Day 4- Köln Chocolate Museum

Here we are in front of the Chocolate Factory. Yes, it too looks like a castle. It was full of wonderful chocolate waterfalls and little Oompa Loompas. Not quite, but it was really cool to see all the different kinds of chocolates that they make.
Here they are making the hollow chocolate bunnys.














This is a setup of an old chocolate store with all of the different kinds of chocolate.











One of the many chocolate machines that they run. It pumps out tons of chocolates that they give away at the beginning of the tour. We also got to eat a lot of Truffles that we found out cost $1.50 each when we got to the gift shop. They were delicious.

They even grow their own cocoa in a greenhouse.

Day 4- Kölner Dom/Rathaus(City Hall)

These are some old Roman ruins beneath the Cologne City Hall. The fortifications had originally been destroyed by an earthquake.
This is also an old Roman tunnel that was connected to the ruins pictured above.


A view of the front of the church from the outside. It is quite a daunting building, and is still the most imposing structure in the area. It's hard to believe that this made it through WWII relatively unscathed. There were pictures of the surrounding area just after WWII was over and every other building for miles was completely demolished.

Day 4- Kölner Dom

A view from inside of the Kölner Dom. This church was massive, especially since the construction was started in 1248. It took 600 years to complete and in 1880 it was the tallest structure on earth. Jen didn't particularly like the old churches, they were too open and cold. Not to mention the creepy guys with glowing eyes (bottom left corner).









Another view from the inside of the church.















This is from the very top of the tower. Through the grate you can see the other spire as it is undergoing renovation.










Another view from the top. I was obviously ecstatic to be done with those stairs.








Almost to the top of the spire, we took a little break to catch our breathe before continuing up the final stairs.

Day 4-Köln (Cologne)

This is about halfway up the 500+ stairs to get to the top of the kölner Dom tower. It was a nice break and it was cool to see the world's largest working bell in action.
















Climbing the stairs was pretty rough. It was barely big enough for two way traffic. Most of the time we had to stop for people coming down and just squeeze to the inside.
















Up until this point we had only gone through small towns and cities and were not used to this many people. We both felt really claustrophobic with this many people around.
















View from outside of the Kölner Dom.


















As soon as we got off the train, the church was the first thing that we saw. We had already dropped our bags off at the hostel so we decided to walk around and see the city for a little before we went into the Dom.

Day 3/4- Remagen

This is a view of the Apollinariskirche. It was a beautiful church and gardens surrounding it. Although we didn't go inside because there were a lot of nuns running around doing something inside.









A view of the Apollinariuskirche from the trail below. It was a great view of the town below and you can tell why they decided to build it on the old Roman ruins.
















This is one of the buildings from the Old Town portion of Remagen. We found ourselves over in this part of town after having dinner at our hotel. We decided to eat at the hotel restaurant, because we didn't really see anything too appetizing as we walked through town earlier. I had a nice wienerschnitzel but Jen wanted to go the healthy way and get a salad, a "worst salat". Now, it doesn't matter whether you pronounce that the American way or the German way, because both are accurate representations of the salad. When we ordered it we assumed that it would be a salad with a Bratwurst sliced on top. We were not even close. It was actually a bowl of cheese and bologne that had been sliced into small slivers and two leaves of lettuce on the side. Only in Germany can a bowl of meat and cheese be called a salad. But, Jen was a champ and at least tried it for a few bites, before we ended up splitting my meal.

Day 3- Koblenz

On the train to Remagen from Koblenz. Accidentally got on an ICE train instead of one of the Regional trains, so we didn't have a seat and we got thrown off the train. Luckily Remagen was the first stop after leaving Koblenz.















Here we have the spitting boy. Made famous by a young boy, who 15 years ago trusted that his family had his best interests at heart, and didn't just want a picture of him getting spit upon by a statue. Unfortunately, that story had been told to Jen too many times and I couldn't convince her to stand in the big wet spot in front of the statue.







Another picture of the spitting boy, and a bronze statue that also intermittently spits.












This is the Deutsche Ecke. It's a huge bronze statue that stands at the confluence of the Rhine and the Mosel Rivers in Koblenz. This is where we disembarked from our ship and started our trek across land.

Day 3- Boat ride to Koblenz

Jen and her 2 Euro cup of coffee. She told me that the 2 euros were for the bathroom and then came back with coffee. Foiled again!!! At least she wasn't as cold for a few minutes.















A view of St. Goar and the castle overlooking it.














A very unique castle built on an island in the middle of the Rhein to collect tolls.
















This was our little passenger ship that we took from Bacharach to Koblenz. It was really cold when we were just sitting there.












View of the castle we stayed in. Our room was the very top row of windows and was the second room from the left. It was a nice place, except for the whippersnappers that stayed up all night long. Luckily, I was able to sleep through it, so really it was only Jen who had to suffer through it.

Day 2- Bacharach

View from the top of the the medieval tower.













View from a rebuilt medieval tower overlooking the town and St. Peter's Church.













Jen underneath the grape vines in town. The entire town is surrounded by grape vines, most still had grapes on the vine despite how cold it was. There were lots of different types of wines that were made here, but the most popular was definitely Riesling.














Another cobblestone street in Bacharach.


















This is a picture of the Old House. It is the oldest surviving complete structure in Bacharach. It was built in 1368.

Day 2 Boat Ride to Bacharach

After dropping our bags off at our room in the castle, Jen and I climbed down the mountain to one of the towers along the old Roman wall.
















Walking down the main pedestrian thouroghfare. We stopped in a local metzgerei (butcher's shop) and got a bratwurst and potato salad for lunch.
















This is our ship on approach to Bacharach. In the background you can see the castle, Burg Stahleck, which is where we stayed.












This was one of the best looking castles that we passed. It was the castle Rheinstein. Almost every small town that we passed had a castle on the hill overlooking it. It was pretty amazing.










This is the Mäuseturm, or Mouse Tower. It was called this because of a legend of an evil Bishop who was eaten alive by mice in the tower. But in reality it was built to collect a toll starting in 1298.

Bingen Day 2

Finally on the boat, we head downstream and pass our first castle (abandoned) between Rudesheim and Assmanshausen. The Rhein has tons of barges going up and down, but when they go upstream, you can actually keep up with them while walking. The passenger boat like the one we were on is a bit faster and it takes about 8 hours to complete a roundtrip from Bingen to Koblenz.












Here we are waiting for our ship to take us downstream to our next stop. Jen is next to the Rhein and across the river is rows and rows of grape vines for making wine.










A picture of us and St. Martin Basilica in the background as well as the confluence of the Rhein and the Nahe.











A view of the Rhein from atop the tower at Burg Klopp. It was pretty foggy like this every morning until 10 or 11am.











Here is a picture of Jen at the base of the castle tower (Burg Klopp). It was a pretty good hike up to the top, with our packs on. Right next to this was an old Roman well that was 150m deep.

Bingen Day 1

This is a view of Bingen at night from our room. The well lit castle in the middle of the picture is Burg Klopp.











This is the downtown shopping street in Bingen. Most of the downtown streets in Germany are pedestrian only.



















Here are Jen and I as we are crossing from Bingerbrück over to Bingen.











After getting off the train we walked over to Bingen after getting some coffee. We crossed over the Nahe river and went to go see St. Martins Basilica, pictured behind me.

Getting to Germany

Here we are on Ramstein Air Base Germany. Just a short 7 hour flight and we arrived early in the morning. From here we went to the BX to get a few necessities and then caught a cab from there to the nearest train station at Landstühl. From there we got a ride to Kaiserslautern, the nearest large train station. And from there we took a 2 hour train ride to Bingen, our first overnight stop. We arrived in Bingen and walked around town for a while before making our way up to the top of the hill overlooking the Rhein River where our Hostel was. We dropped our packs off in our room and then went down town to find some dinner. After walking around for a while we decided on döners for dinner, since most of the restaurants were closed at 7 pm.






Finally on the plane. Space A is awesome. Only $30 to get us to Germany on a commercial plane. They also had better service than any commercial flight that I've been on in years. Not to mention that we got to watch "Kung-Fu Panda" as well. There was no charge for awesomeness.







We did not check any of our bags, so we would have only a few things to carry around with us while we were in Germany. But when we sent one of the bags through the scanner, Jen got stopped for having a "bullet" looking object in her bag. After going through the bag we discovered that it was just a pen. But other than that, checking in and boarding the plane was relatively easy.






Here is Jen admiring herself after getting her hair done twice that day. We went to a beauty school so that Jen could get her hair trimmed and highlighted. She got the worst student in the world, and the highlights looked awful. After crying (not really)for a few minutes after seeing it in the mirror, they offered to fix it and put it back to her natural color. After 4 hours they were finally done and we could go home and finish packing before the flight.