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A tour of Europe by bus was a novelty since my traveling tours had always been by train or car. Overall I was not satisfied with it, although the places visited were beautiful.
On Frankfurt I had gathered conflicting opinions, I decided to spend a few hours there. I can say that it is interesting, perhaps it would deserve more time to see some museums or otherwise experience it differently.
I strolled along the riverfront at sunset and then under a downpour through downtown where the few historic spaces and modern high-rise buildings with the usual stores are consecutive.
Unfortunately, what has stuck with me the most is the station district where I slept. It is full of drifters and junkies. Hard to believe it is so close to the major financial power centers of Europe.
Cologne is especially the wonderful cathedral. Here again I had to take another swab to be accepted into the hostel, and in other ways. Everything went smoothly; the trouble came the next day.
The bus departure for Antwerp was in the Cologne airport. Although I had to take a train to get there, this was heartening.
At the previous stop in Nuremberg I could have gotten there by lowering myself from my room window because it was right down there. But the bus was severely delayed, with the bathrooms and bar almost unseemly and nowhere to sit, it was unpleasant.
Tour of Europe by bus: a day spent in waiting and riding
But the departure from Cologne was undoubtedly the worst ever.
It was located outside an unused part of the airport. To pee or get a sandwich one had to go a long way. There was no office and no way to get information.
After 2 hours, with the company’s website devoid of reports, with some Dutch guys and a couple of Thai ladies with whom I was supposed to take the same ride, we teamed up to hope to talk to the call center.
Finally one of the girls managed to catch the line. Our bus that was supposed to leave at 11:30 would never arrive. They who were supposed to go to Holland would take the one that would leave at 3:00 p.m. But I was supposed to go to Belgium!
The only solution put forward would have been to take the bus from Dusseldorf departing after an hour. I closed the communication without imagining that via rail, from where I was, it would take 2 trains and 1 hour 40. I rushed through the airport to reach the train station that was on the opposite side, and caught the first train to Cologne Central Station on the fly. These are big, crowded buildings, and if you don’t know where to go, it’s not immediate to even know which direction to go. Still scrambling, I found a taxi driver who ensured that I got to the Dusseldorf station on time: we arrived a good two minutes early.
The unaware and quarrelsome driver
As I approached the bus, the driver and his helper, who gave very much the idea of being his wife, got off; the two rotund old men headed for the bar and returned 40 minutes later. I thought I had had enough for the day, the important thing now was to get to my destination and there was still plenty of time to check into the hotel I had wisely booked near Antwerp station. Instead, the driver didn’t seem to know which way to go, and the few stops to drop off and pick up other passengers were very long, so I began a dialogue via whatsapp with those at the hotel about my possible late arrival.
In Antwerp we took a very narrow road forbidden to buses, and the driver got out to argue with a motorist who had every reason because by crossing we risked getting stuck with parked cars. I arrived very late and was opened by another guest to whom they had given directions about giving me the keys.
Tour of Europe by bus, I also pass by Luxembourg and Trier
About Belgium I will talk about it in the next article. I had no expectations about Luxembourg, which instead turned out to be beautiful with a multitude of clubs and lots of people out drinking. Being a capital city also with many European institutional offices, there are many people from various countries, and in a small center, the many multiculturalism stands out greatly. Luxembourg is also the richest state in the world, you had to check it out.
Since there was little to see anyway, on the second day I went to Trier, which is in Germany and where there is the beautiful and intact Roman gate, but also Carl Marx’s birthplace and the philosopher’s personalized traffic light.
The waitress who wanted to burst me at the end of the bus tour of Europe.
On my way home I also stopped in Stuttgart (nothing memorable) and for a few hours in Munich where I had already been twice.
In addition to the part the walk downtown, before catching the night bus I treated myself to a super dinner at the Augustiner ‘s brewery , right next to the station. As witnessed in the artificial image highlighted, it was a dinner I will always remember.
I was already full when I asked the friendly waitress as dessert the same one she had brought to the next table. Of course I assumed that I would get a normal portion and instead, always very smiling, she brought me the same Flemish one. At first this startled me, and in the end I ate it all. On the bus, saturated, this time I fell asleep instantly and awoke in Bologna without feeling any discomfort.
Home travel Travel during the Covid – Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg
Next stop Bruges bar meetings and web-based threats
Trips taken, travel stories divided by continent
Anecdotes, divided by type in travel narratives
Countries visited in my travel stories
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