Rolling on the Rhine: Dog Days of Summer

I know that it seems silly to be talking about summer when we’re now deep into sweater and pumpkin spice latte season, but things have been so busy around here that I’ve gotten a bit behind. I don’t remember the summer of 2014 being too bad in Cologne, but this summer was actually record breaking! Read here.

I believe the hottest time was the weekend around the 4^th of July when it reached 100+ degree Fahrenheit and there were several other weeks where it was well into the 90s. What made this really unbearable is that air conditioning is not very common. We have no air conditioning in our apartment (although luckily it says fairly cool) and none in my office at work. The absolute worst, though, is public transportation. There isn’t any air conditioning on busses or subways and for some reason, people don’t even like to open the window. Passengers will pack into a completely full bus on a 90 degree day and have no ventilation at all! I have yet to reach a point in my integration process where I understand this phenomenon, so there were a few days where I opted to walk instead of ride the bus.

Luckily, we’re well beyond the dog days of summer and have been enjoying seasonable fall temperatures as of late. We change the clocks at the end of this month and then we’ll hunker down for the dark winter. Until then, here's one last look at the summertime.