May holidays in Cologne
I must say right away that I had not been to Germany before this trip and, to be honest, I did not want to go to Cologne and, in general, to Germany. I wanted to go to the May holidays at sea in Greece or Spain, or to the kraynyak in Egypt. But my wife persuaded me to eat and that's it, one of my friends advised that not to visit Germany means not to see anything and they advised me to go to Cologne. I did not persist because it is useless. In a month, we bought four-day vouchers to Chaika-Tour, applied for visas to the embassy, did it without problems, but everything was somehow long and dreary. (It is most difficult to get visas from EU countries to Germany).
Well, okay with Visas, we arrived at Cologne Airport on the morning of 01.05. 2012, we were met by a tour operator, brought to the hotel "Hotel Pullman 4 *". We really liked the hotel, cute, neat, as in principle all German hotels. Everyone speaks English, even the cleaners. The feeder is also on the level, not to be compared with Spain, but I generally keep quiet about Egypt.
On the second day from the tour operator was a walking tour of Cologne. This is where the fun began.
The first thing we saw was, of course, the Cologne Cathedral. This is something, there are no words, just super. The interior of the cathedral, as well as its appearance from the outside, amaze with its severe grandeur, from which it breathes the spirit of the Middle Ages. The cultural values stored in it are beyond appraisal. Numerous frescoes, mosaics, niches, altars, statues of apostles, stained glass windows make up a unique collection of works of German art. Then we walked 350 meters and found ourselves next to the church of Great St. Martin. During the Second World War, during the bombing of Cologne by British aircraft, Great Saint Martin was almost destroyed. Restoration work lasted 37 years. A very beautiful building, not in vain restored. And finally we were taken to the Ludwig Museum.
The museum was opened in honor of the German industrialist Peter Ludwig and his wife Irena. The collection vividly presents various works by Picasso, German expressionism, pop art, works of graphics, photo and video art, etc. Since I am not interested in art, I can’t say anything good or bad about this museum, I just went for my wife, like a ponytail and waited for this tour of the museum to finally end. This was the end of the second day.
And the next one began. Now I already set the tone where to go. And we went, well, of course, to taste German beer at the nearest pub. They came and settled down in a rather nice little bar, brought the menu, and then my eyes ran up to so many varieties of beer that I didn’t know what to choose. I had to ask the waiter for advice. They advised us the brand "Kelsh". TASTY! ! ! To be honest, what I used to drink compared to this was not beer, but I will not say, it sucks in one word.
Of course, they did not limit themselves to one glass, and then I heard Russian speech. Compatriots entered the bar, and pretty tipsy. They did not know English, let alone German, and tried to explain to the waiter what they wanted from him. It was fun to watch. One of our eccentrics could not stand it and said let's go from here, they don't understand us, and at the same time he began to sing the song VICTORY DAY! ! ! And then yell Hitler Kaput, thank God his comrades brought to life. And I ordered the guys my brand of beer that I liked and everything ended peacefully. We left full and satisfied, and went for a walk along the evening streets of Cologne. It is very beautiful, everything is clean, there is not a single mote, and the night city just shone with different colors. We walked for a long time, maybe 10-20 km. I want to note that I was impressed by such buildings as: the churches of St. Andrew, St. 12 Apostles, St. Severin, St. Kunibert and the tallest modern building of the city "Cologne Turm".
After such a long walk, we again went to this bar to enjoy delicious beer. The next day we decided to rest before the evening flight to Moscow and decided to rest in the hotel.
From myself I will add that I do not regret this trip in any way. I liked the city very much, there were some shortcomings of course (they are in all major cities), but in general the trip was a success. I will definitely return to Germany but to another city.