The Tasty Pasty Company

Today I accidentally stumbled into a café and it turned out to be the best thing to happen this week so far. A uni friend and I were on our way back to the main campus after a lecture and we agreed we were in need of some refreshments. We saw a little café just across the road that we hadn't noticed before. It looked really cute from the outside, bright yellow, some balloons and a simple sign that we liked immediately:

Curiously, we entered. It turned out to be everything but an ordinary café, no, we stumbled into a brand new British pasty shop! The reason we hadn't noticed it before even though we pass the place on a weekly basis was because it had just opened a few hours ago. Lucky us! 
The owners are two really nice English men who immediately greeted us with their charmingly British accents. The first thing I noticed about the café was the size: The whole thing is tiny! It doesn't have any tables but a bench on one side of the room, opposite to the counter. The interior is amazing, you feel comfortable the second you get through the door: Red brick walls, old dark wood lightened up by a baby blue vintage looking counter. But see for yourself:

I regretted not being hungry because the pasties looked amazing! They have several vegetarian options and even one vegan version which of course makes the Tasty Pasty Company a must on my list of restaurants and cafés to try. Next time I will go for the vegan pasty for sure! Today, though, I only chose an iced tea. Not one of those boring, over-sugared beverages that taste more like a fizzy drink without the fizz, nope. This iced tea was light, not too sweet and tasted fantastic!

Shut up, it's not blurry, it's arty^^

It lasted me quite a while, I drank the rest in uni.

I asked the owners if I could take a few pictures for the blog and they happily agreed. In exchange they asked if they could take a picture of us with our drinks for the photo wall they are planning. What a lovely idea! They told us about their facebook page (which I liked as soon as I opened my laptop) and were just really nice and chatty in general. Oh, and they built everything themself! How cool is that?!

If you are from Cologne, give The Tasty Pasty Company a visit, it's well worth it!

This is their facebook, this is their wesbite, the adress is: 

Dürener Str. 64a
50931, Cologne

Have a great day!

It's Just What All Young Lovers Do

The Count and I have never done something for Valentines Day before. We don't believe in showing you care about someone on a special day and we also don't like flowers and cheesy cards. Today though, today was different. We did the cheesiest thing a couple can do in Cologne. We hung a love padlock on the Hohenzollernbrücke which is one of the bridges that cross the Rhine. It is the one closest to the cathedrale and the most famous place in Germany to put love padlocks. Right now, there are over 40.000 padlocks on the bridge, they have become a tourist magnet and a very popular photo motive.
Many padlocks are engraved or signed but we decided to go for a simple cheap padlock, we're not THAT cheesy.

It is a tradition to throw the keys into the Rhine but I think a lock is something that should open all the time, even if it is just to replace it with a nicer one. Also, it's not exactly ecological to just throw your trash into random rivers so we each kept one of the keys.

Have a geat day,
The Countess

Christmas in Cologne

It's nearly Christmas! I love love love Christmas! On Saturday, the 1st of December, we had the first snow here in Cologne which is pretty early for the area I live in. To honour this wonderful time of the year I want to share some pictures I took in the city my heart beats for.
I proudly present: Winter in Cologne!

I hope this will be the beginning of a little series through december, if you like it at least!
Sleep well,
The Countess