Saturday - More Kolsch

We started the day late, as you would expect after 3 gallons of beer, and began at the Dom.  Wow!!  Simply amazing the second time, and I am always startled by the feats of engineering.  It is such a beautiful cathedral.  Lit more candles, walked around, then headed out again.

After the Dom, we hit the chocolate factory.  It was ok, but I think if you had kids it would be more fun.  We did get to walk there along the Rhine, on a beautiful breezy day.

Then...the drinking began...again.  I think we hit 6 different Kolsch places?  One cannot be expected to remember after 76 beers as a team.  Here is the highlight reel:

- Lunch at Pfaffen.  Delicious and good Kölsch to begin our day.
- Beers at Sünner.  Talked to a guy that played football.  American football.  Yay.
- Then to Päffgen.  Which shouldn't be confused with Pfaffen.  We drank there until two hammered dudes sidled up and talked to us.  One was a farmer and talked to Chris about brewing and randomly hugged him.  The other hit on Lynette.  At some point it was enough and we left.
- Next to Gilden.  More beers.  And lots of fun people.  And lots more beer.

Finally tried to hit the Früh for dinner, no dice, so we got drunk sandwiches at the Hbf and ate them in the Marriot Executive Lounge.  Classy as always!!

Kolsch. Enough Said.

56 beers.  That is what the 4 of us drank today.

But let's break that down.  Each beer is 0.2 liters.  So 1/5 of a liter.  So a liters is really like...almost like a little more than quart...

1/5 of a quart X 56 = 11.2 quarts, which = 2.8 gallons.

Wait, what?  I really didn't think it would be that much.

Holy shit.  That was a lot of beer.

Cologne...we have arrived...

We are now in Cologne after a frenzied morning and rush to get to the train.  We are fully five suitcases, 4 backpacks, and two purses of fun running around Europe.

Brett lost his phone in the taxi, we are relaxing now and waiting in thebexecutive lounge for the driver to return it.  I will say this for paranoia...I memorized the taxi license for some reason, so we had the receipt and the cab license.  Armed with that, the concierge flew into efficient action.  Thank god I have OCD.

More to come later which will include lots of Kolsch!!

SWATCH!

And I got two new Swatch watches in Brussels.  I'm 16 again!!!

Thursday - off to Brussels...and Cantillon!!

We said goodbye to Paris this morning after a simply wonderful stay.  Now we hit Brussels for the day and a visit to Cantillon, a most amazing lambic brewery.  Still amazing the second time.

Then moules and frites and very large beers on the Grand Platz.  Oh, and Mannequin Pis.

Then Moeder Lambic and much much much better beers in greater quantities.  Oh, and these twovpictures of Chris were taken here 6 years apart to the day.  Can you tell which is which?

Dinner at Frou Frou

The little bistro below our apartment in Paris.

This is Maxim...our wonderful server, who said goodbye and asked me for a hug.

Cider!

In the Normandy region of France, they drink cider instead of wine, and also make a distilled liquor called calvados.

We stopped at Ferme de la Sapiniere, a local cidery that has such such such great cider!!  So we bought some.