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I’m just on the 11:17 train to Cologne. Well not exactly, I’ll actually be on 3 trains to get there for around an hour each with maybe 20 minutes waiting for the change each time. It was just under 50 Euros which I suppose isn’t that bad but regular hits like that aren’t great for the budget. I think I might steal the next Vespa I come across.

My first change is at Trier and I’m not actually sure what country that is in, but I’m guessing it’s already well across the border in Germany. Then from there I head to Koblenz and after that I pick up a train heading to Munster which passes Cologne. It also passes Bonn though which is only 20 minutes away so I think I might stop off for a wee day trip, even if it’s only for a couple of hours. I mean the former West Germany capital must have something to offer?

So I think it was the right decision not to stay very long in Luxembourg. I got there at about 7 last night and after a lasagne at the hostel cafe I just walked round for 3 or 4 hours. It’s nice enough in patches but I didn’t feel the need to hang around for more today. It’s good to be able to say, yes Luxembourg, I’ve been there. It’s a bit like getting Ged Brannan in a Panini pack, okay it’s no Uwe Rosler but it’s still another one in the book.

The indigenous language in Luxembourg is Letzebuergesch (try saying that after 6 Stellas) which is a dialect of German but everyone speaks French and most people English too. Except the lady taking my order in McDonalds this morning, who greeted my question of “Vous parlez anglais?” with a shake of the head. Ah, in that case “Je prends une petite framboise au lait SVP”. I knew this was unlikely to be the correct term but I was hoping it would be close enough and it was kind of as she knew what I wanted apart from she corrected me and said fraise. It was then that I realised I’d ordered a small rasberry milkshake (sort of), oops, though that actually sounds quite nice. Anyone know what the correct term for milkshake is rather than asking for strawberries with milk?

Another reason I’m not gutted to be leaving is that the hostel wasn’t the best. Out of 30 or so I’ve stayed at it is the first one I’ve known to charge for wifi (not a nominal fee either) and it’s also the only one I can remember not having a kitchen for self-catering. Brekkie was also really early (and bobbins) as was check-out. Also some of the Hostelling International hostels can be a bit sterile and void of personality as this one was. It doesn’t make for a good atmosphere to meet people, the place felt like somewhere schools would use for trips and I’m pretty sure there were some there.

But the most annoying thing was that I’d gone to bed at half 11 (early for me) to catch up on some kip and it took me an hour to nod off, the other 2 blokes in the room were already asleep judging by the horrific sound of their nostrils.

Then at about 1ish I was rudely awakened by 2 German fellas checking in who turned all the lights on and were crashing about. I shot them some dirties as I was well miffed. When you check in late you sort your stuff out in the morning and just use your torch/phone/whatever to get yourself in your bed, you certainly don’t turn the sink light on to brush your teeth (especially when you can do that in the bathroom in the corridor!). What’s worse is the same thing happened again with another German an hour later. Then another German bloke got up at 6 for the start of breakfast, I could tell he was going to the night before, he had that look about him. He was in an out then constantly with more of them following suit regularly. For a 6 man room it was more like Piccadilly station all bleedin’ night/early morning.

I’d estimate I got between 1 and 2 hours in total, I got more on the over-night Yank trains! Not the best re-introduction to hostelling but it goes with the territory that you get the odd bad experience so I’m not unduly worried.

Sorry about the rant, all these Germans have made me grumpy. Probably not the best time to head to Germany really.

I’ve been listening a lot to ‘The Gulag Orkestar’ by Beirut lately, It’s hauntingly beautiful and has a great invigorating Eastern European feel to it. Also been listening to a bit of ‘Rain Dogs’ by Tom Waits (just like Chuck Norris, get it?) for good measure.

I can confirm that Trier is indeed in Germany, in fact my Europe guide tells me that as well as being the oldest German city it is also the birth place of Karl Marx (I like his brother Harpo best). Blimey.

Well I never, I just got on a German train that was a full 2 minutes late. What is an Englishman on the continent to do when his Euro colleagues ruin long cultivated stereotypes. Scadalous stuff.

So I have 2 nights in Cologne and then I see my revised Germany tinerary as being Hamburg-Berlin-Dresden. I keep trying to find a way to sneak Munich in but Bavaria is in too an awkward location when I want to go to Poland after Germany. I’m having the same problem with Lithuania and Latvia as I will probably go to Warsaw and Krakow in Poland but I can’t see a good way to work it from Dresden if I wanted to go to Vilinius and Riga too. I’ll come up with somet though!

The photo is off a statue of Ludwig Van. He’s from Bonn you see, and don’t they let you know it.

Bonn was alright actuallly, maybe not worth a night but definetely worth a few hours. I had a stroll down The Rhine, a sausage roll, a pint (actually it was more like one these little just over half pint thimbles they insist on serving outside Blighty) and some fresh rasberries from a market where the old lady who couldn’t speak English (another stereotype in smithereens!) taught me the German for rasberries and I returned the favour. The pilsener I had was very nice, it was a Veltins (like the Veltins arena where City mullered Schalke in the UEFA Cup), it shaln’t be my last.

Anyway, guten tag country number 3.