New Shoes, an English Shop and a Big Church (or: A Day In Cologne)

Going on a road trip is a lot of fun (especially if Lee MacDougall is the reason). But it can get quite exhausting as well. Long nights, early mornings... So it was nice to have one extra day in Cologne to get some extra sleep and relaxation. And the opportunity for a little shopping spree and sightseeing tour.

Not that we haven't been to Cologne before, but it's always worth a visit.

From our hotel, which - acording to the website - is located close to downtown and Old Town (remember "nearby"?) we started our walk at almost noon... in desperate need of some coffee and a sandwich. After 15-20 min (does that still count as nearby?) we arrived on Cologne's Schildergasse, one of the main huge shopping streets.

If you happen to be in Cologne and need a quck bite to eat, some good quality bread or really really ... really awesome cake/pastries... go to Merzenich. Their bakeries can be found all over the city and their stuff is highly recommendable.

Our late breakfast/early lunch consisted of a warm sandwich with fried egg and Bavarian Leberkäs'

For dessert Stefie had a nougat prezel...

... and for me it was a piece if raspberry cake. And yes, it was as tasty as it looks.

Time for some shoe shopping, ladies ;-)

YEAH !!! ;-)

And then off to the main sight... the Cathedral.

Some facts (courtesy of Wikipedia)

The Cologne Cathedral (Kölner Dom) officially Hohe Domkirche St. Petrus, (English: High Cathedral of St. Peter) is a Roman Catholic church in Cologne. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Cologne and the administration of the Archdiocese of Cologne. It is a renowned monument of German Catholicism and Gothic architecture and is a World Heritage Site. It is Germany's most visited landmark, attracting an average of 20,000 people a day. Construction of Cologne Cathedral commenced in 1248 and was halted in 1473, leaving it unfinished. Work restarted in the 19th century and was completed, to the original plan, in 1880. It is 144.5 metres (474 ft) long, 86.5 m (284 ft) wide and its towers are approximately 157 m (515 ft) tall. The cathedral is the largest Gothic church in Northern Europe and has the second-tallest spires. Its two huge spires give it the largest façade of any church in the world. The choir has the largest height to width ratio, 3.6:1, of any medieval church.

In other words: it's f**king impressive! 

Right around the corner are the banks of the river Rhine

European river that begins in the southeastern Swiss Alps, forms the Franco-German border, then flows through Germany and eventually empties into the North Sea in the Netherlands. It is the twelfth longest river in Europe, at about 1,233 km (766 mi), with an average discharge of more than 2,000 m³/s (71,000 cu ft/s).

Hohenzollernbrücke is a railway and pedestrian bridge, crossing the Rhine with a total length of t 409.19 meters (1,342.5 ft). It's also famous for and the tons (literally) of love padlocks that have been placed there since 2008.

One shop in Cologne that we visit regularly when we're there, is the English Shop (www.english-shop.de). Any of you British people here that recognize the following as authentic English products?

Guess everyone who's been to England knows this!

Only have heard about it but never tried it. Should I?

So IS this a proper brew? Or not really?

Those look yummy.

Yeah, who doesn't :-)

After several stops in other shops it was time to go back to the hotel. But really? That would take almost 30 minutes. Our feet sent us some huge THANKS when we decided to take a taxi :-)

The rest of the evening we were back with Street Team work.

It's a tough job but somebody's got to do it ;-)