My Germany: Day 7 Berlin to Cologne

We say goodbye to Berlin and its pink and blue pipes as our taxi took us to the Hauptbahnhof. We may or may not visit again, but if we do maybe the pipes will have been removed. After all they are only temporary while Berlin gets on with more construction/development.

At the ever busy Hauptbahnhof, we spot many trains. Again we took the ICE train, this time to Cologne or its proper name Koln (where the o has two dots on top. I am still trying to work out where on my keyboard can I find the o with two dots! Help!). This time we got our 25% discount on the train tickets because we'd applied and got our Gold Bahn Card. We also did not reserve seats because its low season and the trains are not full.

As the train sped by, the countryside this time do not show signs of snow. The fields were very green and the villages pristine looking. (Can villages look pristine? Or is pristine only used to describe beaches?) Never mind, from afar, they look very neat and orderly.

Then we started spotting wind turbines. Lots and lots of them. I guess this must be farming land we were traversing through.

We arrived at Koln Hbf in the late afternoon at 5.09 pm. The train was late for like 7 or 8 minutes (Horrors! What's happening with German efficiency? Just joking!), and from my observation, the fastest it went was 223 kilometers per hour.

Anyway, in Koln, we stayed with M's niece Tahereh and family. They live on the outskirts of Koln and kindly put us up for the three nights we were there. Kheily mamnun! It was good to be able to catch up with family from on the other side.

Cologne 6-9 February