Luxembourg City, Luxembourg—Amneville, France—Luxembourg—Day 216

Being woken up by the maid from the hotel is not really the most pleasant way to wake up. Not only do you get a lot of noise with them trying to unlock the door, but you get them even turning on your lights for you then apologizing for waking you up when they see you there, half-awake.

This happened this morning and I was in the middle of a fascinating dream about something (all I can remember is that I was completely fascinated while in the dream) and then couldn’t make out for the life of me what the noises were coming from in my dream. I woke up to the surprised maid who had walked in on my slumber and decided that I might as well get up now that I was awake.

I got ready and went downstairs to have breakfast in the hotel restaurant which was pretty standard hotel breakfast food and then walked across the street to the train station. How nice is it that it is so close! I found my train heading to Thoinville, France (a city that I had marked as being near Amneville where I wanted to go) and as the train started, I wondered just how close my calculations were. I didn’t REALLY know if Thoinville was even close—I just had a big dot next to it on my map of Europe that I had put there, oh, 9 months ago and wasn’t really quite sure if it was right.

I would soon find out!

I got off in Thoinville which was only about a 30 minute train ride. I asked about getting to the zoo and the woman at the ticket desk told me that I had to take the next train (as in the same one that I just got off of) and go to the next stop, then ask for directions from there since it was much closer. Problem was that the next train didn’t come for another hour! It was only a ten minute extra train ride that I was in for so I was tempted to take a taxi instead, but then thought I should just take the train.

So I waited an hour and the train came and I headed back in the direction I was going in the first place. I got off at the next stop and found a much smaller train station. There was a sign for taxis outside the station but no taxis to be seen. I walked around a little bit to see if I could figure it out (if there were buses or something I could take) and then went back inside to ask about a taxi. It seemed that the woman in front of me was also asking for a taxi and what I got from the conversation (again, I don’t speak French so this was just a guess) was that you basically just had to sit out and wait for a taxi to eventually come instead of him calling one for you.

So I went back outside and there was the woman with her two children who asked about the taxi and another old woman. All of us waiting for these mystery taxis to show up.

And eventually one did! The woman with the children was first in line so she went to get in but he then gestured to the elderly woman and I about where we were going. I told him the zoo and I don’t’ know what the woman told him but before I knew it he was beckoning me into the cab along with the older woman and not the woman with her children.

I just shrugged my shoulders and gave the other woman an apologetic look as I climbed in.

We dropped off the older woman first at her house and then the taxi driver drove me to the zoo which was in the kind of huge touristy Mecca. There was a bowling alley, aquarium, zoo, mini-golf—all sorts of things in this once compact area in what seemed to be the middle of the woods. It really was quite something. I headed into the zoo which seemed on the outside to be a pretty nice zoo.

And it was—they even had a hippo “extravaganza” time at 3:30 and 5:30! Whooho! Whatever that meant, I was up for it. Problem was, it was just past noon so I had three and a half hours to kill before this extravaganza. So I went and checked out the hippo enclosure and found two hippos under the water—or at least what I thought was two. I took pictures of all of the signs and then went and found lunch at a small kiosk. I got a HUGE hotdog and a drink and tried to eat as slowly as possible to kill time (I still have to get another book and its killing me!! Argh!) I then actually went around and visited some of the other animals (the otters were quite funny and seemed excited to see me and kept following my hand holding the zoo map around) and finally went and sat down in a few places to figure out my course of action for the next few weeks. I ended up in the polar bear exhibit on these risers for the polar bear “extravaganza” which starts at three o’clock every day. It was about two at this point so I sat there for an hour going over some things and then getting out my phrasebook and trying to teach myself French.

Then the place started filling up with eager zoo visitors all waiting for the polar bear show to start. It did and the two bears came out and were fed fish by an enthusiastic zookeeper. They were just so cute and it was really fun actually to watch them hesitate about going in the water, finally plunging in and then grabbing all of the fish.

At 3:20 I left the crowded area to get my spot at the hippos. I assumed that the polar bear show ended because all of a sudden the huge mass of people migrated down the hill to the hippos and the enthusiastic keeper came over to now talk about the hippos.

I had a great spot but then the keeper kept moving around everywhere for everyone to see—which was good for everyone else but not me! The hippos came out and opened their mouths wide from all sides, so I had to dash around and try and wedge myself into groups of people to get the pictures. Eventually as the talk went on people began to disperse so I did get some really great close ups of both of the hippos. Phew. Now I just need their names.

So after the talk was done, I cornered the keeper when she was coming out of the exhibit (cornering seems like such a weird word to use, but basically I do!) and while she didn’t speak English very much she was able to help me with their names: Mara (the female) and Kinshasa (the male—I have to check on the spelling of Kinshasa—she says that he is named after a country in Africa!) Anyway, turns out that Mara is the mother of Masae, one of the hippos that is at La Fleche zoo and that is a new father! I was delighted—I wonder if Mara knows that she is a grandmother now! I didn’t want to gush to the keeper that I personally knew Masae at La Fleche because then she surely would have thought I was nuts. So I just smiled and said oh really? And kept my excitement low key.

I then went out of the zoo via the gift shop and then walked over to the main tourist information center for this whole entertainment complex thing that the zoo was a part of. The girls working at the desk called a taxi for me (she kept asking me, you really want one RIGHT NOW? And I was like, ummm, no tomorrow, yes of course right now!) and eventually it came and whizzed me back to the train station. The taxi drover dropped me off feeling a tad car sick from his swerving!

Anyways, I got on a train back to Thionville (accidentally sitting in the smoking section which was bad!), and then another to Luxembourg. I then sorted out the hippo pictures from today and then walked back into the city center to find dinner. I saw this cute little Arts Café that I thought would be nice but turned out that they stopped serving dinner for the night! It was only 8pm or so so I was a bit surprised, so I headed into the more touristy area of the city where the center square is (although when I say touristy it really is nothing like any other place I’ve been to since its so nice and small) and had dinner outside at a French restaurant. I had to wave the server over to help me and assure him that yes, I was alone and no I wasn’t waiting for anyone.

A band started playing in the square midway though my meal which was fun to listen to. Afterwards I walked over and watched them for a while (and to see those few odd people who were dancing). I then got a bus back to my hotel—getting off a stop too early but then walking back to the hotel—and that’s that! Another day. Tomorrow it is off to Paris—as I said before—and I will be there for five nights.



(c) 2004 Sarah Galbraith. All Rights Reserved.

Liege, Belgium—Luxembourg City, Luxembourg—Day 215

While most of the day was spent on a train, I overall had a pretty great day. It started off with my trip back to the Monde Sauvage—the animal park near Aywaille. I got up early this morning and checked out of the hotel (and had to deal with the woman at the desk who was trying to overcharge me for the nasty smoky room I stayed in last night) and headed to back on the freeway to Aywaille. My luck from yesterday was still going strong it seems because I found the right way to get back to the zoo. Within a half and hour I was there and was just about first in line for the zoo. It was the same girl from yesterday (so I had missed my chance to rendezvous with the mean ticket woman) and she looked at me with a slight hesitation as I bought my ticket.

I think she was on to me!

Luckily for me several of the cars in front of me (there were only about four really) decided to head towards the parking lot rather than do the safari. Why I don’t know, but this was good for me because it meant that I had no one in my way stopping my from the hippos.

I made my way into the safari entrance and TA-DA! There they were! Three hippos! I was giddy with excitement as I perhaps a little too quickly made my way over to them—hitting perhaps one too many deep potholes on the way. I didn’t care—I was going to get my hippos whether the car liked it or not.

I stopped just feet away from the hippos and started snapping. It was pretty easy to tell which one was Knudell since he definitely the smallest and eating on his own. I didn’t know who was Georgette and who was Marline, but I figured I would take their pictures first. One of them was much larger than the other so I would just have to find someone who would know. I took lots of pictures—of the hippos and of these crazy elk things that were in the middle of the road. It was so exciting! Almost like I was on a small safari with the hippos so close. They even walked RIGHT in front of my car to get to the other side of the road so that was exciting as well. I couldn’t believe how close we could get to them and I was so happy to find them out of the water rather than in like yesterday.

Once I got lots of pictures I zoomed around the rest of the safari park to find some keeper to help me. That’s when I got stuck behind some camels who wouldn’t move and I was afraid of the car getting kicked by one! I finally made it past and found a keeper. I called him over and to my relief he was a different one from yesterday so not only would he not recognize me but perhaps he would know who was who.

Not only did he know but he spoke English and then went over to the hippos to point them out! Why didn’t I run into him the other day when I first came!?!?! I was right about Knundell and he showed me that Georgette was the bigger of the two females. He happily patted Knudell, telling me as I took pictures that he was really very friendly. Obviously it seemed like they were—where else where the hippos free roaming amongst zoo visitors like they were here? I haven’t seen any so far.

I thanked him (if he only knew how really thankful I was!) and drove back to Liege. Miraculously (again with luck still on my side) I found the car rental place and dropped off the car without any problems and took a bus to the train station. Getting on the bus was quite the thing with all of my stuff but I managed it although was given a few not so happy looks by the other bus passengers who had to climb over my things to get to get on the bus.

I made it to the train station and had about an hour to spare before my train left. I checked my email and grabbed a hot dog as I waited. I then boarded the train to Luxembourg and unfortunately had nothing to read since I finished my book. So two hours passed as I listened to music and waited for my stop.

When everyone got off of the train at one point I decided that this wasn’t good—and I didn’t want a repeat performance of what happened yesterday. So I asked the conductor who spoke English and he told me that I had to get a bus to the next station because they were working on the train tracks on this station. So I got off and again had to get on a bus with all of my stuff and headed 12 kilometers on the bus to the next stop, which was quite funny when I was trying to prevent my things from falling into the isles.

We made it to the next stop and all eventually boarded the next train that pulled in. Heading to Luxembourg I still wasn’t quite sure if I really was doing what I was supposed to but eventually found out from the train conductor that I was heading in the right direction.

Despite the train being overwhelmingly hot and a bit crowded, I made it to Luxembourg, eventually. My hotel is right across from the train station so I headed over, checked in and then took a quite nap before heading out to find some dinner. I walked up over a beautiful bridege over to the main center of Luxebourg City (which is quite small) and found the main square. There was a guy standing there with dread locks who was juggling and I thought, hmmm, he looks familiar. Then another guy came over (again with dred locks) and I recognized them immediately as being two jugglers that Sarah and I had seen in Poland two months ago! How funny! Although I don’t know them, I guess it was about time for me to run into something—or someone—again. Anyways, I knew for sure it was them when they both just whipped down their pants and started changing, as they did so as Sarah and I watched in shock in Poland. How funny. Once it was confirmed that it was them (aka when they started taking off their clothes) I decided it was time for me to get something to eat. I stopped at a small Italian place where I started chatting to the girl sitting two tables away from me who just so happened to be from England. We got talking and after dinner, Lanny and I went and had a few beers. It was great—she too is a business traveler so it was nice to talk to her about the woes of traveling alone, among other things of course!

Tomorrow I head to Thoinville, France for the day to get the zoo there and then its off to Paris! Ooohh la la!



(c) 2004 Sarah Galbraith. All Rights Reserved.

Brussels, Belgium—Entirely the Wrong Place, Belgium—Liege, Belgium—Day 214

Today started off in normal fashion with the whole getting up, having breakfast, checking out of the hotel thing. I dragged my luggage down the metro subway and headed to the Central Station. It was there that things started off on the wrong path—I missed my train by literally three seconds. I just stepped down onto the train platform as the doors closed and it started lurking forwards. Dang. I checked my watch—I was right on time according to it, but I guess not the train.

So I had to wait for another train that was going in the direction that I wanted. Luckily there were two—one leaving about ten minutes from the one that I missed and a second one leaving about a half an hour from that one, so about 40 minutes later. The two new train times both arrived into Liege (where I wanted to go) around the same time—one just took a more direct route and stopped less. I decided to just go with the first train even though it stopped more just because then I would just be sitting on a train rather than sitting in the station.

So I got on the first train that came and headed towards Liege. Or so I thought. According to the time table, it was going to take about two hours for the train to get to Liege and usually it is just about an hour (on the faster of the trains). So I sat back and put on some music and waited for the time to pass (I just finished my book so I am in need of a new one!).

I kept checking my watch making sure that I knew what time I was going to have to get off and the train kept stopping at different stops. Once I made it to about 10 minutes before my train was to arrive in Liege, I started paying attention to signs. I realized something was wrong when we pulled into a station and everyone on the train got off. And they turned off the train.

Hmm.

I sat on it for quite a while before realizing hey, this might be the last stop. I got off and checked the station and time table near it and sure enough, we were at the end of the line. Problem was, we were no where near Liege. Instead I had ended up in Dinant which is so completely no where I needed to be—in fact much more south, almost in France.

Great. I checked the time tables again and found that this train that I had ridden in on was leaving in about fifteen minutes to go BACK to Brussels. I could change trains in Namur (or at least I hoped so—it looked like a pretty big city on my map but I couldn’t really tell) and hopefully that would get me to Liege sooner or later.

I had to remind myself that I should not really stress out about it since really my only obligation is to get to Liege today. Problem was that I had booked the rental car for 10:30am and at this rate, I wouldn’t be getting into Liege anytime around then. In fact, when it all worked out I was about three hours late.

The train conductor came back to check tickets as the train started back from where we came from and he stopped and looked at me. Do you like trains or something? He says to me. Um, no, I…I stammer as I get out my map and try to explain to him what I had done. Ahh, he says. Ahh yes, easy mistake. I have no idea honestly how I managed to not realize that I had to switch trains in Namur the first time but was positive that I had to get off there the second time round to transfer to Liege.

And I did and waited for my train to Liege which eventually showed up despite some bizarre +0H05 signal next to it on the board (hardly any other trains had this so I was racking my brain trying to figure out what it meant) and decided that it was probably late or something. But I still didn’t’ know and when I went to wait for the train, I found that it was on time, to my surprise. Confused, I boarded and crossed my fingers that I would at least arrive in Liege and not some other crazy place.

I eventually did and got a taxi to the rental car place, where the rental car man scolded me for being almost three hours late. Sorry sorry, I said as I explained to him that I couldn’t have called him to tell him I was late because I was on trains for over four hours! He told me that he had already rented my car that I had reserved (“we only keep cars on hold for two hours—no more”) but then magically produced a Ford Fiesta for me to drive.

I filled out the paperwork and was soon on my way following the road to Luxembourg, as told by the rental car man. I followed it for a little while and then realized that I was really close to where the zoo was. Good thing I had my map. I followed the signs to Aywaille (the town it is in) and racked my brain to remember the route that the taxi driver had taken before. I remembered it perfectly and was soon pulling up to the entrance to the Safari Park.

I felt totally in control. Here I was, I MADE it back, and I was going to get my pictures. I was going to show that ticket woman who was boss SO THERE.

Unfortunately, but also I guess kind of luckily, the original ticket woman wasn’t there. Instead there was a nice young girl who was getting tickets and so I got my ticket and asked her about the hippos. She looked at me with a blank you-must-be-crazy look and said she didn’t know what the hippos names were. I would have to find out on the inside.

Ok, so I drove up to the entrance to the safari park and started driving. Ok ok, so it was a tad bumpy and I can slightly understand that a taxi doesn’t want to drive over all of the mud puddles and things, but come on.

I kept my eyes out for the hippos but I couldn’t see them anywhere! Weren’t they supposed to be roaming free eating all of the grass like they did just a few days ago? Where were they?

I figured it was just my luck that they would be gone for the day or something when I spotted them. And of course, where would they be?

In the WATER. Hellooo Sarah. Of COURSE they would be in the big pond in the middle of the safari grounds—it was a beautiful day, hot and sunny and they were doing the typical hippo thing to do. So I pulled my car over in front of the pond and tried to woo the hippos out of the water.

Didn’t work. I instead got some crazy zebras and antelope looking things coming up to my car. The hippos just popped their heads out of the water to breath and went back in. This was no good.

I finally spotted a zoo keeper and decided the best thing to do would be to get their names and then try and come back in the morning when they were more likely to be roaming about. I couldn’t just sit in the middle of the road blocking traffic all afternoon. Problem was that I had to drive around the entire safari part of the zoo before I could get back around to the keeper (who was near the entrance) which meant that not only did I have to stop for passing animals all of the time, but for all of the cars in front of me who were also stopping and taking pictures of everything that moved.

Finally, finally, finally, I made it back around to where the keeper sort of was (like a half hour later) and I called him over. Excuse-moi? He came over and I asked him about this hippos and he gave me their names: Knudell, Gerogette and Marline. He told me that the boy was the smallest (as I learned two days ago) and that he didn’t know the difference (or couldn’t tell me) between the two females. Well, at least this was more than I knew before! I thanked him and headed out of the safari area and back up the huge hill (remember the one that I had to walk up before?) and pulled my car into the parking lot.

I got some ice cream and some postcards and ate my ice cream while watching the billy goats which, if you ever have a chance to watch them, make the most horrifically funny noises. If you thought that a goat makes nothing more than a sweet little baa you were wrong. All sorts of belching noises were coming from them and I just sat there totally amused. Not until a bee came to harass me did I run away (literally) and head back to the car.

I then spent the rest of the afternoon driving around this part of Belgium that I was in. Got a snack at a little café in a place called Spa which was nice and then drove through the country side back to Liege. Surprisingly I made it to my hotel to check in just fine and then magically ended up in downtown central Liege for dinner. How I managed it, I haven’t a clue but I did. And then to top it all off, I made it BACk to the hotel with hardly any effort going a completely new route. Let’s just say that today was a pretty lucky day. Let’s hope tomorrow is even better and that the hippos are actually out on the grass eating when I show up!


(c) 2004 Sarah Galbraith. All Rights Reserved.

Photo--Green Tree of Knowledge? Brugge, Belgium

Photo--Brugge, Belgium