Germany Conquered!!!

It has been full 4 weeks since I’m in Brussels. Meanwhile, I met a small gang of Indians and since then, we have been rocking the streets of Brussels.

Shopping in Brussels is a little expensive; more to it is the extra VAT that makes it so expensive. Pankaj and I were casually speaking about shopping one night and he mentioned that electronic goods are quite cheap in Germany compared to Brussels.

I immediately checked with Prashanth & co and Arun, Prem if they will be interested. They were game for it and then we started for looking to get there at the least cost and a possible close place where we could plan our Day trip.

Cologne (Koln) is quite close to Brussels and we decided that we would go to Koln, and conquer the streets of Koln. We booked the tickets well ahead on Eurolines.

We wanted to make it even more fun. So, we decided to party on Fri night and travel on Sat morning; return to Brussels Sat night. We had a good dinner set up at our place and had pretty good time Fri night. If I were to tell you we slept at 2 AM early morning on Sat to get up at 4 AM (after 2 hrs); imagine the fun we had.

All of us got fresh and made it to the bus by 5:15 (we were supposed to report at 5:30). Prem and Arun had preferred to get home instead of sleeping at our house and the only hiccup was they did not get the taxi as they had booked and they got to Brussels Noord station just about 10 mins before the departure.

The travel to Koln from Brussels Noord was jus close to 3 hrs and it was fun in the bus making fun of each other and “others”. Finally reached Koln Train station by 9:30 and then started our March to conquer the streets of Koln.

Walking thru the beautifully architectured Train station was an enthralling experience. Jus to get out of the station and to see the Cathedral was even more an amazing sight. So tall the old cathedral still stands just outside the station! Capturing the sight in our Cameras, we moved ahead to see maybe one of the lengthiest shopping streets in the world. You keep walking walking and you never see the end of it, till Newmarkt; all the stores and Brands you name in Europe, you get it here.

Boys were longing to get to Mediamarkt and see the electronics prices (comparing it to the Medimarkt in Brussels). It was kind of disappointment as there was not such a huge price difference for the electronics. To make the trip memorable, couple of boys got camera each and all of us decided otherwise.

Getting into the apparel stores was so exciting!! Beautiful collections. I bought a blazer and a shirt for my brother for him to wear it on my wedding. Such top class finishing, you would go mad on the Brands. All the well known brands of Europe have their presence in this lengthy shopping street.
Finding some vegetarian food was not that a hassle in this street as most of the outlets had something or the other to offer for us vegetarians (including rice). It would not be an exaggeration if I say that we vegetarians enjoyed the food with rice, cooked vegetables, butter and sauces; rather than the non-veggies who opted for meat/fish burgers to only throw most of it untouched in the bin.

Walked all the way till NewMarkt, it was so much of fun and more to add to it was the crowd, the statues, shops, the musicians on the streets playing some wonderful music on the weirdest of instruments I have seen till now.

Luckily the weather did not let us down. Though it was cloudy when we landed in Koln, sun came out by 1 PM (Thanks to www.accuweather.com for the accurate weather and helping us plan our trip to enjoy it the most). People jus go crazy when the sun comes out here. People make it to the streets and wanna enjoy their favorite wine/beer/kaffee/food sitting in the sun. For us also, being in Brussels, feeling the warmth of sun was so beautiful. Atleast I remember, that it was the 1st time in Europe that I walked the streets without my jacket. Our body feeling the warmth of sun brings in so much of happiness in us. I then understood why the Europeans and Americans are so jealous of the Indian climate and plan a yearly tour to their favorite destination Goa.

The Globetrotter shop was amazing. It had some amazing collection of trekker stuff. We also witnessed a treasure hunt in the pond inside the shop. The bags, shoes and all other trekker stuff. You name it and you have it there. Including the air boats that people use for water rafting.

The prices were quite OK. Most of the items that I saw, I guess is quite cheap in the US and some in India too.

The most interesting part of our walk all the way was the many number of Mc Donalds and STARBUCKS coffee. I’m not quite sure if there are these many outlets of these shops in the US also.

All done, and conquered the shopping streets of Koln, we started to walk back to our bus which was at 6:30 PM.

We had spent close to 8 hrs on the shopping streets of Koln, conquered it and headed back to Brussels where we just wanted to hit the sack. We reached Brussels by 10 PM and by the time all boys got back home, I guess it was 10:30 PM.

A great trip which will be remembered for many reasons. Thank you boys for making the trip unforgettable.

Boys: Prashanth, Ananth, Balaji, Baskar, Prem, Arun, Pankaj, Srikanth
Travel: Brussels Noord to Koln
Date: 23rd Feb 2008
Transportation: Eurolines