I LOVE COLOGNE!

I LOVE OUR HOTEL!
I LOVE THE CATHEDRAL!
I LOVE KOLSCH!
I LOVE THAT IT ISN'T GHETTO LIKE BRUSSELS WAS!
I LOVE THE FOOD!
I LOVE THE PEOPLE!
I LOVE THAT THERE ISN'T POOP ON THE GROUND EVERYWHERE!
I LOVE KOLSCH!
I LOVE SMOKERS AND NUTCRAKERS!
I LOVE LIVERWURST!
I LOVE HALVEN HAHN!
I LOVE SAUERKRAUT!
I LOVE KOLSCH!

Smokers and Nutcrackers!!!

Is it bad to have a fetish about nutcrackers and smokers? Many of you know that I do indeed have this. Today we hit the motherload at a souvenir store. They had so many different types of smokers!!

I bought two for myself - a beer wench with 8 steins of beer, and a woodsman with a big burly beard.

AWESOME!! I almost peed my pants.

The Dom in Cologne

We got on the train this morning and travelled to Cologne. Again, the efficiency of the trains here is amazing.

Our hotel is literally a baseball's throw away from the Dom Cathedral, and we can see it from our hotel room. Which, by the way is fantastic. I would stay here again 100 times.

MB from work - I lit a candle and said a prayer for you at the Dom. So there you go. You are going to be fine in no time.

Speaking of the Dom, it is amazing. It's incredible to think that it started in 1248 and took over 600 years to finish. It is really astonishing to me that engineering and architecture of that caliber is still here for us to revere, enjoy, and be in wonderment of. As you look up at the top, you get kind of dizzy. It has the largest height to width ratio of any Medieval church. The tallest spire is 157 meters, or 515 feet!! You can't even get a good picture of it, it's that high. Amazing to think that it all started almost 800 years ago.

Note to Allison

My hair is holding up surprisingly well. I wondered about it, given that 10 weeks ago or so I said to Chris, "I think that Allison doesn't know that I know that she is growing my hair out. I think she thinks I don't know. But I know." Then 5 weeks ago I confronted her about it, and she confessed.

She noted that with my stupid curl and Sally from the Peanuts like wave of my bangs, that growing it longer would ensure that if my flat iron blew up in Europe, I could still blow dry my bangs straight.

She was completely right, and this is why when I win the lottery, she will be on retainer for $150K a year to do my hair every day.

If you don't love your stylist and trust them implicitly, you are missing something very important in life.

Things I have not eaten in Belgium...

Pomme Frites and Belgian waffles.

If I had seen pomme frites anywhere, I would have ordered them. And I was just too full for the waffles.

Moeder Lambic - Good Stuff

Had a few beers last night at Chez Moeder Lambic - all really good.

Chris had a Uerige Alt - one of his favorite styles, and I had the Val Dieu Grand Cru. GRAPEY. But good.

Then we had a round of Cantillon - Chris had the lambic cask and I had the Faro cask, which is sweetened with sugar and syrup. See pictures.

Some of the guys in the neighborhood would have loved it.

Chris also had the Gouyasse Tripel - another awesome beer.

Off to Cologne this morning - trying to get all of our shit packed up. We've accumulated stuff along the way - thank God for my mom's fold up duffel bags!

Skipped the beer log in Amsterdam...

Forgot to tell you that we had two other beers somewhere in Amsterdam - I wrote them down and forgot to list them:

Stillwater Autumnal Belgian Ale
Snakedog IPA

I think this was at Beer Temple? They were good.