Flat plains drifter…Germany #24

Walking back to the hotel last night,a very still warming evening,I heard some Latino music so headed to see what was going on and there were maybe fifty couples dancing the Tango.I wanted to take a video as it was quite a spectacle but I couldn’t see anyone else with their phones out and I know many Germans take exception to being filmed ( which I fully understand) and it’s hard to stop a couple mid flow to ask permission,sort of ruins the moment…looking at it made me see why a lot of women are attracted to men that can dance,especially the Latino dances like the Tango,simpatico movement an‘ all that stuff…

On the subject sex( don’t worry I’m not going there!) I realised I’m getting old as I walked past another bar,peered in,and saw an attractive scantily clad woman dancing on the table.My first thought wasn’t “ oh look an attractive scantily clad woman dancing on the table” it was “ I bet that’s a health & safety issue”  

Sometimes life is a lot less complicated when you’re old but also not as much fun…I didn’t go in.

Last full day in Düsseldorf and it’s blisteringly hot so of course I’m having a bottle of Peroni in the shade.One thing about this city is it’s great for just hanging out watching the world go by if that’s your thing.Very relaxing…got a three hour train journey to Bremen tomorrow so in no mood to knock myself out doing stupid stuff like moving around in the sun.I‘ll leave that to others…

 

Sitting outside an Italian/Turkish cafe this morning at 10am having coffee surrounded by hard as nails looking middle aged Turkish fellas all chowing down on elaborate ice creams is probably the most incongruous thing I’ve seen so far this trip.I wasn’t expecting them to be sporting uzis in support of the Ottoman Empire hunting Kurds but the macho metre was very low.Gotta say the ice cream looked damn good too…ice cream really is a huge thing in Germany and in truth the weather barely seems to matter…however not one of their eis shops plays an out of tune “Greensleeves” they clearly have much to learn…

The Brit stag party outside the bar over the way have already started flashing their hairy arses at passers bye and it’s just gone 4-30pm…think it could be a long night for some…

The one thing you do quickly notice about that long strip of bars is that it’s as much about  being seen as about getting trashed.There are many having a drink but there's probably just as many,if not more,parading themselves up and down the promenade in a desire to be seen & ogled at.Not me of course as I have already been immortalised by the world famous photographer known as “Some Polish Bloke”so I’m secure in my local fame…it’s a rich city and the rich need to show themselves…meanwhile the Auberge bar has rock chicks and that’s good enough for me thank you very much…

The parrots on Köningsalle are starting to get loud ( not as bad as the Walthamstow parrots but still loud) and it’s annoying so I’m on my way back to the hotel…

Next day and just pootling along waiting to checkout and I have also finally booked my last part of the trip which is not in Groningen but in Zeist which is part of Utrecht.I was waiting for a reply to a question I asked a hotel in Groningen but they never came back to me so I got this relatively cheap room instead…then that will be that.All over etc…

So goodbye Düsseldorf.Once again it’s been great and now off to Bremen in about half hour.Some confusion about if I have to chance at Munster.The board says yes but my app and the info desk says no…we shall find out one way or another.I expect the train to be rammed as it’s coming from Munich and going to Hamburg.Finding a seat will be fun.Wish me luck…

See ya all later…

Flat plains drifter…Germany #23

Sitting in a cafe bar at 10-30am next to Carlsplatz market having my morning coffee and a fella sits down close by,orders an Altbier ( it’s the local brew served in small tumbler glasses) looks at his phone for maybe a minute then gets up and walks off without touching his beer.The waitress even looked over to me to see if I knew what had happened but obviously not…she did say that at least he paid upfront! Not an earth shattering occurrence I grant you but one of life‘s little mysteries…

Carlsplatz is a small market on the edge of Altstadt.Probably half a football pitch in size but walk through and you get assaulted by the smells of every fresh food & flowers imaginable.There’s also numerous little cafe bars too plus a few craft shops.It appears expensive but I’m not too sure it is…I’m not a market person but it’s always a pleasure to stroll around there…

Just bumped into my old mate Mr Paparazzi again strolling around the town.Now if I were paranoid…anyway he said if I WhatsApp him he’ll send me the pic so that was good of him…all this attention is beginning to turn my head.How long before I start lashing out or wearing a bag over my head? ( insert own jokes here)

Not bad pics.No charge either…

Currently having a Weißbier down by the Rhine.There’s a raft of cafe bars on the promenade which always seem to do good business whenever I’m down here.I don’t know if they bother to open during the winter months as I guess it can get pretty bleak however the one I use has two huge screens they show various sports on so maybe they open for big football games at that time.It would pull in local punters that’s for sure and the overhead canopies do appear to big heaters attached so maybe they do…sorry I’m rambling a bit.

Anyway I had better start looking at the final leg of my trip soon.I’m here for another full day after today then Bremen for three days before a final three days in the Netherlands.I don’t have to go there of course but I’m due to get the Eurostar from Amsterdam on the afternoon of the 25th so want to be relatively close to there…I had said Groningen but might see if I can get closer.I might even check out Amsterdam itself.It’s a hard life eh?

Having a look through various social media sites and there seems to be a profusion of MAGA types saying things like “ well I have supported Trump for ten years but enough is enough” and all I am seeing is “ I am a really really bad judge of character and have been all my life” Nobody with either brains or ethics saw Trump for anything than he ever was and you can’t absolve yourself from blame for allowing your country to become a cesspool of hate & cruelty by sitting in the social media confessional box hoping a quick three hail Mary’s will wash away all the shit you and your kind have,and continue to do,put everyone through.It’s gonna get a lot worse you stupid fuckers…whilst the hook “Fuck around and find out” is cute and funny it implies only the terminally stupid are finding out whereas in fact we all are except many of us knew what would happen as soon as the mentally deficient voted him in…

Sorry went off on one but it can’t be ignored…sadly the whole world is linked to what happens in the USA…maybe this is the ideal opportunity for the rest of us to cut ties or at least cut dependence with them…

That’s my lot for today,sorry about being a bit ranty at the end there…

Flat plains drifter…Germany #22

It’s one of those raincoat & sunglasses type of days with the odd “ fuck me here’s an enormous downpour better jump into a bar” episodes thrown in.The good thing about being in the Altstadt Düsseldorf is there’s never an excuse to get caught out by the rain as there’s bars everywhere…and sometimes something weird might happen like just now a photographer ( Polish fella) came over to ask if he could take a pic of me for his portfolio.I laughed and asked why and he said my face has character( ie an auld fucker) but he insisted I didn’t smile( exude dahlink ! No he didn’t say that) anyway I was chuffed and the pic was good too…gonna check out his instagram page later…

Anyway after 30 seconds of being an unwitting victim of the paparazzi the rain’s coming in again so it looks like I’m stuck here for a wee bit…

I am in a different part of  Düsseldorf than normal.Still relatively close to the Hauptbahnhof but slightly rougher than where I’d usually stay.First thing I noticed was outside the station they’d cleared away a lot of the street people.Turns out they’d moved on to close to where I’m staying.Probably half a dozen little groups of around thirty altogether.They didn’t trouble me at all as I walked through them…this city does seem to have a fair problem with those that have fallen through the cracks for one reason or another.To be fair probably no more or less than many but they’re more visible here…which is especially true as you sit outside one of the bars in the Altstadt…

Something I saw today rankled with me though.As I was walking up a narrow alley there was a church at the end with a funeral taking place.The coffin was just being driven off and the mourners were milling around outside no doubt waiting to follow.I stood back out of respect not wanting to barge through but then I noticed not ten feet away from the mourners two beggars holding cups out towards them.Now if people are genuinely homeless I have sympathy however sometimes it’s not about you and there’s a thing called reading the room.I know many people who would have been justified in twatting the fuckers…

This all sounds like I’m having a pop at Düsseldorf but far from it.This is my fifth or sixth visit over the years so clearly I have a lot of love for the city but neither am I going to paper over the cracks of it‘s evident problems…oddly enough just had to tell someone off who tried to bother me whilst eating.This time though it was a god botherer trying flog me stuff…haha I’m going to hell…

There’s some loud English types in the bar at the moment.Probably starting a crawl that might not extend past this stretch( maybe 40 bars) meanwhile I’m hanging around until my favourite little Düsseldorf shithole opens in about an hour so I can talk football with the English barman.Unfortunately he’s a Chelsea fan but I’m just gonna have to suck that fact up…

It was good to see Gary and be in the Auberge bar again.Luckily we didn’t discuss football much but when he inevitably bought up the subject of Chelsea being world club champions I had to remind him as Trump hijacked the whole ceremony the title really belongs to him…anyway the Auberge bar is like a smaller version of the Giffard in Wolverhampton but with less frills…

That’s it for today my lovelies…see ya.

Flat plains drifter…Germany #21

Last word on Magdeburg.What you notice as an English speaking tourist in cities not geared to international tourism ie Berlin,Hamburg,Munich etc is a lack of English anywhere.On street signs,menus or just in general and very few people bother with it.Magdeburg is not a small place by any imagination it’s just not required so many don’t bother and why should they? It’s up to us to get round it…even though my German skills are practically non existent I can read a menu sufficiently to know when I’m ordering chicken instead of live squid…you get by.

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.

Flat plains drifter…Germany #20

Last day in Magdeburg.Only a short stay over as I’m off to Düsseldorf in the morning.Even though it’s not particularly far it’s gonna take nearly five hours although one of those hours will be at Hannover as the original change gave me just five minutes to get the connection and frankly I’d rather hang around for an hour than put myself in a tizzy chasing my tail trying to make the train on time,and that’s all before the vagaries of DB kick in…this is why Interrail is good if you need to chop & change trains at any time…

Think I will try to do that most English thing today and attempt to listen to the cricket whilst abroad…got my airhead AirPods with me and after a few false dawns last night got them working again.Turns out I had pressed a wrong button on the app and silenced them or something.I don’t know really,they’re working now so the trick is to never ever visit the app again and hope they keep working.I‘m a technical genius after all…looks like we have got some of the British sunshine too!

Breakfast today is gonna be apple strudel with ice cream.Or it could be lunch.Who cares? If only there was a word that describes an inbetween meal…

Not successful in the listening to Test Match Special on my phone so will have to make do with BBC updates.Hopefully won’t last too long after lunch ( theirs not mine as I’m having Weißbier for my lunch)

Walking around Magdeburg and it appears the streets are empty on a Monday afternoon which is most unusual for a German city.Many of the shopping areas are rammed in all the ones I’ve been to over the years.I thought it might be because it’s more spread out than most but then I went into one of the many malls here in search of a REWE supermarket and I found where all the people were…packed to the gills.

Still not found what I would term a “proper “ bar and it’s not looking hopeful ( ie I have stopped looking) They are fairly rare in Germany as most places seem to be food oriented whereas our pubs are the opposite…even though I have only been knocked back once with just having a drink I still ask.That knock back was in Mainz where every other bar was teaming and this one was empty insisting food be bought.Seemed to be a colossal own goal to my eyes…

So there we have it.Magdeburg is worth a visit but maybe no more than two days.It badly lacks a focal point in the city being too spread out and also it has an area named Reform and if that doesn’t make any self respecting fella go limp nothing will…in sharp contrast where I’m going to tomorrow,Düsseldorf,is probably one big focal point having more bars than any place has a right to have in about half a square mile.I love Düsseldorf…

Had an old fella perch himself at my table just.Pissed and getting more so.Shouting at the sparrows & spitting when he spoke.It was a bad half hour but my look of relief must have resignated with the waitress when he paid up and left cos‘ I definitely got a sympathetic sideways glance…think he was a regular visitor.Luck of the draw when travelling on your own…to be fair he wasn’t aggressive with me or anything I just think he wanted someone to vent to even if they didn’t have a Scobby what he was on about.I picked up a few things but not a lot between dodging the sprays….ho hum.

Laters Peeps…

Flat plains drifter…Germany #19

The sun‘s out and I left my shades back in the hotel…mind you I’m under cover having lunch & beer so ho hum.Had another soup,this time tomato and it was as good as yesterday‘s and also €2 cheaper ( different cafe bar) I doing more soup as a meal as I find a pub meal,either in mainland Europe or back in the UK,is always far too big for me and I don’t like wasting food…

So then Magdeburg? I can’t get a handle on the place,now as a caveat it’s a Sunday and Sunday’s in Germany are generally weird days to suss out a new city,however the layout has confused me somewhat.Lots of very long wide boulevards with no discernible centre as far as I can tell,everything seems too spread out…most German Altstadt‘s are old or rebuilt as old,centres where everything gravitates from but that doesn’t seem to be the case here.I might have missed an important turn off somewhere and be completely wrong of course…

Even so the place appears very friendly.Not many tourists although a few Germans on tour as it’s a historic city and plenty of hotels which makes me think it could be a large conference area being pretty central and all that but not being Berlin where there’s too many distractions…

There are a good few historic old buildings knocking around especially churches and the like but my favourite is a place called Hundertwasser Grüne Zitadelle which a fairly big pink building which looks like it was designed by Salvador Dali,The Grimms & Lewis Carroll on an acid trip and the council decided that was the best they were gonna get from them so went with it.It’s glorious and what’s better is there are numerous coffee shops etc inside the inner courtyards…well worth a visit…

And the birds can live here free of charge too…I bet the sparrows have already taken over the little freeloaders….

Just seen that Live Aid was 40 years ago today.We all have our memories of it and mine is watching it all day & all night in my local when I lived in Southampton and it’s the first time I’d been in a pub the didn’t close for the best part of 24 hours…funnily enough that feat never managed to feed the world…

Anyway back in the hotel now and on reflection maybe I was harsh on Magdeburg earlier.I walked past a few places that had filled up and appeared ok.Some places you just happen into good bars by accident but others you probably need either more time to suss it out or some inside knowledge and I think this town might be the latter rather than former…

Laters peeps…

Flat plains drifter…Germany #18

I can tell I’m still in the old GDR cos’ of the sparrows.Old East Germany is the only place I see the little fuckers…I’m sure the Stasi stole them all from London and forbade them to leave…

Got to Magdeburg fine,the hotel is a short walk from the Hauptbahnhof and all’s good,it has a lift and everything…oh and a six digit number to access front door & hotel room so I’d better not lose that…

Just having a look around locally and I’m clearly in the bit away from the normal Saturday shenanigans but it’s ok,found a friendly cafe bar and having a Budweiser ( a real one naturally) might go crazy and eat something later.The Kartoffelsuppe ( potato soup) looks appealing.Don’t be fooled into thinking the old GDR is cheap as chips.Their food prices are pretty steep..,

Whilst I had time in my room earlier I booked up four days in Düsseldorf after this.Then I still have six days left and will probably do what I intended and do Aachen and Groningen…definitely doing Groningen if only because the “ Gron”bit is pronounced all phlegmy like an Afrikaner dry heaving…

Just realised the cafe bar I’m in is a Czech/ German fusion…ie extra dumplings with everything!

Well that Kartoffelsuppe was to die for.It nearly gave me a heart attack! Seriously though it started off pretty thin and I wondered what the hell this was but once the potatoes & veg started to mix it got thicker & thicker.Lovey heated large bread roll with it too.Just the job…

More shocking news! I seem to have lost weight as I’m actually able to do some buttons up on my shirt.( even if they’re a little tight)More news to follow after the weather…yep still pissing down.Mind you it’s a boon for the cafe bar I’m in as loads of people are seeking shelter.Every cloud an’ all that…

Every button! Not seen the like for years and not as much breathing in as you might think…ok a little bit but even so( no doubt it will soon go back on)

Because my little raincoat was soaked I decided to dry it off hanging up in the bathroom.Because I’m a heathen I hung it up by it‘s hood rather than the hook provided.Because I’m an old fella I need to visit the bathroom several times a night and because I forget things I gave myself a cheap horror movie jump scare at about 3-30am…