Chris and Emily

We had to get up early today in preparation of meeting Horst, Koras step dad. He was going to pick us up at 11am, which normally is a civilized hour, but as we’ve been sleeping until 12pm these past few days, 11am feels like we’re being picked up at 7am, which is well to early lets be honest! Still, we were up and ready.

Horst is lovely. He picked us up, and brought us back to his home in Luxembourg which from Trier is about a 40 min drive, all the while he was introducing himself and filling us in on what was what as we passed by it. Germany and Luxembourg are divided by a river that runs between the landscape, we went over bridges here and there and at times became a little confused as to whether we were now in Germany or Luxembourg, and Horst was very patient in saying “No, still Germany…” until we asked one to many times and he said “you know what? I tell you when we are in Luxembourg” It is VERY pretty this part of the world. We drove along and eventually Chris and I petered out with conversation and instead had our noses pressed up against the windows taking in the views. It is so green here, and the fields of wheat are all so golden, there are vineyards, rivers, mountains, forests… it is all so gorgeous!

We eventually arrived to Horsts home where we met Heidi (Koras mum, who is just a complete, crazy angel!) and Chris’ distant cousin Janet and her husband Andres who are also both staying here on holiday from there home in Germany. We were then even more grateful to Horst for putting us up, being that we are complete strangers to him and he already has a full house, but still, he took us in and has offered us amazing hospitality. Such a lovely man!

We were offered a ‘light lunch’ that consisted of so many delicious meats, cheeses and nibbles that we couldn’t say no and came away with rather full tummies. Light lunch, HA! When the food is so good and you just can’t resist eating it all, it hardly works out to be light! After this delicious lunch we all head out for a sight seeing tour of Luxembourg. Luxembourg is NOT a big country, 80kms up, 40kms wide. We drove to the north of Luxembourg and it took us just under 2 hours and that was with a few little stops here and there. Again, we all started the drive chatting and talking, but as the scenery became more and more gorgeous we all fell silent, taking in the views and scenery. We drove through dense, thick, green forest and then, suddenly, there was a gigantic, amazing, gorgeous, fully in tact, still standing, Walt Disney replica, castle. I couldn’t help but exclaim out loud “oh my gosh! Look at that castle!!” Pointing it out to everyone, who then in turn all gasped and made appropriate ohhhh, ahhhh sounds. Not only is the castle still in tact and wonderful looking, the outer walls and keepers gates are all in tact too, and inside all of these are buildings that are still in use today. Some of the buildings are tiny, little doors, little windows, some have been renovated and made into nice café/restaurants, and just to see exactly HOW nice these cafes now are, we stopped in at one for a drink. It was lovely to sit outside, look at the old walls and imagine how the city would have looked back in the day. It was a steep little city with steep roads; I personally would have had a horse back in the day if I lived there because I’d be danged if I could walk up those hills everyday! We then left and made tracks home once more so that we would be on time for our dinner reservation.

Unfortunately Janet was not feeling well today, a little too much to drink last night so, apart from the little sight seeing tour she participated in, we did not get to meet/see her for long today as she opted to go back to bed when we got home. So, the five of us head out to dinner at Horsts little local restaurant, where, he is such a loyal customer they gave the table free appetizers, which was lovely, though, sad for me as it was crab and avocado pate. I’m told that it was very very nice and refreshing. I believe it. Now, the menus were all in German/Luxembourg-nese so reading the menus proved a problem for Chris and I but thankfully we had many people there too interpret it for us, the only problem was, there was so much on the menu and the translating took such a long time that we were still interpreting when the waitress came back to take the orders. I had remembered a ‘safe’ option, which I had been told was “chicken piles” which I just hoped meant little stacks of, and not anything else (they eat alllll the meat of the animals here, so you never know what you’re going to get…) all I knew was that it came with chips and salad so it sounded quite tame to me and the good choice to make. Chris on the other hand wasn’t sure what he wanted so Heidi, being a good host, said “would you like a horseblahblahblahblah steak? It is good, lots of protein” So Chris went “steak? Yeah that sounds good, I’ll have that please” It was only when the waitress had talked Chris into getting the red wine sauce with the meal and had disappeared the penny dropped… “Sorry” we asked “did you say HORSE STEAK?” “Yes” Heidi nodded enthusiastically “horse, you know” she mimicked riding a horse “Horse” and nodded once more in understanding. “Ohhhhh” we said “Yes, horse…” I have to admit, my tummy did a little flip at this. I’m not good with ‘odd’ meats. I like my chicken, beef and lamb and that is it. I’m a bit picky I admit. The thought of eating crocodile, emu, kangaroo etc is not good for me, and thought of eating a horse really made me go “oh god!” Still, it was ordered and it was Chris’ meal, so it was okay. I had my chicken piles coming. Good ol’ safe chicken! The meals came out; I had ‘chicken piles’ which was actually, to my delight, chicken and leek pie and Chris, his horse. Horse steak looks just like beef steak, and I have to admit, didn’t look or smell that bad. Chris says that it was very tasty and just like a lean cut of beef, so, with this in mind I asked for a VERY LITTLE bit please, but the more burnt part… and I admit, it wasn’t soooo bad, but it took me a long time to get the thought of eating black beauty out of my head. All little girls’ dream of riding horses, not eating them!

Dinner was lovely and relaxed and a great chance to get to know everyone. We greatly enjoyed this meal. After this Heidi and her friend Marriott took us for a night tour of Luxembourg City. It has to be said. Luxembourg is just amazing and gorgeous and utterly amazing! I really think that this city is by far my favorite (thus far) While most of the European cities we have visited have been dead flat, Luxembourg is on a hill, with half the city sitting on the top of the hill and the other ‘down town’ which is, appropriately, at the bottom of the hill. Marriott was a fantastic host, stopping at all the places of interest (sometimes illegally parking just so we wouldn’t have to walk, that’s my kind of girl and what I call a fantastic tour guide!) showing us ‘the hollow tooth’ the liberty statue (which was pulled down during the WW2, some local Luxembourgians grabbed it and hid it away as the Germans wanted to completely destroy it, they hid it so well that it was only found and restored back to it’s original state and place of pride 15 years ago! They found it hidden under the football stadium, so obviously it was men who put it there. Oh, and also, the Germans put in jail the locals who had tried, but failed to protect and hide this statue, which I think is just a bit rough, but then, it was WW2 and it was the Germans… enough said really) We also saw the palace, the defensive wall, the cathedral and much much more! It is just a gorgeous, untouched city full of history and wonderful back drops of old bridges, rivers, and green green gardens. I think that Chris should get a job working on the palace computers and I can look after the royals’ children just so that we can stay here. But then, the royals are a tad old and by the looks of them, past their child baring days, so perhaps Chris should just work on their computers and I’ll just stay as a lady of leisure… now, that’s more like it! We had a drink in a very busy, crowded, loud, but very funky bar with the girls before heading back home where Horst was waiting for us with a bottle of wine. We couldn’t be rude, and despite the fact that our eyes were closing and we were forced to pry them open manually, we stayed up and drank the very tasty Luxembourg wine with him and Heidi before crashing into bed at about 2am.

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Chris and Emily on July 14, 2009 from Contern, Luxembourg

from the travel blog: Europe 2009

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What a bloody day we had yesterday/today! We left Stockholm on the over night train that then got us into a place called Malmo at the bottom of Sweden at 6am, we then had to catch a commuter train to Copenhagen, we waited there for 2 hours, then jumped on another train to Hamburg, only this was no normal train ride.

We jumped on this train tired and in desperate need of a good long shower and coffee. This leg of the journey was going to take 7 hours, so we settled in with our books, our IPods and our laptop which we thought we would watch a DVD on. We read a bit, looked out the window a bit, ate our free brekki that was brought around and helped ourselves to the not so great, but free, coffee that was onboard before saying “okay, lets pop a movie on” We pulled the little blind down and popped our ear plugs in, we were oblivious to the world and what was going on. We vaguely heard an announcement in German and thought “oh yeah, another station, we still have 5 hours to go, it’s not ours” so we kept watching, some people grabbed their bags and hopped off and we thought nothing of it, and then, from behind the slightly see through blind I thought “ohh, that truck is REALLY close!” so I lifted the blind and then we became very very confused… there were large trucks surrounding us and caravans all around and all I could think was “what are all these cars doing on the railway tracks!? What is going on?” and then we noticed EVERYone was getting off the train… what?!? The carriage was now empty but for 2 other girls so I asked them if they knew what was going on, they said “yeah, everyone has to hop off the train while we’re on the ship” HUH? I was so confused and I didn’t like not knowing what was going on! We hopped off in a daze and realized that we were at the bottom of a ship. Somehow, while we were watching our DVD, oblivious to the world, our train had boarded a ship that would take us from Denmark to Germany. I didn’t know that we could do that. We walked up the several flights of stairs and Wohler; we were on a ship, complete with another supermarket, bars and restaurants. We went up to the top deck and watched the world go by before popping back down to stroll through the shop and see what was on offer and then recoil at the cost of things. This boat ride took about 40 minutes; it was quite nice to get some fresh air before jumping back on the train. We were now in Germany on our way to Hamburg where we had 20 minutes to connect to our next train to Munich (or Munchen as the locals call it) but there was a hitch, a “slight” two hour hitch that had us not only missing our next train to Munchen but also having to change trains again in some random tiny little station just outside Hamburg. We are not so sure what caused this long delay but it was whispered that someone had thrown themselves in front of a train, which in turn meant that every train travelling in our direction was held up. We made it into Hamburg finally, two hours late and more than just a tad annoyed by now. We were a little concerned about making it to Munich now, as we have come to know that once you have missed your train it is not always so easy to just jump on another and expect to have a seat. We jumped off the train and ran through to the departure area where we saw on the large board that there was a train leaving for Munich in 3 minutes. Well, we RAN through the station and up to a conductor and briefly and wildly explained our situation to him. He looked a little taken back, these two very tired looking, red faced, sweaty and now puffy Australians speaking to him in such a hurried manner and with accents he could not quite understand, we must have appeared slightly crazy to him! He allowed us on the train, telling us to go to carriage 2 and try and find a seat that was not yet taken. I hate this part. All the seats are always taken and you always end up next to someone who is slightly odd in some sense. I know I sound judgmental, but with all my experience I have found this to be true. So, we managed to find seats at a table of 4 and sat with a women who, despite having plenty of room to store her very large bag at the front or back of the train, insisted on having it RIGHT next to her, preventing people from walking down the aisle. It was packed and noisy and sweaty and as we were so tired this highly irritated us. The conductor came by, and when he got to our seats had to try and jump over this large suitcase all the while asking to see our tickets. We showed him ours and then asked if there was a chance of moving to the first class section, as you see sir, we have purchased first class tickets. He said that he did not know the situation of the first class but to have a look and if free, then yes, we could. So, Chris jumped over the suitcase and discovered that first class was… empty. There were only 3 seats taken at the time and there were about 45 seats free. You little ripper! We jumped up and grabbed our bags and hastily made a retreat to the comfort of ‘first class’ as we did so I heard the lady opposite us ask her friend “where are they going?” and the other one replied with an exaggerated sniff and ‘posh’ accent “first class” Jealous old cow I thought, just because YOU want to be in first class doesn’t mean you have to mock us! So then, sitting in first class was even nicer than it would have originally been as I thought of that mocking woman being left to sit in the squashy cart. A better person would have offered her their ticket, but not me, it was a help yourself affair here!

This train ride took FOREVER. Well, it seemed to anyhow. It was another 6 hours on train and by now we were both completely and utterly OVER train travel. We played many games of cards, watched DVDs, listened to music, finished our books, ate dinner… but were still so incredibly bored and restless. ARGH! The only good thing about the entire past 24 hours of train travel was the fact that our sleeper train last night was just the two of us and had it’s on clean bathroom (with shower, very nice!) It took so so long to get to Munich, we felt that we could have gotten out and run faster than the train (but only if we were superman or had go go gadget legs) but FINALLY we got into Munich at 10pm. It was dark, it was wet, but it was Munich. Thank god! We set off from the train station to the hotel in the wrong direction, but thankfully corrected this after a few minutes so it wasn’t too drastic, and half an hour later were lying on our beds groaning of how tired we were. Yet, we couldn’t shower and fall into bed just yet as we were meeting Kora, Chris’ distant cousin, at 11pm. She is staying at the same hotel on a work conference. So, prizing the eyes open, we met up for a few drinks at 11pm and chatted and got to know one another a little, and at 2pm, FINALLY fell into bed, where Chris slept and I… well, I was now over tired and couldn’t sleep!!! So, I watched some Michael Jackson tribute thing in German before deciding that it was torturous and turning it off to try and get some sleep.

written by

Chris and Emily on July 7, 2009 from Munich, Germany

from the travel blog: Europe 2009

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Trips:

Shorthand link:

Buddy List

The meeting of Horst and the eating of horse

Contern, Luxembourg

English class with Kora

Trier, Germany

Pancakes with St Mary

Trier, Germany

Free guided tour of the city

Trier, Germany

We make Max dinner (and Kora too)

Trier, Germany

Max make dinner

Trier, Germany

Pelting along the Autobahn and the meeting of Max

Trier, Germany

Finally made it to Munich, it's a miracle!

Munich, Germany

Ferry into Sweden

Stockholm, Sweden

Last day of Riga before leaving by ferry

Riga, Latvia

Heading South?