Joe and I took a quick weekend trip to Cologne over Saturday and Sunday. I had never been there and it has the largest Cathedral in Germany. I let Joe sleep on Friday for quite awhile, we went and got some admin stuff done thinking that we could drive up on Friday, but when adjusting from nights to days for a weekend, the first day is total bust. I went and visited a friend who was medevac'd from Iraq to Germany for a bug and was inpatient for awhile, got a 2nd PPD because I forgot to get the first one read. Then, we went to the Holiday Bazaar on Rhine Ordnance Barracks.
All the bazaars are the same but, I had an advent calendar that I wanted and knew it was going to be there. When we got there we ordered dinner from an Italian stand and, since it got SO cold, we ate in the car with the heat on before we went in. I have a process for getting through bazaars. I always do the perimeter first, and then I weave through the middle. They have an array of cheeses, meats, wines, liqueurs, pottery, clothes, furniture etc. Always predictable, yet fun to meander through.
Cologne is only a 3 hour drive away so we got started Saturday morning and checked into our hotel. Then we walked along the river to the Chocolate Museum. They joined with the Lindt Swiss chocolate company and there was free chocolate all over the place. It was a cute little museum. Then we went up and down the shopping streets. It was raining, as Germany does so well in the winter, and we were getting hungry. We swung back to our hotel to drop off some bags and then took a cab to the wrong side of the street that's supposed to have all the restaurants. Eventually we found the coble stoned alley that had restaurants of all kinds. We settled on an Italian restaurant and sat out on the bad patio with the heat lamps on us. We made a good choice for being very picky about our restaurant options. Sadly, I hadn't been feeling too well so we pretty much went back to the hotel where I crawled in bed and we both crashed until about 2am when Joe's night shift clock woke him up. I woke up too, but I had really strange dreams about walkman space ships until we got up around 9-10.
I have a thing with picking hotels. I like hotels that offer breakfast. In Europe it's a little different than in the states because breakfast is a very different kind of meal here. However, we stayed in a Marriott and they had EVERYTHING. It was well worth it this time. Sometimes, it's better to just get food at a nearby bakery, but this was better than bakery breakfast.
We checked out walked from the hotel to the Cathedral for a closer look. It's a ridiculous cathedral. Once you get up close, you can see places where bullets chipped away at it during WWII and there are entire places where the stone is white replacing parts that had been bombed out. Cologne itself was pretty much leveled by bombing. We went in the Cathedral and it's a pretty restricted space. You can't really just wander around and get a good look at it, but there was a mass starting so we stood in the back and listened to the Liturgy of the Word in German.
We wandered from the Cathedral to a museum that had medieval art and saw some neat paintings that were really old. It had a Van Gogh, a Monet or two, a few Degas, and lots of medieval art. We didn't spend a whole lot of time, but I was glad we went. We left after the museum for the drive back. About an hour away from home we needed gas. Here we have a gas card that we have to use to get gas. It acts dually as our gas rations card on post and a gas card off post. I had about 45.00 dollars on it and I've used it on base as a debit card when i don't have a lot of cash. But, you can use this card on the Germany economy and you get the American price for gas. I had never actually tried it before. You can only use it at Esso stations though. We kept our eyes peeled, saw one, and pumped 20 Euro. When I paid for it, the US total was 11.43 dollars. 20 euro right now is about 30 dollars. So, it was DEFINITELY worth finding the ESSO station. They're not always easy to find and it can be annoying.
I wet out to a new German restaurant tonight with some people I know but don't see very often. It was nice to get together with them and every time I do I think, "we should do this more often." but we don't. I was the only "single" person there. It's too easy to just get used to doing your own thing and stay in your own neighborhood and your own schedule.
I've done some Christmas shopping tonight. I have more to do, but I remembered some of my ideas and had to act on them before I forgot them... again. I need to write things down or I can't remember anything. I'm excited to get to shop in states soon.
All the bazaars are the same but, I had an advent calendar that I wanted and knew it was going to be there. When we got there we ordered dinner from an Italian stand and, since it got SO cold, we ate in the car with the heat on before we went in. I have a process for getting through bazaars. I always do the perimeter first, and then I weave through the middle. They have an array of cheeses, meats, wines, liqueurs, pottery, clothes, furniture etc. Always predictable, yet fun to meander through.
Cologne is only a 3 hour drive away so we got started Saturday morning and checked into our hotel. Then we walked along the river to the Chocolate Museum. They joined with the Lindt Swiss chocolate company and there was free chocolate all over the place. It was a cute little museum. Then we went up and down the shopping streets. It was raining, as Germany does so well in the winter, and we were getting hungry. We swung back to our hotel to drop off some bags and then took a cab to the wrong side of the street that's supposed to have all the restaurants. Eventually we found the coble stoned alley that had restaurants of all kinds. We settled on an Italian restaurant and sat out on the bad patio with the heat lamps on us. We made a good choice for being very picky about our restaurant options. Sadly, I hadn't been feeling too well so we pretty much went back to the hotel where I crawled in bed and we both crashed until about 2am when Joe's night shift clock woke him up. I woke up too, but I had really strange dreams about walkman space ships until we got up around 9-10.
I have a thing with picking hotels. I like hotels that offer breakfast. In Europe it's a little different than in the states because breakfast is a very different kind of meal here. However, we stayed in a Marriott and they had EVERYTHING. It was well worth it this time. Sometimes, it's better to just get food at a nearby bakery, but this was better than bakery breakfast.
We checked out walked from the hotel to the Cathedral for a closer look. It's a ridiculous cathedral. Once you get up close, you can see places where bullets chipped away at it during WWII and there are entire places where the stone is white replacing parts that had been bombed out. Cologne itself was pretty much leveled by bombing. We went in the Cathedral and it's a pretty restricted space. You can't really just wander around and get a good look at it, but there was a mass starting so we stood in the back and listened to the Liturgy of the Word in German.
We wandered from the Cathedral to a museum that had medieval art and saw some neat paintings that were really old. It had a Van Gogh, a Monet or two, a few Degas, and lots of medieval art. We didn't spend a whole lot of time, but I was glad we went. We left after the museum for the drive back. About an hour away from home we needed gas. Here we have a gas card that we have to use to get gas. It acts dually as our gas rations card on post and a gas card off post. I had about 45.00 dollars on it and I've used it on base as a debit card when i don't have a lot of cash. But, you can use this card on the Germany economy and you get the American price for gas. I had never actually tried it before. You can only use it at Esso stations though. We kept our eyes peeled, saw one, and pumped 20 Euro. When I paid for it, the US total was 11.43 dollars. 20 euro right now is about 30 dollars. So, it was DEFINITELY worth finding the ESSO station. They're not always easy to find and it can be annoying.
I wet out to a new German restaurant tonight with some people I know but don't see very often. It was nice to get together with them and every time I do I think, "we should do this more often." but we don't. I was the only "single" person there. It's too easy to just get used to doing your own thing and stay in your own neighborhood and your own schedule.
I've done some Christmas shopping tonight. I have more to do, but I remembered some of my ideas and had to act on them before I forgot them... again. I need to write things down or I can't remember anything. I'm excited to get to shop in states soon.
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