossed the insanely manic main road (by following a local, which is a very useful strategy we have adopted for crossing roads) and arrived at the station. We had read that touts are very common, taking you somewhere to buy a ticket which is just a tour operator who will charge you double the price. I didn't know how common this would be, but the first person to approach us outside the train station tried to stop us from entering without a ticket, although we knew that the only place to buy legitimate tickets was inside. We didn't listen to him, and managed to find the 'foreign' ticket office to get our train. We bought our ticket to Agra, and also to Jaipur.

After sorting the next week out, we went on to see a bit more of Delhi. We had no idea where to start, but ended up on Connaught Roundabout, which we heard was a tourist sight. Like the rest of the city, it was crazy busy and full of sellers. We also got approached a lot by people telling us we shouldn't walk there because of pick pockets, so eventually we ended up in a restaurant. The food was overpriced but tasty (not the best start to our budget!!). After this we wanted to see if we could get a map of the area. We were taken to an 'information point' which was actually a tour agency. We were given a map but also a lot of information we didn't really want about an expensive tour around the city we didn't really want to do, so we took the map and ran. 




The next day we decided to do some tourist things. We saw a beautiful fort (the first of many in India) and also got a tuk-tuk to the India Gate, a huge gate in the middle of a roundabout. We knew it was free entry, but were given an India flag by some women who then demanded money from us. We were able to slip away when another group of tourists arrived. After looking at the gate for a bit we (by we, I mean Bob) decided to have a walk to the government buildings. I like a good walk but it was insane heat, middle of the day, and what looked like a never ending road. We went ahead anyway, and just about made it through the park to the end. After having another look, we hopped in another tuk-tuk to go back and prepare for the Agra trip.

Arriving in Agra and wanting to leave

The train journey to Agra was pretty uneventful, but a nice introduction to the Indian train system. It only took a couple of hours and we arrive late afternoon, hoping to just stay for a couple of nights to see the great Taj. We had booked a hostel, which we found down a dusty, unpaved side street. Our first, and overall impressions of Agra weren't very good. I would only recommend Agra for the Taj Mahal, and if you do stay, make sure you stay in a nice hotel outside of town, or stay for just one night. It is an interesting way to experience the culture, but is also very loud, dirty and full of touts (although we did expect this a bit). 

The tuk-tuk driver was the first bad experience we'd had in India - he asked us if we wanted a tour around Agra after seeing the Taj the next day. We planned to get up at about 5am to get to Taj early and not be too hot walking around. He said he'd take us to some forts at about 11am until maybe 6pm. We didn't particularly want to do this (spend extra money) as we knew we'd also be tired after seeing the main event. He was so insistent and said we could think about it and tell us the next day. The next day, when we were back from the Taj, he came up to our room and to cut a long story short, demanded money from us for 'wasting his time' although we'd never agreed to a tour. We gave him a couple of quid but were very annoyed (especially as he'd woken us up) and let him know we were annoyed. Moral: if you don't want to do something, say no!! Not maybe. 

The most beautiful view

Anyway, that bad experience aside - the Taj was insanely beautiful. The first night in Agra we went up to the hostel's rooftop restaurant and the view was amazing. We were right next to the Taj and the view of the the rooftops, monkeys jumping over them and Taj was spectacular (see photo!). We'd also just come back from a quick walk around the local area (dusty and manic, and we nearly go attacked by monkeys) and it was nice to be above it and out of the craziness! 

The next day we got up crazy early to see the Taj. This was the first place we were told it was a 'must see' at sunrise. That's only applicable for about 2% of the places we've been to where we were told this. The Taj shouldn't be included in the sunrise group, just because everybody else is told this and the queue at this time is huge and there was no way we could even see the sunrise. However, I do recommend arriving early just because the temperature is so much cooler and it's easier to walk around the grounds. As expected, it was full of tourists, but that didn't really take away from how beautiful it is! I didn't want to leave, and we walked around for maybe 2 or 3 hours. It was even nice to just sit and people watch. 

We only needed the day at the Taj, and didn't do much for the rest of the day (except eat the best damn poached eggs I've had on this whole trip). We slept, were bothered by tuk-tuk drivers and ate again at the beautiful restaurant. Although that was the only good part of the hostel, as I'm pretty sure the bed was made from concrete slabs and the toilet was nearly non-existent. We were sad to leave the Taj, but happy to leave Agra. 

Finishing the North in Jaipur

We left fairly early for our 7hr train journey to Jaipur (again, easing ourselves into getting the sleeping train). It was comfortable, and on it we met an American lady and her Indian guide (Dev). They were very interesting to talk to, and as they hadn't got a hostel booked, we shared a tuk-tuk to our hostel so they could book something. Obviously we chose the cheapest hostel (3GBP for a double room) so they stayed at a nice place around the corner. After dropping our bags into the room which was overloaded with cockroaches and ants, and another concrete bed, we met them again for some lunch. 

I felt sorry for the American because again, we had a very insistent tuk-tuk driver. After he dropped us he kept asking us and the lady about tours. We had learnt from our Agra mistake so said no, but she wanted a tour and had difficulty shrugging him off. We've found in Asia that all drivers want you to decide your itinerary for your time in whichever city and book it with them. The driver followed her to the hotel (so he knew where she was staying) and then picked us all up for a tour as she finally gave in and accepted he would drive us around. 

He did take us to a nice restaurant, and the woman was nice enough to pay for the car (I apologise for calling her 'American' and 'Woman' but I've forgotten her name and I feel bad about it!!). We also went to a temple with them which was very interesting. We watched a ceremony and then had a little chat with the Hare Krishna leader afterwards, which was organized by Dev. It was interesting to learn a bit about a new religion, although he did ask us who we should love, and when the American answered 'family' he disagreed, saying we should always love and put God first (which I didn't totally agree with). He also played us a recording of a woman reciting Steve Job's 'last words'. I don't know if they actually were his last words, but it was all about not putting money first and even though he had lots of money he wasn't happy as he didn't have love. I have since looked this up, and found his last words were 'Oh wow, oh wow oh wow', although there are some theories on the internet he did actually spout an essay about the wrong pursuit of wealth. Who knows really. 


We left the American and her driver at the temple, as she wanted to go shopping and we fancied sleeping. We were also meeting my Welsh ex-colleague Rhiannon the next day so were looking forward to that! We met her at her (swanky) hotel the next day, after we tried and failed to book train tickets (such a long story, but as we were travelling a long way and weren't booking far ahead, we pretty much had to come back the next day and hope there was a train out - luckily there was). We then tried to walk to Rhiannon's hotel but failed at that too, only getting halfway before hitting a busy highway. We then had our first experience of a rickshaw (a man on a peddle bike pushing us in some seats - an interesting concept). We met for dinner and sat for ages talking and it was nice to catch up! We also planned to do a tourist-tour of the city the next day. 

Photos of a Jaipur day out (feat. Rhiannon): 


We met Shakeer the driver the next day, by coincidence, outside Rhiannon's hotel after having breakfast. We were asking around for the cost of a tour for a day, and luckily we found him. He took us around for about 15GBP for all 3 of us, and it was such a great day. He was so funny and knowledgeable, and although we were dubious about getting a non-touting taxi driver, he was great! All drivers are given commission by shops to take tourists there, and it was the same with Shakeer, but we didn't feel forced to buy stuff and got free tea! We also only went to maybe 2 shops and had the rest of the day doing things we wanted. We started with a tour of a couple of the forts and temples. We went to a quiet little temple outside of the tourist zone, which was really nice to walk round, and also saw a floating palace in a lake. After this we went to see some elephants. I'm always a bit worried that elephants in tour zones aren't looked after, as you see a lot about their mistreatment (especially with rides). However, we didn't have to ride them and the owner of the sanctuary limits the rides as elephants only need so much exercise. We instead fed them, which was nice!

Rhiannon was then travelling onto the north, and we were planning our trip down south, so took the next day to do that.  After a lot of confusion about getting either a 35 hour train, or 2 17 hour trains with 12 hrs in Mumbai, we settled on the latter and got some sleep for the long journey ahead!! 

Whew - that took a while to write. Anyway, our introduction to India was crazy but set us up for the rest of the trip. We were thrown in at the deep end a bit and it started out a bit stressful, but as time went on it got a lot easier! 

Ciao, Sarah :)

Amsterdamn!

Amsterdam 10th September - 13th September 2016

We didn't have a huge amount of time in Amsterdam but we definitely made the most of it. Sarah's mum and dad had planned to meet us and were kind enough to book us a room in the hotel they would be staying in near the airport so we started our Amsterdam trip in luxury that we were not accustomed to. Thank you Sharon and Malcolm.  When they were due to land Sarah went out to meet them at the airport whilst I stayed in the room enjoying the ultra soft bed and watching tv. Before I go further I'll give a quick recap as to why Sarah's mum and dad were coming to Amsterdam in the first place, in her own words: - Sarah finally has a half decent phone with a good camera. - In Germany the phone dies because everything you love leaves you and because iPhones... - Old phone is in the UK and we can figure out a way to get it. - M+D fly to Holland for 24hrs with a phone. Probably not the most economical solution but definitely a welcome one as it was great to see them again. I of course had just spent a few weeks catching up with my family in Germany so Sarah was very excited to get a chance to meet up with her parents before we left for the rest of our trip where in all likelihood we wouldn't see them again until we got home. 


After getting settled we caught the train into Amsterdam and got a excellent steak dinner in a nice Argentinian Steak restaurant of which there seemed for some reason to be hundreds down that one street. It was then that I realised how much I'd missed steak. After taking a scenic walk around beautiful downtown Amsterdam and hopped back on the train. The shuttle bus ride from the airport to the hotel however was not so easily hopped on as the train. The non-existent queue was packed with a lot of impatience and weary travelers all trying to scramble on board the minivan wanting to get to their hotels as quick as possible and in the chaos that ensued Sharon and I found ourselves sat at the back on the bus whilst Sarah and Malcolm were left high and dry, unable to get passed the desperate throng of people elbowing their way up the stairs. By that point it was too late to get off so we stuck with it and arrived at the hotel, we decided to wait for the other two but since it would be about half a hour before they would arrive we headed to the hotel bar and had a couple of drinks. A few Gin and Tonics later Sarah and Malcolm arrived safe and sound but less than happy. We all stayed for a few more until it was time to go to bed, S+M had to catch the flight the next morning and us 2 had a busy day of exploration ahead of us. 

Accommodation in Amsterdam is sadly but not unsurprisingly very expensive and we ended up paying more for two beds in a dorm room of a probably less than reputable hostel than we'd paid for any accommodation thus far in our travels. This was the first time it had occurred to us to use Couchsurfing but at late notice we had no success in finding a host. In retrospect this was perhaps for the best as lot of the CS host profiles we found for the city were all manners of pretentious for instance the guy whose opinion it was that if you travel by plane (rather than by road transport I assume) than you're not really traveling. Ain't nobody got time for that. Thankfully every host we have had since we started has been generous and amazingly down to earth. Anyway back to the story. We dropped our bags off, hid our valuables - just in case - and headed straight back out again to explore the city.

We spent probably most of our time wondering up and down the streets, enjoying the sites of the canals and typical narrow town houses whilst getting occasionally very lost and ending up in a cheese shop trying as many free samples as possible (it happened more than once). When I was younger whenever Riffy would come home from Germany she would always bring me a pack of stroopwaffles, something easily available now but they were near impossible to get in the UK back then, to this day I love those little buttery waffles greatly so when we found there were a few places in Amsterdam that made fresh stroopwaffles to order I was entirely delighted. This alone is why this blog has won its title and very unoriginal pun 'Amsterdamn'. 
We couldn't go to Amsterdam without visiting the famous sex museum which we walked around giggling and snickering like the mature adults we are after which we headed to the Hard Rock where we failed to get in as it was closed for a private event. Determined we return a few days later and ordered what turned out to be an incredibly alcoholic, alcoholic milkshake. Hard Rock #4 and the last for a while.
Amongst other things we went to the Anne Frank House where after queueing around the block to get in we walked around the solemn museum quietly reading and learning about the tragic events that had occurred there. A very well laid out museum and incredibly sobering, especially in comparison to the infamous Red Light District which we had briefly visited the streets of the night before. Both interesting experiences and both at complete opposite ends of the cultural spectrum.

About a month before this we had spent an entire week in Granada, a city with one attraction and good tapas but little else. It was a shame therefore that we ended up only having 2 full days in Amsterdam, a city with a huge history and culture and a seemingly endless list of activities to see and do. I wish we could have stayed longer although it was probably best for our budget that we didn't. A good excuse to go back I guess. We didn't manage to reach the Van Gogh museums which I would have liked to but we did get pie! My friend Meg had recommended us to go to a food hall when we were there. We eagerly followed the advice and were not disappointed, it took us multiple laps of the hall before we settled on something to eat which ended up being a couple of delicious pies of a Kiwi owned pie stand. My goodness! Later we sat in Vondelpark, watching the people, the world and the insane amount of bikes go by enjoying that perfect summer evening weather. 

We did more over these days but instead of droning on I'll quickly - and pointlessly - mention that in our dorm which after our arrival filled to capacity, one of the occupants in the dead of night unleashed a bloody curdling scream in his sleep waking the entire room but himself. How we missed that luxurious hotel room.

Once again it was time to leave one destination for the next and this time we were saying goodbye, not just to a city or country but to a continent. Originally we had planned to tour through western and some of eastern Europe overland before heading to Asia but we realised this was sadly not a feasible option on our budget and so Amsterdam ended up being our last stop before India and it was certainly a welcome one. Our amazing two and a bit months in Europe were up and our goodbyes had been said to family, it was time to head into the real unknown.   
  
Until then,
    Bob

The return to Aachen

Aachen 5th September - 10 September 2016

We returned to Aachen to spend a few more days with my uncle, aunty and cousins and in doing so we continued the relaxed approach to travelling that we´d begun in Friedburg and as such took the next few days easy.

On the first evening we hung out with Micha, Karin, Lena and Kolja, celebrating the good weather with a BBQ on the balcony of their amazing house. I once again forgetting my place as Sarah´s translator forgot on most occasions to translate and instead sat there looking at her curiously, wondering why she wasn't replying to the question. Sarah however was able to put to use the one German phrase Dad keeps teaching her "das ist sehr lecker" (that's very tasty) as he too naturally shares our high opinion of German foods. Sadly that was all the time we had to spend with Micha and Karin as they were off to Vienna for a holiday but before they did, Micha once again offered us his car to drive around but this time I wasn't brave enough to take up the offer, especially on my own.

We of course visited Aachen itself which is another beautiful medieval city filled with pedestrianised streets, a huge 8th century cathedral with an ostentatious interior, and naturally a large number of magnificent bakeries. Although we had 4 or 5 days in Aachen we once again took it fairly easily knowing that in the months to come we wouldn´t have much time to relaxed. We had planned to see as much of India as we could in a month - starting in the north and finishing in the south - which we knew would end be being hectic and chaotic and so we used that as an excuse. Plus with Amsterdam and India both approaching we needed to do some serious planning which we´d neglected somewhat. Back in April when we had booked the original flight to India I´d started to do some planning for our visit to the subcontinent but I quickly got distracted and had failed to start planning again and so it was time to do some catching up. Thankfully we had good wifi and lots of draft paper. Consquently (back to my original point) we only ended up going into the city centre once during our time there.

We weren´t however totally inactive as the next day we headed up to the Dreilandereck (the three country corner), the border point where Germany, Holland and Belgium meet. The weather was beautiful and we headed off on what should have been a relatively easy walk through the forrest and up to the border point where we'd been promised a great view from a observation deck. The hike as it turned out was not as simple as we´d reckon on, or at least the path we opted to take because as it turns out after an initial climb there were a number of numbered paths up to the border and apparently also a further number of paths which definitely weren´t numbered and may not have lead to the border either. We managed to somehow take a mix of both which found us wondering through beautifully scenic woods where the tree tops created a natural arch overhead, through wide grassy fields, into more fields surrounded by cows....then under a train bridge and through a farm marked private property and down an alley with two opposing signs one warning us to keep out the other advising us to continue......We proceeded quickly and quietly so as not to attract unwanted attention from either the cows or the farmers and eventually after some more uncertain decision making we reached the top and just in time to meet my cousin Joon, Jennifer, and their tiny adorable baby Milo who we had arranged to potentially meet at the border point - sadly owing to our poor navigating we arrived a fair few hours late and so arrived just in time to say hi and bye as they were just getting in the car to head home. 

In any case we headed up to the top of the observation deck which meant climbing 4 flights of steeps stairs which our legs weren't all too happy with following the hike we'd just completed but thankfully the view was definitely worth the ascent. In one direction was Germany, in another Belgium and the third was Holland. From that height and distance all three countries looked very much the same; lots of green interspersed with the occasional signs of towns and civilization but there was one noticeable difference; looking into Germany and Belgium the panorama was littered with rolling hills stretching all the way back to the horizon however as soon as you cast your gaze toward the Netherlands the landscape fell dead flat and continue that way until it reached the horizon where a single solitary hill reared it's head from the earth. I mean Holland is famously flat but I wasn't expecting it to be so immediately true.

Beyond this we obviously took lots of terrible photos of ourselves stretched around the plinth demarcating the actual point where the three countries meet because how often can you say that you've been in three countries at the same time. Then finally it was time to relax so we sat in Germany and drank a Belgian beer that we'd brought with us whilst enjoying some good dutch Chips and Mayonnaise. The sun was starting to get low in the sky so we packed up and headed home, this time managing to take a far more direct route. All in all it was a lovely day.

The following day we had a few plans which included going swimming in a nearby pool to enjoy the lasting good weather but as expected with us we didn't quite get that far and instead we hung out with Joon and Jennifer, making up for the previous day. Their home, like both Micha's and Lukas' was beautiful, so much so that I'm pretty sure Sarah didn't want to leave but at least we now know how we want to decorate our own place if and when that time emerges. After helping Joon move some bookshelves up 4 flights of stairs whilst pretending I was strong enough to do so without struggling a huge amount, we chatted, caught up, got lots of excellent tips about our upcoming trip to Asia and chilled in the garden.

That evening being our last before once again moving on we cooked dinner for Lena and Kohja who due to their very busy schedules we hadn't really had the chance to hang out with. One of the reasons that we put on weight while we were working in Cardiff was that I enjoyed to cook but what I enjoyed cooking tended to either contain a lot of sugar or a lot of butter and cheese and oil. This meal was no exception; a very creamy, cheesy macaroni cheese and lots of garlic bread to boot. Basic but goooood and I think it went down well too which is always nice. We finished the evening off with another game of Phase 10 which we had played before at Hoeve De Linde and remains to be a great game before getting ready for the next day.

The next morning Joon very kindly drove us to train station just across the dutch border and we were off to Amsterdam to meet up with the last family members for a while.

Until then,
      Bob


PS for some reason we didn't take many photos whilst we were in Aachen and I sadly seem to be missing a great one of Joon, Jennifer, Milo and the two of us. You'll just have to imagine it instead.