After 5 days in Paris, I headed to Cologne, Germany for Gamescom. I took a direct train between Paris and Cologne (it took just over 3 hours). I had never taken a long train ride alone before, so I was initially nervous, but it was so wonderful. They served lunch right after we left Paris and then I enjoyed the lovely countryside views.
When I got to Cologne, my hotel was a short walk from the train station. I stayed at the Hotel Savoy and they upgraded me to a junior suite. Apparently each floor has a theme and I got the Paris floor (fitting, eh?). The room was insane! A fringe curtain between the bathroom and bedroom and a black velvet couch!
Once I settled in to the room, I had a 2 minute walk to the Cologne Cathedral (Kölner Dom). It was magnificent! Apparently it's Germany's most visited landmark!
The view from my room was amazing (the first photo was taken from one window in my room) and the other window had the best views for the sunset.
For the rest of the week in Cologne, I had meetings during the day with gaming partners and got to walk around the show halls a bit as well. Riot Games had a League of Legends eSports competition going on during the show and had an area set up. While I was taking the panoramic below, the lights changed colors and created this awesome effect!
For dinner one night we ate at Gaffel am Dom and although I couldn't eat the Schnitzel, I had an amazing salad with honey-thyme marinated goat cheese. For the record, I only ate half of one of those huge goat cheese wheels. It was so delicious. We also had Kolsch. They serve the thin glasses in a round carrier.
On the last night, there was a Wargaming party with DJ Justice. We had a blast, especially since most of our group had some yellow sunglasses that we had gotten earlier in the day. Everyone at the party kept asking to have our glasses (or tried to take them)!
I had a great time in Cologne and had great meetings, but I wish I had more time to explore (and check out Old Town). Maybe next year! ;)
The travel home was easy, but sadly I got some sort of virus (I could feel the symptoms on the flight from Amsterdam to Atlanta) and I was stuck in the bed all weekend. At least it gave me a chance to recover from jet lag!
Europe overall was incredibly beautiful, fun, and the food was amazing. I definitely want to go back as soon as possible and would love to live overseas at some point. Now I just have to figure out how to make that happen. I feel so lucky to have had this experience and I feel like it was all a dream!
xo
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