Sunshine!! Definitely time for a trip to Cologne.
Challenge number one - work the ticket machine. First go I resisted choosing English, but after a couple of attempts I gave in, especially as a train was waiting and I was no closer to having a valid ticket. Sadly the machine seemed intent on me improving my German, and just threw back the 'auf Deutsch' version no matter what button I pressed! A good few minutes later I was still tapping random buttons on the screen beginning to lose the will, when eventually some likely looking options appeared. Anyway, the ticket monster machine was eventually defeated, and amazingly the train hadn't left yet.
Cologne, especially in the sunshine, is lovely, massive, but lovely. And people aren't lying when they say the Cathedral is right next to the station, even an idiot couldn't miss it! Cologne + sunshine + Saturday = lots and lots of tourists, i.e. more people for me to blend in with and hence less funny looks for taking random photos. After a little hunting I found the tourist office and successfully asked for a town map - now I could be a proper tourist, camera in one hand, map in the other!
Whilst pottering about I came across the 'Verein Deutsche Sprache' * and the info stand they had out. Sadly I didn't manage to get a freebie pencil, but did have a (very quick!) chat with one of their members and take their leaflet - Kristine would be proud! Ironically their stand was only one street away from the 'English Shop'...
Ice cream by the river? Oh, go on then. Colgone by the Rhein has a great atmosphere in the sunshine, especially with the street artists, although some of them varied in quality! I'm not sure two middle aged men, and one woman wearing green glasses, singing 'I’m your venus' is quite what I would have promoted as 'Street entertainment for children'...
* The VDS is a group of people who want to protect the German language from being destroyed by English.
(Saturday 11th September 2010)
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