"Who are you going to support?" is what my friend Sophie asks me as we head to the friendly match between Germany and the USA in Cologne. "Neither - I'm neutral," I reply. Would I rather support England's rivals, the World Cup winners and our 1966 victims Germany, or a nation that calls our beloved sport 'soccer' and will probably before long be better than England, the US?
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| Germany vs USA - 10.06.15 |
Despite my inability to support either team (I love the countries, don't get me wrong. But football's a different ball game - or not) the match was pretty exciting and ended 2-1 to the US, much to the shock of Die Weltmeister and the joy of the visiting fans. You could hear "U-S-A" being shouted for at least an hour after the final whistle. I would feel pretty disappointed if I were German - they played well below par in the second half and the US deserved to win it.
As for Cologne itself, it's worth the visit for a day or two, I'd say. The cathedral is impressive and there are couple of very good museums. We enjoyed the Kölsch beer and had a kebab (not as good as the ones you get in Freiburg!) while sitting on the Rhine river. The rail journey between Freiburg and Cologne is also a treat. Large parts of it run along the Rhine and there was one part of the journey where we passed a castle every few minutes.
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| Cologne Cathedral |
I took a coach to Brussels the next day. On arriving (only three hours from Cologne), I followed my map to get to the city centre because I'd booked a free walking tour of the city. This is the fourth time I've done one, the others being in Rome, Munich and Ljubljana. This one was just as good. Our guide was a guy called Charlie from England who was enthusiastic about Brussels and beer in equal measures (we stopped for a beer half way through). His stories were interesting and funny (you don't get that from museums!) and we went to all the main attractions. The square is beautiful and there's also an impressive palace. We saw the statue of the baby weeing (why this is exists is beyond me, but it's become a symbol of the city).
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| Grote Markt/Grand Place, Brussels |
The next day I went to the European Parliament. Anyone who knows me well knows I love (and also sometimes hate) politics, and I loved visiting the Parliament! Beforehand I grabbed a coffee and a pain au chocolat in a cafe nearby. I felt a little out of place wearing my stripy white T-shirt and red shorts while everyone around me wore fancy suits and nodded seriously while making notes on leather encased notepads. The tour itself was good and the Parliamentarium is brilliant. It takes your through the events in Europe that led us to having the EU. History shows that cooperation aids peace and the breaking down of cooperative institutions leads to states acting in their own interests rather than the common good which can lead to war (and by god, do Europeans know the consequences of that).
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| Me at the European Parliament |
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