The first instalment of this narrative covered the concept
and planning of a round Europe rail trip a student
friend and I made, back in the summer of 1975, making use of the Interrail Pass. Having caught the ferry across
from Harwich to the Hook of Holland, my companion and I
made the short train journey to Amsterdam,
which is where the story continues.
Your's truly - 41 years ago! |
We stayed at the Youth
Hostel in central Amsterdam. Unlike
similar hostels in Britain, and very unlike the Youth Hostel we stayed at in
Hamburg (see below), our stopover in the Dutch capital was a very civilised
affair, with the doors not locked until 1am and soft classical music played
over the tannoy system in the morning, in order to awaken the residents. My
only gripe was the triple-rise bunks in the dormitories, which required the
ability to climb like a mountain goat, plus a head for heights; and guess who got lumbered with the
top bunk!
Heineken’s city centre brewery was still operational at the
time of our visit, so we did the obvious thing and booked a tour – one Dutch
Guilder if my memory serves me right. The tour of course, included a number of
free beers, which were gratefully received at the time.
We visited several Amsterdam
bars during our three day stay in the capital. This was my first introduction
to Europe’s “café culture”, and I felt I could really
get used to sitting outside one of the traditional Dutch Brown Cafés, enjoying
a few beers whilst watching the world go by.
Two things we found slightly less appealing were the small
33cl glasses and the peculiar Dutch habit of scraping the head off the top of
the beer with a wooden spatula. We
didn’t go overboard on the beer front though, as of necessity, we were on a
tight budget and had to think about matters such as food. Here, a paper cone
full of chips, smothered in mayonnaise, came into its own, acting as a cheap
and tasty stomach-filler.
Copenhagen:
The Danish capital was our next
stop, and being Denmark
we found it rather expensive. It’s worth briefly mentioning that our rail
journey to Copenhagen involved our train being shunted onto a ferry, as we
journeyed from the mainland of the Jutland Peninsula to the large island where
the Danish capital is situated.
Elephant Gate - Carlsberg Brewery |
There was also a generous sampling of beer after the tour;
something which didn’t sit too well on an empty stomach. The unseasonably cold and
damp July weather also put a bit of a dampener on things as well, so much so
that we abandoned the afternoon’s visit to Tuborg; Copenhagen’s other major
brewery. This was probably a wise move at the time, but looking back was
something of lost opportunity; especially as the plant is now closed.
Hamburg: There’s nothing to report on the beer front
here, and little on any other front. The Youth Hostel is worth
mentioning, if only because its strict regime required residents to be back before 10pm, when
the doors were locked and used a loud and annoying bell to jolt sleepers out of
their slumbers at 6am! So no chance of a
wild evening in St Pauli and the Reeperbahn then!
River Rhine - Cologne |
The plan was for my companion to head south to Stuttgart,
where he would be spending a few days with a former girl-friend, who was living
and working in the city, as part of her foreign languages course. I would also
be travelling south but only as far as the great Rhineland city of
Cologne. I would be staying there with a
school friend who was doing a similar language-based course to Nick’s
girlfriend.
The arrangement was that a few days later I would board a
pre-selected Munich-bound train, which passed through Stuttgart, and my
travelling companion would be waiting on the platform to board the same train.
There was no contingency plan, and no real way of getting in touch with each
other should something happen to spoil the arrangement, but fortunately, thanks
in no small part to the strict punctuality of Deutsche Bahn, things ran like
clockwork, and true to form Nick was waiting on the platform at Stuttgart station,
ready to be waved off by his girlfriend.
Cologne's impressive cathedral |
I was met off the train at Cologne Hauptbahnhof by my school
chum, who quickly whisked me off to his workplace, where a “leaving do” of some
description was taking place. The reason for his haste was an attractive and
highly polished wooden barrel of beer perched up on a table. What was even
better was his boss’s instruction to “Make sure Mick’s friend has plenty to
drink, and that his glass remains full!” Consequently, by the time the party
was drawing to an end, I was viewing the world from a totally different perspective.
I don’t know what the beer was, or whether it may have been the local
speciality - Kölsch, but it was very nice. After the party ended, we went on to
a restaurant with Mick’s boss, where there was yet more beer, plus some welcome
and much needed food.
Brauerei Päffgen |
Beer from the wood |
It’s worth mentioning briefly the rail journey from Cologne
down to Stuttgart, as the 185 kilometre stretch south to Mainz, is one of the
most scenic routes imaginable. The rail line follows the course of the River
Rhine, almost hugging the west bank of the river at times, as it negotiates the
narrow Rhine Gorge. High on the hills,
overlooking the gorge, are a number of strategically-placed old castles, now
mostly ruined, but coupled with the extensive vineyards covering many of
the valley slopes, they give a real romantic feel to the region .
We will leave the narrative here for now, as the next time
we stepped off a train, apart from when changing on to another, we had
traversed the Alps and were in Croatia. That is definitely southern Europe, so
I will continue with this "less beery" part of the continent in the next
instalment.
2 comments:
Another good read. I know you said it would be more beer focused and it certainly did tick off a large area and breweries.
Look forward to put three, regardless of beer or not haha.
And we all know what Nick got up to during his 'down times.
I always find the café culture of Europe interesting however you certainly need good weather particularly around the squares which become wind traps during the cold weather.
I imagine writing and recounting the trip is bringing back some memories. May I ask how far into your trip were you by the end of this stage?
Hi Liam, yes I obviously knew full well what my friend was up to during his stay in Stuttgart! Later on in the trip, I too met up with a girlfriend who was working in Spain at the time. Like Nick’s liaison, this meeting was also pre-arranged.
In answer to your question about how far into the trip we were by this stage; I would estimate just under half way. I did keep a bit of a diary at the time, and whilst I came across it a few years ago, it has become buried again somewhere.
Not wishing to spoil the narrative too much, but after relaxing on the Dalmatian Coast for several days, we then embarked on a series of marathon train journeys, travelling virtually non-stop all the way from Yugoslavia, across northern Italy, and then right round the Mediterranean coast of France, before finally ending up in Spain.
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