Normandy Adventures: Koln Cathedral Climb & Shopping

Mandy:

As we are nearing my 3 week trip and Norm's 2 week trip, we already visited many museums/memorials/cathedrals so we aren't too interested in visiting many more. However, the main attraction in Koln is their gigantic cathedral that is right outside the Koln Hbf. The cathedral reminds me of the one I saw in Strasbourg and Barcelona, darker and more Gothic. We decided to climb the 300+ steps up to the top to have a bird's eye view of the city. The warm weather and having one set of spiraling stairs to go up and down the cathedral made the climb very unpleasant. Also, other tourists seem to never wear deodorant =( When we finally got to the top we snapped a few photos, cooled down for a few minutes and headed back down. Since our trip is nearing the end, it also meant it was time for more shopping! Koln is known for its long shopping streets so that's where we headed. We also checked out the Belgian Quarter which is named after the streets in that area that have Belgian street names. We grabbed a quick bite to eat there before we headed back to the area we ate dinner with Matthias the night before to catch the Germany vs USA game. We ended up going back to the same restaurant as the night before because their food was pretty good and there were still tables with a good view open. Soon after we sat down, the patio tables filled up with German football fans. Since we had a very late lunch, I ended up only eating fries and a chocolate sundae while Norm had a proper dinner. Germany won 1-0 by the way!