Else & Ilse | LGBTIQ+ adventurers

Cochem is a place in the German countryside, in Rhineland-Palatinate. Although it is a district seat, it is rather small with about 5,000 inhabitants. Although it is probably easiest to arrive by car, traveling by rail is convenient as well. And as you know: we will always prefer to travel sustainably! We had booked a vacation home with a surprisingly comfortable Murphy bed (our first time in a Murphy bed!) and a little kitchen. Although Cochem had almost no COVID-19 cases when we visited, we nevertheless wanted to be careful and a place where we could make our own food was a perfect solution. But although it rained a lot, we luckily could enjoy a few patios. Cochem lies at the Moselle and is part of the Mosel wine region. The Mosel wines are amongst the best (if not the best) wines in Germany and the local/regional wines in Cochem were delicious. Since Cochem is a popular town for tourists and day visitors, there were lots of restaurants. But this popularity also meant that prices wer...

2020 has been difficult. We lost many people to the pandemic or to police brutality. Many of us lost friends and relatives, jobs, homes, livelihoods. And in a year like this one, it can be so difficult to see the good moments of life. Here are our favorite 2020 memories: In January, we spent a long weekend in Belgium . We saw dinosaurs in Brussels, took many walks in Bruges, and had fantastic food and drinks. In February, we went ice-skating—our first time as a couple, but both of us haven't done this often in general. We celebrated our first anniversary and ended the month with one of our favorite holidays: carnival! This was the last time we spent time in a crowd: we already knew that COVID-19 was a threat, but weren't aware of its severity yet. At the beginning of March, we attended an ArtNight and painted abstract vulvas with a colorful bunch of people. This also started our acrylic painting journey which would help us through the following months because in March and April...

Last Sunday, for our monthversary, we returned to the Rheinpark—a wonderful park at the Rhine, which we had visited during one of our first dates. The park is located at the other side of the river and might be the biggest park in Cologne. To get there, we would always recommend walking over the Zoobrücke which offers wonderful views on the Dom, Cologne's iconic cathedral, and the Hohenzollernbrücke with its thousands of padlocks symbolizing love.  But even if you don't walk across this bridge, the beach in the northern corner of the park has fantastic views! And even though this beach is not in the Caribbean, it is wonderful to stay here for a while—we even saw geese and goslings! (If you want to be more active and/or have children, you'll also find a skate park and a very diverse playground here and at other places in the park.) Although walking around this park in itself is wonderful, it is also fascinating to watch its diverse visitors and find political street art. And...

About a week ago, we went on another adventure exploring Germany and stayed in a tiny village in Hesse (central Germany). Else's mom had planned this trip as a family vacation for Else's siblings, their partners, and Else's nephews. Not far from our vacation home was the 'Lochbachklamm,' a small valley with fourteen wooden bridges. The valley was part of a shortish hiking trail of about 8.5 kilometers and our host strongly recommended it. The next day after breakfast, we started out to find the bridges. It wasn't easy to combine the interests and abilities of eight adults and three children. One of Else's sisters and her partner were taking selfies (or asked others to take pictures) all the time. Her brother wanted to get on and was annoyed about all the breaks. Her other sister and her husband are not accustomed to physical exercise and insisted that we shouldn't walk the entire trail and should just go to see the bridges. As soon as we left our vacatio...

Pride Month is almost over and we wanted to share our interpretation of the flag's colors with you! We decided to go with the revised Philadelphia version from 2017. We always believed that the six-color flag is perfect; that it includes (or, at least, should include) everyone who feels to be part of the queer community. But this last month has taught us that, although the six-color flag should suffice, we should explicitly include BIPoC who did so much for our movement, but are still discriminated, harassed, disregarded, killed. So: we'll start with black! Black is one of the two colors added to the revised rainbow flag. It draws attention to Black people of our community and their particular issues. For us, it also honors those who fought for our rights, particularly during the Stonewall riots—Marsha P. Johnson is probably the most prominent, but not the only one: Andrea Jenkins, Angela Davis, Audre Lorde, Bayard Rustin, Earl Fowlkes, Elle Hearns, Ernestine Eckstein, Karleigh...

When COVID-19 restrictions slowly eased, we decided to let a new adventure begin: the Eifelleiter ('Eifel ladder'). We were excited to get away, we might have been a bit naive, but we were prepared to do this: hiking 54.2 kilometers in three days —our first hike lasting several days. The first two days were supposed to be moderate hiking trails, the last day a hard one. We were optimistic (or, in case of Ilse, just forgot immediately). And the backpacks were not too heavy. In the beginning. After a shortish train ride, we began our adventure in Bad Breisig. We had to find the symbol marking our route: a green hill, parted by a white path, a blue tower on top and a blue creek below. Or: a sail boat, as Ilse understood it. Made far more sense than Else's interpretation! It wasn't easy, at times confusing. But alas! We ran into a local hiking group of experienced women, one of them even did this hike when the route was opened! With powerful, confident steps, she too...

We love Cologne and we love living in Cologne. And we recently realized that it might be worthwhile for some of you to get to know our favorite spots. So this is part one of our favorite destinations in Cologne: Zündorf. A few weeks ago, when COVID-19 prevented us from doing anything that isn't outside, we decided to take one of our 'surprise trips' (we don't check what we'll find before going) to the end of one of our trolley lines —in this case line 7 to Zündorf. Crossing through several different parts of the city, the trip itself can be an adventure. When we took this trip on a sunny day in April, one person on our trolley rapped (yes!) about their current experience on being on the trolley. Another one had to finish their cigarette and then did a few chin-ups (and again: yes!). When we arrived, the place didn't seem too impressive. But as we know from a previous surprise trip: we had to be patient. About ten minutes from the trolley stop, we wer...

We recently told you that we got lucky enough to  meet on Tinder . We were texting each other for about two weeks when we finally had our first date at Else's favorite Thai restaurant in Cologne. We didn't make a reservation because the restaurant is often quite empty during the week. But not this time. So we decided to try a Burmese restaurant that both of us didn't know. (We were relieved when we realized that both of us need to use GoogleMaps to find places nearby.) The restaurant still has nostalgic values for us. Eight days later, we went on our second date.  (We can't believe that there was a time we voluntarily spent eight days without each other!) Ilse had never been to Cologne's Sculpture Park, an open air art gallery with new exhibitions every other year, so Else planned a date exploring the park and the area around it. It was just a week before carnival so she brought Berliners (filled pastry particularly popular during carnival) filled with egg liqu...

We love traveling, we love exploring, we love outdoor activities. But we barely have (or: had) the time for them! So, here's an upside to the COVID-19 restrictions of not seeing anyone, of not going to bars, restaurants, and clubs, of not traveling: we have more time for each other and more time for outdoor activities! (We  do not  want to downplay the pain, loss, and death this pandemic is causing — we just got lucky enough to enjoy some extra time.) These last few weeks, we have been hiking and exploring the nearby woods. It's incredible how beautiful they are in spring! Lush, green, the sun shining through the green treetops, rustling from last fall's brown leaves with every step. And most of the time, the woods are surprisingly quiet, with only a few people taking walks or hiking. The only thing missing these days, particularly for Ilse: ending the trip with a cool beer (or two) and maybe a snack at a beer garden. She wants her reward! Also, after years without ev...