well, I am going to Germany

[Peter Korsten]

Tony Scharf schreef:

> I dont know when exactly its going to be, except that I need to get my
> passport first.  Anything/anyone I should plan to see while I am
> there?

I've been only once in the centre of Hannover, and it's typically 
German: hardly any buildings from before the war and lots of department 
stores. It's also almost 20 years ago that I was there, when I visited 
the CeBIT a couple of times.

Cologne I know a little bit better. The part next to the Rhine is very 
pleasant, especially in summer, with old-looking buildings containing 
bars and such. A must see is the Gothic cathedral: it's huge, almost 
black, and utterly impressive.

Next to the cathedral is the Museum Ludwig, which mostly has art from 
the early 20th century onwards. The art gets weirder with the advance of 
time, so it may or may not be your thing. They have a very nice 
cafeteria, though.

There's the Römisch-Germanisches Museum, which has Roman and Germanic 
stuff, including a nice mosaic. There's the Wallraf-Richards Museum, 
which has art from the Middle Ages to impressionism.

(When I came first to Cologne, the Ludwig and the Wallraf-Richards were 
in one building, so Andy Warhol and the Virgin Mary were just a floor 
apart.)

There's a small museum about the city itself, but it's all in German. 
They have an old Nazi flag that an American soldier took from the 
cathedral to the US, and returned later. You also see how the inner city 
looked like after the war: just a sea of rubble, with the cathedral 
sticking out, looking unscathed. (It was actually hit by several bombs, 
what with it sitting next to an important railway station, but the inner 
city was 90% destroyed, and the ring around that for 70%.) We went there 
when we took one of those guided bus tours. Only to be recommended if 
you have nothing better to do.

Of course, you should get your wife some perfume (it's "Eau de Cologne", 
after all). Cologne also has (or at least, this used to be the case in 
the 80's) one of the largest record stores in Europe, called Saturn. Now 
they appear to have several outlets these days, so I don't know which 
would be the "big one". But this could be interesting for you, since 
there would be a lot of music that you won't easily find in the US. Bear 
in mind, though, that CDs in Europe aren't particularly cheap.

There's obviously a lot more to see, but these are the things that I've 
seen myself, and enjoyed.

Finally, if your wish is to ride a high-speed train, it goes into the 
direction of Frankfurt (and Bonn, the town Martin mentioned). But the 
trip is practically featureless and boring. It's just a train, one that 
happens to travel at 190 mph. On the other hand, if you fly to 
Frankfurt, this would be the train you'd take.

- Peter