4 Countries in 34 Hours

(Re-post from my Album in FB, from the Trip from 12 - 13 March 2011)

34 hour tickets

Since we booked the wrong date to Keulen (Köln), we waste another 24 hours instead --Which was probably a bless in disguised since I still had a class on Friday Afternoon (the schedule for the class was incorrect since the beginning). The cost to Koln from Rotterdam was 19 €.

So, on Saturday afternoon, around13.30, I and Yessi started our trip from Rotterdam to Utrecht. While waiting for the ICE train at 16.59, we decided to have a little tour around Utrecht.

Bakso made in Germany by Mbak Ira

We arrived in Koln at 19.22 (10 minutes late). The German guy with suitcase and a bucket of tulips in front of us constantly looked at his watch every other minutes and when the train arrived at the platfrom, he quickly jumped out, and hugged an kissed her lady.. (uuuuh... ngiri... jealous dotcom). We had a little tour around the Dom and the park. On the way there, we saw fancy cars stopped in front of the concert hall, with wealthy senior citizens who want to see Koln Philharmonic. We then bought train ticket to Dűren for 6,80 €. The train was late for more then 10 minutes (again... Wow... I admire the train in Holland afterward). We arrived in Dűren arounf 10.00 after half hour trip. There, Mbak Ira and her family had already waited for us. We spent the night at their lovely and spacious apartment. (My previous visit to Cologne is here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=30232&id=796169595 )

At Liege Rail Station

The breakfast menu was awsome... after a month leaving Indonesia, we had Bakso as our Breakfast... Cool isn't it. Not only that, we had some bread too, and... a box of lunch full of rice, grilled chicken and rolled omelet. Mbak Ira's husband and lovely Shifa (made me miss my niece, Irda) took us to the Hbf. we bought EuroRegio ticket for 15 €, which was valid during weekend for 2 people travelling with train and bus in cities at the border of 3 countries (Germany, Belgium and Holland). We left Dűren at 09.36 in the morning for Aachen. After a quick photo sessions (only for half hour), we left for Liege in Belgium, on an old belgium train.

The view from the train to Luxembourg

Since we missed the train to Luxembourg at 11.18 (our train arrived at Liege at 11.35), we had to take the next train at 13.18. After buying the train ticket to Luxembourg for 60 € valid for 2 people for retour trip (and the train ticket is valid for 2 months...! crazy...), we had a lot of time to travel around the futuristic Liege Railway Station, and had our lunch there.

Yessi at Le Grund

The trip to Luxembourg was awesome. the 2,5 hour trip was not boring at all, since the scenery outside was picturesque. Unfortunately, it was dificult to take photographs. We only had 1,5 hour in Luxembourg, and we managed to see Le Grund but had no time to explore more, since the train back to Liege was at 17.15 (and we couldn't take the later train for we had to arrived at Maastricht before 22.00). So we walked like crazy there. The city was beautiful. I wish we could stay there longer. 

We managed to arrive in Liege at 19.42, with lots of Belgian students carrying their clean laundry in big suitcase... which Yessi said "overwhelming" (alias Lebay) if you compare that to Students in Holland who only bring suitcase with proper size. 

Luxembourg Central Station

We grabbed some Kebab around the Station for our diner, and got into the train to Maastricht (Holland) with an old but spacious Belgium Train, with students from Liege carrying big and proper size of suitcases to Maastricht. We missed the train to Amsterdam, since we insisted to have a photo session in front of the station. So, we waited for the next train. While waiting for another 30 minutes, we played with the train ticket machine to check the fares " :) We also "stappen" (=stamp) our Kruidvat Train Ticket (cost 12,49 €, for a day trip to anywhere in Holland on Saturdays or Sundays). Yessi felt so sorry that she had to stappen her precious train ticket (expecting no officer would check the ticket on board -- well, she must thank me for insisting to stappen our tickets, or otherwise she had to "play V*#tn*m role" which wouldn't work!)

In front of Maastricht CS

The train to Amsterdam was on time. At 21.36 we were on board and had our ticket checked by a lady NS officer. During the trip to Eindhoven we couldn't help laughing, imagining what would Yessi do if she didn't stamp her ticket (We had to change the train there to Rotterdam --which was previously proceeded by the thought "we had to make use of the Kruidvat Ticket to the fullest so that we were supposed to travel until Groningen before back to Rotterdam, or at least, until Utrecht --thank God, we didn't do it, since we had no more energy when we get older).

On the train from Maastricht to Eindhoven

We stopped at Eindhoven to get into the train for Rotterdam. The Train was late for 3 minutes (it was announced the train would be late for 5 minute). We were so tired that I almost fell asleep. But, considering Yessi fell asleep, I managed to stay awake. In Breda, 7 Dutch Youngsters got into the train, and sit around our seat, and made really really anoying noise. They sang from Metal songs to R n B, from Marron 5 's She will be loved to Bieber's Baby-Baby, and all the songs sound soooo awful. --then I had to put my headset and turn on the music that almost made me go deaf , and that only made them sing even louder that their terrible choir was still heard louder than the music from my phone..Gosh...-- Thank God they got off in Doordrecht. 

We finally arrived in Rotterdam at almost midnight... What a trip...