A short walk around Koeln Deutz

Many of you have asked what it's like to live it Cologne and what makes it different from the US. On Thursdays I leave work early to make sure that I make it home in time to have dinner before going to German class in town, so I took a few photos on the way since the weather was perfect today.

This is the front of the apartment building where I live. The two right windows in the bottom row are mine. I have lived here for just over one year, but I have visions of moving back to the country and closer to the office as the commute is too tempermental. On a good day it takes me 35 minutes to the office. On the worst day it took me four hours. Generally it takes me 45 minutes each way.

Here is the Bioladen (health food store) next to my apartment. When I had only been living in Cologne around a week or two, a package came that required a signature. The Bioladen accepted it and I was able to pick it up during store hours, which is a whole lot easier than trying to be home for DHL. Their hours are 9-13 and 14-18.30 Monday to Friday and 9-14 on Saturdays. If you look closely in the center of the photo, you will see a little boy. It is a very common occurance for parents to leave their children outside the tiny store, partially perhaps due to all of the low shelves, and partially because it is a very safe area. They keep plently of chalk available for the little people for while they wait, so if you look closely you can see some of their artwork.

This it a rather lackluster photo of the local shopping street. It goes for 6 blocks and includes two small supermarkets, an opthamologist, a bicycle shop, a few bakeries, a bank, three bookstores (each with a specific niche), some restaruants, and a variety of other stores.

In the photo you'll notice a blue P sign, those signify the local parking restrictions. In this area, parking is free from 9 at night to 9 in the morning. The rest of time you are required to have a local parking sticker, or to go to one of the little ticket machines to purchase a ticket for a specified period of time, usually up to two hours.

On the other side of the yellow building is the Teeladen or tea store. They sell a variety of loose leaf teas in an old shop with wooden floors. I had gone in and noticed a photo of a cat next to the cash register and a tip jar, so I had to ask. The woman went to fetch a second photo and explained patiently in slow German that they 'employ' a cat to keep the shop mouse free. As the customers appreciate the cat, they sometimes leave change in the jar to contribute to his well-being. The best part of the story-he does not work Saturdays, he gets the full weekend off each week!

One final one, a view of the river and one of the bridges:

The river is the Rhein and it cuts through the center of Cologne. I have to walk to the other side of the river to get to the Berlitz office for class. In the background of this photo is one of my favorite bridges in Cologne. At night they light it up so it is quite beautiful. Then very late at night, sometime after 2 they turn off the lights. In small towns around here they turn off stoplights late at night, and I mean actually turn off, not turn to blinking red, in order to save electricity.

On the right you'll see some large pod-like containers, those are recycle bins. The are plentiful and located around where people live or work. Then you take your paper, glass, plastics, and packing material (such as plastic wrap, styrofoam, aluminum cans, aluminum foil), and you separate the different items into the different pods. I've been told by some cynical Germans that they don't actually recycle what you sort, or that they dump it all together to process and that the purpose of the separating pods is to make you feel good about contributing to saving the environment.

So that's all for today's quick stops on the way to class. I hope you enjoyed it!