Wednesday

Today we woke up and went to the train station. We had to go a bit early, because our combination Berlin Transit tickets expired at 10:00 that day, but the train for Cologne left at 11:30. The Berlin Central Station is new (well, it was here last time too, but it’s pretty new) and it was fun to hang out in a cool building for a bit. I had some ice cream, too.

The train was another high speed ICE train direct from Berlin to Köln (Cologne). Fortunately there was an outlet on the train, so I was able to catch up on a few days of the Berlin blog. Other than that the ride was pretty uneventful.

We showed up in Köln at about 5:00 because the train was late, then we took a variety of public transportation out to the hotel, which, once again, was really far out. We also met up with Dr. Keel’s friend Werner – Werner got his PHD at KU in the late 80’s and now lives in Köln. The hotel was a small family run place with a restaurant and we were the only people staying there which was a nice change. The innkeepers were really nice.

By this point in time, I was starving and I think most of the group was too. Werner led us downtown Köln and we had dinner of meter long Bratwurst with buckets of potatoes at a well-known brewery. Residents of Köln drink Kölsch beer – it’s a bit stronger than usual German beer and is served in a small 0.2L glass instead of the 0.5L glass that is the most common in Germany (American beer is usually a 0.33L Bottle). Because of the small glasses, restaurants in Köln will get a new Kölsch if yours is almost empty, unlike the rest of the country where you won’t get a refill of anything. Of course, you have to pay for each new one, but that won’t stop the waiters from bringing them.

Next up we took a stroll through the central part of Köln. It’s a beautiful city and seems smaller than it is – until you walk into the square around the cathedral. The cathedral is massive and incredible – it took about six hundred years to build. We caught it in the evening light and the details of the building were quite a sight. I also got a peek inside – impressive.

We walked across the Rhine next as the sun was setting on a train bridge with a walking path. After that was ice cream and then hotel time.