Cologne

Monday Cologne

Another luxury ICE train to Cologne. This time the train was in two halves and separated halfway through the journey. Arrived about 1pm and then spent considerable time trying to organise a Rhine cruise the next day. Walked down the wharves but they were all shut being winter. Then back to the train station to find out train schedules, then into the DB information office to get it explained in English. Finally an Sbahn train to a local station and the usual 'which way we facing?' when we got out of the subway. Pretty much the only people in the hotel. Quite an old two star hotel -- too old to attract tourists, but not trendy enough to attract backpackers. Has a bar, free internet and sky TV but no atmosphere. Wandered up and down the street and had some lunch. Really the first suburban shopping strip we've seen on our trip. Not often we get to go out into the 'burbs. The surprise was that we got a free buffet breakfast. Very smoky reception -- the proprietor chain-smokes, even while serving meals.

Tuesday Cologne

Up in the dark to catch an Sbahn train to Cologne to connect with a train to Koblenz, to meet with one to Boppard by 9:15am, to catch the morning Rhine River cruise. Unfortunately, after all that, it wasn't running -- despite their website and sandwich board. The local tourist centre found the only one running, which was a different company as it turned out, only because there were three tour groups on it. No matter. We had a nice although cool tour of one and a half hours down to St Gear. The ferry wasn't actually coming back, so we had a hot chocolate at the local pub and caught a train back to Koblenz and the quick change to an adjacent ICE train to Bonn, where we had some lunch then visited Beethoven's birth house -- being the city's famous son. Brendan rang with Ashley is tertiary offer while we had doughnuts in our mouth. Another train back to Cologne and an Sbahn back to the motel. Watched U2 during the evening.

Wednesday Cologne

A bit of a sleep in and then the Sbahn three stops into the Cologne and a visit to the Dom which is right next door to the station. Did a one and a half hour tour of the famous Cologne Cathedral with an English-language guide -- knew his stuff well but not very interactive or engaging. The big fame of the cathedral is supposedly having the skulls of the three wise men, though of course that's debatable. However, pilgrims who paid to see them enabled them to build a huge cathedral, with lovely windows and a giant gold altar box to hold the remains. Very impressive. Climbed 509 steps to the top for the view. Saw the largest bell in the world. Then went to the view the German Sports and Olympic Museum -- can't understand why it wasn't either in Berlin or Munich. However, it was very good -- even if anybody who isn't an East or West German hardly gets a mention. They even listed ‘Dawn Fraser – USA’. Ashley enjoyed it, and Mandy liked seeing the Munich footage again. After a bite of lunch we picked up the rental car from a girl who wanted to make a life as difficult as possible. Spent a few minutes working out the correct route back to the hotel, before navigating it without drama. Went to tea in a lovely restaurant where we ordered Italian from a German waitress in English, after we realised we hadn't eaten a proper meal in almost 2 weeks.