So as we mentioned before, Carly and her boyfriend Ben had set up this show just 4 days ago. Pretty awesome. She met us at the train station, and we were about to get on the S-bahn cross town, when I mentioned that Aliza had yet to see the Dome. Carly agreed that we should step out and see this incredible piece of architecture. It is hard to describe the gnarly awesomeness that is Koln Dome. It is a gothic cathedral with flying buttresses, the grey stones stained black from the weather. It almost looks like a giant gargoyle, it is spooky and incredible at the same instant. The detail in the stonework is meticulous.

We enjoyed the sight with thousands of other people in the square, the air was wet, cold and humid and felt as thick as the crowd we squeezed through. It was a holiday, so there were more people than usual, and there was a concert; 100 girls dressed in colorful shirts singing Whitney Houston hits...

We were absolutely starving. After some good advice from a friend at the irish pub, we went to Fru. I think it was the biggest restaurant we had ever been to! It would probably take up one whole city block in Montreal. As we walked in, bags and instruments and all, through the crowded place, voices and dishware roaring and gurgling like the seashore, we kept on thinking there would be no place, but around every corner was another room. We finally found a place in the back. All the table were huge too, built for lots of guest and parties. The basement had more rooms as well, these ones with brick barrel vault ceilings, ancient really...

One is best advised to order Kolsch beer, the local brew, poured in small sleeve- 0.2 Litre beers- which they serve to you from a giant slotted tray full of them. The tradition is that they keep serving you endless beers, without you ordering more, until you put your coaster over your glass, meaning you're done. This way, your beer is always fresh.

We ordered sausages. Very good ones. They made great potatoes too. Aliza and I had a great time catching up with Carly, trading stories of what we had been up to the last few years.

Back on the S-bahn, just two stops, across the river. The venue that we were playing at was right across from the station. After dropping our bags off and getting ready, we came and set up. The PA wasn't working so we played acoustic, even though the room was quite big.

Ben and Carly had invited a bunch of their friends to show, and everyone came. It was really a great turn out, hard to believe it was last minute. All the chairs were filled up and everyone listened carefully. We played two sets, about 40 minutes each. It was a lot of fun.

I remember it being quite cold out, the dampness and the grey sky had combined for a chilly night. I was glad I brought my LLBean wool sweater along for this late spring/early summer tour. Living in Canada makes you never trust that the weather will actually be warm and stay warm for any reasonable amount of time. We had had great weather in Italy and for the first few days of Belgium, now it was back to autumn coolness...

We all went for donairs (pronounced duhnuh here). And we got some late night beers to bring home. We stayed up for awhile with our hosts and chatted and looked at pics from the show. It had been a great full day...