Tuesday, 30 September 2008 (Rob)

Pardon me if I don’t exactly type coherently. I had quite a good time tonight; but I digress, there was a whole day before this. Today was a lovely day for the first full day of our Coking.com seminar. Everything went pretty smoothly and the attendees seemed to enjoy themselves. There isn’t much to tell to you that are outside of the Coking.com community other than the fact that it went well and the food was delicious as always. After the presentations and breakout groups we went on a tour of a Zimmermann & Jansen Factory in Duren. It was quite a nice tour and it was very informative. I learned more about the valves that I am already supposed to almost be an expert on according to some. I am part of a team that gives a coker seminar, yet I only know the basics of a coker…odd, I will learn more as time goes on, isn’t this how it always goes? The tour was great and then we went to dinner in Downtown Köln at an amazing restaurant. The food served was 5 star and the company was to match. I mostly was with my parents and 2 gentlemen for Eveready, a company that does pigging. If you don’t understand me, feel free to ask me to clarify and I gladly will.

 

After dinner we headed back to the hotel and I changed into some more casual attire. I guess it wasn’t very casual, but I changed out of my Coking.com shirt and Tie and into another button up shirt under my suit, I was looking pretty classy J. Me and the guys from Eveready headed down to the night scene in Köln, unfortunately it took us a while to find it. We started out a Beerhaus that was dead and then jaunted on over to another that was dead as well. We asked a bartender where the happening spot was and she gave us the names of a few places. It happened that they were all right next to each other, we managed to skip the strip club SHE suggested, lol. We first stopped off at a laid back coffeehaus type place and had a few beers. After this was not cutting it we headed next door. The almost did not let us in because we are American. They asked where we are from, then they kind of frowned at us as we gave them the answer. They probably don’t get many of our kind down that way, two Canadians and one American. The place we went to was called Diamond Club I believe. It was kind of a Disco as they call it, basically a dance club. As I walked in I noticed I was getting glares from a few different guys, this let me know that I was looking good that night. We had a good time and a few more drink at the club when it was suddenly 2am and we decided we best get back to the hotel before it got ridiculously late. It was quite a night, but all in all it was an excellent time.

Unfortunately I must go to bed now so I will have to post pictures from the past 2 days tomorrow. Sorry.

Monday, September 29^th 2008 (Rob)

Coking.com Seminar Training and Welcome:

Today was definitely a workday, but there was a lot of fun to be had as well. Unfortunately, I have no pictures for today. I will find some good pictures from yesterday to put in their place. Most of the good pictures today were taken  by other people.

I woke up at 6:00 this morning to start of a lovely first day of the seminar. Setup the different IT equipment and then had some breakfast. Breakfast here is similar to our style in the states. There are eggs, bacon, sausage, tater tots for hash browns, and some other normal American food. Along with this, they have hard boiled eggs, soft boiled eggs, breads, nutella, mushrooms, and Sauteed tomatoes. Not all the food is the same, but it is all delicious. Every meal I have the opportunity to try something that I have never tried or am not used to trying. It is quite the experience. I had some type of raw white fish with a red-orange sauce over it that was delicious. Of course there are all these amazing hors-devours that are perfect for each meal. I am quite impressed by the culinary expertise of this region.

Later on in the evening, after the day of training we welcomed most of the regular seminar attendees with a spread of different finger foods and hors-devours. More importantly, there was delicious beer, wine and champagne as well.  

After mingling and saying hello, the event was moved to the restaurant and Ice Bar. The restaurant is the place where we eat most of our meals and the Ice Bar is a bar attached to the hotel that actually has a bar made up of ice. I had some delicious dinner and a few different drink which made the evening quite a good time.

So far I have seen that they know how to treat you in Germany.

Sunday, September 28^th 2008 (Rob)

Coking.com Seminar setup and evening:

Not a whole lot of excitement today, just a lot of setup for the upcoming seminar in the next few days. Köln is a beautiful city with tons of culture. It is a city of pilgrims. After WWII there were only 40,000 Köln natives still left in the city of the 750,000 that there originally were; now there are over 1,000,000 Köln citizens.  Köln is a city of pilgrims.

After a long day of setup we decided to go out for an evening meal to a nice tucked away restaurant. This has been the most fun meal yet. The restaurant we ate at was amazing. It was located in a building that used to be part of one of the original city gates of the city. There are cool statues inside and the atmosphere was perfectly set. We all had many different meals and a good amount of beer and or wine. Tomorrow will be a similar schedule with mostly work during the day.

Saturday, September 27th 2008 (Rob)
Touring Köln:

Today we decided to take a tour of the city by bus. We started off with a delicious buffet at the hotel. They had everything that you could ever want for breakfast. Well almost everything. I don’t think they had steak. We met up with our friends the Pitman’s at breakfast.

After breakfast we headed up the road to the tourism information building. My dad found a double decker bus to go on the tour of the city. We passed so many different and interesting buildings dating back to medieval times. We stopped at a few places on the tour.

We took a tour of the Lindt Chocolate Museum…very tasty. After the museum we hopped back on the bus to go to the cable car that crosses the Rhein, the big river running through Köln. Great view from up there. We had lunch at a nice German Cafe, delicious brews, before heading into the Botanical garden next to the zoo. I was pushing my mom around in her wheelchair most of the time. I had to make it exciting for her so there were times we would almost hit a tree or go off the beaten path. She would let me know when it was too much by screaming Robby!!! Like I was in trouble…or else…empty threats, hopefully.

Once back at the bus stop we met up with the Pitman’s again and Marlea and Jane as well. Once back at the beginning of the tour we were at the famous Köln cathedral. My parent’s and I went inside and my dad and I took the climb up to the top of the tower, such an amazing structure. It was one of the only buildings left standing after the bombings in WWII. Over 70% of the city was leveled. We were also lucky enough to see the beginning of a mass with some very important looking bishops and priests. After the Cathedral we headed back to the Hotel for a little break then to dinner at the hotel restaurant. Dinner took quite a long time for no apparent reason. I ran to the store to grab my mom some eye drops. Not sure what I will do with the rest of this evening. I am exhausted from this first day of Köln.

To start I have never really blogged anything before. I’m taking a trip to Germany and Italy and I want to have a good memory of it with the ability to share it with others easily.

Thursday, September 25^th 2008 and Friday, September 25^th 2008 (Rob)

Grand Rapids, USA to Köln(Cologne), De:

 Around 4pm Thursday, Kara took me to the airport but we first had to make a quick stop to pick up a suit at men’s wearhouse. She said I looked amazing in a suit and I had to agree. Somehow it magically transformed my ars and made it look amazing. Stopped at the mall for a bit while the suit was tailored. Said sad goodbyes 

at the airport. We won’t get to hang out again for at least a month.

Checked in and eventually boarded the plane last as I like to do. Well, it’s either first or last for me, not a big fan of in the middle. Realized I left my brand new camera in the boot(trunk) of my car. Cripes!!! Flew to Detroit. Looked for a new camera in the airport. All they had was a $300 Canon, I’ll pass. Slept through a good majority of the flight to Amsterdam. Where’s all the weed I hear about? Bought a new camera in a technology shop in Amsterdam. How do I

 get Absynth so I can bring some home? Waited around for my Köln flight. Flew to Köln realized I had no clue how to get to the hotel by train like I thought I was going to. I don’t know, I guess I thought I would magically learn German and know how the whole city was laid out and where the hotel was. Guess that isn’t how it work. Got a Taxi instead.

Around 5pm Friday, arrived at my hotel room.

Köln is plus 6 hours from eastern standard. Gorgeous hotel room.Such clean cut lines. Met up with the rents who happened to be in the ajoining room. We went down near the Cathedral and found a place to eat, Steakhaus. More on the Cathedral tomorrow after the tour. Dinner was quite tasty for all. The potato was especially delicious, not sure why though. Heard some good street music on the way back to Hotel. I think I will post video on YouTube at some point. Stopped at a apothecary on the way back as well, actually the pharmacy. I almost bought a dusche…for my nose…odd I know right. I decided to pass on that. Back at the hotel it’s around 9 and I think I will head to bed shortly.

http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=uulkq8eb21E