Several people have written to me, asking what my apartment in Cologne is like this year, so I went ahead and took a bunch of pictures.

These first ones are just the views from my balcony.  The buildings that you see across the courtyard look exactly like my building--this must have been some kind of "housing development" because all of the buildings look pretty much alike.

To the left, you can see a picture of the neighbor's yard and garden.

Below, that's a picture of the yard for this house.  This place is something like a "town house"--a lady lives downstairs and she rents out the top floor as a furnished apartment.

A view of my apartment.  Part of that entertain center/bookcase folds down to make a little desk.

Below, you can see a picture of my dining area.

A picture of my bedroom.  I only have one side of the bed made up, since it's just me.  (Beds in Germany have separate sheets and blankets for the left and right sides of the bed--it's almost like two twin beds pushed together.)

The next few pictures show my kitchen.  It is a LOT more modern than the places I've stayed in the past--no mysterious hot water heated hanging above the sink, for example!

The tall cabinets that you side on the right side of this picture are actually the refrigerator and the freezer.

I spend a lot of time sitting on this couch, working on the computer.  Notice the pictures of owls on the wall.

The bathroom is very nice and very modern, although I have to say that I think that this is the first square toilet I've ever seen.

A close-up picture of my towels... I've got owls on my towels!

So this place is really quite nice.  It's on the top (third) floor of a nice building in a very nice neighborhood.  I'll send more pictures of other stuff over the course of the summer.