Barmen

A late train and indeed checkout give us time to take a last ride on the Schwebebahn to the Alter Markt so we could hunt down the Bronze Tuffi…..although we only shoot animals with camera phones 🤪

We also sought out the slightly covered up elephant painting near the spot where poor Tuffi took a dive…the artwork was rather childlike, if I’m honest 🤷‍♂️

Nearby, we found the lovely house Friedrich Engels grew up in. Co-author of The Communist Manifesto with Karl Marx, it feels like he led the life of quite the champagne Socialist, with a personal motto of “take it easy" 🤣
Curiously, we discovered that the amazing Giles Brandreth was also born in the City….can’t believe there are no jumper monuments in his name 🤣

We then had our only real train confusion of the entire journey….two trains claimed to leave the station for Mönchengladbach at exactly the same time: one on platform 1, the other on 5. My logic was to make a last minute change and get the one with the least stops: we certainly left the station first 🤷‍♂️
An easy change, and a cheeky free film “Whiplash” for the longer leg to Amsterdam. Great film well acted, provided you suspend belief about how likely the story line would be 🎬

The next journey was across the wide canal from the Centraal station to NDSM on one of the many free ferries that ply the waters here.
We originally looked to stay at the BOTEL, ideally in one of the room funnels, but they were all booked up, so we found a houseboat nearby instead.
Turned out to be very nice, with a private balcony to have a cuppa or a beer 🍻

After a rest and some planning, we had a stroll out to check the local area, and found a small dinner and beers at Cannibale Royale 👍Read more