Going On An Adventure

It's a weekend, and that means: traveling! Today it was to Köln. This particular trip started out as a whim, and never got particularly any more well defined. To maximize our time for drifting around the city, we started bright and early at 4 am. (You can basically infer that we abuse our youth and willingly sleep deprive ourselves just to travel)

When we got to Köln, it was a wondrous nine am, and we were practically the only ones there. The empty platz in front of the Kölner Dom only accentuated how extremely tall the cathedral was. Looking up with the clouds passing by easily gave me vertigo.

Don't get dizzy now!

Not many people around in the mornign

Almost didn't all fit in the picture!

Still looking tall even on the inside

After staring awestruck in at the Dom, we wandered down towards the river and found ourselves outside a chocolate factory museum. (This particular bit of wandering may have been a bit more "directed") The museum took the production of chocolate from the cacao plant through to the machine that folds the wrapper around it (so fast!) and, most importantly, the consumption of chocolate. After that, it went through the historic significance of chocolate (and its first impressions upon the 'high society' of the day. I so want a chocolate tea pot) and its role in different cultures. 

It tasted good too

The most exciting  part for us mature travelers, was the interactive game display in the kiddy area. It involved sitting on stools to manipulate (move, rotate) objects on the screen. What is that they say?... "Age is just a number?" We took this to heart.

Mmm lunch!

Since we enjoyed so much chocolate at the museum, we continued our walking tour of Köln to make up for the cake-as-lunch we ate. From the bridge we had a beautiful view of the city as well as a nice river breeze. (It was warming up quickly) The bridge we took back across the river almost didn't resemble a bridge any longer. It was covered with locks placed by couples sealing their love for eternity. Seeing all those locks, I was a bit curious as to what the river right under the bridge must look like... (presuming people threw away the keys)

The church is quite clearly the largest building around

The cumulative weight of love must be immense

Since cake really can't be considered an actual lunch, our next stop was for actual lunch. At a Thai restaurant. Man, have I missed eating cultural food. (I mean, I guess German food is also cultural food... but that's not my point) Filled with yummy noodles, we set out on our quest for the afternoon: the procurement of one blue backpack courtesy H+M.

For the non-Europe informed, H+M is like a classy Target. But only the clothes section. (Yup, I definitely go shopping all the time- can you tell?) Anyways, it;s mostly for youngish people (I think) and you see them everywhere. This does not mean, however, that if you something in one H+M you will ever find it again. (Don't mention their online site... we are now convinced it's a myth).

Being naive travelers, we went in unsuspecting to the fist H+M we saw and searched for the backpacks. We even found them. But not in blue. When we found a clerk, and asked about other colors he said "only this color here." In the US, we then could've asked to find the next store with it in stock, but no. They would never have the blue backpack in that store, so as far as they were concerned it could've easily as well never have existed.

We took a brief break to wade in a water-fountain-kiddie-pool-art-like thing

We were determined though (and had some time to kill) so we were undeterred by this initial set back. Upon exiting the store, what were we to see but another H+M just half a block down. (Seriously, we began to wonder what the point of that was- little did we know it would all become clear in time; it was a men's store). That store didn't have it either. (You were all in great suspense, I know)

On our way towards the next H+M stop we got a little sidetracked. (Remember what I said about maturity and age not necessarily correlating? Further proof here) We were drawn in to the LEGO store. It was awesome. They had all the latest themed Legos (eg: Hobbit) as well as parts walls that reminded me of all the parts ordering I haven't done yet for 6.270, and a build your own Lego-person tower.

My Lego-person has the double swords.

After reluctantly exiting the land of LEGOs and turnign the corner we found H+M #3 (no luck) a few doors down from H+M #4. At long last we had found the magic store with blue backpacks. It felt as though we had found a buried treasure. (For those keeping count, that's 4 H+Ms on two sides of one square block; all with different inventories. This is why I don't shop.)

Enjoying our success in finding the backpack, we made our way back towards the train station and the cathedral. In stark contrast with the square at nine am, it was now so full of people, you could barely walk across it! (Though that might've also been due to the various street performers- one guy came with a grand piano!- setup all over the place)

So many more people now