Blogs from Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, Europe - page 23

Driving to Cologne for Christmas Markets A New Car…but not so great We woke up and had the breakfast buffet in our hotel. Turns out that German breakfast will take a little getting used to for both Kel and me. I stuck to toast and OJ but Kel ventured into the cold meats and cheeses. It wasn’t wonderful, but it wasn’t horrible either. From breakfast we walked to the rental car agency which was about a 3 mile walk. Thankfully the weather here today was only partly cloudy which means our walk was just cold, not cold and wet. After arriving we had to spend some time at the Avis place because our rental was longer term and through another company. My hopes for the VW Passat I had been promised we dashed when they ... read more

We arrived back in the wonderful country of Germany last Wednesday, 22nd November flying from the not-so-loved Stansted airport into the quiet little airport in Duesseldorf! My friend, Sabine and her mum, Monika kindly picked us up and drove us to their home in Essen. Why were we visiting Essen, you may ask? Well, I (Meg - if you hadn't already guessed....) was an exchange student twice in Germany. The first time was after Year 11 in 1994 to Essen and the second was in 1996 to Ostfriesland. Sabine and her parents were my hostfamily then. Was lovely to see them after such a long time. Essen is actually the German word for "food" and boy, did we enjoy some very delicious home-cooking from Monika while staying with them for 5 days. We were very spoilt ... read more

Endlich, die Route steht. Nach vielen Anfragen bei verschiedenen Reisebüros hat sich Colibri-Reisen als der einzige wirklich fähige Round-the-World Ticket-Vermittler herausgestellt! Ende Januar gehts los, genauer gesagt am 29.01. Anbei die komplette Flugroute: London - Kapstadt - Johannesburg - Singapur - Manila - Singapur - Medan - Singapur - Tokyo - Los Angeles - El Salvador - Lima - Sao Paulo - Panama Stadt - Havanna - London Schön, wa??... read more

I left Munich bright and early on a direct ICE train to Cologne. It was a pleasant ride, again topping out at 250 kph. I wonder if these trains can go faster? It's an interesting sensation being in a train at that speed. The cars rock back and forth quite a bit, and it can be tough to walk around. I got in to the central station around 2. I had read that the Kolner dom is an awe-inspiring sight. However, until you walk out of the station for the first time and look up, and up, at the soaring steeples of the Dom, you don't really understand. The tops of the steeples are at 157 meters, which is enormous -- on par with a 40 story building! I still can't believe it made it through ... read more

We ended up going to Cologne so that we could purchase a Eurorail pass, which was a fantastic rerouting. The Cologne Cathedral is magnificent, the pictures will not do it justice. When we first stepped out of the train station we did not notice the cathedral.....we thought it was just a huge wall. Once we actually took a look we realized that it was THE CATHEDRAL and the base was over 100 yards away and you had to almost bend backwards to see the top. We climbed 499 stairs of the tower. The last 10 stairs were rickety and had no rails and I said "hell no". Scott agreed quickly, with an ashen face. Scott does not like heights and I pushed it to the limit. The other unknown that we never did find out was ... read more

After a short but relaxing visit to see friends and their toddler in the wine growing region south of Frankfurt, it was time to visit some parts of Germany which Luke knew but which were new to me. For obvious, war related reasons, there aren't many historical sites left in Koeln, apart from the cathedral. However, it's impressive enough to make up for it, with vast towering spires and immense stained glass windows. Inside there is an incredible feeling of space, despite the inevitably high number of tourists there at any given moment. The day we arrived was the day of the Germany v Italy semi-final and from lunchtime onwards the town was gearing up for it, becoming increasingly schwarz, rot, gold as the day went on. We sat by the river, feeling slightly guilty for ... read more