I am just back from a couple of days in Cologne. As business trips go this was a good one – flight times were civilised, my meetings productive, I stayed in a nice hotel and as a bonus Cologne seems to be one of the most running friendly cities I have encountered.
Day and night there seemed to be runners everywhere – of varying speeds and sizes and reassuringly lots of lone women runners. The Rhine runs through Cologne and the river is a lively thoroughfare of leisure and freight traffic. The city is on both sides of the river so running alongside is easy, flat and no chance of getting lost .
From what I could tell there was a really good integrated public transport system that looks after the needs of cyclists and walkers very well. Each of the bridges had good pedestrian access and paths, and I contemplated a route that would cross the Rhine.
As it turned out I only had time to do one run, setting off at 7.30 from the hotel and heading towards the city centre. The sun was up and the temperature was a pleasant 15 degrees C – for my weary Scottish bones it was lovely to get some sunshine – even If I had forgotten that it can be hard work running warm weather.
As I did not have much time – I decided against crossing the bridge and instead looped back from the centre and ran towards my hotel and alongside the Rhine past some funky modern housing – I think the area I was staying in is a redeveloped area of river docklands.
Back in time for a hotel breakfast before my day of meetings, I will just have to return some other time to do my bridge loop.
The unfinished sentence... 