Köln

Well, Dad and I made it to Dirk's house in Siegburg on Thursday evening after a long, but beautiful drive from Stutgartt. I slept part of the way because all the time in the car makes me tired, even though I feel bad when there is so much beautiful things to see. When we got to Dirk's we met his family and then Dirk took us to downtown Siegburg at night and gave us a little tour of the town. There are a lot of really nice shops, for a town the size of Normal. There is a store here that is like North Face called Jack Wolfskin that Dad and I really like, but it's really expensive outdoor clothing. Yesterday (Friday) we went to Köln (Cologne) which is just north of Siegburg. There is a really large cathedral there called Köln Dom that was really fun to see. After seeing Canterbury's cathedral, I was able to compare this one. The Köln Dom is much bigger and older, with beautiful windows. In the main area there is this big gold box that they say holds the bones or relics of the three Magi. It was a place a lot of people came hundreds of years ago to see these relics. It was sort of cool. We walked around the city and down to the Rhine. It was funny because to me the Rhine looked like I could have been the Illinois river, except for the fact we were in Germany and if you turned around you could see a centries old cathedral. Not something you normally come across on the Illinois. We walked along the river to this really cool chocolate museum right along the river. We met up with Dirk's wife and kids and toured...or rather ate our way through the museum. One day a year the have all these different booths set up to taste different kinds of chocolate. We just happened to be there one that day. It was really good, but we were all sick of chocolate when we left! :) All of us were really tired when we left, but it had been a fun day. Today we are going to Soest were Dirk is from. Soest is also were the Kuchen Meister bakery is located! It won't be open according to Dirk, but we can at least take pictures of it! We leave to go back to England early Monday morning. Even though I love Germany and wouldn't mind staying, I'm looking forward to going back to my home away from home, Canterberries! :)
Tchüss!
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