kölner wochenende

I visited Mandie in Cologne a couple of weeks ago, and in between running 13.1 miles (training for the Frankfurt Marathon less than two months out!), splitting fifteen little dishes of fabulous Persian food with Mandie and Kedar, watching Clueless, and getting Flammlachs sandwiches and a Nutella crêpe at a wine fest by the Rhein, we went to the lake. Specifically, Blackfoot Beach, which was excellent. We eased our way into the not-terribly-warm water and spent a while lounging on the big floating rubber barriers you can see in the lake before coming ashore for a light snack, which in my case translated to basically a whole meal involving potato salad, Greek salad, and, in response to some serious post-run protein cravings, the rare consumption of a German sausage. (I hit my lifetime bratwurst limit sometime in 2007, after a couple dozen visits to the Freiburg market for cheap bratwurst and mustard on a Brötchen, but do occasionally make exceptions.) The French fries in the picture tasted not a little bit like chicken and I didn't quite manage the entire sausage, but they (and the entire lake visit!) totally hit the spot.