Cologne, Dusseldorf, Lennestadt, Martin

Our next stop on the trip through Germany was to the town of Lennestadt to see my friend Martin. He was an exchange student in Harvard during my senior year and we became good friends. He and I played a lot of table tennis together and even won gold medals as doubles partners at the Cornhusker State Games. I last saw him two years ago when I was in the Czech Republic and we met in Prague.
As we drove towards Lennestadt, we made an unexpected, but very interesting stop. I noticed that Frankenstein castle was only 4km off of the road, so we made a quick exit and went to see for ourselves. The castle is thought to be the one that inspired Mary Shelley to write her novel. It was quite strange that although the castle gates were open, there was nobody to be found. We walked all through the castle without paying a fee or seeing anyone. In a way I suppose it made the visit more interesting. On our way North from Stuttgart, the weather became worse and worse until we were driving through rain and 50 degree weather. By the time we reached Martin's house it was very cold. We had a nice dinner however which made up for the weather.
We spent our day with Martin first in Cologne, where we visited the famous Cologne Dome church, which was really an amazing site. The church is one of the largest in the world and at one time was the tallest structure in the world. Additionally, it contains some very significant relics, including those of the Magi.
We next walked through the town for lunch, which was at the Fruh brewery, home to one of the best brands of Kolsch beer, which is native to Cologne. The lunch was one of the best meals I had in Germany.
After an afternoon in Cologne, we drove to Dusseldorf, which is where Martin recently got a new job. Dusseldorf is a nice city which is much less touristy than Cologne, but just as nice. As opposed to Kolsch beer in Cologne, Dusseldorf is the home of Alt beer, which is simliar though to although darker than Kolsch. We walked up the Dusseldort radio tower for a great view of the city before walking downtown to some of the more famous streets and the old town of Dusseldorf.
Our visit to Martin was very nice and it was great to catch up with one of my old friends.

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