...and Repeat

Trip Start Dec 16, 2007
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Trip End Feb 24, 2008


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Friday, January 11, 2008

This morning I spent some time on an internet terminal at the foyer of the Travelodge in London fixing up my 2 previous entries, which I had typed on and submitted from my mobile. I'm now back in the land of wireless internet and am thus typing this entry on Belinda's laptop.

Bucking our trends thus far on the trip we managed to leave the hotel relatively on time. Our bags are now noticeably heavier than when we arrived so the slug to St Pancras Station was straining but we did arrive at a good time to check in for our train's departure at 10am.

The service ran well, as has always been my experience on the Eurostar, but Belinda and I commented on how dated the train was. The breakfast that we purchased was satisfying, if not a bit expensive, and served by a nice French lady in a very smart skirt. We had a good connection to the Thalys at Brussels and soon learnt that the food and drink on this train would not be as reasonably priced. We just got drinks for lunch, with which to enjoy our Niederegger marzipan stollen. Yummy!

Once in Koln it was a simple ride on the S Bahn (line 13) out to Frankfurter Strasse Station, toward the airport, and then a short walk to the Etap. The hotel is in a mini commercial park in a field near the station and required self-service check-in with a machine. Unfortunately our room has clearly been occupied by smokers so we left the window wide open while we were in the room preparing to return to the city.

Another S Bahn trip took us back to the Hauptbahnhof in the fresh darkness for a little wander around the centre, dinner and some shopping for Belinda. A nice walk, a hair dryer, some Lego, shampoo and a KFC dinner later we were enjoying some delicious Haagen Dasz ice cream on our way back to the Hbf for a return out to the Etap.

1 last S Bahn trip back and now I'm here on the wireless LAN at the hotel typing this blog entry now. Tomorrow is our only full day in Koln and our first priority will be the Chocolate Museum. We may get out to Wuppertal and its monorail in the afternoon. Saturday should be a visit to the nearby Phantasialand theme park, before our crazy Sunday to Paris and London. More about that later.
Will hopefully get an update out tomorrow or Saturday night, will see how it goes.
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