Cologne cathedral, Odysseum Abenteuermuseum Köln

Work day for Ludger, but Steffi graciously took a day off and took us and the boys for an English-speaking tour of Cologne cathedral.  This was the ONE day out of the whole trip I forgot my camera, so you’ll have to settle for cell-phone shots.

That's Gothic, baby.

The floors in the front of the cathedral and in the inner sanctum are from the 19th century.  The "tiles" of the mosaic are solid colors and are 10cm thick, meaning they will withstand many, many years of wear without losing their color.

We had a very informative and friendly guide, who took us through the cathedral and told us about its history.  I’m convinced that the guide knew *almost* as much about the cathedral as Steffi’s younger son Luis.  He’d been there on a school tour a couple of weeks before and I was astonished at how much he’d remembered of the details of the cathedral’s construction.  Cologne cathedral remained unfinished for several centuries and was only made wholly into the building we see today during the 19^th century.  Today it is one of the finest extant examples of Neo-Gothic (or Gothic revival) architecture.

Cathedral complete, we had a nice lunch on the banks of the Rhine (Shannon and I both had Flammkuchen, which was fantastic) and Steffi and I enjoyed some good Kolsch bier!

Luis, scouting a location for lunch.

Say it with me: Flammkuchen.

Onward to the Odysseum Abenteuermuseum Köln!  This fun and interactive children’s museum has something for young and old alike, including hands-on experiments with physics, water, sound and light.  There are some very good displays that really bring science to life.

Erin and Max both took a spin on a machine I dubbed the “hurl-a-tron” before we left.

Returning home, we found that Ludger had raided what I believe to be the larger part of an entire butcher shop and fired up the smoker for an amazing home-cooked dinner that was absolutely amazing. It was accompanied by some excellent Weissbier and some delicious side dishes made by Steffi.

Michelangelo had the Sistine Chapel,  Ludger has his smoker.

The kids enjoyed some trampoline soccer before dinner

Suddenly, rain.  The Eifel area reminds me of home.

Caruso the Landseer!  He thinks he's a lapdog.

Look at that face.  He is a very sweet dog :-)

By this point in our journey we’d been on the road for almost a month and had experienced some really exceptional meals in fine restaurants; but this meal will be at the top of the list for best meals we had for the whole trip (also on the list: Marie’s ratatouille!).  The combination of great cooking and fun companionship made it very special for us.

After dinner we played board games!   Erin beat us all for a round of “Set.” After, the she and the boys played “Mensch ärgere dich nicht” (which is quite like "Sorry") and Ludger and Steffi taught us “Qwixx” over a wonderful and fruity red wine from Ahrweiler.