Papillon Designs: Köln

Well i went to Köln this weekend with Fritzi and met Tommy and Fritzi´s family there. To get there Fritzi and I took the ICE train which got to a total speed of 302km/h!! Which was pretty fast!! I couldnt look out the window heaps as it was too fast for my eyes to handle.

When we arrived at Stratzburg/Bonn we were greeted by Tommy and Fritzi´s sister, husband and friend. We then walked back to there new house which had absolutely no furniture. But that was all to change with the the guys all moving in the next day. I was lucky and escape having to walk the two flights of stairs with heavy boxes up to the apartment. Instead i took a train to Köln and walked around the city for the day.

It was an awsome experience and as per usual i got a little lost for a while, but then found my way round after that. I stopped at the Dom when i first got to the city. It is an awsome sight! A massive cathedral in gothic style, which you can go inside and walk around and have a look. There are still people trying to pray in there but mainly i think it is overrun with Tourists. I was waiting around to do a tour at 10.30am but around 10 minutes before two busloads of American kids walked in and stood around for the tour... so i decided not to do the tour but climb the 590 stairs to the top of the Dom´s East tower. That was the hardest climb ever. The stairs were uneven and the tower was very small and you walked round and round and round!! Luckily it was broken up into 3 sections so you could stop and rest a little. Look at the bells and then walk to the sitting platform and then the viewing platform. The hardest part was getting from the sitting platform up to the viewing platform as the stairs were see through and kinda wobbly and when you are up that high.. its not good!! But the view was worth it when i got up there so i was happy!!

After leaving the Dom i walked through the main shopping street which was nuts and very tempting to buy lots of clothes in the sales... so i walked on towards the Chocolate Museum and the Sports museum down near the Rine. Which was awsome! The chocolate museum is all about Lindt chocolate and you get a couple of samples so it was sweet!!! Walked around there for a little while and then trekked across to the Sports museum.

That was sick, it had all this old Münich games footage from the Slalom. Which was hilarious trying to see them move the massive old school boats around! I still wondered how they managed to do it! Also saw a Football Jersey from the 1926 Australian Team! So sick it still had the guys name on it... but i cant remember what it said.

After that i trekked back to the shopping district and had a look around and then decided to go back to Stratzburg. I got back to the flat to see that they had moved all the gear in and they all looked pretty exhausted! We crawled out to dinner later on in the night to a local resturant and had a massive feed and then went home for a good sleep.

Awoke the next morning and went to Fritzi´s cousins place for lunch. I mucked around with the little kids for a while and ended getting very wet..... but not as wet as fritzi who ended up in the little pool in all her clothes!! The kids also taught me some German and they occasionally picked up on some of my English words!

After that we drove to the home town of Tommy and Fritzi - BAD KREUTZNACH!! We went and visited Fritzi´s mum for some more Cake.... which by this time i was about to explode! We also had a look at some of Tommy Olympic gear including his team kit, boat and paddle which one him the Olympics! Pretty cool!

After that we had a nice 3 hour drive home on the Autobahn!Woo hoo 180km/h pretty sweet. We arrived back at the flat to find Kynan and Kate lazing around and had a quick catch up and then went to bed!!

What a weekend!!