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.