Europe 2014: Cologne 2 nights + Brussels 1 night before train through Paris to Bordeaux

Thursday 15th May 2014

Left Amsterdam on 10:34am train for Cologne. Cracked 200km/h a few times. Booked a standard room at Wyndham Hotel for $138 and scored when we were upgraded to a suite with separate kitchen, walk in robe, massive lounge and a balcony. It is right opposite the train station so a really easy stroll with our suitcases and our balcony looks across the train station to the enormous and magnificent Dom Cathedral.

Lovers locks

Went for an 8km walk around town on the banks on the Rhine River. We wanted to relax with a beer/wine amongst locals around 5pm but it was tricky figuring out what was a restaurant and what was a pub. We went into one place and looked in 5 rooms all full of people but couldn't find the bar or any staff. Despite thousands of tourists, not a lot of English spoken outside of hotel clerks and bar staff. Very few signs in English, even on tourist information and menus. The pubs are quite funny, if you ask for a wine, they just say 'we are a beer hall'. But they do all have one type of white or red wine by the glass, carafe or bottle and the house wine seem perfectly okay. We went in to the Dom cathedral at 6pm just as a service was finishing and there are heaps of candles and great art etc.

Dom in Cologne

Mr Google helped us find a Jazz Club for after dinner and we headed for Papa Joe's Jazzlokal not really knowing what to expect. Fantastic place, Papa has been open every day for 30 years with live jazz every night. The guys played sets and walked around with a hat between sets collecting 'beer' money from the punters. They were a class act and especially the blind pianist who was phenomenal. All the light fittings were brass instruments and some of them spun at random. There were other things like Satchmo's head that nodded every now and then and his cigar glowed. Papa was behind the bar and you got the feeling he was there every night. He was very welcoming and had enough broken English to ask where we were from and when we said Australia he was very happy, thumbs up and pointing to his wedding ring and saying Sydney whatever that meant! It was a really quirky place and we will go back again tomorrow.

Papa Joe's Jazzlokal website

Friday 16th May 2014
Went for brunch at Fassbender a place where we had no English menu or staff so i t was a bit of a raffle that went OK. Did a bit of shopping and bought a JBL bluetooth rechargeable speaker for the ipod. Visited the Dom cathedral again and checked out our train platform etc. as have a 7:43am train for Brussels. Then back to our suite for a quiet day to catch up with the diary plus AR getting up twice for horses tonight as Daniel comes at 2am Saturdays and then AR's every night regular systems at 4:30am. Papa Joe's Jazzlokal was again on fire. AR in particular would go every night.

Saturday 17th May 2014

Viewing deck with Dom in background

Train to Brussels at 7:43am arrived at 9:35am and hit 249km/h on the GPS. Dropped our bags at the Ibis luggage lockers and walked 3.5km into town. The town is abuzz with the Pride festival. Tonight there is a march like the Sydney Mardi Gras. There are lots of people dressed up and wearing rainbow colors from all over Europe. Lots of great buildings here. The main square in town is Grand Place Grote Market, an enormous and truly beautiful European square that smells like chocolate and waffles. We visited the Manneken Pis statue of a boy peeing which seems to be the symbol of Brussels as many of the shops use him in their marketing in the windows.

Brussels is full of great shops. Lots of chocolate, beer, waffle and also lace shops.

View from our balcony to train station and Dom

Had lunch in Rue de Bouchers (street) which is an amazing street full of white table clothes with just enough room for people to walk down the cobbled street and choose their restaurant. Lots of different languages here with Belgium having French, German and Dutch as their official languages plus English easy as well. Restaurants are dearer here. Have been paying about $A15 to $A20 for restaurant meals but here more like $A30.

Walked back 3km via Parc de Bruxelles and the Palais Royal and the Palais de Justice and lots of little streets and markets. Had dinner close by and back to diary. Have a 10:13am train to Paris in the morning. We arrive into Paris Gare du Nord station at 11:35am and have to swap to Paris Gare Montparnasse station 2:28pm to continue on to Bordeaux 5:42pm where we have 13 nights in Bordeaux and Northern Spain before heading back to Paris to meet up with Sandy's sisters.