Interrail
Here you will be able to know in my travel diary one of my more adventurous
trips that I have ever made.
Perhaps this diary can help anyone who wants to try the Interrail
extraordinary experience. Please forgive my bad english, but I prefer to try it even if you can't understand everything.
The route to follow was Switzerland, Austria Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium and
finally one day in Paris. The goal was to try to visit as much as possible within the minimum
time. To choose the best of the best.
Back
Day 1: Valladolid(Spain)-Hendaye(France), Friday, 11-08-00
(23:31) First day travelling and first day in a hurry; we had to buy the Interrail ticket and to make the reservation
for the first train Valladolid-Hendaye early in the morning. We made the last shoppings and we had to load our backpackages. We made also the reservation
for the Hendaye-Geneve train. Thanks God we made that reservation...
Ok, at about 11:45 we took the train; we were really happy as our adventure was about to begin.
We could enjoy the basque landscape; we played cards and and had lunch. The train arrived in Hendaye at about 17:00; the next train to
Geneve was at 17:40.
We saw a train, was it the right one? Its destination was an italian village called Ventimiglia. At the end of that train
we finally saw or wagon and we could seat in our booked seats. And old spanish priest showed us a map and explained us
the train route; he wanted to stop in Lourdes, but then, the train's final destination was... Rome!! He told us that
we might be in the wrong train, because Geneve in Switzerland is not the same as Genova (Genoa) in Italy.
We couldn't believe that,no, we had to be in the right train. We could investigate that as the train started one hour delayed, at about 18:45.
(23:55) Well, we are now in the train but we are not sure yet, if this is the right one; at least, in our seats we can read Hendaye-Geneve. We have to do separated watching shifts while sleeping to take care of our bags
I have to be awake untill 1:00, and then...
(3.10) Sencond shift: I couldn't rest all that I wished, because every time I opened my eyes, I saw Tere's eyes closed.
One friend told me that second class french trains run very slow, and definitively he was right. I have seen plenty of passengers thrown out from their seats because they hadn't any reservation;
When I felt asleep the train was 2 hours delayed; now I don't really know...
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Day 2: Geneva(Switzerland)-Berne(Switzerland), Saturday, 12-08-00
It was really difficult remaining awake in the train, but finally I had the second sleeping shift. I made the last awake shift but during a short time period.
When we arrived to the train station, we passed through the customs-house. It was easy to cross it, because we also are European (I can see a big difference when you try to cross from the Chech Republic to Germany; there you and almost all of your bags are inspected). We find the youth hostel thanks to a map from Internet. We got a 6-room for couples.
We had breakfast next to a church, waiting the following train to Berne. You don’t have to pay anything or to book a seat.
First of all in Berne was to try to get out of the train station; it was not an easy task; pardon, getting out is easy, but finding the correct entrance to ask for timetables to Intelaken… Finally, after taking an elevator, we found it. We understand quite better German than French, and we got easily the timetables.
We loved the city from the beginning of our walk. The windows were decorated with flowers and flags, and the streets were animated with musicians. We crossed a bridge and got a wonderful view of houses on the mountain. One of the best things I have ever seen.
We visited the famous bears; a music band was playing typical songs. We had lunch at the Rosengarten; you arrive there after walking up a mountain. The city view up there was simply incredible.
Afterwards, we visited the cathedral and walked around the city centre before taking the train back to Geneve.
Once in Geneve, we returned to the youth hostel to try to book a youth hostel in Interlaken, but we didn’t get it.
We walked around the lake. All the place was well cared and with plenty of flowers. We admired the water jet, 140m height and 200km/h speed.
When the sun was loosing its light power, we walked through the English garden and we reached as much as possible the water jet (jet d’eau). When you see it from its base, it is really magnificent.
It was already dark when we walked up to the cathedral; we did not find it easily, so we saw the most of the city centre. It was not well illuminated, but it is logical, all the city energy feeds and illuminates the water jet …
We were back in the youth hostel by 23:00, and had a wonderful shower. We felt asleep at once!
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Day 3: Interlaken(Switzerland)-Lucerne(Switzerland), Sunday, 13-08-00
As I slept the whole night through, I wake up filled with energy. We packed our backpacks and tried to book the next youthhostel, but it was not possible, as nobody answered our telephone call.
So, a new adventure!. We took the train to Interlaken to book a youthhostel there or, if not, other one in Grindelwald. The landscape was marvellous once the lakes appeared.
As soon as we arrived in the station, came the first hit; you have to pay to take the Grindewald train, you have to pay 18CHF extra (about 12€) and maybe there were no free rooms up there; so we decided to walk to Interlaken’s youthhostel ( only 1.8km loading backpacks, he, he,,,). At least we could really enjoy the lovelly landscape.
We asked a couple which way was more beautiful, and they told us that we had to walk around the lake. (It was difficult to understand them because of the extrange accent they had). The walk was indredible, we stopped lots of times to make pictures.
Finally, we arrived to the youthhoste; the reception was closed, so we left our backpacks and went to have lunch to the lake (50m from youthhostel). The reception opens at 14:00, so if you get a room, yor are still on time to make a little trip to Grindewald.
I was reading notes at the reception and I found a particular one: “NO ROOMS FOR TONIGHT” Nooooo! Where will we be sleeping tonight?. What can we do now?.
If you want to sleep in a youthhostel and you don’t have a reservation, you have to arrive before 19:00. The nearest youthhostel is in Lucerne, but in that moment, we didn’t kwon its whole address, so we had to run again, loaded with our backpacks… We were in a hurry because the train timetable!
After running, we where early enough to have a little rest and some massages; sometimes, in an Interrail adventure you need things like this…
Through the train windows we could admire the landscape again among lakes and mountains.
We arrived in Lucerne and we asked at the tourist information desk about the trip to Pilatus Mountain; you have a 50% off with the Interrail ticket. We were given a Lucerne map where we could find the youthhostel. We got into a bus, but the conductor does not sell the tickets, so we had to get down again. And then, it is easy to imagine that we had to walk again, loaded… It is “only” 2km far, we know the way, smile, please…
At the beginning of our walk was all OK, because the way had no slopes, but after 1 km the streets had more and more slope. More difficulties appeared, at a certain point in the way there were lots of streets without names. We only cold laugh, yeah! We have a map, but the streets don’t have their name! We chose the more beautiful one, but running, as the youthhostel closes at 19:00. We had to ask, and ask again, we couldn’t find ourselves in the map. We suffered an hysteria attack and we began clapping our hands and laughing like mads.
At 18:58 we found the youthhostel… We had a wonderful shower before enjoying the city. The youthhostel seemed to be really new. The keys are cards as in true hotels, the lights are switched on with movement… The view is wonderful… A really good youthhostel (and expensive, of course, 30.5CHF).
Lucerne is marvellous; it is not as pretty as Bern, but it has unique monuments, like the bridge to the Water Tower (Kapellbruecke). We walked around the non touristic centre, and we discovered a peaceful city, with its little lake and its mountains. We had dinner next to an old bridge, looking at a part of the wall towers. We searched a shop to buy some food before returning to the youthhostel.
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Day 4: Pilatus Peak and Lucerne(Switzerland)-Saint Gallen(Switzerland), Monday, 14-08-00
As breakfast is included, we eat lot of cheese, cereals, jams... We took the train to Alpnachstadt to start off for Pilatus Mountain.
The cogwheel railway to Pilatus costed about 29 CHF and it is the world's steepest one (that says the advise...). The views were super...! And the little cows in the meadows, what an idyllic sight. The machinist told us stories about the place, but, as we could understand no swiss german, we thought he spoke in Chinese...
Once you arrive the top, you are invited to walk along the mountain to get spectacular views. It was a pity that the air had mist, but even so, we could see several lakes and valleys in 50 km round. We made more than 30 pictures.
We expent a lot of time walking and were in a hurry to take a train back to Saint Gallen. To achive this, we hung in an aerial panorama gondola. It was beautiful to fly over the meadows of the Milka's cows...
We took a bus to Lucerne and we saw quickly some places. We bought food and we arrived to the youthhostel with time enough to gather the tended clothes and still dunked, and to return to take the bus to the station (who wants to walk again?).
Once in Saint Gallen, we had to load again our bagpacks about 1,5 km because the bus don´t take you to the youthhostel and you have to walk anyway.
The room was prettier than the one in Lucerne, although it smelled like cow (well, there were really cows next to the rooms). The youthhostel is as modern as the other one and costs less (24 CHF), perhaps the reason is that Saint Gallen is not a touristic village as Lucerne.
After the needed shower we went to look around the village. It was nothing spectacular, but it was very clean, the houses were pretty and had many flowers. Saint Gallen has a cathedral, but we could not enter. The city is a quiet paradise.
Before going to bed, we planned the trip to Salzburg, and decided to do it from Vienna instead of doing it from Munich, because in Germany you have to pay a supplement to use an EC/IC train.
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Day 5: Innsbruck(Austria), Tuesday, 15-08-00
In the morning we had a good breakfast with several types of cheeses (mmh). Like always, we left the youthhostel with time just to arrive at the station, and took the train to Innsbruck; again the landscape was incredible (the train was called Transalpine).
We arrived in Innsbruck at about 13:15 and could leave our bads at the station. We visited first the Wilton church, with its rounded roofs , and the Rococo. There, the landscape is great, an enormous mountain wall crowned the city.
We entered by the triumph arc (in works) to Theresien-Str. until the column. Soon we turned to the right to go to the Hofburg and the Hofkirche; first it was closed because there was a reception, but the church was open, and we could admire the tomb of Maximilian emperor with all the bronze statues surrounding it.
We went later to the Hofgarten to have a walk and to eat in a bank; we felt asleep a little while because of the fatigue...
We visited the city center, but there were lots of street works, and the famous golden roof was covered by a giant TV screen.
In spite of the fatigue, we made a great effort to raise the Olympic springboard. We walked next to a pair of cemeteries; you can see the tombs from the sideway, there were covered with flowers. It was necessary to be brave to walk up the mountain...
The view was huge and the springboard impressive: it is not the same to see it in television that to the natural one, you have to be very brave to jump there...
Like always, we arrived running at the train station and had supper there. We got soon into the train to Vienna, leaving back Innsbruck; the city dissapointed me a little fundamentally because of the too many street works. Perhaps next time...
And now we have to spend the whole night in the train...
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Día 6: Vienna(Austria), Wednesday, 16-08-00
To tell the truth, we hardly coul sleep. Altogether I had only 3h30 hours to sleep, in 2 shifts, but there was a lot of noises, peaple talking, an spoiled loudspeaker whith an acute sound...
We arrived at 6:58 to Vienna, exhausted. We bought a pair of Wien Card that gives you total freedom for the public transport and discounts in palaces and museums. We went to the only youthhostel where it is accepted credit cards, in Hütteldorf. We found it very quickly and we were asked there to wait; we had breakfast while waiting.
We waited and waited, were were fed up, so we protested and finally we were given a double room; the man behind the shelter was quite disagreeable, and he even told us that he did not assure us if we could remain in the youthhostel the following night. The youthhostel was much worse than the ones in Switzerland...
We went to Schönbrunn palace and we took the tickets, as it was necessary to wait, we seated in a bank and we almost felt asleep. The palace was an anthill of Spaniards. Some rooms of the palace were very pretty, like the bed where the emperor Francisco Jose was born. Later we had a little walk through the park and we seated to eat.
After resting a little, we continued visiting Vienna. We began with the cathedral (in works). After that, we saw the plague column, some churches like Michael church, all of them were pretty, and we arrived to the Hofburg; we did not enter (1 great palace pro day is enough). We crossed the Hofburg and... that was breathless; the buildings, the palaces, we entererd in The Ring. We lied down on the grass of a park, watching the Neue Hof and listening to the sound of a flute playing classic music.
We walked through the center of the city, to the opera and then returned to the Ring, where you can find a palace, and another one, and another one. Wherever you see, you see monuments. The parliament, the huge city council, with terraces with flowers and a great TV screen (They were about to show ballet).
We continued along the Ring to another surprise, the botive church. We rested a little, again, in its park and returned to the center. But we were soon completely exhausted.
We returned to the city council and we ate Gebratenen Knudel mit Hühn mhhhh! (You know, spaghetti with chicken), a well full plate. And we ate it in the park, among hundreds of austrians. We remained seated to watch the ballet. It was wonderful to be there, watchingan the gorgeous city council. Vienna is incredible, but... it was necessary to go back to the youthhostel...
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Day 7: Salzburg(Austria)-Vienna(Austria), Thursday, 17-08-00
We woke up at a reasonable time, 7-7:15, and had breakfast (I have to say that breakfasts at swiss youthhostels are much better). Then, the first problem appeared, we were told that we had room for that night but that we had to come back before 23:00 to get it; so we were limited. After that, we took the train to Salzburg.
In Salzburg, we began the visit by the river. While walking, you can admire the old buildings appearing. It is a monumental walk along a very green place. The cathedral is wonderful.
Salzburg has a lot of beautiful squares; we decided to walk up to the castle; we save the money for the elevator because we went by foot. We saw pictures of the castle and we payed the ticket (3€) to enter it. We didn’t like it very much. It wasn’t worth enough.
We went down through a little and beautiful cemetery, with plenty of flowers. As it was getting late, we run to the Mozart’s Birth House, again we had to pay 5€; it is a must in Salzburg, but it isn’t worth.
We returned to the train station crossing a bridge and admiring the flowered gardens of another palace that we found by chance; a happy end for a wonderful city. We enjoyed Salzburg a lot.
In Vienna, we decided to book the room before 23:00 in order to be able to return to the youthhostel after 23:00. A new surprise with that youthhostel, you have to pay extra money for a special key if you want to be back after 23:45. We didn’t pay for that and we resigned ourselves to be back before daddy gets angry… In any case, the last U-Bahn (Underground) was at 0:15. We were given again a double room, but this time without shower.
We went out to the Prater, one of my child wishes. This time the Vienna Card payed for us to get into the Vienna’s symbol, the Giant Ferris Wheel. It was not as spectacular as I had dreamed about, but the sensations when the old wood cabine stops there up and does a balance movement…. We could only find 2-3 old-fashioned and nostalgic atrractions, of course the best of the Prater.
We returned to the youthhostel and had a long shower (At that moment we could not imagine what will happen, but believe me, that was the last shower for a loooong time).
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Day 8: Vienna(Austria), Friday, 18-08-00
After having breakfast, we left the youthhostel, really happy about that… (Again, at that moment we could not imagine what will happen, we will realize that all youthhostels are better than… he, he, that will be later…)
We decodified the instructions for leaving our backpacks at the station and we were free from them the whole day. First of all, we visited a Sissi’s palace; we saw the Silberkammer and Sissi’s rooms, the gymnasium, her 2 hours combing herself, her son’s selfmurder… We bordered the Oper and went to Karlplatz with its huge church (closed for works).
Then we went to other square with the Alps’ Fountain and the Belvedere Palace; the weather was really hot, and we sweat a lot in the gardens. From there we took the underground to the Hunderwasser House, modernist as the Gaudi’s ones.
We took again the underground to Donau Island, but there was no place to sit and have lunch, so we went to Donau Park. As it was very hot and lots of insects were asking for our food, we looked for a bank to sit. I think I felt asleep a little but we had to rest as much as possible, that night we had to sleep in the train. We saw a couple of squirrels near of us. We made one each other massages, and then we were ready again to continue the adventure.
We went to Zentralfriedhof (central cemetery), the trip’s most frightening part. It is a long way to get to the cemetery’s main entrance. We admired the tombs and sculptures, really art works. We were by the tombs of Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms… Afterwards, we entered the jew's tombs area, the best in my opinion; it is like entering in a misty forest with tombs covered with plants and grass, like living a horror movie.
We left the cemetery quickly (we didn't want to get locked up, he, he, no, the truth is that we had reserved the train to Munich). He still had time to arrive to Prater to see some old merry-go-rounds that we could not enjoy the previous day. Some of them were very nostalgic. We had supper again near the city town hall, this time Greek meat (There was like a fair of nations).
We ate in the park, listening Dvorak's Symphony of the New World, that could be seen at the great screen. There were rays that announced a storm, appeared almost simultaneously with the music rhythm. Idyllic, a wonderful place; we remained seated for a while, watching a piece of the concert and we returned to the center, to see the illuminated city.
Like always, we had to run to the station. Unfortunately, the train to Munich was not announced; there were several ones, but none of them had the number of our train; there was one that was leaving at the same time that ours and that went to Innsbruck, and remembering the one in France (the train to Geneva seemed to go to Rome) we ran and we looked for our wagon. All the wagons went to Innsbruck, except the last two ones, that went to... München, sigh, sigh... Thank heavens that we had it booked, if not, we would'nt have found a free seat...
In the wagon there was an old man occupying one of our reserved sites, but since there were more free seats, we did not say anything to him. Also 2 deaf and dumb boys entered the cabin. When the inspector arrived, requested them the tickets. They went to Innsbruck and the inspector told them that they had to change of wagon. I am sure they did not understand him, and the reviewer repeated it again; they did signs to him showing him that they were deaf and dumbs and the reviewer continued repeating the same, so I acted as a translator between a German and a German deaf and dumb... You have to see that to believe it...
The inspector woke us up to show him the passports when we crossed the border to Germany! From Austria to Germany, you know, from an UE country to another one! Ok, you have to understand it, Germany is different, and we know that!...
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Day 9: Munich(Germany), Saturday, 19-08-00
That night, was the best one among all the nights that we had to sleep in a train . The reason is that we did not make shifts to watch our backpacks. We made no shifts, since we trusted that the old man was not going to rob us, and I leaned in the front door of the compartment, so that if somebody entered I would notice it. Tere slept fellt down along 3 seats; I did the same later. At 6:03 we were in Munich. As expected, the tourism office was closed. Thank heavens that we had already taken a lot of information from Internet...
We bought a Tageskarte (Ticket of transport) shared and went away to "The Tent", the place where we were going to spend the night; it seems that you leave the city to get there , but you don't, you are still inside the Innenraum (central zone). Ok, we knew that it was a quite cheap place (about 8€ sleeping on the ground and 10€ in bed), a place destinated to young people, but... a great room full of litters where many people sleeps (It was 7.00): It smelled humanity and little condensation drops were falling... A place from a war film. The WC's, ehem... Well it is only one night, and adventure is adventure, and... it was already paid...
We were for the first time thankful about loading the sleeping bags through so many places. Ok we decided to leave there the sooner better and we went again to the station; we passed by the Tourism office to ask for something to do at night and we took a map.
We went to see the center, it was not great thing; best is the city towm hall with its medieval match, only this is worth the trouble; the Frauenkirche is very dissapointing inside, and the rococo Stifkirche is very interesting.
We passed by a full market of people with great jars of beer and waiters with several enormous jars in each hand, and waiters with typical suits (You know, the topical image from Germany).
We looked for a supermarket and went to have lunch to Englischer Garten. Milliards of people go there to sunbathe and also to walk nude! Everybody looked at us (perhaps because it was too late for germans to have lunch…) After enjoying a delicious tomato and ham sandwich, we searched the place where a germnan music was being played. That happened at the Chinesiche Türm (Chinese Tower), there were musicians playing the typical german songs, and below, a large Biergarten, where beer jars were emptied in every second.
We also saw a wedding; the guests travel in a kind of old vehicle playing accordions. Typical, typical. Superb. We layed for a while on the grass and we felt totally asleep. We were so tired… The time passed by and we didn’t realize it. We could have been robbed.
We woke slowly up and we continued our visit, We visited the Residenz and another squares until a park with an angel like Berlin’s one. Finally we took the underground and went to Olimpiapark while the night was appearing.
The architecture tent-looking was spectacular; we went around a fair and we seated to watch a rock concert; I think the name or the group was Face Invaders and they played heavy rock, but also latin rhythms. The singer sang with some Spanish words, like “Gracias”(Thank you) and “Uno, dos, tres” (1, 2, 3). But soon, a different kind of Spanish words appeared, “bad” words that I don’t want to translate. We started laughing, the rest of the people couldn’t understand such words, but they liked the rhythm, so we could not stop laughing. Visiting Munich provides you surprises, that’s truth.
We stayed there for a while and then returned to “The Tent”, thinking about the rock singers, we were sure that they were also going to sleep there. .. We saw the shower cabins, and were completely dirty, ash and cigarettes, I could find beer bottles, shaving used gilettes, even blood… so we decided not to have a shower, I know, too many days without a shower, but I couldn’t really have one there.
We had supper next to a fire with people in circle singing and playing guitars, and we prepared ourselves to pass a looong night, as the most of the people were awake. We put the sleeping bags on our beds and tried to sleeps among all that people and the humidity in the air…
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Day 10: Füssen(Germany), Sunday, 20-08-00
I am still amazed; I slept the whole night through. I only woke up one time because I was cold. Tere’s alarm clock brought me back me from the dream world, and after that, like always, my alarm clock assured me that I had to stand up. I almost was swimming in my bed because the high humidity. My clothes were completely wet an I found my unterpants by a side of the bed. I remember that I left them inside my trousers at the bed’s head. I was so happy that I had hidden passport, credit card and money inside the sleeping bag. Somebody had looked for something interesting in my trousers…
We had a great breakfast, to tell the truth, and we left that place as soon as possible. We left our backpacks in a security box and went to Füssen. The train was certainly full and we could difficulty find a seat. We had to change of train to another one as full as the first one. Well, it was Sunday.
Once in Füssen, we tried to look for the path to Neuschwanstein castle. The Tourist information points were closed and in a shop we were asked for 5€ for a map. Finally we found the village’s exit (without the map’s help) and began walking.
The landscape was wonderful because we were again near the Alps. After almost 1 hour walking (about 5 km) we arrived to an information point. There are paths to visit both of the castles, Höhenschwangen y Neuschwanstein. We had to visit the second castle at 16:00h to have an Spanish guided tour.
So we walked up to the castle, a very sloped way. The views were wonderful, first you can see Höhenschwangen castle from the view point Jugend Aussichtpunkt; afterwards, you can see Neuschwanstein one from Marittenbrücke, so we soon forgot that we were tired.
Spectacular, it is one of the must-be-seen places. We had lunch next to the main entrance, and then, we entered de castle. Very few rooms are showed during the visit, each one better than the other; the last one was very beautiful, the walls are painted recreating a forest.
We returned to Höhenschwangen and we walked around it. We didn’t visit it. After that, we had a little rest near the Schwansee lake.
We returned to the village. They were celebrating their fair, and blue and white flags could be seen in every corner. It was a pretty view. We met two Spaniards that were also travelling with Interrail ticket, and we changed our impressions until the train arrived.
Once in Munich, we had to run again to catch the train to Cologne. We had no reserved seat, so we had to be there the first ones. We had money to buy something to have supper, as we had no food, but the train arrived early and we had to get into it as fast as possible. We could find a cabin with two not-booked seats. I had to leave the train quickly to take out our backpacks from the security box. I took a trolley and carried the backpacks to the train.
Somebody took the coin from my trolley while I was in the train; you have to be always in alert… I went to a shop to buy water and a milkshake. When I returned to the train, Tere reminded me that we had no food, but it was too late to leave the train again. Fortunately, we had a little chocolate pie for breakfast, so we had to eat it… Adventure…
While I am writing these words, we are in a cabin with 4 German people more; two of them have music and alcoholic drinks, and the other ones speak an extrange German dialect. We had to eat the pie with our hands, and we got dirty because of the chocolate; the rest of the passenger smiled us, but I am sure they were thinking that we were poor, and that they wanted us out of their cabin… I am sorry about that, some days without a shave and without a shower… As we looked worst than the rest, we decided not to make watching shifts to sleep…
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Day 11: Cologne(Germany)-Amsterdam and The Hague(The Netherlands), Monday, 21-08-00
We set our alarm clocks at 5:45, as we arrived to Cologne at 5:58. I slept bad because I did not find a comfortable position; but I guess the rest of the people in our cabin slept worse because we were the “dangerous ones” there…
We got out the cabin at about 6:00 in order not to disturb the other ones; and we waited and waited, the train was almost 1 hour delayed!! Deutsche Bahn (the German Train Company) had failed that time. For us was horrible to wait outside the cabin with all the backpacks during one hour.
When we arrived in Cologne came the dawn and when we had a look outside the train station we could see it. It was huge. The Cathedral was incredibly opened; the streets were wet because it rained and the sky was covered, it was very cold.
We entered the cathedral with the backpacks, through a lateral door. It was too dark. We decided to visit only the cathedral and ask for the following train to Amsterdam. We bought some food and a toast for the breakfast. The toast had ham and melted cheese and it was delicious. A good breakfast after one night with only a little chocolate pie…
We returned to the cathedral; now it was less dark, so we could visit it better. I liked it less than expected. Of course it was gorgeous, but we have seen plenty of cathedrals, and in Spain you can find more beautiful ones.
So we took the train to Amsterdam and we arrived there at about 11:00, a good time to look for a youth hostel. There are 2 in Amsterdam (at least in 2000), one of them was 1.5km far from train station and the other one 3 km. We passed by a Tourist Information Office and we signed for a trip to Marken and Volendam. Afterwards, we walked to the first youth hostel, the nearest and the cheapest one.
The first thing that you realize when you are walking in Amsterdam is that you have to take care of every vehicle that makes a movement. Amsterdam is a great chaos with bicycles, city trains, cars… Some streetlamps do not work, and I can assure that bicycles do not ask and stop before crossing.
Once you have understood this simple matter, you can happily walk and enjoy the city. The first youth hostel was full, so we continued to the following one (ehem, 1.5 km more…). After waiting a long queue, the youth hostel was also full; we were told that we could wait until 16:00, to see if all the booked rooms were filled… There was a waiting list and we were number 26, so we asked for a youth hostel in Haarlem and we were also told to wait. Finally The Hague’s one still had rooms.
So we were happy to be able to sleep under a roof. We returned to the station walking because we did not know where to but the tickets for the bus. We arrived in The Hague and again had to walk, but not too much. It rained, but fortunately only five minutes. We found the youth hostel at once.
The most difficult part was to leave the Central Station in the right way. In The Hague there are also bicycles, but it is quieter than Amsterdam. At the youth hostel we had finally a good shower, we really needed it. At the room, there were two couples more, they were sleeping when we arrived.
One of the couples was Spaniards, and we talked and talked, so we get out the youth hostel at 19:00; as Madurodam closes at 23:00, we decided to visit it. We had dinner in the way there. The people in the cars watched us and even made us signs that we could not understand. Well, we were eating below a building with video cameras, but ¿?. We tried to walk through the middle of the city in order to see the Parliament, but we did not know where it exactly was. We could not see it, however, we passed by it two times…).
We walked along some old streets, and finally after one hour walking, we arrived to Madurodam. Madurodam is a museum with all representative kind of Holland buildings, but in a short scale. It was not as big as we had thought, but it is marvellous. We had my parent’s guide, but it was an old guide and we had to buy another one.
We could see it illuminated. The worst thing was to return again to the youth hostel, one hour walking and it was getting cold; luckily we had taken our rainsuit. We got lost a little at the end of the way and when we arrived to our room, the other couples were already sleeping.
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Day 12: Volendam, Marken and Amsterdam(The Netherlands), Tuesday, 22-08-00
And we were the first ones to wake up. The breakfast was the best that we had had in all our adventure, with some kinds of cheeses and hams. We went to the station, destination: Amsterdam.
A bus for the trip to Volendam was waiting for us at the station. A pretty guide told us stories while the short way to a cheese production industry. She told us that young Hollanders medium height was 1.80m for women and 1.85m for men. Buffffff! We had time enough to observe this...
At the cheese industry we were explained how cheeses and ……… were made. They speak in several languages, English, French and German, so you can try to understand some words with one of them. In any case, the guide speaks also Spanish and Italian. After the explanation, we could taste different kind of cheeses, like Gouda and garlic and herbs ones.
After this, we went to Volendam; the guide recommended us not to walk outside the central streets, as it is like a labyrinth and you can get lost and loose the boat to Marken. We did not want to hear her. We discovered a marvellous village beyond the commercial street they wanted us to follow. I guess that they want to preserve the village from tourists.
We had to run to take the boat; it was like Teseus in Greece, within the Laberinth, trying to return for the same place that ge got into. It begun raining when we left Volendam by boat. It was a soft rain that soon disappeared. Marken’s harbour is spectacular; typical boats, typical houses…
An old woman dressed in typical costumes showed us her home; we had to give her some coins. We were not allowed to get lost in the village. As a big difference between Marken and Volendam, Marken is protestant while Volendam catholic is. Marken’s religion does not allow them to convert their village in a commercial place; you can see less tourism there and it is better preserved than Vollendam. Many years ago, Marken was an island, but now it is joined to the mainland.
We liked very much both of the villages, but perhaps Marken was more beautiful than Volendam.
Again in Amsterdam, we started discovering the mad city. First of all we admired the train station. Then, we saw the famous channels, Dam Square (where a bird said “Hello!!” in my trousers…). The city has less important monuments than other ones that we have seen, but in this case, it is more important the curious architecture of the buildings all together. Amsterdam is unique and it has an own personality.
When the sun went down and the darkness appeared, we visited the famous Red Quarter. It was very beautiful, with the red neon lights everywhere. But the poor young girls behind the windows seemed to be very sad… Someone tried to get money from us, but we continued without looking. It smelled to smoking drugs all over the streets… As we saw that the security of this quarter was not assured, we returned soon to The Hague.
In the youth hostel, we were changed of room. There was another Spanish couple in our new room. They told us that The Hague was not worth enough, so we changed our plan and decided to visit other places. (That was the last time that we decide after hearing other people’s advices…).
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