Köln

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Typing on a German keyboard is extremely frustrating. It consists of a lot of backspacing which just makes it worse because the backspace button is small and misplaced. Very annoying. The z and the y are also switched so I might just get to a point where they will be switched in the entry and thats that.

Onto Cologne...Dave and I initially slept through the train that we were supposed to catch first, but thankfully a train leaves from amsterdam to cologne every hour. We arrived in Cologne around noon and to the hostel to drop our bags by about 1. We hadnt eaten all day so we headed to a small sandwich place and downed a quick bite and gross coffee. And then it was time for the IMHOFF CHOCOLATE MUSEUM. To be perfectly honest, I didnt care much about the "museum" part of it. I pretty much pretended to read until the chocolate smell wafted towards me and then I just made a beeline for the "factory"...in other words, chocolate samples. We got to see how a candy bar is made from start to finish. That was very cool...flashback to my Mr. Rogers days. At the end of the assembly line, we got a wafer cookie dipped in chocolate from the chocolate fountain standing right in front of you. It was heaven! We then left the museum part and Dave was a good sport and headed to the cafe where more chocolate in the form of cake was eaten (He had apple pie, suprise suprise). We then invaded the shop...or I should say all of the above was done by me with a not so eager David following aimlessly and not so amused behind. Funny enough we met a guy and his family outside the giftshop from Cleveland who is living outside of London for 2 years. Small world.
Next stop, the Dom - a massively huge cathedral that you can pretty much see from all over the city. Dave and I gave ourselves a walking tour around the inside until it got too cold. We wanted to climb to the top but it was closed.
This is the first time and rare times that I will admit that I agreed with Dave and followed his advice after leaving the Dom. Since we stepped off the train, we had been blown around and rained upon. After the couple hours of walking around, my uggs had slowly absorbed water and by this point had completely soaked my feet. Dave took one look at my boots and decided we were getting me new shoes. It was not up for discussion. He then proceeded to take me around to all the little shops on the main shopping street and tried to find me waterproof boots. He said it was the one time I would ever get him to go shopping with me. And the crazy part is, for some reason in Germany right now, all the stores have everything purple so that just made shopping take even longer. Dave was the one pointing out all the purple things! Basically chocolate and purple, Joss was in heaven!
After about 2 hours of shopping, and Dave telling me "no, no, no, no, and no" to my wanting all the shoes that werent exactly waterproof, we found me some fantastic shoes (on sale) that are waterproof and semi cute. A very successful day. My feet were finally dry.
Last order of the day was food. We went to a restaurant recommended for us by my friend Laura who has been to Cologne multiple times...Früh. It was a genuine German restaurant. They had tall skinny glasses of Früh beer that were .2L (tiny) that they bring to you on a special tray. We ordered pork chops with herb butter and fried potatos and onions with a side salad. We also ordered the house sausage with potatos and a cabbage salad. All of the above were out of this world amazing. We split both. Believe it or not, we are getting this sharing thing down pat. It might have been some of the best food ive ever had. I think Ive said that about every restaurant we have gone to!
After dinner, we got a ginormous pretzel and walked back across the bridge to our youth hostel which we found crawling with extremely youthful people...aka have not hit puberty yet teenagers. My 3 roommates, im pretty sure they werent even 15 yet. I was extremely amused. Daves roommates had at least hit puberty...
Cologne was a very worthwhile stop. It will most likely be up there on the favorite city list of this trip. Danka. Bitte. Auf wiederzehn.

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Comments

[Wenna]

Poor David
It sounds lie you really had an amazing time in Koln, I am so glad that you went there, although I do feel more than a little sorry for David, Chocolate and Shopping don't exactly sound like his idea of a perfect day out!!!!!