The search through Europe.....

So, it has been a busy week from the team of Christmoose spotters. We have been to a few European countries in an attempt to photograph the ellusive animal. After a night to recover from our flight into Germany, we headed into Krefeld. It is only a small town, but it is full of people from lots of different places. We thought maybe amongst the Turks, Russians, Italians, Germans etc it might hide. But it wasn't there.

However, we did discover that we couldn't go to Koln (Cologne) because the train lines were frozen over due to the snow. Trust us to visit Europe during one of the coldest winter in, like, forever! We could walk around Krefeld and scare the lady by asking her for tea with milk in it. They sell nice boots for teenagers and warm stockings for ladies here also.

The next day, we spent some time exploring Duesseldorf which is the town we flew into before. We caught the tram (just), and looked at the cathedral and lots of the old par tof town. That evening, we drove to a larger town called Aachen. It is north of Krefeld and right next to the border. We kept seeing road signs to go to Belgium and the Netherlands as we drove along. (Or so Christa says - we believed her since we don't know where any of the places are anyway.)

Aachen was one of the homes for Charlemagne, (famous king from a long, long time ago for those who aren't aware) and so there are remanants of his castle and some very old houses here (ie the 9th century).

We had to drive passed Aachen to a little village called Niutheim. The Koesters have rebuilt a farm there. They used to be the old stables, their uncle lives in the bottom of the old house and a lady called Anne (who is very nice) lives in the top of the house. The coachhouse has been converted into three garden sheds for the houses. We spent the night there learning how to play "doppelkopf" which is a tricky German card game.

The next morning we caught the train to Paris. We would tell you what Belgium looked like as we travelled through it, but it was too foggy. Since the announcements were in French, then Flemish, then German and then English it took us a while to find out anything that was happening.

In Paris we stayed in a cheap, tiny hotel near the centre of town. It was the perfect little spot to stick your bag down and go exploring. Since it was in a converted house there was no room for any chairs, a table, a suitcase holder etc. We (Ashleigh and I) got a bed, a cupboard wide enough for our hand luggage and a small one person table attached to the wall. We also got a bathroom where you could choose to stand at the basin or in the shower. Alf got another room which they called a single to sleep in. It was a different layout to ours, but the bed was also a double and he had about as much space. From the window you could see the cafe where we had dinner that night. Anyone who tells you that you can't order food if you don't know the language is lying! Down the road and around the corner was a little bakery/cafe where we ate breakfast the next day. Croissants, of course. And by now our sign/dodgey french was much improved!!

Ok, over that afternoon and the following morning, we did the usual touristy bits and travelled to them all on foot except for the Champs de Elysses since it was on the same metro line as our hotel - look at the photos later if you want to see them! We saw the Place des Vosges (great architecture and garden with Aussies throwing a nerf ball around), Seinne river, Notre Dame Cathedral, Palais de Justice, Saint Cheppelle (chapel) and the Conciergerie, Musee de Orssay (gotta love the impressionists! and Picasso had a great sense of humour....... oh listen to the artistic travel snob going on!) Champs des Elysses, Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower, Place de la Concorde and the Petit Palais (with it's art gallery). Of course, since we were walking, we saw all of the little bits in between too.

We managed to catch the train back to Aachen the next night. Of course I stressed when they announced the train had arrived and was going to depart (since, of course my french was limited to bonjour and merci) because Alf and Ashleigh got the the train station and then left again to find baguettes for Ash to buy and bring home to Christa. But, it all worked out ok and we arrived back in Aachen for dinner and more Dopplekopf. I lost the first night of scoring. I ended up with -22 points! I think Ashleigh won, she had about 25 points. We have written down the main rules and how to score so Chris, Graham, Steve Jannete - look out when we get back.

We spent the next day walking around the town of Aachen, eating Maronen (chestnuts) and looking at old buildings - for a change. We went to the cafe that is about 450 years old. Luckily the cakes are fresh every day! That evening we picked Katrin up from the train. She had trained up from Krefeld for the weekend. We played cards again and this time, when people finally dealt the cards properly, I won.

Sunday was spent looking around a little village which was very old, and in a very steep valley. Ash tried the frittes (fries) to see if they were better than ours and we had a german hot dog - bratwurzt in a bun with mustard. We also went walking in a venn in Belgium. They would have been the moors, but they were frozen so it was a walk in the flat, frozen, snowy countryside instead.

Today is Monday and we have spent the day catching up on emails, washing clothes, sorting out photos and of course, writing this blog. Tomorrow early in the morning we will head out to Venice. Keep us in your thoughts as the connection through Munich has to be done within 1/2 an hour and judging by our last attempt to transfer planes, we may need all the help we can get.