Salisbury, London, Köln - Monday, 25 July 2011

Steak and Mushroom Pie

A Day Lost


I get up early to pack, and then go out to find some breakfast.  I am hoping that the pastry shop off the Market Square will be open because I was eyeing their many pasties the other day, and wanted to have one before I left.  I am in luck, they are open, but with out seating.  So I buy a wonderful Steak and Mushroom Pie, and a black current juice and go sit on a park bench.  The pie is really good - lots of meat and mushrooms with a rich gravy - I'm a fan.  I walk around a bit considering an encore but decide against it.

I check out, and they hail a cab for me.  He whisks me off to the train station, and we talk about his holidays (Sierra Leone and Wales).  Fascinating.  This taxi driver has a more interesting life than most people - and socially responsible as well.  I'm impressed.

The train ride into London Waterloo is unremarkable, although there is an interesting woman who runs the concession cart.  She was there on the trip out, and here she is again (ginger ale and peanuts?) it must be what she does.  Again, the lands through which the track runs is a vibrant green (with the exception of a huge hog farm somewhere outside of Salisbury).  It is all remarkable clean and well kept.  As we make our way into London, I am fascinated with the skyline that is developing.  The "gerkin" is now surrounded by a "lipstick tube" an emerging glass pyramid, and other buildings all piled up on either side of the Thames right near the Tower.  I am reminded of La Defence in Paris, with its jumble of modern buildings.  I wonder how they will fare in time.  The British buildings just seem silly to me.  They grab attention, but for how long?  They quickly move past as we make our way into Waterloo station, and soon we are back into a Victorian-industrial esthetic.

I grab my bags and make my way down to the Bakerloo line, and go up to Paddington - it's rather quick today, and then onto an Express out to Heathrow.  I've made the day longer by doing this.  I could have taken the train from Salisbury to Woking, and then trained to Heathrow from there.  Next time, I shall know.  I've had good and bad moments at Heathrow - what will today bring?


Students!  Most of them are German (natürlich since I am checking in at Lufthansa) and in their early teens.  They are in a massive group, and each has to check in individually.  Bad for me - good education for them.  So it takes some time.

Then one is ushered into a world of "Duty Free".  I resist, only wanting to have a bit of lunch and a gate number.  Heathrow has the policy of witholding the gate number until "approximately 30 or 40 minutes prior to departure".  I have lunch at a place, hoping to replicate the morning pie, but no luck.  I have their version of a Cornish pastie, but it is not nearly as good.  There is a nice fruit salad as well, with a minimum of mellon.  Now I go and wait for a gate designation.  And I wait, and I wait.  At the last minute the gate is announced (15 minutes before take off) and the gate announced is 15 minutes away. Dash.

What I am looking forward to is flying over the Channel and seeing it from the air.  I am wrong, for all that I can see are clouds.  So I glance at a Die Welt article on Amy Winehouse, and there is a snack - a sort of apple cake and a drink all served with the utmost efficiency.  The burser for the flight has an odd English and German accent. He is equally not understandable in both languages.  As we approach Köln, the sky suddenly clears, and I am able to see the Rhine stretch from Köln down to Bonn as we make our way down and then back again to land at the airport.

We get off.  There is passport control!  What happened to the EU - ohne Grenzen and all of that.  It's quick, however.  The gates where we get off look amazingly like Tegel, until I continue on into a huge and modern airport.  It's built in the shape of a U, and I need to walk around almost it's entirety before getting to the S Bahn station.  It is a huge station and there are exactly two ticket machines for all these people - it takes some time, and the program is running slowly.  Lots of frustration on the part of travelers.  Finally I get a ticket and the train comes soon after.

I know that I am almost there when I spot the good Kaiser riding his horse at Heumarkt, and see the imposing romanesque profile of Groß Sankt Martinus.  I am anticipating having a good time looking at all this stuff, but first the hotel.  Arthur has recommended this place, the Domstern which is just a couple of blocks from the Hauptbanhof.  I make my way there - the reception is friendly, and the room is on the first floor with only an light-well window.  Oh well, it will be quiet and dark.  Perfect for sleeping, and not much else.

I do need some dinner.  I walk through the Hbf and come out just north of the Dom.  What a sight!  After Salisbury this seems to loom with a great deal of size and darkness.  Amazing scaffolding surrounds several points of the Dom, with a lot of work being done on the north tower.  But this is all for tomorrow.  I am hungry and tired, so I go to Gaffen am Dom, where the first question is Kölsch?  And the answer better be Ja! That with a Wienerschnitzle and a salad makes for a perfect evening.  They also have Vanilla Eis mit Rötegrutze but I will save that for later.  I leave this huge beerhall with notions of flopping into my bed.

P.S.  I just attempted to spell check this, and clicked on the spell check icon.  It was a sea of yellow.  I am in Germany.  My English is "wrong".  Please forgive any mis-spellings.