Köln 2013

I've been putting off finishing this entry about the final city on our European tour (ha!) and I suppose it's because posting it means the vacation is really over. I mean, it's been a month - time to move on, right? Reality and I haven't exactly been getting along recently.

Anyway. It's odd, but I somehow (surprisingly!) didn't have any (or many) expectations about Köln/Cologne before arriving in the city.

I've been pretty stoked on everything German/Germany for awhile, and so it would make sense that I would step off the train with inflated hopes, but to be honest, I was just happy to be there. In fact, that was sort of the theme of the trip - I kept saying "I'm just happy to be here!" and it was the honest truth.

So maybe that was why it was so easy to fall in love with Köln!

We took the 8:00 AM Thalys train from Paris Gare du Nord and arrived in Köln around 11:15 AM. It was a nice, quiet, smooth, comfortable, and very swift ride. We sat in "Comfort 2" which is second class/coach and I have no complaints. I did some research before booking the tickets as to whether or not it was worth it to spring for Comfort 1 class and the general consensus was 'no'. The main difference (that mattered to me) is that wi-fi is free in Comfort 1 and not in Comfort 2, so I bought wi-fi on board and it was a bit expensive (around $17 for the whole journey - I can't remember if that was "unlimited" or enough to cover 3 hours, though), but even with the added wi-fi fee, it was still less expensive than a first class ticket. Sitting captive on a train for a few hours is perfect downtime when you're on a trip that is go-go-go so I thought that having internet access during that time was worth it.

We got off the train and made our way to the hotel, which is so close to Hauptbanhof that you can basically see it from the station, but not too close that it's sketchy/dirty (as far as I could tell). The main train stations in Paris (Gare du Nord) and Rome (Termini) and their immediate surrounding areas are not exactly spots in which I'd want to hang out, but it seemed different in Köln. The Kölner Dom (Cathedral) and the main shopping areas (Hohe Straße and Schildergasse) are very close to Hauptbanhof and the area felt safe during the day as well as at night. Of course it's hard to say that with 100% certainty because we were only there for 2 nights, but that's the general feeling I got, anyway. The only time the area seemed less-than-stellar was late on Saturday night when the plaza next to the station was littered with glass shards from broken beer bottles, but I think that was more of a result of overzealous drunken celebration than anything threatening.

We stayed at the Marriott Köln, which was able to provide us with an early check-in and a very comfortable (read: huge!) room. However, the wi-fi wasn't free (it was free at both of our [less expensive] Paris and Rome hotels, though! Why do the chain hotels always charge for it?) and connecting was actually pretty pricey. Ugh. Also, I would've like to have had a room on a high floor with a view, but unfortunately because of our arrival time, we were put on the 1st floor. We were given the option of waiting for another room, but we didn't feel like waiting so we took the room that was available. Other than those issues, the stay was quite nice and you can't beat the location.

My friend Melanie (a native of Köln) met us at the hotel and took us out to see the city. On the way to lunch, we met up with my friend Leonie who was in nearby Düsseldorf from Vienna and we all had lunch at Keule. I had kölsch and the "Zigeunerwurst with paprika sauce, coleslaw and french fries" and it was SO GOOD. There was zero chance of me eating vegetarian on this trip, and I'm really glad I decided to just go with it, otherwise I would've missed out on some amazing meals.

After lunch, we visited the Kölner Dom (Cathedral), which was enormous and really beautiful. A weathered black stone Gothic cathedral? How could I not love that? I mean really.

Then we hit the shopping areas, namely the Hohe Straße and Schildergasse, where I challenged Melanie with a new request every couple of minutes ("Find me a hat!", "Find me some greeting cards!"). Luckily for me, she came through every time and I found a super cute hat for Sarah's wedding the following weekend, some cards, and a little gift for my Mom for Mother's Day. Yay!

After a bit of shopping, we took a break for kaffee und kuchen (natürlich!) at Cafe Fromme and I had the most delicious slice of banana-chocolate mousse cake and COFFEE. I didn't drink a lot of "regular" coffee on this trip and so this cup was a very welcome treat.

After our break, we said goodbye to Leonie who had to get back to Düsseldorf and then we did some more shopping and lots of walking around. Melanie took us all around the city, pointing out public landmarks as well as her own personal landmarks. It was a really great tour and I'm so glad I got to see so much in a small amount of time and got to spend that time with Miss Melanie!

We had some cheap pizza and burgers (and more kölsch, of course) for dinner and then stopped at a grocery store on the walk back to the hotel, where I loaded up on gummis and chocolate. Heaven.

On Saturday, we met up for breakfast with Melanie and our friend Anna, who was in town from Poland, at the Kamps by the cathedral where I had this ridiculous strawberry danish thing that was filled with vanilla pudding. WHAT? You heard me.

We chilled out for awhile and chatted and after breakfast, we said goodbye to Melanie and then headed off to the hotel for a bit because it had started to rain - but, of course, not before we stopped at the little kiosk by the train station for currywurst. It was my first time trying it and it was so good, even better than expected!

After a little rain break, we met up with Anna again and got on the U-Bahn alllllll the way out to Sparkasse am Butzweilerhof to the Coloneum Film and TV Studios for the taping of the Deutschland sucht den Superstar season finale. I'd been watching DSDS this season because my favorite person was a judge and when we got the opportunity to get tickets and realized that we could easily fit Köln into our itinerary, it was kind of a no-brainer.

DSDS was sooooo fun. It was, of course, all in German so I was a little lost on what was happening much of the time, but I also kept up with the action better than I thought I would. And I've never been to a taping of anything before and so it was cool to see the behind the scenes stuff and of course, to see all of the contestants, hosts, judges, etc. that we'd been watching all season back in the States. And, to top it all off, we got a personal wave from Bill as he walked out of the studio at the end. It was basically the cherry on top of an already amazing trip!


We got back home quite late but luckily were just in time to get another currywurst on the way to the hotel before the stand closed up for the night. This time I had it "mit Brötchen" instead of "mit Pommes" because the currywurst man had already cleaned out the fryers for the night. It was still super good, of course. We ate our very late dinner while we watched the re-run of the DSDS show we'd just been at, which was kind of totally surreal.

The next day was travel day, ugh, which meant we had to be up at like 5:00 AM to catch our train back to Paris for our flights back to Boston. I didn't want to go. I'm actually still in denial that I ever left.

So, in short, Europe was ah-may-zing. I can't pick a favorite among Rome, Paris, and Köln. There were so many chances for things to go so terribly wrong but instead, everything worked out as perfectly as possible. And I absolutely cannot wait to go back.

Paris 2013

Oh, Paris.

I should hate you. You're expensive, your men are pushy and creepy, parts of you are filthy and smell terrible, your ticket machines don't take regular American strip credit cards, a (not-bottomless) glass of Coke at some of your café's cost €9,50.

And yet - AND YET - I just can't stop loving you.

Paris: Tues 7 May - Fri 10 May

We landed in Paris - well, technically, Beauvais, around 10AM. It was raining, we'd been up since who-knows-when, Ryan Air had been... an experience, I was exhausted and a little bit miserable. After about an hour on a coach, we arrived in Paris proper and made our way to the hotel.

We stayed at the Hotel La Manufacture and I can't recommend it enough. It's in a super great area (safe, quiet, right at a metro stop that is convenient to sights and Gare du Nord) and the hotel itself is clean, comfortable, and staffed by some of the nicest people I've encountered at any hotel anywhere.

After a little bit of running around the city to try to complete an errand (successfully!), we found a nice little place near our hotel for dinner, stopped at Marche Franprix for some snax, and settled in for the night. We must've gone to bed really early that night because I honestly don't remember much of anything after we got back to the hotel.

On Wednesday, we were awoken by a marching band on the Place d'Italie. Turns out, it was a holiday in France (Victory in Europe Day) which meant some of the things on our to-see list were closed, but on the flip side, there were also a LOT of French flags all around which made for great photos. We composed a loose itinerary for the day and set out on our adventure. The list contained a lot of repeats for me, but I didn't mind so much - I mean, *who* is going to complain about seeing the Eiffel Tower twice in their life? Not me. (This was the 3rd and 4th time for me, technically. Still, a-okay.)

The Catacombs were closed due to the holiday, so we had lunch at Café Indiana nearby. It was the same place I had lunch after we went to the Catacombs in 2010, and it was still delicious.

After lunch, we headed to the Eiffel Tower for some picture-taking on the Champ de Mars and then across to the Trocadéro on the other side for some more photos. After that, we walked up Avenue Kléber to the Arc de Triomphe and then down the Champs-Élysées. We did some shopping at Pierre Hermé, Ladurée, and H&M (haha), made a tiny pilgrimage down Avenue Montaigne, and then continued back down toward the Place de la Concorde. We were getting pretty hangry by this point, so it was time to find some dinner. We found a decent place on the corner of rue Saint-Honoré and re-fueled.

After dinner, we had another serendipitous experience. It was getting late and we knew we wanted to see the Eiffel tower sparkle before we went home because Darcy had never seen it at night. We also figured it might be nice to go up it at night, but it was about 10:30PM and the last admission was at midnight, so if time didn't allow for it, that would also be okay. We decided to try to find a bottle of wine and then head back down to the Trocadéro to watch the sparkles and that proved to be a difficult task. But after about 15 min of walking, we found a tiiiiiiiny convenience store selling small bottles of wine and they also had one €2,50 bottle opener left on the shelf. Score.

We raced back toward the Seine and as we crossed it, realized the first bridge we came to was one of the "lover's" lock bridges, which had been on Darcy's to-see list. Score, again! We quickly followed the river toward the Eiffel Tower but it became increasingly obvious that time was not on our side, so we decided to hop in a cab. We got to the Eiffel Tower with 7 min to spare, ran across to the Trocadéro, found a perfect place to sit, and had our wine bottles open only moments before the tower lit up in sparkles. Super score.

We hung out there for about a 1/2 hr and then decided to go up the tower - why not? There was no line to go up, so we boarded the elevator with about 10 other people (and they didn't confiscate my wine opener!) and made our ascent. The top wasn't open at that hour but the middle level is high enough, trust me. A few minutes after we got off the elevator and had a look around, the tower began to sparkle at midnight. Super, duper score.

On Thursday, we decided to go to Versailles. This was another repeat for me but I loved Versailles so much the first time that I was excited to see it again (and it's no secret that I have a total fascination with Marie Antoinette, as cliché as that may be). The palace is still breathtaking, duh. Unfortunately, the gardens weren't free on this trip like they were last time because now they do some sort of music water show at the fountains, and by the time we got out there we would've had to pay €8.50 for about a 1/2 hr of garden time. We decided to skip it and instead headed back into the city for dinner and to see if the pharmacy I wanted to stop at was still open (it was! And I loaded up on Nuxe products and Bioderma).

We had dinner across the street from the pharmacy at Café de Flore, where by chance, we were seated one spot down from where Bill Kaulitz sat with Wolfgang Joop during Durch die Nacht mit Bill Kaulitz & Wolfgang Joop (none of you care about this I know just let me write it down haha) and had Croque-madame and some wine.

Café de Flore was pretty pricey and we didn't eat much, so we took another break at a café at Place d'Italie and had some drinks and snacks before going back to the hotel for the evening.

We soon settled into bed because we had to be up bright and early to catch the train to Germany!

Up next - Köln!