Last night, our tour director told us that our coach had charge ports in every seat, decent WiFi, and that we would watch a safety DVD. None of that turned out to be true. We have an unbranded coach as opposed to one with our tour company name and specifications. It would normally be fine but most of our group, including myself, are repeat customers, and we’ve been a bit spoiled by our past coaches. Matt and I appear to be some of the youngest members of our group. The boomers were very concerned about the charging and WiFi let down though. Luckily, our driver was able to fix the WiFi after our first stop. It’s alright I suppose.

We left Frankfurt early this morning for a Rhine cruise. The weather was perfect and the scenery was even better. During the cruise we got to see the Lorelei Rock; it is popular due to a German legend of a beautiful maiden who threw herself into the Rhine River in despair over a faithless lover and was transformed into a siren who lured fishermen to destruction. Apparently the rock is known for producing an echo.

Our next stop was Cologne, home of the world famous Cologne Cathedral. This cathedral is the tallest twin-spired church in the world and the second tallest church in Europe. The cathedral took 700 years to complete and then survived 14 bomb hits during WWII.

After viewing the inside of the cathedral, we spent a few hours walking around and enjoying the culture and scenery.

After grabbing a bite to eat, we saw a shop called “Das Café” in the main Oldtown Square which we assumed was a coffee shop. I suppose it was in a way, as they had an espresso machine, and lots of coffee cups; they also had a bakery case with 2 large cases of whole milk. We walked inside only to find most guests outside sitting down with alcoholic beverages. It took a few minutes to get someone’s attention and then we asked for 2 iced coffees with milk, to go. The shift leader made it sound like it was no problem at all and then cued his buddy to make it. His buddy seemed a little lost, however. It resembled a pinky and brain scenario. First, Pinky grabbed too large glasses until Brain shouted that it was for take away. Then Pinky grabbed some paper cups until brain shouted that it was iced. Pinky told us he only had Vegan milk. There was literally a carton of regular milk right next to it (and a couple more cases in their bakery display), but we didn’t want to make a fuss and said it was fine. We watched Pinky brew up the espresso and add it to the took almost full cups of iced vegan milk, macchiato style. I thought maybe that it would be better than the coffee and milk that we ordered. We took our drinks and walked outside, simultaneously taking our first sip together. Matt and I looked at each other in disgust. My golden retriever husband then expressed, “This is the worst coffee I’ve ever had in my life.” “Agreed!” I returned. We proceeded to immediately dump them in the trash and I suggested we just walk to the river and see what happens. On the way to the river, in an obscure alley way, we found a tiny little coffee shop called Truebeans. They had a bunch of iced lattes on their board under summer specials. Even though we had to wait 10 minutes for the baristas buddy to come back with ice, it was worth the wait. The barista, probably a 20-something Turkish fellow was really nice, and looked like a loved his job. He made us lattes with pride and we took them to go sit by the river. I finished mine before our 2 minute walk to the river was over. It was much needed and so delicious.

By the river, it seemed like there were several bachelorette parties. Typical Saturday I’m told. The whole city was quite crowded today. As we were leaving we saw a PETA protest in front of Luis Vuitton. Somehow the protestors caused the line for the store get even longer. The protesters even had real animal furs with them. After about 30 minutes, police arrived and the crowd began to cheer at their arrival. My guess is that the police said something like, “you’re preaching to tourists that have no voting rights here.” They backed down pretty quick.

Our hotel tonight is pretty far outside the city and has no AC. We’re going to do our best with an open window, plus hopes and dreams. When we went to open the window, we immediately saw a nesting bird in a tree right outside.

We ate dinner at an Italian restaurant adjacent to our hotel. They didn’t speak much English but we made it work. Their food was so good we might have to skip breakfast tomorrow so as not to overdo it. We will see how we feel in the morning.