19th July . Was slightly tense about being o London for my trip to see Tor. I walked into E Grinstead. I changed £100 worth of euros. Caught the 16:06 train, getting out at Clapham Junction and spending the next few hours with Chantal at the Junction. This was the 18th.
The 23:00 Flix coach pretty well on time. Within 2 hours we arrived at Dover. After immigration formalities which took a bit long as there were 40 passengers to check, we boarded the ferry. I had my sandwiches and water for the calm crossing. Early morning arrival in Calais and at 06:00 we left Calais for Paris, reaching the bus station at Bercy in Paris at about 09:30. The bus station was only a 5 minute walk from the R Seine.I wandered around looking at sculptures, the river Seine, and generally getting my bearings. I had about 6 hours to kill before leaving for Jena.
I found a bistro for a couple of coffees ( costing nearly £10) and use of WiFi. I asked which way to walk along the river to reach Notre Dame. Had a very pleasant 35 minute walk taking in the restaurant barges, tourist boats, bridges, but didn’t go all the way to the cathedral as it was being renovated after a massive fire in 2019. Talked to a Belgian lady briefly whose roots were Congolese. I got back to the bistro for a quick tea, then back to the bus station. A lot of standing around and uncertainty and eventually we left over an hour late. A good but long trip…13 hours. The Flix bus was a double decker this time and much more comfortable than the single decker from London to Paris. Upper deck with nice views. Reclining seats and charger sockets. Managed some dozing between 05:00pm and 06:00am. The only excitement was when we had a short stope in Metz and a guy was left behind…!! Near Luxembourg I peed between rubbish bins at a petrol station; I didn’t have small change for the indoor toilet and I didn’t want to risk being left behind.
Arrived in Jena just before 06:00. I got off to a bad start at the café nearby. I asked for the key to the toilet. I didn’t understand the reasoning, but the answer was no. I was happy to accept that, but about 15 minutes later a guy came in, found the toilet locked and he was shown where the keys were. On leaving, I tried to ask the lady why I was denied the key. I don’t speak German so didn’t understand her explanation. I gestured my dissatisfaction (not rudely) and left…vowing never to go back there again..
Tor got in touch. I wandered around the city as it was still early. Took pictures of Jena sculptures that constituted mangled metal. As he was awake, I walked over to his flat. Great to see him after a year and half (Xmas in England). I settled in; at least I had a proper bed to sleep on this time. When I was there nearly 3 years ago I slept in a tent in his living room on a blowup mattress..!!! We walked into Jena..about 35 mins. Went to Paradies Park and stopped for a beer at Paradies café which is located by the river. We bought Pork steaks for dinner. Kaufland or Rewe were the supermarkets of choice.
21st..Wanderings. I liked Grunowsky as a place to go for a drink. They had a urinal with smart paintings on the wall which I christened ‘Peecasso’.
I discovered Fiddlers Green….the Irish pub…again. They served an excellent Guinness.
22nd. We walked up the hill behind the flat and then about 3kms along the brow of the hill before descending into Jena. Lovely views from the forested hills. The trees were a mix of beech and pine, depending on whether north or south facing.
23rd. We went on long walk in the opposite direction to Jena then back into the city along the river. Enjoyed a delicious traditional thuringian sausage and chips with different flavoured mayo toppings.
Tor was back at work Mon to Wed. 14:00 till 22:00. I did my usual walkabout in the city before meeting up with Tor.
24th Anniv of Dad’s death. We toasted him in the Beer garden.
27th-30th. Tor was off work so we had more time together than I expected. We had a day trip on Thurs to Naumburg. Pleasant but not exciting. Nice change. Cathedral city. A bit rainy during the morning…an umbrella was required. But cleared up in the afternoon. Caught a slightly earlier train back than originally planned and went back to Jena.
28th. Stef came to visit; we met up at Grunowsky. Tor and I visited the Cemetery first…saw the Carl Zeiss grave.Tor and I went to Mr Spicy ( taking advantage of their opening discounts) for a chicken Mandi. The Rice was like a biryani. Absolutely delicious. Fiddlers afterwards, of course.
29th. Market Square..pottery market …huge assortment of pottery. Spies’ tools display in the shopping arcade as we waited for the rain showers to pass over. We visited the Paradies garden and River bar.
30th. Pottery market was buzzing again. Tor and I went for a medium walk, a few hundred meters of which was beside a well known Graffiti wall. Great artistic work. The walk ended at a microbrewery !!
Mon/Tues..31st &1st, Tor was working 06:00 to 14:00. Grunowsky ( most days there were music rehearsals for afternoon/evening concerts at a stage nearby ) & Fiddlers as usual. I had coffee at Cucina for a change on my last day then sat outside The Bean waiting for Tor. But we had a Fritze Mitte dinner first, then a Guinness then made our way to the bus stand.
Sad to say goodbye, but had a really good time and great to be part of his every day life for 12 days. Strange to think that I won’t physically see much of him over the upcoming years, but there’s always video chats of course. At least I did my parental bit of vacuuming, dusting,washing dishes…The weather was good mostly; if it rained it tended to be in the morning and then clear up for the afternoon.
So, 12 hours to Zurich. Some rain and rainbows initially, but otherwise a long night journey with a couple of short stops along the way. The bus driver lost his way at one point, but as the connecting bus was a bit late, it didn’t matter. 06:00 arrival Zurich. Walked around slowly getting used the area around the bus station and train station. There was no hurry as I didn’t want to get to Mary’s until after 10:30. Walked slowly along Bahnhofstrasse taking in all the buildings and realising I couldn’t identify a Bank. Not important as I had decided to walk to Mary’s and wouldn’t need any Swiss Francs initially. I reached the lake and very slowly made my way…stopping to brush my teeth and pee in the bushes. The walk was mainly along the lake shore…very pleasant, apart from the drizzle for half the time. Sat at a railway station at one point to play sudoku. I took all sorts of detours and it took me over 4 hours to walk it.
2nd & 3rd Aug
After 10:30, and having found the 8 storey block of flats, I called Mary. It’s a really lovely place with amazing views of lake Zurich and Zurich itself. The top floor is an enclosed glass terrace with a very large open/outside terrace….fantastic in nice weather. Over a couple of days Mary treated me to lunch and coffees. It was great to see her so happy in an environment where she is well looked after. Her room is on the 6th floor and has a great view. The ‘Home’ is like a 5star hotel…from the staff to the facilities. There are a lot of foreign staff (incl a Kenyan lady), so conversations are always interesting. Corinna my cousin picked me up around 17:00 to go to her place for the night. I saw her daughters Cecilia and Alessandra ( who I hadn’t seen for 14 years) and her partner Alessandro. We had a lovely dinner….I requested sausages!!..with lots of red wine. I had a very comfortable night and after breakfast Corinna dropped me back at Mary’s. We had a lovely day together, and great to see my aunt/godmother in such good form (she hasn’t lost her cheeky sense of humour) as she approaches her 90th birthday on 9th Sept.
3rd Aug. I left Mary’s at about 16:00 and it only took me 45 mins to walk to the first big bridge in Zurich, beside the lake. I did a lot of wandering around to pass the time. The bridges across the river, before it went into the lake were really interesting. I found a bar in the Old town and slowly drank a couple of Belgian beers. Eventually I went to the bus station to await my 21:40 to London via Eindhoven. I hadn’t looked at my emails for a while and noticed my bus was cancelled . Mild panic…what to do ? My phone battery was low. I went into a hotel nearby and got a charger and used their Internet, but hadn’t progressed very far before I was kicked out. I don’t know how I managed it, but standing outside the hotel and using their Internet, I went onto the Flix website and through their Tracking I booked a 03:30 bus. I had almost given up. About 6 hours to kill, hanging around the bus stand but I didn’t want anything else to go wrong . Well, the 03:30 was on time. A family was refused entry into Germany from Switzerland because their documents weren’t in order. I got some sleep. Spent 5 hours in Dusseldorf between buses. But a very interesting area with lots of ethnic shops. I bought some excellent chevda. I had two beers whilst waiting and caught my early evening bus to London. More night travelling, broken up by catching the ferry from Calais to Dover. All went well and I arrived at Victoria coach station at 06:00. I drank coffees at Spoons in Victoria Station and caught the first available train to East Grinstead at 08:15.
An eventful and fun couple of weeks travelling across Europe by bus.