I love this city. I don’t know how many times I have been there, but I remember that the first one was in November 2000 with Ricardo, who lived in Germany at that time. It feels like home being there, I think I could live there.

Cologne is quite big but the center is small, so you can walk it in a few hours. It’s not the most beautiful city in Germany, but it has a special feeling, an magnificent cathedral, nice and friendly people, and of course the well known Kölsh beer.

After going to the a laundry (yes, we travel light. One small bag and we wash clothes on the road), we spent the day walking through town, sipping Kölsh on the shores of the Rhine, and just enjoying the day at this familiar place.

We met Camilo near the Dom and later Rocardo at the Konrad Adenauer Köln/Bonn Airport. So, the long awaited moment was about to begin! This was the first time I was going on a long trip with Ricardo and Camilo, who are two of my best friends. Indeed, Ricardo is my best friend, even my brother, so I was very pleased to share these moments with him.

The flight was delayed a few hours but the airline provided us with some food coupons that we used on the Burger King. I can understand that people complains when a plane is late on a leisure trip, but hey…I prefer my plane to be late for maintenance than an emergency landing!

We boarded the TUIFly plane and we were ready for our trip to the Middle East! In case you don’t know it, TuiFly is a German airline part of the TUI Group, the biggest tourism group in the world. They have charter flights sold as packaged tours but also regular low cost flights from Germany to a lot of places in Europe and even as far as Istanbul, Cairo, Tel Aviv or Cape Verde. I’ve flown then a few times. The service is great, it’s a very serious airline and I absolutely recommend it. Their flights are prices from 19,99€ including tax, but it’s possible, a few times a year when the have special actions, to find flights for even cheaper!