Cochem [day 2]

October 16

[jim] Saturday morning in Cochem. Jetlagged, up at 5am. dark, walk thru town. cool stone/brick arch gate. showers, breakfast (inc. w room), train station to check on afternoon options. walk, castle tour Reichsburg?, very nice, bricks built in between timber beams. nice furniture, panelling, plaster, doors. got video and photos.
back to train, train to Koblenz. off and got tickets to Amsterdam (thru Cologne (Cöln)). Got to Amsterdam. Saturday night. carnival ferris wheel, people. need to have been here to know what it's like. took two hours with heavy packs to find a room. off-season, but saturday. almost stayed at Hotel de Melodie. Don't bother looking them up on the internet... they claim that all of their traffic is being re-routed, and that is why there was no-one staying there.... maybe it was more that they were insane. documents all over the sitting room of Internic domain name searches with notes next to each one E.G. "this one owed by corrupt Greek politician"... "these people are part of the conspiracy I learned about in prison" etc. Lady there was on a mattress blocking the entrance talking about racism and video cameras in the street. cheap but no way. found something else in a hotel on a canal with nice normal reception and free water and breakfast. expensive though. they have very steep narrow stepped stairways here. we were on floor three. unloaded, dinner: pate, lambsteak salad and beers. afterdinner walked thru wallen and then back to hotel. nice room. they have excellent duvets here.