Zoe on the waterways

31 August, 1 & 2 September. Cologne.

So, we decided to take a holiday from our holiday and hopped on a train to Cologne in Germany. 3 Hours from Amsterdam Central Station.

We found a really nice hotel 2 minutes from the Cologne station within the shadow of the spires of the Dom (or cathedral) called Hotel Domspitz - an appropriate name 'cos it was only a 'spitz away from the Dom :)

As I booked it really last minute - ie that same morning - it was a really good deal and the breakfast was fabulous. Our room was in the eaves and was cute as a button.

After a quick walk around town - gotta say not the most attractive city we've ever been in other than the river frontage - we took the hotel's advice and ate at a very local joint called Max Starck. Skip was particularly taken with the beer service system which involved 20cl glasses of the local tipple Kolsch. Now normally he would scoff at 20cl glasses of beer, but in this case one never waited for a refill as the waiters were constantly patrolling with these carriers of glasses and everytime they spotted an empty it was automatically replaced until you put your hand over the empty glass. It took us awhile to figure out the system and by then we had had at least 4 refills :) :) :)

The waiters kept track of how many refills you had by marking a beer mat on your table with a slash every time they slapped another glass on the table.

For the most part the menu was indecipherable. Schnitzel we understood, the rest was Greek (ha ha). I had to resort to going outside with the menu and phoning our German friend Rosi back on Faial for a translation. We eventually got to one item (Rheinhamchen) even she couldn't identify so that's what I ordered just to see what would arrive. And what appeared was a rather unsightly, but delicious, boiled ham hock with a pile of sauerkraut and mashed potatoes. No normal person had a hope in heck of finishing it and even with Skip's help I did not.

Next day we got on yet another train and headed down the Rhein aways to the town of Konigswinter. Here the terrain changes from flat to mountainous, albeit not exactly alpine. The Sebenbirgebergen it is called. There is a cog-railway up to the highest peak with the picturesque ruins of a castle on top called Drachensfell.

Drachensfell.

The views from the visitors' centre are pretty spectacular.

That's Bonn in the background.

We had lunch ...

... and wandered around the Schloss Drachensfell a tad further down the berg. No photos of the interior 'cos it wasn't allowed, but truth to tell it was rather dark and gloomy.

A Martin in front of Martinswinkel. Naturally we had to stop off for a beer.

From Konigswinter we took yet another 16 minute train ride to the small town of Linz-am-rhein which is terribly cute .....

.... and even cuter. Would have been nice to stop awhile longer at one of the roadside watering holes but we had to rush a bit to catch the ferry back to cologne ...