Destination : Köln (Cologne!)


Destination : Köln (Cologne!)

Hi all! Monday (21st April).... saw us wake up in our comfy hotel room and the anticipation of catching a train to Cologne, Germany. Another train? Well, we decided earlier on it would be easier to catch trains rather than go through the hassle of going through security etc if we caught a flight. Besides I like trains...

Since the station was a hop, skip and a jump from our hotel room it didn't take us very long to relocate ourselves. One positive thing was that we didn't have to weave through the madness of the market which we had arrived to on the Saturday afternoon. We also had left early enough to avoid any crowds in the shopping plaza as well... Cool!

So standing on the platform waiting for our train, which was actually to Düsseldorf we grabbed our first glimpse of the German ICE (Intercity Express) train. WOW! It is really a remarkable train.. Maybe the locals aren't so impressed with them.... Silly tourists... ;o) I spose it is much like a French TGV train.. and really decked out well inside. We did discover that they actually don't travel as fast as the French trains but who cares as it certainly is a more than a comfortable ride. As it was from this point in time, these trains were going to be the most frequent mode of transport for us as we trekked through our first leg of Germany. The other thing we noticed was that these trains (practically all Deutsche Bahn) run with incredible precision timing. When the train stops at your station you have exactly 2 MINUTES to get off/get on. No time to even get your luggage into a rack and sit down. Two minutes and you are off and moving... You snooze you lose... you'll be stuck on there until the next station.

Some of you may be curious about why we left the Netherlands and headed into Germany? Simple answer really. We were expecting the arrival of Steve's Mum at the beginning of May and would return to the land of tulips to meet up with her and spend some time looking around together. Happy?

Anyway, back to Germany. We arrived in Dusseldorf exactly on time as we expected... WOW, Germany... a new language. For me, some of it was recognisable. Dad had used it in the house more than just occasionally and I had hoped that what I had learned would allow me to begin to get by in this country. My stomach was growling madly by the time we arrived in Dusseldorf and I needed to be fed! ;o) But first things first, for some reason Steve hadn't been able to purchase a ticket directly to Cologne for us so we had to find a ticket machine to get a ticket from Dusseldorf to Cologne. The Germans make it easy as was our experience, The ticket machine had a "English" option and it gives you all the information you need at the touch of a finger. EASY PEASY!

After purchasing our ticket, I hadn't realised just how nice these main train stations (HauptBahnHof) in Germany are... and as we found out we experienced many more of them as we travelled through Germany. But more of that later. On the way down from the platform I had spotted a little booth making Crepes...Mmmmm Crepes! There was no question in my mind what I wanted to eat so I sweetly convinced Steve it was a good idea to grab a snack there... Actually the guy who served us was very friendly. In my attempt to order our crepe his radar went "Tourist Tourist, Foreigner..." probably because of my lousy accent.. *chuckles* Either way he obliged us in English and we chatted for a bit about our travels and Australia... With our hunger alleviated, we were ready to jump on the train to Cologne or Köln as the Germans call it.

On arrival at Köln, I think Steve and I were both suddenly mesmerised as the train crossed the great Rheine River via a spectacular bridge. We don't know how we had really imagined this city, but I don't think either of us were prepared for the capacity and width of this river... As we crossed the bridge I spotted a theatre boasting "We Will Rock You" advertising.. and then the Kölner Dom came into view.. We hadn't expected it to be right next to the HauptBahnHof... but there she was...all gothic and grand. We had only heard stories from people who had visited it prior and perhaps never really imagined the shear size of it.

Anyway, on arrival in Köln we realised that we had a vague direction on where our hotel was and got on an S-bahn in that direction. Alright, well we knew a little more than that. We had recalled the closest S-Bahn station and caught the appropriate train. One thing about German train stations is that they have a ReiseZentrum which has information you need for intercity/local/trains/ticketing, but they also have these little neat timetables for all the S-Bahn and U-bahn routes. On arrival at the S-bahn station Steve and I looked around and then I looked at him for guidance in which direction we should walk.. and AS ALWAYS... we go in the WRONG direction first! The temperature in Köln was HEAPS warmer than that of Utrecht we had left that morning... and we found ourselves walking around trying to find our way for what seemed like an eternity and in the end was around an hour.

When we did finally find our way to our hotel around 6pm we found it to be closed with NO RECEPTION and only a phone number to ring. After a couple of goes at the number we were finally guided through the front door with a code and a further code to a little safe which had our room key in it. PHEW! It was a comfortable room really and we had a kitchenette. A FRIDGE! I was looking forward to filling the fridge with a few basics and some other nice things as well as cooking! Actually I think Steve was looking forward to picking up and cooking some German Sausage and shoving a few Local brews in that fridge. So that is exactly what we did!

Actually, on venturing out of our hotel room we realised there was a tram really close by and took us right into the centre of the city! Typically we always find these things out AFTER we have gone around about it the longest way possible. By the time we had settled into our room (and our first experience of what German hotels find as acceptable pillows! ;o( ) we were so hungry and luckily for us there was a little cheapily priced restaurant pretty much right next door. Not hesitating, Steve ordered himself a pizza and I a tortellini carbonara. The servings were so BIG that I ended up letting Steve finish my carbonara - which he regretted instantly because after that he felt so full and like a fatty bumbah! ;op

After our large meal, Steve and I took a walk around our neighbourhood and down the Rheine River which was conveniently located closely to our hotel... walked across one of the main bridges and inspected this great city we had just arrived to and pinched ourselves a little. Our FIRST German city! Feeling satisfied we had walked off our large dinner and feeling better we finally headed back to our hotel room and retired to our bed....

Bring on Köln! Gute Nacht...

A few memories from our visit to Cologne : http://picasaweb.google.com/hillsj/Cologne

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