Sept. 30th - Weekend in Cologne, Germany

Friday the kids did not have school so Jason took the day off and we went to Cologne, Germany for the weekend.  Cologne is the 4th largest city and also one of the oldest towns in Germany.   We got up and drove and it said it was a 2 1/2 hour drive so you know it ended up taking us longer due to traffic and construction and we think we only got mixed up on one exit this time and the trip took 3 hours.
I wasn't really sure how the hotel would be since I just found it online and booked it.  And surprisingly it turned out to be a nice hotel just down a side street near the corner off the main street which had the board walk all along the Rhine River.   I had packed lunch and we ate it in the car so it was a little after 12pm when we arrived but we couldn't check in our room yet.  So we parked the car in their tiny little garage, which we had to make a separate reservation for, and walked down the board walk.  We bought tickets for a river cruise and then walked up to see the famous Cologne Cathedral.  It is the most famous Gothic structure in Germany.  It is a very intricate building and took a long time to build with stoppings along the way.  The foundation was laid in 1248 and it wasn't completed until 1880!  632 years of building on and off! 

Inside it is beautiful- all the stained glass windows.  The church was bombed in WWII but never collapsed.   We saw a postcard that was from 1945 where a lot of things around the church had been destroyed and yet this was still standing.  Someone from above must have been protecting it (:
The church has 12 church bells on it, one of which weights 24 tons and is the largest free swinging bell in the world.  The next 2 pictures are just from a website.



There is a large gold decorated type of box in here, shrine,  that is traditionally believed to hold the remains of the three wise men, whose bones and 2,000-year-old clothes were discovered at the opening of the shrine in 1864.  Pretty interesting.
After this we walked back to the boat and went on a river cruise.

This the back half of the ship docking.  It was a beautiful sunny day, high in the 70's/low 80's so we sat on the top of the triple decker ship.  They even had a little few playground things on top.  But not many kids on the cruise. 

After we sat down at a table, this group of about 20 or so older Germans sat next to us.  Oh boy were they a lively group.  Mostly men and most had earings in.  They ordered a keg from the bar and were drinking and smoking away.  Other then that the cruise was nice we ordered some things to drink and big soft pretzels -no keg for us!
Amber was starting to whine on the boat ride so I started rocking her and she ended up falling asleep.

The german group you can't see from this picture.  We should have tried to get them in too.  The cruise was a little over an hour long.  Here is me carrying her off the cruise.  She is getting to be a heavy load!

After the cruise we walked back to the hotel and checked in.  The hotel has rooms in their building but then they own the building next store and made those into little apartments- so that is what we got.   It was nice except for the fact it was 3 stories up this narrow staircase and in case you hadn't guess it- we don't travel light.  So 2 trips from the garage down in the basement up the stairs to the main hotel, through the lobby, out the door and over to the next building and up the 3 flights of stairs later we were all set.  It was a bigger room with us still all sleeping in one room, but also has a kitchen and a big bathroom.  The boys still had to share the sofa sleeper but it was a bigger, nicer one. And the bed they gave me for Amber was a pack n play.  Considering she didn't like sleeping in that when she was a baby, I just took the bottom of it out and put that on the floor.  I put a heavy blanket under it and then made her a little bed next to me with the baby sheets, comforter and pillow.  It worked out well. 
Before we went I had seen online that Cologne had a Hard Rock Cafe, so you better believe we made reservations and walked there for dinner.  Of course we got a little lost b/c it is in this huge brick cobblestone paths for people only with tons of stores and tons of people.  We held on tight to the kids.  But once we found it we were happy to see they had the same food as at home.  So most of us got burgers and they tasted good (:
I was excited to see they had bigger drinks there.  Here when you order a sprite in comes in this tiny little bottle and is like $6, so Hard Rock had normal size glasses and I got a full sprite.  The kids milk even came in plastic cups with lids and straws!  I haven't seen this anywhere in Luxembourg or other German areas we have been too.  After dinner we walked home and went swimming at the pool in the hotel.  It was a good size pool but the room was at least in the 90's so it was very hot.  They had a sauna in there and heated floors and benches too.  The pool was a cooler temp. and the whole pool was deep.  Jason and I were working with Amber on swimming back and forth between us.   She did good and looks so funny making her puffy checks face so to keep her mouth closed.  After the pool we played a game of family sorry on this glass sorry board they had in the room.  Good day had by all!

Saturday we got up and ate breakfast that I had brought.  If we wanted breakfast in the hotel it was $27/person!  We then tried to find the Hop on Hopp off tour bus to go to the zoo, but then realized it didn't come by our stop for awhile so we took a cab.  It is a nice zoo.  It wasn't too crowded and everything was close together.  Not like Brookfield Zoo were things are so spread out.  They had the same type of animals as at home.  Sean was most exicted to see the Buffalos.  Jason and my favorite things were the sleeping hippos.  Oh my, these big fat grey on top, pink on the bottom hippos were sound asleep in the sand.  I have mostly only seen hippos in the water, so it was funny seeing them like this.

The animals here were closer up to you then at the zoo at home.  Amber's favorite animals were the penguins.  Their exhibit was all outside and you could almost lean over and touch them on their platform above the water.

I accidently fogot to pack the stroller for our trip since it is in my car and we took Jason's car.  So we rented a wagon for her, the backpacks and any extra children that needed a lift.

They had a nice playground in the middle of the zoo the kids enjoyed playing on.  By 12 we had seen everything so we ate at the only restuarant the zoo had.  It was like a cafeteria.  Jason and I split a nice order of spaghetti and the boys had burgers and Amber chicken nuggets.  Everyone that we had to talk with from the zoo, zoo cafeteria staff, cab driver, hotel all spoke English.  Which is good because no Deutsch sprechen here!
It was a beautiful day and we sat and ate outside and there was another park that the kids played at. Here in Germany things are cheapier then in Luxembourg.  And at the zoo and Legoland ice cream cones were only $1.50! 
After the zoo the cable car rides were across the street so we went for a cable car ride.  It takes you up and over the river and highway and you land on the other side.  They only seat 4 people so we had to split up.

On the way down on the other side is an adult only pool place.  Most people were walking around in robes and there is one outdoor section that was for people in the nude because there were a lot of butts flashing around- sorry no pictures!  They were sunbathing or there was 2 pools for them.  What a place for this, where people are above you passing back and forth all day!  The next part of the pool area is for peole in suits and had some nice looking indoor and outdoor pools, and a restaurant.  So we did the roundtrip on the cable cars.  Then we walked back to the zoo and got on this little train/tram tour.

We took this back to the big Cathedral which was so packed it was hard to walk with the kids.  When the areas were crowded we were holding on to the kids hands all the time, but when we were walking in non crowded places the kids are sometimes difficult to walk with.  Sean is either too far ahead of us or too far behind us.  And Amber wants to be doing or with whoever is the farest away.  And then when they are walking close to us they are weaving in and out and either tripping us or themselves or we are stepping on the backs of their shoes.
All around the cathedral are streets full of shops, no cars allowed and filled with people.  It was so crowded we did not even stop to shop.  But we did manage to stop in at a Dunkin Donuts and get a snack and some for breakfast the next day.  They don't have any donut stores in Luxembourg.  Then we walked back to the hotel to rest for a bit.

For dinner we walked back out and along the boardwalk.  It was still full of people.  The outdoor cafes were packed.

So we went in this little place, right before this picture is where I was sitting and eating, that said pizza.  You order a pizza and it comes on an extra large paper plate and then you just take it outside and eat it.  We ordered 3 of them and split them and just sat along that wall there and ate them and people watched.  There were a bunch of people sitting in the grass too and then to the right is a boardwalk along the river and then the river.  Many people smoke in Germany so even sitting outside it was quite stinky at times.  In Luxembourg not that many people smoke.  Then down the street we stopped in an ice cream shop and the kids (including Jason) all got more cheap ice cream cones!  Then we walked back behind these restaurants in the picture and down the side cobble stone streets.  Some shops here but mostly bars.  Jason was wishing he had stopped here years ago when he backpacked through Europe.  Different agenda now!  I went in one Nutcracker store and bought a cute Nutcracker ornament.  I collect them and I am so excited for the Christmas markets to buy some more!   Then we just wandered around and back to the hotel.  I took the boys for a dip in the pool.  Then we came back to the room and the kids watched a movie on the Ipad.

Sunday morning we got up and enjoyed the last of our donuts and drove home.