Leaving Mareike’s house in the morning quickly became an adventure when I realized I had left my coat in her house. I had planned my train journey to have less than 5 minutes to spare. Forgetting my jacket almost certainly meant that I would be late to meet my next mitfahr to Cologne.

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I literally ran back to her house, regretably had to wake her up to get my coat, and then ran back to the train station to catch the next train, which was literally pulling into the station as I was going up the stairs of the entrance to the train station. I had to board the train without purchasing a ticket otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to board.

At the next stop I attempted to get a ticket by moving through the train to meet the door closest to the ticket dispenser, and bursting out of the train for the ticket dispenser (after having already made change with a few other passengers on the train). I was able to navigate the menus quickly enough to get my ticket printed, but the alarm sounded for the train leaving as the machine attempted to bring together my change (which should have been about 3 euros). I made a judgement call and ran back at the train, leaving my change behind, only to manage boarding with a lucky kick through the shutting doors.

I managed finally to get in contact with the driver who would be taking me to Cologne(ish), and we were once again on our way. It turns out that the mitfahr was actually headed toward a smaller city near Cologne named Bonn (the former capital of the Federal Republic of Germany). I asked the driver to drop me off at the Cologne/Bonn airport because I thought it would have the best transport back to the city without pulling him too far off his path. He obliged, and I made my way to the Regional Train Station.

I used the machines to find that the trains run every halfhour, and after discovering which platform they leave from, I looked to my left to find the platform occupied by the exact train I needed. Once again I was at a full run through a train station in Germany, and I managed to get lucky again!

I was only really stopping in Cologne on my way to Paris, so I made my way around the city to find a hostel when I arrived, having done little to no planning beforehand (as per usual). Immediately after exiting the train station, visitors are greeted by the massive Cologne Cathedral. To some degree I have become a bit resistant to the impressiveness of old buildings and churches, but the Cologne Cathedral still managed to take me by surprise. It is RIDICULOUSLY massive. I had to walk several blocks away from it so that I could fit the entire thing in one photo (up close it took 5 stitched together).

The cathedral is also located very near the river, and I took a quick walk down to the parks that border the the banks. It was a really cool feeling to see all of the random people of all ages just hanging out in the park. There was no particular occasion, yet there they were. This being one of many little anecdotes I could share about the public places in Europe that get so much more traffic and love than is found in the US.

In the park by the river I ran into a little group of people that had juggling materials and a unicycle. I asked one of them what it’s name was in German, and to my surprise he replied with, “I’m sorry, can you speak English please?” It turned out he was from Spain and spoke little to no German. Talking to him made me realize that there had been nearly as much English spoken when I was in Berlin, as there had been when I was in London.

After that I just got some Turkish food, and a bit of the local brew, before heading to bed to be ready for my next mitfahr to Paris in the morning.