Day 2: Touring Cologne

The second day we were here, Dustin and Courtney treated us to a good, German-style breakfast (or so they said) -- bread, cheese, spreads, veggies, coffee, and tea. Then we walked around town, first stopping at the church of St. Gereon. It was neat. Gereon was a Roman soldier, and they had a statue of only his head on the ground outside (follow the link to see a picture). You can also see pictures of the church here.

Then we walked around town, saw a Roman wall, and walked downtown to see the cathedral (known here as the dome).

Here's a picture that Mark took. This cathedral is huge, and very decorated (gothic style). There are some pictures with a different perspective here.

Here's a picture from the inside.

We climbed 156 meters to the top of one of the spires. We climbed using a narrow stone spiral staircase. Our calves were not happy with us the next day. Otherwise, it was really neat. This is the view from the top.

We did some other things that day (ate lunch at a Lebanese restaurant, walked around the shopping district, went to a gestapo museum where there was also a special exhibit on stolpersteine, and then we had dinner at a traditional Cologne brauhaus (brew house) that serves the traditional beer for the town: Kolsch). This is a picture of Mark and Dustin having a Kolsch. We had brautwerst and sauerbraten. Courtney and Dustin had salad.

From our first night in Germany

We're sitting in Courtney and Dustin's apartment in Cologne; it's around midnight. We've been here a few days now. She said, "we're so glad to spend time with you in this time zone. You would definitely be asleep by now." Hmm, I guess so.

Here are a few pictures from our first night here, after we had a long, overnight flight to Frankfurt, a snowy train ride to Cologne (on a very fast train), a small train ride to our friends' neighborhood, and a walk to their apartment, we were ready to relax.

Courtney and Sarah sitting on their futon, in front of the kitchen.

Dustin is cooking us some pasta with butternut squash sauce.

Funny light switches here.

Merry Christmas

I am sitting at my old office here in State College, and the snow on the ground makes it feel like it is indeed Christmas. I check the icon, in the lower right hand corner of the laptop, and my suspicion is confirmed, it is Dec 21. So while it is not Christmas presently, it does appear that another season will come and go without us sending out cards. I do not feel that this makes us complete failures, but certainly partial failures. Over the last few weeks the cards we have gotten in the mail have reminded us of how far we have to go in the evolution into civilized adults. Maybe we need to have kids so we can have a family photo and an accompanying letter. But as I think about having kids so that we would send out cards, I think that is probably not a good idea.

So, in lieu of a card, we would like to wish all three of our loyal blog readers a Merry Christmas. Sarah, me and Millie love you all very much.