...flew out sun. 4 night. had a pretty uneventful flight out to frankfurt
followed by an uneventful train ride to koln.
mon. mira picked me up at the station. spent the rest of the day
snarfing on some pasta she made, sipping kolsch... went out
in the evening with mira to a bar close by somewhere.
tues. packed and headed out early on mira's bike. the bike was an
adventure unto itself, a multipurpose transporter providing
incessantly new forms of entertainment. coupled with a cobblestone
street it exploded into a percussive juggernaut, keeping time
with the drunken cries of "bier mit apfelcron", coming from
fans of some local soccer club, doddering to the hauptbahnhof
to make their way home. got on the train headed to saarburg
and hopped off in trier. the train ride was quite beautiful,
running along the river kyll. the track was set up so the
train would bank around the bends almost like a rollercoaster,
and there were plenty of bends. rode around trier all morning.
saw the porta nigra, basically an old roman ruin like its name
says a black gate or something like that. the view of city from
the top was nice. went in the simeon stift museum that was
quite museumlike.... saw some busts and figures of ferdinand
tietz which were impressively romanesque. my linguistically
impaired brain almost kept me lunchless as most places on a
restaurant listing in town read "buergerliche" under the kind
of food and i just was not in the mood for a burger. finally
when the listing for mickey-dees said "mcdonalds typisch" it
made sense. had a really nice local sausage with truffle
reduction and mashed potatoes and some local pinot blanc.
being mostly immobilized by gross sausage ingestion, wheeled
my bike around the other sights of town... a very modern and
massive basilica adjunct to the grand kurfurstl palais, a
very impressive roman palace with the roman style garden in front
lined with fountains and mythological statues. went to the
liebfrauen church, a very impressive holy joint with the very
assertive roman churchness about it. the place houses the
holy tunic or the robe that jesus wore. rode around the ruins of the
amphitheater in trier and then found my way on to the moselradweg,
the bike path running along the river through the heart of the
mosel wine valley. trier had some interesting fm stations in
particular one 98.2 i remember that played this slow techno,
grunge, portisheadlike stuff as i started riding. then there
was this one station playing this cool song zwanzig tausend
milen uber die mer or something like that which mira told me
later was done by an indian guy called naidu. it was interesting
to see that fm stations in europe tuned to even tenths of a MHz
as opposed to odd tenths in north america. about 10 clicks
from trier is konz. stopped at a campsite short of konz for a
brewski. the guy handed me some local bike maps and a bitburger
pils which quite contrary to expectation comes served not in a big
ass mug but in a pouffy wine glass with a little white frilly paper
tutu around the stem. the weather had warmed up. the earlier part
of the day was murky and drizzly. compared to kolners the mosel
accent is very colourful. you could almost swear they had been
infiltrated by a bunch of homeboys from harlem. "yes" along the
mosel is a cross between "ja" and "yo" like a "ja-o, ist klar" to
indicate its cool. rode on along the river. igel on the
luxembourgian side looked very green and pretty. stopped in
wasserliesch at the GG vineyard, i forget what the initials
stood for, had a taste of their riesling, which is not quite
my favourite wine, but it was all they had. i think almost all
mosel wine is white and tends to be sweeter. rode on to
oberbillig. took a small ferry like rig across the river
to wasserbillig on the luxembourgian side. rode on erroneously
in the direction of echternach, a detour from the radweg, making
me fire off inland. stopping for directions it was evident that
the language of choice here was french. was glad to get off a main
road with cars whistling by onto another radweg this time
along the sauer river. took another detour in a town metzdorf
and followed little roads constantly checking for directions
south and back onto the moselradweg in mertert. from there
it was about 5 clicks to grevenmacher. it was still light but
getting late so i called dheela. german phone cards dont work
in luxembourg but the lady before me was kind enough to let me
use hers. he said he would come get me in a couple of hours.
pottered about the town, picked up a baguette, as a boulangerie
was closing for the day. found a supermarket by a gas station
at the border in grevenmacher, bought some cheese. plenty of gas
stations all along the lux. border. sawhney later told me that
it was because gas and booze in lux. was about 30% cheaper than
its bordering countries. a tax thing. grevenmacher is a typically
beautiful, green, clean, rich, safe, luxembourgian town. sneaked
into the bernard massard winery as it was closing and bought a
bottle of rivaner and one of champagne for sawhney. finally
spread out on a park bench by the mosel, outside the winery where
i had fixed to meet sawhney. worked my way through the
baguette with the brie and cambozola i had bought. washed it
down with the rivaner which is probably the cheapest and
nicest mosel wine in my ignorant opinion. i really enjoyed the
cambozola stuff... it had the blueness of gorogonzola and the
consistency of camembert. it was great... lying plastered
on the grass by the bench, swilling on the dregs of the rivaner,
nibbling on the remaining crumbs, listening to "brain damage".
it was the only tape i happened to have been carrying. a 25 year
old tape, pink floyd on one side, some mystery band on the other.
in a while i made my contribution to the river, cleaned up and
then dheela appeared just as i was nodding off, in a monster
mercedes stationwagon. he was just as i remembered him 8 years
ago, just more prosperous. drove into the city, around for a bit
and then to his apt. which was like most other apts. in the
western world. his wife behnaaz had cooked up spagetti for an
army. ate, talked until late, played with his little baby girl
monica, crashed.
wed. woke surprisingly early and was instantly aware of the painful
shortcomings of mira's bicycle seat. had a big breakfast, watched
new furniture installed at chez sawhney. went around the
neighbourhood, the banking area, land of unmarked business cards
and unnamed fiches. cleaned up last nights spagetti and drove
into the countryside, green spotted with cows of a size that could
indivdually feed a small third world country. went through some
lux. towns, a couple beginning with "e", diekirch, stopped in
vianden, with its impressive castle on a hill. lux. was
refreshingly hilly after the flat terrain along the mosel.
had some locally special kir royale along the way and then
headed back. rained most of the way. at home sawhney cooked
great chicken which we had with iranian rice with the burnt
thadig at the bottom of the pan. opened the bottle of champagne
and watched most of dheela's wedding and reception video.
even in lux. there is no escaping the delhi gymkhana club.
some desi friends of dheela's came by for a cup of coffee and
then we crashed.
thurs. left early. rode out, remich to grevenmacher and across
the bridge to the german side via nittel. stopped in
oberbillig to get breakfast but the little restaurant by the
radweg was open but empty. asked an old man in these really
cool green corduroy bundhosen working with a scythe in his
garden right outside the restaurant if there was some place
around to get a bite. he said konz, told me i had a
wonderful bike and wished me luck. i looked at my bike and
laughed and would have told him he was a liar if i knew the
german word for it. then he fiddled with the bike a little,
laughed and invited me to join him for breakfast.
thats kind of what i understood from his mosel german and
so thinking wishfully i had breakfast with him, as it turned
out... in his garden overlooking the mosel. some kind of bratwurst
with a schwarzbrot and some dry hard cheese. ...and a glass of
pils. we talked mainly about the weather... india was hot,
canada cold, germany rainy... he complimented me on my german,
i was rightfully modest... i complimented him on his digs and
and the excellent cheese, he was rightfully modest.
then on to konz. pulled out some cash in konz, and went in search
of this big open air museum, roscheider hof, showcasing the old
german lifestyle around there. must have taken a wrong turn
since i went up roscheider strasse which started flat and
kept getting steeper with every bend. quickly ran through the
4 working gears on mira's bike and very quickly the granny
gear was too much for me and i wheeled the bike up a long way.
the road just seemed to go on and on forever. ...then at
this big statue memorial structure there was a fork onto a
flatter road panoramaweg that went onto a dirt path, where i
rode along the ridge for some time. the view was quite something.
then the ridge path ended and i just backtracked and unwilling to
climb anymore went sailing down the same road as fast as the
bike would go. the general trajectory of the wheels was downhill
but missing spokes caused the wheel to take adventurous forays
out of the plane of rotation, which is why i said sailing... it was
like being at sea. thankfully i was not required to put the
brakes to the test.... the road flattened and i slowed down.
never did actually see the museum but in the pictures it looked
almost like a quaint quaker town. rode on to trier and hopped
on a train to koln via koblenz. chowed on a big kasefrickadelle
in trier and bought a bottle of falkenburg riesling for masi and a
fullblooded piedmont berberrino for me, which i consumed on
the train. now thats a wine. in koln made my pilgrimmage to
the c.d. store saturn, somehow managed to come away emptyhanded.
had a beer at a outdoor stube by the ringe in front of the
ufa palast cineplex. had dinner at home with the family and
watched the movie heat on video.
fri. awoke leisurely. went to saturn with kurt uncle and came away with
a single wynton marsalis issue. went to the romanesque museum by the
cathedral for a special exhibition of pre classic greek sculpture
and art. most of the stuff was very egyptian in style which is
why it was pre classic i guess. there were some incredible urns
with mythological scenes painted on. saw another film in the
afternoon, cant seem to remember which one... carl showed up
around five in the evening, a day and a half old on his new
job for ams in dusseldorf. went to town in the evening with
a friend of mira's, meurice. meurice runs a hiphop promotion
business in koln and is probably one of the guys that taught the
people around the mosel to speak the way they do. the man was
american, german but american... he took us to a place for
bagels and milkshakes right by where i had a beer the evening
before. within five minutes we were joined by half a dozen
hiphopsters and were hanging which a bunch of bros in the heart
of the aryan civilization. was cool. we was talkin' about this
hiphop artist meurice went to meet in amsterdam called the big
punisher and man the dude was fat and his shit be hangin' out
from under his t-shirt and his bitch was fat too, not ugly and
fat but kind o cute and plump, know what am sayin'. then
this guy who looked like snoop doggy dogg showed up and he was
just a riot. had us laughin' and shit... anyway so then we
went to a univ. hangout area with bars and such. as we drove out
meurice says, the ringe was the street where people came out to
show off and drive up and down in their big cars that are not really
big as he propels his boat of mercedes sedan down a small alley.
had a couple of glasses of kolsch at a place called film-dose,
got gyros from a greek takeout down the street, walked about some
and then meurice dropped us home.
sat. woke early hoping to zip out but ended up having a full breakfast
and then leaving. fired out towards liege in this little ford
festiva that carl had rented in dusseldorf. spent a few interesting
hours in liege walking around looking at the big parliament building,
had some belgie frittes and a belle-vue gueze each. took ages to
find where we had parked. from there we drove to maastricht.
belgium is like a poor cousin compared to its neighbours,
which was quite evident as we crossed borders back and forth,
in and out of liege. maastricht was excellent. they had a big
carnival on, very festive and sunny, in some way looked a little
more american than the other cities we'ed been in. had a couple
duvel's, spent most of the afternoon in a coffee shop,
cafe easy. pulled out late noon... took the wheel for the first
time and after three months in india, kept hammering on the
wipers when trying to use the indicator. got into brussels
early evening. driving in brussels is crazy. there are all these
little tunnels that appear and dip down from the middle of the
road going different places, like gazing past the toothless
smile of a prepubescent child. went to the basilica which
unfortunately was closed. drove out around some of the other
sights of the city, carl's favourite haunts, the cinquantenaire,
the kunst wet sign to the art gallery, a couple of church spires.
parked in the center of town near the white horse hotel. had
a Quick burger which carl had to do for nostalgic reasons and
headed out to the grand palace which was indeed very grand.
it was getting dusky and the palace had the light show thing
and was sprawling with toursits like piazza san marco.
walked by the king of spain. went to get a yard at le corbeau
but it was empty so we kept walking. went and saw the
mannekin pis, the statue of the pissing boy. it was an
eyeopener. ...the identical statue of shomben kozo, i saw on
the side of a road along the yoshino river in shikoku four
years back, pissing down the gorge. but then they have the
eiffel tower in tokyo as well carl said so its no big deal. if
i were a brewer i would make a local pilsner and call it
"manekin pils". got some frelgian bancs from the cash machine
for the evening and walked around a bit. the little alleys
with the bars and cafes reminded me of namba on a similar night.
all this while carl was talking about this great place with
couches and artwork thrown about the place and excellent sangrilla
type wine but of course remembered it only as the couch dump.
then we came across this really funky looking joint and i insisted
he describe it to the guys wokring outside it... so carl
goes on in french for a couple of minutes and then the guy says
cette ici... that was it. apparently the old place the roof
caved in and so they moved their couches. the place was
called goupil le fol... and was a three floor house opened
up with decrepit couches, sofas and artwork all over the
place... we picked a spot in front of this massive painting of
a khomeini like sternfaced persian monarch. had some hazelnut
flavoured wine, carl had cherry. got up just as we were falling
asleep in search chez leon for dinner... it was just past midnight
and the kitchens had closed so we ended having lasagna at some
italian joint which was ok. went to this place behind the
bourse, a la becasse for a jug of lambic cider. an old guy from the
next table came and chatted us up. his wife and friends were
apparently placing bets on our nationalities. it was good to
see a bunch of older folk out partying this late. cider consumed,
went to see the statue of the pissing girl... and a jazz place
marcus mingus right by it. the second set was on and the cover
steep so we passed. it took forever trying to find where we
had parked. too many roads forked off the white horse hotel.
bought a bunch of gueze, kriek and above all a corsendonk to
take back from a pakistani beer store. was getting to be about
3am when we drove out first to the international school of brussels
where we walked about the grounds, carl pointing out his own
little spots and haunts. was beginning to blank out about then
so its all a daze. then he drove to waterloo and that woke me up.
the mound on the pile of bones with lion statue on top was
incredible. the statue was lit by four beams from around the
base of the hill and the moon was quite full and right above.
one of the few times i have missed possessing a camera.
was dying to climb to the top of the hill but a couple of high
and potentially electric fences put that to rest. then carl
drove around aimlessly looking for old houses and neighbourhoods
he had lived in and i zonked out again. we were running really low
on gas. gas stations in brussels at least, only take a euro
card at the pumps themselves so we were shit out of luck.
carl pulled into some suburban gas station and decided to
crash in the car till it opened in the morning. around 4ish i
woke, realized as i made my way back from a friendly bush
that the station only opened at 8:30 which meant that even
on the speed limitless autobahns there was no chance i was going
make my 1pm flight out of frankfurt. ferreted carl out of the
drivers seat and headed into town in search of a good samaritan
who would use eurocard to fill our gas tank in exchange for cash.
odds of anyone stopping for two scruffy guys at 5 in the morning
requesting gas were low but we finally got lucky and this
one guy took us took an old pump station machine somewhere that
took cash for gas. the first time around the grade we selected
had a big nozzle that the finicky ford festiva would not take.
found a pen finally to hold the damn gas valve open but the
time expired or something and the gas was gone. so we used some
more precious francs and selected the grade with the skinny
nozzle and with half a tank of gas headed out, which was not
easy with the tunnels and all.
sun. made it close to aachen in good time, it was getting light and
then some idiot had an accident on A44 and the polizei blocked
the road and sent us all back. took some old backroads around
a town called henri chapelle to aachen and then got back onto
the autobahn. found our way home quite easily somehow by 8:30.
the falkenberg household was up, packed, showered, had a lovely
breakfast out on the balcony and were back on the road in an hour.
i think this time the car just navigated itself as we were both
fast asleep. stopped for gas tanked up on caffeine and made it
to the airport in perfect time an hour and a quarter before the
flight. flight back was mostly a dream. sort of remember seeing
some of this movie goodwill hunting. i dont know what carl did
the rest of the day, my guess is he took the train from the
airport into town and crashed on one of the benches by the rhine.
woke late and helmeted back to dusseldorf.