Altera Pars Cologne

Just a quick note to have a little pin in my last (which was also my first) city of my excellent European trip :)

I had a really nice evening with Alwin and Stephanie (my original hosts in Europe), walking through the old town, having some nice hot red wine, and then some beers at a local brewery. Nice night, and then slept really well to go take my train to the airport in the morning...

I had a nice 10 hour flight from Dusseldorf to Fort Myers, Florida...

... 1088;уго 81;. Потом уже нас выгна 83;и из бара по причи 85;е закры 90;ия.

Фо ;тки скоро вылож 91;.

... during the holidays, it's basically warm red wine with spices, I have yet to try it though. I found out that Germany DOES have egg nog and that was a great discovery. They also have Jaeger Tea...weird? so I have a few more things I must try before the season ends. There is seriously so much food being served that it's impossible to try all of it. They have a lot of spiced nuts and these things they make from mashed potatoes where they basically take some meat and pack mashed potatoes around ...

... br> I've also joined an English book club. It's a great way to fulfill the English major itch, and a great way to meet new people. Last month we read The Children's Book, a book I heartily do not recommend. But nevertheless it's great just to have a reason to visit The English Books and Tea Store where the meetings are held. Not only is it warm and cozy, but the English owner will regale you with stories about Patrick Stewart and cheekily ask your weight (in ...

Well after a long weekend in Belgium/Luxembourg I have finally made it back to Dusseldorf. I had a great time there and it was a much needed break from the kids but I have to admit that I got a bit homesick. We went to an international fair the day after Thanksgiving but it was so crowded there that I couldn't wait to get the hell out. At one point the crew decided that I should lead the way through the fair but it turned out that ...

... geht auf die Suedinsel, mal wieder Wandern, das habe ich auf diesem Urlaub nicht gemacht, hatte ich keine Zeit fuer, wenn man jeden Tag in einem neuen Land ist:-)

Die Laender, die ich besucht habe waren alle erstaunlich friedlich und sicher, man kann durchaus sein Gepaeck unbeaufsichtigt stehen lassen und es verschwindet nicht sofort. Habe einige Laender gut abgegrast, Mazedonien oder Montenegro habe ich eigentlich alles ...

... nd lots of love. But the love you will c*rry with you tre*sured there somewhere deep inside. No need to get too rooted bec*use of these things if you know wh*t needs to be done. Still. I did not he*r much of the people inside the superf*st silj*-t*llink ferry, th*t c*n re*ch over 20 knots with no problem, spe*king finnish. which suprised me. Only ho*rds of upper middle-cl*ss russi*n tourists on their m*d import rides pumping the one h*nded b*ndits *nd slot-m ...

... of my ways. So I waited for 15 minutes for a train that was supposed to come in 5, got to my next actual transfer point about 5 minutes after my final train to Amsterdam left. ****. So I go down to the ticket office, tell them my story, and they say "sorry dude, you're SOL. You gotta buy a new ticket to Amsterdam, next train leaves in 2.5 hours." Well...since I've already been up there, my whole purpose of this second visit was to party with my friends. I had no ...

... As we were lugging our four suitcases through the airport, we came upon a number of concession stands. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that one of them was a "Milk Stand". As soon as I saw it, my jaw dropped. I looked at Steve and he begrudgingly said to me, "There you go, if you want to buy your milk, here's your chance". Thrilled that I would have milk for my cereal by the time we got home, I walked up to the stand to buy myself a bottle ...

Today I dropped Steve off at JCI Burscheid so that he could get a rental car from work. In order to do this, I had to drive our temporary rental car back to first hotel in downtown Cologne. Once I returned the car, I needed to find my way back to Rudolfplatz where our new hotel was located. I had two options...I could take the train or I could walk. Since Rudolfplatz is almost two miles from downtown Cologne, I decided to take the train. I would have walked but it was 2 degrees above ...