Köln

My stay in Köln was a bit shorter than expected, primarily because there was no virtually no hotel space in town, and it'd cost twice as much to stay the second day I wanted to. A big business conference was coming into town, it seems, and it was hard enough to find the hotel I did. So, only one day then.

Arriving late-ish in Köln, my first priority was finding a place to stay. The first 3 or so hotels I found, of varying degrees of niceness, were completely booked. The next one, though, struck my fancy and I took a room. Only 55 euros? What a bargain! Tomorrow would be 120 euros? I'll... pass. Very pass on that. My room was about a step below my freshman year at UF's dorm room, small and cramped with no bathroom. The bathroom was shared for the whole floor, like in a dorm also. Not a terrible problem, since I'm young and have dealt with it, but not exactly the "hotel" experience one usually seeks. Still, can't argue with the price. Of course, considering what I got, I sure would argue it if I stayed two days. Imagine what a normal hotel would cost for that second day... glad not to be a businessman coming into town here.

My day started off early for me, with me leaving the hotel before 10AM and paying the guy at the front desk 5 euros to watch my luggage through the day (apparently this one place didn't normally do that for free, or perhaps at all) I headed off to the one thing everyone sees in Köln, the Dom. The cathedral in all its impressive height and splendor, and it wasn't even a three-minute walk from my hotel. Neat! I even got to hear the big organ in there being played and listen to a bit of some sort of service in German before heading on.

A bit of backstory before I mention where I went next.

Back in the 9th through 11th grades, in High School, I had to take a language and had zero desire to learn French and Spanish. I wanted something different, something unusual. So I took German. It's why I chose Germany for my trip to better my language skills and why I wasn't starting quite from scratch here.

When in German class, I don't know what year, we had to do a report on a city in Germany. I picked Köln/Cologne. I don't remember much other than one very specific thing that stuck with me about the city, something I vowed one day to visit. A chocolate museum. A museum, dedicated to chocolate. As in, the history of and applications of CHOCOLATE. How cool is that? Very, very cool is what I was betting on.

I bet well, because when I finally got the chance to visit Köln (I feel a bit bad saying finally, it's only been 6 years at the most and I'm still only 22) I knew where I wanted to go. The chocolate museum. Heck yes. After the cathedral I walked my way there, ambling through a very cool shopping district and taking my time to look in a few shops and buy an umbrella, since the weather wasn't terribly great outside. I finally wound up right at the fast-flowing Rhine river, with a wonderful view of the other side, and began following it. I saw a building that to me embodied Köln as a whole as I'd been seeing it, which is very modern mixed with very old. The two had come together in this one mixed building, and I appreciated it just long enough to realize it was the building I sought. That was the chocolate museum! Even cooler! I then looked a bit harder at the flag waving atop the building and noticed it said "Lindt" on it. Oh.

I quickly made my way inside, not failing to notice across the way a mustard shop and museum across the street. That tickled my fancy, as I love weird things, and I made a note to go there next.

The chocolate museum surpassed every single one of my expectations. It was much alike the Potsdam Biosphere I visited early on in my time in Berlin in some respects, in that it has a (small) greenhouse in it, which I loved. I didn't think I'd see any mango trees in Germany, but I did! The exhibits were very neat and somewhat modern in design, with some interactive exhibits using buttons and light-up walls or speakers, or even computers in a few places. I learned of the history of chocolate from where it comes from to the people involved in its early European use to the father of modern taxonomy. I saw how cacao is shipped and where it is made and what goes into preparing it every step along the way. As I left the first floor of the exhibit I found myself in the more modern part of the building that I saw from outside. A cute little fake factory! How cool! I saw the various machines involved in smashing the beans and so on, every step to finished chocolate. Except something wasn't quite as I thought it was. This was no fake chocolate factory. It was an actual chocolate factory, in miniature, with people working it and machines making chocolate and seeing them bagged and boxed. Yes, on a very small scale and perhaps some of the earlier steps were left out so as to reduce the machines needed, but a significant portion of the chocolate-making process was THERE. I walked through it, seeing the machines and people working, and couldn't keep a big silly grin from smearing across my face as if painted on with chocolate.

At one very end of the mini-production floor was a beautiful fountain-looking thing with golden-colored cacao bean adornments. It was gorgeous, and I got close to take a picture. Huh, I wonder why there are ropes around it, there's plenty else equally as nice without ropes. Wait, why is there a table with vanilla wafer-looking things on it?

The beautiful sculpture I saw was actually a chocolate fountain! And to compound my delight and surprise one of the workers came over and unhooked the rope, letting herself in. She took one of the wafers and dipped it in the fountain and handed it to me. To say this was warm, fresh chocolate heaven is an understatement. It was simply divine. I was given another and then tore myself away after thanking the woman and went up the staircase to the second floor.

One the second floor was a mini shop where I saw one of the very boxes taken recently from the mini production floor with truffles I had seen being made not two minutes earlier, and indeed could still see being made if I so much as looked over the guardrail to the floor below. I was astounded, and bought one (only fifty cents!) It was amazing.

Next to the little shop was, apparently, some sort of press room where a chocolatier or chef or man posing as such was holding chocolates and bars and mods and such as a prss person photographed him for a magazine or something. Very very VERY cool.

Through a door to the right of that was a dimly-lit room that astounded me yet again. It was an example of chocolate being a "food of the Gods" and showed how the Olmecs and Aztecs and such used and traded and saw chocolate and the bean from whence it came. There were actual statues and rollers and pottery and more from well into the B.C. era depicting these cultures and signs saying what they had to do with chocolate. Once again I was completely amazed and found myself smiling like a fool. And after that room were a few rooms depicting the history of chocolate advertising and modern-day chocolatiers and their history. A small theater ran constant ads for different chocolates from perhaps fifty years ago. A hallway showed the evolution of different mascots of chocolate makers, and more. This was astounding.

After all was said and done I went to the cafe for a bite to eat. A nice linguini lunch with some sort of meaty sauce along with a water and of course a big hot chocolate, one of the better ones I've had outside of France's delicious and thick drinking chocolates. I'm also glad the lunch items there didn't have a need or feel to include chocolate in their dishes just for the sake of having it.

I reluctantly left what may have been the coolest museum I've ever visited and walked across the street to a much more reserved place, which seemed to be mostly a mustard shop. Lots of mustards which you could try and tons more that adorned the walls of many many types. I bought a ticket to the tour and waited for the hour, this time being joined by a group of about 8.

The tour was only in German, but I understood a good deal of it. The history of mustard, and especially a lot on how it was made. A replica of an old press (that may not be the correct term) was there and it was actually fully functional. We saw the rough paste in one vat and were allowed to smell it as it mixed. I got my face right in and took a whiff. WOOOH was that a bad idea. My eyes immediately started watering and I almost choked. I backed away and tried to regain my composure as the others in thr tour blindly followed suit from me, each in turn being completely and utterly overwhelmed by the superhumanly strong smell that can only come from a vat of unfinished mustard. The tour guide seemed to get a real hoot out of letting us smell the mustard, I think that's her favorite part of the job. She then showed us (with the machine going too!) how mustard is ground with a giant stone more finely and then deposited in barrels, and I must say it was enlightening if not perhaps quite as thrilling as the chocolate factory. It was certainly more of a sensory overload, at least for my nose, though.

After that I figured out how to move my plans all up a day then spent my remaining hours wandering through Köln, and wound up at a bar for the one other thing I wanted to do/try in the city: Kölsch. It's a kind of beer, and I'd liken it to an exceptionally smooth and somewhat bitter Hefeweisen. It went down very smoothly and was a neat little taste (literally) of the local flavor.

As I write this, I'm on my way to Neerpelt, Belgium. That means my internet USB dongle won't work, but I'll just post this once back in Germany. Along with a few other wonderful tales, like tomorrow. I'm expecting to make my way to the Achel Trappist monastery which is only 7 in the world that can call themselves true Trappist breweries. Apparently the beer is world class and I'll get to see the brewing process and the abbey, at least a bit. So, very much looking forward to that.