Köln Weekend

Köln

Friday morning we headed to Köln (Cologne in English) for a long weekend. I don't know why we haven't been there sooner, as it's one of the popular cities to visit, we just haven't. It's close to 3 hours from home and on the road we saw the Ghostbusters car! LOL (Yes, of course there are pictures in the album!) Friday the weather was nice so when we got there we checked into the hotel and set off sightseeing.

Köln is one of the oldest cities in Germany, founded in 38 BC, and was an important city in the Holy Roman Empire during those times. Today it is known as a travel hub with the huge train station being a major gateway to several major European cities. Trains run all the time every couple seconds and Colin was in heaven watching them! The first place we went was to the most popular destination in Köln, the Dom. It is a crazy, insanely huge and ornate cathedral that will blow your mind. The gothic detail is incredible. The original date of the church construction isn't known but it is first mentioned in documents beginning around 313 and was not the elaborate building of today. In 1164 the bones of the Three Magi were brought to this church to be kept safe and the Archbishop of that time decided such treasures needed a worthy shrine. It was then the fancy building began. The church contains numerous works of art from the 1100's to present in the form of sculptures, paintings and windows. It's very hard to spend the time needed to appreciate these works with Colin. He loves his echo and the second you set foot in a building where he can hear it he starts yelling to get an echo. (Remember the parking garage video from a while back?) Yea, even sweet little old ladies in church get fired up about loud two year olds and their echos....he was adorable 10 minutes ago outside lady...you said so yourself!

After the Dom we checked out the Altstadt (old town area) and wandered along the Rhine. We hit up Gross St. Martin's church and ate lunch. For being a tourist place they weren't very friendly to Americans there at restaurants. We'd sit down and they would wait for a while before coming over to us, they would help all the German tables that sat down after us first and it took forever to get a drink and food order in because they just wouldn't come near you! It was odd, first time we've really had that happen here and it was at every restaurant too! Oh well...luckily Colin didn't have to really melt down and complain about how long they were taking, that would have got us prompt service for sure! We hit up a playground after lunch so that Colin could stretch his legs and run. He had a blast on it climbing and sliding down the fast metal slide, you don't see too many of those anymore. He was flying down it and having a ball. After climbing all over the playground he wanted to play in the sand with the other kids but had to borrow some sand tools. He kept trying to steal other kids' pails and shovels (that weren't playing with them) until a nice lady let him share and play with her and her son.

After the playground we wandered down back to the hotel to get Colin cleaned up and then we went back out for dinner. We saw a couple steak restaurants and tried one for dinner. My steak was good, but it was no rinderfilet gorgonzola from San Rufo Haus. I am going to die when we have to move and my favorite restaurant isn't just across the village anymore. After dinner we walked for ice cream and people watched along the river. We tried to hold out until dark so we could see the Dom and the bridge all lit up but darkness doesn't fall until 10 or later these days and Colin wasn't gonna hold on for all that.

Saturday morning we woke up to cold and rain so we decided to do some museums to stay out of the weather. First stop was the Ludwig Musuem. I was a tad concerned about taking Colin to an art museum with his echo fascination. Sounded like recipe for disaster to me. But we figured out a tactic to keep Colin quiet, flicking him. LOL He doesn't like to be flicked and if you do it he gets quiet. He got flicked, a lot, but we got through the museum. It works in the art museum where it wasn't as busy and the people are all checking out the art. In the church it doesn't work so well because as soon as he makes a peep people stop and stare at him and would bear witness to the flicking. Not so good. We made it through the art museum, which is known for its Picasso collection, fairly quickly. Now I'm all for art that looks like art. It's the art that looks like my 2 year old pooped it that I don't get. Some things were truly beautiful and others...well not so much. Please tell me how an old 70's television sitting in a corner with a constant image of a battery on the screen is art. I'm pretty sure it's just a waste of electricity, and whoever deemed it art was smoking something highly illegal, even if Amsterdam.

Anyway after the art musuem we went to the Schokoladen Musuem to get some goodies. It is by the Lindt chocolate company, which is actually Swiss, but they make chocolate all over the area and it's delicious. We got some in Switzerland a few weeks ago too. We watched the chocolate being poured and molded and wrapped and learned all about where it comes from and how they make it. We got to sample some of course, yum, and then bought more in the store. Colin really liked his sample, it was all over his face.
Here is video of how they spin the chocolate in the molds to make bunnies, santas and other hollow shapes.


Since the World Cup games were on tv and it was nasty outside the restaurants were all packed with people trying to stay out of the yuck and watch soccer. We lucked up and got a small table under a big umbrella in an outside beergarten where we could eat and relax. We also got to people watch, which is fun over here to begin with, even without factoring in the rain, which only adds to the fun. Colin wasn't happy about how long he'd stayed in his stroller and he'd been flicked all morning to stay quiet in museums, so we had to do something to keep him happy during lunch. Thankfully Shelby had picked out a huge fish lolly that was solid sugar. Perfect! Colin had a great time eating it and since it was hard as a rock it took a while, even better! Here is Colin on a sugar high with his lolly...


Colin is OBSESSED with airplanes and trains. He loves cars too, toy cars he can push around and drive on everything from Mommy to furniture to floors. But planes and trains...he goes bananas for. We can't get close driving onto base without him recognizing where we are and yelling and looking for airplanes. In Köln the trains had him super excited. The main train station is right in the center of the city and we'd walk through it several times a day to cut back to our hotel or to use the bathroom. He sat on a bridge with Shelby for 30 minutes watching the trains go by and every time a train passed (literally like every 30 seconds) it was as though he had seen it for the very first time. His enthusiasm and excitement never waivered no matter if it was the 2nd train or the 102nd train.





Sunday morning was nice weather again and we had one more stop to make before we could leave. This is the ONE thing I wanted to see the whole trip and yet it turned out to be the very last thing we did. I wanted to visit the EL-DE Haus which is an old Gestappo prison that is now a museum/historical site. The building was the headquarters of the Cologne Gestappo for 10 years. As if by irony of fate the building was mostly unharmed in the war and is very well preserved. Writings from prisoners still cover the walls of the cells. The museum has many documents from the "prisoners" that were taken and passed through the prison. It explained how charges would be made up and the people captured. Many of the people imprisoned there would be sent on to larger concentration work camps. Very few of them survived in the camps and about 400 people were executed in the courtyard of the building/museum over the 10 year period it was used. The prison walls contain calendars and letters written by the prisoners. Some told of their experience in the horrible prison, others wrote letters to family members. It's amazing how well preserved everything is and how untouched it was during the war. Much of Köln was leveled from bombings (which can be seen in the photo album). After the museum it was time to grab lunch and head home. We still have stuff to see here so we'll have to come back...darn!