i must and shall return/dom

i really like cologne, germany.
i was there for a conference. my hotel was a mile or so from the university. i didn't really have a paper written, but i was going to give a paper.
turkish folks sold me food, and i felt like they were my friends.
i got a disconcertingly good deal on no notice at a very nice hotel. i was able to sleep there. i stayed warm.
it was late may. it snowed a little bit.
i walked toward the main road. "hey mzungu!"
sometimes when i travel i just feel like i'm in not-home. that makes it hard to tell where i actually am. but 'mzungu' is not what americans are normally called in germany.
i turned around. terrill and robert. "Oh, hey guys! terrill--i have your barbies and velveeta cheese in my room." (that was the truth).
we went to the cathedral. it's over 500 feet tall. it has the largest facade of any cathedral in the world. the second tallest spires.
when i had arrived in cologne the previous day, i climbed stairs up out of the train station. the dom suddenly became the earth to the meteor of my consciousness. it was irresistibly beautiful and ornate, but too much. too much size, too much detail. my mind sizzled into nothing.
we heard prayers. we climbed to the top of one of the spires.

























we parted ways. terrill and robert went to the netherlands, and then back to their home in uganda. (robert has since moved on to south sudan. i'll be in their neck of the woods this spring--but more in uganda than in south sudan.) i went to switzerland, and then back to the united states.
i had a a few hours to spare my last day in europe. i spent them on trains between switzerland and cologne and back, with a cold overnight in basel. i spent about 18 hours on trains. i had about four hours cologne.
i walked across town, ate at my turkish restaurant, and left.