We had gone to Cologne (Koln) to see the amazing cathedral. It just happened to be in November 2016. It turns out that 11/11 is the biggest day of the year in Cologne when the entire 10m inhabitants catch the train to Koln HBF in fancy dress and proceed to party around the entire Cathedral area. Everything stops at 11.00 am so if you are there then you aren’t going anywhere So at 10.40 we were just praying for a train which arrives and whisks us away in a miasma of other people’s alcohol fumes.
There is some irony in the fact that at 11.00 am Cologne stops to party and at 11.00 am the UK stops to remember the dead of wars.