Franchise intersection

There is such a thing as winter walking distance and summer walking distance (in my mind anyway) and the pictures below were taken at an intersection within winter walking distance of our apartment. First we have the two story Pizza Hut.
Kitty corner across the intersection is the Haagen Dazs.

We have the Burger King also. And you can “dial a whopper” for home delivery.
The shot below is of the KFC and Hardees that are on the next block. Unfortunately, the construction barriers kept me from getting a good angle, but you can see the Colonel’s smiling face on the bucket sign.

Just down the block we have a Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin Robbins in one place. One stop gluttony.
Next to these was a clothing store with a Christmas tree in the window. The Christmas trees started appearing in public areas in October. A coworker who has been here 15 years says that there was a time when Christmas decorating was done only in private homes and it was a sort of “don’t ask, don’t tell” type of thing. However, Christmas is primarily a shopping holiday and if it is one thing Dubai loves and relies upon, it is shopping. So, we can buy fake trees, decorations, cards with the nativity scene on them, etc. I have even heard Christmas music playing in the Home Center store today when I was buying pillows for our new furniture.

So, now that I’ve shown you all the familiar franchise restaurants where we WON’T be eating… We had dinner tonight at Samad Iraqi restaurant, also within winter walking distance of our apartment. Before we even ordered, they brought us flat bread (freshly made), green salad, lentil soup and two bottled waters. That in itself would have made a tasty meal. However, we also ordered fish entrees and an appetizer plate. They even supplied us with a cat (ha). There was a stray cat patrolling around the tables to clean up any tidbits, so we shared our fish with him. Paul made a few overtures to pet him, but was swatted away. This cat was too wily for that cuddly wuddly stuff, but was glad to help us out with our fish. After we stuffed ourselves with delicous food, they brought us several cups of tea. We ate outside. The moon was full and there was a pleasant breeze. (The temp still gets up to 78F or so during the day.) All in all, a very pleasant evening. (Except for the guy three tables down who was talking loudly on his cell phone.)

Koln – The End

Monday morning we got up, gathered all our belongings and got on a train. Both coming to and leaving Koln we rode on the high speed train. Very smooth ride with a little side to side motion that made walking down the aisle a challenge, but nice otherwise.
Above is the other side of the heroic statue as our train heads across the bridge over the Rhine.


I got a couple of snaps in before we hit fog and couldn’t see anything.
So, what did we learn while in Germany?

Signage is all in German, so be prepared to struggle to translate it or be in the dark. However, most people are multilingual and are fluent in English. Once they figure out what language you speak they are happy to switch over and help you out. There were a lot of French speakers in Koln, both visitors and workers, which may be due to the proximity of Belgium. Heidelberg is not very far from France, but we did not hear French spoken while we were there.

Attitudes regarding public display of sexuality in Germany are the direct opposite of those in the UAE. I guarantee that you won’t see marzipan pigs doing naughty things in the store windows here. Dubai is liberal, but not that liberal.

Aside from being sick and the general miseries of travelling, we had a good time.

Koln – River tour

On Sunday afternoon we took a leisurely one hour tour (not an ill fated three hour tour) up the Rhine.
Above is the view down the river as we are standing on the shore.
The pictures above and below are of the same buildings, one on the way up the river and the other as we came back by down the river.

Below is a park where there were several people flying kites.

Below are some extremely odd shaped buildings still in construction phase (notice 2 construction cranes). These look more like something we’d see in Dubai, although there they would have to be 100 stories high and rotate, or something.

Below is the view of the Dom as we are coming back to the dock.
It was a very pleasant way to spend an hour and I especially liked that I could do it sitting down. Much easier on the feet. The sun came out and I had to actually wear my sunglasses. What’s that about!

Koln – Cathedral

The Dom St. Peter und Santa Maria or Cologne Cathedral or Kolner Dom or just The Dom. No matter what you call it, it is massive and amazing. It is impossible to get it all in one picture without being a mile away. I am ignorant of art and architecture history, so will not try to tell you what style it is, etc. Construction was started in 1248 AD and completed in 1880 according to my guide book.






Beautiful tiled floors. The interior was too dark for successful picture taking, except for the stained glass windows.
Below – I think this is the Mailander Madonna (ca 1290), however the picture in my guide book has the image reversed with Mary looking her right instead of to her left. Maybe it’s a different statue altogether.


The colors in the windows were vibrant, amazing reds, blues, pinks. Very beautiful.
Below is what I think to be the Shrine of the Three Kings. They claim to have relics of the three wise men. I am guessing about what things are because all signage was in German only. The idea of multilingual signage for the sake of tourists has not caught on in Germany. So I am comparing to my travel guide book and making my best guess.
Don’t know which Bishop this was, but liked the design of his resting place.
The church was very impressive and beautiful. It was also packed with tourists like us taking it all in. We had hoped to take the guided tour, but they only do one on Sundays and we missed it.