We have a motorbike. We live on Continental Europe. It is Summer. We have access to Autobahns. All of this must reach only one conclusion. We leather up, straddle the beast, and head East! Before we leave the Netherlands though, I’d like to draw your attention to not only how flat the Netherlands is, but how there is enough water that they don’t bother with fencing in the fields. They just dig more canals.
This is our “where the hell are we?” photo. The Utrecht ring road confounds Himself.
You know you’ve left the Netherlands when you spot your first hill. It really does happen at the border.
Today we wanted something different. We’d been North a couple of times, we’d been South a couple of times, and given our position, there’s only so far West you can get before you hit the ocean. We did that once, and … from here, it’s brown. So we headed East! Germany here we come!
We had decided on Köln, partly because we had been having an ongoing debate about whether or not being on a train as you go through a city actually constitutes haven’t “been to” that city or not. Now we had definitely been through Köln, but not walked around on its soil. It was time to rectify that.
My overwhelming memory of being on a train and going through Köln was the massive cathedral. I was determined to return and have a closer look!
No, that’s not all of it, it keeps going up … and up … and up!
It is a HUGE and intricate Gothic structure, construction of which began in 1248. It is also Germany’s most visited landmark with on average 20,000 visitors a day.
It is also the largest Gothic church in Northern Europe, and is the home to the reliquary of the three kings. Yes, this is where you can go and see the three wise men. Yes, those wise men.
Once Himself and I had fought with enough tourists, and I kept being paranoid of pick-pockets, and we were navigating our way around all of this with our helmets in tow, we decided it was time for sustenance before our ride back home. I opted for a traditional German doughnut. If you are what you eat then I can say with certainty that “ich bin ein berliner!”
Our ride home on the autobahn was quite uneventful. They are long straight quite boring roads. Look …
Having said that, Himself would like to point out that being in the slow lane, at 150km/h is a whole new endorphin punching experience! And we don’t mind being outpaced by the pretty blue Lotus going faster than us! We may have to go through Germany a LOT in the future!
ghoti industries 
Looks like a wonderful visit and quite an adventure! Köln has long been on my list of possible destinations, now I definitely need to go 🙂
I can imagine that, as much of an adrenaline rush as the autobahn can be in a car, it must be even more so when one is doing such speeds (and being passed at even faster speeds) on a motorbike!