Got the train fine,an empty double decker,as I got on the rains came and for the next hundred miles or so followed us cross country.It was the sort of rain that basically comes from one massive cloud blanketed across the visible sky,flies in horizontally and defies you to be outside in it,luckily I was‘nt…
I know many of you would find such a journey dull but I love the endless fields of crops that span to the horizon only interspersed occasionally with a village of twenty odd houses and a church…there’s also regiments of pylons marching off into the distance sometimes being waved on by wind turbines.It’s only when you see them together you realise how bloody massive those wind turbines are…out of nowhere the train cuts through dark forbidding forests where nightmares are born…the rain just added to the mystery of it all for me…
When I was a kid I went to Austria with my mum a couple of times and one of those trips involved a coach journey through Germany.My abiding memory is having an early breakfast then heading off down the road( too small to be an Autobahn) Fields that stretched for ever either side covered with an early morning mist as the sun came up.It’s stuck with me all these years.Sorry getting a bit flowery here…
Outside Hannover station having a smoke and I have to say there were a good few damaged people around,incidentally Hannover is where our royal family originally came from.Just saying…
By the way I’m currently on the train to Düsseldorf and the weather has turned into “ wear a coat or stay in the pub?” Type of day…
If you’re ever on a German train the chances are you’ll be aware of their love for an allotment,much as we have the same love.Most of the times coming into a town or city the first thing you see is a well structured fairly large allotment,usually with a well built shed adorned with a German flag.It’s one of the very few times you’ll see a German flag flying oddly…anyway they all look very nice and well maintained an’ all that and as I was on a nostalgia trip the buildings look a bit pre-fab and got me thinking of the term “Jerry built” not something you hear these days but back in the day it was quite the insult,something knocked up quickly which will collapse equally quickly…of course the “Jerry built” pre fabs outlasted their original use by decades and after about 40/50 years became much sought after properties…irony sweet irony.
Had to change my plans slightly and ignore going to Aachen in favour of a return to Bremen for three days.For some reason the hotel prices are double and I don’t want to visit that badly.Groningen is still on at the moment but the Netherlands hotels seem to be expensive no matter where you go…we will see.
Coming into the Ruhr Valley now.Another one of my favourite vista from the train being as it’s virtually wall to wall factories from Bielefeld to Düsseldorf…it’s the innate Yamyam in me I’m afraid…if there was a river gorge or mountain pass on this trip I’d probably never leave the train!
That’s all for today.More tomorrow hopefully…ta ta for now.
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