Scowl, Nu?

Since we still are waiting for our kitchen to arrive from Ikea (scheduled for Tuesday morning), we have been relegated to eating out the last few days…

Breakfast on Thursday:
The local bakery next to our apartment.

Lunch on Thursday:
NY Bagel Sandwich. Real bagels, boiled and frozen in New York, and then final baked in Cologne. They also own the Ben and Jerry’s franchise for Cologne. Great bagels – I had a basic bagel with cream cheese and lox and was instantly transported back to the delis in New England.

Dinner on Thursday
la Conca d’Oro: Right around the corner from our apartment, we gave this Italian restaurant a chance since it is the closest pasta/pizza shop in the area. The food was much better than expected. Fantastic bruschetta, great chocolate mousse, exceptional lasagne and fresh Gaffel and Budweiser (the Czech stuff, not the American corn-water). H: Reichensbergerplatz.

Breakfast on Friday:
Croissants and coffee from the bakery across the street.

Lunch on Friday:
Chicken Farm: A little Greek stand selling all sorts of chicken stuff. Chicken burgers (Janet had one) with cheese, chicken döner (Avery had one), roasted chickens, fries (chicken free). Excellent quality and very affordable. H: Ebertplatz.

Dinner on Friday:
Konfuzius: Took a chance after the excellent chinese at Jade in Munich. What can we say? Not Jade, but still very good. Nice selection of Dim Sum (wor tip, char xiu bao, fried wontons), good main courses (Sichuan Chicken) and a nice selection of teas. A perfect place 10 minutes from home. H: Ebertplatz.

Lunch on Saturday:
McDonalds. I know… I know… I hate McDonalds too, but we were running errands downtown and needed sustinance to make it through the afternoon. Janet had the Chicken Big Mac. I had the new Bigger Mac. Yeah, we regret it. H: Pretty much everywhere.

Dinner on Saturday:
Tandoor Palace: One of the best Indian restaurants we have been to. Amazingly good papadums, a great lamb tikka appetizer, and the best Chicken Tikka Masala and Chicken Jalfrezi we have had in a long time. Also delivers through United Kitchens. H: Rudolfplatz.

Afterwards…
Ok, we needed to stop at our favorite Irish Pub, Jameson’s for a few Guinnesses and some whiskey. A perfect end to our first culinary adventures here in Cologne. H: Friesenplatz.

After almost two years in Munich, it was time for a change.

Why? Well, there were a few things. First off, I have changed jobs. The new position I have taken is wonderful – a new company with all A-Level players – people who I have wanted to work with and have known for years and an idea that I have wanted to develop since 1999.

But even if it wasn’t for the new job, we probably still would have left. Munich is a beautiful city, but in some ways, it just frustrated the hell out of us. Sure, it was beautiful, and if you love snow, skiing and the mountains, it is a perfect location. Unfortunately, for us, skiing is just a prelude to sitting in a pub nursing our bruises and enjoying a nice drink by the fire. Hell, I can do that without the potential damage to life and limb.

But take Munich out of the picture and where the hell am I? In Bavaria. Deep in Bavaria. Conservative, mildly-xenophobic, back-water farmland. Let’s be honest here. It’s the sticks. If you drive for an hour, do you know where you are? Yep – still in the sticks. An hour after that? Either Nürnberg or Brennero. Honestly, it takes a good amount of time before you’re in a different city, and most of that drive is through farmland and quaint little villages. Unfortunately, like skiing, quaint little villages don’t do much for us.

So, instead of the excessively expensive land of beer-by-the-liter, we’ve gone to the other extreme. We can still get beer-by-the-liter, but it takes five glasses to get there. Yep, the Scowlers are in Cologne.

Why Cologne? Well, first off, the job was fantastic… and we already have as many friends up here as we did in Munich. Plus, we’re more ale drinkers than lager lovers, so coming to the land of Kölsch isn’t the hardest thing for our tastebuds. But beyond that, it’s just the feel of the city… and it is a real city.

Cologne prides itself on its multiculti image. You can see it in the most subtle ways – the ticket machines for the subways are in 4 languages (Munich just put the first few English friendly machines in place at the main train station and the airport), and the grocery stores offer beer from all over the world (in Munich, if it was brewed more than 20 km from the city center, it was pretty much verboten). Plus, it’s the gay capital of Europe, which means our friends from San Francisco will have more fun when they come to visit.

Oh, and if we get sick of Cologne, just jump on the subway and end up in Bonn, or take the train for 30 minutes to Düsseldorf, or jump in the car and be in Brussels, Antwerp or Amsterdam in just two hours.

So, we’re now adopting Cologne as our new home. Our apartment even has a view of the Dom (the main cathedral)… sure, we can only see the tips of the spires, but it’s still an amazing sight to see every morning when we get up.

That’s all for now, and Kölle Alaaf!

Last week, I had to spend the week at the Doubletree in Boca Raton while on a business trip. I am a frequent traveler booking close to 50 nights of hotel stays each year and I am used to a certain basic standard when traveling.

The Doubletree in Boca didn’t even come close.

The room, as it was, was very basic. The air conditioning was a little loud and the batteries in the remote were dead, but in general, the room was clean and functional. Oh, and the phone had a strange problem where it accepted calls from the front desk but not room-to-room calls. All in all, I can’t complain about the room.

Well, OK, I can complain. The wireless access only worked in the living room area of the suite, and then only with two bars of power. In the bedroom, there was no signal.

As a business traveler, having high-speed internet in the room is a requirement and is one of the key decisioning points in choosing a hotel. I chose the Doubletree because it listed wireless internet access in every room. I was thrilled the first night when I found out that the internet access was free, saving my company the typical $14.95 nightly fee.

However, while in meetings the next day, they lost their internet access. That was Tuesday morning. It was out all the way until I left on Thursday. I know this might not have been the hotel’s fault, but being in the telecom industry, the problem with the internet would have been attributable in this case to two things: 1) the telco inactivated the DSL account (lack of payment, system error), or 2) the DSL modem was broken (easily remedied for $100 at any Circuit City). Either way, as a business customer of the DSL provider, it should have been fixed in a single day.

The other problem was the bar. The bartenders were excellent, but they had crap to work with. The only vodka and gin they had was the sort of rotgut store brand that kids at frat parties use. The beer was served in plastic cups (I don’t care if it is poolside – get some better serviceware). All in all, a very poor showing for a hotel trying to attract corporate guests.

Finally, the free breakfast was inedible. I mean, the eggs were absolutely disgusting. No amount of Tabasco could fix this. Oh, and the sausage tasted like plastic. Sorry, not plastic, styrofoam. The potato/onion/pepper melange was acceptable. I didn’t even venture an attempt on the coffee front.

In four days at this hotel, I saw at least six people complain at the front desk, and at the end of the trip, I asked to speak with a manager regarding a credit for the internet access. Not only was the supervisor rude and unsympathetic, he complained about my request for a $20 credit for the loss of productivity caused by the internet outage.

I will be in Boca regularly over the next year. Needless to say, I will never stay at this hotel, nor will I recommend this hotel to any of my colleagues.

Bad form, Doubletree. Bad form.

and hello Cologne.

32 days and counting

Bronchitis.

Seriously, I made it through my birthday with my friends at the Wies’n, but noticed that I was getting a sore throat. Tuesday morning I woke up with some congestion. Now, it’s the start of bronchitis.

Happy birthday to me!

Well, that pretty much says it all, doesn’t it?