Cologne
The train ride to Cologne was a little longer, so combined with our noon departure we ended up in Cologne fairly late in the day. As if to make up for this, one of the biggest sights in Cologne is conveniently located right next to the train station: the Cologne Cathedral. This one was very much in the same style as the other old cathedrals we had seen, but quite possibly one of the most intricate in all the arches and towers and little details.
Quite an impressive church. Almost more impressive is that it managed to survive WWII. Many of the shops in the area were selling panoramas showing the war-torn Cologne with the cathedral standing seemingly untouched in the middle of it all. I have to imagine that Allied forces tried their best to avoid destroying the church, but there had to be a significant amount of luck involved. This shot gives a pretty good example of what I mean:
After stopping by our hotel we set off in search of dinner and eventually decided on a small corner restaurant. Inside was a warm atmosphere with very minimalist furnishings: simple tables and basic wooden benches or chairs. I liked it.
Our waiter was an incredibly helpful, salt-of-the-earth kind of guy who tried really hard to dredge up enough English to explain the menu items. I ended up getting some wild boar with potatoes and some unknown cooked spherical plant-things that, upon subsequent research, very well may have been brussel sprouts (I had/have not had them before). The meal was simple, but delicious, and the beers kept on coming.
I was a bit surprised that the beer was served in fairly small glasses, but soon learned that it barely mattered. The waiter just walked around with a tray containing a bunch of full glasses wherever he went and would trade them for empties as necessary, keeping a tally of drinks consuming on a piece of paper on each table. It was a cool system and seemed to work pretty well.
Augusto's wife was pretty tired after dinner and went to bed early, so Augusto and I took the time to wander around the town a bit. We ended up walking through some of the more modern parts of the city, which was essentially a big outdoor mall with a European flavor.
One of the more interesting things we came across was a group of girls dressed up in costumes selling various drinks and trinkets. We asked what the occasion was and they said that they were raising money for one the the girls' bachelorette party. Genius!
A close second was this awesome Super Star Destroyer LEGO set I saw at the Cologne LEGO outlet.
After some more exploring we decided to head back to the hotel to escape the cold.
The following morning I took some time to check out one of the other steeples I had seen sticking out about the skyline, and came across a couple smaller churches. Still very nice.
Near the second church I caught of glimpse of the river that runs by the city and decided to go have a look. As I was standing there I suddenly wondered, "wait a second, is this the Rhine?". I checked my phone (having cached the map of the area) and it turned out that it was! Having gone through a period of intense interest in the history of World War II in junior high, it was felt pretty significant to be standing on the banks of the Rhine, especially to find out at the last second like that. Pretty cool.
Shortly after, we boarded our train back to Paris. Again, due to last-minute scheduling, we ended up riding first-class. At least the meal was pretty decent. Quite a tiring weekend, but pretty awesome.
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