We are hoping to make the most of today since we didn’t get to see as much of Cologne as we’d liked yesterday. The weather is perfect again, so we head out in hopes of being the best Cologne tourists ever.

We headed into the city from our airbnb in the burbs a bit earlier today and had coffee at Starbucks. It felt like a luxury after the mediocre coffee we’ve had these past few days. Not a knock on German coffee. Just about the limited selection in Lubeck and our place in the burbs.

//Stefan Note: we just want a cup of drip coffee and thats it. and Starbucks has it.  so whoever is judging is terrible.

So we sat out on a square sipping coffee from giant Starbucks mugs. Do they have “sitting here” mugs at the Starbucks in the states? I’ve never noticed. And it was lovely having everyone drinking from the same giant white mugs. I had a pretzel sandwich with it. Why not. It was so good.

There was a street performer at the corner, so the kids kept running back and forth from our table up the street to watch these two guys making music. I love watching them run together, Lillian taking care of Oly. He lets her too. Not all the time, but when he thinks he may actually need her protection. So they ran around and had fun while we sat and drank coffee. So nice.

We walked to the Dom Cathedral. It’s massive and dark. I’ve never seen a building more Gothic. We walked all around it and then went inside. They were preparing for noon mass, so they didn’t allow visitors to walk everywhere inside. We may need to go back to see more. But it was very impressive. Stefan noted his preference for St. Mary’s cathedral in Lubeck though. It seemed to have more to it. But it’s hard to be critical of these massive works of art. 

There is an old Roman arch by the Cathedral. It’s incredible to see things this old still standing. The kids wanted to climb it, of course.

//Stefan Note:  This is also when a caravan of Chinese tourist come and take 476 pictures of Ll and Nils.   They are Chinese celebrities.  Its wicked odd but also somehow okay.

//Stefan Note: This is my favorite

//Stefan Note: Wow Kimbo, how many shots of Oly playing on the phone do we have? Isn’t this blog supposed to be us being awesome parents?

Next door to the cathedral is the Museum Ludwig. Finally some modern art for this trip! Lillian was particularly excited. We walked throughout the top three floors and saw works by Picasso and American artists like Rothko. It was really nice. Oly was a bit difficult. We basically had to carry him throughout to keep him under control. Then he got the iphone. I know he doesn’t like museums the way Lillian did at his age, but I’m glad we are still trying to expose him to such things. We like museums, so we want to make that part of his world as well. He did get to where he would point out an item in each room that he liked. The best was his answer “no” when i asked if he liked something. Strong and matter-of-fact. Pretty cute.

The museum has a great room for kids. There are opportunities to explore movement with an interesting camera and screen, and kids can make their own works of art! We had a great time there. I just had to post the series of Lillian. There was this background on the wall with a prompt saying to take a picture in front of it. These pictures are the result of her ever-shifting poses. She’s amazing.

We walked from the museum down to the water (very close). There is a nice walkway and green space along the water. And there are many restaurants and bars lining the green space facing the water. It was packed, given it was a Saturday. We went up a narrow cobble-stoned street to a place Stefan found, Sunner im Walfisch. It was an old classic Kolsch place and not completely full of the raucous crowds in the surrounding bars. We had lunch of huge pork knuckle and schnitzel (Lillian loves schnitzel!) along with several Kolsch beers.

//Stefan Note: Paffgen not worth it.

Then we walked up another block to a place RateBeer says has one of the best Kolsch beers, Paffgen,  It wasn’t that great. But we had to try!

A train ride home and playtime in the backyard made for a perfect ending to a busy day.

Stefan and I went on a date around dinner time. Our Airbnb host, Gisele, watched our kids along with her 2 girls, ages 2 and 4. So 4 kids one year apart. They couldn’t speak the same language, but they had a great time playing together anyway. Stefan and I enjoyed a fancy 5-course dinner with wine pairings at Wein am Rheim. The food was just okay but the wine was fantastic. It’s fun to taste wine from a different part of the world from where we usually buy wine. This night it was mostly German and Austrian. So nice to have some time just to two of us.