295. You’ve got your traboules, I’ve got mine…
“So, are any of you English?” asks Annaliese. There are a couple of dozen takers for the English Language tour of Lyon’s Old Town but we’re a pretty cosmopolitan lot. ActorLaddie and I mumble a bit. I suspect we’re not about to be congratulated on our Good Governance.
“I’ve been reading the news,” says Annaliese. “About Boris Johnson.” Everyone chortles – apart from us. Then the tour begins.
Continue reading →294. Sunday in the Park with ActorLaddie…
Our digs overlook the River Rhône although to get the full glory, you have to kneel on a table and lean out of the window. Here’s the view right now:
Not Seurat, I grant you, but, if it wasn’t for the houses in between, you’d be able to see the turquoise of the Rhône, behind which there is a sort of office/restaurant complex, behind which there is the Parc de la Tête d’Or. This is where we went today to lick our wounds – and it is magnificent.
Continue reading →293. A Saturday on the Rhōne…
“I’m afraid we don’t issue refunds on the Lyon cards,” says Eloise in Tourist Information.
Well, I’m not actually wanting a refund. But could you get the card cancelled so that she can’t use it? Or – even better- so that, if she tries to use it, the card explodes and covers her with indelible blue ink which, as it drips down her treacherous skin, tattoos her with the phrase “I am a thief.”
OK, I don’t say the last bit. But I think it really loudly.
Continue reading →258. Day 18: And finally, please take your partners for the Eurostar Villanelle …
What shall I bring back from this holiday:
Our tour round Northern Europe on the trains?
What memories for when I’m old and grey?
257. Days 16 and 17: Lübeck
Apparently many cities have a ‘Great Fire’ – often a few. Copenhagen’s first fire was in 1728 – usual reasons: wooden houses too close together, hot summer, straw bedding, strong wind to spread it and so on. The good burghers of Copenhagen, our guide told us, were determined that this wouldn’t happen again.
256. Day 15: You put your suitcase in, your suitcase out…
Copenhagen to Lübeck: four hours. We’d reserved window seats to enjoy the scenery. On the map, it looks as if we’re going quite close to the coast and at one point will need to cross what ActorLaddie tells me is the Baltic Sea. I’m intrigued how this is going to work: on the way to Copenhagen, we crossed some pretty spectacular bridges and also went through some fairly long tunnels. I wonder if it’ll be a combination of these or whether we’re going to all be asked to swim across dragging the train behind us. I hope it’s not the latter as it’s raining and I’d rather not get wet.
255. Day 14: A Copenhaiku
Copenhagen has
a very pretty harbour;
New Metro en train
254. Day 13: Copenhagen
I wasn’t intending to blog today but this is irresistible!
This afternoon we went to look around a home which has been preserved exactly as it was when decorated in 1886 for the fabulously wealthy silk merchant, Rudolph Christensen. He lived there with his wife and three children: a son and two daughters, Gerda and Ellen. Here are the children.
252. Day 11: Looking a little pail…
“You must do the Night Watchman’s walk,” said CallMeGeorge, our student waiter. “It starts just there at 8 o’clock and it’s free.” And so we did.
251. Day 10: Ribe
You’ll be relieved to hear that we managed to leave Hamburg with all limbs and digits intact. Close call though, I reckon.
Now, we’re a little baffled. We’ve been in Ribe for a whole day and no one has yet tried to explain to us how to work the toilet. There’s not even a manual!
The Jelly Chronicles 