PackardGoose.com Forums - BBP vs Cologne

BBP vs Cologne

BBP - 21-10-2018 at 22:26

"The first state of boredom is an apparent loss of concentration in the person you're talking to. The second state is accompanied by yawning. When the listener is still exposed to the source of boredom, he will eventually move into catatonic numbness.
By that time you might as well finish your story."

It was a big thing when, one month after the dates were announced, I found one of my favourite bands Dir En Grey was touring Europe again. Hurray! Hurray hurray!
But unlike the 2015 tour, when the boys played De Effenaar in Eindhoven, a mere 15 minutes cycling from my home, the closest dates this time around were Cologne and Paris. With no sight of upcoming dates and the sheer unlikeliness of me getting them mad enough to play Eindhoven again after the Effenaar was only half full, there seemed no way around it - I'd have to travel.

Since Paris-Bataclan 2015 had been so positively reviewed, I considered going to Paris. But since travel to Cologne was a lot cheaper and faster, I decided to go there.

It was a big thing! I don't go abroad a lot with only a bicycle at my disposal, and financial troubles had me grounded to my hometown for a few years. The only time I'd been abroad for a concert was for a Zappa Plays Zappa concert in 2006, outlined on my site. That was to Brussels. I then hitchhiked along with a Zappa-head from Mol.
Any holiday abroad was organized by other people. Now that I work at a holiday home rental company, I book a lot of holidays but none of them are for me.
Being able to travel home directly after the concert didn't seem doable. I'd have to arrange a stay there.

After searching, carefully weighing down options and eventually panicking, I had come up with the following booking:
-Travel to Cologne by Flixbus - starting at Eindhoven central, travelling by bus through Roermond to Düsseldorf Hauptbahnhof, from there taking the FlixTrain to Cologne Hauptbahnhof
-From there, move by U-bahn to the Weltempfanger hostel where I'd reserved a bed;
-Visiting the concert - high ticket price compared to Netherlands, but hey!
-Sleeping at the hostel
- Going back to Hauptbahnhof by U-bahn
-Travelling back by train.

I'd bought my train ticket in June and my bus ticket in July. The way back tickets were either very early, or too expensive. I wanted to spend a day in Cologne and so opted for the return train.

I work 32 hour weeks, but the two days were easily scheduled around so I don't have to lose income in this time.

The day arrives!
First I cycle to the station and park my bicycle at the 18 September square stall, which is roofed and free. From there I have to try to find the bus stop. FlixBus provided a map of the area, but it doesn't say on it how to get there as a pedestrian. I walk around the tunnel complex near the station before I find the right road. And then I realize it's right by the Flying Pins. Should be easy to find in the future!

The coaches crowd the busy John F. Kennedylaan. Especially since some unenlightened soul parked his car on the bus stop lane. It's some wait and some unclarity, but I find the bus without much trouble and hop in. The passport checkup isn't much: basically the chauffeur asks "do you have your passport on you" to some of the travellers.

I travel light - everything fits in one backpack, toothbrush and toothpaste, bigshirt, diary, spare underwear, book to read on the way back, some food, the grey trousers and Zappa shirt I'm wearing, and that's about it. With the bag on my lap I take my place in the bus.

A woman sits next to me. She desperately tries to attract the attention of her son, who can't see her in the bus. She eventually calls him. Not long after the bus departs, she falls asleep and starts snoring.

Aside from a stop at Roermond (such a pretty church!) nothing much happens until we reach Germany. There I decide to use the WIFI on board to inform the family, but alas - the phone won't allow me to even use WIFI abroad, so all contact is with by SMS and limited, just "I made it" at a couple of steps of the way.

The bus arrives at Düsseldorf at 11:25. The train however, leaves at 12:52. Plenty of time to spend there then.
Like in Eindhoven, the bus stop may be relatively near to the central station, but that doesn't mean it's a smooth walk or let alone even easy to find. I wander around quite a bit until I find it. I walk through the rear entrance and see the station is huge, with a lot of stops. I ask at the info station where I need to be. "Gleis sechszehn", or platform 16, is the answer. The German time tables with the many different types of train are quite confusing. I can't even see my train arrival on the board- I did wander but I have more than an hour to spend.

Hmmm... what to do...

Bookstore!
There's a nice large bookstore at the Düsseldorf central station. Considering I love books so much I even have a blog about my bookshelf, you can imagine I felt right at home there! I browse carefully and find a knit magazine and a puzzle book, and after half an hour I walk towards the rail. On the way I buy a cup of hot cocoa at McDonalds.
At the station I wait, read my knit book and sip cocoa.

I ask the train master what train I can take. And this is where it gets really confusing. There's no 12:52 train at all. The station help is rather perplexed by my Dutch ticket and directs me to the Cologne trains. None of them are Flix though - there seems to have been one at 12:32 which of course I missed. And then I found some cocoa spilled from the lid onto my Zappa shirt. Drama!

My Zappa shirt is my lucky concert shirt. Wearing it has often given me a little something - most notably a setlist at the 2012 Primus concert I attended, but also a concert pic, and at the Diru 2015 ticket wearing it got me the title "Visitor Of The Month", which won me two concert tickets to Patatje Metal. And at Patatje Metal I met my boyfriend.
So no wonder I am attached to that shirt. I went to a drug store to get some free tissues, you know the kind you use for removing make-up, and used them to clear up my shirt a bit. The damage was controlled, and besides the shirt is a brownish grey.

Anyway, after I got back, I was still unclear of what train I could take, but the guy at the information booth directed me to the train that would stop in ten minutes. I took that. It's full, it's not too tidy, but it got me to Cologne!

At Cologne I get out of the station - on the wrong side for the Dom, which I did want to see. And I had some time since check-in was 3PM. Walked through the station agan, and lo and behold!

The Dom of Cologne is of striking beauty - the richly detailed gothic church is easily the most imposing cathedral I've seen. I spend a happy fifteen minutes on the square at the north side, writing postcards, looking at the people and the rikshaws. I notice the U-Bahn station under the Dom is closed.
I walk up to one of the rikshahs, and he starts talking to me. I tell him where I want to go. He replies it's too far, gives me a map of the city and shows me where it is - off the map, if he'd take me there he'd charge 18 euro's. "I'll go by U-bahn," I reply.

With the aide of the map I walk to the nearest U-bahn station, Appelhof. I go down and explore the map. Hm. I'm on the right way, I'm 5 stations away from Ehrenfeld. Checking out the ticket booth I find a ticket for a trip is €2,90, but when you travel 4 stops or less, you can buy a €1,90 ticket. And I'm 5 stations away... hmmm...

Oh well, I'm still Dutch. Packed with my own sandwiches, cheese and water anyway, I walk back up and head to the next station on the line: Friesenplatz. It's a brisk walk that takes me past the Römerturm, a small but well-decorated tower that belonged to the old Roman city wall. It dates back to the 3rd century AD.

At Friesenplatz I hop on the tube. 4 stations later I'm at station Ehrenfeld.

In Ehrenfeld I have the same problem I had before - what side of the station do I need to take? I pick one, check out the first bus stop I find - and discover I'm on the wrong side. I walk through the station, and with the aid of the nearby maps and the map I had saved on my phone, I find the Weltempfanger hostel. Ir's near the U-bahn station Piusstrasse.

Piusstrasse! That's one of the stops I passed on the way! I could've gotten out earlier and I didn't even need to walk to Friesenplatz!

Oh well, too late for that now. I check in. The lady who checks me in is very nice, she adds breakfast and a towel (naughty BBP, forgot your lessons from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) to my order and after a 20 euro deposit I get only two and a half euro back for my 50 euro note. That sure went fast...

As I walk into my room, there turn out to be two other girls, doing make-up. One wears one coloured lense. As I look at their black shirt and painted hair look, I can't resist to ask: "Dir en grey?"

Indeed. The two ladies are from Lübeck, and after I explain I speak German we have a nice chat. I leave some of my stuff, eat 4 buns with cheese, and tell the girls I'm going to the queue - there's no getting a good place if you're not in the queue.

The concert hall is easy to find. It's only 2 turns - and the second turn is clearly indicated by the huge amount of Diru shirt wearing travellers in that direction.
I join the queue. I'm right behind 2 French-speaking women. I speak French, and since I get to inhale their second-hand smoke all the time I don't mind to listen in to their talking.

I eat my apple and wait, basically. One of the fans behind me plays Uroboros on his phone, and time flies. Also behind me is a fan dressed as Kyo the Ghoul - successfully. One fan walks up to her and asks if she can take a photo of them. They talk after that.

At 18:30 the doors open and the queue starts moving. We pass a house that is covered in chewing gum (GROSS!), we pass a glass window where a man is working at a computer with a cute baby on his lap which causes swooning from the ladies in the queue, until we hobble through the security gate.
My bags are checked. My water and buns get flipped into the garbage can! I hadn't counted on that... Then I get searched and am allowed to go in. My ticket is torn up.
I leave my bag at the wardrobe and find a place as far to the front as I can. I strike up conversation with a Czech girl called Veronika.

At around 8 the music starts, and unlike with their 2015 show, there's no support act!

For the concert review I'll cut it short: IT WAS AWESOME.

Afterwards we're ushered out quickquick away from the concert zone. I stop at the merch booth to buy Unstoppable Life and see they also have other albums on display. Hey, Dum Spiro Spero, I don't have that one yet!
Finally, when it's my turn, it turns out Unstoppable Life is sold out. But I still have Dum Spiro Spero! Which I'm listening to as I'm writing this.

It was extremely hot at the concert - I was sweating profusely. The stewards were even handing out water. I got drenched by the band at the end of the show, particularly by Kao, but still I was parched. On the way back to the hostel I buy a big bottle of iced tea and drink about half of it.

Back at the hostel, it's a little past ten. The communal room is closed and I have to lounge in bed. The room mates are there already. They warn me not to touch the trash can, that is upside down in the room. They had seen a huge spider and it's underneath.
"I'll settle that," I say. The girls are surprised I'm ready to tackle that thing. Unfortunately there's no proper cup or bowl to put the critter in and the kitchen is closed, so we'll wait until tomorrow. I have a shower, wash my shirt a bit and go to bed.

It's not a good night. Loud music plays from the cafe underneath, there is a lot of light and the bed is not too comfortable.
Eventually I wake up. At eight o'clock, I get dressed and go down to have breakfast.
I have breakfast with OJ, a cheese sandwich and an egg sandwich, getting some proteine in. When that's all gone I go for a second helping and ask the bartender if he has any tea for us. He brings me a cup of hot water and directs me to the tea bags. A few seconds later I hear some familiar guitar rumbling. I look around. "Is that for me?" I ask.
It's I'm The Slime. The attendant saw my Zappa shirt and put his Zappa playlist on. Afterwards I'm treated to Dirty Love, Trouble Every Day and Peaches En Regalia. After that I decide to go up or else I'll get stuck listening to Zappa all day. I have a brisk walk on the Venloer Strasse, a nice street with a lot of shops.

I go up, pack my bags and go for it. With a cup and a card at hand and all luggage removed from the floor, I get on my knees to deal with the spider. I ask one of the Lübeck girls how big it is. She indicates some 10 cm. That is pretty big for Europe, there aren't many species here that get that big. What sort of critter could it be?
One of the girls helps me by moving the bin further to the centre of the room, then lifting it. The spider is revealed to be a house spider, or tegenaria domestica, and smaller than indicated. They're typical web dwellers - you may find the males in autumn when they're looking for females, otherwise they sit in a funnel-shaped web. They can bite, and their bite can be painful, but bites are rare since they prefer running away. They know we can crush them.

This one wasn't running away, he was dead. I explained to the girls what I knew about them, and then that I used to be so phobic of spiders I used to hunt and kill them in my bedroom every night. But I began to feel sorry for them - they're animals, and useful animals, so I started to study them and now I can deal with them. I throw the remains in the trash can.

Then I start packing, and check out. The check-out assistant is lovely and indicates some places where I can buy records when I ask her.
I take the U-bahn, this time from Piusstrasse to Appelhof, and walk the rest. On the way to the Dom I notice the Maus-shop, dedicated to the star of the children's show Die Sendung Mit Der Maus my father loves. Keeping it in mind, I go to the Dom.

The Dom is amazingly beautiful. There are a lot of tourists to explore it on this Saturday. But they're no bother, the church is even more impressive on the inside.

I'm very taken by the Stations of the Cross, of which I have no pictures. What's also impressive is the age of the glass windows: the medieval glass-in-lead survived the bombings of WW2, but the newer ones didn't.

Also impressive is the floor mosaic, the massive Gero-crucifix that dates back to the 10th century AD, the Christoforus statue that dates back to the 1400s, and the famous Magi-relic.

After the church, I decide to climb the tower - not the best move since I have a cold, but when am I ever going to get back here?

It's a bit of searching, but I find the entrance. It's in the basement, adding an extra 29 steps up to the climb. A single climb for adults is €4, a combi ticket with the treasury is €8. There's the Dutch thing again: I buy a combi ticket. From there on, the Only Way Is Up Up Up.

The initial 29 steps are a nice broad stairs, but it isn't long before the staircase narrows to a cramped spiral, barely enough for two people to pass, let alone host thousands of visitors per day. At the 77th step the group comes to a halt, letting a lot of people go down. So far so good. I had a lot of exercise since I try to climb the 7 floors to my work every day. But at the 100 I definitely start noticing it, particularly because I have a bad cold and I am seriously lacking oxygen. At a few points I need to pause for a breather.
The winding experience is hypnotising, nauseating and disorientating. There are never more than a few steps in sight - you can't see the heads of the people you encounter and there seems to be no end to it.
Adding to the general dismay of all the steps and the "what am I getting myself into", is the repulsiveness towards other human beings. The walls of the entire staircase and all the platforms after that are covered in names and graffiti.

Finally at 368 steps is the church exterior. There's ample seating here and a number of aluminum steps further up. I have a break and drink about a litre of the ice tea I was dragging along. And I shoot a film of my heavy breathing and of what I still had to do. Once I made it to the top to the next lookout, there's a guard there with a little souvenir shop with a postcard you can only get there. I ask him: "528, stimmt dass?" He replies: "533."

533 steps. I am absolutely exhausted and rest a little at the higher resting point. I take a few laps around the lookout point.

The view is worth it. At least that's what I tell myself. I'm exhausted but the view is beautiful, if claustrophobic by all the caging around me.

On the way down I visit the belfry, with Dicke Pitter, the biggest bell. Dicke Pitter weighs in at 24,000 kilos. It's a beautiful sight, all the mechanics.

From there it's the Long Way Down. The steps are well worn and my feet turn inward from the indentation - too far inward. The ankle I broke lets out a pang and makes walking difficult.
I've only just started the descent when I see a young kid crying and walking down because he doesn't want to walk steps anymore. He was so close!
Once down I start looking for the entrance to the treasury. After I find that I have to lock away my bag, coat and camera, so no photos, but the entire museum is online in 3D view. There's a room with relics and a massive golden shrine, there's a room with all the gold staffs, chalices, monstrances etc where I muse at the word "groin vault". The building is in remnants of the old church, and the ancient brick cross vaults are as impressive as the artifacts. There's one room with the original wooden innercase of the Magi requilary. The thought of the library tickles my fancy. I love calligraphy and the ancient books are amazing. The thought of somebody arched over the parchment, spending a day on one page... they never cease to amaze me. Unfortunately there's not a book in the library. There's a temporary exposition about bisshop's hats from the 1950s and 1960s that doesn't set me on fire.
The basement has two nice rooms - one with some sculptures by the Samsonmeister, of which I take a particular shine to the Prophet. There's a beautiful exposition of grave gifts from Frankish graves of the 6th century AD, with beautiful jewels. The room next-door has lavishly embroidered bishop garments.

It's nigh 3 o'clock when I emerge from the church's vaults. I head back to the shop with the Maus. There's not much I could give to my father though, but he likes the pictures I took.

While walking through the streets, it starts to hit back at me. I didn't have dinner the day before and I hadn't eaten since breakfast. The emotional whack I get for it is nasty.
I found a grocery shop where I bought some muffins. I ate two and felt a little better, but still thirsty. As I continued to walk, I found an Aldi, where I bought two bottles of water and one of those salads. Bought that to save me a trip to a diner.
And then to kill time, I was so exhausted and my leg hurted and my feet were killing me... But then I found a large book store! Mayersche at the Neumarkt, I browse, head for the third floor, find a cafe and collapse with a cup of tea. It's wonderful how good staying there made me feel. After I finished the tea, I found a corner with a seat and a book with Japanese knitting patterns that enthralled me to the point I noted the author's name. Dragging it home was too difficult.

I walk to the station past the Schildergasse. What a wonderful lively city! I spend fifteen minutes saying goodbye to the Dom at the square before I travel home by train.

As soon as I'm in The Netherlands, internet on my phone works again.

polydigm - 26-10-2018 at 15:05

Sounds like you had a good time.

BBP - 29-10-2018 at 22:58