2026 Holiday Day 7

Fritzlar to Hamburg

Yesterday was a day of travel. Not many pictures because we got confused in Hamelin, and just as well. We spent an extra hour in traffic at 15 kmh on the Autobahn.

I'm not sure he needed that trailer for that load

Distance covered 410km

Cumulative total 1591km@ 55km/h

2026 Holiday Day 6

Fritzlar.

We're in Fritzlar because it's where my paternal grandmother's family came from before moving to London in the late 1890s.

We met up with Stefanie, the town historian and director of the town museum, whose office is the the building in which my great grandfather was born. She showed us both that building and the town museum, even though the museum is closed on Monday.

Stefanie was incredibly generous with her time, and we have to thank my cousin Linda for arranging it.

The house in which my great grandfather was born 

Susan and Stefanie

Fritzlar Cathedral. The tower on the right collapsed during a thunderstorm in 1868 killing 21 people.

One of the dead was my great-great-grandmother 

Susan and Stefanie spent a lot of time talking about how you deal with uncomfortable local history.

The answer to yesterday's question. I was looking out of the window in our apartment circled in red,

2026 Holiday Day 5

Aachen to Fritzlar via Cologne.

Currywurst for lunch, eaten standing up in Cologne Station

As it was a Sunday all the big trucks were parked 

Fritzlar: the view from here to there

...and the view from there to here.

Can you work out where our accommodation for two nights is?

Distance covered 281km

Cumulative total 1181km@ 54km/h

2026 Holiday Day 4

Aachen and it's treasures.

The cathedral. The domed part is Carolingian 

That's handy. A larger than life reliquary 

Aachen town hall

The inside of the Carolingian dome

Added bonus: goth samba

The car stayed at the hotel, and we caught the bus.

2026 Holiday Day 3

Yesterday was a relocation day, not far, just from Tervuren to Aachen. As it's only 111km as the crow flies I thought we'd take the opportunity to get lost and see some interesting things we didn't have plans to see. We managed the first part of the equation, including 2½ turns around Maastricht, with the added bonus of an excursion into the forbidden zone. Oops.

The second part wasn't as spectacular as we had hoped. Hey ho.

We're now in Aachen for two nights. Today our plan is to get seriously early mediaeval.

Life on the road. We picnicked by the autoroute.

Distance travelled 169km

Cumulative total 907km@ 53km/h

2026 Holiday Day 2

Troyes - Brussels 

After fields of opium poppies, we started seeing big things.

The Woinic Sanglier is 10 metres high and weighs 56 tonnes

The Lion Mound at Waterloo

Distance travelled 377km

Cumulative total 738km@ 58km/h