Callas Am Dom Hotel Cologne

Just a quick note to have a little pin in my last (which was also my first) city of my excellent European trip :)

I had a really nice evening with Alwin and Stephanie (my original hosts in Europe), walking through the old town, having some nice hot red wine, and then some beers at a local brewery. Nice night, and then slept really well to go take my train to the airport in the morning...

I had a nice 10 hour flight from Dusseldorf to Fort Myers, Florida...

... 1088;уго 81;. Потом уже нас выгна 83;и из бара по причи 85;е закры 90;ия.

Фо ;тки скоро вылож 91;.

Things have been pretty fun since I got back from Luxembourg. The Christmas market is now open and all of Dusseldorf is covered in lights and little shops selling food and trinkets. The food smells so great everywhere you go that you have to stop and buy some. Teri came to stay with me for awhile so we went and toured the market a bit. We tried waffles, potato pancakes (they tasted almost exactly like Oma's!), and a candied apple. They also have this stuff called gluewein that they serve a ...

... from the eighties. One is very nice and the other (who looks a good deal like Ian McKellan) is very grumpy. When someone messes up, he will stop the game, shush everyone to silence, and whisper exactly what you did wrong in your ear, while you glow pink and mutter "okay, danke. okay." I had this happen to me a lot. But last week something happened. We lost a point and Grumpy leaned over and said, it's okay, that wasn't your fault. My heart just about ...

... couldn't keep up with me so when I turned around they were gone, that was the last time they put me in the lead.

Sunday morning I woke up bright and early and walked across the border into Lux to go catch my train. I boarded the train and as we reached the Germany border the police also decided to board. They started checking passes which wasn't such a problem and I had mine ready to give them when they stopped a couple rows ...

... I performed all four activities with relish. Cinque Terre is the birthplace of some of the world's finest things, namely pesto and ciabatta bread. Add a little fresh pasta, tomato, and Parmesan cheese, and we created some of the most wonderful meals I've ever had in my life. If I only ate pasta from Cinque Terre my entire life, I would die a happy woman! Add a bottle of red wine split between friends, and you're talking about paradise.
The ...

... and drumming. About every 5-10 minutes there would be a new musical group, mostly drummers playing a particular beat and there would be at least 50 people walking the parade and dancing along. It was great! One of the most interesting costumes was a father and son. The son was between 6 and 8 and was standing on his father's shoulders. They were both holding onto two sticks for balance and dressed in a long white sheet. It was pretty ...

... hours. Waking up, I realized that I was fairly starving; I hadn't eaten anything since that wurst early afternoon yesterday; its now 4:00. I make myself a small sandwich, and cup of tea, relax in the sun, and just chill out for a short time. Feeling rejuvenated, I did a mini bike tour through the town for an hour or so to relax. Tuesday: Today was another short day of classes. Instead of having German after lunch today, we had a tour with Hartwig. It was a short yet ...

... don't take kindly to visitors cheering. I don't want to become a European soccer statistic... FYI: some of the pics have additional information if you click on them. You can comment if you prefer the pics weaved into the story (the site does it automatically, but they don't line up in the story real well), or I can do it myself, which takes forever. Maybe it's best if you just click on the album and check them out there. I'm looking to see what format people like best...

... with Steve because I was afraid of what might happen. Since I had already gotten kicked out of a bakery, I didn't want to add a grocery store to the list as well. Things settled down for me once we walked through the gate but became more confusing for us when we went to get a shopping cart. For some reason, the shopping carts were all jammed together and when I tried to break one loose, nothing happened. The harder I pulled, the more the cart stuck. Steve ...