Germany Day 9

Today started a bit later than I would prefer because Kate does not wake up early. Still I was able to get up, write yesterday’s journal and shower just before she woke up so maybe too much time was not wasted.  After she got ready we headed outside for the bus again and took it to Bonn to have breakfast at the Bagel Brothers, which is her favorite place for breakfast. I had a bacon, egg bagel and a cup of coffee. She had a ham and turkey bagel.  After breakfast we walked to the the Bonn Hauptbahnhof which is the central station of the city and rode to Cologne spelled (Köln but I am too lazy to fix it that way, sorry). The train ride took only half an hour so the two cities are close together.

The most important thing to see in the city is the Kölner Dom which is a very old cathedral. It dates back to the 1200s so while I am sure it was added to over the years it still has a very deep history. In some respects it is not the best looking church. On the outside it is very dark with years of pollution but the stonework is very detailed and ornate so it is still interesting to look at. The inside of the church is very large feeling. There is not much by way of decoration, especially after seeing Wieskirche and Ettal but still the grandeur is felt due to the height of the ceilings.  They were having mass because it was Sunday. We didn’t stay inside too long. After that we paid the 3 Euros each to climb the steps to the top of one of the steeples. There are twin steeples on the church and you can climb to the highest point where anyone can stand safely. It was nearly 500 steps to the top and the majority of the climb is through narrow spiral steps. It did feel like we were climbing forever and definitely by the time we got to the top there was a real sense of height. The problems were that people had damaged all the stonework up top with graffiti which bothered me a lot and also that they had some series wire fencing to prevent people from falling which sort of made the view a touch less impressive (and more difficult to get pictures). Still it was very cool to have done it and though the day had started cloudy by the time we got to the top the sky was clear and it was getting warmer. It wasn’t nearly as crowded as the top of St. Peters in Rome, which was nice.

After we walked all the narrow spiral steps down we turned just a little bit and saw the Stadthaus or local town hall (at least the old ornate one). The walked around seeing the main shopping street of the city (she is a girl after all so it is something that interests her).  All the stores were closed because it was Sunday. This route brought us to a small wine bar named Divine where Kate used to work for a couple of years. She was hoping the owner was there but instead it was his Polish girlfriend soon to be wife. She is very nice and my goodness was she attractive. Kate explained that she had a baby 4 months ago and you couldn’t tell at all. In any event we each ordered a couple of a local beer called Fruh Kölsch and talked for a while. It was very relaxing. Towards the later part of our stop the owner did show up with their baby for a few moments and then a bit later we left.

Our next goal was to get to the train station again so we could cross the river towards where their arena is to eat at a restaurant named Vapiano. It is an Italian place that is sort of cafeteria style. When you enter you are given a card and you can walk around and order things at very stalls. They will cook it right in front of you. Kate had not been to the one in Cologne but to at least one in Bonn and again she really liked it. So we both decided to get pasta. She got a scampi and I got the arrabiata as I often do. The cook was not particularly the quickest but it was sort of neat to watch him do his work for the couple people in line before us and then for us. He was a touch heavy on the salt but overall the food was real good. It was already getting time to consider driving home so I had an iced tea and Kate bought a Vita Malz which I tasted (it is odd). By the time we were done eating we were both very full. From there we just walked back to the train station and rode straight back to Bonn. I forgot to mention the bridge we crossed with the train has a couple of chain link fences on either side of the pedestrian walkways and people attach locks to the fences. The locks have the initials of the boyfriend and girlfriend carved into them. There were seriously a lot of locks especially on the side we were closer to on the ride back. I couldn’t really take a picture from the train. After that we swapped to a subway and then walked not very far back to Kate’s house.

We basically traded pictures and I had a quick glass of water before I was out the door and in car for the epic drive back. I left about 6:30pm and was able to get to the hotel at just before midnight with one stop to fill up the car with gas.  I pretty much just dropped everything and got right into bed at that point.  I was exhausted. It was a very enjoyable day as was Saturday. Kate was an excellent tour guide.