Tagebuch eines Informatikers

Lebanese Night

For the Cologne concert this year, there will not be a „real“ fanmeeting like the one Astrid organized two years ago. However, for those of you interested, I am arranging a „get-together“ before the show.

Prior to the Chris de Burgh concert on Sunday, May 19th, we shall have a „Lebanese Night“, or rather, Lebanese afternoon. The meeting will take place at the Lebanese / Palestinian Restaurant „Bethlehem“ in Cologne, starting at 5 p.m.

Directions: The restaurant is easy to find if you have a look at the map on http://www.restaurant-bethlehem.de

Please don’t be surprised to read opening times of 17.30 – 24.00 on that site. The restaurant will in fact be opening early on Sunday, especially for us.

It might be difficult to find a place to park your car next to the restaurant, therefore, people are advised to use public transport, or else, park your car next to the „Philharmonie“. If you are coming by train, please use tram no. 5 from Cologne main station, directions see below.

From the „Philharmonie“, it is very easy to get to „Restaurant Bethlehem“. It is a three-minute walk to the tram (underground) station „Rathaus“. When standing in front of the Philharmonie’s main entrance, simply walk straight ahead, passing the main entrance of „Hotel Mondial“ and crossing the next street. You will soon be at „Alter Markt“, which can be identified by a statue of Cologne’s main historical hero, Jan van Werth, in the middle of the square. Just next to the Jan van Werth monument, you will need to descend to the subway. From there, take tram No 5 (the only one at that station, in fact, so you cannot go wrong) for nine stops, alighting at „Lenauplatz“. Then walk backwards (against the direction of travel) for 20 metres, turn half-right into the next street (Iltisstraße) and after walking about 50 metres you will be at „Lenauplatz“. The restaurant is located on the left side of Lenauplatz and you will hear Chris de Burgh music blasting across the square, so it will be impossible to miss.

For those of you that already have a ticket for the show, don’t worry about having to buy a tram ticket. The price of the tram (tube) has already been paid for with your entrance ticket to „Philharmonie“. If in doubt, simply show the Chris de Burgh ticket to the conductor of the tram.

If you don’t yet have any ticket for the show, don’t worry, just come along anyway. There will be 200 extra tickets for the concent, available at the ticket booth of „Philharmonie“ from 18.30 hours on Sunday. These are „standing“, i.e. you will not get a seat allocated to you, but who wants to sit through a CdeB concert anyway? We are all coming to enjoy ourselves and dance, aren’t we?

For the restaurant’s owner, Kifah, who is a great fan of Elissa, appearing in „Lebanese Night“, it would be great if he roughly knew the number of people planning to attend. Please give me a call at 0800 58 934 13 894 (free call within Germany) before 8 p.m. Saturday if you are planning to attend the pre-show party.

Timing is Everything in Life.