Blogs from Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, Europe - page 16

En Colonia se pudrió todo. Nos enteramos de la verdad, es verdad que es difícil de aceptar para unos, y algo normal para otros. Pero vamos a dejar este tema para un poco mas adelante. Colonia es la cuarta ciudad más grande de Alemania, precedida por Berlín, Hamburgo y Múnich, y a su vez la más populosa dentro del estado federal de Renania del Norte-Westfalia, aunque Düsseldorf es la capital del estado. Fundada en el año 38 a. C. como Oppidum Ubiorum (Ciudad de los Ubios), fue posteriormente declarada colonia romana con el nombre de Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium en alusión a la emperatriz Agripina, esposa del emperador Claudio y madre de Nerón. Llegamos cerca de las 3 de la tarde y fuimos para la parte mas céntrica de la ciudad por 2 motivos: el primero, ... read more

We then left Holland and headed over to the west of Germany. Really nice and green country side. Was quite a long drive so we ended up spended the night in a place called Werden, not far out of Essen. It was a really nice little village with alot going on (for a Sunday night anyway). The next day we headed further down to the Rhine river and stayed next to it in the City of Cologne. Rode our bikes along the river and had a walk around the city. We then sat by the river in the sun and drank a few beers. Later on at the campground we meet an American guy called Dan. He was from Colorado and was currently hitch hiking around Europe for 3 months. He was a really nice guy ... read more

Travel Blog Day 4 Cologne Quite the day/night in Cologne yesterday. We started the day off by heading down to the Am Dom Cathedral, which was pretty neat… we just missed the English tour, but went on our own mini-tour with myself as the guide for Josh (since I am Catholic, a lot of stuff is universal). The Cathedral was beautiful with a lot of very interesting sights and the extravagance of it is amazing. This Cathedral actually took about 600 years to build instead of the standard 100 or so, because of different wars and trade barriers that prevented its completion. The highlight of the Cathedral though was the tower. There was very large spires on each side of the Cathedral, and you had to pay 3 Euro to go up into one of the ... read more

Travel Blog: Day 3 Cologne Well, sorry I missed writing yesterday, it is actually day 3 here in Europe. Josh has joined me, but getting him into Germany was quite the adventure. He does not have a phone here in Europe, but I did bring mine. It costs a lot to use, but I thought it’d be useful when meeting someone. Well, it turns out that it could be useful, but only if someone takes advantage of it. I walked from the hotel in Frankfurt down to the local park/garden/lake and had lunch. I sat near the lake and read a book for over an hour, the wildlife was different from America and it was very enjoyable to watch. After lunch, I walked down to the train station, which was about 3 miles from the hotel, ... read more

Wow, I haven't had the time to write in a while, and now I'm daunted by the thought of having to write about everything that has happened. I made it through Basel. It was a wonderfully overwhelming experience. I went to some interesting lectures and panel discussions on the art market today and important things to consider when collecting contemporary art. I saw a plethora of amazing works by well known modern and contemporary artists, as well as number of beautiful and/or intriguing pieces by people I had never heard of before. I made an effort to write every name I was interested in down so I can start to follow their carreers. I also kept track of pieces I would want to buy if I was a Russian oligarch, such as a magnificent piece by ... read more