Cologne

I slept in this morning, waking up around 10:30am and grabbed a chocolate croissant and cheese covered pretzel at the train station. I got to the NS-Documentation Centre of the City of Cologne around 11:15am, fifteen minutes after it opened. Most of the museum was in German but I got an English audio guide. The museum on the first and second floor was pretty interesting but the basement was by far the best. It contained about ten cells from a former Gestapo prison that was used for interrogation. The cells had graffiti on the walls, sometimes sketched with a pencil, and other times carved in by hand. There was everything from sketches, to calendars, to messages for loved ones – it was pretty moving.

After the museum, I rented a bike. I rode south, out of the city and along the Rhine River. The city has really nice bike paths along the river with little beaches that people sunbathe in. I probably biked for a couple hours and got back to the hostel before the rain started. I met a couple Americans at the hostel, Brandi from Portland and Quentin from Colorado, and we went out and got dinner together. I packed my things for my trip the next morning and then went to sleep around midnight.

I have been meaning to copy these blog postings into a separate leather journal. The problem is that I can easily type a couple pages but it takes a lot longer to write them down. I think I’ll probably just update the blog online, and then copy them once I get back to the US (we’ll see if I actually get around to doing it).