Köln

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David here...

We woke up with the alarm on the Wednesday morning and had coffee before getting the final few things in the loft and giving the house a quick wipe down before walking out the door for the last time in a year. We had a little scare at the bus stop when we couldn't find the passports but we got into town, dropped the keys off with the letting agent before getting our train to Peterborough. The journey was uneventful however we had got our timings a little wrong so we only had time for a quick pint before jumping onto the train to Stanstead. Again we arrived with no issues, dropped our luggage off and got through security without any problems. We made full use of our wait in the airport, having a meal and a couple of drinks and then using up our remaining Sterling on a couple of glasses of wine. The plane journey was uneventful and we landed in Köln on time. The journey to our Airbnb apartment in Mulheim was easy thanks to the research Suzanne had done and the details from our hosts. We arrived into the apartment at 21:30 and found a lovely little room with a cold beer waiting for us. The ceilings were a little low for me as we were in the top floor of the house and the room had sloping sides, but it was clean, had good facilities and was very comfortable with excellent amenities and transport links in the area.

We quickly freshened up and made our way to Ehrenfeld, the other side of Köln, a 30 minute tram journey away. We arrived at a Rock bar called No.6 The Beast at about 22:30. The bar was decorated with the usual posters of bands from the world of Rock though the whole bar was spotlessy clean, unusual for that kind of place really. We sat at the bar and soon had some lovely Kölsch to drink. The bar was really nice and friendly, though the music could've been a little louder. We stayed for about 90 minutes before heading back to the tram stop, via a late night takeway for a doner durum, and getting back to the apartment.

The next day we had a nice lie-in after a really good nights sleep, eventually heading out at about 11:30 and going stright for some lunch at Paeffgan Braurei. Lunch consisted of a large, roasted pork knuckle for me and pork with gravy and vegetables for Suzanne. This was obviously all washed down with more Kölsch. We spent the afternoon wandering along the Rhine and through some parks before eventually making our way back to the apartment, stopping off at the local Netto for some beer and pretzels for a little relaxing in the room. Once rested we headed out to another Rock/Punk bar called Friedas, again a lovely little bar with friendly staff and decent music playing. We eventually rounded the evening off with a few drinks in No. 6 The Beast before another late night takeway and a tram back to Mulheim and our apartment. We did have a sneaky beer before bed as the local Kiosk was still open. A successful day of beer, pork, pretzels and Rock music.

Our final full day in Köln started with the traditional German meal of Kaffee and Kuchen, coffee and cake for those not fluent in Deutsch. We then made our way to the National Socialism documentation musuem, which used to be a Gestapo prison during the war. It was cheap to get in and we had read that the audio guide is well worth it as the top floors were in German only. We started in the cellar where the old prison cells were located. Many people were held in the cellar before interrogation and torture in horrific conditions. The prisoners at the time had scratched into the wall messages which have been preserved and translated. The audio guide was a great idea as the commentary really gave lots of information about what the prisoners went through. It was particularly unnerving to see a person listed in one of the messages left behind with the same surname as us, someone from the Russian/Ukraine area, and I had to wonder if they may have been related in some way. The top 2 floors of the musuem are dedicated to the rise of the Nazi's in Germany and the impact it had on German society and ethnic groups. Again, quite distressing to hear but very interesting and enlightening.

After about 2 hours in the museum we wandered back to our apartment via a very local, but friendly bar for more, well deserved Kölsch, well it turned out to be 3 in the end. It was a very friendly bar! We had a couple of hours relaxing in the apartment before heading out again to the Gilden Brauhaus where we got engaged almost 2 years ago. We couldn't sit at the same table but we enjoyed a nice meal and some beer and it was good to be back, even if the hunk of Schweinehaxe wasn't as good as the previous days. After the meal we walked the 5 minutes round the corner to Valhalla Metal Bar, which was as good as in previous visits. Within 3 songs we had heard a Manowar song, that is why we love Germany so much. We spent a good 3 and a half hours here, chatting and listening to good, loud, heavy music before deciding to call it a night and heading back to the apartment and settling down to sleep.

Our final morning in Köln consisted of sorting out our backpacks, throwing away old clothes before leaving the apartment. We had grown quite fond of our little home away from home and would definitely use it again in the future. For lunch we stopped off at Zoltis brauhas next to Mulheim station and had more beer (you can see a theme starting on this trip alreay and we're only 4 days in) and Schnitzel for Suzanne and a Cordon Bleu for me (pork escalope stuffed with ham and cheese). Finally it was time to say Auf Wiedersehn to Germany as we made our way to the airport to catch our flight to Bangkok, which we are currently on as I type this out on the tablet. We are finding the use of technology so much easier on this trip than the previous one where we had to use internet cafes all the way round. The camera connects to the tablet, the tablet and Suzanne's phone can connect using Bluetooth so the transfer of photos from each device into the blog when we have Wi-fi is so easy.

Germany was brilliant, as we knew it would be and it felt like a sneaky city break before the travelling starts proper. When the next blog is written, we'll be in South East Asia and much more out of our comfort zone.

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