I have just had 4 days (sort of) in Cologne. Travelling the morning of Monday 18 March and coming back the afternoon of 21 March. The trip was for an Oracle Agile Summit in the Media Park of Cologne. The hotel was also in the Media Park.
As usual you can click on any of the images to view them full size on Flickr.
Prior to travelling I had seen that there was quite a tall building in the Media Park and that certainly made it easy to find the place. We decided to travel from the airport to the hotel by train and a very helpful German woman, who had been on the same plane, showed us how to find the details of the train, how to buy tickets after suggesting we buy a ticket for the 4 journeys and then even took us to the platform for the train. She had travelled from Manchester and because people there had been so friendly and helpful she felt she should reciprocate. As we came in to the Hansering train station we saw what looked like the tower off to the left so we headed that way after leaving the station. There are not many tall buildings in Cologne so it made it easy.
This is a photo of the tower that I took later.
The next 3 are photos of the telecom tower with the 1st 2 being taken from the window of my hotel room. The 3rd is taken from the other side of the water that is outside the hotel.
The footbridge over the water outside the front of the hotel was an interesting shape and it was quite pleasant to walk over it to go into Cologne.
Several of the windows in the Media Park had what looked like views of Cologne printed on them.
On the 2 days of the summit they put flags out for us so we knew where to go.
On the Tuesday night we were all treated to a meal at the Gaffel-Haus were we managed to drink 1347 beers. This sounds like quite a lot until you factor in how many we were and the fact that the glasses were 200ml in size. Apparently this was 4.3 beers each. I can only assume that quite a few people were drinking something else.
We weren’t kept short though, with drinks and pastries at every break and a very pleasant meal at lunch-time.
A good 50% of my luggage allowance was taken up by my camera so I had to go out a couple of times to see what was nearby. Just next to the water at the front of the hotel I found these Egyptian Geese which are a first for me. It is to be expected that I would see some new species away from home.
Thursday morning was the main time for having a look around so we had a wonder down to the cathedral though this photo was taken on the way back from an excellent meal in a very good Italian restaurant called Ristoranto Da Damiano – very nice.
This is above the door to the Cathedral
I also took a few photos inside the Cathedral.
Below is the altarpiece of Agolilophus
This one shows silver coloured organ pipes way up high.
We also walked down to the Rhine. This Hohenzollen rail bridge is one that has hundreds of padlocks on it put there by people in love – to show their commitment.
These 2 are of the outside and inside of Great St Martin Church
Leave a Reply