Brussels to Munich

Köln Cathedral [Enlarge]

Brussels was a pleasant surprise, as we had expected it to be a bit bland. However it is an expensive place and so we needed to move on quickly.

As expected from the capital of Europe, we had plenty of choice when it came to choosing our next destination. Neither of us has been to southern Germany so we decided to pay Munich a visit. This is a convenient day's train travel away and well into central Europe.

We boarded the 08:28 Thalys service to Cologne at the Gare du Midi, which proved to be fast, comfortable and on time, as expected. We had an hour to wait in Cologne, which was ideal as we had a photo to take. On 18th May 1945, ten days after the end of the war in Europe, Glenn's grandfather was a passenger in a very low-flying photographic reconnaissance aircraft, and we have a slide taken by him that day of Cologne Cathedral. We have always been awe-struck by the extent of the damage to the city in the war and we wanted to see the area for ourselves.

The cathedral turned out to be as impressive as we had imagined. Unfortunately time only permitted a few snaps and a quick bratwurst from one of the stalls in the square nearby.

While finishing our delicious snack, standing next to the cathedral for shelter against the November wind, a German pigeon decided to take a crap from a great height on Glenn's shoulder. Maybe it felt like exacting some sort of revenge for the bombing suffered by its ancestors sixty years ago or something. Luckily the sausage remained unspattered or the day would really have been ruined.

Day 004
Brussels to Munich

This map shows the route we took in this post. Click it to see larger maps of our whole route at flickr.

Maps are taken from the CIA World Factbook.