We have done a great job sleeping on this trip, getting another 8 hours last night.

We started with coffee in the room then down to the restaurant for breakfast. We took our time there and packing then got on the road before 10. It was a 2 hour drive and we got to Cologne just before Noon.

We dropped our stuff off at the hotel since the room wasn’t ready and went for our first walk of the day.

We are at a Marriott between the train station and the river. Which of course means we are close to the cathedral as well.

We could see the spires from the freeway while driving in. One of the things we learned yesterday is that Germany only has 25 skyscrapers and 24 of them are in Frankfurt. That’s because most jurisdictions forbid construction that would be higher than the local cathedral. Frankfurt is an exception because it was governed by the USA after the war during that period when the Allies took over. The areas that France and Britain occupied maintained the German standards, but the Americans of course changed them.

But clearly, in Cologne the rule still stands. Because the spires of the cathedral can be seen from just about anywhere, and it takes my breath away every time.

We walked through the train station to get to the rest of the city. There’s no better way to see the cathedral then coming out the other side into the square at the station.

And of course I had to do another “crown” photo. Tradition and all that. (Jenny, I know you are jealous!)

This was the first accidental crown in 2014 but it became a thing over the years.

A shot of the front as we started our walk.

This was just a few steps away from the prior photo. Turkish food is my default when I’m here so we stopped for a quick lunch.

Shaved rotisseried chicken with a yogurt dill sauce, fries, salad, pickled red cabbage. We split this and it hit the spot.

We stopped at a café after a couple of miles for coffees, and split a piece of chocolate mousse cake.

We came across Hahnen Gate in a neighborhood I thought I had been in before, but do not remember seeing this. It is a relic from medieval times when the city was walled. This was one of 12 gates into the city. There are only 3 others remaining. Maybe we will come across them.

We made it back to the Cathedral, but approached it from the opposite side. It could be because it was my first, but it’s still the most impressive to me of all of the cathedrals I’ve been in. St. Peter’s in Rome aside because that is in a class all by itself.

We went in and I wanted to sit down and just be in it for a little while. There were quite a few people sitting in the pews. There was no service going on, this is just how many people were hanging out at 3 PM on a Sunday afternoon.

I couldn’t resist just a couple of photos of the magnificent stained glass.

Not only was our room ready when we got back to the hotel, but they had already brought all of our luggage up. The box is the bottles of aperitifs we had shipped while we were at dinner last Sunday night. Now we just have to figure out how to get them home, along with other things we have purchased. We keep debating on whether or not we need to buy an extra piece of luggage to help with all that. 

We have a nice room again.

Above and below: and a very nice lounge open 24 hours. We make good use of that.

And it’s huge. I don’t think I have been in a hotel lounge this big before. As I type, I am sitting in the far right corner of this room.

Ash snapped this when he came up to join me for dinner about 6pm. I had come up earlier to do some work and worked until a little after 7. Ash had a 7 PM zoom meeting so that is where he is at now. I stayed to work on this up to this point.

We went out again for baklava about 8pm. The hotel is near a Turkish neighborhood that I remembered from 2015. I couldn’t find the restaurant I wanted to try again but I did find the baklava.

Meet Hassan from Istanbul (of course). He has been here 3 years.

Our haul from this venture. The coconut baklava far upper left was divine.

That’s it for today. Tomorrow we have a city walking tour scheduled.