EuroTrip: Köln: The Search for The Telematch Continues

Next day I planned to just stay in the room. To much walking, and now its time to enjoy the holiday by doing nothing ;)

Silly, I cant lay in bed for the whole day. By noon, the stomache was already playing Mozart's Symphony No. 33 in B-flat major. So I had to dragged myself out of bed. Quick shower, and out and about.


OMG, i couldnt believe that Hongkie was holding the toilet brush. Stole it from the hotel room i think.. hihhihihi

So, back to the shopping/tourist area. Had my lunch and contemplating wether I should go back to the room and continue my siesta OR enjoying the city life.

Made my choice. Sorry Dan Brown, I had to put you down as I choose the to walk around the city! Okay, no map no problem. The Cologne dome is the reference point + im good with directions ;)~

Starbucks for Seniors. Its brown in color (not green) hihihihihi. Seriously, ive never seen so much old people in Starbuck before until today.

Then, few blocks down the road, I started to regret my choice. There's just so many people around. Shoving and pushing. Okay, I have to get out from here. Sorry H&M, sorry Biba (babi).. No shopping today. :(

But oooo.. food. The donuts look so delicous, I couldnt resist. One bite and it all went downhill. It's cherry flavored (cough syrup). The almond flaked -chocolate donuts also tasted nasty.

Then I heard something familiar...

OMFG, sentul comes to Cologne!

But the deities look comical. Not the typical Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva im familiar with (or they're Lakshmi, Saraswati, Parvati). With white swamis chanting pooja.

Continued walking. and had a coffee break.

The Mandarina duck! The one in pavilion went bust already..

Utghhh.. now i have to buy! Damn, my luggage is not gonna fit all these.. Hi hik.

The off to the road less travelled. The roman's remnants (walls and fort)

Nice area with virtually no tourists around.

Time to go to the other directions. Look for the compass/reference point. Oh there it is.

Okay now we corssed the bridge (for pedastrian and the train), right behind the train station.

Symbol of love. You lock the padlock, throw away the key, and as long as the padlock is there, your love will stay. For those who got divorced, it means someone had broke your padlock, or your bought the tiny one which would broke after months of unforgiving winter cold. The price you had to pay for being a cheapskate! Muahahahaha.

Cologne from the other side...

Tranformer Wheelie sighted. The decepticon is still active!

THe other bridge for the cars/trams.

Two full days are definitely enough for you to discover the whole city. Sorry no maps, because I only walk within the city center. Everyhitng is within 5-10 minutes walk.

And NO, not a single telematch was sighted. Unless you count the Hindu procession above :p

Next stop, Brussels!

EuroTrip: Köln: The land of Transtel and Telematch

What was my expectations from Cologne.

-ie. people were having a telematch in the street.


Si comot K.I.S.S.I.N.G.

Two trains combined into one. Make sure you board the correct train, because in the middl eof the journey, they'll split into two (at Frankfurt am Mainz). One heading north-east to Berlin. The other to north west (Koln - Dusseldorf - Dortmund).

"Are you at the station already?"
"Ja" I replied.
"Okay, the train will arrived in 10 minutes, i'll be at the front coach"

10 min later.
"Where are you" I asked
"In front!"
"I AM in front .. I dont see you! DOnt tell me youre at the other end."

Panicked, it means I boarded the wrong train. Gonna end up in Berlin
. But I swear to god I boarded the right one

"Im behind the driver you dumb asian!"

Technically he's correct, but he's at the quiet zone on the train (on the same first coach), I didnt expect that.

Hey that also means we cannot talk! WTF! And he was busy with his laptop all the way anyway. Kinda pissed.

So yeah, throughout the journey we just write notes to each other. Like stupid.

We arrived in Bonn. "Lets' go"..

"Huh? no, im going to COlogne" I retorted.
"Stupid Asian, you'll follow me. Bonn it is!"

-- urgh, do not sit on the first coach, its far away from the station! and if its raining... you gonna get wet.

hihihihi, I made up this part. Actually we kinda parted amicably, again, in Bonn. He'll be in Cologne later that day (about 25km apart - less than 10 minutes journey).

Talking abt Asian, i hardly see other asians on the train (none if I could recall). Kinda weird (Munich - Stuttgart - Koln = 500KM)

Anyway, I checked in. Get the map from concierge. Check emails. etc.

Guten tag to you too. Took a shower. Damn its cold outside.. hihihihi

Cologne (English pronunciation: /kəˈloʊn/, German: Köln [kœln], Kölsch: Kölle [ˈkœɫə]) is Germany's fourth-largest city (after Berlin, Hamburg and Munich), and is the largest city both in the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.
Source: Wikipedia

Walk for 5 minutes and Im already in the toruist plaza. (Koln Dom) and boy, there's like million of tourists around. You wont see much on the pic but believe me, there's like tonne of them everywhere. Swarming like krazy ants.

First and obvious stop - Cologne Dome. Maybe this is the place they processed the cologne (perfume).. where it get its name. Alas, there's not a perfume factory anywhere in cologne. Kinda ironic. Its as if you went to Champagne and couldnt find any liquor that made the town famous.

The only Eau de Cologne (water of cologne) is the Rhine river running across the city. And you dont want to smell that river! Believe me.. hihihi

For a city named perfume, it sure smells like urine.

The gothich building is the first sight you will notice when taking the main exit from the central station. Entry into the cathedral is free but you will be asked for a donation. Admission to the tower costs €2.50. Regretfully, I couldnt find the entrance to climb the tower :(

The interior.

Right beside the cathedral, there's a Roman-Germanic museum. Do not visit it. Its a tourist trap. The collections are as good as Muzium negara.

Not worth the €8 entrance fee.

Had coffee and finally he arrived. Put the stuff at the hotel and we went out for dinner.

Oooooooooo another WMF sale. Luckily it was closed.

Then I saw a muslim praying. Wanted to invite him to the hotel to pray there, but its too late.. by the time I reached there, he already on the final rakaat. hihiiih

So off we went to the HRC.

Bought some souvenirs. Totally forgotten about HRC, darn it.. (Berlin and Munich)

Then back for some sleep.

Frustrated that none of them Telematches were around. :(

EuroTrip: Stuttgart: Porche und Mercedes

Woo hoo.. the fastest land transportation that I've been too. (it goes up to 330KM).

Stuttgart is the capital of Baden-Württemberg in South-Germany. The town has 600.000 Inhabitants. - Wikipedia.

It took me about an hour to reach there. Great! Now I got so many times and dont know what do do. hi hi

Revisited my plan yesterday (open the laptop and take a look at the saved maps and point of interest). Okay I have time for two "museum/galleria" tour. Stuttgart is often called the cradle of the automotive industry. Being in a car capital of Europe, its only natural that I should visit those, namely: Mercedes-Benz and Porsche.

A - Train station + City center.
B - Mercedes-Benz museum.
C - Porscheplatz.

Stuttgart is extremely easy on the eyes. If you arrive by train, the city you see straight out of the Deutcshe Bahn station is clean, lovely and easy to navigate. It's ironic that a city which built its fortune on making cars, Stuttgart is ideally explored on foot.

But the Porscheplatz was not reachable by foot. You can, but it will take 2 hrs to get there. So, take the city train instread, go down and down at the train station. The station is depressing by the way. Mono-colored building and too boxy.

Anyway, we'll take the city train (S-Bahn - S6) towards Leonberg Weil der Stadt.

Alight at Neuwirthshaus. The museum/ head quarter is right in front of the station. How convinient.

The pic I took was ugly, so i had to take pic from the web.

It's a huge complex, you'll need 2 hr for express tour and 5 hr for detail tour. Admission fee is €8

Showcasing the models and technologies used by Porsche since the beginning.

Jangan betulkan kaca tv anda. Do not modify you tv.

Porsche 917. These racers from Porsche almost completely dominated the racing circuit in the 1970s - considered the gloden years of the Stuttgart carmaker. The actual championship cars are on display in their original racing colors

Old and new - side by side

Newly addition to the series - panamera. I fell in love with this car.

Chanteknyaaaaa

Then off to the souvenier center. So cute!

Sad reality. The only stuff that I could afford.

As if the torment wasnt enough, I walked thorugh the sales center. Here, all you have to do is sit in fornt of the computer (with or without the salesman), choose your color, finishing, etc, and 2 hrs after that its ready to be collected! (if you choose from the default, for further modifications would take longer time). Beat that Protong. You have to wait 9 months for Inspira.

One happy customer, with her brand new Porsche. Like buying toys/handbag!

This Beemer got balls! Plying through the Porsche street.

Back to the city center. This is the train station from the outside. Seriously looks like a Gestapo prison.

Okay, Merz time now. At the main station, take the S1 subway train for two stops, getting off at Daimler Stadion and following the signs to the museum. There, th emassive and more impressive building will greet you. In fact all of the car HQs look impressive in germany.

Volkswagen Autostadt

-- Source: Google Img

And just for the sake of comparison. I knows its unfair.. but hihihih, Proton city:

-- Source: Google Img

See not that bad. Easily accessible by public transportation too (by the most efficient KTM komuter)

If you think youre impressed on the exterior, wait till you see inside. Jaw dropping ID. Fucking futuristic.

If the maleis serbanista see it, they gonna have frothes at their mouthes. Tapi dapat kat golongan ni pun , aku kasi 3 bulan. Pas tu gerenti berbau hapak mcm tempat wushu masjid KLCC. Tak pun roboh terus.

Benz engine is even used for flying

Sports cars section.

Unlike Porsche, Benz does built wide range of car segments (compact, luxury, sedan, sports, etc). A Mercedes-Benz after all is a work of art. Take your time to enjoy the masterpiece as the collections are massive.

--img source: Wiki img
Staatsgalerie Stuttgart. Too late to visit the state gallery. It closed at 8 (i think).

WIth nothing much to do, I ate, I walked a little and go back to the hostel. And sleep. Very safe to walk at night, just like any other cities in Germany.

The next morning I wanted to take the 8am train to Cologne. But Anton smsed me askign for me to get the later train (at noon). He had to go to Bonn for work.

Okay. The plan had derailed (not that I have any plan, but I wanted to use that word since the beginning- hihihihi, goes so well in this situation). Derail betul2 karang baru tahu.

So yeah, with 2-3 hrs to kill, I just walk around (the farthest you may go is 25 min, then its already a city limit)

Had a sip of coffee at the nice cafe here..

.. and continued walking.

Dari jauh dah kerdengaran bunyi org mengumpat..

...kan, mokcik2 Jerman sama ja dengan Melayu. Pagi2 berkemban mengumpat kat tepi lori jual ikan. Lori dah blah 2 jam, mokcik2 masih mengumpat. Bila mau masak daaa..