Blog ≫ 2022 ≫ Midlife Eurotour part three - Cologne
Cologne / Köln in Germany that is, not the type of perfume. I left Brussels on this speedy connection, even though it seemed for a while there would be a problem. This is the one where I had to buy a last minute replacement ticket too as I'd booked the wrong day, so ended up paying a lot more than I originally thought I would . I did get a first class seat, but there wasn't a lot of benefit to it, no food or anything. Probably worth paying a bit extra for easy access to my bags when I'm travelling like this, that's one to consider.
I could take a moment to mention my bags here, as I was travelling quite light. I had my trusty old Eagle Creek rucksack as seen in the original bus station picture here, the one with the flags stuck on it. It was pretty rammed, though without the "extension" zips being undone, so I could have carried twice as much in there. I did take the reinforcing metal bars out of it to save a bit more weight, it's quite a heavy bag on its own and I don't think they add a lot. That bag is usally my hand luggage - my only luggage - when I go anywhere. This time I knew I'd be flying back, and Clare would be checking a bag in, so I was thinking of this as my checked-in bag, even though no checking in required, and no restrictions on liquids and things on any of my outbound journey. I considered taking another little backpack as my hand luggage, but went with just a tote bag. Pretty disosable if necessary, it was a freebie I picked up from a conference, and I only needed it to hold my travelling cup and any snacks I needed to hand. So that's how I travelled. Worked quite well, will probably do it again.
Cologne seems good, looks to be quite neatly packed. I was only there for three hours in theory so didn't have time to go far. The cathedral is right outside the station, so those two form two sides of a bustling square. The steps up to the cathedral seem to attract a lot of people for a sit down. There was a large community of street drinking singing people so it all felt quite festivalish and jolly. I headed up the stairs, aiming to go along the river to a bar I'd heard of with good beer choice. On the way I passed a balancing juggling busker who had drawn a big crowd, and then lots and lots of tourists and backpackers everywhere. I lively vibrant sort of place.
I walked along to that bar "The Bier Museum", and it did look like it had a lot of choice but a) there was no-one in the dark interior b) there was loud odd music emanating, kind of gay disco c) the few people sat outside didn't look like beery people. It didn't look great, and I did see a very traditional looking place right opposite it, that had a view out onto the river. So went in there, sat on the terrace, had a couple of beers and did a video call home. "A couple of beers" overstates it a bit, they have one traditional style of beer, a crisp lagery type one, and it's served in very very small glasses that are 50% head. It's so the beer doesn't have time to go warm and flat, you just order another and they write it on your beermat, instead of ordering a decent portion all in one.
I left here to get back to my next train, my first sleeper train. I stopped for some food on the way, missed out on the hot food though. I just missed a place called Frittenwerk that was closing, looks like I could have had some good vegan dirty fries there, just the ticket! I went in a train station supermarket in the end that had good options, good salad bar and vegan section and so on, so I ate quite healthily. I wanted to be in good time for this next train, no hiccups. Still too early and it's delayed, so I walked out again, up the steps and the other direction this time to see what I could see. It's still very busy everywhere. As I'm at a raised level here I'm looking down on the road and a very lively place opposite that has a live band playing. This is maybe the place I should have gone to, for a sit down and some food. But instead I ate my food looking at it through the windows, and then headed back to the station. As it turns out I was waiting on the platform quite a long time for this train. They kept adding a little delay and a little delay and in the end the train was over an hour late leaving.
This is the first long train journey of the trip, the first sleeper train. The private cabins were booked by the time I got round to it, and I had an idea to book different kinds of travel anyway. I knew I had the luxury one coming up from Vienna to Rome, so in this one instead of going for the middle option I booked the "third class", which is not a bed, just a "couchette". I knew this to be a recliner seat, so should be OK. But was it? I am running out of time in my lunch hour to write now, so will save that for the next part...