From Belgium, the plan was to head into Germany, Berlin specifically. Unfortunately, try as I might, I could not find a direct route from Brussels to Berlin. Thus came unplanned stop #2. I caught a train from Brussels to Cologne. Why Cologne you ask? Well, uh, ...it cost less? I had wanted to go to the Black Forest, but connections were less frequent and given the extremely high price of train travel in Germany, I didn't think I could pull it off.
I decided to stay for two nights in Cologne because at this point in the trip I was getting quite tired of the one night stops. It made it difficult to get enough sleep, plus you had to deal with the hassle of check in/out and luggage storage/retrieval every day. It turned out though, there wasn't much in Cologne to do for two full days. Though a fairly large city area, the architecture was underwhelming and the history less than inspiring. There was however, an amazing cathedral there, referred to as the Dom. Since I arrived on Sunday I was able to attend mass and the choir service afterwards. Despite not understanding the homily or the hymns we sang, taking time out from the constant motion and reflecting with believers from another part of the world was a very renewing experience.
Other highlights were doing laundry at a combination laundromat/lounge/snowboarding store and meeting someone from my recent home town of Chicago. Chatting with Jim confirmed what me and other friends have said about Chicago, that it really is a small town. Despite the fact that we lived in separate areas we knew many of the same hangouts and watering holes and spent quite a bit of time in the same circles back home. It did make me a bit homesick for the times my roommates and I knocked back pints at the Inner Town Pub or The Club Foot, complaining about our students. Then I went to Berlin.
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