Cologne

Our last full day in Germany would consist of a trip to Cologne, which is less than an hour away from Witten. The weather forecast once again called for rain but only till around 1 p.m. At home, we are missing out on 100 degree Fahrenheit and very dry conditions. We wish we could send some of the rain and 65 degree temps back home to our families. Philipp was going to take the train from Aachen to Cologne and join us today. We arrived and it was only a light drizzle, so it was manageable. We met up with Phillip and rode the elevator to the top of the Cologne Triangle, which provided a view of the city in every direction. Philipp told us that during the war, most of Cologne was destroyed, except the cathedral. Next we crossed the Hohenzollern Bridge and approached the Cologne Cathedral.
It was a spectacular site. We toured the inside and it was beautiful as well. Robin, Rhonda and Philipp decided to climb the 533 steps to the top of the cathedral. I decided to pass this time, since I had done the 366 steps in Brugge. Instead, Naemi, dad and I went to a bakery for coffee and a 'Berliner', which we have enjoyed a few of on this trip. It's basically a jam filled donut. So, jam filled donut or 566 steps... donut wins! We did some souvenir shopping while waiting for the others. Soon, we could see Rhonda and Robin dragging themselves towards us. They were very tired and will probably be sore tomorrow. We walked around and did some more shopping since it was now nice and sunny. Then, in true German fashion we stopped for a late lunch in a brewery. I ordered some kind of sausage with a side of sauerkraut. It was all very good. We said goodbye to Philipp and headed back to Witten. We began packing our bags for home. We tried to leave some things behind to make sure we have enough room for all the chocolate we bought! We've weighed all our luggage and it remains under 50 lbs. so we should be good to go. We had visions of having to eat a bunch of chocolate at the airport if our bags were overweight. And speaking of overweight... the diet will start the day we get home! We have eaten so much good food and so much cake on this trip we will have to pay the price as we begin our exercise regime and food deprivation. And just for one last hoorah, we went out for ice cream. We have learned a lot about the different countries we have visited. For example, in Sweden, ice cream is 'glass' and cake is 'kaka'. In Germany, ice cream is 'Eis' and cake is 'kuchen'. In France, ice cream is 'glace'. We didn't eat cake in France because nobody was friendly enough to serve us any!

Now, we are sitting around soaking up our last night with Naemi. She has been an amazing tour guide for us. Anything we wanted to do, she made it happen. It will be sad to say goodbye to her at the airport tomorrow. :-(