How you met my mother ( Day V: Cologne - Ruhr valley - Cologne)

4 am seems to be the time that I'm settling on for getting up in Germany.

Apparently they still have a Concorde there (not my pic)

I finish yesterday's post and book a decent hotel room in Roissy, almost in walking distance from Charles-de-Gaulle Airport, for $CDN 56.  Wow!

6:30 am breakfast time finally is upon me!  During breakfast I buy another train ticket (Isn't the internet great?  They're even cheaper than at the counter). To maintain a semblance of suspense, let's just say that the journey will take place in 5 days on a TGV and will bring me to my FAVOURITE beach.

At 9:20 I am at Cologne's Central Station again.  I seem to hang out here a lot !

Little people unaware of the higher level

The train is 15 minutes late. And this in a country that defined itself by the fact that its trains were ON TIME. It would be nice if this was counterbalanced by increased tolerance of others, but this being Germany that is not the case. A lose lose situation !
But brining a bicycle on a train these days doesn't seem to be a problem any more, so there does seem to be some improvement in some areas.

Boozing on the train is fine. Just don't throw the bottles out of the window!

I call my mother to tell her that the train will be late but still she is waiting for me at the train station when I arrive. Her Volvo is of the station-wagon type, but somehow the particular design prevents us from getting q bicycle into the back and closing the hatch.  So the hatch gets bungeed closed as much as it will close.

After the bike finds a new storage place in mother's basement we head for lunch in a semi-fancy restaurant.  Food is not too bad but the portions are way to big.  Then it's time for a dog walk but the dog doesn't want to do its thing.
Maybe the dog doesn't like the fact that it's being walked through the post-industrial waste land around the train station.  Graffiti offers the only hint of colour and beauty.

I'm back on the train at 2:40, trying not to fall asleep. The grey weather seems to act as a sleeping pill for me. We'll see what happens when I see the sun tomorrow.

Walking from the train station to my hotel is VERY DIFFICULT. No, it's not the fact that I'm falling asleep again.  It's the thousands of tipsy Weihnachtsmarkt tourists meandering across the streets or congregating with their Gluehwein in the tightest passages. As if that wasn't bad enough, there is a Santa Claus marching band blocking my way.

The whole band then gathers in front of store right across from my hotel and keeps brassing