Cologne, Germany

For the past month I have been based in West Germany, in a city named Cologne (spelled Koln, by the locals). In all my years of travel, I’ve always said that I wasn’t all that fond of Germany compared with other parts of Europe that I visit frequently. Italy has its amazing food and history, France has beautiful sights and shopping, Switzerland is lovely and picturesque, London has all English-speaking people, Greece has eccentric people and its own fair share of important history, Belgium has waffles and chocolate, and Germany seemed to be able to top none of that. Sure, it has its own share of history…but the part I most readily remember isn’t that favorable and made me look at the country with a bit of a side-eye.

But now that I’ve actually spent a considerable amount of time here, I must admit that I pre-judged the place a little too harshly. I actually really like it here. The food has been amazing with an abundance of cute cafés and restaurants that offer far more than Bratwurst to eat, the part of town I’m staying in sits right on the Rhein river and allows for plenty of picturesque evenings, the people have all been friendly and speak enough English to make communicating extremely easy, and the history…is just that. It’s in the past. In fact, this city is extremely liberal and progressive. So, perhaps I’m admitting a bit of narrow-mindedness here in thinking this country was not a place I’d really enjoy visiting and spending time in, but that’s the beauty of being able to travel as extensively as I do and this time around, actually spend a good amount of time here. I now like Germany. It may not be #1 on my list, but it’s cracked the top 20!

Here are a few pictures from yesterday that I took of the Dom Cathedral that is across the street from our apartment. (The darn bells wake us up every morning!)