its been a while, but I suppose that's a good thing

I'm sure I'm skipping out something, but Thursday was a long day due to some lovely people organizing conference calls right after my German work hours well to 8pm. It was a late dinner (I had a weird potato latke with smoked salmon on top + salad) but we got to see the German and Portugese fans if I recall correctly.

Friday started earlier but we also ended earlier. We found a nice trendy Italian restaurant for dinner and tried to go to bed early but didn't. Oh yeah, the Turks won. They were all over the street partying, it was fun to watch.

Saturday we had an early start, getting up at 6am to catch the ICE train to Koblenz. From there we caught a boat cruise down the Rhine River to Bacharach. We saw numerous castles, but 3-4 hours on the boat was rather boring since there was nothing really to do. We got off at Bacharach and climbed to Stahleck castle (at the top of the mountain). The castle is now used as a youth hostel, and there was a brass band practicing which was really fun to hear as we climbed all the way to the top, and the view of the Rhine was beautiful.


We both agreed we wouldn't be able to bear another 3-4 hour boat ride back so we took a local train back for 8euro? which got us back in less than an hour.

We arrived at Koln in the evening, and next door to the central station is... the DOM. Holy Magoli it was huge. I could not fit it in (really wish I had a wide angle lens.) And gorgeous. We went inside and there was a wonderful choir singing which added to the mood. A lot of young christians giving out candles in and outside. I'm not sure if the stained glass was from the past but the tiles on the ground were incredible. There were some very nice pictures outside of how much damage the cathedral had sustained. Anyway, I really enjoyed it. And yes, the tower on the right is cut off. It dwarfs the main part which is no small chicken either. We stayed in town and had good Chinese food (had duck :) and saw a LOT of people watching Holland vs. Russia at outdoor terasses along the water. I really am a city boy. It felt good to be around so many people.

Oh yeah, I had some Kolsch beer while I was there. I'll admit it did taste good for the first few gulps after a long sweaty day. (It was hot and humid, and that climb to the castle had me really sweaty since I stupidly didn't wear shorts.)