Im Deutschland - Part III

A border runs through it..

Through the city of Vaals. I alight from the local bus (the make of these is often Mercedez Benz), approximately 50 feet away from Holland. We walk towards a nondescript sign that spells "Welcome to Limburg" and voilà, in Netherlands we step, Vaals(NL) to be precise.

At first glance, everything looks the same, but look a little closer and you will notice Straße (German for street) is now Straat. I have this fascination of crossing borders, even interstate ones, and generally make a hue-n-cry about it, and to my delight, last Sunday, there I was, walking across, from Germany to Netherlands! A little further, a 2 km trek through the woods uphill *grooooan*, and you come to the Three_Lands_Point (in Dutch it is Drielandenpunt) where a borderstonepost, with three flags jammed into the ground, marks the meeting of Belgium, Holland and Germany. I sorta half-expected to meet Hercule Poirot puffing his way up from his side of the border, the egg-faced head bobbing up and down, but I was privy to the news that the Belgian was busy investigating the murder of Miss Marple ;-)

(It helps to have cousins of the second degree, especially those who happen to be studying in Germany currently, albeit 100km away from where I am, but in a 5km radius of such places of great interest)

The DreiLandenPunt is also one of the highest points in NL and the view from the top is great. Endless fields on one side, woods to the other. I found particularly interesting, a red house, bang in the middle of one such field. Undoubtedly, the union of these three nations is a tourist retreat; pristine air, quietude, and the slopes are perfect for zooming down on bicycles, helmets in place. Unfortunately, I was too slow for capturing one such array of bikers on film.

The city of Aachen it was next. Well, this city is loaded with history, with the coronation of German kings having been held here for 600 years, beginning from the first century AD. The decrepit palace is now a government office, but the old town is very beautiful. A magnificient cathedral, cobbled streets, old houses now coverted into road-side cafes (the banners often deep-red), bakeries, decorative fountains and statues, pretty, very pretty, and not to forget the jugglers and musicians on the streets.

I stopped by Köln too, another old city, with the famous Dom or Cathedral, splendid interiors et al, and the biggest in Germany. Köln also has quite a lot of musuems and offers cruises on the Rhine.

Europe is indeed a Mecca for those interested in history or fine arts, and thus a pilgrimage of sorts for persons like me. I have met not many who would want to explore a palace or ruins and not visit the obvious spots marked for tourists, I have met not many who wouldn't mind sitting for long watching the musicians play, or the artists paint, or the fields turn golden red as the sun slips into another world. Apart from my sister, I have met not many like-minded travel companions, and thus each act of obeisance is generally (and sadly) only partly consummated.

Current Music: You Belong To Me - OST Shrek
(The OST is by Jason Wade who seems to have put his whole heart-n-soul into the song by the sound of it, but this piece of music has also been sung by other artistes, one of them being Bob Dylan. A must-hear for classical guitar buffs, for it banks majorly on this particular instrument for effect)