After two less than wonderful weather days, it would figure that our travel day was clear, sunny, and even getting warm. After the short hour trip to Cologne we got into the station and walked out to a fully sunny mid-day which made the cathedral look even better. It sure did look more inviting than the snowy day in March that found a way to suck all the enjoyment of such a wonderful view. It was even more awe-inspiring with the chance to fully go around it and see all of the intricacy and stone work that went into it. This time it was a chance to wander fully around the Dom at a semi-leisurely pace. It could have been fully leisurely if we had a longer layover and even more if we didn't have to dodge the more oblivious gawkers. The best of the bunch were the people who put down their luggage and walked away for better pictures just assuming that everyone was nice enough not to take their bags. It was not such a location for such trust as I had caught a few glimpses at people trying to pickpocket others. One of the more inept thieves got his hand caught in the potential victim's coat pocket and received a nice slap for his effort.
As we came back toward the train station it was time to start seeking out a kolsch, hopefully finding another good locale easily accessible to our train connection. It was just turning noon so the bells were fully in their cycle when we saw that Gaffel Brewery was right there and was truly in the shadow of the Dom based on its location at that time of day. We found a seat, dropped the packs, and the wait staff simply walked by with trays of 200cl freshly poured glasses and put one down in front of each of us. It was such an enjoyable experience and the taste of Gaffel kolsch was so much better fresh than even the night before on tap in Koblenz. We had enough time to fully enjoy a couple of glasses before catching our three hour tour to Amsterdam. On the way back to the train station I decided we needed another bath duck to keep our Freiburg baschle duck company and Gaffel was so good as to have one available, holding a kolsch no less.
The rest of the train journey was a quiet, but slightly long journey. We got in at Amsterdam Centraal station just after 4pm and were greeted by Drew Duggan, who is presently working over there and kindly offered to let us stay with him for a couple of nights. On the tram ride to his place we discussed going over to Utrecht a little later to see Iron and Wine in concert. We were feeling good and were up for the adventure so we just dropped our bags at his place, freshened up a little and headed back to the station in order to go over to Utrecht. There was a quick stop for food at a doner kebab shop, followed by our bit of travel to the concert. There were not only seats available, but it was also general admission so that we could find good central seats easily. It was a great concert and the trio This Is The Kit opened for Iron and Wine. I am actually a bit surprised that we hadn't come across Iron and Wine before, but now we will end up picking up at least a couple of the albums when we are back stateside next week.
Getting a fuller sense of Amsterdam was to be the larger goal over the next two days as we had a great first evening in the area with Drew.
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