Köln, Germany

Today, I am sharing my last post recapping my awesome 2016 Europe trip. I am sad to be finished recapping, while also relieved because it has taken me far longer than it should have to complete this post :-)
Köln, Germany was beautiful. We arrived in the evening on Tuesday, headed straight to our hotel for a quick check in since our train was delayed and because of technical issues we had to change trains part way through. But never worry, we were able to watch both parts 1 and 2 of the 7th Harry Potter movies just in time. Because we were checking in after hours at our hotel, we had difficulty checking in and I had to turn on my cell phone to call the hotel for them to let us in remotely. 
We dropped our bags and looked for a place to have dinner nearby. We ended up at a Mediterranean place down the block and it turned out to be one of our favorite meals on the entire trip. We went back to the hotel for a good nights sleep for our last full day of my leg of the trip. 
We woke up on Thursday morning and headed to a local coffee shop for espresso and pastries. It was my last day, so we were going all out. After breakfast we walked to the main square to check out the Köln Dom. It is spectacular from the outside with its gothic architecture. Sadly, they were doing a lot of external renovations, so there was scaffolding around the outside of the church. Nevertheless, it was beautiful. 
We went inside to check out the interior and so that I could say my usual prayer of safe travels and healthy living for my family and friends. The stained glass windows and the architecture and the artwork and the sculptures were just breathtaking. It is free to enter the cathedral; however, when you walk in and at each corner and at every alter there were collection bins. Which was totally fine. I am happy to donate. But I drew the line at the fact that the priests were wearing (yes, I said wearing) collection containers around their necks and while we were sitting at one of the alters, someone came around to collect the money from one of the bins. Can't you do that after hours? It was really disappointing. When I travel, I love to visit churches and to say a prayer. For me, it is a spiritual experience. Now, I understand that that isn't the case for everyone, but I was really upset at hour touristy the church was. If you are hurting for cash, charge an entrance fee and then leave people in peace to take from the site what they will. {end soapbox}

After we finished walking through and admiring the beautiful cathedral, we walked across the famous Love Lock bridge: Hohenzollernbrücke over to the Rhine Promenade for some beautiful cityscapes and views of Cologne. We walked back over into Old Town by Deutzer Brücke and we headed to the Chocolate Factory. I wouldn't recommend the tour. It was kind of pricey and if you have done a Chocolate Tour before, you have done them all. But definitely make sure to enjoy a spiked Hot Chocolate. Caitlin and I both enjoyed the Geist der Azteken - hot chocolate made with chili, tabasco, tequila, white rum and whipped cream. Oh.My.God. This was soo good, I can't wait to replicate it!  

 

After the Chocolate Factory and lunch, we headed over to the birthplace of the famous Eau De Cologne 4711. We walked around the shop, I dipped my hands into the Eau De Cologne Fountain and I found a perfume that I loved to purchase. We did a little shopping, since we were so close to the shopping district then for the rest of the day we brewery hopped. We had a few beers at one brewery next to the Cologne Cathedral and then went to another for our last dinner. 

As we got further away from Munich, the beers got smaller. 

We ended our day with a yummy German dinner - even if our waiter ended up being kind of an a-hole...
The next day, we went back to the same cafe for breakfast, went to the train station to figure out how we were supposed to get to the airport, bought train tickets, checked out of our hotel and headed to the airport. Caitlin then flew on to continue her solo trip, and I flew from Cologne to Munich back to San Francisco. 
This was definitely a trip that I will forever remember. I learned a lot about traveling with friends and myself. I for sure have the itch to travel and have already started planning my big trip for next year to celebrate my big birthday that I will not mention :)