Köln
Old town has this historic gothic beautiful cathedral but all around it looks pretty modern. During the war they used the church as a marker for bombing targets. According to a local, the city was 99 percent destroyed. After taking many photos of the church, we wander through a market which is really just wine a beer tastings with one pretzel and snitzel stand (awesome right)! Next, we cross the river and head to an old pub. The place is packed. We find a seat and luckily for us a nice local who works at the theatre sits down next to us. He helps us navigate the unique experience which is the Lommerzheim pub.
They serve the local brew and serve food with grand portions. It is a typical blue shirt German pub with traditional Köln beer. A seat yourself kind of place. We kept getting beers placed down without ordering them. He showed us that the locals to signify they don't want another place a coaster over there beer glass. He explained that the server staff are not supposed to be nice to the guests, and helped us order food. The server asked what we wanted. There were no menus, so we said we didn't know and asked to see the card. The server said "Come I show you" He lead us back to the kitchen where he showed us the four options waved a raw bratwurst at us and handed us spoons of potato salad. When we got back to the table to order he said, "Kitchens closed." He came back couple minutes later and said, "Last chance what you having?" I ordered the pork chop. He asked with fat or without when I ordered with fat he looked me up and down before deciding I was allowed to have the one with fat. We also ordered the sausage. The food came out and the pork chop was as big as my face.
Before Yurich left we talked about how Germany no longer has a right wing to its political system just left, center left, and center due to no one wanting to be a Nazi. We talk politics, local laws, and that leads us to drinking laws (apparently the rules are stricter there) and Yurich says he got a dui last year. We ask how many drinks he had; he picks up the coaster and draws a circle around it twice. From that interaction, we picked up the line for drunk or people “They went twice around the coaster!”
Paying was tricky as our friendly helper had left. We flagged the guy down several times before he decided we could pay out. A whole 2 hours later we got to leave. Yurich had warned us that this was a place to "chill out." All in all 4 beers and 2 meals we were only out 25. We walked back to our car and heard some very talented street performers on their open air mall, and got a pretzel at the altz market.
Old town has this historic gothic beautiful cathedral but all around it looks pretty modern. During the war they used the church as a marker for bombing targets. According to a local, the city was 99 percent destroyed. After taking many photos of the church, we wander through a market which is really just wine a beer tastings with one pretzel and snitzel stand (awesome right)! Next, we cross the river and head to an old pub. The place is packed. We find a seat and luckily for us a nice local who works at the theatre sits down next to us. He helps us navigate the unique experience which is the Lommerzheim pub.
They serve the local brew and serve food with grand portions. It is a typical blue shirt German pub with traditional Köln beer. A seat yourself kind of place. We kept getting beers placed down without ordering them. He showed us that the locals to signify they don't want another place a coaster over there beer glass. He explained that the server staff are not supposed to be nice to the guests, and helped us order food. The server asked what we wanted. There were no menus, so we said we didn't know and asked to see the card. The server said "Come I show you" He lead us back to the kitchen where he showed us the four options waved a raw bratwurst at us and handed us spoons of potato salad. When we got back to the table to order he said, "Kitchens closed." He came back couple minutes later and said, "Last chance what you having?" I ordered the pork chop. He asked with fat or without when I ordered with fat he looked me up and down before deciding I was allowed to have the one with fat. We also ordered the sausage. The food came out and the pork chop was as big as my face.
Before Yurich left we talked about how Germany no longer has a right wing to its political system just left, center left, and center due to no one wanting to be a Nazi. We talk politics, local laws, and that leads us to drinking laws (apparently the rules are stricter there) and Yurich says he got a dui last year. We ask how many drinks he had; he picks up the coaster and draws a circle around it twice. From that interaction, we picked up the line for drunk or people “They went twice around the coaster!”
Paying was tricky as our friendly helper had left. We flagged the guy down several times before he decided we could pay out. A whole 2 hours later we got to leave. Yurich had warned us that this was a place to "chill out." All in all 4 beers and 2 meals we were only out 25. We walked back to our car and heard some very talented street performers on their open air mall, and got a pretzel at the altz market.