Recuperating in Koeln

Today, on a rather rainy day, we're in Köln, in a small hotel a few meters ftom the Rhein river. Unfortunately, Nate has a cold, which he says he caught from other journalists - recently, everyone in his surroundings at the stadiums has been caughing... I even heard coughs in the background on tv. So while he stayed in bed, I wandered around looking for orange juice, medication, and internet access. I found it all, after about two hours! Köln is the most confusingly laid-out city I have been to in a while! I think I went in a circle around the cathedral four times, and didn't even notice it. I just started to recognize stores and restaurants. (Like the one with the souvenir signs for foreign tourists, though these seem to be all over town, just like the shirt, scarf and keychain booths that sell world cup merchandise. It said:
"German Souvenirs: cuckoo clocks, beersteins, nutcrackers, smokers, christmas ornaments, musical boxes". Everything a tourist's heart could possibly desire ;)


But the towns streets and old buildings are beautiful! And the cathedral is amazing! It is huge and in its size just overwhelming! The decorations are so elaborate, it almost feels like this has been done to excess. Nate and I haven't checked out the inside yet (ended by Nate's "What are we doing here?" inqusition ;) ), but we will for sure before we leave tomorrow!

So, as you can see, we're taking it pretty easy these days, because we're both a bit tired of soccer and its fans by now. Nate is not as easily admitted into the games anymore, and so he decided to take a few days off, in a way. He is still writing his column about the games, but we're only other than the 3-minute stop we made to get out of the rain, which was watching them on tv. And enjoy some nice cold beer with them ;)