Our first day in Germany, and we were impressed. We didn’t arrive in Cologne until about 10:30am, but that enabled us to sleep in a little. Cologne is the fourth largest city in Germany next to Berlin, Munich and Hamburg. It’s a 2,000-year-old city and one of the landmarks is the twin-spired Cologne Cathedral, with gothic architecture set amid reconstructed old town. Pulling up in the ship was amazing. You could see the cathedral and its magnificent spires not far from where we were docked. When we disembarked, we went on either the leisurely or expert walk around the city. The tour took us through the old city. Mom and I chose the leisurely walk.

We started at what looked like a clock, but it wasn’t. Instead it measured the level of the river. The city is prepared gor the next flood, by having a wall they are ready to erecting that will be 5 miles long. We walked along the river until we took a left into the city where the fish market once was. It’s next to the St Martin church. The fountain has three women on the top, and it honors the women who sold seafood there.

The city is also known for its fragrances, so of course we had to try and then buy some. The most beautiful part of the city was the cathedral. Bowman and John took a separate tour of the cathedral that all of us wished we had done, but had been scared of it based on what Claus said. They took an elevator to the top, that was on the outside of the building. And while they didn’t go to the top of the spires, they went quite high, and have some amazing photos. I enjoyed the mosaics on the floor and the gargoyles on the outside. One of the stained glass windows was designed by an artist, and it was more modern art. Th artist let a computer randomly select the colors and it looks like a bunch of colored squares with no assemblage of order.

After the cathedral, we had lunch and walked to the Gestapo Museum, otherwise known as the Nazi documentation center, or Gestapo prison. This is where the Gestapo detained people they arrested. The basement had 10 cells that were quite small and would hold up to 13 people. Some 1,800 inscriptions and drawings done by prisoners have survived on the walls of the ten cells. The memorial site is supposed to be one of the best pre-served prisons from the Nazi era, representing an historical asset of national and European importance. Mom and I left before the others and decided to walk back to the ship. Carol went to the Ludvig Museum and saw the 5-7 Picasos, a Modigliani, and was somewhat disappointed.

After returning to the ship to put our feet up for a spell, we decided to go to the chocolate museum, whupichnwas also right next to the ship. We ran into Nancy and John outside. They has only gone into the store. It was a well done museum; mom and I were surprised at the number of countries. That grow the cocoa trees, and that there are only 22 types of trees, but only 6 are good for chocolate. Part of the museum was sponsored by Lindt. They had lots of different chocolate molds, a place to taste chocolate, and were actually producing chocolate for the museum. If you wanted to you could make your own chocolate bar by picking the type of chocolate and ingredients you wanted. But we didn’t have time. But we did have time to shop for chocolate…yummmmmmmmmmm.

After another delicious dinner on the boat, John and George went into town for German beer, John, bowman, Nancy and Carol walked across the Thinento see the city from another angle, Mom went to listen to music on the ship and I did this.  Tomorrow we will see castles!!!