Cologne, Germany

I'm behind for a few days due to travel, lack of wifi, and need for sleep. I didn't realize how tired I was until we arrived in Cologne. Woke up and headed across the hall to the breakfast room for a buffet style breakfast. Not completely typical though... Sliced cold cuts and cheese, yogurts, assorted breads and butter or honey or nutella or fruit spreads... then bacon, sausage, meatballs, and scrambled eggs... They had a few breakfast cereals and watered down juice and coffee. I didn't like the eggs, sausage, or bacon. The meatballs were delicious though!

Showered and clean, we headed out for the cathedral... We were right along a major shopping street seen below:

There were stores up and down the street for what seemed to be at least a quarter of a mile... and each side street seemed to be nothing but stores also. Our goal though was the cathedral, which was the opposite direction closer to the Rhine. We rounded a corner and were overwhelmed by the monstrosity of the cathedral. So, to take it all in, we sat at a quaint cafe and had a crepe and coffee...

And when you look across the little road in front of us this is what you see:

Not a bad view!

There are more pictures in my gallery to view, but I just wanted to post one of my favorites...:

I feel like majestic music should be playing right now...

We headed for the cathedral and went inside. Very beautiful inside, and the large vaulted ceilings reminded me of Notre Dame. Toured the inside briefly, and then headed for the treasury and ticket office. From there were bought a ticket that allowed us access to the top... and by top I mean above the bell tower, which was 533 steps to the top using a tightly spiraled staircase which is equal to 100 meters = 328 ft. The bell tower was quite awesome I thought. These huge bells must have been next to impossible to "lift" to the top... and how they did I don't know. In fact, while we were resting on a bench in the bell tower room, one of the bells tolled. Claudia just about jumped out of her skin, and I flinched as if someone through a brick at my face... Our hearing is still intact thankfully.

There were more steps leading above the bell tower that offered grea views of the city of Cologne, which unfotunately everyone wanted to be a part of a picture taking process. We snuck in a few photos and headed down. Here is an example of the view:

You are caged in, but it offers an expansive view of Cologne! (Suffered some mild vertigo and sweaty palms, but then it subsided after about 5 minutes.)

Then down 533 steps into the treasury - which was amazing also. Relics, rings, robes, staffs, and chalice's that contained bones of past saints/priests, including an interesting chalice that contained 3 links of St. Peter's chains.

Two full days in Cologne may have been too much... I think one day would have been enough. We figured this out after we spent part of the day shopping a bit, taking a 1 our river cruise on the Rhine and had beer and wine while taking in the river bank scenery. But I think my favorite part has been our luck with food. We have a knack for picking great places to eat, and great food selections... We stopped at a place called Ramazotti's, italian food, and we were so hungry. We didn't a whole lot, except some breakfast, gelato, and few other odds and ends. But the food here was awesome. A wonderful green salad with a think balsamic dressing, we each ordered a pasta dish - mine a four cheese, Claudia's a spicy bolognese... Both outstanding! Washed them down with Kolsh beer and Riesling wine, and took a cheesey yummy delicious pizza back to the hotel for our drive the next day... God Bless Cold Pizza!

All in all a great couple of days, you can see additional pictures of it in my gallery... On to Bonn, Germany!