From Brussels, we took the train for 2 hours east to explore the city of Cologne. As soon as you get out of the train station, you are greeted with the Cologne Cathedral - the largest gothic church in Northern Europe. This church is truly breathtaking and is the highlight of the city. The interior of the church is also spectacular with huge stained glass windows and high arched ceilings. One of the most epic churches I've ever seen. Fall in Cologne reminded me much of the PNW. A clear, brisk day with fall colors throughout the city. It is situated along the Rhein with nice walking paths and viewpoints on either side. I asked Isaac to take a picture of me and this was his artistic vision. My artistic vision - wearing the church's steeples like little hats. At almost any point in the city, you can see the top of the steeples. We marveled at the beauty of the Cathedral as we took a lovely coffee walk along the river. We noticed that unlike the other European cities with a cafe on every corner, there instead was a pub. Is that the German way? We walked across the Hohenzollern Bridge to the other side of the Rhine for the most famous view of the Cologne skyline. The bridge is also known for the thousands of padlocks that couples link onto the bridge's railings. A true German meal: Beer, schnitzel, bratwurst, and potatoes. As mentioned before, so many pubs in Cologne! However, we found that they only had about 3 different selections of beer, unlike Belgium with almost 10 options that varied at each restaurant. Luckily, all the options are great, you can’t go wrong with a German beer. Cheers! One brat wasn’t enough for Isaac, so we tracked down another at the train station just before we headed back home. The ride home was longer than intended as our train broke down and we had to wait two hours for the next one. Ultimately, we made it home safe and sound, filled up on the perfect combination of brats and beer. And I can’t forget about the pretzel! The slogan (roughly) translates to life, love, and Pretzel. Words to live by in my opinion.
