Chocolatey Cologne

The weather in Cologne turned on a bit of shine for us the next morning. We mucked around in our hotel room for a little while catching up on laundry (we had a bathtub for the first time!!!), and then set out to see more of the city.

Guess what the first stop was?

That's right, the chocolate museum.

We were actually quite surprised to discover the real size of cacao beans. Did anyone else think they were the size of coffee beans like me?

They had a little tropical rainforest area. We couldn't spend too long in there because it was so hot and humid, but I was delighted by the little baby pineapple growing.

They had some traditional little toys from the chocolate-growing communities. How cute is this zebra?

This strange-looking thing is a boat made out of a hollowed out tree. They actually had a video showing how the natives would make these from scratch, with just axes and mattocks. Very impressive.

They had a little mini factory set up in the museum, so we could see the process of chocolate being made.

Tom had a close call. Actually his expression looks kind of real. Don't worry kids, he was just teasing.

Liquid chocolate, on its way through the process. Drool.

The view from the factory.

Yes, that is a chocolate fountain. Cleverly, they marked off the area of the fountain so us chocaholic visitors couldn't reach it.

They did let us have a little taste though...

This is machine that puts the little tiny blocks of chocolate in their individual wrappers.

The white container at the bottom here shows the discards. I really really wanted them!

They had an area showing all of the different chocolate packaging over time.

The original vending machines!

The actual wrapping for a Lindt bunny.

We couldn't resist buying some of the little packaged choccies. Can't come out of a chocolate museum empty-handed, right?

Down in the gift shop, we weren't really tempted by these dentistry-themed chocolates.

A Cologne cathedral shaped chocolate!

When we emerged from the museum, the weather had changed for the worse. In fact, a storm broke almost the minute we got outside, so we ended up dashing straight for the olympic museum we had seen yesterday for cover.

We kept ourselves amused fairly well.

When the rain eased, we decided to go for some non-chocolatey refreshment (and some Internet time), and

Afterward, we met up with a German friend that we had met on our Bosphorus river cruise back in Istanbul, to show us a bit of Cologne from a local perspective.

We met at the cathedral.

And actually went inside this time.

We went for a little wander around the town. Don't you think this guy on the left looks a bit like Lord Farquaard from Shrek?

Image sourced from Being Covered in Saws

Eventually we stopped in a Beer hall somewhere for dinner. Even the chandeliers were beer keg themed.

We enjoyed some very German fare.

No comment.

The boys (Tom and Mike) got beers for the road...

We found a place playing salsa music, and we tried to remember our salsa class moves.

And we rounded off the evening with the best kebab in Germany, we're told. It was very good, I can tell you that.

Crashing Cologne

 We arrived in Cologne in the late afternoon, and found our hotel, which was in an area that was experiencing a bit of rejuvenation. We watched in awe as this nearby building was demolished in front of our eyes.

This building gets to stay, I think.

As does this one, the main cathedral.

We went for a bit of a wander around the little city, to get our bearings.

We crossed a bridge that was once again covered in padlocks...

And admired the cloudy but still beautiful view from the other side.

We crossed back over again, and found the chocolate museum. It was closed for the day at the time, but we definitely had to ear-mark that one to come back to!

There was an olympic museum right next door, also closed.

 We made our way back into the city centre as our stomachs started grumbling.

Can you spot what doesn't fit here? Perhaps an expensive car logo on a very old bicycle?

They really do seem to love their bikes in Cologne.

We admired more buildings...

And then found ourselves. In fact, we were so ravenous that we almost forgot to take a photo before we were finished.

We went for a last little walk around the city by night before negotiating the neighbourhood of construction sites where our hotel lay.

On our way 'home', we got excited when we walked past a jazz bar, and eagerly went inside to see what the music was like. This was the decoration in the interior. Those are saxophones on the ceiling. Although the decor was pretty cool, the atmosphere of almost pure cigarette smoke was a little hard to take, so we left within about 3 seconds.

I snapped a final photo of a Cologne door before retiring the camera for the evening.