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.

Night on our own in Düsseldorf.

Once we returned to Johannes' apartment, he left for Köln to attend a family event, leaving the keys to his apartment with the two of us. Elia settled in for a nap and I began looking up information on the internet about things to do where we were. Unfortunately, the pickin' was slim.

After a few hours, we decided to head out to see a movie. I had called one of the movie theaters in town and spoken with an employee, who told me that all the American movies were in English with German subtitles. The theater wasn't near a train stop that I could tell, so I looked at what was playing at another theater four stops down and a 10-minute walk away from the train station. I called them to confirm that they had English movies, but no one answered (just a recorded message) so I assumed that it shouldn't be any different from the other theater, and we were on our way.

We had originally planned to see "Robin Hood" but Elia wanted something a little more lighthearted, so even though I'd already watched "When In Rome" while on the plane, I agreed to see it. We waited in line and once we got up to the counter, the adorable movie ticket seller informed us that at this particular theater, everything is dubbed in German. Boooooooo.

In the spirit of making the most of things, we stopped into the bar at the movie theater for drinks (beer for me, Prosecco for her) and just chatted. Although the town was boring, it was definitely nice to have some down time. Afterward, we made plans to stop off at the Thai food restaurant we'd seen on our way over.

Turns out that was one of the best decisions we made. We stopped in and the place was relatively busy, with World Cup games showing, so we sat so that I was facing it and Elia wasn't (since I was mildly interested in the match and she didn't care).

Since the beer selection was minimal, I ordered an Alt Bier (just to try it), which ended up being just as un-delicious as Johannes had brainwashed me to believe. But the food more than made up with it, because we got tofu dishes, and they were mindblowingly fantastic and super cheap (and to date, one of the top contenders for best meal eaten on this trip).

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When dinner was finished, we headed back to the train station and made our way to the apartment, and I stopped for candy and beer while Elia called Rich, and then we spent the evening watching "I Love You, Man" - which is one of my favourite movies these days.

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