The Games officially finished on the Sunday, and those who had to be at work next morning left at once, or even earlier. The mountains reappeared, briefly, on Monday morning to bid us goodbye.
but soon went back to bed again!
There were still plenty of us around on the Monday morning, and a fair few of us on the 10:40 to Munich! The Aussies, and Sue from NZ, were going to spend the day sightseeing before catching their various planes in the evening; Phil and Bettina were rushing straight to catch a train out to the airport. We had just under an hour between trains so didn't leave the station, but bought a sandwich and ate that and then went and stood on the platform, where the train was, until boarding started. I was annoyed, because the DB site had warned that the train might be very full, so I had obediently gone to the ticket office in Innsbruck and reserved us two seats - only to find that the train didn't really fill up until Stuttgart, and meanwhile our seats didn't have a window! So it was an unnecessary €7 wasted, and we could have sat in much better seats. Oh well....
We arrived in Köln in good time, and of course the Ibis hotel is in the station itself, so no distance to walk. Like all Ibises, it was clean, comfortable and soulless! We went back to Schweinske's, in the station, to eat - I chose a schnitzel and the Swan Whisperer had lasagne.
This morning, we went back to Schweinske's, yet again, for breakfast which was marginally cheaper than in the hotel. And very good it was, too.
I recommend Schweinske's - it is very pork-heavy, but there are vegetarian options, too (I had the jacket potato with mushrooms on our way).
After breakfast, we put our bags in the hotel's left luggage, and went out. First port of call was the Cathedral, which we have seen so many times, but had never been in.
Then the Swan Whisperer wanted to visit the Altmarkt, and it's not my fault we went slightly the wrong way through the shopping streets, is it.... We had a brief look round the Swarovski shop (not a patch on the ones in Innsbruck) and the 4711 shop (expensive - you can get the shower gel for half that in Müllers!). Then we did find the Altmarkt, and walked back to the hotel, with just over an hour to wait. We were a little worried, as rail traffic had been being badly disrupted due to an unexploded wartime bomb that had been found on the other side of the river; however, the nice man in the station information booth had assured us that our train would run, although it might be diverted, and, in fact, by the time it was due, the bomb had been safely dealt with and the bridge reopened.
We sat in the hotel lounge until 20 minutes before our train was due, then reclaimed our luggage and went up to the platform. The train was ten minutes late, but arrived at last, and we enjoyed a picnic lunch with the end of our food from Austria. In Brussels, we had two hours to wait, and check in for the Eurostar doesn't open until an hour before departure, so we went to the nearest Prets and the SW had coffee and I had orange juice and we sat there until we could go through. And then an uneventful journey to London, and the Tube home. I was tired, and would have liked to have taken a taxi, but the SW pointed out that the Tube would be quicker (he's right, of course), and we cleverly managed to find the short way to the Victoria Line and not have to navigate all those tunnels. And as we came out of the station at Brixton, a 35 bus came past!
Then it was just a matter of unpacking, putting on a load of washing, and sorting out things for tomorrow.
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