Frankfurt, Bonn & Köln

Sunday August 3rd 

Guys. Germany is amazing! We landed in Frankfurt on Sunday morning & first thing we took a train into the downtown area to check things out. We just started walking & exploring, it was my very first taste of Germany and I have been loving it ever since! In the first few minutes we ran into what looked like a bike race. Turns out it was actually an Olympic Distance Triathlon!

I love triathlons so it was fun to see a big crowd right downtown at the finish line. Definitely adding to to my bucketlist to do a Tri in Europe some day! 

There's the finish line right in downtown. A good amount of Frankfurt was destroyed in World War 2 so a lot of it has been rebuilt in a modern style. But we got to go into one part of downtown that has a "classic" German feel (haha like I know what I'm talking about after being here for 12 hours). It was so great!

Old shook architecture, German food, live music, fun times. I love how their are big open plazas everywhere here.

We were also able to go into a cool church before we left Frankfurt. We took a 2 hour train to a city called Bonn. The ride was gorgeous (or so I'm told...I was actually totally passed out, one tired girl)

It's a smaller city that was just adorable! We originally went there to go to a castle, Drachenburg that is a little outside of the city. But we only had 2 hours until our train left so we wouldn't have time :( bummer. So we just explored the little city of Bonn. Seriously Germany is awesome.

Cobblestone, tons of Gelato shops, restaurants with all outdoor seating, another cool cathedral.

We ate lunch in Bonn at this restaurant where you're sitting outside in the plaza, great food and there was even a random guy playing the accordion!

I thought I was in a movie. First real meal in Germany and it was delicious! Russ had curry-wurst and I had this turkey, curry sauce dish. So yum.

 Afterwards we jumped on a train to head to Cologne. That's where we are staying tonight. The cathedral here is out of this world. The Cologne Dome. Check this thing out!

Pictures just can't do it justice. 

The further we got walking around the outside the more it amazed us. Definitely the coolest building so far. Inside was also beautiful, the domed ceilings are just so high!

Once again I just love all of the open plazas in every city. The place we are staying is a little outside of downtown, we walked through a lot of the city towards the right train stop to go to our place. Along the way we saw The Chocolate Museum, (I'm salivating)

Have I ever mentioned that I love chocolate? 

There were also some amazing new buildings, Russ was really impressed by he engineering. 

Overall I was just loving the overall atmosphere here, so many bikes and pedestrians, the architecture is great, I love the little shops and restaurants and especially I love that this city is right on the Rhine River! There are cool bridges and great paths by the river.

This shows the tradition where people who are in love put a lock on a bridge and throw the key in the water. There were a ton of locks! Fun to see some of this in person! 

Seriously, locks for days.

After walking/exploring for an hour we made it to our train and a few minutes later to the house where we are staying. (Most of our trip we are staying at places we found on Air BnB, it's basically like people rent out there apartment or one room of their house to people like it was a bed and breakfast.) Our first one tonight is with a lady name Elena who speaks great English (bonus for me!) when we got to the house though there was no answer, then she didn't answer her phone...we waited. It had only been a few minutes & I was just starting to think "what would we do if this doesn't work out?" Haha luckily she soon answered the door, she was vacuuming so she didn't hear the bell or phone but had a feeling all of the sudden "I bet someone is calling me" glad to know someone is watching out for us. She showed us her whole house and it is awesome! There are tons of little/steep stairways and we are up in the top/third floor. It's a big bedroom with a bathroom and shower, perfect!

This is the view from our room.

That open window up at the top is our room. Really fun, nice and cheap! 

She was so nice, showing and offering the kitchen, patio and terrace, the bar haha seriously she offered alcohol like 5 times. I'm kind of bummed we'll only be here one night! 

After dropping our bags off at Elena's we went down to the Rhine, it's like a 10 minute walk, down by the river was so pretty. We walked, put our feet in a little bit, sat on a bench and watched the sunset. 

(Val you would love these weeping willows!)

Not too shabby. Oh also there was a ping pong table right off the path. There were 2 paddles and a ball on it so I said "lets play!" After about 5 minutes this guy came up from the beach and started talking to me in German...I just look at Russ and he responds! Turns out the paddles were his but he was nice enough to let us use them! 

We leave early tomorrow morning for Leer. But so far I really love this place! 

First Impressions:

Overall really clean

Nice cars (seriously so many Audi's...aaah)

Too many smokers...bleh

Bakeries and Ice cream shops on every corner

I don't speak German but I love to listen to it.

Public transit is efficient and clean

Lots of people speak English.

Now I'm tired and it's time to sleep. As a bonus it just started raining and it is making the best sounds on the roof. My favorite! 

Yup, it's official, so far Germany rocks.