cologne, germany.

after our time in amsterdam, we took the train over to cologne for a couple of days. 

we chose cologne because we wanted to take a train somewhere and cologne happened to be pretty close to amsterdam while also a near major airport in dusseldorf. we would come to have the beeeest flights of our life on our business class journey from dusseldorf > london > nyc. 

cologne is a pretty small and quaint german city. we were there just after the new year, but christmastime was still in full charming force.

we thought two days was just enough time to get the lay of the land in cologne and check it out.

the cathedral here was insane! you walk outside of the train station and THERE it is. it took over 600 years to build! very coooool.

^ our airbnb where i watched 'seinfeld' and 'the holiday' in german. lol. just wasn't the saaaame.

^ the rhine river.

it's pretty hard to pronounce cologne the way germans do which is spelled "köln" and said like "Koooouln." anyhoo we were just waltzing around saying "koooln." "kuuuln." "koouln." over and over and it still never seemed right haha.

we walked through a sculpture park and also stumbled on the cologne zoo. kind of a random thing to do but we enjoyed it.

the zoo is smack dab in the center of a regular neighborhood, which is funny. 

hi giraffe! hi german neighbor!

^ the german-est of german eats. taters, brats, cabbage, and kölsch beer, which reigns from cologne.

^ this photo was shared on design sponge's instagram and a couple different artists saw it online and sent me their versions that they drew or painted! i was shocked. sooo cooool and flattering. the internet is wild.

drinking kölsch in cologne is a fun experience. i think they only do it like this in köln because it's the birthplace of kölsch!

you get a small 0.2 liter glass of kölsch and the waiter marks a tally on your coaster that is essentially your beer tab. once your glass is empty, they come by with a big round carrier of beer and replace your drink until you cover your glass with a coaster to signify that you're done drinking. and they just keep 'em coming!

we became friends with this funny guy james who was traveling from england and chatted it up for hours. our tally was getting pretty up there but it was a lot of fun. the pub was also called 'peter's' and we brought some of these kölsch glasses home.

glad we got a little taste of germany on our trip. i lived in germany with my family when i was a child and this was my first time back in this area. i'm dying to go back to austria sometime and spend time in hallstat.. gorgeouuuus. i wish we'd had time during this trip to take the hogwarts express all the way to austria... but next time!

qp