Frazier Blog

“Eric Becker you have a phone call” woke me up. Soon after the sounds  of a high school band pierced the quiet castle air. I for once felt rested and my back pain was gone.

Packed up took a shower and then went and had breakfast. Pretty  standard the rolls were good. I still had not figured out my  transportation plan for the day. I looked at the timetables for the  boats last night and it looked too slow for a journey by myself. I  knew the girls were hanging around until evening so I figured I’d just  take the train to the bigger town of Mainz and figure it out from there.

I asked the girls for their plan and they said they scraped the  hanging around and wanted to take a boat towards Mainz. Sounded good  to me. However the boats threw a kink at us; no boats to Mainz. Oh well  we figured we would just boat till the end of the line and then hop a  train to Mainz.  Thankfully we consulted the hostel lady so we did not  end up on the wrong side of the river. Based on the boat and local  trains I checked my train to Amsterdam and I would be there by 8pm.  Sounds  good. We took some photos using flower pots as tripods and headed down  the trail. As we walked away the high school honor band serenaded us from above  our the castle. I will not miss those stairs.

The boat did not depart for 45 minutes so I walked around town.  Love the small town environment. Grabbed one last great picture of the castle and walked aboard.

What a beautiful day for a river cruise. While yesterday’s haze prevented the sun from fully soaking the valley with it’s light, the difference today looked like someone had cleaned a dirty screen or glasses. Everything in the valley had more color and it was possible  to see much further into the horizon.  Beautiful!
We acquired a bottle of wine before boarding and Devin secured glasses from the snack bar. As the boat left the dock we gave one last ”Prost” to the wonderful castle hostel.

A very relaxing cruise down the river while talking, writing post cards and enjoying the sights. Major landmarks were announced in four languages; German, English, Spanish and Japanese.

After getting of the boat we caught a local train to Mainz. The girls found their departure time in 40 minutes and I confirmed mine. Turns out I could either go through Frankfurt or Koln. In Koln I would have a 45 minute layover but would get to Amsterdam at the same time and  same train. Frances had told me yesterday that there was an amazing cathedral right outside of the train station. Koln here I come.

Said goodbye to the girls and I still had time to kill before my train left. Headed to a cyber cafe to find a hostel for tonight and make museum reservations. Had an extremely productive 40 minutes online. Had a place to sleep, ticket to Rajama and a time slot to visit Ann  Frank’s house.

Boarded my train to Koln. And started blogging.

I looked up from blogging and saw a castle and than a distinctive river  mile marker. Am I back on the Rhine? The train announcement said  Koblenz. I laughed inside as I had just made and a big U shape of  travel today. If I had been looking I would have seen St.Gore and Bacharach. Oh well the boat ride was great and I enjoyed traveling with my  new friends.  I was planning on connecting though Frankfurt at first.  The fun is in the journey right? Still funny!  I did not realize my  route change made a circle for me. Basically if I was in a hurry I could have just taken a local train to Kolbenz and saved 4 hours of travel time. But then I would not have enjoyed the river cruise.

Wow! the girls were not kidding about the impressive size of the Koln cathedral. Walking towards the entrance the cathedral towered just  outside the station. The lobby consist of large glass windows and ceiling, allowing the cathedral to invade your vision. I was excited and headed for the building. Very impressive inside as well. I would have  liked to spend more time there but needed to return to the station. After a quick tour and capturing the magnificent stained glass I returned to the station. I had tried to view the tomb of the three kings but they closed the area right before I reached it.

I bought some apple pastry and headed for the platform. While I enjoyed the bread part of the pastry the amount of filling overwhelmed me. I left about 1/4 of it behind and boarded the train. What a zoo! This was the most packed long distance train that did not require a  reservation that I had seen. I quickly figured out that the seats with the L.E.D. illuminated display above them meant someone had that seat. The car  I board quickly became a log jam. People met half way and wanted to go  different directions and no one moved. I ducked into seats for a second  and then pushed my way forward. My next obstacle was getting past a  baby stroller that had lost a wheel. After some rail employees joined  in the rescue effort I was able to get by.

I found an unreserved aisle seat and sat down. Got out my noise  canceling headphones and started blogging. After 45 minutes we reached the first stop and a good part of the train got off. My seat-mate left and I enjoyed the space. More ruckus occurred when new people with reservations got on and booted those seated in their seats. Gotta check those L.E.D’s.

Two groups of travelers who could not find seats together turned the restaurant car into a campsite of sorts. Lots of backpacks and a few big  camp chairs . I asked when they were starting the fire. They laughed  and  replied “soon”.  Met some girls from Norway who were nice but told  me that I should not visit.  It is too cold and the people are not nice.

I returned and kept blogging. Uneventful train ride besides by noise  canceling headphones breaking. I also think I saw undercover cops  doing an inspection on someone.

Got off at Amsterdam and after some brief tram confusion got on the right one. That made for my third mode of transportation for the day.

Easily found my hostel and checked in. The websites were right; rooms in Amsterdam are tiny. Reminded me of my freshman dorm room except there are four people instead of two.

Got some alright pizza for dinner. Found a linksys hotspot and did some things online while waiting for my food. Noticed the World Cup game was tomorrow and instantly decided to stay an extra night. Finished dinner and then explored the city for a little bit. I quickly got tired and called it a night. Caught the last tram of the night home.

And I’m pretty sure I’m going to write a travel guide once I get home. ”21 days to see Europe, it is possible” or something like that.

Ready to explore,
Paul