Cologne (Köln)

We flew to Düsseldorf in the late morning, and my head nearly imploded from left-ear sinus blockage, but I managed to pull through.  My old classmate from SFU Engineering, Jason, and his wife Anna, met us at the airport and took us straight to Cologne on the train.  Jason has been living in Germany for many years, where he met Annna.  They were unbelievably generous with their time, their apartment and their assistance - they essentially gave us a private multi-day guided tour of the whole area, including accommodations!  We really can't thank them enough, it was wonderful.

Köln is indeed where the original "Cologne" came from, and they still sell lots of it to tourists.  There are many cologne shops next to the central train station, which is next to Cologne's famous and impressive Gothic cathedral, the "Dom".  There are a ton of churches and cathedrals in Europe, but this is one of the ones worth seeing.

Chad, Anna, Sarah and the Dom

Cologne is also the home of Kölsch, a light, clean-tasting ale that is much like a light lager or Helles, served in 200mL cylindrical glasses from metal trays with handles on top.  Despite having a bad cold and nearly no sense of smell, I manage to sample three different kinds (PJ Fruh (my favourite), Gaffel, and Sion).  All tasty and refreshing.  I think Kölsch is an appellation (at least in Germany), so you have to brew in/around Cologne and according to the rules in order to call your beer Kölsch (about 20 brewers make a Kölsch).

Anna had a Fass Brause, which is another beer hybrid drink - something like 30% beer, with lemon/lime flavouring.  There is barely any beer flavour or alcohol - it's like a weaker version of a radler, but even more refreshing and thirst quenching.

Another beer-based thirst quencher!

It was a nice afternoon of walking around downtown & over the Rhine, stopping for Kolsch now and then.  Wait staff in beer cafes is usually male, and is somewhat gruff - particularly in Cologne.  However, the patrons smiled and seemed to enjoy it when the servers gave them the gears a bit.  Service is OK, except that almost every time we stopped for a drink outside of Bavaria, the server was "going off-shift" so we had to pay up immediately; or the section we wanted to sit in was "closing"; etc.  But it wasn't a problem.

Anna, Jason, Chad and Sarah, from a bridge over the Rhine

Maibaum

Anna told us about the tradition of the Maibaum, which I think only happens once a year, close to Easter.  Apparently, a young man will cut down a tree (well, usually he's drunk and unlawfully cuts down a nearby tree in the night...), decorate it with crepe paper, and put it on the door of a woman he is interested in, as a gift.  The woman is then socially obligated to buy the young man a beer.  Anyway, we saw one in the middle of downtown Cologne outside an apartment building:

Escorts

Apparently prostitution has been legal in Germany for some time now.  Our guides pointed out that "Pascha" is a well-known brothel.  There being no description on the advertising, I wouldn't have known what it was.

Overnight

In the evening, we stayed at the apartment of one of Jason's ex-roommates who was out of town for the day.  We dropped by an organic food store, and then Jason & Anna cooked a gourmet vegetarian meal, including butternut squash risotto!  It was great to have some veggie home cooking after all of that Bavarian pork.  And it was delicious.

Head Chef Jason

Cozy kitchen

Chad chops as instructed