Wednesday, July 28th, 1993 -- Koln, Germany
I got into Koln from Amsterdam this morning after spending two days there. My first afternoon in Amsterdam I wandered around the red light district. I've decided that once you've seen one sex shop/head shop/coffee shop you've seen them all. I went back to the hotel T'Anchor where I was staying and had a beer (the main floor of the hotel is a bar). That evening, I went back to the red light district and hung out in a coffee shop called "36". When you ask for a "menu" in a coffee shop in Amsterdam, what they give you is a list of prices for marijauna and hashish. They also sell papers and rent bongs. It's quite a trip having it be legal to roll a big fat joint at the bar in a public establishment. The coffee shops also sell "space tea" (tea brewed with marijuana -- it didn't do much for me) and "space cakes" (the local name for hash brownies -- I found these highly unpredictable).I met a woman woman from Portland who had had quite the interesting time in Amsterdam. She'd had all of her stuff stolen while she was taking a shower and witnessed a gunfight at an after-hours party -- all during the same day. She was killing a few hours before catching a train to Barcelona to go work as a Go-Go dancer for a few weeks. She'd done the same thing in Greece earlier. I spent another hour or so talking with a woman who was a social worker from Berlin, and then returned to my hotel and crashed.
The next morning, I met a woman from San Luis Obispo and we decided to explore Amsterdam together. She had also had her stuff stolen on her trip (there seems to be a lot of that going around). We hooked up with two guys from London and went to the Heinekin brewery. This brewery, located near the center of Amsterdam, used to be the major production site for Heinekin, but production demands caused them to build a larger brewery elsewhere and now they've turned the original site into a museum. Entry was only two guilders, and this got us a tour of the brewery with 45 minutes of "product confrontation" at the end. The confrontation involved as much free Heinekin as you could drink. I've never been a big Heinekin fan, but the stuff in Amsterdam tastes better than what we get in the States. Plus, it was free!
Jamie
and John on the streets of Amsterdam.
After the brewery, Sally (the California woman) left to catch a train, and Jamie and John (the Brits) and I went to the Sex Museum. Yes it's a tourist trap, but it's a lot of fun. The silent porn films were particularly amusing. After the museum, we went to Coffeeshop 36 where I taught the Brits how to play Cut-throat. They promptly thrashed me in every game -- must be all that practise playing snooker. I said goodbye to them, and went back to the hostel where I met a bunch of Canadians -- as in about six. Between the lot of us, we had Canada covered from coast to coast. I hung out in the bar with Carrie, a woman from Toronto, for the afternoon. Later, two of the other Canadians came back and we all went out to a local club called the Bull Dog. Who did we meet there but two girls from Ottawa. Man, these Canadians are everywhere!
The next morning, I decided that I'd had my fill of Amsterdam. I looked in my train schedule to see what my options were. There was a 9:00 train to Koln, so I decided to go there. I went to the station, caught my train, and arrived in Koln around noon. After a litte searching, I found the hostel I was looking for and got a room. I went wandering around the city and found out that there is a circus in town. I might go tomorrow. I walked around the Dom, the huge cathedral in Koln. While it isn't that impressive on the inside, it's truly amazing to look at from the outside. I had a Bratworst and a beer in one of the many little places along the street. I love the big half-liter bottles of beer.
Thursday, July 29th, 1993 -- Koln, Germany
I'm back in the hostel. I met a guy named Carlos for Portugal yesterday. We went to the University area last night and had a few drinks. They have a really cool beer tradition here. The local beer is called "Kolsch" (meaning "Koln beer"), and lots of places have their own brew. You can go from place to place, sampling the local Kolsch. They serve it in little, skinny glasses (.2 liters, I think). 
Carlos on the Rhine in front of the Dom.
This morning, Carlos slept in. He was still tired from a marathon train ride from Portugal. I went to the Wallrad-Richartz Museum and Museum Ludwig. I really enjoyed the Ludwig, a modern art museum. I bought a t-shirt of a Lichtenstien picture. I went back to the hostel and hooked up with Carlos. I bought a Gyro (Gyro stands seem to be everywhere in Europe) and a beer, and then realized that I didn't have a bottle opener. I convinced a woman running a store to open it for me. It's nice to be able to have a beer with your lunch on a park bench. After lunch, Carlos and I took a boat ride on the Rhein.
Saturday, July 31st, 1993 -- Hamburg, Germany
Today is my second day in a youth hostel in Hamburg. It has been raining
most of the time except for yesterday afternoon. Thursday night, in Koln,
Carlos and I went walking around the city. We ended up having a beer in
the beer gardens of a restaurant near the Rhein. They got mad at us and
wouldn't let up drink outside (it costs more, and we'd bought our beers
inside). In retaliation, we stole the glasses (the skinny kind I described
earlier) we were drinking from. It will be a miracle if I get it back home
in one piece. We got up at 6:00 the next morning, had breakfast, and hopped
a train for Hamburg. The trip took a little less than four hours, and I
slept much of the way. We arrived in Hamburg a little after noon, bought
day passes for the metro, and found a hostel. It's in a great location
near the harbor, the St. Pauli district, and the city center. St. Pauli
is a notorious red light district, but also contains many music clubs (the
Beatles lived and played here when they were first getting started).
That afternoon, we wandered around the city. We went to St. Michadis, an
amazing church, and the wandered down the main street of St. Pauli. As
one might expect, there were sex shops and sex shows everywhere. 
An experiment with the metro found us in the city center, by the Hamburg
Rathaus. The "Rathaus" in a German city is city hall. Inside, they had
an exhibit following the effect of World War II on Hamburg. It was extremely
interesting to look at the before/after photographs. Most of the city was
completely destroyed by bombing. We drank beer brewed by Franciscan monks
alongside a canal that was populated with swans.
That evening, we went back to St. Pauli. At one point, we walked around a corner into a covered alley filled with women dressed in bras and g-strings who hinted in a not-so-subtle fashion that they might be persuaded to "make sex, 50 deutchmarks". We spent the rest of the evening hanging out in the local bars.
This morning, we went to a special Picasso exhibit at an art gallery near the train station. They had many Picasso's brought from all over the world that gave a comprehensive coverage of a segment of his artistic career.
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