A few hours in Cologne. The adventure began!

A few hours in Cologne. The adventure began! -

The Thursday, October 10 we left London St Pancras on the Eurostar to Brussels. The aim of this adventure is to travel to the UK in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam entirely by train. This was our first step towards Poland.

We left the train 9 am and soon found ourselves gliding through the south of England to the Chunnel. Our bags were packed and bulging, I'm not sure if tempted to go cover is a good idea where the journey takes us to Siberia! {Although we do not travel by air I wanted a small manageable bag ,.}

We had booked three trains Eurostar to Brussels , Brussels Cologne and Cologne Warsaw on the Jan Kiepura sleeper. I made the reservations that we had a few hours to Cologne I thought it would be good to stretch our legs and see a new place. All connections were easy and on time, we came in Cologne Hauptbahnhof afternoon

There were lockers luggage magical Cologne train station, in freely service. You put your bags in the machine, coin into the slot and a shutter closes and luggage disappears into the ground in a secure box. We were very impressed! Free our bags, we went out into the sun and the huge cathedral, Cologne grandiose. This Gothic church towers over everything and was one of the few buildings in the city to survive World War II

behind the cathedral

old and new.

We took a meander along the river and a cobblestone street, through some places quiet until we reach the busy shopping street. The attraction of pastry sellers too and we succumbed to treatment

> Click on photo to open the gallery

traditional style buildings

Walking along the river

interesting architectural textures

Mmmmm

We did not have a map, but the town was easy to navigate and there were many signs. After the pleasant afternoon we returned to the station to retrieve our luggage. We camped in a café in the station for an hour, it was hot, there were hot drinks and free wifi, what else could you need! There were lots of food options in the station too and we had our evening meal in a noodle bar, it was cheap, gay. and vegetarians.

The sleeper train left at 22.28 and, with a cabin four berth for us, we made our beds and settled in for the night the train sped through the darkness to Poland ... ..

links

I booked all the trains myself, independently, using Eurostar.com, rail Europe and www.bahn.com I always comparing prices for train between these companies to find the best deals. I could not do it without the wonderful advice of The Man in Seat Sixty-One, it's my best invisible friend in this adventure!

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