Köln

Todd and I went to Köln, Germany Friday.   For us Americans its usually spelled Cologne, but either way you get the point.  Its Germany's 4th largest city with just over 1 million residents.  It is also one of Germany's oldest cities, founded in 38 B.C.   (Thank you Wikipedia.)

Now onto the good stuff .... kinda ....

Our first stop was to Kölner Dom (aka Cologne Cathedral).  Words cannot describe how beautiful this church is.  But, before the pictures, a little background information (via wikipedia)....
It is the seat of the Archbishop of Cologne (meaning its a Catholic Church).  The cathedral is a World Heritage Site, one of the best known architectural monuments in Germany, and Germany's most visited landmark (20,000/day).   It is one of the world's largest churches and the largest Gothic church in Northern Europe.    Construction started in 1248 and after many interruptions was completed in 1880 at which point it was the tallest building in the world.   It has the second tallest church spires and the largest facade of any church in the world.    Now its time for the pictures and believe me when I say that they don't do it justice ...

Twin spires with the awesome silver construction eye sore in every picture.

I believe this is the facade.

Check out the awesome gargoyles!

So much detail ... and this is just an archway

Upclose of the archway

Inside view of the Dom

The doornob to get into the Dom.

They allow you to walk up into the spires about 150 meters which of course we did.  You get an awesome view of the city from all sides.  Although the only we were really concerned with was the view of the Rhine River.

View from the top of the tower

Once our feet were on the ground again we headed to the back of the church, behind the alter.  There were all these different rooms (guarded by giant rails) with all different things in each.  I can't even tell you what most of the stuff was, but it was still neat to see.  Most of these little rooms had stained glass windows above them.

One small piece of the very decorative flooring

One of the treasures of the Dom - Shrine of the Three Kings.  Its a large gilded scarcophagus dating from the 13th century, and the largest reliquary in the Western world.  It is traditionally believed to contain the bones of the Three Wise Men.

More stained glass windows.

One of my favorite pictures of the day

My favorite stain glass in the whole church

We FINALY finished with the Dom so we headed out for a stroll to one of the town squares.  The square that we went to had a fountain that Todd wanted to check out, it was called the Heinzelmaennchen Brunnen Fountain.   If you are interested in what the story behind it is click here. 

Heinzelmaennchen Brunnen Fountain

After the fountain we grabbed a delicious snack (see below).  We had no idea what it was, but it sure was tasty!  It looks like a pretzel, but the pretzel part was the flaky like a crossiant and covered in maybe some almonds or macadamia nuts.  

Delicious-ness!

We FINALY finished with the Dom so we headed out for a stroll to one of the town squares.  The square that we Next we headed on over to Museum Ludwig.   This museum (according to our travel book) has one of Europe's best collections of modern art.   I think it has the largest collection of Pablo Picasso as well.  

This was my favorite Picasso 

Another Picasso - Woman with an Artichoke

 Have you ever wondered who decides what is art?  Well, I certainly did after seeing this particular "painting".  It seems a bit silly to me.

I think I could do this in my sleep!

One more picture of the Dom with the Museum Ludwig in the fore ground

Next we had headed to a place called Brauhaus Sion for some grub.   Another cool thing about Köln is they are known for brewing a specific type of beer called a Kölsch.  I don't really know anything about it except its from Köln.   I can say I did my own taste test and I give it 2 thumbs up!   You can tell from the name of this place that it is an authenic German restaurant.   Anyone who knows me should have no problem believing that I am really taking a liking to German food.  I mean who doesn't love meat and potatoes at every meal!!   The only bad thing about this restaurant (and all other German restaurants) is that we still haven't learned to share a meal yet.  I don't know why but Todd and I keep getting our own meals and never finishing more than half of it.   The upside is we always have leftovers for Todd to eat.  

Zwei Kölsch

I had Jagerschnitzel und pommes frites

Todd had some kind of locally made brat, red cabbage, and potatoes

After lunch we headed over to what could quite possibly the best museum I've ever been to!!!  It was the Imoff-Stollwerck Museum .... translation .... CHOCOLATE MUSEUM!!!  (Or what I like to call the chocolate factory.)   Not only is this place educational, but it was yummy!!   As soon as you purchased your tickets they gave you a bit size piece of chocolate.  Now what other museum do you know that does that?!   None.   We were able to learn all about the Coco tree, plant, and how to make chocolate.   The weird thing was that this place is still a running factory - while we were walking around learning about the chocolate making process workers were there working.  Clearly this factory never stops!   The brand name of all chocolate from this company is Lindt which I'm sure most people have had in their lifetime.  Because I couldn't come to a chocolate factory and not get a souvenir, we purchased a Easter bunny for each of us and some chocolate for my mom.  Let's just hope I get it in the mail to her before I cave and open her's!

Imhoff-Stollwerck Museum

Can't you tell how eager I am to get in there!

Our tickets and my chocolate candy I got at the entrance

Probably one of the coolest chocolate fountains I've ever seen!   They gave us free samples - a wafer dipped in that chocolate right in front of my very own eyes!

Look at all that goodness!

Bit size pieces of chocolate on the conveyor belt about to be wrapped.

Wrapped candy

Giant white chocolate goat!

Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf hollow chocolate molds

The last part of the day was waiting for sunset.   Once it started getting close we headed over the other side of the Rhine River to have a great view of the setting sun and the Dom.   I took a lot more pictures which I won't make you look through all of them, just the good ones.  

After the sun went down I unassumingly thought the day was over, but Todd wanted to head out onto the Hohenzollern Bridge.   Turns out this bridge has a fence lining the railroad tracks that is covered in "love-locks".   The story goes that couples started putting locks on the fence with their names on it.  Then, each member of that said couple would take one of the keys to the lock and together they would each throw their key into the Rhine River signifying eternal love.   Todd being the sweet husband he is surprised me with our very own locket to add to the bridge.   Since we didn't have anything else Todd painted our names on it in some of my pink nail polish.   Todd then added it to the fence, handed me one of the keys, counted to three, and we tossed our keys over the railing into the Rhine together.   Pretty wonderful ending to a great day if I do say so myself.  

Another favorite picture from the day

Adding our lock to the fence with the rest of them!

Its official!  Eternal love

Our lock is pretty much dead center on the fence

Tschüß!