Cologne (Koln) Part Two:

Our second day in Cologne was just as wonderful as the first, despite the rain, cold and wind. Luckily, we had planned the day so that our activities (except for the walking...you park in a parking garage and you walk in Europe, you don't drive) would all be indoors.

We started the day with a FANTASTIC traditional German breakfast downstairs in our hotel. They had brotchen, cheeses, meats, the best scrambled eggs I've ever eaten, these little sausages they called meatballs, (I don't know what those things were, but it's a good thing I don't have access to them every day), yogurts, fresh fruit, fresh juices and coffee. (I love coffee, but I LOOOOVE German coffee. It has a richer, nutty chocolaty taste! Amazing!)

After breakfast we checked out of the hotel and walked over to the Nazi Documentation Center, which from 1935 until the end of the war in 1945 served as the Gestapo headquarters and prison. The top floors serve as a museum, but in the basement is the prison, a haunting reminder of the terror that innocent people once endured. You can still read inscriptions carved on the cell walls by the prisoners, their voices still crying out that they were once here.

After leaving the museum, we went over to the Lindt chocolate museum/mini-factory and cafe. We had an unbelievable lunch at the cafe overlooking the Rhine river. I meant to get pictures of the food, but was too busy trying to corral a 2 year old. The salad that I had was the BEST salad I've ever eaten. Seriously. And the chocolate torte was a slice of heaven!

The museum is quite fascinating as it takes you on a tour of how chocolate is produced from the planting of the cocoa beans to the final yummy product. At the end you walk in to a mini factory and the smell of chocolate overwhelms your senses! (Personally, I think this is how Heaven will smell! :)) At the back of the factory is the biggest fondue pot I've ever seen, brimming with melted Lindt chocolate!! A woman hands out yummy little wafers dipped in the chocolate. I considered going out to the car, changing my clothes to disguise myself, and coming back over and over again for more wafers. If it wouldn't have been raining so hard and so cold I definitely would have!

After Buck pulled both Brady and I, kicking and screaming, out of the chocolate shop, we started home. What should have been a 2.5 hour drive ended up taking just over 4 hours...First, because my husband insisted on traveling miles back into the city for gas, which we didn't need just yet, second because my husband got mixed up in construction and got off of the Autobahn at the wrong exit and the entrance back to the Autobahn was closed and we had to travel nearly 20 kilometers in the wrong direction just to be able to turn around, and third because we then had to stop to feed a very hungry baby. Thankfully, we laughed it off and eventually made it home safely.

Here are the remaining pictures.

Noah had a snug, warm and comfy ride for the weekend.

One of the prison cells. This cell once held 33 prisoners at one time.

This is that dark cell with the stone bench.

This picturesque courtyard was the site of over 400 executions. By the end of the morning Brady was all tuckered out. I don't know if he was bored by the museum, or exhausted from staying awake, crying to get into our bed until after 11p.m. and then waking up before 6 a.m.

This is a statue of Snow White dating back to the 1800's. She doesn't at all look like the smiling, kind Snow White of Disney. She's kinda mean and scary looking.

Be still my heart... This was the fondue pot where I almost dove in and went for a swim.

Decadent desserts at the cafe... That's all folks!