Summer Time hits the EU

Yep that's correct! We are on "Summer Time" now. Clocks changed last night at 1:00am forward. In the USA time doesn't change until the first sunday of April. So, now instead of 7 hours difference between the midwest USA and Germany....it's 8 hours difference.

http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/time-zone/rules/eu.htm

This weekend we went for a night out on Friday night with our friend Jools and met some nice people. We did a pub crawl, but started with dinner at the Poisidon restaurant, with wonderful Greek food for dinner....went to Luipold's for some tasty Kolsch (the famous beer from Koln that we had the previous weekend)...and then on to the Manhattan and then to the Irish pub and finally, to the infamous Green Goose. This was the first time we had went to the Green Goose. It wasn't as bad as we had heard, but it wasn't really our type of place (very young crowd) , except I *thought* it was for a few minutes when I heard some music that I wanted to dance to. Luckily, I couldn't find a dance partner. :) Even my own husband wouldn't. Turns out, that is a good thing.

Oh yeah, this is the webpage of the band that we saw at the Irish Pub Friday night. They were quite good. http://hand-made.org/Board/content.php?content.6

The weekend in Cologne (KOLN)

We had a great time in Cologne this weekend. It was about a 4 hour drive from Bamberg. We left Friday morning and got home Sunday afternoon. Have a look at this website www.koeln.de for some more info. When we told our German friends where we were going this weekend, they didn't understand us when we said, "Cologne" And even when we tried to say Koln (as they call it and spell it) they didn't know what we were talking about. Eventually they picked up on it. When they say it, it is much different sounding that it looks.

We didn't have much problem with language barriers; most of the people we encountered spoke English. Cologne is quite the international city, anyway, so it made it easy for us to get around and do the things we wanted easily.

Yes, it is true that Eau de Cologne came from here! Apparently the French, during one of the occupations, loved it and took it back to France with them. There was a tiny bottle of it, complementary, in our hotel room!

Oh and the beer! "Kolsch" is the special beer that is made and served in Cologne. It is only legally made with the city of Cologne. It is light and flavorful and served in 0.3 liter glasses for about 2 euro. (MUCH smaller glasses than our usual Hefeweissen beer.

I hope you enjoy our pictures of the weekend. Please let us know when you visit my blog!

Here we are arriving at the Hotel Konigshof. The hotel is very near the Dom. Parking was about 2 blocks away which we got a 50% discount on. The hotel was nice and the breakfasts were good and free. We had fresh flowers in our room but a terrible view, even though we were close to the cathedral. The staff here spoke good english and were completely smitten with Ann-Marie. In fact everyone we met was smitten with her. Jake and I found ourselves looking at each other with perplexed looks...wondering, "what's going on here?" But you know, Ann-Marie just marches around chit chatting and talking non stop even if people don't speak English, she doesn't pay any mind. Even though she is learning German, she doesn't really speak much when we're out in public, except to order her food/drink or say hello/good-bye or say just a few words. It seemed she got her cheeks squeezed multiple times. We noticed there were very few kids to be seen at all. We discussed it and we guessed that if we saw a little German girl walking around in the USA just a doing what she pleased, speaking German sprinkled with a few English words and looking cute, we might make a fuss too.  

3 separate beds. 

This is Ann-Marie on one of the shopping district streets. This was early...before all the people arrived. This was ONE SCARY experience! It ended up being a swarm of people like....hmmm, lets see if I can describe this...imagine what the streets would look like in your city if everyone waited to go Christmas shopping until Christmas eve. And you walked down there in the middle of it. At every moment someone was touching us as we walked. It was crazy!!! There were a lot of high end clothing and jewelery stores. And as you see some souviner shops. This is a pedestrian zone and it goes on for a very long way, and all the off streets were just the same.  

Ann-Marie was hiding!!! We finally found her behind the closet door! 

Whoops! Someone dropped their ice-cream! 

Here is a Gnome fountain-statue thing. You see the family gnome wanted to pose near the hard working gnomes in the statue! 

A big soccer ball TV 

Feeding the pidgeons.  

These are located around about the city. Jake said he heard that they have been doing this in various cities in Germany. This is a gold cobblestone placed in rememberance of a Jew who was deported to Auschwitz. His name is on there, and it was directly in front of a doorway, we believed that he once lived in the building that was there. 

Ann-Marie with a luft balloon! She got it from the shopping area of Koln. 

A sparkly street performer who communicated by squeeks. These street performers, they stay very still, standing there half the day (or maybe all day) and only move when they absolutely have to and if you put money in their jar they will move too. They shake your hand or maybe bend over or pose for a photo.  

Ann-Marie standing near street performer. She gave him some money to see what would happen. 

The guy in white is standing extremely still, like a statue. His sign said he is a Greek performer. He is standing in front of the Dom as if in praise. He only moves when you put some change in his jar.  

No question, this was the highlight of our trip to Koln. Our hotel was very near this and we spent a lot of time walking around the big cathedral. This is a straight up view. The cathedral took something like 600 years to complete. These photos don't even come close to showing how huge this thing is. This is where Pope Benedict spoke to the Faithful Youth in 2005. 

Just one small section of the Dom. A steeple. 

Inside the Cathedral (Dom). This is actually just one small section. If we wanted to we could have chosen to walk up the stairs into the steeples. But since we had a little one with us and there was a long line to go up, we skipped that part. It was extremely cold inside here! We could see our breath. There were SO MANY breathtaking works of art in here that I didn't bother to take very many pictures. I just gawked, I guess you could say. 

This is where the 3 magi (the 3 wise men) are entombed. It is a triple coffin in gold. This is inside the Cathedral (Dom). In 1164 they were transfered from Milan to Koln. At that time they ordered the gold shrine to put the remains in, which from what we can figure out (our brochure) it took about 60 years to make (the gold tomb). 

You can't possibly imagine how huge this is, but this is one photo that might give you a clue. It is amazing. They say you never see it without scaffolding, because keeping it clean is such a big job. You feel tiny when you are standing there. 

this is one small side of the Dom. 

Jake at the Dom 

A gargoyle. These are all over the building! 

Amy in front of the Dom. 

Flying butresses. 

Chalk art work by a street artist near the Dom. 

Here is a street artist's interpretation of a Michelangelo painting. Notice the sea of legs? There were tons of people there. (This was in the area of the Dom)