When we made the decision to leave Egypt early, we chose Amsterdam as our destination for several reasons (i.e. we didn’t need a visa and there are a lot of flight options to get to our next location) and the primary reason was its proximity to our friends in Cologne, Germany. About a month ago, our friend Tim mentioned that he was hosting a 50th birthday celebration and asked us to attend if we happened to be in the neighborhood and then a week or so ago, our friend Manuel asked if I would consider coming to Cologne from Egypt for the Arsenal match against Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League. I checked the options and it wasn’t going to be realistic to make the trip.
As we know, things changed and both invitations became possible. On Thursday morning we left our bags at our hotel after we checked out and walked over to Original Pancake in a Dutch Way and had scrambled eggs, bacon, and three American pancakes each.
It was a beautiful morning and we had some time before we needed to get to the bus station, so we walked to the Anne Frank House and enjoyed the small streets and canals. It was a little bit of culture shock for us coming from Egypt because there are no car horns to speak of, it’s easy to cross streets, and the air quality is comparatively excellent. It was a nice walk and it reminded us of our first trip to Amsterdam, in which we arrived the evening of the day I asked Sandy to marry me and she agreed right away. Walking around made us realize this would be a very livable town for us, although it’s more expensive than some of the other ones we found on our journey. The bike paths are of course amazing as that seems to be the primary mode of transportation all around the country. We made our way to the Sloterdijk bus station from the Central Station by train – just one stop – and while we waited for our departure, Sandy picked up lunch for us to eat on the bus. Our Flixbus left Amsterdam headed to Germany right on time at 2:15pm. We were pulled over by police after crossing into Germany and they checked everybody’s passport on the bus. The bus arrived in Dusseldorf on time and we made the short walk into the train station where our Flixtrain was delayed about 30 minutes. It also changed platform assignments three times, so we got some extra exercise dragging our bags around the train station. That train took us to Cologne’s Central Station and then we took another train/tram to Ehrenfeld (four stops) and a five-minute walk to our apartment, arriving at 8:10pm. We were hungry, so we dropped our bags and walked to a Thai restaurant for dinner and then stopped at Aldi to get some bananas just as they were closing. The lady was pretty emphatic about us needing to get out of the store at 9pm. We then went back to the apartment and settled in. It was fun to be back in Ehrenfeld. We stayed here a couple of years ago and we had forgotten how much we like this neighborhood and Cologne overall. It was nice being able to go back and read our journal entries from a couple of years ago to remind us of some of the things we enjoyed doing and might want to repeat during this trip. This is another town we would consider living in.
We got going later on Friday than usual, but we had no rushing, so everything was fine. We got some things done at home and then went for a nice four-mile walk in the park by the neighborhood. Tim’s 50th birthday party is tonight and there is a cute little wine shop across the street from our apartment that sells natural wines (no sulfites added), so we picked up a bottle for him to enjoy. There was a Greek restaurant we liked last time we were here, but it is now closed. What we did find is a restaurant that opened last year called Rich and Greens. That’s a keeper. We ended up going three times in our short time here. Their burritos are huge, healthy, and delicious. Our plan was to stop at a bar on the way to Tim’s – it was a 40-minute walk – and have a snack and Kolsch beers, but the only bar we passed was right by our apartment and we decided to keep walking to find something closer. That resulted in us setting up our bar table outside a Shell gas station because it was the only thing we could find with food and beer by the time we got close to Tim’s. We bought a bag of pretzels for our bar snacks and we each had a bottle of Reissdorf Kolsch. The cashier opened the beer bottles for us (with his teeth!). It was fun – just not what we had envisioned when we left the apartment. We got to Tim’s at 8:05 and the party was already in full swing. We got to meet Tim’s partner, Ena, and it was awesome to see Tim and chat for a few minutes even though he was very busy with all of the people. I guess there were more than 50 people there. Manuel and Tina arrived a little after we did and we hung out with them for the evening. It’s so great to be able to see these friends again and the fact that it wasn’t even in our realm of possibilities four days ago makes it even more special. Manuel and Tina gave us a ride home a little after midnight and we later learned that the party went until about 4am.
We did Sandy Starbucks time on Saturday and then went to Hommage Café for breakfast. We shared buckwheat pancakes, scrambled eggs, tomatoes, avocado, greens, and bread with cream cheese. In the afternoon we went back to the same gym we visited last time we were here – Basic Fit and did our weights workouts. We picked up some groceries at Kaufland and then for dinner we went to Jameson Irish Pub. It was much busier this time than our visit a couple of years ago because of the FC Koln match taking place. Sandy had fish and chips and I had wings. We each had Hop House 13 beers and we left after eating and one beer because it was so loud.
Sandy went to Kamps bakery to get pastries for us on Sunday morning and then for lunch we went back to Rich and Greens for chicken burritos. We made plans to meet Manuel and Tina at the Neuss train station to spend the afternoon and evening with them. They picked us up at 2:35pm and we went to Museum Insel Hombroich. This is a large plot of land that was purchased by an art collector with the goal of sharing his art collection with the public. It was a sunny and warm afternoon and we had so much fun exploring the buildings and trails around the premises.
After the museum we went to the Rocket Station a short drive away. This has been repurposed as an artist working and living colony. It was a NATO missile base on the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. It was a fun afternoon of exploring together and then we were off to Manual and Tina’s for dinner. Tina could be a professional chef with her cooking skills. She made a dessert that translates in English to bee’s stitch and she made a vegetarian pasta dish along with a salad.
We enjoyed our time together and then Manuel took Sandy and me back to the Neuss train station for a 9:52 train that got us home at 10:45pm where we watched a Frasier episode and then went to bed.
One of our goals on Monday was to get out for a bike ride. We tried the KVB bike app and the Call Bike app, but we couldn’t get either one to work. To validate the account they needed to send a code to my cell number but the code never seemed to be sent even though I was successfully getting codes with other applications. We finally found success with Lime bike, which was suggested by our friend, Tim. We had bananas, yogurt with blueberries, and Greek salad before we set out for a 95-minute bike ride. Most of the ride was in the Lindenthaler Tierpark – lots of great trails throughout the park and we went by the beer garden where we stopped for beers with Tim two years ago before attending an FC Koln football (soccer) match.
We didn’t get to spend much time chatting with Tim on Friday night at his party, so we were very happy when he suggested getting together for dinner tonight. He picked a traditional Cologne-style restaurant called Max Stark. We met at 7pm. We had a great time visiting with Tim and the restaurant was perfect for the region. The Kolsch beer is served in 20 centiliter glasses, and they are tracked on a coaster at the table – we had 16 between the three of us. They keep bringing them until you put the coaster over your glass as the signal that you are finished. Sandy and I both had bratwurst, potatoes, and creamed green beans to eat. Everything was great. Tim walked us back to the train station after dinner and we were home by 10:40.
Our workout for Tuesday was a four-mile run through the Grungurtel Park. The parks and trails in Cologne are a big reason why we say this city could be so livable for us. The friends we have here are another big reason. The weather in the winter is not a reason. 😊 We had bananas, yogurt and blueberries for breakfast and then in the afternoon we went back to Rich and Greens for burritos again. It was a relaxing afternoon, including a 20-minute nap for me, and then we had plans to meet our friend, Sabine, for dinner. We met at a café called Lizbaet, which specializes in crepes. We each had different crepes for dinner and then we shared a Nutella and banana crepe for dessert. They were all fantastic. We had a wonderful night catching up with Sabine on her life over the last couple of years and some of the exciting ideas she has for her future.
Wednesday was our last day in Cologne for this trip. We found out that we will be able to get a full refund for our original flights out of Cairo on March 15th. That is a nice outcome. We had our bananas, yogurt and blueberries again for breakfast and then we went to Basic Fit for our weights and cardio workouts. It was a rainy day today so it was nice to be able to do our workouts indoors even though we did get a little wet on the walks to and from the gym. Another bonus is that the machine to pay for our day passes wasn’t working, so the staff member allowed us to workout at no cost today. Gotta like that. We had Greek salads for lunch and then Manuel came to pick me up at 4:36PM. I wasn’t going to get too excited about attending my first Arsenal match ever until I had a ticket in my hand. Manuel had arranged a child’s ticket from a friend of his and it was around $7 to upgrade it to an adult ticket. I couldn’t believe how inexpensive it was. We arrived at the parking spot, walked 20 minutes to Bay Arena, upgraded the ticket, and I was in and so excited. I’ve been watching Arsenal games on television for 26 years and I was about to see them play live for the first time. On top of that, it was a Champions League match and against Bayer Leverkusen, another team I enjoy watching and Manuel’s favorite team. The atmosphere at a game like this is hard to imagine if you haven’t been. The way the fans chant and sing all night long is a spectacle. It’s not like anything I can compare it to in the US because of the passion not from a subset of fans in the stadium, but from the whole stadium and it lasts the entire match. The game was great. Leverkusen scored and the place went wild – fun to watch. Arsenal then scored on a penalty kick late in the match and it ended in a 1-1 draw. I couldn’t celebrate as I was sitting in the Leverkusen supporter section, but that didn’t take anything away at all. I loved the entire experience with Manuel.
After the game he drove me back to our apartment and I was home at 9:45. While I was at the game, Sandy watched the Kelly Clarkson shows that P!nk hosted last week. She picked up a German pretzel and pasta salad at the Rewe grocery store and then went back to Lizbaet for a Nutella and banana crepe.
That wrapped up our time in Cologne as Thursday was another moving day. We woke up, got ourselves packed, ate our bananas and blueberries and yogurt, and left the apartment around 10:30am. It was an easy subway and train to the bus stop in Leverkusen, which is where we boarded our Flixbus back up to Amsterdam. It left on time at 12:15pm and arrived in Amsterdam a few minutes late at 4:10pm. Near the Leverkusen bus station Sandy found pasta salad and turkey sandwiches for us to eat on the bus. We checked back into the same hotel we stayed in last week (Hotel Van Gelder), dropped our bags off and went back to the train station because we had dinner plans in Utrecht. We got on the train to Utrecht at 5:24pm and our friend, Pieter picked us up a little after 6. Pieter is a friend we met two years ago while traveling in Mongolia and we all said then that if we ever found ourselves in Utrecht, we would make a point of getting together. He showed us around the beautiful little village he lives in called Nieuwegein. We then went to his house for a great dinner and visiting time. Unfortunately, his wife, Desi is out of town so we didn’t get to spend time with her but we did video chat with her for a few minutes. We shared a bottle of wine, looked through a really cool Mongolia photography book from Pieter’s travels there, had a delicious “fake” chicken and vegetable rice dish, chocolate cream balls for dessert, convinced him to play piano for us (he is very talented!), and had wonderful conversations about life, travels, and politics. It was a great night and then he took us back to the Utrecht train station where we caught the 11:54pm train to Amsterdam and we were home at our hotel at 12:35am. We packed a lot in today but the time with Pieter was so much fun.
Friday morning, we went to the Original Pancake restaurant we ate at last week and then we went to Lot 61 to hang out at the café and work on various items on each of our to-do lists. While there, Sandy enjoyed ginger tea and I enjoyed mint tea. We dropped our stuff off at the hotel after finishing our work and went for a four-mile walk to and through Vondelpark. On our way back we stopped to pick up some bananas and then when we got home we did some research to find places to get wings and beer for dinner. We decided on Belushi’s for wings and a burger. Belushi’s had some good beer options – Sandy had a Barista Chocolate Quad and I had Triple Karmeleit, which I don’t find very often but it’s a Belgian beer that I like. After Belushi’s we went to Brouwerij de Prael for a flight of beers. This is a brewery tasting room we stopped at several years ago when we were here for a Depeche Mode concert. Then we walked the Red Light district, which is such a strange experience. Most of the “businesswomen” spend their time scrolling on their phones while they are enticing customers. After wandering a bit we went for dessert and Sandy had a chocolate crepe while I had a cone with chocolate and strawberry ice cream.
Yesterday was our last day of getting to spend time with friends in this region. It was back to Utrecht and this time we met Evi and Okke for lunch at Oudaen at 12:15pm. The restaurant is in a beautiful old building – it is from the medieval times and was built as a fortified city castle in the late 1200s. I met Evi and Okke on the trek I did in Nepal and then Sandy and I met them for dinner in Pokhara. Like with Pieter, we said if we were ever in Utrecht we would make a point to get together. It was another wonderful time with friends just catching up on life and talking about travel plans and things going on in the world. So fun to see them and they have a house/apartment being built currently that we hope to come back and visit once it is finished. The restaurant was a great pick – nice views on the main canal, excellent food and service, and a relaxed pace to our time together.
After lunch, we did a self-guided walking tour of Utrecht and realized how much we like this city. It is kind of like a miniature Amsterdam with canals, but it is the oldest city in Holland and has the charming medieval feel to it. It’s considerably less busy than Amsterdam as well.
Back in Amsterdam we went to Pacifico for dinner where we had margaritas, chips and guacamole, and chicken burritos. We wanted to try the stroopwaffle, which is a flat waffle with chocolate on it (you can have other toppings but why?). We went to Stroopperie next to our hotel and once we had our order we went off in the corner to eat it. A few minutes later, one of the staff members came to tell us that we couldn’t eat inside and her tone was basically like – get the hell out and go eat in the cold. The feels-like temperature was in the 30s. The stroopwaffle was okay, but I don’t think we’d go back there as none of the workers were very friendly.
That brings us to our last day in Amsterdam. We went to Starbucks for a few hours to work on things and then decided we wanted to have traditional Dutch food for lunch. We went to a place called The Pantry but the wait was too long, so we went across the walkway to de Blauwe Hollander. We tried Texels beers (they come from an island in the north of Holland) and they were very good. We shared a starter of old and young cheese cubes dipped in mustard, an order of pea soup, stamppot (mashed potatoes and carrots with two tender pieces of beef on top), and mini-Dutch pancakes and ice cream for dessert. The server brought us complimentary shots of Dutch dessert wine that tasted like a mix of Mogen David wine and Sloe Gin. The experience was perfect and the food was outstanding. We went back to the hotel and sat in the lobby overlooking the street and worked on our journal. For dinner, Italian sounded good and we found a nice little Italian restaurant just a few minutes away (Pasta Pasta) – Sandy had pasta with vegetables and I had spaghetti Bolognese. The garlic butter and bread was a great starter. This time we tried Bavaria beer, which sounds German but is actually Dutch and has been family-brewed here for more than 300 years. That was it for the day other than getting ourselves packed for moving day tomorrow.
Reflecting on the past 12 days, it is easy to see that we woke up a couple of weeks ago in Alexandria and we were given a basket of lemons. We made our way to Amsterdam and then Cologne and then back to Amsterdam and we both feel like those lemons resulted in a delicious pitcher of lemonade. Getting to spend quality time with our friends here has been good for the soul and we are ready to move on tomorrow.
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