Rhine River Cruise Day 6 - Cologne

  We spent the morning in Cologne, Germany. Cologne was cool - we didn't get to see very much of it due to time. We did a chocolate tour at the Schokoladen Lindt Museum, which was pretty cool, and then went into the plaza to see the incredible Cologne Cathedral. I wish we would have time to go inside, but the line was so long and we had to board the ship by 12:15.  We spent the rest of the day and night cruising back up the river and it was BORING and so long! It was today that we realized that this is definitely an old person trip. There is NOTHING to do on the ship, so we watched the Olympics in our stateroom, exercised in our stateroom and watched a lot of trees go by! 

This was definitely the most diverse city as far as people went. I told Rod I felt like it was kind of like the land of misfits. There were also tons of homeless people here. 

The construction of this cathedral started in 1248, and was not completed until 1880! 

It was so detailed and unique! The most fascinating part of this cathedral is that it's made out of limestone, so it has to constantly be repaired. 

This little area is called the Fischmarkt. It's a historic square in Cologne. 

Our guide told us that this was Napoleon Bonaparte's favorite restaurant inspite of how much he supposedly hated Germany. 

St. Kunibert's Church

Part of the tour of the chocolate museum was getting to taste ALL the stages of chocolate. We got to taste the cacao bean while it was still raw, then dried, then chocolate with no additional ingredients, to the chocolate with sugar and chocolate butter. 

Some of it was very GROSS and bitter, but the process was incredible!

This person was drawing heart flags for all the countries out of chalk in the middle of the square. 

There is a lot of unrest in Europe, so this was a tender gesture. 

Rhine River Cruise Day 2 - Nijmegen

This morning, we woke up in the beautiful town of Nijmegen. It is the oldest city in the Netherlands.

We signed up for a 15 mile bike ride through parts of Holland and even a little bit of Germany!

It was breathtaking and so serene! The little towns are some place I dream of living - such a simple and quiet life surrounded by green and farm animals! Cows, sheep, and horses everywhere! The homes were so quaint and cute!

We rode through Oost.

We stopped at this cool pump station called Hollandsch-Duitsch Gemaal.

On one side, this little raft was in Holland. On the other side, it was in Germany!

This gentleman is the oldest living person in the Netherlands. His name is Jan van Ierland. He is 110 years old! We felt so stupid just stopping at staring at him, but he must be used to it because he just waved as we stopped.

The Dorfscheune Zyfflich is kind of like a rec or event center. 

This was so fun - each of us in this picture had one foot in Holland and one foot in Germany!

These statues were so . . . interesting?

This windmill is part of a restaurant. 

We rode to a little restaurant where we had homemade apple pie. I'm not normally an apple pie fan, but this was DELICIOUS!

After our bike ride, we walked around Nijmegen. 

Most coffee shops sell marijuana and it's legal.

Bikes are EVERYWHERE here!

This is a Protestant Church in Nijmegen. It's called St. Steven's Church.

This is the Nijmegen Town Hall.

We have no idea what the story with the shoes is, but they were super fun to see!

This is St. Peter Canisius Church in Nijmegen. 

The symbols were so cool - they all look like Noah's Ark pictures.

This cool building is a monument called Kronenburgertoren. The construction of the city walls around it began in the 13th century. Gunpowder was stored here. 

The monument is in this beautiful park. 

Our friends wanted to go in this cheese shop. The smell was awful. 

Another beautiful church!

This was an actual grave in the floor of the church! There were several.

We packed so much adventure into today, but it was so much fun!