Rotterdam 2020: Week Four: Berlin, Milan, and Cologne

[Shannon] Hello! If you have been following our blog then you will know this week will be an exciting one. I hope you enjoy.

Friday, January 24, 2020

Shannon's First Night in Cologne

On Friday, I left work a little earlier than usual around 4 pm to catch my train. Before that however, I went home, packed my bags, and grabbed some fries from Frites Unique around the corner from my apartment. Once I got to Rotterdam Centraal, I saw Duane for a few seconds just before I was left to get up to my platform. My first train went to Eindhoven Centraal with a 2 minute connection period to my next train on the same platform. Unfortunately, my train was running late. I did however, see my second train leave out of the windows of my first train. I could tell several people on my train were trying to make that connection, and we all disembarked a little disappointed. I went to the OV information office, and the nice lady at the front desk gave me information for the next connection. Technically, the next connection to match my ticket was in an hour. However, the very next train I was supposed to ride ran every half hour. So, I got a little snack at the station and got on my next train. This one went to Venlo, the very last stop in the Netherlands before Germany. My next train was then about 30 minutes later and it went to Dusseldorf, Germany. Finally, my last train was a 20 minute direct train from Dusseldorf to Köln (Cologne).

After arriving at Köln Hauptbahnhof (Cologne Central Station), I walked out into the square in the front and saw the beautiful Kölner Dom (Cologne Cathedral) cast in shadows and nightfall. It was amazing to see, but also a little spooky. From here I went to my hostel, the SMARTY Hotel. I arrived around 10 pm, and went to my room. There I met Laura, Ece, and Idil. Laura was from Dusseldorf, and she had previously lived in Berlin. Ece and Idil were from Istanbul and were finishing up a couple days of travel. They started in Hamburg, went to Amsterdam, and were flying out of Cologne on Sunday. I called my parents very briefly, and when I returned to my room we talked a little about the places we've traveled to and what the different cities were like. I ended up going to sleep a little before midnight.

Duane's First Night in Berlin

[Duane] After work, I quickly stopped by my apartment to change and went to the train station. My flight to Berlin was at 8:40pm; the flight was on time.

I landed in Berlin at like 10:30pm. I took the public transportation to my hostel; it took about 30 minutes to get to my hostel. The hostel was booming when I got there; it was a popular hostel for young people travelling; it was a nice vibe. After I checked in, I went out to find currywurst. I found a bar nearby and got currywurst and a nice drink. It was a very nice way to start my travel to Berlin. After my nice midnight snack, I got back and went to bed.

Linda's First Night in Milan

[Linda] On Friday, I left work, quickly packed my backpack, and headed to Amsterdam to catch my 8:55 plane to Milan. The flight was a bit delayed, so I didn't arrive at my hostel until 1 or 2 am. Once there, I called my mom to wish her a happy birthday and went to bed.

Saturday, January 25, 2020

Linda's Day in Milan

[Linda]
I started my day with breakfast at the hostel (which was free - hooray!) and chatted with some other hostel guests. I then visited the Santuario di Santa Maria dei Miracoli presso San Celso; unfortunately, I was not allowed to take pictures inside the church. After, I visited the Basilica San Lorenzo Maggiore, a beautiful 5th-century church with le Colonne di San Lorenzo - ancient Roman marble columns - out front. The columns are all that's left of the remains of a Roman amphitheater and baths. I grabbed a panzerotto at Il Priscio for lunch before heading to the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, an art museum and library that houses the largest collection of drawings by Leonardo da Vinci in the world.

Afterward, I went to the Piazza del Duomo and, once there, found a crêpe stand. I then went (window) shopping at the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, visiting stores like Prada, Louis Vuitton, Versace, Gucci, Chanel, and others. I grabbed an early dinner at La Locando del Gatto Rosso, and then continued (window) shopping and eating crêpes. After, I visited the cathedral, Duomo di Milano, and had a nice conversation with a very friendly security guard.

In the evening, I was able to visit Teatro alla Scala, Milan's 18th-century opera house off the Piazza del Duomo. Earlier in the day, I was able to buy some very inexpensive (and somewhat sketchy) tickets to the ballet that night from a woman behind the theatre (who did not speak English - my high school Italian teacher, Sig.ra Thompson, would be so proud!). The ballet was amazing, and I even got to see *the* Roberto Bolle!!! At the theatre, I befriended the Milanese couple sitting next to me, Fabio and Giovanna, and they gave me some good recommendations for where to visit next (and how to get home safely - apparently my hostel was in a rough part of town . . . whoopsie). After the ballet, I grabbed a pizza at Spontini, met some more friendly Italians, and then safely returned to my hostel (thanks Fabio and Giovanna!). I then went to Arci Ohibò, a club behind my hostel, met even more nice locals, and then went to bed.

Shannon's Day in Cologne

[Shannon] My Saturday started at 9 am. However, I didn't leave the room until almost 10. I had previously bought this 24 hour bicycle pass. It was with FordPass bicycles, one of the many bike sharing companies in the city. However, my activation code was not being sent to my phone, so my German roommate helped me out. We called the helpdesk, and got a very nice lady who only spoke German, and Laura helped me verify my information. After that I was off. I stopped at a small like cafe to get breakfast.

Afterwards, headed off to my next stop. My goal while in Cologne was to try to make it to all twelve Romanesque churches (I got close, you'll see). The first church on my list was the Katholische Kirchengemeinde Sankt Pantaleon (Church of Saint Pantaleon). Once I arrive, I got confused and walked into the church's courtyard which is surrounded by the church on one end and housing for the clergy on the other sides. Eventually, I found the front door and the church was completely empty. I was a little spooky, but it was also a church so.

I left the first church, and headed to the next, Katholische Kirche Sankt Maria im Kapitol (Saint Mary's in the Capitol). This time there were a couple people inside of the church, as it was one of the better known churches.

The third church on the list was the Katholische Kirche Sankt Maria Lyskirchen (Santa Maria in Lyskirchen). Again, this church was completely empty. This one did however, border on creepy for me as they had a little display of a small town square with several little figures. I definitely turned around really fast once, and thought someone was behind me.

This church was on the waterfront, and right next to the Chocolate Museum. I did not however go to the Chocolate Museum. I did walk around it, and take some pictures of the beautiful surroundings including the Malakoffturm (Malakoft Tower). This was one of the old fortifications built to secure the Rhine.

To get to my next stop, I biked next to the Rhine. After several minutes, I then found myself at the back side of Klosterkirche Groß Sankt Martin (Great Saint Martin Church). This was also the beginning of the Altstädter Köln (Old Town Cologne). Which is an area that escaped bombing in World War II and still had all of the original architecture. I walked a little bit along the waterfront section before stopping in Lowenbraü for lunch.

I ordered Himmel un Äd (Heaven and Earth), a traditional Cologne dish. The heaven portion was the bed of mashed potatoes, and the earth was blood sausage. I was also given a small scoop of applesauce to go combine all the flavors. It was delicious, and paired well with the beer that I was suggested, Kölsch, a type of beer originating from Cologne.

After a wonderful meal, I decided to explore more of the Old Town, and found myself at the Alter Markt (Old Market), the heart of this area. I guess during Christmas there is this amazing market in this square, that I am sad I missed.

While continuing to walk around this area, I found my next destination, Groß Sankt Martin. The church was beautiful, and with an additional 0.50 euros to my 0 euro admission price (yay),I got to go into the crypt below the church. I did make it just in time to listen in on a guided tour, but unfortunately it was in German, but the information card did come in English.

After, finishing up at this church, I was almost right in the heart of the city. After a short walk, I was near the central station again as well as the Kolner Dom. The cathedral was massive, and I spent a good amount of time just walking around and gawking at the intricate Gothic details. The square in front of the cathedral was also jam packed with tourists from all over the place, but I think mostly Germans. Once in the cathedral, it was still packed. I now believe the internet, that Cologne Cathedral is the most visited tourist site in Germany. I was still breathtaking.

When I finally left the cathedral, I saw that I was a head of schedule to make it to my last destination exactly at sunset (oh, the photo ops). So, from the steps to the side of the cathedral was the central station. It was from these steps that I noticed another church (a pink church). I was almost positive that this was one of the churches that I was going to see tomorrow, so I made a little detour. It was not, it was actually the Katholische Kirche Sankt Mariä Himmelfahrt (Church of Saint Mary's Assumption), a Gothic church not Romanesque. Either way, it was beautiful. Unfortunately, I could only access the area behind the pews, but I still took quite a few pictures.

Now I was on my mission to find the other church, the Dominikanerkirche Sankt Andreas (Dominican Church of St. Andrew). I did find it, and took my time admiring. It was quite odd to be running in and out different styles of churches, all in one city. It was magnificent, but unfortunately, it was also over for the day.

My next stop was to take a leisurely stroll across the Hohenzollernbrücke (Hohenzollern Bridge). While getting to the bridge I walked past the Museum Ludwig which had some very interesting architecture that made for some nice juxtaposition to the cathedral in pictures from the bridge. This bridge is also a part of the "Love Lock" trend, and the bridge itself as well as some of the railings on each side of the bridge has locks everywhere. I saw a few couples cementing their relationship on the bridge and I even saw what looked like a bachelorette party walking across the bridge with many pink balloons.

The crossing of the bridge lent to getting to my final location for the day, the KölnTriangle (Cologne Triangle). The KölnTriangle has an observation deck, from which you can see across the Rhine to view the city center, including all of the churches I visited, the cathedral, central station, and the Museum Ludwig. I got some amazing pictures from the observation deck, but unfortunately the sky was a little to cloudy for my sunset pictures. Either way, the view was beautiful, but it was also cold.

While still freezing, I came down from the observation deck and strolled across the bridge again, all while taking pictures and freezing my fingers off, but it was worth it. The water scape was lit up very nicely.

After crossing the bridge, I went to dinner. I found myself at Oma's Küche, where I ordered Oma's Rosenkranz, which is fried sausage with fried potatoes, a fried egg, and sauerkraut.

After finishing dinner, I headed back to my hostel. The initial plan was to drop off some of my stuff and head to the Belgian Quarter a very popular dance club for university students, or go to Jamieson's Irish Pub which is always busy to try to get a feel for the city's nightlife. However, that was not the plan. It was Chinese New Year's and by the time I finished calling my immediate family it was almost 10 pm, and my feet were tired. So I headed back to my room, and settled in for bed. I never got to speak to two of my roommates as they were already asleep or had headphones in, but I did know my last roommate. Idil and Ece decided to book another night at the hostel instead of sleeping at the airport, so Idil was in my room again. We had a nice quick chat, before I went to bed and she went to meet up with her friend in the "chill room".

Duane's Day in Berlin

[Duane] I got up at like 9am. I grabbed something to eat from the hostel and headed to the Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer (Berlin Wall Memorial) park. The park and the museum was open to the public. Although the history may not be the most pleasant, it was an important site to visit and learn about the city. After the visit, I gained a solid amount of respect for Berlin.

After walking along the wall for a while, I found a street with cute shops. Berlin's clothing shops had a unique, pleasant vibe; they also had cool clothes too. I ended up buying a pair of pants. Then on that street I had doner kebab for lunch. A fellow friend who lived in Berlin for a bit told me doner was good; I can attest doner was mad good.

Then I walked around some touristy, shopping districts. Then I headed to the East Side Gallery to see some graffiti. There were many cool drawings; it had a very hipster vibe. Many different artwork portrayed the wall in different ways; it was interesting to see what Berlin Wall meant to different artists. At the East Side Gallery, I also bought a coconut ring from a local lady. The lady was pretty old; she was smoking a cigarette while conversing with me. This interaction with the lady accentuated the hipster vibe; it was cool.

After that, I just wandered around Berlin. I happened to walk through a local market, so I bought a tangerine in celebration of Chinese New Year (this day was Chinese New Year). I kind of got lost after I bought my tangerine, but the tangerine kept my mood up. I felt like I had a special connection with that tangerine; it's kind of sad that the tangerine is gone now. I should've kept the peels or something, but luckily at least I took a picture.

With the help of my semi-working phone and google maps, I ended up in the city center. I saw some cool old buildings. Some of the famous places I walked by were: Gendarmenmarkt, Humboldt University of Berlin buildings, and the Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral).

Then I found a place for currywurst. This place was one of those fast-food places; I remember watching a video that said currywurst was one of those fast-food, quick-eat food, which was not what I had the previous night. They served it on like a paper plate with toothpicks. I think I enjoyed this place more than my previous night's, but this may be because I was mad hungry after walking the whole day.

After I ate, I went back to my hostel to rest my legs for a bit. Then I headed out to eat some Korean food to celebrate Lunar New Years. I remembered walking past a Korean restaurant earlier in the day so I went there. The restaurant was pretty full, but luckily they had one table open for me. I had a bowl of dumpling soup, which is supposed to bring good luck for the new lunar calendar year. It was a bit lonely, but I had to do it to maximize my luck potential; the soup was pretty good too.

After that, I came back. I talked to my fellow roommate from the UK. We had a nice conversation. I went to bed at around 2am.

Sunday, January 26, 2020

Duane's Last Day in Berlin

[Duane] Woke up pretty late. Walked around a couple of parks nearby. They were cute parks. I had to go to the airport pretty early because my flight was at around 11:30am. Although my Berlin trip was pretty short, it was a cool trip. Learned and saw a lot; I plan to explore more places in Europe while I'm still here; there's a lot to see in this continent.

Linda's Last Day in Milan

[Linda] On Sunday, I woke up a little later than usual (clubbing may have been a poor decision) and left the hostel around 9. I spent almost the whole day at Castello Sforzesco (Sforza Castle), a large castle in Milan that houses several museums. I also saw Parco Sempione (Simplon Park) and Arco della Pace (Arch of Peace), another arch commissioned by Napoleon. I then headed to the airport for my flight back to Amsterdam.

Shannon's Last Day in Cologne

[Shannon] My last day in Cologne, was almost as jam packed as my first. My train back wasn't until 4:14 pm, so I had most of the day to finish my quest. I left the hostel a little before 10 am, to head to the Pfarrgemeinde Sankt Gereon (Saint Gereon's Basilica). On the way I passsed the Hahnentorbug (Hahnen Gate), and stopped to have a little visit.

Today, was a little more difficult to visit churches due to it being Sunday, and all of the churches have different schedules. However, I got to sneak into Saint Gereon's about half an hour before they started mass. And I was very happy I did. Online, they say Saint Gereon has beautiful stained glass windows and they are correct.

Afterwards, I went to the Basilika Sankt Aposteln (Basilica of the Holy Apostles). Their visiting hours also include their mass services. So, I saw a family walk in and I followed. I did not stay very long, and didn't take any pictures inside so as not to disturb the service, but it was also a very nice church.

At this point, a took a little break for breakfast, having only grabbed a quick Belgian waffle and tea at the hostel to go. I ordered a key lime pie and a sparkling lemonade. Not the healthiest breakfast, but the lemonade was from one of those companies that supported local farmers (those companies make the best lemonades and teas). I took this time for a nice break, and to sort out my game plan for the day. I realized that a lot of the churches will probably be closed and thus not take very long to visit, so instead of hitting only the initial eight churches, I tried to expand it to all twelve. It was extremely helpful that I got to go to Saint Andrew's the day before, but I was still impossible to reach all twelve. The elusive one that couldn't fit into my schedule was the Pfarrkirche Sankt Kunibert (Basilica of Saint Cunibert) which was the farthest away. I did not have the bike today, and I would've been extremely rushed anyways so I had to cut it from my list. I did however, make it to the rest of the twelve.

The next one I went to was Cäcilienkirche (Saint Cecilia's Church). I did not go inside this one either, as they were in the middle of their German Mass service. I did however, fully realize that Europe runs on a later clock than the US. In the US, my church would run three services in the morning at 7:30, 9, and 11. In Cologne, each church ran about two to three services but they didn't start until 11.

Nonetheless, I went to the Basilika Sankt Severin (Basilica of Saint Severin) next. This one, I was able to go inside. Unlike, the big cathedral, the insides of these churches were more classically style and simplistic. However, the beautiful arches and amazing symmetry was still stunning. It was also quite interesting as quite a few of the Romanesque churches were built in a basilica style in addition to their proclaimed status by the Catholic Church.

Cologne seemed to be riddled with many different Roman ruins and other historic site from before the war. Quite a lot of it was destroyed and built anew, but I seemed to keep running into these beautiful gates and towers. This time, when I was leaving Saint Severin, I looked down the street and say the Severinstorburg (Severinstor Gate). This was another of the four city gates preserved from the city wall around Cologne during medieval times. I stayed in the square before the gate, and enjoyed a small sandwich and a little time of my feet before I got started again.

At this point I realized that I forgot a church on my list, luckily I would pass it on the way back into the center of the city. This was the Katholische Kirche Sankt Georg (Church of Saint George). This was a smaller church, but it was so very peaceful. It was also across from a very nice fountain, unfortunately it was winter and not running however.

Continuing my walk, I was brought back to the center of town and headed to the Starbucks at Central Station to by my mom a mug (I have now bought her three different 2 oz mug/ornaments from a Starbucks in each country I've been to). This took up the small amount of time I needed to waste before heading to the Basilika Sankt Ursula (Basilica of Saint Ursula) that opened up for visiting at 3 pm. A beautiful church, but the main attraction at this church is the reliquary. The church is built upon the ruins of a Roman cemetery, where 11,000 virgins are said to have been buried in the legend of Saint Ursula. As such they have a large reliquary, the Golden chamber, surrounded by gold relics, and decorated in human bones. A little terrifying, yet still quite stunning.

This was my last stop before I headed back to the train station. While I was waiting for my train, I stopped at the Currywurst Express inside the station to try a German classic, currywurst. It was quite delicious for fast food. After finishing my food, I went to my platform only to find out my train was 10 minutes late.

10 minutes was not too bad. This time, my connection was by bus and had 20 minutes connecting time. Yep, now my train was 20 minutes late. Needless to say, when I got to Dusseldorf I ran out of the station to try to find the bus. I was horribly disappointed and out of breathe. Now that I missed the bus, the easiest way back was the order that I came in. I have a feeling, quite a few people had made the same weekend plans as me as the connection in Venlo had quite a few people running as we only had 5 minutes to run to the next platform. Unfortunately, the station is set up so the next platform requires going through the entire station to get to. My last train transfer in Eindhoven was a little bit tight to. This was the one that I missed last time, since the time in between is only two minutes. Needless to say, there were many people running this time even though it was just across a platform. Luckily, this train was actually running two minutes late like on Friday.

Once back in Rotterdam, my day was not quite finished yet. I was meeting up with Chris, Duane, and Linda for ramen. I showed up at ____ around 9 pm, half an hour before they closed. However, my lovely company had ordered my food ahead of time, and I apparently only showed up a couple minute after it had. My first real meal of the day, and it was accompanied with very nice conversation was a great way to wind down from a long and heart racing day. Around 9:30 pm we said goodbye to Chris at this bike outside the restaurant, and the three of us headed home. Duane eventually split off from us, and Linda and I made it back home around 10 pm, where we both tucked into bed.

Monday, January 27, 2020

Monday, I got to go to a ship!!! We left the office around 10 am filling a car with Edo, the ship's superintendent and my direct supervisor, and two members of Stolt's new dry docking team. The first was the coating and materials specialist who was going to be tank diving with me, and the second was the dry docking administrator who was working out the job schedule with the Chief Engineer for the upcoming dry docking of the Stolt Seagull. We arrived at the 23 year old ship around 11:30 and boarded and met everyone. We ate lunch before, everyone split off. Edo came with Massimo and I in the first ballast tank, since I had somehow never been in one (I missed the inspections last year). Before the day was over, we went in five of the fourteen ballast tanks, and I had discovered that danish cookies are a staple for all Stolt ships, yum.

When I finally got back to the office, I got the bombardment of texts from Linda and Duane from when my phone was turned off (no electronics on deck of a Stolt tanker, don't want to blow anything up). The plan was to go out to dinner before Duane headed off to a film festival. We met up at Witte de Withstraat, and while waiting for Linda to pick up her dry cleaning, Duane's cold hands made the executive decision to eat at Hamburg again. Linda's and my hungry stomachs did not disagree. After some delicious burgers (I've been told they make the best in Rotterdam), Duane split for his movie and Linda and I headed home.

[Duane] I watched "Not in this World." Before the screen, the director was like "thanks for coming to see my dark, long movie this late." The film director was right, it was a dark, long movie. The movie was pretty weird, but interesting.

Tuesday, January 28, 2020

[Shannon] After work, Duane and I walked to Rotterdam Centraal to meet up with Rob who headed over after work. The initial plan that Linda had worked out was to go to dinner at Oliva and then head to a karaoke bar with some coworkers. Unfortunately, our coworkers couldn't make it so the plan was ditched for just a chill night walking around Rotterdam after the dinner Oliva of course.

Dinner was very delicious, with amazing bread. Linda and Rob opted for picking their dishes, but Duane and I went for the surprise chef's menu again. This time we did a three course menu. The starting course consisted of red onions and a veal (?) tartar.

The main course was red fish on a bed of risotto alongside some garbanzo beans.

Dessert was a pound cake, I believe. There was a marinated tangerine slice and some dollops of a lemon cream to decorate the dish. Then there was a stick of ice cream (I don't remember the flavor unfortunately).

Following dinner, we tried the Markthal for stroopwafels, but unfortunately it was closed. So instead we opted for walking back to Witte de Withstraat to find a place to hang out. We ended up going to Obba's Day and Night, where Duane and Linda went a couple weeks ago with Julius. There we ordered spinach and artichoke dip, bitterballen, and nachos.

We hung out for a while and talked, before Duane and Rob left us to go out to a movie for the movie festival. Linda and I went home after paying the bill.

[Duane] Rob and I went to go watch "Moving On." It was a simple, pleasant movie about a family. This movie was a nice contrast to the movie that I watched last night.

January 29-30, 2020

[Shannon] Wednesday and Thursday were fairly uneventful. However, we did get in contact with some Webbies on board the Stolt Effort. There are were in Rotterdam this week, and we were making plans to meet up for Friday.

Links to the places we visited:

Berlin

Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer: https://www.berliner-mauer-gedenkstaette.de/en/
East Side Gallery: http://www.eastsidegallery-berlin.com/
Gendarmenmarkt: https://www.berlin.de/en/attractions-and-sights/3560277-3104052-gendarmenmarkt.en.html
Humboldt University of Berlin buildings: https://www.hu-berlin.de/en/about/campus/campus-mitte/campus-mitte
Berliner Dom: https://www.berlinerdom.de/

Milan

Santuario di Santa Maria dei Miracoli e San Celso: http://www.santamariadeimiracoliesancelso.it/
Basilica San Lorenzo Maggiore: http://www.sanlorenzomaggiore.com/
Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana: https://www.ambrosiana.it/en/
Piazza del Duomo: https://www.aviewoncities.com/milan/piazzadelduomo.htm
Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II: https://www.introducingmilan.com/galleria-vittorio-emanuele-ii
Duomo di Milano: https://www.duomomilano.it/en/
Teatro alla Scala: http://www.teatroallascala.org/en/index.html
Castello Sforzesco: https://www.milanocastello.it/en
Parco Sempione: https://www.introducingmilan.com/parco-sempione
Arco della Pace: https://www.aviewoncities.com/milan/arcodellapace.htm

Cologne

Rotterdam 2020

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Thursday, January 30, 2020

Week Four: Berlin, Milan, and Cologne