Koln

I wanted to get that out of the way first. That is the kind of image I was hoping to be able to capture at some point, and I am pretty pleased with the result. The cathedral is the Cologne Cathedral, quite famous and easily the most dominant presence on the skyline of Cologne. There's a secret to getting this scene to look the way I wanted it to ;-) I won't divulge that, but the fun part is that this picture is totally unedited, except to merge two images into one to make it wider.

Today started off with me waking up at 3am and not being able to go back to sleep. My taxi came at 5am and we got to the airport quickly. It was a different airport this time, Banaesa Airport. An older, smaller airport, it was surprisingly very close to the larger international airport. Checking in was total madness. The terminal was tiny, old, and full of people. It took me a while to figure out what I was supposed to be doing. When I finally did check in, I found out that this airline (Blue Air) had a limit of 1 checked bag per person, weight not to exceed 20kg. Well I had 2 bags, whose combined weight was about 38kg. So, I paid the fee of 6 euro per extra kg, plus a fee for an extra bag, amounting to about $150. Amazing.

Boarding was accomplished by bussing everyone about 100 yards to the plane, where we piled on. We had some incredible turbulence on the short flight to Sibiu, where we stopped to get more passengers (I guess?). I slept most of the way to Cologne.

Got into Cologne, got my luggage, took a taxi to my hotel, and took about a 2 hr nap because I was so tired.

Woke up, grabbed my camera, and headed out to check out the location of the HRC and maybe meet some of the staff. On the way I would check out what Cologne looked like. I spent some time in the Cathedral. It was very cool. Huge. I took a lot of pictures.

I wandered through the streets until I found the HRC. There are tons of restaurants, shops, small narrow cobblestoned streets, etc. I find it all fascinating.

I ate a very late lunch at a small restaurant along the river (The Rhein). I had marinated porksteak. It was pretty good.

Eventually I went back to my hotel and got my tripod and headed across the bridge to attempt the shot I posted above. I had to wait quite a while in the cold, but I think it was worth it.

That's pretty much it for today. If you don't see as many pictures as you think you should, check back because I add more sometimes. I also updated photos and captions to my last post about Bucharest.

- John