Cologne

We spent a day in Cologne while our family was visiting; if I had realized just how far away that is from our house I might have chosen a closer city. Like the one we live in; I mean there's a church here and you can buy chocolate at the grocery in town. Maybe it wouldn't be quite as impressive as the Kolner Dom or the Lindt Chocolate Museum but it would have been the same general experience. Okay, not really, and despite the LONG drive the cathedral in Cologne and the Chocolate Factory were worth seeing.

Construction on the cathedral began in 1248 and was finally completed in 1880. The Cathedral was built to house the remains of the Three Kings and was designed to be a grand monument to them. The Kolner Dom is one of the best known cathedrals in all of Germany and over 30,000 people visit it every day. The Cathedral in Cologne was the tallest building in the world until the Washington Monument was completed in 1884. Jared had visited the cathedral before with Madison and Emily when Abigial was just a baby. Emily again came along and got to see something that she had seen before but did not remember.

Every time I visit one of the magnificent cathedrals I think two things: 1. How amazing it is that such a beautiful, detailed structure was able to be built so very long ago without modern tools and 2. That they all look, smell, and feel about the same. I don't mean to say that they are not impressive and beautiful; you can tell that the builders put their love and faith into their work. But visiting a cathedral, especially one that is as crowded with tourists as this one was, starts to become "if you've seen one you've seen them all." It's the same stained glass, statues of saints, and tombs of different people. Still the cathedral in Cologne was beautiful. During World War II the Cathedral was heavily damaged and one of the original windows was blown out. It was replaced with a sheet of plain glass and I especially loved the new window that was completed in the 1990s. It was not your traditional stained glass, but instead was squares of glass in all different colors. While we were there the sun was shining through the window just right and it was absolutely beautiful.

A picture of Emily taking a picture, that's Becca in the red on the left if you look closely you can see Dad; he's wearing a hat and standing in front of Emily's hands.

The stained glass window that I liked best. I'm still regretting not buying a print of this that I saw in the cathedral gift shop.

After we toured the inside of the cathedral my mom, Emily and I decided to climb to the top of the tower. It was a long climb, 509 steps up, but the views from the top were spectacular. The trip to the top was nice with a stop partway up to see the largest of the tower bells, the 24 ton St. Peter's bell. It was a good place to catch our breath and then keep moving. There was another stopping point when you were almost to the very top, maybe 100 steps down or so. There wasn't anything to see from there but it was another chance to stop and breathe before continuing the climb.

Mom, Emily, and I in front of the St. Peter's bell (a special thanks to the security guard for offering to take our picture together!)

Emily at the top of the Cathedral tower, she made it up all 509 steps without complaining or asking to stop

The view of the city from the top of the tower; I had to get the camera lens lined up just right in between the links of the fencing so that I could get this picture without the fence in it.

After the Cathedral we walked along the Rhine to the Schokoladenmuseum. I tried to use our GPS in walking mode to find our way there but it was so confusing! It kept giving me directions, "In 20 meters turn left" followed immediately by "In 15 meters turn right" so I gave up on the silly thing and we found our way on our own. I knew the museum was on the river so we walked to the river and then, thankfully, there were signs pointing the way. It was a gorgeous day and a German holiday so lots of people were out enjoying the weather, biking and relaxing by the river. We stopped and had a little picnic lunch ourselves before going into the Chocolate Museum.

I was disappointed at first because it was just a museum with no actual chocolate in sight. There were three rooms with information about how cocoa beans grow and are harvested into what we recognize as chocolate. There were also displays on the history of the chocolate trade, why chocolate is so good for you (no joke!), and what ingredients you will find in chocolate. In the third room I could finally smell chocolate and I was excited to walk through a set of double doors and see chocolate actually being made. There were machines for every step of the chocolate making process that you could watch and see the change from beans to little Lindt chocolate bars. The best part was the chocolate fountain; wafers dipped into fresh chocolate and handed out for me to enjoy! This was, for me, the very best part of the whole museum and if the entire thing had been like that, more of a factory tour it would have been perfect. The last part of the museum was displays of antique chocolate vending machines, hot chocolate sets (kind of like tea sets but with the spout on the side instead of across from the handle), and different kinds of popular chocolates that they called "cult" chocolate.

The nice lady handing out freshly dipped chocolates. I went back for seconds!

This is an antique chocolate vending machine. There were a bunch of different ones that reminded me of cuckoo clocks because of the little moving figurines that would do something before dispensing your chocolate.

We didn't end up getting home until almost 9:30 so it was a long day, but a really good one. I think if I go to Cologne again (and it would be a fun trip) I would make it a weekend thing and not a day trip because I know there is much more to do in Cologne that we just did not have time for. Like the mustard museum that we saw across the street from the chocolate museum that promised free samples. You don't have to like mustard to want to learn more about it, right?