Always on the go...breaky was in the hotel brassierre made up of typical hotel all you can eat varieties of stuff that seem pretty much consistent wherever you go, although there's always an indication of locality and thus thier culture offered somehow. e.g. in SriLanka there is a variety of spicy rice, in the UK - Black Pudding, Scotland - Haggis, here there is a wide variety of croissants whereas at home you're offered little packets of vegemite along with the jams.
On a fairly tight schedule as N the tour guide had booked us in for a cruise on the canal at 10:00am and we'd scheduled in the 25 min walk into the olde' towne'. S (the genius he is ) asked about buses at reception and go figure, there's a free shuttle bus that runs around every 15mins and the leaves from just ovet there. So that is a huge win for all of us and will be making the most of it over the next few days. Unfortunately J seems to be catching the same cold this this blogger seems to have caught and we're yet to blame the cougher on the last plane but it does seem likely. Anyway, into town on a bus that is the 3rd of the length of a normal one yet the same dimensions otherwise..so it's an UnTiers bus. Found our way to extensive port where a guy collects money from the passengers, lines them up and then herds them onto the punts as they dock at the port.
Nice little enterprise they have going here. The 25 minute cruise up and down the small canal was very serene as well as very funny as our comic punter was very good at delivering a well practiced spiel. They call it little Venice and one can see why. It's really tiny in comparison. I guess there are similarities in the fact they have skiny boats on water as well.
After that enlightening adventure we wandered aimlessly though the old town for while with a loose destination of the tourist information place. Dropped into the locsl cathedral which was being renovated.
Thought the loud noise was a concrete saw resonating through the stone but eventually realized it was the pipe organ slowly going through each pipe. Fascinating to start with and like water tourture after a while. They're either doing this to make practitioners feel the same as the strung up dude or to simply make sure gawkers don't hang around to long. So we didn't. Stopped for a coffee beside a bustling junk market where non-blogger wanted to purchase a heavy glass lamp to take home where as blogger was tempted with either the samurai sword or the obviously broken first ever commercially made typewriter. All of equal usefulness, luckily sanity prevailed.
We then found the information centre and booked tomorrow's activities and then spent some more time aimlessly wandering around. Eventually booked a spot for dinner, had some lunch joining the throngs under umbrellas in a mini square. Very nice. Tourists everywhere. All gawking at the historical buildings to which the locals like to attach unwanted items to the outside in an attempt to make people gawk at them.
Easily caught the UnTiers bus back to the hotel for few a few hours re-coup where blogger trundled off the laudromat in order to cleanse those pesky smalls again. Had to also do a supermarket stop as the running nose warranteds a box of tissues to deal with it.
Back along the totally uninteresting strrets of Culmar residential areas adorning the train line in the rising afternoon heat your blogger arrived back at the room laden with clean laundry, vital supplies and the strange wailing of an out of control youngster seeping in through the windows from.somewhere in the square below. Thought it could've been the cries of a bird but apparently no. Recalcitrant kid.
Whatever, it was time to get moving again. The six muscateers dressed in the appropriate garb and armed with all sorts of payment techniques headed back into town on the UnTiers bus (use it often enough and it'll stick is the thinking) which was actually full and turning people away. 15 peeps is more than enough for this little piece of freebee happiness.
We got deposited once again back into the olde' town to soak up more of the local Alcase culture. Thinking about that a bit more though.... This area is about a 2km square block of olde worlde charm, which is full of ancient buildings (each and eveverone having a unique story to tell) whilst outside the coverted olde town theres a typical suburban sprawl in which most of the locsls live. So we are actually consuming a manufactured version of the local culture, that being the Disney like version... considering the place is littery swarming with tourists it all of a sudden starts to feel a bit orchestrated. Good pictures though.
We had a very pleasant pre dinner thisrt quenched at the Deer and Beer before heading over to the Fer Au Rouge for dinner. Great company in an interesting place. The nosh not as good as the previous night however fully understand one just can't continually keep upping the anti on this scale.
Walked all the way home though the darkened streets and parks. Felt very safe in doing so. Another debrief by the six of us in the foyer lounge was a nice full stop to a most splendid day.
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