Cologne

We recently took a trip out to Spangdahlem to see our friends the Macris. We always have fun together. Ashley has mentioned that she gets a kick out of it when Kinsley gets on Lilian's nerves because that exactly what she use to do to her brother all the time. Guess you could say it's payback. I have to admit it is entertaining. But the kids always have a great time. At least the guys got to hang out, drink beer and watch football. Ashley and I got to catch on all the things that have been going on lately. Ryan's mom Jeannie was there, so it was nice being able to see her again. Us girls were able to sneak out of the house and go do some Sunday shopping and leave the kids with the guys.

Here is the castle in Ashley's town. Most castles you can walk around and look at or take tours. But their castle is only open when they have big town events.

Castle in Malberg

We got up the next morning and headed out to Cologne. I was a little sad when Brian found out that the chocolate museum was closed on Mondays. No big deal, that just means we'll have to go back some other time. Kinsley seems to enjoy our trips to the zoo more and more. So we couldn't pass up the opportunity to check another zoo off our list. Brian and I have even talked about taking a trip to the Dartmoor Zoological Park near Sparkwell England. That's the zoo from the movie We Bought a Zoo. How awesome would that be?

Most of the South America building survived WWII. It houses all kinds of monkeys. All of the cages have openings for the monkeys to walk about the visitors throughout the cage walkways. You can see some of them continue out around the building as well.

Mexican food is a must in the zoos around Germany. Back at the Frankfurt zoo they have a Mexican restaurant. And both times we didn't getting Mexican food. The nachos don't count. They were like concession stand nachos.

Brian was hoping they would have a feeding show for the honey badger.

I was not very impressed with the lion exhibit. We've seen better. Kinsley liked it so that's all that matters.

Trying to wake up the lions.

Lunch time!

Howler monkey

The elephant exhibit. It was huge and the indoor exhibit was just as big. Most of it also survived the bombings during WWII.

The playground went on forever. We would have never seen anything else the rest of the day if we stopped to let Kinsley play.

Brian told Kinsley we were on our way to see the giraffes. The second that child could see them, she was screaming for Georgia. Georgia is her blanket baby. The one that we sadly lost shortly after we got to Germany. Thankfully, I bought a backup when I came across one in Mississippi.

Kinsley was on a mission to find Dorie and Nemo at the aquarium.

As soon as we walked up to the glass he started to walk away. That wasn't acceptable for Kinsley. She was yelling at him, "wait come back".

Right outside of the zoo there was a cable car station. So we took a round trip ride over the Rhine river. Great view of the city.

Mommy was a little freaked out but overall it was fun.

The Cologne Cathedral was my favorite part of the trip. It took over 600 years to complete the cathedral. The details from top to bottom were incredible. 

The wording is small on the sign below but this is a model of the finial on top of the cathedral towers in original size. It is a symbol for the completion in 1880.

This picture is for Danny (Brian's dad). We couldn't figure out who they all are.

All stained glass windows.

King Ludwig I donated the pieces below (only two of the five).

I read more about this window because it was one of my favorites. Turns out this window was put in back in 2007. During WWII the original window was destroyed and replaced with just your basic every day kind of glass. So I thought that was pretty interesting. Plus the artist wanted it to resemble pixels.

Before heading back to the car, we made our last stop here at the love lock bridge. Apparently people go all out and get their locks engraved. I etched a few things into ours at the last second before we placed in on the bridge.

I put our initials and a heart on one side and the date on the other.

The plan was to keep the lock and give it to Kinsley one day and have her go find our lock. But Brian read somewhere that once you place the lock on the bridge you are supposed to throw the key in the river.

I love him with all my heart.

Look who we found at the Lego store!

Kinsley has been on this toy story kick for the last several weeks. For some odd reason she wants nothing to do with toy story toys. By that I mean, she freaked out a while back when I try to hand her a Buzz action figure or when I tried to buy her a toy story puzzle. I believe she think they might start talking to her.

Ciao!