The night before we were due to leave for Cologne, we looked up our route to get to the Midi train station where our Thalys train was scheduled to leave. Since this was our first foray into international train travel, we decided to skip the cafe breakfast and get to the station early. Turns out it didn't really matter because our train was 45 minutes delayed. Once we found out about the delay, we found a cafe inside the station and got breakfast: two croissant, orange juice, and cafe au lait.
Look what we found at the cafe
At the station on the platform
Aside from the delay, we ran into one other issue. We were waiting on the platform for our late train. We had already spent a few minutes determining where we were supposed to stand on the platform. Side note: since you have seat assignments in certain compartments, there are charts on the platform that tells you where to stand on the platform. Anyway, we were waiting for our train and we kept hearing these announcements in French (it was Thalys we were using). Turns out, the announcements were about OUR train. Good thing, the Thalys staff was so nice because I guess the crew for our train were standing next to us and told us that we needed to head to a different platform. Once, they informed us, we hustled over and about two minutes later, the train arrived. We boarded our train and found our seats.
It's like riding a plane, but on the ground!
I personally enjoyed our train ride to Cologne. We were riding in a first class compartment and we got complimentary drinks and snacks. I had coffee and a ham and cheese sandwich. The hubster chose cookies and orange juice. Although Thalys did not have personal compartments like the German Bahn trains, they do have free wifi which I think both myself and husband prefer. Since this was my first experience on a train like this, I was surprised at how fast it went.
We arrived in Cologne and got off the train. Next up, we had to find the car rental agency to pick up our car.
Cologne central station
Cathedral right outside the station
Finding the car rental agency was not easy, but not difficult. There were no signs in English, but there were some symbols of cars, so we just followed. We found Europcar and got our keys. That part was easy, finding the car and getting to the hotel was a whole different story.
Our rental car
The hubster driving
Me as passenger =)
We had to walk across a street and down an alley to find the car. We loaded up and hooked up the gps. The hotel was pretty close, but there was construction all around the station. We drove in circles for a while and finally made it to the hotel. The gps was not updating as fast as we would have liked it. By the time it recalculated, we'd already passed the street it wanted us to turn on!
We arrived at the hotel, only to find out that we were too early to check in and our room wasn't ready. We decided to drive to Bonn to visit the Haribo outlet for some cheap and yummy gummy bears!
How do you pronounce this? And how long do you think it took for us to deduce that it meant exit?
Haribo!
30 minutes later, we were there, but uh oh, there was a problem.
It was closed!
We soon found out that EVERYTHING is closed on Sundays. After the huge disappoint that I would not be lugging home 50 lbs of gummy bears, we decided to grab some lunch (hoping something would be open). We actually drove to a few places on the gps and they were all closed. We finally begrudgingly decided on McDonald's. We found it and it was open, but we had to find parking. After driving around, we found a space, but surprisingly, we were parked by a shopping mall. We decided to walk around to find a place to eat in there since we had no idea how to get to the McDonald's from where we parked. We found a bakery and stopped in.
First thing I asked is if they had a menu in Engish *hangs head in shame*. The answer was no, but the man behind the counter was very helpful. He walked up through the menu and we ordered.
Settled down for lunch
Bread Bear? Turtle?
Cafe silverware
Lunch!
I ordered a mozarella, tomato, and basil sandwich with a salad and the hubster had a ham and cheese sandwich. This was by far the best meal we have had. It was an amazing sandwich. The bread was toasted and it was just great. My friend who is of German decent and has great German pride. She raved to me about the bread and sandwiches. This particular bakery was French based, but was in Germany, so I'll have to agree with her assessment of the bread.
Wheeee!
As we walked back to the car, I spotted this bee. How could I resist? I hopped on and made the hubster take my picture. I know he's embarrassed by me sometimes. We were tired from all the traveling and huge disappointment of no gummy bears. We decided to drive back to Cologne and check in.
Castle/church on our drive back
We stayed at the Hotel Domstern. It was highly recommended on Trip Advisor. It was a small hotel on a quiet street just minutes on foot from the main station. The room was the smallest we stayed in, but the service and extras more than made up for it. The room barely had room for a person to walk down either side and the bathroom was miniscule. There was no air conditioning, but it wasn't too warm. When the windows were open, it was still very comfortable. When we made it up to our room after a ride in the world's smallest elevator, we found some cake waiting for us. The hubster dug in, but I was still full from lunch. After eating some cake, we went back out to do some touristy things.
Hotel Domstern
Cathedral again
More Cathedral
ME!
Hubster
Doorway
Same Doorway
Lion Knocker
Cathedral from the back
Saddest Triathlon ever
Once we finished with the cathedral, we tried to find a way to the Hohenzollern bridge to add our lock to the other locks on the bridge. We couldn't figure out how to get there and tried a few routes. We finally figured it out, but ran into a detour. The Cologne triathlon was being run that day and part of the race was across one side of the bridge. It was really the saddest race I've ever seen. All these people were on the last leg of the race and not one single person was cheering them on. Not even locals. I was amazed. In the US, strangers cheer for each other. We must have walked along half a mile of the course and not one peep.
Hohenzollern Bridge
Our lock
Me and our lock
Close up. I am engraved our initials and our wedding date on it
Us and our lock
View of the Rhine
Little guy on the bridge
Part of the triathlon in the background
The triathlon did pick up a bit over there. They had some cheerleaders and volunteers handing out water and ice. The cheerleaders had to cheer, but I hope it helped the racers out.
My cousin is a big fan of Adidas. He made a request for something from Adidas from Europe, something you can only get there. I happen to see a girl walk by with an Adidas bag while buying souvenirs and convinced the husband to search for it. It was a pretty far walk and we were tired, so it was an even bigger punch in the face when we found it CLOSED. Just like Haribo. *cry*
We walked back toward the cathedral looking for dinner since there were some options there. However, it was too late. Most of the cafes had either closed up or didn't have menus that fit the hubster's palette. We finally found a little bar and ate dinner.
Beer!
Pork steak for the hubster, chanterelle mushrooms in a cream sauce with dumplings for me
We happened to meet another American there and he struck up a conversation with us. He talked and talked and talked. Oh dear, I wanted him to shut up. We enjoyed our dinner and headed back to the hotel. We had an early morning since we were driving down to Nurburgring to cross an item off of the hubster's bucket list.
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