Day 16 (June 20th): Cologne

Woke up and had breakfast at our usual place. I was thinking about taking the train to Cologne if the weather held up. I walked Al to work and came back to the room to check the weather on the Internet. It said warm and a chance of rain. I decided to go for it, so I packed up my backpack and headed over to the train station. I was not totally sure which train to take but looked up at the master board at the station and saw a train going to cologne. I went up to the track and waited for the train. I ended up taking an S bahn which is like a subway that makes multiple stops. I didn't care as long as it took me to the city center at Cologne. The ride ended up being over an hour which should have been 25 minutes if it was direct. When I walked out of the train station at Cologne the Dom (big church) is right in front of you. The Dom is one of the largest churches in Europe and is a national landmark. I took a bunch of pictures outside and then headed inside to check it out. It was extremely impressive. Between the high cathedral ceilings and decorative stained glass windows the place is massive. I walked around for a while really trying to absorb it all in. After a while I headed out and walked over to the Tourist Information building to get a map and ask where to go. I got the information I needed and hit the streets. At first I walked down the main shopping street with many of the typical retail stores (made a pit stop at Burger King to use the free facilities; I hate having to pay to use the restrooms). I kept walking and started getting hungry, so I found a sandwich shop on the street. I bought a large salami sandwich with coleslaw and then went to a Kiosk and bought a Reissdorf Kolsch beer (local brew). I found a park bench in a little square and sat down and enjoyed my meal. The guy next to me was a tourist also and we spoke for a little bit. After finishing lunch I walked by numerous churches. Nothing like the main Dom but old churches none the less. There was also a few random Roman ruins throughout the city. Walked through another shopping area and bought a little pretzel knot to snack on. Headed over to their Alstadt (old city) and walked through all the little winding roads with some cool shops and old bars. I stopped in an old store that was also the Eau du Cologne museum (thus the name Cologne). I spoke to the woman there and she spread some Cologne on me. They had a nice strip of restaurants along the Rhine that you can hang out at and relax. I walked along the water for a little bit and took some pictures of some cool colorful buildings with a nice church in the background. I made it up to a bridge that crossed over the Rhine and overlooked the Alstadt area. I didn't realize that I had circled back around all the way up to the Dom. I passed a number of souvenir shops and looked at the postcards. They had some very interesting postcards that were black and white pictures of Cologne right after WWII. Basically, the whole city was leveled by American and British bombers except for the Dom. I read somewhere that the pilots used the Dom as a marker but did not want to destroy it. One postcard had a picture of a couple sitting on the Rhine in 1945 looking at the demolished city and the caption on the card said "Glad to be Alive". I kept walking but had pretty much covered all the major sites so I bought a different Kolsch beer (Dom Kolsch) and headed over to the Dom Square. The sun came out and I sat on a concrete bench and enjoyed my beverage while looking up at the impressive Dom and watching people go by. There was a homeless man walking around with no shoes who had a piece of paper stuck between his toes. He was talking to a group of girls and freaking them out. He started yelling some German and making a scene. I finished my beer and walked around the Dom one last time to take some pictures. When I was done I headed over to the train station that was next door and found a couple of trains going to Dusseldorf. Both of them were on tracks next to each other so I went up to the track and waited for the train. I grabbed the S6 which was another S bahn (subway) but got me back 10 minutes quicker. Everything worked out well and I made it back to Dusseldorf in time for dinner. Met Al, YH and Rajni for dinner and went to a Louisiana restaurant in the Alstadt. The waiter was nice and spoke descent English. We had a couple of appetizers (nachos and poppers) to start out with and then I had a gumbo and beer for dinner. It wasn't the typical cajun food you would expect in the States but it was ok. They did have a good kids menu so we will probably take the kids there when they come. We finished dinner and then walked around little before heading back to the room.