Osnabrück

Having been reuinited with our companions in Liege (Belgium), we made our way to Köln (Cologne, Germany). It is a lovely town, we went to a church in the centre, I forget it's name (!) which was apparently the target for three years of allied bombing during the second world war but they missed! It was about the only thing left standing. It was the highest tower in Europe before the Eiffel was built (c1890) and you can climb to the top up an extremely narrow concrete staircase which handles two way traffic only when those climbing up cling to the centre pole to allow those coming down to pass. As it was all enclosed most of the way I was able to climb without much thought - but we got to a larger room near the top and the way up was via metal stairs and I got a few flights up before abandoning the project. But as my brother is reading "Feel the fear and do it anyway" and made the attempt again and got all the way to the top though not without a few tears. I'm hopeless, huh?
The view was fab though I stayed away from the edge, and I managed the presence of mind to film with the video camera.
The stained glass in the church was amazing, ask Arna for the photos.
We had hired bikes, much like Amsterdam, and the caravan park was around 7km from the centre. If ever you are camping in Köln, this caravan park is a must! Never had we seen such clean showers etc and the staff were most helpful and efficent. I expected nothing less from the Germans, ya?
But however, the comparison with Osnabrück, where we are now, is not favourable. We are staying in a caravan park by the lake which is lovely to look at but it is run like one of those camps they used to have hereabouts. Yeah, okay, that's in bad taste but it is run by a dragon lady and you need a key to get into the showers which then are dirty and cost 50 cents to have 8 minutes of hot water- at the end of eight minutes, the hot water shuts off and freezing cold water is left on! You must ask Jason about the washing machine incident - suffice to say it was also under lock and key when I spied it this morning in the women's shower room, though it's existence had apparently been denied.
Osnabrück is where Arna's mother is from and I own I understand perhaps why she left. We are in the zentrum (centre of town) and it has little to recommend it. It is quite industrial and I don't think it fared particularly well during the war, the tourist sites are few.
We have no current plans re destination though perhaps a visit to a concentration camp will form part of our transient itinerary, I think we are in discussion as to whether Berlin or Vienna is next.
Must go, leave comments if you would like to - I do enjoy hearing from you all.
Till I write again!
sidgirl
xx