Karl’s Ruhe

Not so much to report today (and unusually few photos to prove it).We had a great stay at Noordwijk (and a great host) but of course it’s always time to go eventually.’See you again in two years’, says Maria as we lumber our bags out the door.After breakfast we went looking for the bus to the station, so that we could get to Utrecht Centraal for a train to Karlsruhe, where we’re going to stay with Lisa and Holger, via Frankfurt. Noordwijk is a pretty small town after all and it turns out that most of the buses only come once an hour, and that we’d missed one by ten minutes.After a bit of walking this way and that toward Voorhout station while trying to find a stop for a bus that would get us to that station, and also a bit of running with heavy backpacks for a bus which we weren’t sure was the bus we wanted, and a small amount of hurriedly checking the timetable for the next No 59 bus while the driver waited and told us that he had to go really, that he was waiting only for us and so forth, we went to plan B which was to catch the bus waiting for us, to Leiden station.Somehow when we got to Leiden Centraal, even though we’d caught a Sneltrein – a fast train, which doesn’t stop at as many places – from Rotterdam to Leiden, there didn’t seem to be many going back the other way. Only stoptreins, which do what they sound like…But further down the departure board there was an Intercity train to Utrecht Centraal, which was where we were going to go from Rotterdam anyway. And it was only from Utrecht onwards that we had needed to book seats on the train and therefore needed to be there at any particular time. Armed with our trusty Eurail passes – which actually give you free train travel for the full day on any 6 days, rather than just 6 free trips, we made it to UC in time for hot chocolate and coffee before the connection on to Karlsruhe by 6pm.So we spent most of the day on bus or train. The story with Karlsruhe is that the town was founded by a guy carled Carlwho was ought in the forest looking for a missing fan, and fell asleep and dreamt of building a fan-shaped city. Which he did. At the point of the fan there is a castle, but we couldn’t really see that today, not in the rain.Upon arriving we went straight out for dinner with Lisa and Holger, who apologised sincerely for the rain. There is a restaurant-type thing in Karlsruhe which is basically a brewery that serves food. So we had steins of pilsener and some German specialties; mushroom pasta, a large pretzel with a dip you dip it in that was like cheese ice cream (TASTY!), some type of pork sausage I didn’t try but which Alice liked, and what would best be described as spinach ravioli that had three layers of spinach inside, so that it was about two inches high, but then it’s also fried so it’s golden brown on the outside.Alice is coming down with a cold, so after kicking around the house for a bit talking, and then being thoroughly dismissed 4-0 at table Fussball by Holger, we went to bed.Greg

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