A Culinary Day in Köln

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It is always a little bit awkward when you are staying with people that you don't know very well and you are not sure what their routine or preferences are and they are not sure what yours are. It is even more difficult when everyone is trying to be accommodating and so no one will make a decision. We got up and were trying to decide if we should go out for breakfast or get something and eat at the apartment. In the end Lisa and Sebastian went out to the grocery store and got some things for breakfast. Sebastian makes a really good breakfast, we had about five different types of buns, regular cream cheese and a cherry paprika cream cheese, some meat and cheese, eggs, yogurt, orange juice, grapes, it was a real feast! There was so much that we couldn't eat it all. We ended up using the leftover buns, cheese, meat and cream cheese to make sandwiches for lunch.

Our first stop was the Hiroshima-Nagasaki park. If the weather had been a bit warmer it would have been a lovely spot for a picnic, it was a bit chilly today. They had some wooden swinging benches which I found exciting, Ed was more excited about the Egyptian Geese. I saw some geese that looked like Canada Geese, when I asked about them I found out that they WERE Canada Geese! We had a nice stroll through the park, saw a dog training class. One of the dogs from the class got loose and went after another dog! They were both going after each other but the owners did get them both under control again. Once we walked through the park we headed back towards the shopping centre of the city.

I had gotten a German tea advent calendar and had discovered some nice new favourite teas so I was excited to try and find them. We passed a large grocery store and I was able to get almost all of the teas on my list. The only one they didn't have was the least favourite one which almost didn't even make it on the list so I am glad that if one was missing it was that one! We found a shop with a lot of violins on the walls so Mike had to go in and have a look. There was a workshop upstairs where they make violins, we weren't allowed up there though. Our next store was the Birkenstocks store. Bev was looking for some Birkenstocks shoes, after trying a number of pairs on, she ended up with two more pairs of sandals instead! She also the got a pair of shoes, although not the ones that she really wanted, which they didn't have in her size. With our arms full of purchases we went down the touristy 'shopping streets' Mike stopped in a few stores but we got through without any more purchases.

We made it all the way to the Rhein and stopped beside the river to have lunch. After we ate we went to the (Lindt) Chocolate Museum. It was really fascinating! The first section is all about the cocoa bean plant, were it grows how it is harvested etc. The next section talks about what else goes in to a chocolate bar, and the process. How the cocoa beans are crushed and separated and mixed with the other ingredients to create a liquid chocolate. The third section is a working assembly line. It shows the trays with the set chocolate going down the line, a spot where the tray gets twisted to loosen the chocolates, the trays are flipped over and taken away, the chocolate squares are then taken by a robotic arm and placed on a separate conveyer belt which has a zigzag to separate the pieces which are then individually wrapped. It was fun to watch! The best part of the room was the huge chocolate fountain. There was a chocolatier who was dipping vanilla wafers into the chocolate fountain and handing them out as samples. We saw upstairs the machine which twirls around moulds for the hollow chocolate confections. You could also order your own personalized chocolate bars, and watch them make it! Further on was some history of chocolate, from the Mayan's thousands of years ago to today. There was even a working chocolate vending machine! One of the best parts about the museum was that all of the signs were in both German AND English, the other fun part was that they had a lot of computers with different games to play. At the end of the museum was a room with old German chocolate commercials. We stayed there for a while watching some really good (and some not so good) Chocolate commercials. There was one about Mike! The young boy was very skinny but he wouldn't eat his soup, his dad punished him to try and get him to eat, his mother was worried that he wouldn't grow up to be strong. She decided to melt Stollwerck chocolate and feed him that, well the boy ate it up and became big and strong!

After we finished at the museum we stopped for a drink and a sweet treat! On the way back to the apartment Ed bought a deck of German playing cards. Mike, Ed & Lisa stayed at the apartment to relax, have a nap, read a book. Bev, Sebastian and I went to grocery store got stuff for dinner. We made pasta with two different sauces, a meat and vegetable tomato sauce and a cream spinach sauce. We also made a really nice salad! Sebastian and Lisa had brought some games with them and we learned to play Qwixx. It is a dice game where you have to get as many points as possible. It was really fun and easy to play, not easy to win though! Lisa, Sebastian, Mike and I played a few rounds of Ligretto (basically Dutch Blitz), it has been a while since Mike and I last played. It was a fun night, even if Lisa and Sebastian did win all of the games! Next time we will have to bring the games!

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Photos

Breakfast
Mike, Ed, Lisa, Sebastian and Bev eating breakfast!

Chocolate Museum
The main ingredients in a chocolate bar

Chocolate Museum
A chocolate creation

Dinner
Spaghetti with meat sauce and spinach sauce