Köln, Germany (aka: Cologne, Germany)
What a fantastic city!
We are back in Germany, enjoying camping near a huge, beautiful city. The spot is a "Reisemobile" spot - basically a parking lot with water/dump station near by and electrical boxes that you run extenstion cords to. The cost is 8EUR per night + 1EUR each 12 hours for electricty and an additial 1EUR per about 40 liters of water. The only downside is the water and dump station were a little inconvient to access for us.
To our great surprise, we finally were not the biggest RV in the lot! We were neighbors with a gentleman from Switzerland who is traveling in a Newmar. Was nice to not be the sole source of attention for once.
With the bikes, we were about a 10-minute ride to Köln Centrum. So cool to ride under the bus tunnel and surface at the Kolner Dom, the largest Gothic church. Megan and Sophia are adamant that we visit, promising to be good. I think they just are in awe at the size and beauty of the churches we've ventured in so far.
We also found our first Starbucks of the trip - right outside the Dom - enjoyed a caffiene boost in the middle of the afternoon. Beautiful!
On a whim, and without any idea exactly where we were going (there was no internet
connectivity at the campground... and we didn't stop at the tourist office), we took the Gondola ride across the Rhine. On the Köln side, you have the zoo; on the other side, you have a fantastic park with views of Köln along with sculptures, fountains, gardens and a playground. We spent a few hours enjoying the park with the kids, though managed to not take the small train ride around.
We left all too soon - partly we need to either bite the bullet and visit the tourists offices (which means we'd be admitting we're tourists...) and partly we need Internet connectivity to research the history of our destinations and what we should be seeing and doing. Was fun to go back to the Köln web page and see that of our own accord, we managed to see and experience several of the city's historic buildings, just by virtue of being tourists on the loose, biking around the city.
On a whim, we stopped by a wine "museum" and shop on the outskirts of town. They actually grow grapes on the roof of the building! Sophia and Megan were given a handful of wine grapes (we didn't hear a peep out of them while they were enjoying the treat) and I was directed to a couple of German wines to try out... my choices:
We are back in Germany, enjoying camping near a huge, beautiful city. The spot is a "Reisemobile" spot - basically a parking lot with water/dump station near by and electrical boxes that you run extenstion cords to. The cost is 8EUR per night + 1EUR each 12 hours for electricty and an additial 1EUR per about 40 liters of water. The only downside is the water and dump station were a little inconvient to access for us.
To our great surprise, we finally were not the biggest RV in the lot! We were neighbors with a gentleman from Switzerland who is traveling in a Newmar. Was nice to not be the sole source of attention for once.
With the bikes, we were about a 10-minute ride to Köln Centrum. So cool to ride under the bus tunnel and surface at the Kolner Dom, the largest Gothic church. Megan and Sophia are adamant that we visit, promising to be good. I think they just are in awe at the size and beauty of the churches we've ventured in so far.
We also found our first Starbucks of the trip - right outside the Dom - enjoyed a caffiene boost in the middle of the afternoon. Beautiful!
On a whim, and without any idea exactly where we were going (there was no internet
connectivity at the campground... and we didn't stop at the tourist office), we took the Gondola ride across the Rhine. On the Köln side, you have the zoo; on the other side, you have a fantastic park with views of Köln along with sculptures, fountains, gardens and a playground. We spent a few hours enjoying the park with the kids, though managed to not take the small train ride around.
We left all too soon - partly we need to either bite the bullet and visit the tourists offices (which means we'd be admitting we're tourists...) and partly we need Internet connectivity to research the history of our destinations and what we should be seeing and doing. Was fun to go back to the Köln web page and see that of our own accord, we managed to see and experience several of the city's historic buildings, just by virtue of being tourists on the loose, biking around the city.On a whim, we stopped by a wine "museum" and shop on the outskirts of town. They actually grow grapes on the roof of the building! Sophia and Megan were given a handful of wine grapes (we didn't hear a peep out of them while they were enjoying the treat) and I was directed to a couple of German wines to try out... my choices:
- Weingut August Perll - Mittelrhein 2006er Bopparder Hamm Fässerlay Reisling Spätlese trocken
- Knipser Cuvee Gaudenx Pfalz from 2003
- Badischer Federweißer - a mini science experiment in the RV - Federweißer is new wine. It's a bottle of white wine that was brewed the day prior to my purchasing it. It's capped, but not tightly as it's just beginning to ferment. A day after, it is very sweet and about 1% alcohol - tasted almost like fresh apple cider. As you allow it to ferment, the alcohol level increases and the sugar level decreases. I'll try it again tomorrow (21.Sept - 4 days after being bottled).
And finally, at MediaMarkt, we were able to purchase a USB device that allows us to watch European TV on our laptops. It's fun to have TV back - if only to be able to stay a little in touch with CNN News. In Köln we had a variety of channels (CNN the only English channel) and good reception. Will see how it fares in the smaller suburbs we visit.
On to the next location - somewhere enroute to München. If the weather holds out, a visit to Koblenz enroute.
Ciao for now.
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