Köln

Went off to a much-needed holiday in Köln for most of last week. Had a truly great time in visiting the local landmarks there, and with listening to Heike and Heather and Ben playing music. Good music, at that.

But I'm home now. Much to do at this point: update laptop, prepare for a meeting tomorrow, finish up the apartment to a habitable state, upload pictures, blablabla.

First, though, I have to give Deutsche Bahn (who now likes to style themselves "Die Bahn" rather than "Deutsche Bahn", apparently) some points for doing what I ask them to. When I went there, I went to the Antwerp Berchem train station, and asked for a ticket to Köln. "Ik wil graag zo goedkoop mogelijk naar Keulen, desnoods met een IC-trein", I say: "Please get me to Cologne as cheap as possible, with an IC train if needed." His reply: "Een IC-trein naar Keulen? Da ga ni ze meneer!" -- "An IC train to Cologne? That's not possible, sir."

So I go to Köln by ICE, and pay approximately €43. This morning, then, I went to the trainstation in Köln, and asked for tickets back home. "As cheap as possible, please". The tickets I got this time were €10 cheaper, get me home by regular trains rather than high-speed ones, but require me to change trains 3 times (which I didn't mind). Sigh...