koln-dusseldorf-bonn

koln (8 mar)

meixiu arrived on thursday night and we decided to not waste our weekend before the long awaited sweden trip. hence, we did a 2 day tour of koln (cologne)-dusseldorf-bonn.


outside the hauptbahnhof

even before we set our eyes on koln’s dom, we knew that it was huge and that it is the biggest cathedral in germany. Still, nothing prepared me for the sense of awe each time I have to crane my neck just to get a full view of it. it is HUGE. very gothic, very very intimidating but very very very beautiful. on the inside, i guess it looks pretty much like any other cathedrals we went to, but the exterior is really awe-inspiring (:






koln dom - largest dom in deustchland



en route to our next destination – house #4711, we were distracted by a shop which turns out to be a shopping haven for all (cept for hong). globetrotters was an outdoor shop which i think smux should have an agreement with. maybe chong can consider writing to them or something?

basically it sold everything from trekking gear to field cooking materials, skates and guards to diving equipment. not forgetting kayaks and baja bags. cant rem if there were bikes but i think its good enough to become the official smux store. wats more, they even have sales (where prices are really slashed) and a collection of sleeping bags that will put campus corner to shame.

in the end, all 4 of us bought ourselves a jack wolfskin jacket. for me, I got one which costs 75eur, which I think is quite a steal. moreover, I have been wanting a windbreaker which I can bring on treks and all. just that very ironically, im not sure how many more of such chances there will be when i return to smu for my final sem.


a pool in the middle which i insist is for people who wanna purchase a kayak to try it out in


mine!


a "k" expedition boat!


nice price tag too!



#4711 is the very place eau de cologne was first introduced to the world. and you would think it’ll be this huge museum chronicling its life story. unfortunately, its really just a very small shop around the corner (you could almost miss it) with a few pictures on the 2nd level, which they call a museum. you can tell we weren’t very impressed.


the fountain of life (or something) - cologne was flowing from the golden tap



anyways, we headed to our next destination, the NS-Dokumentations-Zentrum, which was the headquarters of the gestapos in koln. peering into the rooms which once housed anyone who was suspected of treachery, we could see scribbles on walls which reflected the prisoners pain and misery.




scribblings on the walls gave the room a sense of despair

on a lighter note, we decided to visit our final but most anticipated stop in koln - imhoff-stollwerck museum or simply – the schokolade museum. general sentiments was that it would have been more fun if it was a chocolate factory (think willy wonka) but i guess the place was redeemed by its ever flowing chocolate fountain which was free for visitors to sample. afterall, one cant complain too much after downing at least 10 chocolate coated wafer sticks (:

musuem cafe

the "guarded" chocolate fountain

machinery on display - showcasing the chocolate making process

chocolate wafer for all!

yummy offerings in the musuem gift shop

dinner was a simple affair at macdonalds - mainly becoz everywhere else was so packed. but we decided to reward ourselves by going to a bar and trying the kolsch.

koln dom, by night. very gothic, i like.

trying kolsch - the famous koln beer that can only be found in, erm, koln.

kolsch

Night ended as we took a train to dusseldorf and spent the night in a hostel which was a good 15mins walk away from the train station.

dusseldorf - bonn (9 mar)

you would think that going to gardens is probably one of the most boring things in the world. But i guess with the right company, you can find joy in doing even the silliest things – like sliding down slides in the children’s playground. Or feeding ducks and attempting to get up close with them.

which, was basically wat we did.

sneaking up on squirrels

floral photography - my new found interest

the story behind the picture was that i asked huifen to capture the moment when the swan takes the crumbs which i placed on my hand. but before she could take it, the swan had already taken a good bite of my fingers (with the crumbs), leaving me with one of my most unglam looks thus far.

konigsallee was lined with designer brands and expensive shopping malls. Moreover, everything was closed since it was a Sunday, so we were rally just walking along the streets.

hence, we decided to head to bonn early, and visit the beethovanhaus – birthplace of the world famous composer.

The audio tour was worth the money since we got to hear many of his famous pieces and a detailed look into his life, the works, his inspiration and the women in his life (:

dinner was at a munchen restuarant (hail bayern!)

girls!

the potato patty with apfelmus was really good!

yinghao with his schintzel and hong, with his pork knuckles which he had been wanting to eat for the longest time

little boy who kept coming up to huifen at the restaurant

We took the early train back coz the rest had exam the following day.

all in all, the trip wasn’t exactly very exciting for me, but I guess I would have still done it anyway. it was good that it covered 3 places and since the cities weren’t that big, we merely hit the important landmarks.

next stop: sweden