London, Brussels, and Aachen, Germany

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Thursday, May 26th

On Thursday morning, we were up and at the breakfast table for our modified and full English breakfasts before we headed back to London. On Wednesday, I had pretty well oriented myself as to the basics of how to get around in the area near the B&B so we really had no real trouble getting back to Gatwick to turn in the car. The only bad thing was the weather. We drove through off and on rain all the way back. Hadn't had to buy gas yet so filled up at a station near the airport. Only paid $8.75/gallon. ($4.00/gal is such a deal). Once back I turned in the car and, when picking up the receipt at the rental desk, left both of our umbrellas lying on the counter – at least that's where I think I left them – I didn't remember them until we were on the train headed to St. Pancras station. And, of course, this would be the only day we would need umbrellas. Anyway, we found the train station and I managed to get in the correct line to buy our tickets. We had reservations at the Wardonia hotel near St. Pancras station so got on the train and took the 45 minute or so ride into London proper. Found the hotel easily and were able to check in even though it was only about noon. Found our room to be every bit as small as advertized. The website had made a point of telling potential customers the size of the rooms – bedroom 9 by 8.5 feet and bath 2feet 10 inches by 5 feet 10 inches. Not a lot of room but adequate considering we would be leaving around 5:00 AM the next morning.

After checking in we were determined to see a little bit of London so set off walking toward the Thames river and the sights along it. Spent a lot of time running from doorway to doorway to dodge the rain, which at times was really heavy. Really missed those umbrellas. Anne had on a semi waterproof jacket with a hood but my jacket was very much not waterproof. Stopped in a small shop for postcards and found umbrellas for less than 5 pounds. Bought one. It helped but still got pretty wet. Dodged into another doorway when an especially hard shower came along and while we were waiting another man ducked into our doorway. Had a nice conversation with him. He had visited a daughter in the US who was working somewhere along the Outer Banks. Amazing how many nice folks we ran into along the way. We tried to follow some google directions to Trafalgar Square, but the names of streets were very elusive, and we were soon pretty lost. Stopped in a Metro bank branch and, wet and bedraggled, went in to ask directions. They could easily have asked me to leave since I obviously wasn't going to deposit any money in their bank, but a really nice young man greeted me and asked if he could help. I told him we needed directions, and he not only told me how to get where we wanted to go, he went to his computer and printed off directions (From google – I didn't tell him we already had done that and were still lost.) It turned out that we would continue on down the street we were on and eventually arrive at the river. Made it to the river and climbed the Jubilee Pedestrian Bridge and walked to the middle where I took most of the London pictures. Could see the Eye, the huge ferris wheel type thing, the parliament buildings with Big Ben, heard Big Ben chime the quarter hour, boats on the Thames, and then began our trek back to the hotel. Made that without too much trouble. I discovered that there are maps of the general area posted on some street corners and that helped a lot. Back near the hotel we went into a local pub called McGlynn's Free House and had supper. It wasn't free but had a lot of local flavor. I had a chicken and mushroom pie and Anne ordered a baked potato. I got the pie and sides of mashed potatoes and some vegetable and Anne got a baked potato sliced and smothered with cheese. Not what she expected, but we both had enough to eat to hold us until morning. Back to the Wardonia hotel and bed. Up the next morning at around 4:00 AM to make the 6:19 Eurostar to Brussels.

Friday, May 27th.

Made it to St. Pancras train station around 5:15 and checked in at the Eurostar terminal. The UK is part of the European Union but is not a party to the treaty that allows uneventful border crossings or recognizes the Euro currency. That meant dealing with pounds in the UK and the Euro on the continent and going through French customs at the Eurostar terminal. Since the Eurostar crosses from the UK into France by way of the Channel Tunnel, we had to go through security very similar to that in an airport. Not a problem and the security was reassuring given that we would be travelling under the channel. Had about a half hour wait in the waiting area until the sign announcing the arrival of our train appeared giving the track/platform number. At that announcement, we and all the other people headed for the train. Found our car number, heaved the luggage aboard, and found our seat. Our car was right behind the restaurant car which made it convenient for getting me something for breakfast. Still had a few pounds on me that I needed to spend (the Eurostar took both pounds and Euros) so I used that money to get a bite for breakfast. Had just a couple of pounds left so bought two huge belgian chocolate muffins using all the British money I had – meant tipping the waitress a whole 25 pence. Hope she wasn't insulted, but that was all I had (hadn't gotten any Euros yet).

The train we were on was not an express that went direct from London to Brussels; rather it made two stops in England before crossing the channel and then stopping in Calais and Lille in France. Even with the stops, we made it to Brussels on time around 9:40 AM, about 2 hours and 20 minutes (Brussels is one hour later than England). Arrival was pretty uneventful and we found the car rental desk easily, picked up the car and received heavily accented directions on how to get out of Brussels and headed for Aachen. The directions were pretty useless, and we proceeded to get lost for the longest time on the whole trip. We were trying to get to Aachen in time for a 2:00 PM tour of the cathedral there, and had we not spent over an hour trying to find our way out of Brussels we would have made it easily. Unfortunately, we did spend over an hour trying to find our way out of Brussels, and we missed the tour. Once we found the 'ring' road, a big interstate-like road, around Brussels we were following signs to Liege, Belgium, because I knew we had to pass by it to get to Aachen. Well after the first one or two signs for Liege, we saw Liege no more. We did see several signs for Luik. After driving several miles and seeing no more signs for Liege I was afraid we had missed a turn so pulled to the side of the road to look at the map and see where Luik was. I could not find Luik on the map so looked in the index and discovered that Luik and Liege are the same. Luik is the Flemish spelling and Liege is French. It turns out that the use of the two languages is EXTREMELY important to the Belgians. There are two very different cultures in Belgium, the Flemish region in Flanders in Northwest Belgium and the Walloon region in the South east. The rivalry, and outright distrust, between the two regions is worse than the North and the South in the USA. Who knew??? Brussels is actually in its own, third, region and, since it is sort of in-between, is officially bi-lingual and apparently has to cater to both of the other regions, hence signs for Liege in both French and Flemish. So now we knew where we were going – BUT – to get back on that 'ring' road meant finding a minuscule space between non-stop traffic and accelerating like Dale Earnhart (Jr.?), fitting into that space, and continuing on without wrecking the car. We had a VW Golf with manual transmission and that proved to be a good thing. I speed shifted like I used to do as a teenager and managed to make it up to the 75 mph (120 kph) speed, which matched the speed of a few of the other slower drivers, without giving Anne, me, or that motorcycle rider (he missed us, or I missed him, by mere centimetres) a heart attack. But I think Anne came close.

Made it to Aachen at about 2:00 PM, the time the tour we wanted to take started. Too late for that so we found the Hotel Ibis without too much trouble, and since it was too early to check in, parked and walked down to the center of the town and see the cathedral on our own. Charles the 1st or Charlemagne (or Karl der Gross in German), who is generally regarded as the first Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (from 800 until 814) made Aachen the Northern capital of the Empire and is entombed in the cathedral. In the year 1000 Emperor Otto III had the vault opened and found Charlemagne sitting on a throne perfectly preserved except for the tip of his nose which Otto replaced with gold. Otto then resealed the vault. Then in 1165 Emperor Frederick Barbarossa again opened the vault and placed Charlemagne's remains in a sculptured sarcophagus where the bones lay until 1215, when Frederick II had them put in a casket of gold and silver. That golden casket now rests in the cathedral behind the choir area.

After the cathedral, we walked around the center of the city seeing the city hall where some 30 or so German kings were coronated. Near the Tourist Information Office is an interesting fountain, the Kreislauf des Geldes, or Circulation of Money fountain. In the picture, which is also posted somewhere on this blog entry, you can see some of the symbolism. The movement of the water represents how money circulates. The woman clutching her belongings symbolizes thrift. The man tumbling almost into the water while trying to get the money from the men across from him stands for greed. The men are passing money from one to the other behind their backs. And on the left a father counts his money and gives pocketmoney to his child.

We walked back to the hotel, checked in and found the room small but not as small as the Wardonia's. After settling in a bit, we walked back down to the Aachener Brauhaus for me to sample the German beer. Sadly, the wait staff was so rude here that we left and walked to an Italian pizzeria where the waitress spoke no English but was very polite and helpful. Had two beers (Anne had water) and pizza, then walked back to the hotel. Free WiFi was only in the lobby of the hotel but we made do with that, catching up with e-mails and sending a few pictures to folks back home.

Saturday, May 28th

Aachen in the morning:

Up fairly early and walked back to near the center of town and then back out to the road we would take to leave Aachen. I wanted to scout it on foot before we actually left for the cemetery. We had determined that we needed to buy a few basic items if we could find them. I needed a coffee cup and we both wanted a wash cloth. Amazingly, to us anyway, not one place we stayed provided wash cloths. Bath towels and a hand towel only. Lo and behold, walking back to the hotel we passed a Euro store, just like our dollar stores. Got what we needed and went on back to the hotel. We did pass one other interesting thing – the Marschiertor or South Marching Gate, one of the original city gates of Aachen. Back at the hotel we checked out and managed to find our way out of Aachen without getting lost once, though there were a few times when we weren't too sure. The next blog entry will deal with the visit to the cemetery.

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Photos

Kings Cross Station
From whence Harry Potter embarked on his first adventure. It is within a block of the St. Pancras station.

The Wardonia room.
Nine feet two inches by eight feet five inches = 77.5 square feet, with a 2 foot 10 inch by 5 feet 10 inch bath. At $107.13 per night, it was the cheapest hotel near St. Pancras station.

View from the Wardonia.
This is the view from the window of our room. The building with the clock tower is the St. Pancras train station.

Trafalgar Square
Wet Trafalgar Square. That's Lord Nelson atop the column in the middle of the square.

The Thames
Looking upstream from the pedestrian bridge at the Westminster bridge with Big Ben and the Parliament buildings on the right and the Eye on the left.

Big Ben and Parliament Buildings
From the Golden Jubilee Pedestrian Bridge.

The London Eye
From the pedestrian bridge, the London Eye, or Millennium Wheel, is a giant ferris wheel 443 feet tall located on the South bank of the Thames.

Inside the Eurostar
Our carriage. The picture is not intentionally blurry to conceal identities, but poor camera work by the operator.

Eurostar Terminal
The Eurostar in the Brussels terminal.

The Aachen Cathedral
Constructed initially in 792 and added to over the years, it is the oldest cathedral in northern Europe and was known as the "Royal Church of St. Mary at Aachen" during the Middle Ages. For 600 years, from 936 to 1531, the Aachen chapel was the church of coronation for 30 German kings and 12 queens.

Charlemagne's casket
In 1215, Frederick II had Charlemagne's remains put in a casket of gold and silver. That golden casket now rests in the cathedral and is the small one on the left.

'Kreislauf des Geldes
'Kreislauf des Geldes', the circulation of money fountain, is one of the 60 fountains in Aachen. The movement of water and the several statues represent the way money circulates.

The Aachen Rathaus (city hall)
Fifty statues of German rulers adorn the north facade; 31 of the kings represented were crowned in Aachen in the cathedral then banquets were held in the coronation hall of the building.

The Marschiertor
Built around 1257, the Marschiertor, or Marching Gate, is one of four original main gates to the city of Aachen. A wall existed around the main part of the city and this gate served as the city's main armory. The gate was severly damaged in WWII but restored in the 1960's.