Sunday, 12 October 2014

On the scent, Cologne

Hmmm… how to explain Cologne?  It was ok.  For some reason I wasn’t as impressed by Cologne as other places I visited.  It was the first time on my trip that I was slowed down by rain, I had had issues with a railway driver’s strike and was still recovering from a light cold.  So there were a few things to overcome.

Although I wasn’t caught up directly in the strike, the after effects were a massive number of delays across Germany.  Overall my train to Cologne took an hour and a half longer than the four hours scheduled.  For this I was fortunately refunded 25% of my ticket price, which was a pleasant surprise.

Once I finally arrived and checked in, I was running out of daylight to see the city.  I made my way down through the old town and had a look through the cathedral.  It is a beautiful cathedral and welcoming.  The rest of the city was nice, but didn’t really make me love it.  It was actually the city I felt the most uncomfortable in.  It was just a feeling but was enough to not let me really relax into the place.  Apart from the cathedral there wasn’t much for me to see.  There was also the obligatory parade/protest.

Every city I have been to seems to have a protest or parade.  I have seen the Oktoberfest, football fans corralled by riot police, student protests, protests against the Islamic State and other protests that I have not been able to understand except to know that people weren’t happy.


Anyway, Germany done.  It has been an awesome trip and I loved most of it.  On to Belgium and the fairytale town of Bruges.

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