The gig last night was a blur – somewhere north of Düsseldorf – Übach Palenburg, that was it. All I remember is smoke (unusual these days) and darkness and then trying to find the hotel afterwards which turned out to be the coldest, dampest building I’ve ever experienced. ‘Sick Building Syndrome’, they call it. We compared notes this morning and it turned out that we all froze our collective asses off. Turned out most up us slept fully clothed – it was that bad. Ein scheissladen! This was really uncharacteristic for Germany and the hotel has been duly struck off the list. Rant over.
This morning we went into Cologne to pick up some spares at the music store – excellent selection. Checked out the cathedral. For those of you who are students of gothic architecture, this is the granddaddy of all European cathedrals – one huge scary place. Joe and I were just wondering what it must have seemed like in the Middle Ages to have visited this place – awe inspiring, I believe, as it is even today. It represents a technical achievement on the level of creating a space shuttle or something. To throw stone up in the air like this, creating these huge interior spaces; you just cannot comprehend it.
It’s going to be fun having Joe experience this country with us old lags. Today he asked some pertinent questions. For example; “Why do we call it Germany but the Germans call it Deutschland?” Then there was; “ What’s a pretzel taste like?” Personally I just went to the station and had my first wurst fix “ Bockwurst mit brötschen, bitte.” Lovely jubbly – here go, here we go….
