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Sunday, June 28, 2009

Blogging from Cologne: Steiff! Steiff! Steiff!
Posted by Jill | 8:14 AM
It's so humid in Cologne right now you could just melt. If you're like me, and you don't do well in heat or humidity, and you packed for mid-to-high 70's, you're not a very happy camper right about now. Well, I am, because I'm back in my room getting ready to do actual work after spending the morning at the Römish-Germanisches museum, where I took a ton of photos and videos that I probably won't get to post till I get home next Friday.

But yesterday was shopping and a visit to the Dom. First up, my grip to the Galeria Kaufhof, where my colleague assured me I could find Steiff toys.

Well.

When you get off the escalator on the floor where the sports equipment, kids' clothes, and toys are, you are greeted by this guy:


Now, this child you see in the video was enthralled, but I know that when I was a small child, this thing would have scared the living daylights out of me. I also thought it was strange that when he's finished, he squats down on the lovely Steiff golden retriever under him. But whatever. Let's take a tour of the department, shall we? (Mom, you'd better sit down for this.)




If you're looking for bargains, you won't find them here. There seem to be 2 tiers of Steiff animals now; the original, hard-bodied toys with the stiff fur, which are still preposterously expensive, and the softer, newer-style toys that are more affordable. I mean, I am just not paying 80 € for a 4" bear. I'm just not. But of course I am the person who once bought a bag of about six Steiff animals for 25 bucks from an animal shelter yard sale the minute the person who brought them in started pulling them out. But you can hear me muttering in the second video that the bears in suitcases can be had for $25 from the Signals catalog, and they were the equivalent of $40 here.

I had read that in Germany they don't use plastic shopping bags, so I brought my canvas Trader Joe's tote with me. Well, if you go into a Steiff department with an empty tote bag, they are going to keep an eye on you. So there I was, trying to explain to a salesperson who spoke no English that if they can "schiff auf US, ich [take] das grosse animal fur meine mutti geburtstag, Sie ist zwei und ochtzig." So we managed to communicate, and when she saw I was a serious buyer, the smile came out and I was directed to a service desk, where I had to explain that "St." in the US suffices, that you need not write "Strasse", and in fact no one will know what it means. So it remains to be seen whether my purchase will ever get to the U.S., but with a big laptop bag and carry-on limits, there is no way I would have been able to bring my purchase on the plane.

But I was also captivated by this little guy, who wasn't a Steiff, but in true internet geek fashion, is called -- what else -- a Roffle:



His name is Rollo the Laughing Dog, and you can get your very own here.

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Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Blogging from Cologne: Istanbul Kebap House
Posted by Jill | 2:05 PM


Today was my first day in Cologne as a commuter. In Germany, the trains not only run on time, but they are immaculate. My colleague helped me obtain a week pass from the machine, after which you have to get a card with your name and address on it. Supposedly it's in case you drop or lose your ticket, but it has a peculiar "Where are your papers?" quality to it, until I think about how nice it would be to get my ticket back if I DO lose it. The 8:37 AM train was right on time. The S-line has two classes of accommodation -- first and second. You board the car with the class associated with your ticket -- and no one checks it -- most of the time. But if they do a spot check and you have a second class ticket in a first class car, I don't know if you have to pay the difference or just pay a fine, but nobody does it.

There's something to be said about a society this orderly. We all know what happens when lust for order falls into the wrong hands, but while there are a few homeless people, and a fair amount of public drunkenness, the streets of Cologne are clean, the tracks and station platforms are clean, and the trains are immaculate. The closest thing to disorderliness you see on the train other than a few drunks is graffiti on the railroad crossings.

I didn't get back to Cologne tilll 7:30 PM today after a long day at the office. The Hauptbahnhof has a mammoth food court, with the Americans lined up at Burger King and the Germans picking up sandwiches that look great until you realize that it's all lettuce and käse and some of the most mammoth pastries you will ever see. After perusing the food court for a while with every intention of trying some of the local takeout food, I ended up once again at the Istanbul Pizzeria Kebaphause. If you're ever in Cologne and you're near the Dom, stop by and tell the guys that the short middle-aged lady who can't speak German sent you. I may be ruining things for my co-workers who can sit in a nice restaurant till 10 PM and wake up fresh as a daisy the next day, but tonight there was nothing I wanted more than grilled meat, tzatziki, salad, and feta cheese on flatbread. As I write this, I'm finishing up a #27 Dönerteller, which is doner kebab (gyro), tzatziki, feta, salad, and a kind of mild sauerkraut in a pocket bread that actually holds up to all of this. Take your fine dining, I'll take one of these bad boys (™ Guy Fieri) for four euros any day of the week.

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