Except for missing a connecting train by mere seconds (seriously, sliding doors style) I got home without a hitch. Despite my hosts being asleep, they heard me ring the bell and I was let in. Even though it was beyond 12:30am, I stayed up awhile before happily laying down to sleep on my comfy air mattress. No snoring, no more late arrivals, just silence.
In the morning I was ready for action. After so much bed time, sitting time and slow-paced activity in general, I was desperate to get my heart rate up. I left the apartment just as the others were getting up. Sabrina told me about a park nearby so that’s where I head. I ran as well as I could in hiking boots (no room in my bags for runners). Obviously it was freezing and miserably grey, but once I warmed up I was fine. I ran loops in the park, relishing the cold air in my lungs. There weren’t many others in the park, only a few people walking their dogs. Not surprising really. It was a nice little park with heaps of trails to run loops on so I entertained myself here for a good half hour before running back. I felt totally fresh when I got back and knew I had some sore legs coming my way.
Sabrina was out getting stuff for breakfast (I know, more shopping!) and was back by the time I’d done the dishes in the kitchen. She gave me a towel so I could shower while she made breakfast. I felt even better after a shower and food. Renewed and 100% healthy at last!
Sabrina was pegged for the books all day and Alex the same with work. Alex demanded a quiet, distraction-free workspace, so not long after breakfast I had a snack and went out for a walk to leave them to their own devices. Without much of a plan, I head west towards an area on the map that looked green. Within a few kilometres, I was in the sticks with farmland stretching out in every direction. It was a refreshing change of scenery to see so much turned soil and green grass. I walked the isolated country roads until I ended up at Falkenlust Palace, then after some graffiti under a train line, I came upon Schloss Augustusburg, in Bruhl. These places were a good 5km from Sabrina’s place so I was getting a decent walk in!
Falkenlust was deserted, to the point that I felt like I shouldn’t be there, but I did see one other person walking her dog. The palace, while very grand, had no signs of occupancy with curtains drawn and windows boarded up. I could just imagine the furniture inside covered with perfectly white sheets. The small chapel near the main house was quaint and the small family graveyard covered the place in serenity.
As I walked along the tree-lined driveway away from Falkenlust and towards Augustusburg, my hands were getting cold in my pockets, made worse by the fact that Alex was texting me asking me when I would be back because he needed my help with what he was doing. Sigh. He’d wanted me gone and now he wanted me to come back. Anyway, the grounds surrounding the castle/palace were grandiose, especially the fountains, hedges and trees in perfect symmetry extending out in front of the big house. There were a few people milling around, even though the palace was closed to tours. Amongst them was a wedding couple, the magazine type I think because they didn’t seem genuine. They were either crazy or crazy in love because they were not wearing enough clothing for the weather, but all is necessary for that perfect photo I guess. I wandered a bit, then was keen to get back and warm my hands up.
I took the direct route back, hoping for a shop along the way that I could duck into to warm up. No luck with the shop, so my pace quickened as I got closer to home. Back at Sabrina’s I managed to open the front door but couldn’t turn the key in the lock at the apartment door. Sabrina came to my rescue when she heard me fumbling. My fingers didn’t have the strength to perform simple tasks. Even after running them under hot water, they remained hot and swollen. When I’d recovered, I dug into some food and sat down with Alex to help him with his work. When it was over, it was dinner time.
We rugged up to go outside and walked to the main shopping strip for a Turkish restaurant. We stopped in at a pharmacy because Alex needed some stuff (more shopping!) and while we were in there, we heard a ruckus outside. Investigating, there was a parade of young people in dance uniform in formation, holding flags and banging drums. Nice of them to put that on for us! The girls in their short skirts and boots must have been freezing!
We skated out of the pharmacy on the icy ground to the restaurant where we sat in a quiet corner, ordered beers and took off all of our layers. I consulted with the English-speaking waiter and he set me up with some traditional Turkish food which was absolutely devine. There was way too much of it but I managed to finish most of it. We had fun chatting away over our beers and scraps of food for a while. Alex called it because we needed to go to the shops for breakfast stuff for tomorrow (shopping AGAIN! Sigh…) before closing time.
We bought beers, milk and ice cream and went home for some movie watching. When the movie didn’t work out, we ended up watching a Netflix series which was harmless but not what my father would call intelligent viewing. I was fed up with that by the time we reached 10pm so went to bed, not really looking forward to another day of nothing-much tomorrow but getting excited to head back to my van.
Cologne Fact: When the lakes in the park freeze over, people use the ice as a platform to set off fireworks for new years. The resulting packaging and carnage were scattered all over the thin icy surface, partly embedded.