Home Sweet Koeln

Today will be a two-for-one post with the first one a brief itinerary of the non-Weltmeisterschaft (World Cup) activities. Sleeping in and taking in more of a brunch than a breakfast about noonish, then grabbed the 'tourist camera' (the light and inexpensive one) and hit the streets.

The same streets as the previous evening, make that early morning, were once again teeming with activity. This time it was the pre-match crowd of mostly Portugese ramping up for the evening's match with Angola. Along the Rhein, the tour boats, cruise ships actually, were in full operation, the green space along the river was full of sunbathers, loungers and pick-up soccer.

Strolling towards the Dom (Cologne Cathedral) and the Hbf (Hauptbahnhof), the crowd picked up all the more and the plaza between the two was almost a carnival. It is not a coincidence the LOC (Local Organizing Committee) of the World Cup chose the area just the other side of the Dom as the site for their FanFest. Unfortunately, I have noticed there is a two-photo posting limit per blog, or I'd let several photos do several thousand words.

Went ahead and dropped into the Hbf while in the area to reserve first-class seating to and from Gelsenkirchen for tomorrow's USA opener, as well as Berlin the next day for Brazil-Croatia in Berlin, and the following day for the border war between Germany and Poland (is that in bad taste?, regardless, WC veterans have warned me there will be all sorts of things being thrown to the pitch from the stands) in Dortmund.

Returned to hotel in time to clean up and head off to Koeln Stadion for Portugal-Angola, but that's another blog.....

As with all the content of this blog, written and photographic, Copyrighted 2006, All Rights Reserved, Perry McIntyre, Atlanta, GA - USA.