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The title says it all. Only 24 hours for Cologne. It was actually less than 24 hours if you want to get technical about it. My friend Lizzie is in town for the week on her spring break so we wanted to get out of Belgium for a bit to maximize her Euro-week! We hopped on a bus at 9am and we were in Cologne by about 1:30, it was extremely easy!

We tried to find our hostel but of course we got lost. Neither of us thought to look up directions to the hostel from the train station (I should really stop doing this) so we were wandering around for a bit trying to look like we knew what we were doing. On our aimless wander through Cologne we did happen to find a Vapiano! Anyone from GW who’s reading this will understand why this is exciting/funny. We obviously stopped and had lunch there which was a great decision because we got special heart shaped pizzas. What a lovely welcome to Cologne!

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After lunch we finally managed to find our hostel which ended up being ridiculously close, we felt a little silly. We dropped off our stuff, freshened up a bit, and headed back out to check out the Ludwig museum. My mom recommended this one to me and it was a great suggestion! It was my ideal art museum, aka lots of Picasso’s. I also learned that Picasso didn’t just paint, he also did a lot of work with ceramics as well as some sculpting. Who knew! There was also a special exhibit happening for Man Ray, a photographer, and we got to see the original copy of the famous Coco Chanel portrait which I thought was so cool.

After the museum we went and walked by the Rhine for a bit as it was just getting dark and then decided we needed to find a place to sit down and try some Kolsch beer. It’s a beer that can only be brewed when the towers of the Dom can be seen. It’s served in short, skinny glasses so your beer will always be fresh and it wont ever get warm. At traditional places the waiters are supposed to refill your glass without you asking until you make it known that you’re done. Our waiter didn’t do this though, bummer. However, the beer was delicious! We paired it with a sausage and we felt very German.

After that we walked back to the metro to make our way back home and passed the Dom on the way. Lit up at night the church looks even creepier than during the day. So we obviously had to take some selfies.

The next day we wanted to climb the Dom. Everyone has said this is a great thing to do and even though it’s a lot of climbing up steep spiral staircases (over 500 steps), it’s so worth it. We poked around inside for a bit before we made the climb up and I swear it’s even creepier inside. The church is so dark and foreboding and ominous from the outside and it’s just the same on the inside. The pictures also don’t do it justice, it is sooo big. And it almost looks fake because the details on the building are so ornate. It’s crazy and definitely the coolest church I’ve seen so far. After we had our fill looking around inside we went to make the climb up to the top of the tower. Our legs were like jelly afterwards but it was so worth it being able to get those amazing views of the city!

Our last stop in Cologne was the lock bridge over the Rhine. So many cities in Europe have love lock bridges (couples put attach a lock to the bridge and throw the key into the river to symbolize their love) but the one in Cologne is very intense! I didn’t see the one in Paris in person, but from what I’ve seen from other people’s photos… Cologne’s may be better! We looked for the oldest lock we could find and we found one from 1964.. How crazy is that?! Hope they’re still together.

Our trip was short but fun! Cologne is a cozy, inviting city but definitely a small one.  There are a lot of museums we missed but otherwise I think we got a pretty good feel for the city and what it has to offer! It did make me want to explore Germany more extensively though. Here is the link to see the rest of my pictures from the trip!

In other news we finally have spring break nailed down! We’re hitting up Barcelona, Seville, Rome, Florence, and Venice on a two week Spain/Italy extravaganza that’s less than two weeks away!!! I’m really hoping there will be tons of sunshine. Also, today is my 21st birthday! A little less climactic here than it is in the states obviously but I can’t wait to do it up tonight with all my friends in Brussels and then move the celebration to Amsterdam this weekend. It’s going to be such a good time!

-Emily