We had an adventure! Sorry I didn’t post as usual, but we were having an adventure!

We learned that four of Nathan’s former business partners would be driving through western Germany between business meetings. We had been considering a trip to Cologne (Köln in German) and the area, so we decided to take the plunge and arranged to meet them for lunch. The plan was to take the train on Thursday, meet the guys on Friday, then have 3 more days to explore and experience. As we settled in to relax on Tuesday night, we got a notification that there was a rail strike planned, starting Wednesday night and lasting until late on Thursday. So, the choice was between missing our meeting with the Card Access crew or traveling on Wednesday. We decided to go for it. We quickly booked an Air BnB for one night, packed our bags, and planned for an early train west the next morning.

The ride was rather uneventful, except for that, despite being a high-speed train, it was slow due to multiple delays. The German rail system is no longer the solid, punctual system that it used to have a reputation for. We are learning that train travel is generally chaos. Our journeys to cities around Cologne and then when we returned to Leipzig were littered with delays, cancellations, and trying to reconfigure our travel plans. We still like it, though!

We got into the Köln main station and the main attraction of the city, the massive and amazing cathedral is right outside the station doors. It dwarfs pretty much everything else in the city. You can’t miss it!

When I was in high school and took AP Art History from Cheryl Hughes, I was fascinated by medieval architecture, especially Gothic cathedrals. By that time in my life, I had traveled to Wyoming (because family was there), Idaho (because sometimes we drove through Idaho to get to Wyoming), and Denver (because it was a fluke and we did a day trip to Denver on some dinky airline for $25 one time). I thought how amazing it would be to see Cologne Cathedral, but traveling to Europe was far beyond my imagination. I just couldn’t see how a kid like me would ever make that happen. Little did I know that I would meet a crazy, mathy guy with a Swiss family and an itch to travel while I was studying Art History at the University of Utah just a couple years later. Life. It’s always interesting.

The cathedral is absolutely so beautiful and breathtaking. It is one of the tallest in Europe. It took over 600 years to finish! We visited over several days of the trip because we were staying nearby. We stepped inside during our initial walking tour of the city. Then we took a guided tour (in English ☺) from a local monk. That got us into some of the areas that aren’t accessible to the public, like the sanctuary where the shrine holding the bones of the Three Magi is housed. (Side note, as a non-Catholic, I have never quite grasped the idea of holy relics, so these things are a bit wasted on me. But it was still pretty cool.) But the best things about that part of the cathedral are the mosaics on the floor and ceilings. Awesome! Then we also took a guided tour (in German ☹) of the archeological excavation under the cathedral to see the remains of the different buildings that stood on the site previously: a Roman temple and another cathedral from the Carolingian era (age of Charlemagne, more on him later). Even though we struggled to get everything the guide was saying, he did speak slowly and clearly and we got the general idea. Also, we got to go to another cool area of the building that not everyone gets to see. Worth it!

We met the four guys from Card Access at a Turkish restaurant for brunch. We traveled about 25 minutes east of the city on the train and they met us there. It was great to see familiar faces and to catch up on all the family members. It was also nice to have a bit of home come to visit us.

You know that we had to check off another composer, so we popped down to Bonn for an afternoon to visit the house where Beethoven was born. On a previous trip, we also visited the house in Vienna where he died, so now we know it all, hahaha! It was a really good museum. Unlike some of the other composer sites we have visited, they have Beethoven’s instruments, notebooks, and other belongings. I think it makes a big difference if the composer was a superstar during their life or not. If they were, people held onto their stuff!

We took another day trip to Aachen (or Aix la Chapelle), the city where Charlemagne set up his kingdom and kicked off the Holy Roman Empire in the 9th century. There is a really good museum there and we took another tour (in German ☹) of the cathedral. Again, even though it was hard to understand the guide, it was worth it to see some of the areas of the church that aren’t open to the public. The cathedral is mind-boggling. There are gorgeous mosaics and stained glass everywhere. The building is uniquely shaped like an octagon and was built, rebuilt, and restored over centuries. Every European ruler of the Middle Ages who wanted to legitimize their right to the throne would be crowned there, sitting on Charlemagne’s throne. That even lasted until Napoleon. We don’t visit every church we encounter (we wouldn’t have time in two or three lifetimes), but the cathedrals in Aachen and Cologne were worth it!

It was a really good trip. We also spent a drizzly, cold day walking around Düsseldorf, we went to see a movie (in English ☺), we visited an Irish pub to hear some live music, and we ate some really good meals. One very memorable meal was dinner on our last night. We walked a couple blocks to a neighborhood with so many Turkish restaurants to have a döner kebab. Just as we sat down to eat, we received the news that our fifth grandchild is due in June! Dinner with a side of baby announcement!

Now we are back in chilly Leipzig, staying cozy in our little apartment as wintery weather is setting in. We get out for a walk every day, but we definitely have to bundle up now. We went to a nice restaurant for our Thanksgiving meal last night and reflected on how good life really is. We’re so grateful for all of our friends and family and for life. We are gearing up for another journey tomorrow!