Adventures in Europe: Cologne, Germany

I managed to sleep much later this morning, thankfully, and was actually surprised how good I felt when I woke up.  I went for breakfast, without needing to wait around, and then went out to run.  It was drizzling when I walked outside, but decided to go ahead with it anyway, and I was glad I did because it stopped raining almost immediately.

I checked out after my run, and took the S-bahn east, getting off near the European Central Bank (which I had run by yesterday), and near where Google told me the Enterprise location was.  Sadly, I relied on Google rather than the address Enterprise had put on the reservation, because of course their address was right and Google was wrong.  Interestingly, though, you can even streetview the spot Google says it should be, and it appears, even though "in real life" it isn't there.

A bus driver helped me out and told me what bus to take to get down the street to where Enterprise actually is.

But then, a far worse catastrophe presented itself: this location had zero cars.  The girl blamed this on a massive Lufthansa strike that is going on, but did not elaborate.  Maybe she means passengers who can't fly have taken all her cars.  Anyway, she put me in cab, and sent me north of Frankfurt to a different Enterprise location.

Forty plus euro later, I go to this new Enterprise location, which had a handful of cars.  I had chosen to reserve an automatic, even though they are considerably more expensive than manuals, because I have not driven a manual in over a dozen years, and even then had only ever driven one with my dad in the car coaching me though each step.  In other words, I have no idea how to drive manual, and had decided it was better to pay the extra than try to learn.

Of course, now Enterprise only had manuals.

I ended up with a SEAT Alhambra, a diesel minivan, with GPS, which was a really nice bonus.  But that didn't change the fact that it was manual.

Literally I had problems just rolling out of the driveway.  A random German man hopped in and ran through everything with me and with that I was on my way, with the echoes of horns honking behind me.

I actually had little problem getting to Cologne, because the autobahn gives few opportunities for stalling.

Once there, the park and ride lot was in a quiet neighborhood far from the highway, and easy to find.  I was glad to be out of the car, that's for sure.  The tram station was right by this little creek.

I caught a tram into the city, which was about a half hour ride.

I got off the tram on the other side of the Rhine, and then walked over a bridge towards the cathedral.

I knew the cathedral tower closed at 16:00, and it was already 15:00, so I was hurrying.  There was a long line for the tower once I arrived, but I was evidently on time.  They cutoff selling tickets at 15:30, so it was good that I had hurried.

They say it takes 30 minutes to climb the tower, but that is a very conservative climb, and obviously most people were doing it much faster.  I think I took 15 minutes, but even then I was stuck behind people and such, so could have done it faster.  Nonetheless, even if its ten minutes going full speed, that's still an idea of how tall this tower is.

I am not sure I have ever been in such a high church tower.  It was certainly considerably higher than the Frankfurt cathedral's tower.  Unfortunately, however, it was also a lot more popular, and it is 100% fenced in, much like the Eiffel Tower is, which makes it much less enjoyable to look around from.

After touring the cathedral, I wandered a little bit, stopping to buy a halve hahn sandwich and then some groceries.  

Around 16:00 I caught the tram back to the park and ride, and then drove into the Eifel National Park, where my hostel was.  It was dark as I drove, so I did not get to enjoy the scenery, but for most of the way I was on windy roads through forest, so I suspect it was quite beautiful.

I found the hostel without problem, but then I had a terrible time parking the car.  I had so much trouble that the lady who checked me in (who spoke almost no English) tried to help me.  The problem was that the parking was on a hill, and in a rather tight spot.  But really most of the problem was that I was having a terrible time driving the car in first gear and reverse.  I didn't know to use the emergency brake, so I was jerking around terribly, trying to prevent myself from rolling the opposite way I intended to go.  Anyway, long story short I ended up backing into a low retaining wall.  I actually hit the wall with a bit of force, because my foot was on the gas at the time.  The only good thing about hitting the wall was that it allowed me to maneuver into a better position, but needless to say this was incredibly embarrassing.  It was far too dark at the time to see if the damage was serious, but it was obvious that there would at minimum be scratches.

I was not looking forward to driving this car any more.