Germany and the Netherlands - Tour 2004

In the summer of 2004, the first spent together, for 9 days Piero and I did a mini tour between Germany and the Netherlands. The first three days in Germany we spent with our dear friends in Monchengladbach, with a visit to Cologne and Dusseldorf. Then a train transfer to the Netherlands, destination Amsterdam, the Venice of the North, which we renamed the city of toys!!! Giant french fries sold on the street, coffee shops abounding along the centre's streets, roads swarming with people; Lucignolo and Pinocchio would have come here, in today's times! For a moment of calm you just have to move from the Damrak and Red Light District to the parallel canals... a walk along the Singel to arrive canal after canal and, following the flow, to the Van Gogh Museum. It was the first of our trips together and we liked it so much that we promised ourselves we'd go back other times.

In Germany they're magicians at making delicious brioches to eat warm, for every taste; the apple cake is legendary. The queen of beers remains the Kolsch; everyone likes it, it's delicate but with an intense flavour; the Germans like to drink it sitting at the table of some characterful bar along the bank of the Rhine, and we liked it too. The Rhine is titanic in scale, and the trains running along the tracks, right in the centre, over the bridges built from one bank to the other, make an impression. Magical Cologne!!!!!!!!!!!!!!