Thursday 4th August

I got up and charged to the Munich HBF, the station. I may have been a little late in getting up. Whoops. I got myself some butterbreze (pretzels) for breakfast. Like, these things were quite large – I had to hold it in two hands! And I got two of them. More than enough to fill me up. Whoops again.

The train ride was quiet. I had started my next book by this point by the way, a monstrous standalone novel by Peter F. Hamilton. I love his books, so descriptive and brilliant. This one was the Great North Road, a sci-fi. Anyhow, I was tossing up the decision whether it was worth getting off at Stuttgart along the way. I was kinda tempted, there was a monument to Liszt, and it was a lovely day and I didn’t want to spend the entire day on a train. My ticket allowed me to take as many train rides in a day as I wanted to so I wasn’t worried about that really.

I only made the whimsical decision to jump off the train when we were practically pulling into Stuttgart. Let’s go for an adventure for an hour or two! There was a train through to Cologne every hour or so after all so I wasn’t worried really. The station at Stuttgart was basically a construction site though. There were cranes towering over freshly dug earth and there were great big diggers and lorries coming and going and metal girders thrust up into the summer blue sky. I wonder if a crane is named after the bird, or the bird after the machine? The sun was boiling though. Scorching. It must have been over 40 degrees.

I headed to the Liszt monument. It was just in a park close to the station, the Mittlerer Schlossgarten. Again, this was put up in Stuttgart just from the fact that he played here once upon a time and to commemorate his life. During Liszt’s younger, more wild days whilst he was doing his virtuosic tour around Europe, there are stories about him drinking with his buddies late into the night, waking the next morning and staggering onto the stage to then give a flawless concert, note perfect, to then stagger back off and continue partying with his friends. I mean, he was the first big rockstar. There is a term named after him, Lisztomania! Woman and men flocked him wherever he went apparently. Also, should I be referencing these stories? It’s all from a book I read about him once. By Oliver Hilmes.

Anyway, I saw the monument in a lovely park. There were water fountains and people hiding in the shade of the trees and statues. I stayed awhile, sitting drinking some water in the shade of tree beside the monument. I listened to some of his music as well, Liszt’s Mephisto Waltz no. 1. That’s a devilish piece of music but my goodness, you should YouTube Khatia Buniatishvili or Tiffany Poon playing it, just so so incredibly impressive. I aspire to be able to play even a little of that one day. My bag was feeling really heavy in this heat, but before long I set off again, heading into town. I had about an hour and a bit until my train on to Cologne.

I got lost amongst all the construction ramps beside the station, but I eventually made it into town. I had lunch before heading on into the Schlossplatz in the middle of Stuttgart. I passed the most energetic accordion player. He was quite young and giving it full beans to some popular tunes, such as Freed from Desire. I had to put in some music to remind myself of what the original sounded like, but it was an absolute bop if you’re into that sorta thing. There were a whole bunch of scout groups in Schlossplatz, doing aggressive looking exercises together and cooling off in the large public fountains. It was a nice walk through the city. Blocky buildings mixed in with medieval buildings. I spent some time in Schlossplatz, having a look around, but ultimately turning around to head back to the station and my train on to Cologne.

The train was delayed. 2/3 of the train I have had so far in Germany have been delayed significantly. Humph. I think that is the same number that have been delayed so far in total! I got myself another butterbreze and the guy offered me a cup of tea with it. I thought that was incredibly kind and not thinking, accepted. I cursed myself later, realising that the day was rather hot and drinking hot tea was, like… The worst. I love tea, but it is a cosy thing for me, not to make me even hotter and uncomfortable!

In the end the train to Cologne was delayed by a full hour, but I eventually got on and found a seat. Again, unlike at the beginning, I was not needing to book a seat in advance. I arrived in Cologne eventually after a slow journey, crossing the Hohenzollernbrücke (bridge) over the Rhine. I stepped out of the station and was immediately confronted with a towering cathedral, lording itself over the rest of the city, it seems. It was still slightly sunny, but the cathedral cast it’s shadow over the station entrance allowing me to walk in shade for a little bit.

I was needing to cross back over the Hohenzollernbrücke since my hostel was on the other side of the river. As I approached the bridge, I thought that it was scaled or something and as I came closer, I saw that it was a love bridge – people had attached engraved padlocks to it along it’s entire length, turning it into a multicoloured spectacle. The padlocks were a depiction of love itself it seems, all different shapes, sizes, ages and colours. They were attached to the bridge, overlapping each other at times and climbing high up the struts as if they were towering vines, climbing up a tree. Apparently it is so endemic that the council have to cut off the older, rusted padlocks a couple times a year since the bridge can only support so much weight! I mean, it is the most used rail bridge in all of Germany so you don’t want all these padlocks to cripple it in some way rendering it useless! That would not be ideal.

I got to hostel and checked into my room. It was a youth hostel which meant that there were school groups, families and travellers like me all mixed in together. In my room, I was sharing with two other guys, an elderly gentleman who was in Cologne for a hospital visit of some sort, and one other. I had dinner at the hostel too and it was like a school canteen! Like, truly, grab your tray, line up and wait for the dinner person to slop some food onto your plate before heading to the buffet style puddings and salads. I actually took too much. I was brought up having to finish everything that was on my plate, but tonight I really struggled. Maybe it was all the pretzels and food earlier in the day, or maybe it was the monstrous amount that I piled on to my plates. I must have had seconds of everything I saw, and had a bowl of every salad I could see. It was really decent though, but I was stuffed as a turkey at the end.

When I got back to my room, I met my other roommate, Moritz. He was a really cool guy! He had spent the Covid lockdowns on a boat with his girlfriend, sailing from somewhere in the Netherlands all the way to Portugal. They both studied and completed their undergrads on board, since they were both students. He was just about to start a master’s in informatics (… whatever that may be. I think it’s like something to do with computing). We hit it off straight away and headed out together. He still had a student account and students were allowed to rent the city bicycles for free, and as many as you wanted. So we hopped on some bikes, both free on his account, and cycled across the bridge again and went and found a bar on the waterfront of the Rhine where we sat in the warm summer evening, the waterfront lit up by lights, chatting.

He was in Cologne working with some kids in design schools. He himself had come second in a national design competition, his idea for turning small boats into liveable houseboats for the canals in the Netherlands having been bought by a company of some sort. He was really cool! He was only working at the school for a short while, four weeks or so, before inter-railing to see his girlfriend who was somewhere in the East of Europe, travelling with her friends.

After a while, having enjoyed each other’s company, we jumped on the free bikes once more and cycled back to the hostel, heading up to our room and to sleep.

Friday 5th August

I got up after the old man and Moritz. I guess they both had places to be. I had myself some breakfast at the hostel again (being more cautious on the amount I put on my tray this time) before I left to go have a look around Cologne. It was a miserable day. The true definition of the Scottish word dreich. The mist was cold and there was the threat of rain at all times it seemed. The complete opposite of the day before. I think this was the first time that I wore my waterproof jacket on the entire trip. Like, it had rained before, but usually when I was already out exploring.

I walked to the Hahnentor, an old city gate, just as an objective to walk to. Along the way, it started drizzling and just wasn’t particularly pleasant. I think I must have walked through the shopping district or something because it was all very consumerist. Big, bright LED screens everywhere, advertising this and that, and shops for everything under the sun lining a streets all around where I was walking. There was a massive Lego shop too, I went and browsed that briefly. There were some beautiful churches mixed in there too. The cathedral was shut by the way so I couldn’t go and have a peak inside. There were a lot of beggars and a lot of pastry shops. The number of both of those things stuck out at me. The Hahnentor was actually very cool and gave you a real sense of how thick and big the city walls must have been.

I then headed from there back into town along the slippery streets and then off to the old town, down by the river. I passed a wedding, the bride and groom coming out to a lone saxophonist playing in some Lederhosen. That was funny. The saxophonist had a vague panicked look about him, as if the rest of the band hadn’t turned up and it was just him left to serenade the bridge and groom. They all looked exceedingly happy though so I was glad for the couple. All the groomsmen were dressed identically to the groom and the bridesmaids seemed to have a different shade of white dress, and more plane than the brides.

I saw the old town waterfront in the daylight this time, passing the place that Moritz and I had gone the previous night. It was super groovy. There were these amazing houses, all painted different colours, set back from the river on the other side of a dark cobblestone street. The houses were skinny but tall, four stories at least, with a high pointed roof on top. As I took a photo, there was a lady leaning out a window, looking down as an ambulance and garbage truck passed, smoking a cigarette. The rest of the old town was very similar. Cobblestone streets were everywhere except for the waterfront esplanade which stretched languidly along the banks of the Rhine.

I made my along this esplanade and to the chocolate museum! How exciting, a museum dedicated just to chocolate! On the way, I passed a soldier in combat fatigues, zooming the other way on a bright orange electric scooter and the wedding couple passed me on the road in a horse-drawn carriage.

The museum was clearly designed for kids. That’s OK, I could act like one for a couple hours. But it also meant that it seemed to skirt some of the issues within the chocolate trade. Instead, it talked about where chocolate came from (both plants and globally), how it was shipped around the world and then processed and turned into chocolate which we know. It was interesting, I definitely learnt some stuff. For instance, British chocolate has more sugar in it than any other chocolate in Europe since we have different food standards, allowing more sugar to be put in to a chocolate bar. There were a tonne of real life stories of all sorts of people from different areas along the production chain which was interesting to read too.

That was a pleasant hour or two. I had the opportunity to make my own, customised chocolate bar, but the queue was quite long and full of kids with their parents, eager to try their hand at making their own special bar of chocolate so I didn’t want to be that one adult who was making my own chocolate. The attached café was also very chocolate themed. Chocolate tea, chocolate coffee, about twenty different types of chocolate cakes and brownies. The only thing that didn’t seem to have chocolate in it were the sandwiches which you could buy!

When I emerged from the museum, it turns out that the sun had also emerged and the day had brightened up. I went back to the hostel, crossing the Hohenzollernbrücke before heading out to find a late lunch. I ate some bread and humous down by the Rhine, reading. I decided head to the Köln Triangle, a tall tower on the east side of the river with a viewing platform on the top which granted views over the old part of the city. I got the elevator up to the top and emerged to some stunning views. The thick glass surrounding the viewing platform had stencilled sketches of famous landmarks for as far as you could see. I went around a full circle, peering into the distant looking for all these landmarks! I only could not see the Schloss Bensburg which irks me. That was fun though. I actually was going round at the same time as an old lady and her granddaughter, chatting to each other, racing to see who spotted the distant landmark first.

When I got back to the hostel, the fourth bed in our room was filled with a guy who was travelling on the €9 ticket around Germany, heading off to meet some friends. That was something released this year. Apparently you could buy a single ticket in Germany that allowed you catch any train (only commuter though, not long-distance) to go anywhere as many times as you wanted for about a month or so. As a result, there were a tonne of people inter-railing within Germany apparently. I didn’t really talk to this guy though, he was really heading out as soon as I got in. Instead, I ate my dinner and then tucked myself into bed to read and head to sleep. In the morning I was off to Bruges, my penultimate stop of the trip.

Impressions

Stuttgart was fun, but I don’t think I was truly there for long enough. My brief impression was a nice, small city with mixed architecture and rather very hot.

Cologne though was great. It was an old city with a bunch of ancient history associated with and clearly has been important throughout history due to its position on the Rhine. There was a friendly vibe about the city, although there was a very large shopping district.

Some random facts and maybe some stats

• Days spent: 2
• Bakeries or cafés visited: 0
• Jazz clubs: 0
• Number of things that went wrong: Another train delayed from Stuttgart. Plus the hot tea. But nothing serious
• Memorable moment: Seeing the love locks on the Hohenzollernbrücke for the first time. That was incredible and completely unexpected.
• Music suggestion based off of city: Mephisto Waltz no. 1, Liszt
• Postcards sent: 0
• There are roughly 25,000 locks on the Hohenzollernbrücke, weighing an additional two tonnes.
• Amount of chocolate eaten at the chocolate museum: disappointingly little. It was a museum to teach you about the founding of chocolate, not a free chocolate dispenser. Still, I got given some at the start. I have read so many articles on chocolate since then.
• Composers seen: Liszt. No Chopin. Sad
• Burnt-o-meter: 4/10, heading out in Stuttgart with no suncream was not a smart move
• Hostel rating: 8/10. Only the noisy kids let it down, but you know, it’s a youth hostel and they weren’t that bothersome. Made it more lively really