What other exciting adventures were had in Germany??

Funny you should ask. I was just about to answer that question. It must be the continuing effect of the psychic that’s given me such insight into the minds of others…HA

Mike – my ever faithful companion who follows me around the world – arrived on Friday evening. We’d had ideas about taking long and exciting trips over my weekend off, but then remembered that a) I’m PREGNANT and tire easily; and b) we were both tired anyway.

So instead, we decided to take 2 small day trips. On Saturday, we went to the lovely city of Cologne, and then on Sunday, we went to the wine festival in Winningen where they have little booths and it’s a super cute little city and those who are not knocked-up can sample the wines. Those who are knocked-up can look longingly at those who aren’t and imagine how nice it would be to sample the wines and instead focus on eating the brats.

Mike and I had a lovely afternoon/evening in Cologne on Saturday. We didn’t exactly get going early since Mike was completely jet lagged and exhausted from too much travel all week, but we had a fun time anyway. We had a very sweet young German woman who helped out in the control room who lives in Cologne – so I asked her if she would mind suggesting train schedules etc. to go there. When Mike and I went to go pick up the info on Saturday, she’d created an entire folder of things to do entitled “cologne survival package.” It had maps – with areas of interest highlighted, all the churches, museums, shopping districts, good German bars and ‘party’ (i.e. nightclubs). I’d say “cologne thrive package” was more accurate.

So we did a few of the things on the list- we were not really about to go clubbing, but we did appreciate the thought- and here are the photos of our Cologne Thrive Day:
Famous Cologne Dom
Our not so famous heads in front of the famous Dom
Really awesome advertisement for a camera store on the streets
Did someone say monster ICECREAM?!?!
Mike hiding behind the 200 ml Kolsch glasses (Kolsch is the beer that is made in the area and this was our guide’s favorite local bar – with fresh beer and real locals. She was right on both accounts; she also forgot to mention giant meals slathered in butter and cream, but I guess that’s kind of an unspoken given in Germany