I have just been a bit cruel.

A woman in my office is annoying, nice, but definately annoying.



I went to the gym at lunch and showered and washed my hair afterwards, so it's still damp.



She asked if I had been swimming. I responded no and gave no further explanation. She waited for one and then said "so you've not been swimming" again I simply responded no.



She left with a puzzled look upon her face and i know it will really annoy her that she didn't get an explanation - I doubt it willl occur to her that I had a post-gym shower.

Day 3.

We went to the Carolus Baths http://www.carolus-thermen.de/and spent about three hours in the bubbles, it was fantastic. Aachen has natural springs and all of the water in the pool and jacuzzi comes from them. The water comes out of the ground too hot to bathe in so it must pass through this series of waterfalls before splashing down into the pools.


More pottering round Christmas markets and late opening shops and brief panic buying. A quiet night with dinner at Vapiano again then home to bed earlyish because we had to come home again. boo!

day 2.

We were up fairly early, stopped in at a cafe for coffee and cheese rolls for breakfast.

Visited the Rathaus (town hall) and learned lots about Charlemagne as well as how to 'fresco' and saw the best handbag ever - the purse of St Steven. http://www.khm.at/en/treasury/the-holy-roman-empire/?aid=7&cHash=63e0fb8ff9

Visited the Dom (Cathedral) which is magnificent outside but truly breathtaking inside, the interior, floor to ceiling, wall to wall and including the domed balcony level was jewel encrusted the style was quite Arabian and it was the most beautiful interior I have ever seen. There was fantastic stained glass, dramatic and modern - lots of post war restoration works. It was amazing.

We also visited an art gallery of which highlights were Socialist realism -photo realism photos of East German people. Going about their business mostly as is the way of social realism. Workers on their lunch breaks, small boys watching trains. They were all black and white and quite grainy. They looked poetic, despite the subject matter being mostly mundane.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/6596910/Roger-Melis-how-should-we-remember-Germanys-Communist-East.html this is about the exhibition we saw. There was a fun glass room which was like a music video where you stand inside and can see rows and rows of yourself. disorientating but fun to play in. and a whole room of stained glass too.

In between all this culture we pottered round the market some more and ate - Flammkuchen (like a very thin pizza) , folienkartofflen (baked potatoes) mit krauterquark (with herb quark - a German soft cheese), dampfknudeln (steamed do nuts sort of) with custard and cherry pancakes (but thick heavy pancakes more like scotch ones than crepes) . all super delish and super German. as well as white and red gluhwein and more eierpunsch.

I felt absolutely crap in the late afternoon so we went to the hotel for a wee rest and a bottle of beer we bought from aldi.


I sort of insisted that I was too tired to venture far and we should try the nice looking Italian restaurant near the hotel, It was a good decision and we stayed till 11 mostly thanks to the litre of wine!

The restaurant is called Vapiano: It seems to be an international franchise but it was nice and comfortable and didn't have a pork based menu. http://www.vapiano-international.com/vapiano/ They give you a little 'credit' card and when you order drinks at the bar or food from the counter, you swipe. the food is freshly made despite being self service and they have the good sense to give you a hand held buzzer that vibrates when your pizza i ready rather than you standing around waiting.

It was such a pleasant atmosphere no body made us feel rushed and we could decide just to go order aside salad or desert or coffee or ea at our leisure.We had great chat and a nice time and I for one though I think Marisa too - was glad that we hadn't trekked to the other side of town.

We had a glass of prosecco in a nice jazzy cafe that features performers though earlier in the evening before heading home to bed.

The Perfect overland weekend city break. day 1.

Economy and Ecology were the buzz word when planning the girls weekend adventure, taking into account convenience of me being based in Glasgow and Marisa in Cardiff.

The actually holiday buzzwords would be booze, (wine, beer, gluhwein, eierpunsch (like eggnog - yum) rum - in coffee and in 'grog' ) blues (live in a bar) , bubbles (as in Jacuzzis) and Bloody fabulous time.

Marisa travelled on a very early morning train from Cardiff to London on Friday while I travelled Thursday night on the Scotrail sleeper.

we left London on the 8:30 am Eurostar arrived Brussels about 2 hours later (but plus 1 for change to central European time) had time for a Leffe Bruin in a bar near Brussels Midi. Caught the Deutsche Bahn ICE train - very swish - to Aachen and arrived there in less that two hours. Our hotel was a ten minute walk from the train station - an Ibis hotel, not glam but less that 80 Euro each for three nights and clean and quiet and our room was of a good standard and decent size. also located just outside the south city gate.

Quick freshen up after checking in and we headed to the Aachner Brauhaus (brewery) for lunch and tiny beers.

The local beer Kolsch is served in a 200ml glass that looks like a little test tube, a large beer is 400ml still less than a pint. In Bavaria (the part of Germany I have most frequented) a small beer would be 500ml and a normal size a litre.

Lunch was typically German but without my typical Bavarian dishes of spatzle or obazda (both yummy and cheese based) I had to order fried potatoes with sauerkraut. Both came with surprise pork. tiny bits of pork that I had to pick off and eat round- Marisa had a sausage Bockwurst (I think) which she seemed a bit underwhelmed about still the interior was old fashioned and traditional so all was not a disaster with lunch.

We pottered for the rest of the day - swung by tourist information to pick up a map and some leaflets of events in the city over the weekend.

Window shopping at all the bakers was a complete joy - Christmas windows and Printen (the local baked treat - like lebkuchen but a bit more chewy) in them all. The medieval old town has a few remaining buildings (post WWII) but they have worked really well alongside the new architecture.

The Christmas market was bigger than the Edinburgh or Glasgow ones and we spent quite a long time wandering around the different stalls, Took a very German Kaffee und Kuchen break in the old Aachen cafe - though on Saturday evening we found an older and cuter one that alas we could never find again ) I had a cherry flan and Marisa an apple one - the slices were gigantic.

More pottering, we looked in some nice shops and remarked that the street art was really good - lots of nice sculptures in well thought out locations.

We stopped to try some Eierpunsch which was delicious. Boozy, yummy custard.

We stopped back at the hotel to shower and change then headed out to get dinner from a Christmas market stall, we had some garlicky mushrooms and cauliflower fritters.

Then went to a bar where we had seen had a blues band /jam session advertised they were OK, much better than something you would usually see in a pub without a cover charge and we stayed for a few hours observing the locals while our favourite waitress of the trip kept bringing us more beer. Table service in pubs is a great thing, we caught her eye, she brought us more. We gave her a small tip and she wished us a pleasant rest of the evening. I think we left around 10pm then we wandered around a bit trying to work out where the main area was for nightlife - I'd read on Tripadvisor about a busy area popular with students.

We found a nice looking pre-club type bar and had another one for the road then stumbled home to bed around 1am which was remarkably late for two people who hadn't slept much at all the nigh before - we had great plans for a bigger night out on Saturday. After a busy day of being tourists and boozy custard.

I'm slightly worried that the office might blow away. I'll just be left sitting at my desk a few miles down the road. Yesterday and today have been quite a shock to the system after the joys of the weather in Aachen.

Man I am shattered.

I arrived at work this morning just before 8:30am yuk!

I 'slept' on the Caledonian sleeper last night. It's a good way to travel but not a good way to sleep before a day of work.

I had a great long weekend break though.

I will write something about all the eggnog after I have slept.

Weather

How very British to talk about the weather.

I didn't think it was all that bad. Wet, yes, but no wetter than it often is. The train delay this morning told me otherwise (only half an hour) I now have journey checker open on my work desk top to ensure I know if getting home will be a problem - possible delays as flooded tracks mean slower trains but it doesn't look serious.

Also, tonight I am taking the sleeper train to London for the first led of my super adventure, again delays between Glasgow and London but so far no cancellations.

The sleeper train travels at a slower speed that other trains anyway, plus the tracks are quiet so I don't know that it will matter much. I have about a one hour allowance for delays though as M (who I am meeting with in London) MUST check in/on to the Eurostar by 8am at the latest. though we are planning to meet at St Pancras around 7:20.

wish me luck!

Ooooh Pink!

I have a blog at live journal but I'm kind of bored of it. So I thought I'd move over here and see how the weather is.

I'm likely to be writing about how unsuccessful I am at getting myself debt free and trying to lose some weight. Bu I also enjoy spending time on my allotment and belly dance so they will likely crop up a bit too as will cooking, eating, drinking. holidays and general stuff and things like that.