Sometimes I feel like I will never see the sun again. Up above Berlin, we pierced through a giant cloud of grey so thick, I had to wonder if there really going to be blue sky above it all.
If you didn't read the title, you may be wondering why I am on a plane. Well, look again, because I'm already close to landing in Cologne in this picture.
The Kölner Dom landmark that EVERYBODY knows. It's also the one place that everybody who's been to Köln, has visited.
Somehow, I ended up going to Cologne this week. It was totally unplanned, but I couldn't pass up an opportunity like this. Just last week I was having lunch with my coworkers and they told me that they wouldn't be in the office on Monday. Surprised at my new long weekend, I asked, "Oh, how come?" and they replied "We're going to Cologne! ...for the furniture fair!" in unison. I don't know if I dropped my pizza, but my eyes definitely grew bigger at the sound of the words Cologne and furniture fair. "Do you want to come with us? You can come with us if you want," they nodded at each other, and I nodded at both of them in return.
On my way here, I scored the window seat I enjoy for short haul flights. It's always nice because I like gluing my face to the window during landing.
One of the greatest things about flying from Berlin Tegel is that Tegel is a compact airport. Although it is not cosy and sweet like Amsterdam Schiphol, or organized like Chicago O'Hare, there is no other airport I've experienced that allows me to go from my home to the airplane without having to stall for more than 10 minutes. My flight was at 1:10pm, and I left my apartment at 12noon, took the train three stops, hopped onto the bus for another three stops, walked up to the check in counter, gave the lady my passport, got a window seat, walked through security, allowed for some mothers with children to board the flight first, and the next thing you know, I was in flight and flying above Berlin.
Yes! Oh glorious sun!
You know, if there was a city to be covered in green felt, this could very well be it. Köln is a city that is encircled by parks and greenery. I didn't get around to visiting the parks because the border of the city is quite far and I wanted to see as much of the city as I could during the sun-sun-sun.
The S-bahn trains here are red, and so are DB regional trains, so it was quite confusing. I was used to the yellow/red of the Berlin S-bahn trains. So I asked a bystander how to get into the city from the airport. As it turns out, he was heading to the hauptbahnhof too. I enjoy these just-passing-by meetings, a twenty minute moment with someone you will never see again. He said he was a theorist --a philosopher, studying the void, and I said, "What?" He was from Libya and was stopping by Cologne to go to the Jan Van Eyck Academy in Maastricht and just "got" a five month old baby girl. If you could share a chunk of your life with someone for twenty minutes, what would you tell them?
This map may look useful, but it didn't help. I still couldn't exactly locate where I was in relation to the river.
The central station.
A boy fishing for spiders, Museum Ludwig in the background housing a whole lot of Picasso.
Cologne has an old town. Like most old towns, they have narrow, windy and uneven cobblestoned streets. I wandered around here for quite a while trying to figure out where to go, and wondering if I had found the old town as it was illustrated on the map I was holding.
The river Rhine. There are three bridges, and I managed to cross all three. Unfortunately the sun set on the other side.
1. shopping, 2. ice cream landing!
In the evening, I joined my coworkers and went to the opening of the Design Post exhibition/showroom that was running alongside imm Cologne. This was really nice, everything was set up so you could sit and lounge in their new and fancy upholstered furniture pieces. And of course, a whole lot of really cool companies were there. It was almost like an extension of the furniture fair, but in a much more casual setting.
I know these side tables, don't you? I TOLD you it was a good idea. It even won an award.
moroso?
Nevermind the furniture, check out that bear on the wall!
1. Really great masks by Bertjan Pot. 2. Topsy turvy chair, not safe for sitting. Even though the representative insists that we won't fall out.
1. moooi was there. And I sadly discovered that the moooi pig has REALLY GIANT plugs covering injection molding gate marks on its side. 2. A pleasant surprise, the products for this company (Aqua creations) turned out better in reality than through the website.
We stayed here for a bit, catching up on the things we saw and then headed out for dinner. For the evening, we stayed at one of their friend's places. It was a cosy three level one person apartment. The friend is a really nice guy, and funny, he is also scriptwriter for soap operas! That's a new kind of person I've never met before!
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