Germany Part 4 of 4

So I will start of by apologizing if this post is a little long. I'm going to include the last two days together. I also apologize that it didn't get done last Friday or Saturday, Ill admit I was lazy.

 

On Saturday 2/15/2014 we went to Brussels (Bruxelles) Belgium. We had planned on going to the chocolate factory but since we went to the chocolate museum in Cologne. We decided all we needed to do was buy chocolate. Also on today we invited Jason's friend Taz to join us. Preston found himself a girlfriend haha. We first found a place to park and then walked to the Dinosaur museum which was only a couple blocks away from where we parked. Along the way we got bombarded by some restaurant people wanting to eat at their place. We screamed American which screams money to other people. Don't other countries know we are BROKE!! Oh well I shoved them off cause I was on a mission to a bathroom.

Going to the museum we were able to let Preston run off some steam and check out some cool stuff that we couldn't read. At least the main part of the museum had German, French, English, and I cant remember what other language but there were generally 4 translations. Which did you know that the first female T-Rex was found in MT.

Top two pictures are a mineral of some sort but it look to much like something else to me..

Birds

This skeletons were in a glass enclosures

This kid doesn't know the meaning of stop and examine things.

Triceratops

Tried getting Preston in the picture but when I aimed he of course ran off.

T-rex

Pinch daddy!!

RAAAWWWWRRRRRR

Cant remember this type of dinosaur

the head end of a long neck

This creatures are freaking HUGE, I couldn't even get the tail in  it which becomes so tiny at the end. And of course my photo bombing husband.

Jason and Taz.

I wonder if this skeleton was on the ground and not a platform if Jason would have been the same height.

This is the skeleton of a blue whale.

There was a staircase to a platform I walked up to take some along side the skeleton pictures

 

 

I think right after the museum walking back through all the exhibits is when Preston crashed on us. Leaving the building he didn't even wake up to get his coat on.

Before we left we though we might try the Brussels aquarium. Found it on the gps and made the choice to walk back to the car and drive closer to it. So while on the way to the car we took in some sights and I snapped away on my camera.

 

Once the GPS told us we arrived at our destination we looked around because it looked like we were in the middle of the ghetto. I finally saw a bright shiny sign on the side of what looked like a garage that said New Brussels Aquarium. Jason said,"... Yup nope not going there".  We joked the rest of the time what we thought it looked like inside. CRREEEPPPYYY.

So onto the shopping district we went. And the parking garage where we parked had a touristy area around it so another camera opportunity arose before heading to the shops.

 

 

I know I didn't saying about these latest pictures but they speak for themselves. Plus I get utterly speechless when I look at this craftsmanship. So beautiful its amazing.

Waiting for Jason and Clayton to come out of de Bier Temple, these police men came by.

Ghetto art building was all alone in an area with no other building like it.

 

It started raining on the way home. Today was so exhausting but fun. Plus we had the best thing for dinner. Belgium waffles, and for the ride home we stopped and got fries, delicious fries.

 

I forgot these pictures from our trip to cologne. There is absolutely no missing the emergency vehicles over here.

 

If you thought you were done looking or I was finished typing. I'm sorry but you are mistaken. On our last day, we planned that I would bake cookies and bread for Jason and Clayton would make dinner. At one point though I needed a break from the kitchen. And no matter where Clayton is he always needs a break from the house so Preston, Clayton and I bundled up and went for a walk. It was drizzly when we left but still good to get out and explore Oberkail.

 

Oberkails church.

The housing is adorable

Yes, because I am cooocoo, we walked to the cemetery

Each plot has its own garden practically. You don't see this kind of respect in the states.

At the back of the cemetery

At first this sign scared me. Idont know German and for all I knew it was saying beware of dog. But once inside we thought differently and double checked once we got back to Jason's. It says we belong outside. No pets in the cemetery.

Love the gate

So luscious and green and in the middle of February.

 

Well that ends it. Thank you for letting me re-live my trip. I absolutely cannot wait for another chance to go back. We're thinking of taking Viking river cruises next time. Of course this trip wasn't just about going to Germany. It was to give Clayton a chance to meet one of my brothers. Next up Adam... maybe next year ;) 

 

My suggestion to all viewers, if you have a chance to do something crazy like this, kids or no kids, do skip out on the chance. All the memories are so worth the money!!

 

Germany Part 3

Today was the day we went to Koln (Cologne) Germany. Jason and Clayton did some research on what we could do in Koln and decided we would go to the Chocolate museum, the cathedral, and while we actually didn't go we had planned on going to a zoo there to let Preston run around.

We were going to go to the chocolate museum first. Jason set his gps and we went. When the gps said we had reached out destination Jason was confused but turned. We took a look around and decided that he had just driven up onto the side walk. So we got back on the street and drove while looking for parking signs. I saw a parking garage entrance and Jason had just driven a bit to far and decided to make a U turn in the middle of the street. But we made it into the garage, which happened to be under the cathedral so we started there instead.

When being around the cathedral I was so awe struck and dumbfounded for words that Jason of course got to do his big brother jabs. Making fun of my incomplete sentences and dumb sounding words. All I can say is when you look at the pictures tell me if you don't go "dumb". You just don't see architecture like this anymore.

The cathedral had started being built in the 1200's and was left unfinished in the 1400's. In the 19th century work was resumed and the cathedral was finished in 1880. 509 steps will take you to a viewing platform that is 322ft above the ground. Did I mention that the 509 steps are a spiral staircase that barely give people room to pass while one is going up and the other down. Also that Clayton was carrying Preston in his kid pack. He was getting a lot of comments (some that we could understand and others that we had to guess at). One comment I heard sounded like she would be saying ooohhh poor daddy, though she said papa.
Also because this doesn't happen in the USA, I have to say before I continue that I had to pay to pee. Tourist trap!! Get to Koln and I had to go to the bathroom where I had to pay 50c in Euro, so there's my warning to everyone else.

 

 

So freaking beautiful, I could have sat and stared at this cathedral for days.

It was a tad windy and I wasn't bothering to move my hair.

The largest bell

Two side bells

Clayton was so done with climbing the stairs at this point but wasn't going to stop.

Inside look at the top of the spire

Wish I had gotten a better picture of this, this was showing how high everything was.

The outside of the spire

From the viewing platform, the specks are people.

Saw this date while on the viewing platform. On the way down we ran into the date 1835 above a doorway.

View of another church from the viewing platform

The cathedral front entrance

On either side of the church were candles, Jason gave me 1 Euro in change to donate and then light a candle.

Not a good picture but in the center is the organ. I feel sorry for the person who has to sit up there and play. I'm guessing they aren't afraid of heights.

There was a service going on

On our way to the car (after the chocolate museum) we decided to take some more pictures

It ended up being a good picture but yes Clayton did a photo bomb.

 

After viewing the cathedral we started our walk to the museum. Of course we took in some more sights along the way.

 

One of many fountains/statues found all over the place.

 

When we go to the museum we noticed that where Jason had driven up onto the side walk he could have driven a little further went over a bridge and back onto the street right in front of the museum. But the walk didn't hurt us and if we had parked near the museum than we would have walked to the cathedral. The museum was interesting. The very beginning was a bit dull just because it dove into the history of chocolate and the plants of the cocoa bean and frankly I just want to see it made and drool over it a bit :) And oh my when we got to the factory part, yuuummmmm, we had already had free samples from the clerk up front and it was so rich and creamy. Watching it made didn't help. Luckily at the end there was a chocolate tree (I am guessing) and under that was a fountain with people dipping wafers into it and handing out. I was lucky enough to be holding Preston and got two wafers. Preston liked his for a bit and then didn't want it anymore. SCORE for mommy.

 

After this it was forced out of the white containers onto a belt where we watched an arm take it from one belt to the next to get wrapped. We stood and watched the arm for a couple minutes, we saw that the arm is kind of the decision maker on what pieces get to go on and what get re-melted and has to start over. I didn't get a picture of that part but we wondered why we could just stick our hand down and take the rejected ones.

 

The wrapping process.

 

After the machinery we got to walk by a chocolate shop where they had pretty much a basketball sized heart shape chocolate that was on sale for 13 Euro. SOOO MUCH chocolate. They even had a class going on (a field trip for some young kids) where they were making their own chocolate. After this we went down to the store they had. Jason and Clayton went straight for the chocolate beer, sadly later on they realized it tasted more like the packaging than chocolate. I went searching for something but couldn't land on anything but a tiny bottle of Marzipan, yes it was sweet but it didn't taste like packaging and it was really good!

 

Once we left we needed to eat something and low and behold there was a little cart outside the museum. Pretty much sold different kinds of bratwurst with hard rolls instead of hot dog buns. Still very good though. On this day I was able to take one more picture of a smaller church on our walk back to the cathedral and the car.

 

Such beautiful pieces here. Including the different colored housing building shown in this picture,

 

Well I am ending here for now. After all the walking we did this day I started to wonder why I got up at 430 with Jason and went to the gym. Oh well, spent some quality with my big brother!

Enjoy :)