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Published: December 13th 2006
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The Dom, Some Chocolate and Serious Christmas Market Partying
Good Morning and a Happy Dom to You Now that we’re on German time, both Mike and I are coming to grips with the fact that our days need to start earlier . . . no more sleeping in like aging soap stars for us. The sun goes down much sooner in the afternoon than when we were in Spain - between 4 and 5pm - so to take advantage of our day, it’s up up up for us. Our hotel has a pervasive smell that we only really nailed down upon exiting our room this morning - fried breakfast food (buffet on 1st floor), Chinese food (Chinese gentleman who mans the desk) and smoke (owner has a lit one going at all times when he’s at the desk). It makes quite the good morning smell - like a little nasal punch to the gut. On the plus side, it does make us descend the 3 flights of stairs out the front door at a good clip, no dawdling to be had.
We headed out and found a local bakery to get breakfast. We had
(still) slept too late for the German free buffet, so we were on our own. The bakery had a yummy apricot and cream cheese cake for Mike and salami on crusty roll for me - both of what we look for in breakfast and completely satisfying.
Our plan for today was to go to the Cologne Cathedral - known in Germany as the Dom - as well as check out the Chocolate Museum and any Christmas markets we may come across. The Dom, a neo-gothic cathedral, is one of Germany’s most well known and highly popular with tourists. Its stark exterior and extreme height (it has a 140 ft ceiling) make it quite a sight to behold along with its lovely stained glass windows and spires reaching into the sky. As a point of history, a good percentage of Cologne was destroyed and/or damaged during WWII, but the Dom escaped damage for the most part. We took time to look through it, with Mike taking some great pictures and me getting the chance to wander around, light some prayer candles and sit quietly in the pews to pray. Even though I’m not Catholic, any location where people for hundreds
of years have sought out God is a wonderful environment. I really enjoy taking a minute or two with God in a place where so many others have done the same.
Sweet Times at the Chocolate Museum The sky was looking gray and drizzling a bit when we finished exploring the Dom but we weren’t dissuaded from our plan. On to the Chocolate Museum we went! The museum, sponsored by Lindt, is in a modern metal & glass building right on the bank of the Rhine River. After a 15 minute walk along the Rhine from the Dom, we were there and ready to roll. To be honest, we didn’t have great expectations for the museum, we were looking to see some chocolate shapes and colors and maybe a good gift shop. Wow, were we pleasantly surprised! The chocolate museum presents a full and complete view of chocolate from beginning to end: chemical composition, the production and history of cacao, politics and history of chocolate production and consumption and a full (working) production line of small chocolate bars from roasting cocao beans all the way to bagging the wrapped bars. They even had a small rain
forest area - climate controlled and seriously humid - to grow the cacao plants on location and show it to visitors.
Key new things we learned:
- Ghana and the Ivory Coast are major producers of cacao beans, though the US is one of the largest processors in the world
- Hershey, PA is the largest processor of chocolate in the world
- Chocolate was first a drink in Europe exclusively enjoyed by the leisurely upper class
- There are international standards for the chemical composition of chocolate which define the difference between milk, semi-sweet, etc
We both really enjoyed the museum - besides being really interesting and informative, it was both delicious (free tastes) and smelled amazing. If we could post a scratch ‘n sniff blog, this would be the one to do. So yummy!
Christmas Markets Make for Good Eats After the museum, we were definitely hungry for lunch and went looking for a Christmas market and delicious food stands to hit. We came to a key decision this morning regarding eating in Germany: we will look to eat all possible meals either in (a) a bakery or (b) a Christmas market
for as long as we possibly can. It’s seriously inexpensive, really delicious, and allows us to point at things and avoid awkward ordering roulette in our very broken German. Everybody wins =)
We found a new market which was centered around a temporary ice skating ring. We found bratwurst for Mike and a giant Polish hot dog (called a Krakauer) for me - tastiness all around. We ambled on and found more spiced wine/punch, potato pancakes and a new dessert area to try. Mike found crepes and I found a baked apple with cinnamon and granola inside. So amazingly delicious =)
After our sightseeing and market exploration, we had burned up most of the afternoon. Tummies full and brains up to the brim with chocolate trivia, we started off on the 45 minute walk home. Nothing makes you feel better about a festival of food like walking for close to an hour afterwards . . . guilt be gone!
Once back at the hotel, Mike did some Internet surfing and researching and I drifted off into a wonderful nap. Good exercise, cold air and spice wine make for a very sleepy Kel.
We hit another Christmas
market tonight for dinner and enjoyed ourselves greatly. This one had an old-time carousel, lots of fun booths and our favorite wine (this time with Amaretto, highly recommended!) and food stands. I tried something that looked like creamed spinach porridge and was actually green cabbage with potatoes - it was hot and pretty good. Nothing to pass up a bratwurst for, but not bad either. The crowd was thick at the market and the Christmas music was piped cheerily everywhere - Germany really does know how to make it feel Christmassy. I’m lovin it!
Happy holiday season, one and all! Good luck on your Christmas shopping!
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Leslie
non-member comment
How I love reading your blogs and studying the pictures. You know me, no quick perusal but a concentrated effort to see what you’ve seen and more importantly to see what your faces are saying. So far you guys seem to be having the time of your lives. I couldn’t be more delighted for you. =) Love ya!!!