Lunch in Köln

I got up this morning about 8:30, got some work done, and then Steve and I took a walk around the shopping district. I grabbed a Berliner -- the jelly donut, not the wheat beer -- which was just wonderful, and munched as we walked. After an inspiring tour around the Dom -- it was a cool, breezy, sunny day, and the view was, well, awesome -- we tripped down to the Gaffel Haus and had a couple stange of that crisp, hoppy kölsch.

Then we made our way through the torturous nest of intersections at the south end of the Heumarkt (if you've been there, you know just what I mean: 5 minutes to get 60 meters!) and had lunch at Malzmühle: as Steve said, the other end of the kölsch spectrum, the malty, even a bit sticky end. The food was as farmer-simple as I recall: a hearty mash of potatoes, green kale, and hammy bits cooked up in broth, with a fat and solid grilled bratwurst sitting on top. I could not finish it, delicious, but just too much. A last kölsch, back to the room (we're stazing at the Maritim, a very nice hotel just about 40 meters from Malzmühle), and then we hopped the train to Düsseldorf...where I'm typing this now before heading over to Uerige.

Tomorrow: Belgium.