Cologne

From Prague, we caught a 13 hour night sleeper train to Cologne. We stayed in a 4 bed couchette which is a little compartment with 4 beds/padded benches. We each had pillows, sheets and a blanket. We were quite excited for our little sleep over and after our picnic dinner of bread cheese and pickles we settled into our bunks. To say we had a restful nights sleep would be lying, being woken up a couple of times by the loud noise of carriages being removed at certain stops. But it was still a fun experience and saved us a night’s accommodation.

so much room for activities

but arvi didn't want to play

night sky from the train

a spot of reading

time for bed

When we were arrived at our hostel around 8:30am we were pleasantly surprised to find that we were able to check into our empty room right away! So we went for a 3 hour nap to catch up on our lack of sleep from the previous night.

The weather in Cologne was much noticeably colder and rainy.  We took this opportunity to catch up on sleep, read and relax a bit as we were both beginning to feel a little run down again. Most days we slept in, spent a couple of hours sightseeing and then relaxed in the hostel for the rest of the afternoon. We did a lot of cooking seeing our hostel had a great kitchen and there was a huge, cheap supermarket on our street. We cooked up some awesome meals like chicken schnitzel sandwiches, fish burgers and Asian noodles. 

the sky is darkening 

cloudy skys

While Cologne is more modern than most of the cities we have been to, there are still parts of the old town scattered around the city.  Probably the most impressive landmark was the grand cathedral, situated in the middle of the city, right near the main train station. No matter how many of these huge gothic style cathedrals we see, I am still amazed by their size and design. While exploring the city we stumbled across other pieces of the old city wall, found a park full of sculptures, walked along the famous Rhine river and crossed the main bridge which is covered in lover’s padlocks.

Cologne Cathedral

Cologne Cathedral

a head sculpture

along the Rhine river

in the fisherman's quarter

sculpture park

across the Rhine river

running 

yet another bridge with 1000's of locks

We also decided to visit the Gestapo museum. This was a building where many people were imprisoned during their interrogation during Nazi rule, anywhere from a couple of days to months. The most interesting thing was seeing the cells where the ‘traitors’ were kept in cramped, unhygienic conditions and reading translations of the writings and drawings etched into the walls. I found it surprising that the Gestapo let the prisoners write their thoughts and messages to family on the walls without punishment; it really gives a great insight into their experiences in the building.  

the messages left

Now we leave Germany for a while to explore Belgium and The Netherlands.

             -Leah