Dodging Tourists in Cologne – Lunch

A good pub lunch

While traveling around Cologne with my colleague, we decided we needed to experience a German pub for lunch. The best-looking pub around had waiters who spoke limited English and served beer by default at the table. This was going to be an interesting place. We sat down at our table, beer in hand, menus nowhere to be found. At last, the menu and waiter arrived and we were able to order. As a vegetarian, I ordered the potato gratin. My colleague ordered something with meat. I’m not a butcher or omnivore, so my ability to differentiate meat is questionable at best.

When the food arrived, my potato gratin was sufficiently smothered in melted cheese as to send my doctor looking for a cardiologist referral. My colleague had meat. To me it looked like a bone-in T-Rex steak, but I know I’m several eons off. Whatever it was, the bone was enough to look absolutely jurassic. I was glad to stick with my potatoes.

We were enjoying the smoky room as much as we could, admiring the old building that must have seen so much history, when the couple at the neighboring table turned to me and asked “are you from Eugene?”. As we quickly learned, in our attempt for a German experience, we had ended up sitting next to a couple who’s daughter went to the University of Oregon in Eugene, who own property in Coeur du Lane Idaho, near where my grandparents used to live, and who live a few minutes from my colleague’s parents in Northern California. The world is small with Americans looking for authentic experiences in touristy cities with English menus.