Blogs from North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, Europe - page 7

The reason why we visited Düsseldorf, was not to see Germans. No, we liked to meet Neanderthals. Near Düsseldorf the first skeleton of an Neanderthal was found. Well, actually this is not true. There were already skeletons found in Belgium and Gibraltar, but no one realized those skeletons were from Neanderthals. Some 20 kilometers out of Düsseldorf is a village called Mettman. The area is called Neandertal. The inhabitants there are...right, Neandertals. So you have Neandertals and you have Neanderthals (with a h). Neandertals speak German and belong to a species called Homo sapiens. Neanderthals belong to a species called Homo neanderthalensis. They could speak, but what language they spoke we don't know. The last Neanderthal died about 30,000 years ago. In 1856 two miners found the skeleton in a cave. On the very spot the ... read more

Cruised overnight through the industrial area on the Rhine River reaching Cologne at about lunch time. Made our way off the ship and went looking for the Hard Rock Cafe. Again after a few wrong turns, we found it - and without having to ask anyone. After the usual purchases by Bruce we headed back to the Cologne Cathedral and had a look through the Christmas Markets. Just as I expected with the decorated marquees, glass baubles, food (everywhere) and Christmas carols. The baubles are absolutely beautiful and I want to buy some but I know that it is very unlikely they will survive the trip home. After the Markets we headed inside the Cathedral and sat in awe at the beautiful building, arches and stained glass windows. We lit candles for those we have lost ... read more

We cast off from Koblenz at 3:30am. It wasn't hard to go back to sleep. We docked in Cologne at 9:00am. There were lots of other big boats and they have to parallel park between each other. The captains/pilots really know what they're doing. Although there was a cruise led tour, this day we went off on our own. Our first stop was the central train station. We were told the signs were in German and English, but they weren't. Information told us to take a train from platform 10, but that went to the wrong airport. A station employee, who didn't speak English was able to understand Koln/Bonn Flughafen? He directed us to Platform 4. We'd also bought all day passes for up to five people (they come as one person or up to five), ... read more

We started the day driving up the N421 which in a smaller incarnation was the road known by the World War II Americans as they Skyline Drive, because like the road in Virginia it follows the ridge line with land sloping off to either side. It was the scene of intense fighting for the first 1-2 days of the Bulge battle. We went back to Baugnez, but the museum was again close, although we did locate the memorial to the massacre, including a rose garden with roses donated by the rose growers of Tyler TX. Nearby is the Hotel du Moulin where an American general was nearly caught by Peiper's group but left his lunch on the table and managed to escape. Eight of his soldiers were not so lucky, and were summarily executed behind the ... read more

It is always a little bit awkward when you are staying with people that you don't know very well and you are not sure what their routine or preferences are and they are not sure what yours are. It is even more difficult when everyone is trying to be accommodating and so no one will make a decision. We got up and were trying to decide if we should go out for breakfast or get something and eat at the apartment. In the end Lisa and Sebastian went out to the grocery store and got some things for breakfast. Sebastian makes a really good breakfast, we had about five different types of buns, regular cream cheese and a cherry paprika cream cheese, some meat and cheese, eggs, yogurt, orange juice, grapes, it was a real feast! ... read more