Reading Time: 7 minutes

We’ve fallen a little behind on our journal so we have some catching up to do.  Last Friday, we enjoyed our weekly Starbucks time and then visited two more lost or dark places from Manuel and Tina’s book.  The first place was St. Gereon’s Basilica.  The current structure is 800 years old.  It’s rare in that the nave is covered by a 10-sided dome.  What was really interesting to me was the modern art that is exhibited in the church.  I don’t know if it’s always there or if it was a temporary exhibition, but it was a really interesting church to explore.

The second place we visited on Friday was the Church of St. Ursula.  This church has the Golden Chamber that is filled with bones from the ancient cemetery ruins on which the church is built.  They are said to be the bones and skulls of St. Ursula and her followers.  It was unlike any church chamber I can remember visiting.

We wanted a traditional German meal and we found what we were looking for at Haus Scholzen back in our neighborhood of Ehrenfeld.  We had a pork leg, schnitzel, spaetzle, salad, and mashed potatoes.  The server was a bit shocked by how much we ordered, but it worked out well because we had leftovers for later.  I actually did finish the pork leg and the server was surprised – she said she respected that, which made us laugh.

We weren’t able to track down a ticket to Friday night’s concert for Sandy.  I had mine thanks to my friend, Andre.  During the concert, Sandy walked around the area.  She found a carnival by the Rhine River and she also had a Kolsch at an American sports bar near the venue.  For me, this was one of my most fun concerts of the entire tour.  I was with a large group of friends mainly from Germany and I don’t usually get to watch with them because I don’t love being near the front in the crowd.  This time, I loved it.  We were all singing loud – sometimes I couldn’t even hear the band.  Black Celebration was very much like a religious experience the way the crowd was into it and Personal Jesus was, I think, the first time I’ve participated in a mosh pit at a Depeche concert.  I think they call it a pogo here.  It ended and I had plenty of beer spilled on me, but somehow it just didn’t matter.

After the show, we went to an afterparty at a club right by the Cathedral and Central Station.  The music was loud (only Depeche music), it was packed and hot, the dancing was nonstop, and it was so great to be there with our friends.  We stayed until around 2:30am and then headed home via the tram (S-bahn).

We had two main attractions on Saturday.  The first was meeting up with our good friend, Tim, who lives in Cologne.  It’s been several years since we’ve seen him and he was kind enough to track down a couple of extra tickets to the 1.FC Koln football match versus Bochum 1848.  It was a meaningful game because both teams are fighting to avoid relegation to a lower league next year.  On the way to the stadium, we walked through a beautiful park – Stadtwald – and then stopped for Kolsch at a biergarten not far from the stadium. As the three of us were leaving to go to the stadium we ran into some of Tim’s friends.  The Germans love to share their beer and we each found ourselves with another glass of Kolsch in our hands to drink!

The game itself was fantastic.  The environment was great.  Koln went down 1-0 and then they scored in the 90^th minute to tie it, and then in the 93^rd minute to win it.  Just fantastic.

After the game, we said our goodbyes to Tim and walked back through the park.  The walk home gave us a chance to see another Lost or Dark Place from the book.  We slowly made our way through the Melaten Friedhof (cemetery) and its beautiful headstones.  We couldn’t find all of the ones pictured in the book, but just wandering the cemetery is very interesting.

Our other main attraction on Saturday was a very enjoyable dinner with our good friend, Sabine.  We hadn’t seen her in about four-and-a-half years so it was great to catch up.  Well, we did see her briefly at the concert the night before but didn’t get to properly catch up.  She came to Ehrenfeld and we had dinner at Goldmund Literatur Café Restaurant.  It was a really nice night so we sat outside and had great food and excellent conversation.  Sadly, we forgot to get a picture together.  We did get one together a couple of nights later with Sandra and Sabine so here we are.

Sunday was a total rest and relax day.  We stayed in all day and just watched TV, worked on our journal, and then for dinner we walked about 20 minutes to the Jameson Distillery Pub.  It was just what we were looking for.  Sandy had a burger and I had my first order of wings since leaving the States.  They were excellent.  Not quite on the same level as Wings n Things, but they were really good.  I spotted Daniel Miller at the pub – he is the one who signed Depeche to their very first record deal and is still a part of their family today.  We tried to buy his meal but he would have none of that.  There was a little rain on the walk home but nothing bad at all.  Very nice relaxing day.

And that brings us to today.  The last concert day of the Memento Mori World Tour.  We signed up for one of the bike sharing services in Cologne because we wanted to go for a bike ride for today’s workout.  It ended up great because we could obviously cover a lot more ground than running or walking.  The cost was the equivalent of $11 to sign up and then we were able to use the bikes all day for $7.  Maybe we’ll use them more before we leave but even if not, we liked having this option.  We rode across the Rhine from our neighborhood and then rode along the river for a little bit. 

We crossed back over near the Cathedral on the bridge that is famous in Cologne for all of the locks.

We were looking for the Depeche merchandise popup Airstream but learned that it was actually out in our neighborhood today.  On our way there, we went by the bookstore where Anton Corbijn was doing a book signing.  He is basically responsible for the visual images of Depeche since the mid-1980’s.  Videos, pictures, tour visuals.  The line for the book signing went around the building.  We then headed out to the popup trailer and didn’t end up buying anything, but we did see our friend Erik there.  He’s a friend who lives in Texas and he’s another one we haven’t seen in years so it was nice to catch up with him for a few minutes.  He’s dedicated – he flew in yesterday, is going to the show tonight, and then flies back home tomorrow.  That reminds me of my trip to Moscow to see the last show of the DM tour in 2014.  Great to see Erik.

We returned the bikes, but then picked them back up to ride to the venue – just about 20 minutes.  Sandy and I grabbed food inside the venue tonight – chicken kebabs in a box along with fries in the box and tzatziki.  Pretty good food for a venue and more reasonably priced than what we find at home.  Sandy and I watched the final show from right behind the mixing desk area.  It was a great spot with nothing to obstruct our view.  The crowd was outstanding, the band was on great form, Dave gave a really nice thank you to the band members, crew, fans, a tribute to Fletch – it was nice to see because he is definitely not known for his improvisational moments.  After the show, we said our goodbyes to the crew members we met on this tour and some whom we have known for quite a few years.  This was show number 50 for me for the tour, which is a nice round number to end on.  Just like other tours, I leave this one with a ton of wonderful memories and experiences.  I can’t list all the friends who I got to spend time with along the way, but there are a lot.  And I’m grateful to get to have all of these experiences and to have the support of Sandy.  The tours are a long run and this one was especially busy once we decided to do what we are doing, but we made it!