Traveling North to Cologne...

So we decided to give the public transportation a shot outside of the Bonn region and head up to Cologne, which is about a 30 to 35 minute train ride. We nearly missed our scheduled train, but with a little running and a really quick ticket purchase we made it just in time! To our surprise, once on the train, we realized we sat right behind a group of guys that were finding every way to have fun. Between the very loud yells "YEAH", the German bar songs (which you can somewhat hear on the video that is on the Shutterfly website), and the explosion of confetti every 5 seconds we knew we were in for a treat. It was pretty annoying in the beginning, but then we figured we might as well find some amusement out of it or else it would be a very long train ride!

We made it to Cologne in one piece only with our ears ringing a little and were off to find our first stop, the Dom Cathedral. Little did we know when exiting the train station the cathedral slaps you right in the face! Starbucks also slapped us in the face, so we had to make a quick detour to purchase our all time favorite coffee. Apparently everyone and their mom had the same idea and we began to think we made a bad decision, but finally got our coffees and headed straight for the Dom. We thought we have seen large churches, but nothing compared. It was baffling knowing we were staring at something that began being built in the 1200's (and took over 600 years to be complete). The detail was incredible. We made one full circle around the cathedral and ended up in the front looking at the 2nd tallest spires in the world! While standing there taking in the view, we cracked up because there were at least 5 street mimes trying to make a few extra euros. I made the joke that maybe we should do that in Bonn... who knows could make us rich! :-)

After taking in the many views of the cathedral from the outside, it was now time to see the inside. Just as we thought, breathtaking! The ceilings were sky high and the stained glass windows were so bright and colorful. We paid 1 euro to receive a brochure that went into detail about the many different statues/paintings throughout the church. There were 9 chapels that were funeral monuments of many Archbishops. Some dating back to 1270. We could have paid an extra 2 euro and walked 500 steps to the top of the spires to have a few of the city, but for some crazy reason we both decided against that idea. Even though this was the first landmark we viewed since getting to Cologne, we already knew the trip was worth it.

I will post another blog about the rest of the trip to split up the pictures a bit! Enjoy!