The Winter Explorer, part 2

Day 2: Amterdam-Heidelberg

It's December 23 when we left early from Amsterdam to go to Heidelberg, Germany.

Out hotel in Amsterdam is ultra-modern. With heated bathroom tiles, so there's no problem with cold showers in the wee hours of the morning. Hehe. Because of jetlag, di pa rin tuloy-tuloy ang tulog ko. In between naps, I took some photos from the hotel window.

First stop for tha day is the Cologne Cathedral. Maganda ang architecture pero madumi ang mga bato kasi grime talaga yun na mahirap tanggalin. Di daw kakayanin ng tubig. May mga stained glass din sa loob. Super saya for me kasi ang daming pwedeng kunan. Kahit nanigas na ko sa lamig, e ok pa rin. Imagine, 10am, e 0 degrees yata.

Cologne Cathedral, facade

Cologne Cathedral, sculptures

Cologne Cathedral, stained glass windows

There was also a Christmas Market sa gilid ng Cathedral. Super ganda ng mga products, pero super mahal din! Ang gaganda ng mga Christmas ornaments na handcrafted, mga maliit na bahay na may snow sa taas. Kawawa naman ako, kasi merong mga turtle na 30 euros each, pinicturan ko na lang.

Christmas Market

Meron din mga tao na nagpe-pretend na statwa, tapos pag binigyan mo ng coin, gumagalaw sila. Imagine, ang lamig tapos nagpapaka-statwa sila don! E wala kaming euro, kaya binigay namin PISO! Hindi naman nya nakita, so gumalaw pa rin sya.

From Colgone, next stop is a cruise along the Rhine River. It was reaally chilly! Mga -2 degrees siguro when you go up to the open viewing deck. We had sausage and potato soup for lunch. We also saw 3 fortresses/castles. Pero syempre medyo hazy because of the fog.

German sausage! Yummy!

Fortresses along the Rhine River

We also saw the Loreley Rock. It's the narrowest part of the Rhine River where a lot of accidents happen. The legend says that Loreley is a young maiden who sits atop the rock, singing a beautiful tune that lures fishermen to the big rocks. Kaya madaming namamatay.

After the cruise we took a long drive, and finally arrived at Heidelberg around 5PM. Meron ulit isa pang castle na maganada dun, at pati yung mga bridges maganada din. Pati Christmas Market, meron din pero onting onti lang ang mga paninda.

Christmas Market at Heidelberg

Brrr... it was so chilly!

Next entry: Heidelberg to Innsbruck... CHRISTMAS EVE!