Trip to Koln(Cologne)
Scene-1:One think you know all, especially in Germany If you don't know German It will be very difficult to manage. Very tough to move from one location to another location. Here everything is machine dependent To get the tickets for bus OR train and all inevitable items in our daily life like to get a tea OR coffee the list goes...).All the instructions should be in German only. So to explore something in Germany will be a great task.Fianlly myself and one of my friend decided to explore something without knowing German. We have decided to go to a place named Köln. It is a very old city which still keeping their old cultures and monuments. It is situated in the banks of the Rhine river.
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There are lot of train services namely s-bhan,u-bahn and tram and so on. But still now I don't have clear idea between this. But in internet we search and got the sight seeing information about the place and finally got the information from the German colleagues like to go to Köln we have to catch RE(Regional Express). One fine morning on Saturday we started our journey. Reached HBF.Don't think it is TV channel like HBO. It is a main Railway station which in German it is "Hau Bahn Hof". I think that day is ours. The lady in the ticket counter understood English. So we easily got correct tickets to go to Köln. Reached the plate form correctly and waited for the train. The timing they have mentioned for the train is 10:42 AM. Look the timing. Exactly at 10:42 the train has been arrived. We are excited because of this punctuality Even not delayed for a minute even though they have lot of tracks and as many number of trains running parallely!!!). That kind of traffic control system they have implemented.
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And finally got into the train and looking outside each and every station where to got out from the train. We also had a doubt like whether we have entered into the correct cabin or not? Is there anything like 1 st class or 2 nd class seating arrangement in Indian Railways system. From ticket, not possible to understood anything. Because everything has been printed in German. The checking inspector came and verified our ticket and there is no problem in it. So finally we came to a conclusion that we have bought the correct ticket and entered into the correct cabin.Yeah!!! Great.
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Then we started to enjoy the travel. I just remember my college days, usually went to college by train. That good old days came to my mind. Myself and my friend think, ok no problem after this. Everything is going fine. Then we reached a station named Köln suffixed with some other name. Again we got a confusion, whether we need to got down here or not? We have enquired some body in the train. But as usual not possible to get any proper info. Finally there is a station named Koln-HBF. We have decided to get down there itself.
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Got down from the train and entered into the Köln city. First we saw the Catholic church which is very famous there. Very old one. Entered in to the church and took some photographs. The climate is also very good that day to enjoy. Then went to the tourist information centre and got a information that there is a bus available to roam around the city and it exclusively covers all the tourist location. So we have decided to take up that trip.
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So we got into the bus and start enjoying the travel. They explain the history about each places and gave lot of information about the places too Explanation in English!!! as well as in German).
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Finally we went to shopping there in a big street and again caught the train around 6 PM and returned back to our place safely. Wow What a great day!!!! We just felt we have achieved something that day!!! Really it was a nice and exciting experience!!!!
