And what was all that about?
A flying two day visit to Köln in October? At the simplest level, I had holiday time to use up and I always enjoy being back in Germany. I got a good deal on a hotel and flights.
I went to a big ice hockey match – Kölner Haie v Pinguins Bremerhaven at the Lanxess Arena in Köln. I ran the Aachener Weiher Parkrun, also in Köln.
I visited the Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst.
I had a wonderful pizza in Little Nonna about 2 minutes walk from my hotel. I enjoyed a great dinner at Tanoshii the evening of my arrival – also 2 minutes from the hotel. I can think of a handful of other eating places I could have tried, all within that tiny radius.
The hotel was excellent. A real pleasure, and it felt more upmarket than my usual haunts.
Eurowings served me well too.
I felt obligated to have a few of the local beers (Kölsch). It might have been rude not to.
The wider picture is that my original plans for that holiday had fallen through. I had volunteered to drive a pickup truck from Scotland to Ukraine for use by the military or humanitarian services. It would have involved a ferry from Newcastle to Amsterdam and then driving across the Netherlands, Germany and Poland over a 3-4 day period, delivering the “package” in Kolomyia to the south of Lviv.
Then bus and plane back to Scotland via Lviv and Kraków. I expected to be paying all my expenses (ferry, fuel, hotels, flight) and had set aside £800 for that. The Scottish volunteer organisation arranging it all turned out to be thoroughly pathetic when it came to communication. I suspect I found a blessing in disguise because a trip like that can stress-test the best of organisations if something goes wrong.
Meantime, I am happy donating some of my spare time to weaving camouflage nets for the Ukrainian military. Every little bit counts.
ⓒ iain taylor, 2025
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