"VT Meeting 21 September 2003" a Cologne Travel Page by sabsi

After a few hours of sleep we got up again and had breakfast. I never had anyone clear my table as elegant as Martin!!! It's a miracle he didn't say "Essen Sie schmecklich" though (he is a German word inventor ;-).

We then headed to the red light district.......... to pick up the redlats at their classy hotel ;-) Our final destination was Cologne.

We met the US army guys here again. Then the crazy ones climbed the 509 steps of the tower of Cologne cathedral... the lazy ones sat down in Früh brewery for drinks.

The brave ones joined us in Früh with wobbly knees, we had another drink and needed lunch. Here we had to say byebye to the Americans, they had to drive home. The rest of us went to Maredo to have a Fajita, some salads or a look at our "cute" waiter waitressing ;-)

We then headed to Deutzer Brücke for a nice view of the skyline of Cologne. There was a children festival going on in the old town so we walked down back towards the station on the other Rhine side which was quieter.

We were enjoying another sunny walk along the Rhine with some beautiful views of the churches and a funny guy on a green horse.

We crossed Hohenzollernbrücke to get back to the cathedral, did some trainspotting on the bridge and went to the remains of the Roman street. We tried to survive the skateboarders on the "Domplatte" and decided we wanted another drink.

We were distracted by some inline skaters though.... they were showing off their skills, no matter how old they were. Of course the biggest show off was an old guy half naked going around the IKEA cups on one leg.

Our final destination was the Corkonian Irish pub on Alter Markt. Here we finally found the human water fountain I had told the others about earlier. After a last pint we went back to my car and said good bye to the redlats who were staying in Cologne for the night.

It was a big risky to leave that late because Martin had to catch his train from Düsseldorf. And of course we ended up in a traffic jam but luckily it was only a short one and we made it to the train station in time. And I went home, tried to think in German language again and collapsed into bed....

Thanks to everybody for coming. I had a great time at the meeting. You are all welcome back anytime!