Germany Part 3 - Koln and Belgium

So... we arrived in Köln on the Monday and Benedikt took me around to show me the train station and, heaven forbid, the main shopping streets. We stopped on the way to buy a new camera and a FAT lens with the insurance money - Benedikt’s camera went missing when we moved here.
Benedikts conference started on Tuesday so I was officially free for 4 days to shop and explore. I browsed a bit on Tuesday morning before being escorted around by Andrée in the afternoon. (I got to know Andrée when she came to Kenya for Bayer business a couple of months ago) She showed me Leverkusen which is basically BayerTown, and she showed me ALL of Köln which was very interesting. The fancy suburbs, the war relics, all the houses that survived the war, the cathedrals, the green belts around the city, the chocolate museum and of course, the Rhine river. We then went for a really yummy meal at a Morroccon restaurant.
On Wednesday I headed out to Belgium to visit a friend (well, he thinks he is a friend) in Gent. It took all afternoon to get there and 3 different trains, one of them being the Thalys which is one of those super duper fast ones, and it was worth it. Dieter took me to the Eddy Merckx Velodrome / indoor cycling track. It was my first time at a track and boy did the sides look steep! I was pretty anxious. Even with 2 chick beers inside me! And for those of you who don’t know, a track bike has no brakes and you can’t stop pedalling at any stage – the pedals keep going round and round non stop. All new to me. Anyway, Dieter was very patient and a very good teacher.... yelling at me to ‘pedal pedal’ around the corners where the banks are the steepest. I think I got the hang of it ok... Although I didn’t venture all the way to the top :-( and my line was as bit of a weave. Eddy Merckx’s fat brother ;-> was overseeing the track and he passed on a compliment to Dieter about my good cycling style so I was chuffed. That evening was a real highlight of my trip, I wish Kenya had an indoor track! As if! Thanks Dieter :-))
So I travelled back on Thursday morning, shopped a bit, went for a run along the river and then just chilled. I ventured into the sauna / steam baths at the hotel. And was SHOCKED!! There is no separation between men and women! And everyone just walks around naked! Apparently this is very normal in Germany and there are many many public baths centres like this where its all nude nude nude! I guess I have been sheltered in SA where men and women are always separate. Which is the way it should be. I don’t want to see ugly dirty old men naked and I don’t want them to see me either! I was in there for exactly 5 minutes... and kept my towel on the whole time!On Friday I shopped till I dropped. But didn’t buy much at all. Everything is so expensive in Germany man! There are great shops for sure.... but somehow I like shopping in SA more. Not that I’m a Saturday Mall rat by any means but I guess I have grown accustomed to malls where it is so easy to find any shop you need. I like to go in a buy my stuff and get out. Although its not like I had anywhere to be so spending an entire day walking around the city of Köln’s shops wasn’t so bad :-)
Oh and this was officially the first time I have ever lost weight on a holiday. It was all that walking I reckon. What with walking to and from the train station more than twice a day too... I estimate I did like 25kms per day! Friday evening we went to a very popular brewery in Köln, the Frűh, where we met up with a bunch of Benedikt’s friends... it was packed. We had a 2 kegs of beer dumped on our table from which we could all fill our beer glasses all evening. It was a fun evening.... the guys were all quite stoked when Sabine Schmitz came and sat at our table. She is a german race car driver who also hosts her own tv show (I think). She gave out tattoos and autographs and schnaps – she was a hit!

Another thing I found interesting about this trip was the number of people who read this blog! Benedikt would introduce to me people who I’d never even heard of and they’d say.... oh yes, I read your blog. How is your puppy? Or Nice car :-) So all of you secret readers out there.... I know who are now and I want to see your comments and see you under the ‘Followers’ list ok?!!!
On Saturday we flew back home and I got bumped up to business for the Frankfurt Dubai bit – woohoo! What luxury! I was like a little kid I was so excited.... Benedikt who is a seasoned business class traveller got very irritated :-)
Oh and Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher were on our Dubai Nairobi flight – in first class though so I didn’t see them. Benedikt did... he said Demi looked so old. And tiny. Apparently lots of celebrities come to Kenya and go to secret fancy lodges and things.
Coming home was cool too as we got to pick up Mahindi from her summer camp... she’d been back to the breeder where we’d bought her from and had been playing with her sister (and 13 other dogs) for 11 days... she was a real Dirty Dawg. We hardly recognised her! Sign of a good holiday for her too I guess.