Monday, December 6, 2010

Cologne, Germany.

Travelled from Amsterdam and headed north through Groningen, NL then through Oldenburg, Germany. I then travelled south to Cologne and was planning to stay only a couple of days, but I ended up staying a week it was that good. I stayed at Berger Camping in Rodenkirchen, which is about 7 km out of Cologne centre. The site is located right next to the river Rhine, and is about a 20 minute bike ride into the city. The weather was getting better as I was heading south and it was warm most days with the late summer sunshine, excellent conditions for busking. There's loads to do and see in Cologne and it attracts lots of tourism, with the Gothic Cathedral, river Rhine cruises, and the bars and restaurants all along the riverside. This is the area where I first set up to busk. The weather was good, and loads of people were out strolling down the riverside board walks, so it looked promising, and it turned out well as I made 10 euros in the first hour. There were loads of buskers in Cologne from street artists, human Statues, a 4 piece band playing classical music, a Reggae musician, electric guitarist, steel guitarist and  2 one man bands. And they were all pretty good so I felt a bit out of my depth but I got on with it and tryed to set up well away from any other Buskers as I know some of the more serious and local Artists can get a bit competitive over pitches. The main places I tryed over the week were along the riverside, around the Cathedral, near the train station and the Alter Markt, all in all the best of the places I stayed on the trip, for both things to do, the nighlife and busking.