December 28, 2007

Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2007 13:17:51 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Wanderlust...

Slaap morgen, hallo, bonjour, gutentag, and hello,

I left the motel early this morning -- 7am -- and went to the train station,
ready to go to den Haag for the day. The train I got on was the 7:56am
Intercity to Brussels, with stops in den Haag, Rotterdam, and Antwerp on the
way....

Things didn't exactly go as planned. :)

When the train was about to pull in to den Haag it was still dark out (just a
little before 8), and I was feeling REALLLLLLYYYY comfortable in my seat.

So I stayed on the train.

The train continued Southward, the sun rose in the East, and I started
wondering what to do today, now that den Haag was gone. Several ideas popped
into my head... Antwerp, Ghent, Brugges (mmmmmmmmm.... chocolate!), Brussels,
even Paris! To go to either Ghent or Brugges meant changing trains at Antwerp,
so 60% chance I would be getting off at Antwerp, and I mentally prepared for
that.

The train stopped at Antwerp. The train left Antwerp. I didn't get off.

"Alright... Brussels? Paris? BEYOND Paris????"

Soon the announcement came on the intercom that we're approaching our final
destination. So I had to get off this time. Well, before "Brussel Midi" station
the train also stopped at "Brussel Nord", and the announcer said get off here
to catch connecting trains to Northern Belgium and Luxembourg.

"Oooooooh Luxembourg! I've never been THERE before! That would be visited
country #26!!!"

That's it. My mind was made up now. It was Luxembourg or bust!!!!

Luckily the next train for Luxembourg did not require a reservation and it was
about to leave in 15 minutes. Perfect! With a huge grin on my face, I made my
way to that platform, and when the train FINALLY arrived 4 whole minutes late,
I was among the first passengers to climb on board... which meant I got the
first choice of seats :)

I saw the LCD display "Destination Luxembourg" ... and smiled again .. then
realized I dont know a damn thing about this place!! What was I gonna do there?
What was I gonna see? Where would I go? Well, fortunately I did have my
"Europe" tourbook with me -- its an extremely generic book, showing about 5
places in every country. But it had enough information on Luxembourg and I read
those 3 pages completely, including the part about how to get from the train
station to the old medieval city (by bus). Well, that was useful info -- and my
brain registered the fact that it's not advisable to walk from the train
station to the city center.

Hmmmmmm.....

3 hours later the train arrived at Gare Luxembourg. The capital city of the
country of Luxembourg... I guess by default it HAS to be the capital city.

I went to the tourist info office but that was no help, so had a quick apple
strudel at one of the station cafeterias and stepped out, looking for the bus
stops. As soon as I did that I changed my mind and came back inside the
station. No particular reason -- I just didn't feel like it, so I started
looking at all the train schedule boards to figure out how to get back to
Amsterdam.

Well as I was doing THAT, and announcement came on saying that the train to
"Trier, Koblenz, Koln, Dusseldorf" was about to depart soon, so that was it...
I got on that train (had to run to catch it but in the end made it with time to
spare) and found my seat...

Trier and Koblenz, hmmmm... I have driven that route a couple of times before,
and remember seeing the train tracks parallel to the road... It's a very scenic
road along the Mosel river, with plenty of good views of the river with
vineyards and castles perched on mountaintops. The train would be going right
by it! And again it was a foggy/misty day.... perfect as long as I was warm!

I took a few pictures but not many -- the train was just moving too fast. I've
yet to see them so I dont know how they came out, but I doubt they came out
well, even with the fast shutter speed.. Anyway, the scenery is gorgeous!

It got dark pretty quick though, and by the time the train arrived in Koblenz
station it was completely dark, then after that it's another hour to Koln
Centraal.

Back to Cologne again -- and again I was debating whether or not to get out
into the town and pay that same cathedral another visit... last time I had been
to that cathedral was more than a year ago but it is definitely worth another
visit!

I didn't visit it... this time.

When the train pulled into Koln Centraal, directly across on the opposite
platform was the ICE train ready to depart for Amsterdam! Well, I knew from
last Saturday that the next train to Amsterdam would be 2 hours later, which
meant arriving in Amsterdam at midnight, so I didn't go into Cologne this time
either. I got on that final train, and 3 hours later.... Amsterdam!

This whole "wandering around 4 countries by train" took 12 1/2 hours, pretty
much non-stop train rides with just enough time in between to grab something to
eat or even take it to go. 4 trains, 3 hours duration each (give or take), and
some good scenery towards the end... All in all a very successful day!

Luxembourg, by the way, does not count as "visited country #26" since I didn't
actually "visit". Maybe another day I'll go back and actually see the old
town... maybe that "another day" will be day after tomorrow or on January 1st!
I dont know. But for now, my tally still stands at 25.

So tomorrow I'm off to Paris, then to the old German village of Strasbourg,
France. (That wasn't a typo). Then back to Paris at night... Paris-Strasbourg-Paris
is on the same TGV route where the train speed record was broken last April
(357 miles per hour). Of course tomorrow's train wont be going THAT fast,
but I'm still looking forward to the journey since I've never been on a TGV
train before!

Amsterdam has been terrific, and the week that I've been here has been the
perfect amount of time to be based here while seeing everything else. And I
even got a "free day"! But after dark, Amsterdam leaves a lot to be desired --
it certainly doesn't compare to Paris or Rome at night! (but then again, what
does?) The windmills at Kinderdijk were fantastic, in spite of the chilling
winds. Just because there were SO MANY of them within such a small area...

I'll be back to the Netherlands again :)

Until then... slaap lekker, dag, adieu, guten abend, and goodbye,
(No I'm not going to start singing that song from Sound of Music)
-- me.