Cologne
Weekend trip in Cologne to play cards with our college friend Simon!
Days at a Glance
| Date | Day at a Glance |
|---|---|
| Fri, 16Feb24 | Arrival, proper German dinner |
| Sat, 17Feb24 | Sheepshead, Cathedral, river walk, football bar |
| Sun, 18Feb24 | Wallraf museum and more sheepshead! |
High-Low-Hero-Chow/Ciao*
| Ben | Maggie | Simon | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | Spires on Dom ("literally") | Sheepshead | Sheepshead |
| Low | Tottenham loss, Fantasy Premier League loss, first sheepshead rounds loss | Deutsche Bahn experience (defect bathrooms and train cancellations) | Train ride home being an hour slower |
| Hero | Simon for being a great sheepshead teacher | Simon for being a great sheepshead teacher | Group clearing out at perfect time for us to snag coveted table on Saturday night |
| Chow/Ciao | Big ol' sausage (and cappuccino) | Jagerschnitzel | Jagerschnitzel |
*A game I learned from Ben, who uses it with friends as a fun way to reflect on an experience
Journal
Friday 16Feb24
Our friend from UW, Simon, has recently started a Masters program in Frankfurt. We wanted to meet up and settled on an in-between city: Cologne. We left Den Bosch around 5PM and should have arrived to Cologne around 7:30PM. We made it to Venlo, the Dutch city on the German border, only to have our Deutsche Bahn train connection cancelled, leaving us stranded in Venlo for an hour until the next train. While not ideal, Venlo has a nice river walk that we enjoyed as best we could. We ate the leftover stamppot I had made the night before (not as good cold, unfortunately).
We made it to Cologne around 8:30PM and met Simon at our AirBNB. We set down our bags and immediately headed out for dinner, all of us quite hungry. Simon had been to Cologne before so he took us to a central location with plenty of restaurant options where Augustiner am Heumarkt caught all of our eyes. Huge beer hall with plenty of jovial people, but still room for us to sit down right away. Ben immediately checked the menu, claiming he was looking for just a "big 'ol sausage." Both Ben and I were excited about German cuisine, coming from the pitiful lack of Dutch cuisine. Ben and I shared some split pea soup that came with a side of sausage, and Simon had schweinsbraten with potato dumplings. The pea soup was fantastic but the sausage wasn't quite big enough for Ben, who after a few bites of Simon's fatty pork, asked the waiter for an additional order of schweinsbraten. It was heavenly. It was really lovely to catch up with an old friend over some beer and fatty meat. We also had some dinner entertainment in the form of a fearless mouse boldly darting between tables, clearly comfortable in his domain. When a nearby customer complained to the waitress, she did not do a good job of feigning surprise and halfheartedly gestured that maybe it came from outside...
After dinner we headed back to our AirBNB to settle in for the night. While nothing special, it had a bed for us and a pull out couch for Simon. Ben joked it was the epitome of a 4.6 star AirBNB: does the job without many frills.
Saturday 17Feb24
We left the AirBNB around 10AM and headed to a nearby cafe. Simon and I ordered cappuccinos and we sat down at a secluded table to learn Sheepshead from the master. In college, Simon was our go-to games friend. We would often go over to his place to play various board games, drinking games, and card games. The only game he tried and failed to teach us in college was Sheepshead. The rules are weirdly complicated and it was rare to only have the 3 of us playing, so we never played it enough to remember the rules for the next time. Heading into this weekend, we all agreed we'd commit to the bit and actually learn Sheepshead. Simon, as our patient teacher, explained the rules (for at least the 4th time in the history of our friendship) and we played a few rounds of open-faced hands. We were having so much fun, and the cappuccino was so insanely good, that I ordered another and we ended up staying at this cafe for about 2 hours before we finally caved to hunger. Little did we know just how many sheepshead rounds we would play this weekend!
It was around noon and we still hadn't eaten breakfast, so we headed into a nearby REWE grocery store to buy some grub. Ben, still on a quest for some big ol' sausages, picked out his prize meat for his brunch. I picked myself a Berliner from the bakery section. We also ended up with yellow cheddar, less common in the Netherlands and something I really miss, bread and fruit. Standing outside the REWE we chowed down. Ben realized he didn't have a knife so he opened the sausage container with Simon's keys, then just absolutely manhandled the sausage, ripping off chunks with his bare hands. While pale and anemic looking, I had to admit it tasted pretty good.
Well fueled from the sausage, we checked out the church. It's impressively huge and intricate, standing as the third tallest church in the world at 516 ft. It's free to enter, so we enjoyed exploring the interior and the stained glass. Amazingly, it sustained very little damage from the war.
After checking out the cathedral, we headed out to explore a bit more, starting by crossing Hohenzollern Bridge to get better views of the cathedral and waterfront. We walked along the east side of the river until Severinsbrücke bridge, where we crossed back to avoid fighting traffic from tens of thousands protesters marking the 25th anniversary of the imprisonment of a Kurdish Leader: Abdullah Öcalan.
Next we went searching for an Irish pub that would be showing the Arsenal or Tottenham games (Simon and Ben's teams, respectively). We settled on Barney Vallely's, as it had space for us to play Sheepshead until the Arsenal game started. Simon enjoyed being surrounded by fellow Arsenal games, and Ben enjoyed watching parts of the Tottenham game on his phone, a commitment mirrored by other Premier League fans near us.
After an Arsenal win and a Tottenham loss, we headed to our AirBNB to reset and pick a dinner location. Simon selected Max Stark, a German restaurant with delicious food but a 2 hour wait time! Just as we were considering leaving, a standing-table opened up. We agreed standing was acceptable for how good the food smelled. We shared a liver appetizer, Simon and I each ordered delicious jagerschnitzel, and Ben had the waiter's recommendation for the best big ol' sausage on the menu, their traditional bratwurst. Everything was super tasty!
Full from proper German food, we headed to a trendy bar to extend the night a bit. Ben and I ordered fresh mint tea and Simon had some carrot cake while we played even more Sheepshead. I ended up winning due to some insanely good blinds. We headed home after 10 hands and called it a night.
Sunday 18Feb24
We woke up and packed up our stuff before heading to the Wallraf museum. On our walk, Simon had us stop by the Historic Town Hall to point out a special statue. We wouldn't have noticed the raunchy statue if we didn't have his insider knowledge; clearly some sculptor was feeling bored and emboldened!
We enjoyed the Wallraf museum's collection of art from the medieval to the 17th and 18th centuries, but disappointingly the third floor with the 19th century art was closed off. We all agreed we would have rather seen Van Gogh than more medieval Jesus.
After the museum we headed to a cafe near the train station to play our last hands of Sheepshead before we went our separate ways. We enjoyed cappuccinos and apfel strudel while I kicked some more ass (honesty compels me to include I had very lucky hands!)
It was sad to say goodbye to Simon and head home. We enjoyed seeing an old friend and agreed to meet up again somewhere new and host him in Den Bosch. Ben and I enjoyed exploring Cologne. The cathedral was impressive, the city felt very walkable, and it was a great place to meet a friend and play some cards!
For the Record
| Details | |
|---|---|
| Arrival | Train, Friday 16Feb24, 8:30 PM |
| Departure | Train, Sunday 18Feb24, 2:30PM |
| Accomodation | Airbnb near train station |
| Friday Dinner | Augustiner am Heumarkt |
| Saturday Dinner | Max Stark |
| Maisy | Watched by Anna, who house-sat with her dog Pemba |
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