When I start typing these posts I get prompts. Last time it was something like “What’s your favourite animal?“, and now it’s “What bid events have taken place in your life over the past year?”. Well, nothing really.
OK, I met the Southworths twice (2x).
1st November 2022.
By the time we met up with Dave, he was apparently the world authority on Kolsch.
Frankly, Dave is right.
We met up near Joan and Dave’s hotel on our return from Dusseldforf, determined to ruin the last night of their German vacation.
Unusual for us to be staying so close to the centre of town, though that railway station dominates Cologne as much as the Dom.
All it needs is a Koln Tap selling craft beer at 9 euros a pint and pork scratchings.
Instead, you have to walk round the scaffold-enclosed cathedral (takes about 25 minutes) to reach Fruh’s flagship.
One of my very favourite pieces of pub writing comes from Ron Pattinson (here) where he recounts his eight glasses of Kolsch in seventy-five minutes with his lad. In 2015 I attempted something similar with James, except then after climbing to the top of the towerI left him finishing off his schnitzel outside Fruh am Dom while I whizzed round 3 nearby “ticks”.
This was a more leisurely affair, at least insofar as I didn’t make Mrs RM climb to the top of the Dom (it’s filthy up there).
A few beers, and some bread and Dutch cheese, in one of Cologne’s most ornate interiors.
I don’t think the beer was any more expensive than in the simpler bars, and was cool and gorgeous (though not a patch on the Alt, which I can only say now I’m safely home).
Never mind 8 pubs in 75 minutes, my challenge to you is drink 8 glasses of Kolsch and attempt to find the Gents.
A lovely evening, with tentative plans to meet the Southworths again when they do their Grand Tour of Slough and Maidenhead.
I THINK that’s what they said.
retiredmartin 
Aye, those helpful suggestions from WordPress. I’ve had some entertaining chats with their Happiness Engineers too… I wonder if they wear Ken Dodd outfits?
Who is this singer called Dual IPA by the way?
Seems like a good name in The Age Of Pubs.
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Maidenhead here we come!
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I like Fruh, although on my last visit (2017), they didn’t accept card payments, so we had to have a whip-round, in order to spare us from doing the washing up! (I was with a party of work colleagues.) If I remember correctly, the Gents (Herren), did take a bit of finding.
The Hauptbahnhof is certainly an imposing station, but you can cut-through the shopping area, below the platforms. I wouldn’t disagree with Dave’s assessment of the various Kolsch’s , as over the course of numerous business trips, plus a couple that were for pleasure, I must have sampled virtually every brand available in the city.
There’s a possibility I might be returning to Cologne, in a work capacity, this coming March, so I shall carry out a spot more sampling!
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Paul, it was the Dom, covered in scaffolding and no entry signs, that took the navigation rather than the short stroll through the station 20 platforms, 20 bakeries).
I’ve seen several tourists complain about the insistence on cash, along with lack of drink choice and astonished look when the lady doesn’t drink beer !
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Päffgen and (Malz)mühle(n) are my go to Kölsches/pubs in Cologne: https://whenmyfeetgothroughthedoor.blogspot.com/2012/12/a-stroll-around-cologne.html
Früh Kölsch is a drinkable beer and Früh Am Dom an atmospheric pub, but given its location next to the cathedral is inevitably a bit more of a tourist trap than the others.
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Every trip to the Ruhr needs a frying pan of wurst to accompany the beer at some point.
What’s the wonderful back street bar just over the river called again?
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I’m guessing that’s Lommerzheim (Lemmy’s), the Laurieston of the Ruhr. We did make that.
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That’s the one! Great comparison, seems obvious when you mention it.
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The queue outside at 11am and the surge for the tables was quite something. A real bloke pub crawl crowd.
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Ah, made for Mrs RM then.
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