Blogs from Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, Europe - page 22

Geo: 50.8696, 7.276Today I spent the day in Cologne. The first thing I noticed as the train came into Cologne was the huge twin spires of the cathedral. The Dom (cathedral) is the largest in Germany. It started to be built in 1248, funds ran out and building stopped for 300 years. Then it was completed. Luckily the cathedral was one of the buildings to avoid the bombing raids of WW II. I was feeling active, so I climbed the 509 steps of the Dom's south tower. Half way up I had a break and walked around the 24 tonne Peter Bell, the largest working bell in the world. I had then nearly reached the top, ahead of me was a metal staircase in the middle of the tower. It was at about this point as ... read more

Everything is going well. Spent the last two days on trains with a few quick runarounds in Brussels and Cologne in between (the cathedral is amazing). On the Ost-West Express to moscow myself and Nick shared a 3 berth compartment with Vlad - an electrical engineer from Moscow. We drank 1 litre tins of beer, and shot vodka with a polish guy named Marco who we decided to leave when he couldn't sit up straight. Ross and Zander's roomate Alexander gave us tasty sausage. Sleeping on trains is great apart from being woken at 03.30 by border control. Now we are in Moscow - its freezing cold, but everything is cool. will keep you posted...... read more

Wahnsinn! Deutschland will uns raus haben! Ein Jahrhundertsturm fegt über das Land und verängstigt die Menschen. Gefällte Bäume, Totalschäden und verletzte Menschen wo man auch hin schaut. Es ist Zeit zu gehen! Noch ca. 10 Tage... Die Regale leeren, die Kisten stapeln sich. Unser Keller ist seit ca. einem Jahr mal wieder ordentlich begehbar, die Küche wird immer trostloser. Aber das ist gut so. Die Zeichen des Aufbruchs mehren sich. Gut für die Psyche! Nach nun schon ca. siebenwöchigem Dahindarben als organisierender und planender Möchtegern-Weltreisender kann's jetzt mal so langsam losgehen. Auch mein liebes Weib scharrt schon ungeduldig mit den Trekking-Hufen. Deshalb jetzt nochmal ein paar Tage auf die Zähne beißen, weiter die Dinge verräumen, am kommenden Mittwoch alles verladen und zur Schwester und ins Lager bringen, mindestens noch einmal die Kölner Müllhalde anfahren (da gibt's ... read more

New Year's Eve dawned cold, but sunny. I grabbed some food at the supermarket and then made the slippery walk to the train station. I caught the 9 am train to Bern and it was a pleasant ride out of the mountains. In Bern I switched to another train to get me to Basel where I picked up a German ICE to take me all the way to Cologne. I didn't realize how much I missed the comfort and speed of the ICE's. Southern Europe's trains just don't compare with those in the north. We crossed the border without any formalities whatsoever. No one even got on the train to check passports, which I thought was a bit weird. The ride took about 4 hours and we pushed all the way up to 260 km/h for ... read more

The Dom, Some Chocolate and Serious Christmas Market Partying Good Morning and a Happy Dom to You Now that we’re on German time, both Mike and I are coming to grips with the fact that our days need to start earlier . . . no more sleeping in like aging soap stars for us. The sun goes down much sooner in the afternoon than when we were in Spain - between 4 and 5pm - so to take advantage of our day, it’s up up up for us. Our hotel has a pervasive smell that we only really nailed down upon exiting our room this morning - fried breakfast food (buffet on 1st floor), Chinese food (Chinese gentleman who mans the desk) and smoke (owner has a lit one going at all times when he’s ... read more