Koln, Cologne, and the Kolnerdom

Yesterday was the big Family Services trip to Cologne. Family Services is the au pair agency that I am a part of. They plan trips and meetings monthly for the local au pairs to attend. I had been looking forward to this trip since I got here. I haven't been out of Dusseldorf so I thought that a free trip to Cologne would be great. We would get to see the famous church, the Kolnerdom, and go to the chocolate museum.
Katie, Jessica, Eugenia and I were all really excited about the chocolate museum. Jess is from Pennsylvania and has been to the Hersey museum, and Eugenia has been to a chocolate place in Italy that I guess was similar. We all went in with high expectations hoping to get a lot of free chocolate samples. Eugenia didn't eat before we left Dusseldorf because she wanted her stomach to be empty for all of the chocolate that was to come.
The train ride from Dusseldorf to Cologne was about 30 minutes, we couldn't sit together because it was so crowded. Once we got their our group leader from the agency told us that we were going to walk the 30 minutes to the museum, which was ok with me because it would give me a chance to walk off the calories from the chocolate I was about to eat. We got to the museum and luckily were paid for by the agency. It cost 10 Euro to get in! As soon as we started the tour all of our dreams about free chocolate were shattered. You get a tiny piece of chocolate at the beginning of the tour which is no bigger than maybe a quarter....maybe. That was it. There was also this chocolate fountain that everyone had told us about. We were all expecting a wonderful giant The top of the church was ok. It was covered with a fence and everything like most tall structures in Europe...except Italy of course.
After we got down from the tower we went and walked around Cologne for a bit. It was really crowded. At 4 we all met up again and boarded a train back for Dusseldorf. I was glad because it was starting to rain. The ride home was not as nice as the ride there. I had to stand the whole way because there were no 2nd class seats left. It wasn't that bad except this weird german guy in a trench coat kept trying talk to me.
After getting back into Dusseldorf Katie and I of course decided to stay in the Alt Stadt. Neither of us really felt like going home and coming back even though Jess and Eugenia did. We went to dinner with another au pair Elena from Russia. She is an au pair for an american family but she speaks no english. Her german is very good though. She was talking about how right now where she is from in Siberia it is -12 degrees, in Dusseldorf it is 12 degrees....I think it's freezing in Dusseldorf. Thank God I didn't ever want to be an au pair in Siberia I dont think I would last a day.
After dinner we went to Mclaughlin's to watch the Ireland vs. New Zealand Rugby game. It was in Ireland and Katie and I had some friends that had gone to the game this weekend. Ireland lost horribly. Our Irish friend would be sad, but our New Zealand one will be happy, he was most likely wearing his New Zealand flag to the game (he had worn it around the bar the week before).
Jess and Eugenia met up with us after the game and we went to the Budweiser bar with real Budweiser from Czech. It sort of tasted like American Bud but alot less watery. After that we went to another pub but I am starting to catch a bug so I came home early.


This is the view from the top of the tower.


This is the bell in the tower. It was about half way up. It was nice to take a little break and stop climbing stairs.


This is the church from the outside. I couldn't really get a good picture. It was raining and really crowded.


This is a nativity scence that was a few meters outside the church.