Sojourn in Cologne

Two weekends ago Kristen and I made a trip to Cologne (Köln) to visit our friend and former german Teacher, Ama. Ama recently graduated Clemson, and is currently a Fullbright Scholar at the Universität Köln, the Harvard of Germany. Kristen and I decided that we were going to do quite a bit of travel over the coming weeks and months, so we started our journy by purchasing a Bahn Card 50, and because of this we missed our first train to Cologne. However, because the public transportation system here is awesome, we were able to grab a cup of coffee and catch another train an hour later. It ended up being about a 5 hour train ride, and it was a scenic ride so it went by rather quickly. Walking out of the Cologne train station was quite impressive, as we were immediately greeted by the Kölner Dom. Ama found us and took us out for a bit of food, I was able to sample the kölsch Bier (which comes in much smaller portions than beer found in the rest of Germany). Then we went back to Ama's place (which is awesome) and talked, debated, listened to music, and generally enjoyed each others company, so much so that we ended up falling asleep around 6am.

The next day we wandered over to the Rhine and checked out the most important part of the chocolate museum (the gift shop). That night we walked to Gebäude 9 and saw Brendan Benson play his heart out to a german crowd. Unfortunately we were too late to catch the opening band, but Brendan Benson's performance more than made up for it. His melodious popy riffs were a nice contrast to the hardcoreness of As I Lay Dying the previous weekend. Afterwards we wandered around a bit and found ourselves some delicious Cologne Dönner, and like the previous evening we stayed up all night talking, and I even got more than a handful of concert recommendations (most of which I have marked on my calendar). I really had a wonderful time in Cologne and am still trying my hardest to convince Ama to visit us in Bamberg so I can repay her hospitality (and so I might be able to justify a second or eighth visith to Cologne).