Home to Marburg

Kensington Gardens (morning walk, cycle race on),
Paddington Station (to catch the train to the airport),
Heathrow Express (a direct 15 min ride to the airport),
Heathrow Airport (yummy almond croissant while waiting over 2 hours for flight),
Frankfurt Airport (a bit of turbulence coming into the airport),
Subway and Train (Frankfurt to Marburg),
Marburg (HOME!!!)

Seven hours this time from door to door

No Bears at Paddington

We have got an even tinier room at a Hotel close to Paddington Station - can't even fully open the bathroom door but you can fit inside the bathroom. However the bed seems comfortable!  It will be nice to get back to our Marburg apartment tomorrow despite how small and basic it is.

I hadn't realised how important the weaving industry was for historic Norwich until we visited the museum there.  It was once famous for beautiful Jaquard type weaving (the Jacquard loom was invented here) and for beautifully woven shawls.

The 11th century cathedral with its Norman tower (second highest in England) is also impressive and had a lovely display of Egyptian appliqué quilting.

The day finished with a beef and ale pie at the "Pride of Paddington" Pub.

Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts

The very wealthy Sainsbury family has not only funded the Sainsbury Science Centre but also an Arts Centre on the University campus. They had an interesting exhibition of Francis Bacon's work showing the influence and examples of various other well known artists such as Michaelangelo and Picasso.  Cant say that I would want any of Bacon's work - doesn't appeal - but was interesting to see.

Georgian staircase in our hotel - fun carrying suitcases up here!

Upstairs downstairs

Ten steps to the first little landing, 3 more steps, through the fire door, across the hallway, another fire door, 3 steps down, another fire door, up 13 steps via a steep circular Georgian style stair case (so steep you can put your hand out at shoulder level and touch the stair in front of you), short hall way, 3 last steps and you are in your bedroom.  However 3 steps down into the bathroom.

The hotel is tight but quite cute and very friendly.

A river walk in the afternoon and a lovely meal out with Barry's host and his wife.

River Wensom

Alan St, Norwich

Well of course the first thing we had to do when we got to Norwich was to go and look for the little "upstairs/downstairs" Coronation St style house we lived in for 3 months, 25 years ago. However, we couldn't quite remember which house it was in Alan St we lived in.

St Johns College, Cambridge

Its hard to believe we actually stayed in a guest room in a part of living history!!

St Johns College was founded in 1511 by Henry VIII's grandmother.  We stayed in the "New Court" built in 1826, a third addition  to the College and walked over the "Bridge of Sighs" each morning to breakfast.

We had dinner at the high table, with all the fellows in their gowns, silver candle sticks and silver water mugs, followed by tea and coffee upstairs in a huge room  totally lit by candles on the walls and on the long table stretching the full length of the room.  Of course tea and coffee were served from silver tea/coffee pots!

Breakfast was behind one door off the courtyard, there was a full bar behind another door off the courtyard.  A chapel hidden behind another door, and a huge dining room behind yet another.  Upstairs were all the studies and rooms of the students and fellows who lived and worked there.

New Court, St Johns

New  Court, St Johns

Original courtyard, St Johns

Bridge of Sighs

British Museum & St Johns College

After a morning spent at the British museum along with thousands of others, we caught the train down to Cambridge.

My gosh - London is expensive.  Train fares, subways, hotels and food is so much more expensive than Germany, particularly transport.

We are staying at St Johns College in Cambridge - think Inspector Morse (Oxford) but it is just like that.  Our room over looks the river and we can watch all the punters go by.  The buildings are set off by pristine lawns but you are not allowed to walk on them.

George the lucky dragon - copy on the Titanic

Decor by same architect as the Titanic

19th century sculpture - Persepolis, Iran

London tourist

Caught the boat down the river to Grenwich, admired the painted room and chapel in the former Royal Navy headquarters, walked along the edge of the river Thames, poked our noses into St Pauls, admired Paul Dibbles NZ war memorial and did the walk around Hyde Park.

Stuffed!

There were hundreds of people walking around Hyde Park - we hardly heard any english spoken and if it was, it wasn't english-english.

Cutty Sark at Grenwich

NZ War Memorial - Sculpture by Paul Dibble

And to London we go

Its hard to believe that although Marburg is only 1 hour by train from Frankfurt and it is only a 1 hour flight from Frankfurt to London, it has taken us 9 hours to get from our apartment in Marburg to our hotel in Russell Square in London.

Its all the connections you have to make and the waiting between each one.  First the bus down the hill to catch the train to Frankfurt, then the subway between the train and Frankfurt  airport, the flight, the Express train from Heathrow into London, and finally 2 subway changes from down town London to Russell Square. No wonder we're both feeling a bit weary.

Now for a cocktail!

Hotel Russell

Hand made cheese for lunch in Amoneburg

Yet another lovely day so caught the train through to Kirchain and cycled 5km to the little town of Amoneburg where there is an old mill (Brucker Muhle)- now a cafe and organic shop.  My lunch looked liked potatoes but was actually 3 small hand made cheeses with bread, slices of apple and topped with oil, parsley and coriander seeds.

The old town of Amoneburg is actually on top of a hill and the church/castle can be seen from the hills of Marburg. It may be a place to revisit with Dot as looks pretty nice.  The Mill was at the bottom of the hill by the river.

From Amoneburg it was a 19km very pleasant flat cycle back to Marburg (not including the climb back up the hill).

Tomorrow its off to London!

Kirchain

Handkase

Barry comes to the Ruin

I convinced Barry that the view from the Frauenberg ruin was worth the bike ride so he left for work early and was home just after 5 so that we could head round there.  Chilly, so wore my new cycling jacket (that doesn't sweat as much).

We counted over 20 villages from the top of the ruin.  I will have to take Dot here!  Maybe we can have a beer at the "Bier Garten" just below it.

The German strike has now ended but would you believe it, the British trains go on strike on Monday, the day we catch the train from London to Cambridge.

    

The Ruin at Frauenberg

After a prolonged read (have done very little reading) and some work on my "Poppies" I headed out on my bike to find the Ruin at Frauenburg.  I have pretty much sussed out their labelling of trails.  I followed the "B5" through the forest which criss crosses with a number of other trails all with their own labels ("R", 'X", "S". 'B4", "blue square with a white squiggle", etc).  Its a bit like a treasure hunt - spotting the next "B5" painted on a tree or fence post - quite a few not very obvious.

The old ruin was worth the ride with a wonderful 360 degree of the surrounding countryside.

   

A Day doing not Much

I guess you have to have days when you don't do much.  The trains are on strike so that rules out my plans to complete my cycle ride of the Lahn.

So...... Coffee down town this morning with the next door neighbour, Amy, from Idaho. Supermarket, reading and.... a bit of work on my poppy.  But I'm not happy with the 2 flowers so will re-do them.  Discovered tacos and enchiladas at the supermarket (uncommon here) so chicken enchilada's for tea.

Dinner at Zur Sonne

Regine Karman (Barry's host) invited us to dinner tonight at Zur Sonne along with a German researcher based in Cambridge who is visiting and a number of students from her lab.  Regine took us there for dinner the first week we arrived as well.  Regine is a great hostess and it was again a very nice meal.

Just found out that there is a rail strike from wednesday onwards so doesn't look like I will get to do the next section of the Lahn this week.  We also have to figure out how to get to Frankfurt airport on Saturday to fly to London.

Upper Lahn

So thats the upper Lahn river right down to Limburg completed.  Only the final 62km to go to Koblenz and the Rhine River.

Lesson #4 on the train: if you're buying a Hessen pass (for up to 5 people to travel anywhere in the state of Hessen) make sure your destination is in the state of Hessen.  Luckily the conductor let us off thanks to some friendly germans in the next seat (we had only just gone over the boundary).

We caught the train to Feudingen, just 10km short of the source of the Lahn river, but as far as we could go by train.  Then it was a very pleasant bike ride for 30km back to Friedensdorf where we had started last weekend.  Quite a definite valley up here with steepish sides, lots of trees interspersed with farmland and small villages. Very pretty and very different from the lower Lahn.

All that cycling deserved cake and coffee!

 

Overnighter on the Lahn river cycle way

Back in Marburg again after 2 days on the Lahn cycle way.  I caught the train down to Wetzlar, cycled 33km to Weilburg, stayed in the Schloss Hotel (very nice), then cycled 35km to Limburg today where I caught the train back to Marburg.

The scenery is so different from the Upper Lahn river.  We are now getting into a lot more castles and churches and the towns of Weilburg and Limburg are just gorgeous with their narrow streets and crooked wooded houses.  It was really nice having the night in Weilburg as got a chance to have a wander around another town (and enjoy a fancy caramel ice cream).  The hotel I was in was hard up against the castle (Schloss) so I finished the day with a lovely chilled Reisling in the courtyard of the hotel looking up at the castle.  The section today stayed hard against the river so saw lots of camping grounds and people out canoeing in the river.

   

  

University Botanic Gardens

It was another holiday day today (but guess who worked).  So after lunch with yours truly I wandered round the Botanic Gardens.  Some lovely displays of rhododendrons which are out in full flower now and extensive glass houses with quite an array of different plants.  The blossoms have finished now, and now there are lots of rhododendrons, azaleas, lilacs and chestnut trees in flower.  I love the pink centres of the chestnut flowers.

After work we walked around to the Spiegel tower and had dinner at the restaurant with a fabulous view out over Marbarg and the Lahn valley.

Barry is wanting to work Saturday too so thought I might take myself on my bike for an overnighter tomorrow.

  

  

Hair Cut

I finally got up the courage (or got desperate enough) to get a haircut today.  Its very hard to describe what you want when you don't know the language.  I think she did a pretty reasonable job though and certainly thinned it out a bit.

They do hair cuts differently here.  At home (NZ) it is standard to get your hair washed and blow dried (styled) afterwards.  Here they asked if you want a shampoo - I said 'no' so she just sprayed my hair with water as she cut it and really just used the blow drier to blow away loose hair.  No styling!

Wetzler to Giesen - by bike

My goal is to eventually cycle the full length of the Lahn River (245km).  Today I did just the short section from Wetzlar to Giesen (18km)- caught the train to Wetzlar then caught the train back to Marburg after cycling to Giesen.  It was a flat ride but for some reason seemed a lot longer - maybe it was the hot humid day, but I devoured a plate of ice cream once I got myself back up the hill and home again.  I enjoy cycling by myself at my own pace.  I have now completed about 1/3 of the distance.

In Search of St Elisabeth

Cycling (or walking) through the forest here is so different - it is such a maze of pathways.  You cycle down this pathway with almost no idea where you are heading - nothing to tell you where you are going...... and suddenly you exit the forest and there are 2 villages spread across the country side in front of you.

You retrace your footsteps - take a slightly different path..... and there is an ancient well that had a new facade added to it in the 16th century to commemorate St Elisabeth who looked after the poor and sick in Marburg.  She was a Hungarian princess who married into the early nobility of Marburg and had a chapel built here that was demolished in 1527.

 

Schlosspark Wilhelmshöhe at Kassel

Lesson # 3 when you take the train.  Don't assume the next train coming through on your platform will be your train!  We hopped on the train to return to Marburg late this afternoon, then realised it left 10min earlier than expected and found it was the express to Frankfurt.  However our fears of travelling 2 hours to Frankfurt and then 1 hour back to Marburg were unfounded and we got off safely in Marburg.

Schlosspark Wilhelmshöhe is a world heritage site because of the gigantic copper stature of Hercules erected in the 1680's and the cascades of water (750,000 litres) released twice a week tumbling down a number of baroque water features culminating in a 50m high water fountain, completed in the 18th century.  It also has a fairy tale castle built around 1800.  It was a lovely day wandering around the grounds.

 

Friedensdorf to Marburg by bike

After the success of yesterday's ride I managed to talk Barry into taking the train up the river Lahn to a little town called Friedensdorf.  Lesson #2.  The train doesn't stop at all the stops.  If you don't want to bike further than you intended make sure you tell the train driver!

Actually we had no problems.  There was a quick sort out with other people taking bikes onto the train to see who was getting off first and then we were off on a slow half hour ride up valley.
Not quite such nice weather as yesterday with dark clouds around but it wasn't cold and it never rained.

It was a 3 hour easy ride back to Marburg (about 25km) - I love the little towns, the yellow fields of canola, the rolling country side with lots of trees and green fields and the dedicated bike trail through it all.

The ride back up the hill after a quick trip to the supermarket was a bit of a gut buster though!!!

Giesen to Marburg by bike

This morning I caught the train to Giesen and cycled back to Marburg.  Lesson #1.  If you are one of the first on the train don't get on the end of the train nearest the station as your bike ends up at the bottom of the heap.

I was a little bit nervous about doing this by myself but once I got myself and my bike off the train I thoroughly enjoyed the 35km ride back to Marburg, up the river Lahn.  No hills (apart from the hill back up to our apartment) and a very leisurely 4 hour ride back home.