Thursday: I checked out of my hostel in Hamburg and took a 4 hour train to Cologne, about two and a half of which I spent standing because the train was completley full. I checked into my hostel and went out for a Kölsch (the local beer style, the name means "From Cologne" in the local dialect).
Friday: I went into downtown Köln and headed for the tourist office to see what I should check out. They also had both of the original "Eau de Cologne". The person at the tourist office was very helpful, and showed four bars very close by that served different brands of Kölsch, so I decided to do a small beer tour. I tasted Früh, Sion, Petar's and Gaffel, the last of which I prefer the most. I then walked around the downtown area to do some sightseeing. Afterwards, I came back to Ehrenfeld, which is the neighborhood where the hostel is in. I napped and then went out to a brew pub which is the smallest brewery in all of Köln. Of course, they brew their own Kölsch, which is actually quite truer to style then the ones brewed by the big breweries (lots of yeast in suspension, which means quite a bit more fruitiness). I ate Leberkäse, which is a typical Bavarian meal, a meat loaf with liver in it, very tasty. I came back to the bar at the hostel and met two english guys who I talked to for a bit. Eventually, it was getting late enough that the clubs wouldn't be empty, so I walked to Grüner Weg, a previous industrial zone, which now hosts a few night clubs. I asked a group of three locals which nightclub they recommended, and they said they were going to Papierfabrik (you can probably guess, it used to be a paper factory). I hung around with them and had a great night dancing.
Saturday: I got up, packed, check-out and ate breakfast then headed to the central train station to catch a train to Amsterdam. I checked in and then met up with I guy I knew from Muncih, who's from Montreal. He is travelling around Europe for a couple of months while his girlfriend is studying in France for a semester. We ate at a small chinese restaurant, then did a tour around the Red Light District.
Sunday: I did the tour of Amsterdam, which I had done four years ago, but was happy to find out was not at all the same. It started in Dam square (where the first dam was built to be able to construct a city). There we saw the National Monument, the Royal Palace, the New Church and the old Post office building (as you can probably tell by now, the Dutch are very pragmatic when naming things). We walked aroung for four hours and saw a bunch of sights, including of course the Red Light District and the Old Church (which happens to be in the Red Light District, very handy to get your sins pardoned). Afterwards, I went to a bar in Leidseplein with some people I met on the tour. I then went to nap and got ready for the pub crawl. We visited six night clubs, and I met a group of about 20 students from Lichtenstein who were celebrating the start of their last year of high school. Obviously, lots of talking and dancing, as well as a bit of drinking ensued.
Ross, please know that I read this. It is good to hear about your travel, your key learnings and what interests you.
ReplyDeleteI can imagine Dachau was a very personal experience.
And I was glad to read something about the varius types of beer you are sampling.
Garth