Beach and Tonic

Cologne – Köln

After a cold night in Deventer, and one morning with a frozen door – when I had to climb throw the front of the van to go out for the driver’s side and put water in the car handle just to try to open the door – We took the decision to leave the Netherlands trying to chase the sunny and warm days in a different place, so we drove towards Germany, and the first stop was COLOGNE (Köln). After 2 hours of driving, we stopped in a park and ride outside of the historic centre to avoid the Low Emission Zone. We took the tram to the centre and walked around the amazing Gothic Cathedral. The cathedral dominates the skyline of Cologne and is one of Germany’s most famous landmarks.  It is also one of the most beautiful examples of Gothic and Neo-Gothic architecture in the world, or at least for me I just can say it’s amazing how detailed every part you can see. The place was full of people and like my best friend (Angie) said, in the pictures, I look like a lost boy in the Simón Bolivar square in Bogotá.

 The funny thing about this visit is at that moment I needed to go to a bathroom because the only one we found nearby was in Mcdonald’s and it’s such a popular place, you must pay 1 euro to use the bathroom. I never felt pressure like that day to go fast and let the next person come (just because of the queue outside hahaha).

We walked around the centre for 2 or 3 hours, took some pictures in the small streets, and attempted to try the popular fast food “bratwurst” the street food par excellence in Germany, perfect to be enjoyed in a bread roll, but with the luck always on our side, they had run out of bread, so we ate an alternative version with chips.

After that, we returned to the park and ride to get ready to go to the next place to spend the night.  Fortunately, Gary found a place quiet to spend the night, next to the Rhine. It was a quiet and cold night but was a good one. The next morning, we woke up really early close to 6.30 am to begin our journey on the road again. This time to Konigswinter.