Well, we finally arrived in Köln this afternoon. I never realized they had reduced the leg room on economy class seating to the point where you felt you were eating the seatback in front of you. I also had some kid kicking the back of my seat across the Atlantic. I was lucky to get some sleep on that leg of the trip. We reached Frankfurt and I immediately realized I had to pay for wi-fi access in the airport. Phooey. Also, we had the dilemma of finding our baggage since we were to transfer to high speed ICE train. After getting shunned by two workers near the normal baggage claim area and conversations with two more people, we finally found our bags and headed down to the platform to wait for our train. The platform was covered but outdoors... It was freezing. It snowed heavily as we waited...
The train ride was extremely fast and surprisingly smooth. Of course, you're required to pay 8€ for 60 minutes of wi-fi access. I figured y'all could wait until we checked into the hotel. Once out of the train station, we attempted to take a taxi but the driver kicked us out and said it was not a far walk. He was actually quite nice...but to drive us one minute down the road was not worth his time because he would then have to return to the end of the taxi queue near the train station.
The Köln cathedral is literally a minute away and has such an enormous presence. Scott was so exhausted when we went there that we decided to attempt the tower ascension when we come back to town on the 22nd. I took several pics of course...with Scott's camera. I'll have more on the cathedral later. We also went to Früe Bräuhaus for a late lunch. All I can tell you is that re food was different but excellent. Oh and the bier. Nummy. I think after Scott is finished napping, well go out and have some more.
And Maman, we found a bakery near the cathedral....everything looked sooooo good. I told Scott I'm not coming back to the states. Too many good things here...
And the people here are a bit pushy... They do not hesitate to either walk through you or push you as they walk by.... But for the most part, the locals have been decent so far.
I'll post more soon....
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