Cologne, Germany July 16th, 2011

The morning of July 16th we took a 2 hour drive to Cologne, Germany. Back home we would have been at the cabin in Brainerd, MN in 2 hours; now we were in a whole new country.  By the time we arrived in Cologne it was 12 and we were ready lunch.  We ate at Casa Nostra an Italian restaurant. We should of had some German food but we know the boys will always eat pizza and Greg and I both enjoyed our pasta.  He also had spaghetti ice cream.  Whipped cream on bottom, topped with vanilla ice cream pressed thru a spaghetti press, strawberry sauce and white chocolate.  Yum!



Greg did enjoy a traditional Cologne beer!

Cologne is home to the 3rd tallest church in the world.  It has some of the most beautiful stain glass windows I have ever seen.  While in the church Aidan lite a candle for Great Grandpa Vadnais; he wanted to sit down and stay but Jax is not the sitting type and there was a service going on. 

Jax does not like to get his picture taken, we should have turned the stroller. Hindsight is always 20/20. 

From there we took an hour long boat ride on the Rhine River.   We should have just walked around the town.  Thankfully since it is not too far we can go again and walk around more. 

One thing we found interesting here is that it is a large Bachelor and Bachelorette party destination.  The guys had the groom dress up, one was dressed as a bunny, there was a guy in an angel outfit with a blonde wig and another guy with a blue light on his head.  The groomsmen and friends all had matching T-shirts too.  The girls were more tame, just matching shirts. The Rocky Horror Picture Show was also playing so there were a lot of interesting Goth like outfits too.

Before heading home we each enjoyed a Stawberries and Cream drink from Starbucks.  For some reason it did not taste as good as home but it still tasted good.

 The boys also took part in a one man puppet show before we left.

We finished our day and headed back home.  We stopped at McDonald's in Aachen, Germany for a special stop for the kids.  They enjoyed there happy meals and we continued home, arriving just in time for bed.  We thought about spending the night but did not have a bag packed.  I think in the future I will just put somethings together for situations like this where we decide to stay at the last minute.