With a bit of travelling today we had an early breakfast and onto the bus by 7. First stop Bonn, where we breezed by the Beethoven museum and admired the main square, which had been rebuilt to look like it had prior to the ravages of war. The pièce de résistance in Bonn is the University of Bonn, which is based in the old royal palace, a building that takes up multiple city blocks. It is currently being restored and is potentially the nicest centre of learning I have seen!
Next stop Cologne, where there is once again a cathedral to admire and an “old town” market square to explore. We had a little more time to explore this town, so I walked across the river on yet another love-lock bridge - this time with thousands and thousands of contributors.
We have a constant stream of people joining and leaving the tour as it runs in a circuit and joins the other tours offered by the company. There’s a pair of ladies from the Phillipines who are travelling together following the death of their husbands. Both lovely and friendly, but one has a selfie stick that is constantly in use and they have to stop to be photographed in everything.
There’s a Malaysian family with a mum and dad and teenage daughter - the mum and dad are very friendly and ask lots of questions about Australia, but I don’t think the daughter spoke in front of anyone the whole time we travelled together.
Then there’s Abood and his wife (I forget her name). He is an ENT surgeon in Bahrain and is familiar with PA hospital as he has worked there!
We were joined today by a family from India (who I enjoyed talking cricket with) and there have been some other solo travellers who have kept to themselves. Everyone is friendly and it has been nice to chat and learn more about how they learned English, as it was a second language for all of them.
We finished the night in our Amsterdam digs, ready for the next day’s exploration of the Netherlands.
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