Day two: Wuppertal, Cologne and Bonn (a bit too much for one day).

Up before dawn and before most other guests in the hotel.  Had a perfectly OK budget hotel breakfast.  I wasn’t sure about the dozen fruit flies that flew out of the fruit salad, but I needed the vitamins (from the fruit, not the flies). 

Still in the dark, I caught the tram to the Hautbahnhof (central station) and a very friendly railwayman with a big beard recommended that I get a regional travel day ticket.   With this I can travel on any form of public transport in North Rhine Westphalia, so long as it wasn’t an intercity or international train.

Caught the first regional train to Wuppertal, home of a famous overhead railway.  The journey to Wuppertal was uneventful, other than seeing many large industrial chemical works. 

The Wuppertal overhead railway thingy was very impressive.  I stood right under the track to take a photo of a passing train.  As it whizzed by a large quantity of water was dumped from the track on to the pavement to the side of me; a good job I was stood to the side. 

 

The stations look like something from an antique fairground.  And this is appropriate, as the ride quality on the overhead railway was reminiscent of an antique fairground ride.  The carriages swayed from side to side at the station, presenting a challenge to those boarding and alighting.  As the train moved quickly off, the ride quality was a little bumpy.

The overhead railway follows the route of the river Wupper, a fast flowing river (presumably not navigable) that goes along the valley occupied by the city it gives its name to.  As the river twisted through the valley bottom, so did the overhead railway, making the carriage sway and bank as it sped along. 

After getting out and walking through the town centre, I decided to cut my losses – Wuppertal in the winter is pretty unremarkable.  I caught a train back out, but this time to Cologne. 

Approaching Cologne you can see the large indoor arena and the trade fair exhibition buildings.  Both are impressively large.  To enter the station, trains cross an imposing steel bridge over the Rhine.  Looking towards the river I noticed what looked to be brown leaves attached to the fencing separating a pedestrian walkway from the railway line.  

Once out of the station and past the dark and imposing cathedral I was able to take a closer look at the fence.  It was covered in padlocks.  The tradition, it seems, is for lovers to secure a padlock to the fence with their names inscribed on the metal case, and then throw the key in to the river below.  There must be tens of thousands of padlocks.   I lost count of the number of Helmuts (boys’ names) and sniggered at a Fanny (a girl’s name). 

The Cathedral is covered in black soot and could do with a clean.  Some restoration work is underway in a few parts.  The interior of the Dom is equally dark.  Two imposing church wardens in red robes stand guard at the entrance, asking disrespectful tourists to remove their caps.  Each warden carried a wooden box over their stomachs, held by a rope around their necks.  I wanted to ask what the box was for, but they looked quite angry. 

I had a quick look inside a few local attractions without going so far as to venture beyond the reception (that would require payment).  A large classical music venue and museum seemed quite interesting.   A small square to the side of this was empty, with stewards shouting at those who dared to walk on its hallowed paving blocks.  A sign on a pole asked politely, but firmly, that people not walk on the square, as an underground concert theatre was in use and the footsteps would cause a disturbance (a bit of a design oversight).

 

The shopping centre was very busy.  Amidst the bustle workers were dismantling the Christmas market stalls and huge Christmas tree, branch by branch.  Some blokes walked passed this, wearing red outfits and hats with massive feathers.  Not sure what that was about, but they smiled politely as tourists like me took photos.  

 Having a quick look around the centre, I decided to move on and headed back to the station.  En route, I stumbled across a wedding convoy, cars beeping their horns as if they were at a football match.  The bride was beaming ear to ear as the cortege was cheered and photographed by passersby.  Marvellous stuff. 

So on to Bonn, a small town in Germany and formally the capital of West Germany.  The town centre was just like any provincial precinct, except for a large statue of Ludwig von Beethoven, topped off by a nesting pigeon in his thick bronze locks of hair.   

Charming

I managed to catch a tram out to the area formally occupied by government buildings.  The area around Willy Brandt Allee has various modern buildings and a few pretty old streets.  I had a look around a museum about post-war German history.  The exhibits were good, but the captions were mostly in German (a shame as the leaflet I collected was in English). 

Feeling exhausted I slowly headed back to Dusseldorf.  I had to jump off the train at Cologne as I realised I’d taken an intercity express train (which was very nice) and this was not covered by my ticket.  It was an hour wait for the next Dusseldorf train, an hour filled by walking around in circles. 

The journey back to home had a few interesting moments.  Several people passed thorough collecting any waste bottles they could find.  Another chap walked down the carriage, placing small stuffed toys and laminated note onto each table.  He then walked back through, aggressively demanding EUR4 or the toy (and note) back.

I was struck by how industrial this region is.  At once, I could see three of four well illuminated chemical works on the broad dark horizon.  I passed a very modern stable yard, again well illuminated.  And, as the train was coming into the city centre, I noticed a large building which was dark, apart from the floor running level with the elevated railway tracks.  As we passed I noticed the rooms were awash with red light, each window had a number (1-29) and a woman standing in just her underwear.  Very odd.

Ghosts in Cologne

 A bath and a bit of telly soon got the aches out of the legs.  The TV programme as about training problems horses.  It was in German, so I didn’t exactly know what was going on, but it seemed a naughty pony was taught to be good by his owner waving at it with tea towel on a stick. 

 

Chuckle Brothers exhibit.

I’m writing this in the trendy hipster bar.  The woman working behind the bar is still friendly, but looks pissed off.  The WiFi isn’t working, people keep complaining and she doesn’t know what do to about it.

What’s German for “switch it off and on”?