20/09/22-Linz to Cologne
If you’ve been following the tour via this blog so far, you may have wondered what happened to Monday’s blog, but the simple answer is that Monday was a proper rest day. Lea had a doctors appointment that couldn’t be moved, which meant another day in Linz, and I took the opportunity to truly rest. The highlights of my day included washing my hair, reading a book, and sitting staring into space so I didn’t think it warranted a full blog entry!
So lets pick up the following day, although I don’t actually know if it’s the next day or the same day, as it began at 4am! With a start that can only be described as a very very early start, Lea’s dad gave us a lift to the train station (absolute legend, also Lea’s mum is an absolute legend for leaving us some sandwiches for the train) and we headed for train number one of the day. The day was to be filled with lots of trains, 9 hours 30 minutes of them to be exact, to take us from Linz, Austria, to Cologne, Germany. The first train was a quiet one, and took us just across the border to Passau. We were pleasantly surprised to find train 2 was waiting on the platform opposite and, with the cold outside taking aim, we dived on board a little early, ready to depart for the rest of our journey. Despite a long journey, we were glad that it was only two trains. We even managed to sit in a private compartment, another fun feature of European trains! With the sun rising, the train journey went fairly smoothly, and we got off in Bonn to get some food. Then we headed to a Cologne suburb, Brühl, where our host for the evening and concert organiser, Tobi, welcomed us into his home.
A quick break to get ready for the show, and we headed on another few trains to Ehrenfeld. Stopping for some food, at a vegan Asian restaurant, we headed to the concert host, Oliver’s, house. The show was a concert with Cologne Living Room Concerts, and Oliver had only hosted one show previously, but had the room set up perfectly. There was a small stage in the corner, some very cool artwork, and a welcoming host! The room quickly filled out, and we found ourselves performing to a silent audience, there to experience the music above all else. Living room concerts are a treat in this way. No other show allows you to perform to such attentive audience members, and we’re thankful for the chance to have played a few of these shows (including one tomorrow) on this tour! After the show we stayed to chat for a while, and then headed towards the train, via a stop at a late night falafel shop. With the trains a lot less frequent at this time of night, we ended up getting back at 1am and were excited to finally hit the hay after a wonderful but long day!
