The day after (not) graduation started relatively early. I say relatively because I had taken to sleeping in as my schedule allowed (i.e. didn't have to get up for exams) and it was a Saturday morning. I was going up to the English countryside and although I had previously promised to cook dinner, obviously this was out of the question given my knife handling skills are still precarious. I chose an alternate occupation for the day - namely, being entertainment and the official photographer. ACP and KP were going to paint a room for the impending arrival of a new family member in the next month or so. Anyway - it was cold. Officially really cold...generally for someone who comes from warmer climes, it's probably safe to say that it feels cold when you can see your breath frosting in the morning air. There was also ice on the asphalt...and of course as we started to drive, there is the iconic symbol for the Underground. You may or may not be able to see that this one we passed is the one for Arsenal.
One of the nice things about the houses in London is that they have little touches which give them such character. This one seems to have been inhabited at some point by someone musical. It was quite cute to see the clefs hanging out over the windows. The treble clef has been kind of popular for patisserie tuile decorations because it's a slightly more interesting (and complicated looking, if you are not a musician) shape than the bass. Potentially the alto as well...Morning Tea
We drove towards Cambridge (north? west? couldn't tell you...) and eventually ended up going through a little town called Ware (where?)...ACP and KP had some painting to do and various bits and pieces which required our presence sort of by no later than noon. Having arrived and shivered our way through their ritual of turning up the heating, etc. etc. they proceeded to attend to the various tasks. Morning tea duling having been served and consumed (scones courtesy of the Cordon Bleu tea party, which I had kept in the freezer against such an eventuality as this), it was time to start painting.
I was on hand as official photographer, some entertainment (it's always funny when someone else falls and trips, as long as they aren't hurt), occasional joke and general all-around cheerleader. No, there was no cheerleading outfit as it was too cold. I did bring up some scones that had been in my freezer though - they served for a nice morning tea before the others began the job of painting a room. The little church on the right is actually a shot I took from the window of the little room that was being painted. The window had been opened part way to allow paint fumes to waft out into the cold (super clean smelling) air. The only drawback is that it was also quite cold when the breeze blew.Spoiled
Both ACP and KP are good cooks. The nice thing about this for me was that since my hand was out of commission, KP was going to cook dinner. A welcome change as I had been eating baked beans on toast with cheese. Ok, toast was a baguette and cheese was sometimes a nice, hard chedder and sometimes a gruyere, but it still gets a tiny bit boring if you have it several nights running. Anyway - delicious pasta by KP...in the meantime, ACP had made and put away the Christmas pudding for the following week and she and I watched KP make dinner. What can I say, there are few things more enjoyable than when a someone cooks you dinner.In which I find out I am not smarter than the heater
We rented a video that night (Body of Lies) - quite entertaining and if we were in any doubt as to whether we might have similar taste in videos, we found another copy of the same video near the TV. It was freezing so I plugged in the little space heater. In my defence, the light went on so I thought it was heating. Couldn't figure out why it wasn't warm so I sucked it up. The next morning when I went to turn it off, I found out I hadn't turned on the heating elements. But honestly, if the light is on, wouldn't that make you think that the heating thing is actually doing its thing?
4 countries in 3 days...
Then it was an early wake up on Sunday so that I could make sure I got back into London on time. There was a booking through Heathrow to fly to Dusseldorf (shorter trip) so that I could visit with a friend from law school. Things are so close in Europe that it was only a little bit longer for him to come get me at Dusseldorf instead of Cologne. Still cold - colder than the countryside had been, actually. I was really regretting the fact that my sweaters were all in a closet in Sydney, which is currently in summer. Especially since we ran into snow on Monday morning as we started to drive towards the mountains.
It was almost as though there was an invisible line over which all of a sudden snow appeared on the side of the road and on the branches. This wasn't your small fall which melts as the day wears on, but rather the kind that has been there for a few days. For the most part the brown bits from being driven over were at a minimum and it was just that smell you get in the air when it's snowing with the slightly glowy but dimmer light.Winter Wonderland (Monschau)
We arrived at this little place called Monschau - a tiny village, mostly self-contained. The ground wasn't that wet so we got a nice little walk around. There were a bunch of little bridges going over the river - a tributary which eventually feeds into the Maas river (I think). It was so picturesque I couldn't help myself from taking a zillion photos. The Christmas market stalls were mostly closed as the market itself is only open on weekends. Given the amount of traffic - or lack thereof - I can understand why.
We had a little stop for morning coffee / hot chocolate. Once of the nice things about the cold is that since you are desperate to warm up, it feels a little less naughty to have a hot chocolate and since most of the places here use milk (instead of water, which you might get in the US) I think it tastes better. More photos ensued before we went back out. I have to admit to getting a little turned around at one stage so I thought we were on one side of the river when we were actually on the other side. There was a stop at this shop which sold so many different kinds of mustard that I lost track. I wanted to bring some back but hadn't checked any bags and was daunted by the weight so I gave the mustards a miss.Maastricht
Then it was on through Belgium to the Netherlands - I hope I got the geography right! Again there was an invisible line - a horse cropping grass through snow between Germany and Belgium, then something a bit more subtle at the Belgium/Netherlands border where at the bottom of a hill the snow disappeared and the light all of a sudden turned bit golden. It was like we had driven into a Van Gogh painting of hay and other Dutch paintings with houses along a river.
More Christmas markets! We wanted to go into the church but it was actually closed so that didn't happen. However, one of the good things was that since there had been some French influence since whenever, I was relieved to be able to understand the French signs. Much excitement!Then there was the option of stopping at Aachen on the way back to Cologne. I love that everything is so close to everything else! I remember reading quite a lot about how the capital of Christianity was in Aachen for a while. Yes, I know this is going back quite a while, but then again, in this part of the world a "young" building was built in the 1500s (part of the wall in Maastricht).
In which the mind boggles - Aachen (aka Aix la Chapelle)
The streets wound their way around. I mistook the Town Hall for the cathedral at one point - we were approaching from the side and it just looked a little church-y. In any event, it wasn't - good thing because it seemed a bit disrespectful to have such a hugh market in front of the church, even though that was probably used as a gathering place for a while.
Stepping into the Aachen Cathedral was a completely different experience. The first thing to hit you is the Byzantine style of everything - the mosaics were intricate, astounding and everywhere - which sounds less impressive than it actually is. Apologies for the bad lighting / photography but this is the best I could do. It invites you to just look and look - you could probably spend a lot of time just looking at everything but we actually had to get back. No matter - it was enough to be in the Cathedral where Charlemagne's throne is. There is a tour available to see it (apparently just a simple wooden throne) but we had missed it for the day. Just something to bring you back another time, I think. |
| Outside view of Aachen Cathedral |
 |
| Streets of Aachen and a Chrstimas Fai |
It took UP's kids a little while to decide that perhaps the stranger wasn't so strange after all, although we didn't share a language in common so communication was done through the good graces of their parents translating or a little bit of mime and gestures. They were very generous about my attempts to speak German (prompted, of course!) and if nothing else, there was a little bit of laughter at the American's attempts to pronounce words which to us can be a bit of a tongue twister.
In any event, it snowed early Tuesday morning. I heard the something hitting the skylights and hoped it was snow, not rain. Rain did eventually fall and melt most of the snow away, but when everyone got up in the morning, everything had been softly covered by about an inch of snow. Getting the kiddies ready for school was interesting to watch. I'd forgotten how wiggly they can be and seeing two parents almost outnumbered by an equivalent number of enthusiastic offspring was quite an experience. I have to admit being glad that we don't have to do the same with my nieces and nephews.
After everyone had been dropped off at school and work respectively (UP's wife had to work) UP and I went to the Belgian Quarter of Cologne. We walked through a park whose name I don't know and had coffee at a place whose name I've forgotten...then more walking - to the Cologne Cathedral. When we were here a zillion years ago, the towers were not open to the public and they were covered in scaffolding. There's still scaffolding but it has moved. More Byzantine looking tiles and mosaics inside the Cathedral, as well as the controversial "new" stained glass window. The colors match the cathedral quite well but apparently the design did not, being abstract rather than one depicting your typical stained glass scenes. I could see both sides of the argument, which sometimes drives me crazy. Occasionally it's just restful to have only one idea in your head.
UP was game when I suggested that we climb the tower. Well - if you can count someone jumping up and down as "suggesting". The only drawback was that we got caught in waves of teenage hordes who were there - possibly a school field trip but it was a little hard to tell. I had expected to see Quasimodo up by the bell and the rest of the time I expected to see Harry and Dumbledore having a face-off with the rest of the cast of characters from the various Harry Potter movies. Somehow they seem to end up by bell tower looking things quite often...
Several more Christmas markets later and a walk down slushy side alleys to the Rhine, we went to lunch. A pub whose name I've forgotten where I had something like a brisket in BBQ sauce for lunch. Really yummy and not something you would be able to eat, then do any work in the afternoon but perfect for a really cold day when you are on vacation. Apparently it is a traditional dish (they describe it as braised Rhine beef or something similar)...followed by more walking. Sorely needed after such a heavy lunch...all I can say is that it was delicious and if I could, I would probably have it every week - I wonder how it would taste with white rice to soak up all that delicious sauce. Because the dish wasn't already filling enough, you know...Back to reality
Back in London, there remains a ton of things to be done: parking dispensation for the moving van, sort clothes, etc. for movers, get coffee so I am awake enough to direct the movers (rather than falling over which is what I feel like doing right now...apologies for any errors, I blame them on sleep typing.
So until next time, may the things that need to be done not pile up on you as they have done to me here.
No comments:
Post a Comment