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Auf Wiedersehen pet
This is it. We’re about to fliege out of here for a place in the sun, first a couple of days in Dubai and then on to Abu Dhabi on Saturday. So there is packing to do this morning, the challenge of getting everything back into suitcases already full when we left New Zealand.
Our last gasp at speed tourism in Germany was yesterday with a two-hour trip to Koln, or Cologne as you English-speaking say, to look at the Dom, a huge gothic cathedral which dominates the centre of the city.
The origins of the Roman Catholic church on the site date back to the fourth century, the building of the Gothic cathedral starting in the 12th century and finishing in the nineteenth. And they complain about tradesmen these days. But what a building, if Westminster is big and ornate, this is huge and exquisite. More than 100 metres tall at its highest, 12,000 square metres of roof area and 10,000 square metres of windows. This must be true; it is in the guide book.
Scratching the surface of Germany has been great. From figuring out how the language and rail system works, to places such as Bad Homburg (an ill-fitting hat?) to the balcony at the Hotel Adlon in Berlin from which Michael Jackson famously dangled the baby, there have been simple pleasures every day. Mind you, that pleasure was somewhat diminished at finding Bad Martin adjacent to Saint Martin in Koln.
Finally, the last supper, schweinehaxe, our favourite, a succulent shank of slowly cooked pork, with sauerkraut, and fried potato followed by a shot of jagermeister, a drink with all the consistency and taste of cough medicine, but which we are sure is much better for you. Another drink, sir?
Danke sehr