Cologne, Germany

I woke up early to catch my train to Cologne, or Köln as the locals call it. When I arrived at the station I was surprised to see that I was about to be on a bullet train, which travel at over 300 kmh. You can tell they get their name not only from their speed, but for theirs aesthetics as well. It is like a gun is fired on the tracks and out shoots the train.

The countryside was giving me a headache as it was streaming by so fast. Finally we disembarked at our destination and I was introduced to the most ingenious locker system in the world. You don´t get a traditional door and key, you put the luggage in a automated kiosk and your bag is fed through conveyor belts somewhere else. When you want it back you go to any kiosk in the station, put in your card and the conveyors bring it right to you. Forget storage, just use it to dump your heavy bags and let the machines carry it to your gate.

Right outside the station is Cologne´s Cathedral, the largest gothic church in Europe. It is so enormous it is impossible to keep the entire structure in your field of vision. Constructed over the course of 600 years, it houses the remains of two of the Three Wise Men. They lie in a gold encrusted altar behind bulletproof glass. Around the perimeter of the cathedral you find all sorts of ancient religious relics, three of which have been credited for performing miracles. The most impressive of these is the Gero Cross, the oldest monumental crucifix in the Western World.

I walked outside to see a little of the rest of Cologne before boarding my next train to Brussels. I took a stroll down the main walking street and ended up right in front of the Rhine. So much history has unfolded on its banks across Europe, it was something just to be standing next to it. As I looked at the view from the river I saw something hilarious. Cologne has a David as well, but their take on art is just a little different from the Florentian version. He is painted to have white skin and blonde hair. It is David as he would be after meeting Walt Disney.

I made a few more twists and turns around the town and headed back to the train station. I got my bag from a different location just because I could and made my way to the gate. My stop in Cologne was over, but ahead was a very happy reunion with my cousin in Brussels. The train shot onto the tracks, and I was on my way.