On the road (1) – Six countries, nine days COMPLETED About This Page:

[luvnwdwgal]

Ok, day two and I'm STILL craving chocolate!

[chezp]

Saturday 27 March – part five: they turned off the lights!

It dropped us off right in front of the cathedral and we immediately started to take photos of this beautiful building.




It was clear that Sabine was quite taken by the idea of photos of the four of us with the tripod, as she suggested getting it out and setting it up to take a photo of us in front of the cathedral. We did so and, just as we went to take our first shot, a guy walked in front of it, eliciting a scream of “no” from all of us, which is why we look like we do in this photo:



Fortunately, we tried it again and managed it fine this time.



Sabine set off to do some shopping in the nearby German souvenir shop, while the rest of us went closer to the cathedral to capture some of the detail on the building more close-up.



We headed inside, but sadly, even though there didn’t seem to be any services taking place on a Saturday, from what we could see of the signs outside, that was obviously wrong, as we could only look around at the top end of the cathedral, as there was something taking place. It was a shame, as I’d like to have seen the rest of the building inside, but from what we could see, it did seem to be a beautiful place. To give you some background, the cathedral was started in 1248 and was first consecrated in 1322. It was gradually built until the 15th century, but wasn’t properly finished until the 19th century. As Mark said, the exterior very much reminded him of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona and I could see what he meant.



Lots of photos duly taken by the three of us (you could tell Manuel loves his new camera, he was as bad as us two, snapping away! ), we headed back out and got some more photos.



Then it was over to find Sabine. The shop sold lots of great things, but my goodness, the owners were pushy, constantly showing us things and not getting the message that we were going to buy and didn’t need any further persuasion. We got a couple of fridge magnets, a book about Cologne and one about Germany in general and Sabine got a few bits as well.

As we were so close to the Hilton, we said we’d head back to the room to go and dump some bits before dinner. As we did, we saw a Maredo, which is where Sabine and Manuel had suggested having dinner, right by our hotel. Well, that works then. We headed back to the room for a while and then it was off to dinner. We had already booked somewhere for 8.00 that night, but we were all hungry now and, to be honest, the place turned out to be way outside of the city, so it just wasn’t going to work for us. :

When we arrived, there seemed to be some confusion about whether they could seat us or not, even though there were a number of tables empty. We were finally seated near the salad bar and set about studying the menu. We managed to confuse the server, who turned up with four German menus, then returned with two for us. We thought our menus were very thick and it turned out that, not only was the menu in English, it was also in French, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Swedish and a couple of other languages. Very impressive.


Getting the drinks in

We scoured the menu, chatting away and taking our time and eventually I opted for the sopa Oceano, which was lobster bisque. It was divine and very rich, although I felt so bad for Sabine, as I’d forgotten she didn’t like seafood and could smell my soup.



Mark went for the chicken wings and seemed to enjoy those.



For main course, he went for a fillet steak, as steak is very much the speciality here, along with a visit to the salad bar. You should’ve seen how much he managed to pile into his bowl! Somehow I managed not to get photos of it, I don’t know how?

I had the salmon and prawns on a bed of spinach, which was pretty good, although the salmon was a little on the chewy side.



It was when we got to dessert that things went rapidly downhill on the service side. Let’s just say that the food, up until that point, hadn’t exactly been quick in arriving and the drinks orders were painfully slow.

Having looked at the dessert menu and checked with Sabine and Manuel, it became clear there was nothing on the menu that didn’t contain dairy for Mark, so Sabine asked if he could have some fruit and a waffle. For some reason, our server seemed to think that we wanted it free of charge. I’m sorry? It got worse, as even I could tell from my limited understanding of German that when Manuel requested two scoops of ice cream, instead of one scoop of ice cream and whipped cream with his apple strudel, that didn’t go down well. The fact that I wanted a cherry sundae, but without the cherry just about finished him off. It wasn’t what any of us expected in terms of service and I think we were all very disappointed by it.

When the desserts arrived, they were at least all correct and mine was very nice, but it didn’t make up for the fuss our server had made over them. :



It hadn’t been a bad meal and certainly the food had been very good, but the service had very much left a sour taste in our mouths. We had at least been able to enjoy a leisurely meal there, having been there for a couple of hours.

Maredo’s

Appetiser 9 8
Entree 7½ 9
Dessert 8½ 6½
Service 6 6½
Atmosphere 8½ 9
Value for money 8 8

Average score: 7.88

We headed out and Sabine decided she needed to use the restroom, so we headed for the Hilton. It’s just as well she did. As we walked in, we saw what Mark described as a “runway” of candles in the lobby. There was a sign, reminding us that it was “Earth hour” from 8.30 and suddenly a horrible realisation hit us. They would probably be turning the lights off on the cathedral at that time.



We headed over there quickly, so that we could get some shots of it lit up at night and managed to get there in time. The cathedral looked so much better at night. The white and the black bits didn’t seem to clash as much as they did during the daylight.



It was really spooky when the lights did go off. There was no warning at all, they were just turned off. As Mark said, it was cool that we were able to witness this little bit of history. There aren’t many visitors to Koln who can say that they’ve seen the cathedral at night with no lights on and it certainly made for some neat photos.



We said our goodbyes to Sabine and Manuel not long afterwards, as it had turned into a bitterly cold night and it was back to our respective hotels.

Today we drove 134 miles.
The weather today was mainly dry, with some rain and temperatures in the high 50s or low 60s.
The best thing today was seeing Sabine and Manuel again.
The worst thing today was the service at dinner.
The funniest thing today was .
Today we tried going to the chocolate museum
And the result was it was a great place to visit.
The most magical moment today was seeing Koln Cathedral all lit up at night.

Next: some beautiful sights at the Botanical Gardens

[ccmom]

The cathedral looks like something out of a Gothic horror movie with the moon shining out of the clouds. Spooky!

[Colexis Mom]

Great pictures of the cathedral! Sorry dinner was a bit of a disappointment! More please!

[honeybee723]

What exactly is earth hour? I agree that it does look very ominous without the light on!

[Disneybine]

Again, I have a few pictures to contribute








My steak at Maredo. It was VERY good! I also had a salad from the bar.


Mark goofin' around - the salad bar was on the other side of this window


Cheryl seemed to like her food. Oh, and no worries about the seafood soup - I'm used to smelling fish and seafood as Manuel likes it too



The server was EXTREMELY rude Thankfully, Cheryl and Mark didn't understand everything! Obviously, having food allergies didn't matter to him - he treated us like we were just trying to be difficult And how he got the idea we wanted stuff for free, I really don't know. God, that guy made me SO mad!!!



Manuel's apple strudel with two scoops of ice cream (for which of course he paid extra )


My cherry sundae (hhhhmmmm!!!)

[Colexis Mom]

Great pictures Sabine!!

[KMB733]

Great pictures Cheryl and Sabine! Sorry the server was so rude.

[chezp]

I understood enough German to work out you guys were not happy with the way he was speaking to you - heck, Mark speaks no German and even he fathomed that!

Here's the website for Earth Hour.

[Principessa_di_Fata]

Originally Posted by honeybee723

What exactly is earth hour? I agree that it does look very ominous without the light on!

Earth hour is where everyone turns out the lights for an hour, usually from 830pm - 930pm local time. It's sort of to raise awareness about energy conservation, etc...

Official US Site for Earth Hour | My Earth Hour


Awesome pictures! What a shame about the rude server though! Ugh! As a server myself, I don't think any of your requests were at all outlandish! My goodness!

[lazanya]

Great pictures Cheryl and Sabine! Sorry about the rude server.

[luvnwdwgal]

What a shame your waiter was such a jerk.

[chezp]

Sunday 28 March – part one: some beautiful sights at the Botanical Gardens

Having agreed to meet Sabine and Manuel at 10.00 at the Botanical Gardens, we were up early, despite the clocks going forward. Probably just as well, as it meant someone was able to watch the bulk of the Australian Grand Prix.

We headed down for breakfast just before 9.00 and immediately decided that this was, by far, the best breakfast we’d had at a Hilton so far. Not only did we have cereals, cheeses (about seven or eight choices of those), cold meat, smoked salmon (two types), a very wide range of fresh fruit and the usual hot items, but they would also make omelettes to order for you. We both absolutely stuffed ourselves, quite understandably, I thought.

We packed up our stuff for the last time. It was very weird to think that, after having been on the road for more than a week, we were actually heading home today. We had got very adept at getting out just what we needed and then repacking the suitcases the next morning.

We headed down and checked out and called for the car. That wasn’t exactly quick, it probably took about 10 minutes for it to arrive, so I sent Sabine a text to say we were running a little bit late. When the guy did bring the car up, he stood there very obviously waiting for a tip. Fortunately I had some Euros in change, as Mark nearly gave him Swiss francs, which I don’t think would’ve gone down very well with him. :

We set off and, after our trusty sat nav took us first the wrong way and then a very complex way, we found the Zoo, which is near the Botanical Garden. After driving round for a while and finding no parking (it probably had something to do with the fact that it was a Sunday, all the shops are of course shut and everyone is at home, so all the parking was full with residents), we found one place that was charging €4 ($5.40) so we went for that. Sabine and I kept texting each other. She’d already told me that they were running late, then they couldn’t find the place. Finally I saw them pull up. Typically they’d found a free parking space opposite, although Sabine was very worried that they might be illegally parked and might get towed. Fortunately they didn’t.

We headed into the gardens, with Sabine saying that it didn’t seem very big and, at first glance, I had to agree, but I thought there might be more to it behind the imposing building in front of us that we couldn’t see and that turned out to be the case.

We weren’t sure which way to go, but just picked a path and started walking. Like Mindau Island, there was a fair bit that wasn’t in bloom, but equally there was enough out that we could still get some decent photos.



We headed first for the special exhibition on camellias. Even I could read that in German, as it’s almost exactly the same word. We were expecting tropical temperatures when we went in, from the signs outside, but not a bit of it. It was a bit warmer than outside, but not by much. There wasn’t so much scent in here, but it was certainly colourful and the three photographers, myself, Mark and Manuel were all in our element snapping away.



We wandered back out into the park and went into the next set of greenhouses, with Sabine waiting outside, as she wasn’t feeling great. As we walked in, I wasn’t that impressed with the first greenhouse that really didn’t have anything in it.

We stepped into the second and this time we were hit by the tropical temperatures. I tried my best to stop the camera lens from fogging up, but only half succeeded. I actually think it made for some quite neat shots in the end.



Finally, my camera adjusted to the conditions, just as we stepped into another greenhouses, although this one was nearly as hot.



We carried on and next came to one, with obviously replicated the dessert, with various cacti in it, along with some stunning bird of paradise flowers. I just don’t think I’ll ever tire of seeing these things. :



We headed outside and wandered a little further, seeing a bit more of the park, before deciding to head out. It had been lovely in there and I’m really glad we went. It was a great way to spend a couple of hours.

I got a few final photos, as we strolled back to the entrance of the park.



We walked slowly back to our respective cars, sadly saying goodbye when we got there. However, there are already potential plans for another meeting in the not-too-distant future, which is excellent news.

Next: a surprise extra country!

[Disneybine]

Here's my last batch of photos:
















I loved the sequoia tree

Can't wait to see you guys again in July, Cheryl and Mark!

[Colexis Mom]

Great pictures from the gardens Cheryl and Sabine!