I hit the bottle pretty hard at the wedding. That is, the bottle of Gerolsteiner, because at that point in the trip my body was parched from the traveling and the lack of an adundant drinking water source. Our hotel sold 1/2 liter bottles of spring water for 3.50 euros (beer is cheaper). Water was made available at the breakfast bar, but the glasses only held about 3 ounces of liquid. These little shots of hydration just didn’t quench me; I wanted to take repeated greedy gulps of water, and so I found the unlimited availability of Gerolsteiner at the wedding to be pretty much the most awesome thing ever.
So I woke up the next morning feeling pretty good. We were due in Cologne at 11am to meet up with the family and take a tour of Cologne’s old city, including the inside of the Cathedral. I liked this secular stained-glass window, which was installed in the 1970s to replace a window damaged in World War II. The colors were randomized by a computer:
This is the Glockenspiel on the Rathaus. The man sticks out his tongue at 1 o’clock, but I was too slow with the camera:
The Beer Bike went by, albeit incredibly slowly. What a country!
After the tour, we went out to lunch with the extended family. If you ever have the opportunity to accompany 30 French people to a traditional German brauhaus, well, I highly recommend keeping your camera on hand so you can capture the stunned faces when they are served the pork knuckle that they inadvertently ordered. Bon appetite!
Pork: It's whats for Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner
After saying goodbye to the extended family, we walked around our hotel’s neighborhood, trying to digest the heavy lunch before another family dinner. Every 1/8 of a mile, we came upon a poster of a heavily-retouched Angela Merkel promoting a public appearance. Angie, you sexy demogogue, you!
By Sunday, frankly we had had enough of walking the busy sidewalks of Cologne, and decided to head out into the country for a walk. Mr. Pinault scanned the map and found a lake surrounded by a park about 45 minutes away. “Let’s go there,” he said, and so we did:
The wildflowers were simply stunning. I don’t think I’ve ever seen as many wildflowers as I saw in Germany.
So, that’s it. I totally loved Germany and all the Germans that I met. They’re sporty, intellectual, outdoorsy, environmentally-conscious, and they love hard rock! The only flaw is that they speak German and they eat way too much pork (although honestly, when we walked past outdoor restaurants, I saw way more salads than pork knuckle).
