Update to Becca’s Update… From Michael…

Note to self: Do fall asleep and leave computer and little sisters unattended…

I’m awake from my unplanned nap right after we came back up to the room from breakfast. The plan had been to go walk around, get lunch, and then go on a 2nd walking tour around Montmartre today. Oh, by the way, we’re in Paris.

However, Becca has been throwing up for the past half hour or so. We’re not sure why since we all pretty much ate the same thing at breakfast. Either way, I do not think we’re going to the diner for lunch and I’m not sure if we’re going to make it out on our second walking tour. We will see. We leave for London tomorrow. At least once we get to London, we all speak the language (sort of) and we’re there for 6 days, which is enough time to actually get settled and feel comfortable. Of the places we’ve been, so far I like Paris the least (and not just because the sound of Becca throwing up reverberates and echoes within the tiny walls of the bathroom and hotel room). I think that perhaps we’re all just a little more worn out and tired than we thought.

So, the day has not gone to plan so far. As Becca said, no eggs for breakfast (though probably a good thing in this case), a post-breakfast nap, and now an upset stomach. Yeah. We really could have skipped Paris, I think…

Interlude from Becca

Michael Elizabeth is sleeping right now.  We just had breakfast in the dungeon of our hotel in Paris, but the egg cooker was not working.  We didn’t have our daily ration of eggs, but that’s okay.  We’re going to the American diner next door for lunch before leaving for our tour with the British tour guide we had yesterday.

Umm…Kimmy and I had coffee for breakfast.  Coffee and orange juice and crossiants and bread with spready cheese.  No eggs, though.

It is very cold in our room.  Kimmy likes to make every hotel room we stay in like a penguin habitat.  But then she steals all of the blankets at night.  Not fair.

Kimmy says, “I did not make it like a penguin habitat (this time)!  He did!”  She pointed emphatically at the sleeping Mikey.

Hum dee dum.  La la la.

Kimmy and I like to do the Coccodrillo dance from the Italian game show Affari Tuoi, but Mikey says we need to find a crocodile before we’re allowed to do the dance.  So now we are constantly on the look-out for Lacoste logos.  Andy Roddick was wearing all Lacoste apparel when he got his butt kicked in the French Open last night.  Unfortunately, we were in a restaurant at the time.  We saved the dance for later.

We have learned way more Italian than French thus far.  We watch Italian game shows and translate the words online.  French is too hard.  Especially when I am banned from speaking because I am so bad at French.  It just sounds like random syllables strung together at a fast pace.

We are very good at public transport here in Paris.   The metro makes me nostalgic for the T in Boston.

Kimmy doesn’t like sharing a bed with me because, apparently, I make eating noises every time I roll over.  I was completely unaware of this.  She snores in my face, so I think we’re even.  Mikey suffers the most.

I miss my kitty and pig-pig lots and lots.  I had a dream last night that my kitty and Mikey’s kitty had babies.  Which is silly, because they’re both fixed.  Too bad about that.  They would make really cute babies.

Hum dee doodley doo.

I need to buy and send postcards today.  I wonder how much it will cost…

.85 euros, I think.  Hopefully that’s right.  We’ll see.

Maybe I will take a napper now, too.  Won’t have time later.

Kaybye.

Day 9… A “Nice” day… Ha ha… Get it? Kimmy hates puns.

First full day in Nice. Friday, May 29th. I have to date each one since I’m posting late these days. It’s the same old story. Once I *have* to do something that I did for enjoyment, it’s no longer fun for me. The blog is a creative thing for me. It can’t be forced or rushed. It happens on its own time. So for anyone that’s impatiently waiting, just… wait longer. I’ll get around to it in due time. Wouldn’t you rather have lovely photo-filled, witty comentary instead of the 4 sentence “I’m updating for the sake of updating” posts? I thought so.

Anyway, back to the trip… Nice. We’ve already established that I want to move here and live here for a while, right? Ok. Since that’s out of the way, I’ll get back to the actual trip.

We bought breakfast food at the grocery store our first day so we had something to eat when we got up. We could have opted for the cold buffet breakfast served on the roof patio of the hotel, which sounds fantastic until you hear the 11 Euros per person price tag. A cold buffet? For 11 Euros EACH? No thanks. I’ll take mini boxes of cereal, juice, milk, and granola bars please (The hotel room has a stocked mini fridge. Becca UN-stocked it so we had room to store things like milk, juice, and little cheeses that Kimmy likes. We’ll put everything back in the fridge when we leave).

Breakfast of champions

Some are the same as the U.S. versions... some are definitely not.

Becca eating cereal... Milk poured into the plastic cereal bag. Eaten with the tiny plastic gelatto spoon from dessert the night before. We are nothing if not resourceful.

After breakfast, we got our stuff together and headed down to the beach. We bought straw beach mats and a beach towel for Becca along the way. The trick to going to the beach on a nice day and getting a nice spot to soak up some sun is either getting there super early or during the lunch rush. Since we hadn’t actually gotten up until 10:30 or so and didn’t leave until noon, we were aiming for the lunchtime plan. We got there, found a spot, spread out the mats and towels, and just relaxed for a while. The girls had their mp3 players and headphones. I’d forgotten mine and forgot a book, so I got bored pretty quickly. We did wind up going for a swim at one point. The water was amazing. Perfect temperature.

Yup. Life is good.

The beaches in Nice are sand-free (for those of us who don't actually like sand getting in everything). Smooth rocks. Which seem like they'd be a lot more uncomfortable than they actualy are.

The girls in the Mediterranean... playing the "don't get swept away by the undertow" game.

Me, on the beach. Notice the blindingly white skin from being stuck inside a sad, sad shopping mall most of my days. Granted, it's also not a perfectly exposed photo, but still. I should not be this pale.

The beach. Looking to the left.

And looking to the right.

After soaking up a little too much sun, we headed back to the hotel to shower and rest a bit. Hey, lying on a beach, basking in the tropical sun takes a lot out of you! On the way back, we walked through the flower and food market that occurs daily in the old section of Nice. They’d already cleared out most of the food, but a bunch of the flower stalls were still up.

Flowers

More flowers

Hosing down the plaza after the food vendors have left. The restaurants that surround the area put table ans chairs into those spots for dinner that night.

Typical shops along the streets near the beach. But in Nice, they range from cheesy tourist stuff to Luis Vuitton and Chanel. You can buy pretty much anything you could want or need.

As well as things that no one should ever really buy... Not if they're going out in public at least.

There are designated pedestrian areas in Nice where the streets are just lined with restaurants and shops on both sides and you can just wander without having to worry about getting run over.

Yup.You can find pretty much anything.

The outside of our hotel.

After showers, short naps, and the discovery that perhaps we’d soaked up a bit *too* much sun, we headed back to the pedestrain area to find a place to eat. We’d actually picked out a restaurant from the guide book, but people eat dinner REALLY late here. Dinner service at a lot of restaurants doesn’t start until 7:30PM. They’ll be open for lunch, close at 2, and then reopen for dinner anywhere from 6 to 7:30. We were too early for this restaurant, so we found somewhere else to go. Sat outside, the food was really good, the desserts were better. Seems to be a pattern here. I like it.

My dinner. Duck with green peppercorns. Salad. And... french fries? Listen, just because I'm American doesn't mean that I don't know good food. Oh wait. I'm in France. Why am I surprised? (By the way Mr. Snooty French Chef, the duck was WAY overcooked. I actually cook much better duck. And I don't serve fries with it either. So there!)

Kimmy had meat ravioli. A mark of a really good dish is when Kimmy A) wants to finish and B)almost finishes what she orders. She nearly did.

Another mark of a really good dish: Becca is intriqued enough to order a salad and then really likes it and eats almost all of it.

Becca was so excited for her dessert. The waiter thought it was really funny.

Profiteroles with warm chocolate sauce. Pastries filled with ice cream, topped with a warm dark chocolate sauce and whipped cream. Yeah. She won the best dessert game. Kimmy got chocolate mousse, which wasn't very exciting and wasn't very good, hence the lack of a picture.

I had... umm... It was a frozen slab of light nougat covered with cocoa, in light cream. It was actually really good. I had no idea what it actually was when I ordered it. Chalk one up for being bold and pleasantly surprised.

After dinner, we walked down to the beach. This was partially just to burn off some of the calories we’d just eaten as well as to just see the beach at dusk.

Beach. Sunset.

Kimmy wanted me to take a picture of the romantic beach... bulldozer.

Becca and Kimmy doing what they do. I have no idea what exactly that is.

The Promenade des Anglais is the road that runs the length of the beach. Pedestrain walkway and beach on one side, high-end shops, restaurants, hotels, and casinos on the other. And 4 lanes of crazy taxi drivers in between. It's much more peaceful at night.

The streets of Nice at night.

Got back to the hotel, caught the tail end of the Italian gameshow the girls have become obsessed with and that we’ve been finding and watching since Berlin, and then went to sleep.

Berlin to Nice… Day… whatever it was

Thursday the 28th to be exact. It’s very difficult to remember what day of the week it is anymore. I remember the actual dates because of reservations and such, just not the actual days. Which is a problem when you go places that close on Sundays. Thursday we got up at 5AM to take a taxi to the airport to catch an 8:10AM flight. In the States, that makes sense. Get there 2 hours early because security and checking in always take forever, right? Not here. See, here in countries that haven’t pissed off the rest of the world and that generally seem to do things a little more efficiently to begin with (probably because they’ve been doing it for a lot longer), 2 hours turned out to be waaaaaaay too early. Used the automaic check-in station, got our boarding passed, then checked our luggage. We then got into the line to go through security. We all anticipated taking our shoes off, me taking off my belt and zip-up sweatshirt. Nope. Shoes stayed on. I cruised through without having to do anything except take my laptop out of the bag. There were maybe 20 people in front of us and we were through in under 10 minutes. And the people behind the x-ray machine were actually really studying everything that went through. They were having people open their carry-ons and were actively searching them, so it’s not like they were just letting everyone through.

By then, it was… maybe around 6:30AM. Becca went to lie across a bunch of seats and nap. I borrowed the book that Kimmy brought, and Kimmy listened to music. Eventually I got tired and fell asleep, when I woke up, it was around quarter to 8 and we hadn’t yet boarded. Waited… and waited… and waited… They finally announced that due to mechanical problems, the flight was going to be 20 minutes late. 20 minutes later, that changed to 40 minutes. The girls bought small sandwiches so we could all eat something. We finally boarded about an hour late, took off, got to Dusseldorf, made it to our connecting gate with a least 15 minutes to spare, and arrived in Nice with no problems. This is why I will ALWAYS take a long layover vs. a shorter total travel time. You never know what’s going to happen. Better to have too much time than risk getting stuck somewhere. Besides, airports are fun. Dusseldorf is no exception. When we landed, we were parked out in the middle of nowhere, had to cram into a shuttle bus, and then get dropped off at the terminal. The terminal itself is built up 3 levels high with crisscrossing stairs. The gate was on the 3rd floor but to get to the actual boarding gate, you wind up going down stairs and a ramp.

Bleary-eyed and tired. Way too early for Chao children to be awake...

Lovely weather for... leaving Germany.

Becca

Kimmy

Me

Ok. So this isn't really a picture of Kimmy. It's a picture of the people sitting across the aisle who put their blanket over their heads... which was a little odd. Even the flight attendant did a doubletake as she went by.

The view from the window on approach to Nice.

The airport. In order to land, the plane comes in and then makes a hard left-hand turn right before coming in to land because the airport is pretty much just sticking out into the sea.

After we landed, we collected out bags, and took a VERY expensive taxi ride to the hotel… at about 60mph through tiny back streets. Becca was terrified. Kimmy and I thought it was funny. Got to the hotel, checked in, and went to crash in the room for a bit.

The hotel room. Kimmy got the little cot bed.

View from the little balcony outside the window. We're on the first floor.

View from the balcony up the street.

After taking a short nap, we left the hotel to wander around Nice for a bit. I took a bunch of pictures, but took much better ones the following days so I’ll only post a couple.

Our first view of the beach.

Sitting near the fort overlooking the beach and water.

Looking out over the Med. I like it here.

After walking around for a while and getting really hungry, we couldn’t make a decision and wound up at the mall where we got sandwiches and juice. Not exactly exciting, but I managed to order food successfully and that’s all that counts. We then went to the grocery store to stock up on snacks and breakfast food.

Then it was back to the hotel where we slept. A lot. Because getting up at 5AM makes for a very long day.

Nice is… nice?

We’re in Nice. I’ll do full updates later tonight (hopefully). I want to live here. Maybe just not come home.

“Dear Mom and Dad,

Don’t know where the girls are. I think they made it to London. Not really sure. Stayed in Nice. Will try to come home for Christmas. Maybe.

Michael”

Still not caught up…

We leave for Nice in the morning. In 5 hours actually. And I haven’t even started with the two important days in Berlin. How I managed to create homework for myself while on vacation, I’m not sure. Since I don’t know when I’ll have time to do full updates, here’s the very abridged version of the past few days:

Monday, Day 5: Took a walking tour of East Berlin. It’s a “free” tour because it’s led by young, just-out-of-college students who have come to Berlin from all over the world. It’s also in English. The guide who picked us up at the meeting point in West Berlin was a performance art major from California. Our actual tour guide was a history major from Dublin. I highly recommend the tour. It’s very well done, low stress, and covers a lot. Long day in the sun. Dinner was the first complete failure.

Tuesday, Day 6: Went to the zoo. There are two things that our family will agree to go to no matter what. Zoos and aquariums. We looked up the feeding times for the important animals and wandered the zoo accordingly. Saw the panda bear, the hippos (Kimmy wanted to take home a baby Pygmy hippo. She says that they look like “big slimy puppies”), the big cats, the penguins, the bears, the seals, and everything in between. It started off a hot, sunny day, but a thunderstorm rolled in around early afternoon that sent everyone running. We had brought out rain jackets (because we’re smart), so we took a short break and just continued wandering around the zoo. We did skip the aquarium though because it had been a long day and we were tired. Came back to the hotel, took a short nap, and then had dinner at the Chinese restaurant just outside the hotel. It was another good meal and we went back to the room pleasantly full and exhausted.

Wednesday, Day 7: Still recovering from the travel, the sun, and all the walking. We didn’t do much of anything. Had breakfast, and the girls napped most of the day while I worked on sorting and editing pictures and updating the blog. The problem isn’t the writing, it’s the uploading of pictures. I have to do them one at a time and they take a while. Eventually went to get lunch. Becca and I agreed that we needed to have bratwurst before we left Germany so I found a highly recommended spot that was close by and we went there. The recommendations were well-deserved. Went to the grocery store afterwards, walked back to the hotel, and we all napped for a bit. Dinner was at a small restaurant across the street from the hotel. Another good meal. Met a very interesting man who noticed we were speaking English and came over to talk to us. After dinner, we went to find the post office so Becca could mail postcards and then it was back to the hotel to pack. Watched Manchester United lose to Barcelona in the football championships while packing.

And that (sort of) gets y’all caught up. Minus the pictures. I’ll get around to it eventually. But now at least I can start on Day 8 if need be and not confuse anyone! Gotta head to bed so I can at least get a few hours of sleep. Only have 45 minutes of paid internet left anyway. That’s close enough.

Day Four: Intro to Berlin

Ok. So I’ve been told that short and regular updates are better than long, detailed, but more spaced out ones. So, here’s the short version:

Sunday, caught a train for Berlin a little after noon. We jammed ourselves and our suitcases into a train compartment with two other poor travelers. The train ride was pretty uneventful, though Becca kept saying that she felt like she was in Harry Potter, riding in a train compartment across the countryside. It was definitely a great experience and a great way to see the German countryside.

Kimmy waiting for the train.

Becca being excited that we were going to Hogwarts. Kimmy and I tried to explain that just because we were on a train in a compartment and there was a man that came around with a cart of snacks...well... we just stopped arguing with her after a bit.

German countryside zipping by.

About five hours later, we arrived in Berlin. Becca successfully navigated the train system and street directions and after trudging about 15 minutes in 80-degree heat with our suitcases, we arrived, sweaty and exhausted, at our hotel. Checked in, found our room, cranked up the air conditioning, and crashed for a bit.

Berlin train station.

Our room.

To operate the lights and air conditioning, you have you put your keycard in the slot and leave it there. Pretty smart. A good way to save power and cut down on costs.

Yup. Watching The Simpsons in German.

Ok. Last shot of the hotel room. Efficiency at its best... sort of. First, the bathroom door, when opened outwards, closes off the entire bathroom. When opened inwards, it just closes off the toilet area. Behind the toilet are two buttons; one for a full flush and one for a half flush. The shower has a knob to turn it on and a knob WITH numbers, to adjust the temperature. No "hot" and "cold." Much easier. I like it.

A little after 7:00, we were really hungry and ventured out to find dinner. We eventually settled on an Italian restaurant in the main square in the area near our hotel. The food was excellent, the waiter spoke very good English (good enough to crack jokes and know what we were saying in response), and the desserts were even better than the food. Again, too hungry to take lots of pictures. All you are these three. I really wish I’d taken a picture of the desserts. Definitely the best I’ve had in a long time.

My glass of wine came in a little pitcher and a cup. Sadly, the wine wasn't actually very good.

Becca looking how we all looked and felt: Tired, sunburned, and hungry.

My dinner... is looking at me. Not what I expected, but good nonetheless. Everyone highly enjoyed their respective meals.

Went back to the hotel and went to bed.

Day Three: Down the Rhine, Dragons, and Dancing Monkeys

Our last day in Bonn, we all went on a boat ride up the Rhine. On the way to the dock, we walked through Bonn, which explodes with activity on Saturdays when the weather is nice. Fruit vendors, flower stands, street musicians, people riding bicycles everywhere. Almost everything is closed on Sundays, so it all has to get packed in on Saturdays.

I’ve been practicing my shoot-from-the-hip street photography skills. “Practicing” is the key word. Bear with me if a lot of shots aren’t exactly… straight or evenly composed. I’m not taking the time to fix them in Photoshop. These photo blogs take long enough as it is!

The boat arrived, we got on, managed to find seats up on the top deck in the front, and just enjoyed the breeze and fresh air. We also wound up enjoying a lot of sun (which we didn’t really realize until it was too late). We’d packed sandwiches and ate on the river. We could have sat inside and had typical river cruise food and drinks (for a typical overly expensive price) and listened to cheesy lounge music, but oddly decided to skip all of that. There were alot of interesting things along the way. I remember… most of them.

The building on the left is the United Nations building where my Aunt works. You can kind of make out the U.N. logo on the top.

Three smiling Chaos... and a random German guy unlucky enough to be stuck behind us. So much sun, so little sunscreen... Oops.

On the hill in the center is Schloss Drachenburg, a restored castle. Up and to the right are the ruins of an old castle at the top of the Drachenfels ("Dragon's Rock"), which is the name for the mountain.

This is one of the other ferries. It's supposed to look like a whale. We were sad that we didn't get to ride on that one.

Some people got bored with the boat ride... Some people also got really funny sunburn patterns from being grumpy and sleeping with their arms crossed. Other people may find this absolutely hilarious. Not mentioning names here.

This is one side of what's left of the bridge at Remagen. This side was turned into a peace museum. Again, it has historical significance so if you want to know more, go look it up.

After a bunch of stops, we arrived at Linz and got off the boat.

Leaving the boat.

After stepping off the dock, we were greeted by an organ grinder. As in circus-esque, "Where's the dancing monkey?" organ grinder. Weird. Little did we know what was to come. Also of note, the stereotypically dressed schoolboy with shorts hiked up to his armpits.

Kimmy and the giant plastic ball from the vending machine. We had no idea what would be in in. But the vending machine was there and they looked cool, so I gave her money to get one (I really wanted to know too).

The Vending Machine of Doom! Come on. As if you would've been able to resist.

We’re not really sure why, but Linz was completely overrun with organ grinders. They were EVERYWHERE. Sometimes a bunch right next to each other. At least half a dozen on each street. If they were next to each other, sometimes they joined forces and played the same song. But more often than not, it was a constant dissonant chorus of multiple songs being played at the same time. None of them had an actual dancing monkey either, which was highly disappointing. I thought there was some sort of rule that in order to be an organ grinder, you needed a dancing monkey. There was an old man who seemed to have his son actually cranking the organ, so maybe that’s close enough.

This corner alone... four, that you can see. There were four more to my left. And no one had a dancing monkey!

We walked around Linz for a while, checking out glass blowing and stopping to get ice cream. After that, it was back on the boat.

Linz.

This is the gift shop above the glass blowing place.

"Mama never let us go into store like this... Too many things to break! I don't want to move."

This section of the store was... well... we walked in and the three of us all said "Oh. It's like being home at Christmas. I recognize most of this stuff. It's like Mama's Christmas decorations exploded all over the room."

For example, these glass birds... Not sure how many we've broken over the years.

This is spaghetti... I mean ice cream... Ok, it's called spaghetti. But it's ice cream... squeezed out of a press to look like spaghetti. Oh, and it's REALLY good.

Spaghetti. With strawberry "sauce." I never did figure out what the "cheese" was. Regardless, it was a really good ice cream sundae.

We got back on a ferry to head back down the Rhine to Konigswinter, to take a train up the mountain to the Drachenfels. Took some pictures along the way.

The town of Unkel. The bell-shaped building on the right was an old prison.

Another shot of Unkel, which has a large wine festival every year. Sounds like a good time to come back.

We eventually got to Konigswinter, got off the boat, and went to find the tram that would take us up the mountain. We could have walked up, but it was already late in the day and since we were planning on walking back down, having to hike just one direction was fine. We also could have apparently taken ” a romantic donkey ride” to the top as well, but decided to pass on that one.

No parking. And those are NOT donkeys.

Becca and Kimmy sitting up front on the train to the top of the mountain.

Once we got to the top, we still had to hike a bit to get to the very top near the ruins.

Kimmy was obviously thrilled about more walking...

Don't know what this is.

The Drachenfels castle ruins... and children climbing on them.

View from the top.

Another view.

We then hiked all the way down the mountain. It was a long walk. Pretty uneventful. Only took a few shots.

Again, not sure what it is. Castle ruins of some sort.

A better view of the Schloss Drachenburg.

After we finally reached the bottom, we walked around town for a little bit, heading to Aunt Mae’s favorite Chinese restaurant.

Given that the town sits at the foot of a mountain called "Dragon's Rock," there are a lot of dragon references all over. There's a small shop that specializes in dragon art, like pottery, paintings, etc. This is the side of the building.

The Chinese restaurant was fantastic. We started outside, but then when it looked like it was going to storm, we quickly moved inside. Aunt Mae ordered in Chinese, disregarding the menu (because you can do that when you know Chinese in a good Chinese restaurant), and  it was a really good dinner. There are no pictures of the food because I was way too hungry to care at that point.

All you get is a picture of the sign. There was a really cool tropical fishtank inside as well. Don't have a picture of that either. Or the food. Sorry.

After dinner, we waited for a bit for the train, caught the train back to Bonn, and went to sleep. We left for Berlin the following day, so we needed to get a good night’s rest, get up early, and pack up. Bonn and Cologne were definitely great places to start with in Germany. Granted, English is more common in Berlin, but the smaller towns give a much better picture and feel for Germany.

Day 2: Loose and unsupervised in Germany

Day Two was our trial-by-fire in navigating Germany. Since Aunt Mae had to work, we got a ticket and instructions on how to get to Cologne.  After the long split day of travel and the really good dinner, we weren’t up and ready to go until after noon. While we were getting ready, Kimmy sat watching children’s tv shows… in German.

This is what happens when Kimmy is left unsupervised around a tv... She finds kids shows. Even in foreign countries.

This is what she was watching when I came out to see what she was doing. No idea what was going on. She seemed to have some idea.

Consequently, Kimmy has learned German. Ok, let me clarify that. Kimmy has learned very specific single WORDS in German; all from the children’s tv shows that she watched. Highly useful words that come up in daily conversation and make navigating Germany so much easier… Words like “unicorn.” Now any sort of horse that we see, she says “einhorn?” And Becca and I say “NO! Not an einhorn.” She’s also learned the words for mermaid (from an Aquarium sign) and dragon. Kimmy uses them whenever possible, and no, very rarely appropriately.

Packed up, walked to the train station, caught the train, and arrived in Cologne in about half an hour later.

Aunt Mae had said “You can’t miss the cathedral” before we left and yeah, she was right. You walk out of the train station and across the square is this massive Gothic cathedral. The Dom is impossible to describe in words. It’s an experience.

Becca and Kimmy posing for a forced "We need to prove that we're here and having fun" picture. Note the exaggerated smiling.

The first order of business, after going “Yup. That’s a big church” was to go find lunch. Becca successfully procured food in German for the first time. Granted, it was at a Kamps, which is sort of like a German Dunkin Donuts, so all she had to do was point. But it was stil a success and we all had good food (Kamps also has sandwiches). Kimmy also discovered “Lift,” albeit accidentally. She wanted apple juice but Lift, it turns out, is a slightly carbonated apple juice. It was a surprise at first, but we’ve been finding it and drinking it ever since.

The girls eating their sandwiches on the steps of the Dom across from the train station.

Lift. Looks like regular apple juice to an unsuspecting visitor who doesn't speak German... or one whose German is a little bit rusty. Either way, it worked out for the best. Lift is good stuff.

After lunch, we walked around the cathedral before going in. If you want to know more about the history and significance of the Kolner Dom, you can look it up. It has A LOT of historical significance from a religious standpoint, aside from being the largest cathedral in Germany.

That reminds me, just so you know, I’m not going to go into a lot of detail about the history or the importance of a lot of the things that we see. There are a couple reasons for this:

1. If I did, these blogs would be even longer than they already are and would read more like history lessons, rather than brief travel notes and updates. The three of us all respect and admire history, but we’ve never been big fans. The fact that something is huge, really old, and visually amazing is usually enough. The fact that a bunch of old dead white guys are buried in it is sort of boring. Nothing against history buffs. It’s a well-known fact that AP History and I didn’t really see eye-to-eye in high school and that I fell asleep during the AP exam. Some people have a mind for names and dates and events. I do not. Sorry!

2. Continuing from #1, consequently I don’t really… remember… a lot of the significant details about the stuff we see. I’ll hear it or read it, but then something else will happen that pushes it out of my head. I can tell you what I was doing with the camera, why I took the shot that I took, and what the light was like, but I can’t necessarily tell you what exactly I was shooting. Hmm… Ironic, no?

With that all said, I’ll let pictures be worth however many words you see fit:

And obviously those pictures don’t really do it justice. And now that we’ve gotten the serious stuff out of the way, on to the important pictures…

What cathedral would be complete without an oddly well-stocked, though slightly overpriced, camera store. It was amazing. They had a lot of really nice stuff. Maybe I'll move and work there... though my German is a little... nonexistent.

The carved statues that are all over the outside of the cathedral are really impressive. I’m sure they must be important figures and have some significance.

Like this guy...

And these four guys.

And these four... wait... one, two, three... shoe?

Yup. A sneaker. Apparently one of the sculptor's later, less understood, works.

After leaving the cathedral, we went and got some much-needed gelatto. Our goal was to have ice cream everyday. So far we’ve only missed one day.

Nothing better than good gelatto on a hot, sunny day.

We walked around Cologne for a while, tried to go to the Rathaus (Town Hall), but wound up walking through a wedding reception. So instead we went and walked through the ruins of a Roman governor’s palace that are underneath the city. Not terribly exciting, but mildly interesting.

The Praetorium.

Officially exhausted and certain members campaigning for naps, we headed back to the train station and caught a train back to Bonn. Napped for a little bit, I got caught up on the blog, and then around 8PM we decided that we really needed to go get dinner. We’d found a good restaurant in the guidebook, but when we got there, it was packed. Seeing as how the weather was gorgeous and it was a Friday night, we should have expected this. Given that our entire family does NOT do well when hungry and/or overtired, decision-making was at an all-time low. Getting any food was more important that what food specifically. Putting a new rule into effect, we used our one “Easy Meal” card and went to McDonald’s. We agreed that we’d allow one, easy, American fast-food meal per location. All other meals had to be from restaurants or places native to Europe at the least (ie. Kamps, which is everywhere, but still German). Oddly enough, McDonald’s was Becca’s least successful ordering experience. Not because it was difficult, but because McDonald’s always asks you a ton of questions in the process of getting your food. “What size? Do you want fries? Ketchup or mayonnaise? For here or to go?” It’s overwhelming in English, let alone a foreign language. Finally got our much-needed food and went to eat outside.

I thought I’d taken a picture of our dinner, but I can’t find it. It was nothing too different from American fast food, but it was still somehow better. The stricter regulations on the use of preservatives and additives really does make a difference in how food tastes. I can’t really describe it, but it just tastes better. Cleaner, less heavy. I like it. And I know my fast food; given that I wind up eating Wendy’s at work once a week or so. Might not do that anymore after being reminded what food is supposed to taste like and look like. European fast food is still… food. American fast food is… fast. Anything beyond that it questionable.

After dinner we just headed back to the apartment and called it a night.

Falling behind

Too tired to update. I’m about 2 days behind now. We leave for Berlin by train tomorrow. Hopefully, we’ll have internet access there. If not, I may pay for it for at least one day so I can update. I also need to spend some quality time with my computer and start warming up my French skills. Since Becca ordered everything for the three of us in Germany, and I’ll be doing the same in France, we decided that Kimberlee gets to order for us in London. Fair, not really. Funny, yes.

I will leave you with these pictures as teasers for the updates to come… Starting with Day Two…

Kimmy watching German children's shows on tv as we were getting ready to leave.

Brunch on the steps outside of the train station in Koln.

And from today…

On the boat. Everyone's actually smiling... including the random German guy sitting behind us. Becca is doing "Eeeeeeagle!" (If you don't watch the tv show Scrubs, that will make no sense, so pay no attention).

This is Linz... which was overrun with organ grinders today. As in, turn-the-crank-creepy-circus-music-and-dancing-monkeys. But without the monkeys, so not nearly as fun. There were literally at least 6 on every street. And NO ONE WAS PLAYING THE SAME SONG AT ONCE!!

Going to sleep. Maybe. Both sisters are snoring. Fun times for me. Last night I slept with Dad’s noise-canceling headphones on. It was the only thing I had. Need to find some earplugs very soon or this is going to be a VERY long trip.