It seemed to be a never ending story: Finding a pleasurable biking route from my new place in Neuehrenfeld to my workplace (near Reichenspergerplatz). I had to surrender several times because of insurmountable high streets or unexpected “mountains” in the middle of Cologne ;)

But today I dared to give it another try.

It was more accidentally that I came across this route. It was the 2nd January of this year and I had spent the day mainly in bed reviving from the NYE trip to Amsterdam when I felt the urge to see some daylight and move al fresco. So I caught my bike and just hit the road – no clear destination in my head. Or wait, I think I wanted to go to the Rhein first. But then a strong force pulled me in another direction – to Nippes. I hadn’t visited this district yet since I lived in Cologne again but it was always on my list of places I still wanted to explore with my camera. So the time had come!

The first thing I spotted when I was entering the “Nippes area” was a huge colorful turkey (?) :D by Dabtar from the Captain Borderline Crew created for the CityLeaks 2013

In the same street there was a wonderful house / pub richly ornamented with tiles and broken fragments forming an artistic mosaic that reminded me of the architectural artwork of Hundertwasser.

And I found also another CityLeaks artwork on my tour through Nippes.
The one below created by SatOne.

I felt quite familiar with Nippes. Like coming home somehow :) It’s a really nice restful place with little streets, relaxed people, playgrounds, kids. It must be cute place to live.

At some point on this tour I took a look at the map of my smartphone to locate my position. And I found myself very close to my workplace – So, I was like: “Hey! This could be your new morning and evening route, no?” :)