Blogs from Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, Europe

Rest Day in Cologne. Sleep til you wake - any time is fine. Well, my body clock said 6am was fine. I lay in bed until 7:30am trying to get back to sleep and finally got up, had some breakfast and went to explore. Jeff still had some things to tidy up with his lost wallet. I love Cologne on a Sunday morning, this Sunday morning. There's a light drizzle, it seems to have cleansed the city from the Saturday night festivities the night before. All that noise and music of people enjoying themselves is the exact opposite of the calm, peaceful, empty streets I'm now walking. I walk in a preplanned direction soaking in all of the sights I had wanted to see. In the background the church bells are ringing, but now they are ... read more

We had breakfast at the hotel and boarded our bus with Robert, our driver and Anna-Lena, our tour director to begin our journey around Germany. Our group of 44 included individuals of various nationalities, ages and ethnicities. Our first adventure was aboard a river boat to cruise along a portion of the Rhine River, dotted with castles and small river towns along the banks, for about 1 1/2 hours. The weather was chilly and windy so the best location was inside the boat making photography more difficult, but definitely more comfortable. Reaching the end of our cruise at St. Goar, we once again climbed aboard the bus to continue on to Cologne. After a brief introduction to the city, we were free to explore until the beer tasting mid-afternoon. We have been to Cologne in the ... read more

Yes, today is actually Jody’s birthday! I won’t mention her age, but it’s still significantly less than mine, and she still looks great! After traveling through the night, we made it out of the Netherlands and entered Germany. I’m not sure whether it was always the plan, or whether it was detours for low water, but we ended up docking somewhere outside of Cologne at about 9:00am so everyone going on a morning tour could get on a bus and ride the 30 minutes into Cologne. The boat would arrive at the Cologne dock at about 12:45. We met up with our local guide, who gave his name before we had our listening boxes turned on, and never mentioned it again. In any case, he was great, and explained to us the rivalry between Cologne and ... read more

Tässä on kuvia vielä edellisillan Kölnin-kierrokselta, jonka tein kun palasin Bonnista. Kävin 7-linjalla joen takana. Palasin Heumarktille. Kävelin sitten kotiin 6 km. Poikkesin roomalaisen museon näyttelyssä. Söin kanaa intialaisessa ravintolassa. Ostokset lähikaupasta ja lopuksi kierros puistossa. Join asunnossa 2 dl kuohuviiniä ja ostin 24 tunnin lipun klo 20:35. Heumarktilla pari pientä olutta. Sitten kävin kylässä itäpuolella. Palasin ratikalla Friesenplatzille. Väkeä oli liikkeellä paljon.... read more

Oli lämmin päivä. Sulloin paksumman takin matkalaukkuun. Kävin syömässä lounasta hotellin lähellä intialaisessa ravintolassa. Luotijunasta oli hyvin tilaa. Jäin pois asemalla Köln Messe/Deutz, josta juna jatkoi Esseniin. Menin paikallisjunalla Köln Westiin ja kävelin reilun kilometrin Airbnb-kämpälle. Olen nyt viisi yötä Airbnbssä. Pieni yksiö. Asunnossa on vakituisen asukkaan tavaroita. Hän on matkoilla. Asuntoon minut päästi hänen ystävättärensä Hawa, joka asuu samassa korttelissa ja on kotoisin Eritreasta. Hän näytti myös minulle lähiseutua: mistä löytyy pesula ja lähimmät kaupat. Ostin asunnolle välipalatarpeita. Kun lähdin liikkeelle klo 18 jälkeen, niin laitoin paksumman takin. Söin israelilaista ruokaa ulkona. Yleisesti ottaen väki syö täällä mielellään ulkona myös illalla, vaikka on vain kymmenisen astetta. Se johtunee koronarajoituksista. Kävelin Neumarktille asti ja palatessa... read more