Deadly serious

And so this photo says it all. We drive back to the station and drop off the car. It's the end of more than 3000km of European motorways across 10 countries in 12 days of driving. Wow. When the idea for this trip first began it didn't quite look achievable but somehow it did work. Zuzana completed the extraordinary task of driving every night after hours of exhausting city walks and I'm grateful for that. Maybe we went too far but summers are always like this. Personally I don't like to be still and this holiday is the epitome of that. Our car, not exactly what we'd hoped for originally, did us well with all the space and overall the petrol costs were quite reasonable. Just don't ever tell Gretha Thurnburg how much fossil fuel we'd burnt up. I must go plant some trees. Or maybe let the weeds grow extra tall this year. 

I'd visited Belgium only once before when we were snowed in on a two-leg flight back from Vienna almost 25 years ago. We'd stayed in a hotel one night before we could leave. This time I saw a little more but not much. Driving in Brussels was a nightmare. Horrific, in fact. The worst traffic system I'd ever seen. Even the satellite navigation ended up sending us in circles and our attempt to find parking was a disaster so this view from our car was the closest we came to any monuments. I know Brussels has some wonderful sights but sadly it was a step too far on this already overloaded itinerary. But still we saw something, including a 10-second visit to the most quintessential French-speaking patisserie you could imagine as I asked for directions. The smell of flour and sugar, the displays of pastries and even the friendly petite assistant seemed like something from a Hollywoodised version of Europe. Maybe I should return one day on foot. As we drive out from the centre down...

The Netherlands is one of the few countries in Europe I've not yet visited. And this is what I saw as we drove from Germany, through the Netherlands and on to Belgium. Hardly a memorable experience but what else could I expect from a motorway in a famously flat country. The signs flipped languages as we made our way through the three countries on our last drive. It was sad to say goodbye to an epic trip like this around the whole of Germanic Europe. But it had to come to an end eventually as our lives return to normal. 

We only had minutes left in the city so walked the short distance to the river and got a few better views of the city once we were able to hide the ugly 60s office buildings behind trees. Köln has not fared well the decades of urban growth and the centre could not be more removed from the clean monumental streets of Dresden. However, like Dresden this cathedral also suffered in the war and was also rebuilt. But any similarities stop there. If there was no cathedral here it would be an easy place to miss architecturally. We finished our brief visit with a coffee in Mcdonalds of all places. I'm not proud of that but the city didn't seem to offer much more in a Monday morning. It was certainly a surprising end to our journey but actually we did have a few more miles to drive so back in the car it was through two more countries. 

And so we begin the final day of our trip before yet another drive over to Brussels to return our car and take the train home. This is our first city hotel and I picked it deliberately to make the most of the two hours we had. It was a 5 minute walk to the cathedral where it became obvious why last night was such a negative experience. The main train station literally spills out on to the steps of the cathedral. Central trains stations are always the most chaotic places in a city and last night was no exception. This morning it looked a little better but still hardly the best showcase for one of the most beautiful cathedrals in the world. Outside it could not have been more Gothic and once inside it was as stunning as any I'd seen across Europe. Despite the crowds it was actually a wonderfully peaceful place and I could have spent hours just looking up at the ceiling. Begun in the 13th century, work was halted after 200 years and a medieval crane left in place for centuries. The sp...

So we survived the long drive and arrived in Köln exhausted. We checked in our hotel in the centre very close to the cathedral that was the focus of my attention. We had a little time in the morning but did still briefly visit the centre before heading to bed. That was probably a mistake. It was Sunday night after all the revelry had subsided and the city was a dump. We felt unsafe walking the streets of broken glass and the odd shady drunk. After walking far longer than planned in search of an eatery we settled on some noodles in the station. Most other places were shut or something to avoid. It was an odd experience and unlike most other places we've visited around Europe. As a tourist you often miss poverty and homelessness or at least it's carefully managed by authorities so as to hide it away. Köln has clearly found itself overwhelmed. It certainly wasn't a place you wanted to take your phone out for a photograph. It was probably perfectly safe but as a tourist you fee...