Review of Cologne

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One last trip was in order before departure, so I packed a few things and train-trekked over to Köln (Cologne). Yeah, yeah, I know I was there right after I arrived, but I still hadn’t seen the Haasterts, so Cologne gets the distinct honor of appearing in my travelblog twice! I know the Haasterts because the youngest of their 3 kids, Neta, decided to be an exchange student to the states ‘way, way back’ in 1998, and ended up in my family (actually living in my bedroom) for 10 months, during the same time that I was on my exchange year to Switzerland.
I met Tom Haastert (kid number 2) in the train on Friday, and together we stashed our stuff in the train station luggage lockers and took off for a couple hours of hanging out in town. You may remember the gothic cathedral that never got finished? Ok, well, a lot of gothic cathedrals never got finished, but they were actively working on this unfinished gothic cathedral for 600 years! Kinda blows the whole ‘German efficiency’ stereotype to pieces. It looks a lot different in summer than in winter, the light isn’t so cold and grey, so the building is no less large (it’s still HUGE), but it’s less scary. It stays light outside so late, that it didn’t at all feel like 8 o’clock when we returned to grab our things and pick up Dani (Tom’s girlfriend) and Neta from their arriving trains. Heinz (Daddy Haastert) came to pick all of us and our bags up in the trusty Volvo, to go home to a happily awaiting Galila (Mommy Haastert),Dana (kid number 1), Sven (her husband) and their two kids, Noa and Lia for dinner. The rest of the weekend was spent monitoring their renovation work on their (fairly) new house, watching the Tour on TV (luxurious!) and shopping in town… a little calm before the rest of the storm that’s sure to come, the big projects are all due in the next 2 weeks!

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Photos

Tom Haastert
ein Kaffe trinken... and looking crazy, as per usual

Dani!
auch ein Kaffe trinken!

It's the Baby!
baby Lia in Dad's (Sven's) arms, Neta, and Noa, who's officially three on the 24th.

Saturday night grill
Galila, Heinz, and one of their neighbors

Saturday night grill
Dani, Neta and me