Cologne

• I arrived in Cologne. It was a long journey from Sangüesa, Spain, a little west of Pamplona. 3 buses and 3 trains, with a rest day at Biarritz before tackling the night train from Toulouse to Paris and a race across Paris to the final Thalys train departing Gare de Nord.
• My friends for the last few days of walking, departing Undués de Lerda for Sangüesa.

 

• From one world to another. It reminded me of another long journey a few years ago from Ogden, Utah, to Genoa, northern Italy. In Ogden ordinary suburban life is conducted with big pickup trucks. Shopping, children to school. These trucks have self-unfolding step ladders to allow the ordinary mum and children to climb into them. No one walked anywhere, except me. I was the freak in town. Some thought I was at risk from the homeless. But they know better than to accost a freak.
• Some hours later in the intimate spaces of an Italian city engraved around a harbour and surrounding hills. Narrow streets, miniature buses, and glamorous Italian women on Vespers. And different food.
• And so it was from a near-deserted valley in northern Spain to Cologne. In Spain (and similarly in deserted France before that) there there had been little sign of life and food was scarce during the day. My habit had been to have breakfast, whatever limited choice was available, and then walk without carrying food. On many days there was no food on the way. I often walked 4, 6, and occasionally 8 hours with brief rest stops without eating, then waiting for the late Spanish dinner. At most one adequate meal a day.
• Then to Cologne. The city with a Cathedral and music. And deep Roman history. The Romans didn't do well east of Cologne.
  
• More importantly it was a shopping and eating mecca. The streets were congested and the people on a continuous all-day eating binge. Every day. Cakes, ice cream, and curry wurst. Like the birds migrating from Egypt, gorging on grain for a long flight. But the Germans weren't flying anywhere. Their feedback mechanism was faulty.
• It can be traced back to the beer purity laws which dictated that beer must not be made from wheat as wheat was more valuable in bread and cake making than beer, barley would do fine and it does. At the time there was insufficient agricultural surplus, although that eventually changed providing the foundations of the philosophical and technical powerhouse is has become.
•  In fact the epicentre of world technology, seeding the USA, and other countries, with technical people during a series of waves of emigration, tools, and technology. They are OK on other facets of human endeavour as well.
• In all that success they overlooked the wheat and dairy surpluses. So Cologne, and everywhere, is a sea of bakeries and ice cream shops. And addicted Germans. Just a few of those bakeries every 10 kms along the walking tracks would've helped. Especially that Apple Strudel - unique to Cologne.