visiting Cologne

Ok, today I was all day occupied visiting Cologne. When I reached the conference building there was this concierge, an original native of Cologne. He was most likely the only one in the building with hundreds of signs that smoking is not allowed that was tolerated to smoke some strange cigars all day. Apart from smoking his primary job seemed to be asking everybody whether he has arrived by train and explaining that they offered a free parking space for his car. Actually he explained this to all people, whether they arrived by car or not. Then there was this Indian guy that asked him whether he speaks English. He claimed that he did so. So the Indian guy asked him whether he needs his passport. The concierge explained in clear English sentences that they have a garage and that he could use a free parking space. Obviously the concierge _could_ speak English --- and he never claimed that he could answer English questions.

After we had all work done, we did what would have been typical for an excursion of our department: We visited the cathedral and some cafes. What would have been not typical for an excursion of our department is that we walked more than 500 meters at once.

Finally I noticed that Cologne has more of everything than Mannheim: The church is bigger, there is more traffic and more nice girls although I have not checked whether the majority of them are natives but due to the fact that we were mostly in the inner city I suspect most of them have been tourists.