A Day Trip to Cologne, Germany

Cathedral in Cologne. I can't recall the name of it but it HUGE! In fact, you can see this cathedral from the Rhine Tower in Dusseldorf which is a 20 minute train ride away.














Another view of the cathedral. It was impossible to capture the whole cathedral in the view frame of the camera.
















A stained glass window inside the cathedral.



















A view of inside the cathedral. Unfortunately, it's a bit blurred.
















I met with a couple of friends while visiting in Cologne. Sanna lives only 20 minutes away but Vera flew in from Austria.

Back to Dusseldorf

I can't get enough of the old architecture in European countries. I believe this building belongs to the church as it was in a couryard where the church sits.












This is the outside of the church building. The crucifix scene was quite spectacular to look at. It was large in size and intricately carved. The scene is on the outside of the church facing the street.






































Daniel and myself enjoying some the ice cream parlour on a rainy day. Can you believe how busy it is? It was always this busy regardless of the weather. Germans love their ice cream.












There's our desserts. Yummmm. I can't believe my brother only ordered a small bowl of chocolate ice cream.











Daniel peeking over his Daddy's shoulder. Look at those eyes, LOL!














Another great family photo. I love the look on Daniels face.











It's bath time!

Liege, Belgium

We visited Belgium for the day just before I came home to Canada. The town we visited seemed as if they were going through some economic problems as there were many poorly maintained buildings that at one time were quite beautiful.















Here we are studying a menu trying to decide if we wanted to eat this old restaurant that was built in the 1700's.











The grey building straight ahead is the restaurant building that was built in the 1700's.













This is a parliment building in Liege. I decided to go off on my own while everyone else sat down for dinner. I came across this massive building and then went inside. I don't think I was supposed to go inside but nobody noticed or seemed to question me.











This was an interesting building I came across when walking around looking for a place to eat. The building appears to be very old. It also appears to be in better condition in the picture than it did in real life.













I love this picture. I took this on our way back to the car before we headed home. It was a beautiful night.

The Imperial Castle of Kaiserwerth

These pictures are of Castle ruins that are very close to where my brother is living. In fact, I can get there by walking in about ten minutes if I walk briskly. I loved this place. It's free to tour the grounds and you can walk through most of the ruins. At night the castle is lit up. I bought a book that chronicles the history of this castle and it is quite fascinating. It's been through many seiges with a final one in the 1700's where it was ordered destroyed. After that it served as a quary for building some of the houses in Kaiserwerth. I love the grass growing on the top.


This is me posing by one of the upper windows. Behind me is the Rhine River. This castle was once surrounded by water but one day a man and his troops came to the castle to free his friend the Bishop from the prison and the only way he could approach the castle without getting hit by arrows was to go upstream and make a dam. It took weeks to make it but once it was done it caused a finger of the river to dry up and he was able to approach the castle by land and rescue his friend the Bishop.









Maybe one of my German friends could translate this for me?? Most of the stones were translated to English except this one.













This was one of the water portals to enter to the castle from.














I love this photo. At the bottom of the photo you can see square holes. This was where the beams were to hold the floor up. The room was most likely the main banquet room.












This is looking from one of the lookout towers. It's quite the view from here. To the right is the Rhine, and below is the water portal to enter the castle.

The Rhine Tower

This is a picture of the Rhine Tower. I am at the bottom taking a picture looking up. I can't recall how high it is but it USED to be the tallest tower. The man working the elevator told me the CN Tower in Toronto is higher than this one. Regardless the view is quite impressive.








I'm now inside the tower looking down on the Rhine River. You can see to the far right a line of buildings that are in the previous postings (it's the picture I took while cruising the Rhine). A plaque inside states that some people can see the cathedral in Koln from here. I will post a picture of the cathedral in a later post, it's quite impressive.







This is an aerial view of the parliment buildings in Dusseldorf. Interesting construction. Personally, I prefer the older architecture to the modern/abstract style. I went to the tower on my own that day because my mother is scared of heights and did not think she would enjoy the view. I later did some shopping before I headed home. In fact, the pair of shoes I bought were the only ones to make it home. The other three pairs are still traveling inside my suitcase somewhere in the world. If you happen to find a red suitcase with my name on it please send it home.

Benrath Palace

I LOVE this palace. It has 600 acres of gardens and is just gorgeous! I could have spent another day there just exploring.












This is the the main palace. It was built by the King and he spent only 4 hours here and not one night. That is good use of tax payers money, eh? Too bad the guy on the right walked into the picture just as I snapped it.

Babies and Ice Cream

Ain't he cute? This picture reminds me of a picture I have of my own son at this age. There is something about the shape of his face. The only difference is the colour of hair.











It seems everyone loves to eat ice cream in Germany regardless of the weather. This is an afternoon treat for us after shopping all day. This ice cream parlor serves wonderful ice cream and is packed at peak times during the day. Ice cream in Germany is so much more flavourful it just explodes in your mouth. Mine is the one with the blackberries on top.

Pooping Gold Coins?

I couldn't make a posting without sharing this picture. We were in a hurry to get somewhere when I saw this on the corner of a bank. I just had to take a picture and show it to my son. Of course he thought it was hilarious. I wonder if it is the bank's logo? I should suggest it to my local bank.

Strange Architecture

This is an apartment building that won an award for it's strange design. The architect is apparently quite famous but I can't recall the name.













We took a small cruise on the Rhine and I went up on deck to take some pictures of the old buildings. The 3rd building from the right is probably circa 1960's whereas the rest are all much, much older. The place of the newer building was likely to replace a building destroyed during the war. I often saw evidence of this everywhere we went in Germany.






Here I am posing by the statue of the Prince. Yes, that is real gold I am touching. I was going to scrape some of it off but I was reassured by my brother that it would not net me very much in dollars. I'm not sure if I believe him....

Goofy European Pictures

I came across this water feature in the Alstadt. The goose to the far left is wearing a thong.














Another goofy picture. This sign is written in German but I'm pretty sure it means "no peeing". I guess they have a problem with it there.













This is the outside of a public urinal. I took a peak inside and was going to take a picture of the facility but let's just say the smell drove me away. It's also a little bit sexist that they only thought of men by providing a urinal but no arsenals for females.

Germany

Downtown Dusseldorf. The twisted tower to the left has a story behind it. The tiles were put on wet and when they dried the tower twisted. The legend goes that it will not straighten itself until a virgin is married in the church. The smaller tower to the left is currently a nautical museum.









This square is found downtown Dusseldorf in the Alstadt which is the old part of town. Streets are all cobblestone, narrow, and full of shops and pubs in the Alstadt. The statue of the horse and rider is of a past Prince. The horseman is surrounded by an iron fence painted in real gold.











This is our first afternoon in Dusseldorf after we have had a nap. We are downtown Kaiserwerth which is a small village/suburb in Dusseldorf. This is where my brother and sister-in-law live. The village is very quaint and is within walking distance (10 minutes) from their place. There are lots of places to eat outside in Dusseldorf. Eva is holding up her german dictionary and was able to translate the menu for us. Daniel is sleeping under the umbrella. I am drinking Schwepp's Bitter Lemon and it was definitely bitter!

I'm Going to Germany!

I leave for Germany in less than a week. Can't wait to see my nephew and visit the sites. Watch my blog for pictures once I get back home.

The Big Fire at our campsite

We went camping this week. This was our fun and exciting moment. I was sitting outside our trailer with my mom who came out to have dinner with us and all of a sudden there was black smoke drifting our way. We saw black smoke coming from the boat docks and ran to see.
Apparently a man was fueling his boat with his two little girls on board when the boat suddenly caught fire. He threw his girls out of the boat to safety and then pushed the boat away from the dock to keep it from catching other boats and the dock on fire. The boat did eventually catch some of the dock on fire but not much was damaged as it was put out fairly quickly. It did take the firemen awhile to put out the fire though as it was tricky with the water, etc.
After the fire was put out the boat was towed to the launch area and as it was being winched out it caught on fire again. It was quickly put out again. The smell was awful from the burning boat but we tried to stay out of the smoke as best we could. The newspaper was going to use one of my pictures but ended up using one taken by the resorts owner. The newspaper man goes to my church so I'm going let him know I'm quite disappointed in him...LOL. Where's my 15 minutes of fame??

Every year my husband's employer puts on a family day. They rent rides, have booths with free goodies (kettle corn, popsicles, cotton candy, mini doughnuts, etc), put on a bbq, hire muscial entertainment, etc. The kids have a blast.
Ryan is the one upside down in the velcro suit on the left. It was so hot out the boys were parched and decided to get wet after this. Ryan went in the dunk tank but unfortunately I had no idea he was doing this otherwise I would have taken a picture.
Ryan is on the climbing wall making his retreat. Again, he didn't warn me he was on his way up and so I had to hurry to get the picture I did before he was done.

Ninja Ryan

My son Ryan being a Ninja with our kitty, Dante in the background looking on. My cousin Heather sent me an email showing you how to become a ninja with just your t-shirt. Ryan thought this was such a neat idea that he had to try it.