Ever since we met our German friends at the pub quiz we’ve been meaning to visit Cologne. They sold their home town to us, despite the fact that they got the question of how far is Cologne from Amsterdam wrong (they’ve now decided they must drive the long way round when they go back for a visit).
We decided to take advantage of a couple of extra Dutch bank holidays (3 days off work in as many weeks this month – then nothing until Christmas) to set off on our road trip. If we’d gone direct it would be less than a three hour drive. Like our friends we deviated – stopping first at Arnheim in eastern Holland, and again at the small German town of Wesel, simply because I liked the name of it and we needed somewhere to stretch our legs and have a sandwich.
The first thing we noticed as we headed south east was the welcome sight of undulating countryside, and trees. The second thing we noticed as we followed the route of the Rhine was how industrial everything was compared to our cosy little corner of the Netherlands. Mr T could hardly contain his excitement as we drove alongside massive chemical plants billowing noxious substances into the air from their towers and chimneys, pipelines straddling both sides of the road. Years ago I used for a company that was part of a European pharmaceutical giant called Solvay – we passed an ancient chimney stack, proudly displaying their name. It wasn’t so much a chemical plant as an entire town.
When we reached Cologne more excitement was to come. The sun was shining, it was warm. There was NO WIND. I wasn’t prepared for such balmy weather (which felt even balmier after climbing the 500 or so steps to the top of Cologne cathedral). I had checked and double checked the weekend’s weather forecast and had packed jumpers, raincoat and umbrella. Now it looked as if I was going to end up having to purchase an 'I love Köln' T-shirt for our river cruise the following day.
I needn’t have worried. Despite setting out in the sunshine we’d gone no further than a couple of kilometres down river before the clouds drew in. I felt vindicated as I pulled my Mac tighter around me and turned my collar up against the chilling breeze. This was more like it!
We eventually retreated below deck. Like all cruises there isn’t an awful lot to do on board a Rhine River boat apart from eat and drink, and admire the view, which wasn’t quite what we had expected until we reached the city of Bonn. I had imagined rising mountains and hidden fairy-tale castles, instead this stretch of the Rhine was bordered by yet more chemical plants – which even Mr T seemed to lose interest in after a while.
Eventually we disembarked at the small village of Konigswinter, which does have a mountain, and a castle. After less than two hours it was time to head back on board, where we completed the trip back to Cologne for an evening out on the town.
The Brits go to Dublin, Prague and Amsterdam for their stag nights,. The Germans, it appears, go to Cologne. We had our Schnitzels. Mr T sampled the local beer. We watched hordes of drunken youngsters staggering around the town.
Sunday morning was not surprisingly quiet. The sun had come back out, but it didn’t matter about the T-shirt anymore. We were heading back to the Netherlands. I knew I wouldn’t need one there.
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