A couple of weeks ago we had a three-day weekend and headed towards Düsseldorf and Cologne (Cöln), Germany. Per recommendations of others, we stopped in Bonn and enjoyed the Haribo outlet. We started with telling the kids they could pick out one thing, and walked away with much more. It was so cheap!
You could buy any color of gummy that you wanted!
I would have tried these, but I was guessing they were black licorice, so I passed on keeping them.
We then stopped at a local OBI, which is a German hardware store. We had just been assigned an apartment (more info will come in a later post) and Danny was also leaving for Italy for 2 weeks, and I didn't even have shower hooks! We needed a quick stop here so that I would be set in our new home after getting back from our trip. We then headed towards Old Town Düsseldorf and had some scrumptious pizza!
We then drove to our hotel in Cologne. The next morning, we headed straight for the cathedral to start our day.
This cathedral (which was built in 1248) is known for having the remains of the three wisemen and therefore is a hotspot for tourists. It was thankfully not destroyed in WWII. It is the second tallest church in Europe and the third tallest in the world. Forgive me for all of the pictures. It was beautiful.
These are pictures on what it looked like at the end of the war.
The gold box in the distance is said to hold the remains of the three wisemen/magi.
This is what the box looks like up close.
After we left the cathedral, we then headed to the Chocolate museum. Here are some of the things we saw.
This is the chocolate museum and it sits next to a beautiful ferris wheel.
There were the cutest little food trucks...
So much chocolate!
We then walked toward the Documentation Center.
A lady handed Embry this balloon dog...we didn't want it, but she forced it upon us. Someone was happy.
On the way, Evan decided he wanted churros.
We also found a very large toy store and some more goodies.
The documentation center (or El-de Haus) was the former headquarters of the gestapo and is now a museum. In the basement of this building is a prison that housed many people during WWII, many of which were tortured and murdered. Those that were put there, wrote all over the walls and the writing is still there. The website says that there are over 1,800 wall inscriptions. Visiting this place was a sobering experience. While I will never truly understand the horrors of WWII, being in a physical space that show writing from people that experienced it, was heart wrenching.
At this point in the day we were starving and headed to the Hard Rock Cafe. Danny made sure to try the local Kölsch that is only brewed locally. We picked up gelato on the way back to the hotel as well! It was a short trip, but very rewarding and informative. It's definitely a great city that I will recommend to others!
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