Cologne

We wanted to check out another town between Amsterdam and Berlin, so Cologne seemed like a good idea. Famous church, and famous beer-- works for us!

Before we got to Cologne, our visit was nearly thwarted by a "really mean, really stupid lady." Let me explain. We got up early our last morning in Amsterdam to get to the train station so we could catch the 10:34 train to Cologne. Since we were only going to be there one day, we thought it'd be smart to get there as early as reasonably possible. A 10:34 train put us into Cologne around 1. Great! We arrived to the Amsterdam train station around 9:40, which in any other place would have been PLENTY of time to purchase tickets and catch a train. Not in Amsterdam though!

Problem #1:

I waited in a line to purchase tickets that did not accept American credit cards. That would have been nice to know before I waited through the entire line. We were told we needed to go to the international travel area where they'd kindly accept my credit card. No problem. We still had plenty of time. 40 minutes!

Problem #2:

We arrived in the international ticketing area and got in line. Wait, no we didn't. We needed to get a number, so that we could get in line to purchase a ticket. Sheesh. I wandered back to the entrance of the international ticketing area to get a number. Near the entrance I saw a uniformed lady standing casually next to a number dispensing machine. I wasn't entirely sure that this was where I could get the number, because she looked more like she just happened to be standing there and did not necessarily look like she was involved in dispensing the numbers. I approached the woman.

"Um, hi-- is this where I get a number to buy a ticket?" I said.

"WHAT DO YOU WANT?" the lady screeched back at me.

"I'd like a number to.."

"WHAT DO YOU WANT?" she repeated. I decided to elaborate.

"I want to purchase an international train ticket."

"YES BUT WHAT DO YOU WANT? WHERE ARE YOU GOING?"

"Um, I'd like to go to Cologne..."

"WHAT DAY WHAT TIME WHEN???"

"Today at 10:30," I told her. She looked down at her watch and punched some buttons in the kiosk. Maybe she's just giving the me a ticket here? No such luck. She handed me a number "c075." Great. I headed back to the ticketing area.

Not great. They were only on C051. I could tell that it was moving slowly. The electronic board that listed the numbers and the corresponding desks people should go to was also calling another section of numbers in the A430's. Soon enough they were mostly calling A's and were rarely calling C's. I overheard an American nearby saying that they were also taking the 10:34 train to Cologne and that it SEEMED like those who were in a hurry were getting A's, and those with "plenty of time" were getting C's. While, in any NORMAL train station, I did have "plenty of time," I could tell that at the pace they were calling C's, I really should be in the "in a hurry" category. Jacob went to the number dispensing agent to try to get an A (it was a different woman than the one with whom I dealt and she was much nicer), and received one by providing the exact information that I provided to the grouchy woman. However, by this time our chances for making the 10:34 train to Cologne looked bleak. But there was still a chance. Wouldn't you know, they called my number at 10:31. We ended up missing the train by about 2 minutes. All because of this incredibly rude woman who was either 1) Purposefully mean or 2) Incompetent or 3) both. (I think it was #3). Because of this woman, we missed several hours of daylight sightseeing in Cologne and we ended up spending 2 hours in a train station "New York Slice" fast food restaurant.

I'm happy to say that good triumphed over evil, and we eventually made it Cologne. The first thing you see when you step out of the train station is the Cologne Cathedral. Holy moly, that thing is imposing!

We decided we would check it out after depositing our bags at our hostel. We jumped on the underground and arrived at our hostel, the Weltempfanger.

We were quite pleased with our room-- one of the nicest places we've stayed so far.

Jacob checks out the view

It's a nice view!

The staff there were very helpful, giving us a few recommendations for where to try some good Kolsch beer. We had read that the Cathedral was open quite late, so we decided to grab a beer, some dinner, and check out the neighborhood first.

Cologne was heavily bombed during WWII, so the resulting city is a mix of old and new. The area where we walked had tons of pizza, falafel, and doner places in addition to lots of clothing shops. In general, it doesn't seem to be much of a tourist town (though we weren't hanging out in the touristy areas), and very few people that we encountered spoke English. This made for at least one awkward experience at our first stop, "the smallest brewery in Cologne."

We walked in and ordered "zwei bier" and the bartender replied back in German with a reply that seemed much longer than the "coming right up" response we were expecting. We stared at him blankly. "Sprechen Sie English?" "Nein" he replied. Thankfully a couple who had been previously chatting with him when we first arrived did. "The bar is closed. It opens at 6." It was only 5:15. Oops! We thanked them and quickly exited the building. 6? Whatever happened to "it's 5 o'clock somewhere?!" ;)

We decided to grab some food in the meantime so we found a very cheap and tasty pizza place and enjoyed some personal pans along with a Kolsch. Afterwards we headed back to the first bar and enjoyed a delicious microbrew as the place quickly filled with locals.

Next stop? The Cathedral! We hopped on the underground and arrived at the Cathedral around 8. Although the website said it would be open, it was clearly not open. We'd have to check it out in the morning.

A bit creepy in the night, wouldn't you say?

No worries though-- we ended up walking around the downtown area where tons of shops lined the streets.

Including shops with names that might raise a few eyebrows with the English speaking world.

We were also treated to a few tunes by some very talented street performers. What an awesome looking bass!

Our next stop was a very cosy brewpub that made Jacob and I regret that we had already eaten. The food smelled soooo good! If we had been in Cologne another night we would have HAD to come back to eat the delicious smelling German comfort food. mmmm. The server came around with a fancy beer tray that carried about 10 small glasses of beer, and asked us "Kosch?" Yes please.

The restaurant had such a warm, friendly atmosphere-- it was hard to leave! But we had to catch an early train to Berlin AND see the Cathedral in the morning. If only we had two more hours to spend in Cologne (thanks a lot, really mean stupid lady from Amsterdam!).

Next morning, we needed to find a quick breakfast, so Jacob enjoyed Germany's version of the Egg McMuffin, and I picked up some pretzel rolls for the train ride. We then headed over to the church. As I mentioned before, it is quite imposing, and it is so large that you get a bit of vertigo looking up at its towers.

The floor space inside was HUGE. I was surprised that it was considerably less ornate on the inside then many of the churches we've been in. However, it did contain my favorite stain-glass window thus far.

Unfortunately, we didn't have time to climb the tower to get the Cologne panorama. We had to make a train.

We enjoyed our short time in Cologne, and wish we would have had more time. Yes, I'm still talking about that really mean, really stupid lady.