Day 166 to Day 167 - Why does Melbourne think its trams are so special?

Dusseldorf to Cologne - Park Inn Cologne City West

Day 166 - The train from Dusseldorf to Cologne required two changes which was not that difficult but when hauling your luggage it's a bit of a pain. Being the weekend we got a good rate at the Radisson as it is a business hotel and is only 10 minutes by tram to town. A small price to pay for a nice room at a cheap price according to us!

The more we travel the more we wonder why Melbourne is always pushing how special it is to have trams, we are finding trams very common place on our travels. Maybe Melbourne needs to get out more! One thing we haven't seen though is a city with restaurants of the quality, variety and value as Melbourne. When you are home you hear how good Melbourne's food is but it is only when you travel that you realise you take it for granted.

Anyway, back to Cologne! The cathedral is extraordinary, and we thought we were over cathedrals after our time in the UK and Amsterdam. Cologne cathedral is the highest Roman Catholic cathedral, and fifth tallest in the world.However it's not just the height (after climbing 530 steep winding steps to the top) but the sheer size and appearance that are so overwhelming.

Day 167 - Cologne is also the home of "Eau de Cologne" - we saw it in a few shops but its not pushed at all, rather it's more subtle, there in the background, but not forgotten.

We visited the Museum Ludwig, which holds one of the largest Picasso collections in the world. Along with other modern art pieces, it was similar in some ways to the Tate Modern in London, but we both much preferred the Tate. K had a few unkind things to say about Pablo's ceramics (being the critic that she is) - a continual mumbling about glaze fit accompanied with lots of head shaking.

We decided we urgently needed to do some travel planning, so we set up camp in Starbucks (not for the coffee, for the free internet!) during a big rain storm and made some bookings for Heidelberg, where we also hope to catch up with the lovely German girls we met on our train ride in Tanzania