August 2016

Church. Yes, the Cathedral! And the beer served in those little glasses. The city of Cologne (population: 1 million) is defined by these two things in my mind. This 2,000 year old city was totally destroyed by the Allied bombing during WWII, but the Cathedral was still standing after suffering 14 hits by aerial bombs. And anyone entering the city by trains, buses, boats, or planes will notice the massive structure. It is traditionally believed that the remains of the Three Wise Men are in this church in the Shrine of the Three Kings.

I had thought that German beer was always served in liter sized beer steins as I had seen in Bavaria.  I was shocked to discover that in Cologne beer is served only in tiny (app. 6 oz.) glasses.  Waiters wander around carrying circular trays with beer glasses, plopping them down on tables as they pass and marking each glass served on a coaster on the table.

First time we were in Cologne was in 2015. We met my brother there, spent a night, and then embarked on a driving tour to Switzerland. We took the train in from Rotterdam, and the first thing we saw as we walked out of the Cologne Central Station was the Cathedral.

We stayed at an apartment hotel a bit southwest, but we did came back out after checking in to check out the cathedral area & have our first Cologne beer at one of the oldest breweries, Früh.  

We returned to Cologne in 2016 on a river cruise boat. We docked on the east side of Rhine River, and we were bused into the city hall area to see the original store of another item that Cologne is known for: Eau de Cologne. The word cologne that signifies perfume does come from the name of this city. According to our guide, Cologne’s water was known to be good, and that was why the name of the perfume became the “Water of Cologne” and there are famous thermal bath spas around town.

The public transportation system is supposed to be excellent in Cologne, but we never had to use it because we could walk pretty much every where in the city center.

 

August 2016

 

Growing up, I learned of Bonn (population 300,000) as the capital city of West Germany, a rich European country. Thus, I just assumed that it would be a huge metropolitan city like New York or Paris. I was surprised to learn later on that it was a much smaller town meant to be a temporary capital for a divided country. Then it was forgotten in my consciousness once Germany was reunified. We never thought to stop there on our many trips to Germany.

Then we signed up for a last minute river cruise deal offered by Vantage River Cruses via Travelzoo, and it happened to start in Bonn. We took the train from Berlin and got there after an uneventful 6 hours efficient Deutsche Bahn (make sure to buy tickets at least 2 weeks in advance for a deep discount) ride.

We took the tram from the central station to get to our Airbnb apartment just a bit north of the city center. Once we parked our bags safely in our room, we went out to explore. We meant to take the tram, but, as we started walking, we realized we were not that far from the center.

Bonn definitely has a small town feeling. If we ever go back, we will try to rent a bicycle and go everywhere that way. Surprisingly, though, it has many international organizations headquartered there, and University of Bonn is one of the biggest in Germany with 35,000 students. You can feel the cosmopolitan vibe and the young energy in the city. Then there’s Beethoven everywhere, which seems natural given the fact that he was born in Bonn.

We did not have time to visit any of their museums, but they do have more than a few. We walked through a couple of them to get to our boat the next morning. River cruise passengers are routinely getting picked up by the cruise company as they arrive at the airport, thus, they do not make it easy for independent travels like us to find the exact location of the boat. We thought we’d be able to see it docked on the riverbank, but Rhine River was big and rather wide in Bonn. Unlike ocean cruses, river cruises are small with only about 200 passengers, and it was not obvious among many similar boats docked about. That little struggle was easily forgotten, though, once we began our journey.

August 2016 (by yk)

Before we went to Heidelberg for the first time in May 2015, I only knew of Heidelberg as a famed university town. Heidelberg University(founded 1386), the oldest and one of the most prestigious university in Germany, appeared in the novels of Mark Twain and Somerset Maugham and others along with numerous films, and that may have to to with my preconception.

I was quite surprised to find throngs of tourists and vibrant shopping scenes when we arrived there expecting a quiet town filled with serious German scholars. Come to think of it, though, how can a campus town that produced so many philosophers and politicians and Nobel Prize winners possibly be quiet? There had to be loud discussions over coffee and tea & nights filled with liter-sized beer mugs clunking over and over again, right? However, we would’ve preferred sitting in a college bar than a fanciful restaurant geared toward foreign tourists. Too bad that we were there twice in the daytime, and most student bars were closed.

Coincidentally, we started out from Cologn to get to Heidelberg on both occasions. The first time was a lunch stop while we were driving down to Switzerland. It was an easy 2.5-3 hour drive on a busy German autobahn. We were on a river cruise the second time, and it was a much longer but more pleasant way to get there.

The city has a fair share of old buildings and churches aside from the university, which sits right in the middle of the city. Being on a river called Neckar, there are storied bridges to cross and the town center is small enough to cover on foot.

What we learned from our tour guide(provided by the river cruise) was that there was a serious rivalry going on between Heidelberg and the neighboring town of Mannheim, 20 Km northwest, over such earthshaking matters as who gets to be the location of a castle or a big church so on and so forth.

Heidelberg Castle is where most tourist go in this town. One can reach there by the furnicular service from Kornmarkt in the center of the old town. The single ticket for the ride and the castle admission is 7 Euro. If you have some time to kill, this is worth a visit to witness the Renaissance architecture(“masterpieces!” as claimed by the castle website) and to have the wonderful view of the city.

When we drove into the city, we parked in one of the city garages at the western end of the main shopping street called Hauptstasse leading to the old town center(Kornmarkt) area. It was about a 20-30 minute walk, but the walk was not boring since the street was filled with shops and places to eat and drink. Heidelbergberg University is right off of this main drag as well. We even found some bargains at a Mountain Warehouse store, a UK based company with stores all over Europe. A decent lunch could be had for 10-20 Euros per person.

The river cruise boat was parked on a spot on Rhine River, and we were bused into Heidelberg. The photo above was taken after leaving Heidelberg.