Köln, Deutschland

This past weekend, Sarah and I took a quick trip to Cologne, Germany.

DISCLAIMER: I get a little long-winded. Please note the headings of the seconds so you can skip around to the things you might actually care about.

Traveling
Saturday morning we biked from our house in Velp to Arnhem (represented by the yellow star on the map) and took a train to Cologne, Germany. It took about an hour and forty minutes to get there and since we left early in the morning, I slept on the train so it went fairly quickly. The train announcements were in Dutch, German, and English--so that was awesome and helpful. I'm so thankful every time I hear English from people that aren't native English speakers. 

(Side note: you think like Math and numbers and all that are universal--but they use commas here for their decimal point. I don't know what's up with that but I'm confused for the slightest moment every time I see it.)

Anywho, we arrive in Cologne (or Köln, as all the signs that we can't read--they are in German--say) and now we need to find the place we are staying. Sarah, who planned the whole trip, has all kinds of maps printed out but we aren't exactly sure where we are and where we need to be in order to start on the trail the maps say. We begin to really miss the Dutch signs (that we still can't read) because at least some spelling of those words are familiar. We eventually decided we needed to hop on another train to Köln-West. We get off that train, walk under a bridge and to our first intersection and we still can't decide where we are and where we need to head. We were doing the thing where you turn your map in your hands sideways and your entire body to match how you think the streets are laid out--CLEARLY TOURISTS--and a nice man comes to our rescue and offers help. He didn't speak much English but pointed us in the right direct according to the maps.

Arrival and Lunch
We finally located our lovely home for the next 30 some hours and dropped our stuff off and headed out on our way. Our plans were as follows: shop, Chocolate Museum, Fragrance Museum, and check out some of the massive Cathedrals because you can see "the big one" from all over and it looks awesome, and lastly, the cable car over the river.

We started off in the direction we thought the major shopping was but we started getting very hungry so we stopped at a restaurant called Borsalino which was an incredibly delicious Italian Restaurant. I ordered a meal by pointing at something on the menu and Sarah followed suit. We used a lot of hand and arm gestures between the waitress and us to communicate. We split both meals and had way too much food between the two of us but it was so good and actually really cheap compared to the menus we had checked out before stopping at this place. We got both meals and two drinks and bread before the meals for just over €16 (~$20.68).


Getting Lost, Asking for Directions
So then we were back on our way. Long-story-short, we got extremely lost, and when we could locate a street sign (which is actually quite difficult in some areas), that street would not appear anywhere on our map.  Below I will describe our attempts at asking for directions:

• Stopped in a convenient store to ask the lady if she could point about where we were on the map. She had NO IDEA what on earth we were asking so we left. 
• Stopped at a bar where the bartender and one of the patrons did there very best to tell us how to get to the Chocolate Museum. There were lots of yelling, a mix between German, English, and weird grunting noises and laughing. Oh, and more hand gestures. The bartender was drawing me a "map" that connected a bunch of lines.. all straight.. all going in the same direction while the man was yelling to Sarah, "You go out....there, always straight, always straight. Then you see (something in German I didn't understand) and go always straight." I couldn't stop laughing. So we left and just walked straight.
• Spotted a Travel Agency and a lady gave us a quick look at where we were on a google map and a way to head towards the train.
• Stopped at a corner to see if we could now locate ourselves on our map. A nice old man (pictured to the right) came up to us and I'm assuming asked us, in German, if we needed help. We told him we wanted to go to the chocolate factory and asked the most simple way to get there. He explained one way to walk and one way to get to a train and take that. When he abruptly decided he was done giving us directions he pointed to the sky and said, "The weather is nice. Now, you go away," and did a little "shoo away" gesture then he turned and started walking away. He was also quite funny.
• A couple who spoke English well helped us at a large map (shown below left) near the train station.

In our defense, these streets are not laid out in a grid-formation, its like a spiderweb. One second you know kind of where you are, the next you are completely lost. It was quite the experience.

Okay, now on to the good stuff!

The Chocolate Museum
Right before entering the Chocolate Museum, we asked a girl to take our picture in front of it, and then we returned the favor. When we were buying our tickets at the entrance, the girl showed up again. We invited her to join us. Her [English] name is Janus and she is a student from South Korea that is doing an exchange program in Amsterdam which was really cool. Her English was great too which was a plus for us. The Museum was cool, a lot of information on chocolate, where it comes from, how its made, etc. It was really nice that the information was both in German and in English.
Some fun facts:

• The number of cocoa farmers worldwide is estimated at between five and six million. Approximately 75% of cocoa farmers and their families have never tried a piece of chocolate. (Shocking, terrible, appalling?--I KNOW)
• Consuming chocolate can stimulate the formation of serotonin and endorphins in the brain. Both substances have a great impact on a person's well-being and mood.
• The theobromine and caffeine contained in chocolate expand the blood vessels and bronchial tubes. This makes the transportation of blood and oxygen easier. According to a scientific study, theobromine can alleviate coughing attacks. This can also lower blood pressure, reduce aggressive metabolites, and prevent heart attacks.
• In a test case, Germany's highest court, the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe, rules in 2004 that also in future, the colour lilac for chocolate product wrappers may only be used for Milka (my favorite!) products.

There were some machinery for producing chocolate that we could view as well as some actually running and making chocolate. They also had a green-house where they grew cocoa plants and other warm weather fruits. You could have custom chocolate bars made with add-ins of your choice. I did this for myself and to take back to Michael. At the gift shop I spent a good amount of time (and money). It was fun--and yummy. There was this golden cocoa plant that was a chocolate fountain (above) that they dipped waffers in and let us sample.

The Farina Fragrance Museum 
After the chocolate Museum, Janus helped us find the Farina Fragrance Museum. She had already been there and let us know that everything is in German, and in order to go in the Museum you had to take a guided tour. We decided that a guided tour in German didn't necessarily interest us so we went to the official gift shop and looked around. Janus, who happens to collect and know quite a bit about perfume gave us some background:

Johann Maria Farina created a perfume and named it Eau de Cologne after his town. Apparently the U.S. is one of few places that makes a distinction between men's and women's perfumes so both Farina's Eau de Cologne is for everyone. Many famous people have worn this scent including Princess Diana and Bill Clinton. Farina's claims to be the original Eau de Cologne.

No. 4711

Next we went to check out the No. 4711 House which is a competing perfume. Also trying to be considered  the original Eau de Cologne. I preferred this scent over the other but they were both very nice. When you walk into the No. 4711 House, they have a sink constantly running with the perfume's scent. It was really cool. There were also little signs you could read in English to give a brief history of the fragrance. Sarah and I bought quite a few souvenirs here.

This perfume is also quite famous in the world. Janus knew all about it, Sarah and I were just introduced to it.

Apparently the creator of this fragrance Wilhelm Muelhens, found a man with the last name Farina and bought the rights to the name and sold the license to countless others to compete against the Farina Eau de Cologne. The whole story actually sounded pretty interesting.

Kölner Dom
I don't know much about the Dom Cathedral except for that it is HUGE and AWESOME LOOKING. We saw it on Saturday evening and then again Sunday morning before we left. We were able to go inside while they were having mass Sunday morning and the sights and sounds were incredible. (The picture on the top right of the images below was not taken by me, my interior photos were pretty blurry)

The Bridge of Love

The Rhine River flows through Cologne. One  bridge that can take you from one side of Cologne to the other is the Hohenzollern Bridge, the Bridge of Love. This bridge was an important bridge in Germany during WWII and stood strong after many airstrikes. Many who cross the bridge with their sweetheart will attach a lock to it with their names on it to symbolize their never-ending love.

Shopping
There are shops here and there throughout Cologne, but then there are also "shopping streets" in Cologne. These are areas where cars cannot enter and the streets are lined with shop after shop--it was so beautiful. Sarah and I spent a good amount of our evening Saturday night after all our sight seeing shopping. We both left with purchases! I got shoes, a shirt, eyeliner, and nail polish during this shopping trip. All of this came to under €30 (~$38.62) which I was quite pleased with. Sarah left with leggings and new socks. The rest of our money went to souvenirs from the Chocolate and Fragrance Museums.

Souvenirs
Dear Family--if I can make it to the post office sometime soon you may see some of this show up in America  :). Or I already ate it. Not pictured: shirt, shoes, customized chocolate bars. Oh, and that little piggy you see was my first purchase in Germany.. it's a finger puppet, I liked it, the store owner was really nice...I don't really know what I was thinking..