Back to Köln.

Sunday morning was another sleep-in day for us, in theory, although it didn't quite work out that way. I wanted to attend mass at St. Peter's but that was a bit ambitious, and in the meantime, I couldn't find any Lutheran churches in town that were close-by, so I decided to sleep in. Unfortunately, the church next door has the most out-of-control bells that go off at random times and never seem to end, so that woke me up around 9 a.m.

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Since my clothing was done drying (see below), I took a shower and got dressed and then we were on our way to the train station.

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At the train station, there were groups of guys all over with bottles of beer, talking loudly and celebrating. It wasn't for World Cup so I wonder what it was, or if perhaps that's just the thing to do in a place like Düsseldorf.

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After getting on the wrong train on accident (actually the proper train, but the high-speed one as opposed to the longer one) we made it to Köln, just as Johannes arrived at the train station to meet us. Having not had breakfast, and considering it was past noon already, we decided to head over to J's old haunts - Barbarossaplatz - and get some falafel for lunch. It was superfantastisch, and another one of the better meals we ate. I also got a Bionade to go with it, cause that's what all the hip kids do.

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After lunch, Elia and Johannes stopped quickly to work on their California tans...

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And then we continued on, back to Kölner Dom (which, I'm sorry, is really one of my favourite cathedrals ever, but that could just be because of what it represents to me).

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Next, we made our way past the train station and down to the river for a river boat cruise/tour of the city alone the Rhine, during which we enjoyed some delicious Sion Kölsch in proper Colonian tradition, and I nearly redeemed myself in Johannes' eyes for my transgression of drinking Alt Bier the evening prior.

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Once the river boat ride was over, we walked around the old area of town alongside the river, checking out the cute little store-lined streets and underground museums, as well as going ornament shopping for Elia.

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Eventually, this path led us to Früh for some more Kölsch and to meet up with Andrew, a friend of mine from back home who has been living and working in Germany for the past year.

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We spent a couple hours catching up and drinking, and finally around 6:30 p.m., we parted ways, because Andrew had to get home and we had to get to the Minkus household for family dinner.