Cologne, Germany...in our opinion

horrible picture because of the sun :(

We made it to Cologne, Germany finally...(after many weekends of interrupted plans).  It was a bit longer drive than we expected...we were looking at right at 2 hours but the GPS corrected us and said 3+ hours.  then the freeway-hating GPS kept asking us to go random places even on the fastest route (another blog for another time).  We make it to Cologne in search of the Cathedral, which is said to be magnificent.  We get there and BAM! There is was.  It really is a magnificent sight.  It was massive!  I thought it was beautiful and right then declared the long drive worth it.  (Later I may have taken that back...you'll see).

There were so many people there...like it is a main tourist attraction LOL.  We wanted to look around and then get inside so that is what we did. (There is an elevator for those wanting to bring their stroller.  It was all pretty stroller friendly).  Here are just a few pictures from all the sides of the Cathedral.

 The outside was so wonderful we couldn't wait to get inside.  In our experience there have been some breath-taking sights inside the churches here.  Well.....we (personally) were let down :(  They definitely put all their effort on the outside of this thing.  It was huge on the inside and if this had been our first church we would have been very impressed...however, it was not our first and so that effected our opinion of it.  i'm not saying it wasn't something you should see...I am saying it wasn't the best to be seen out there.  The stained glass was abundant and very colorful.  It focused more on their priests and saints than Jesus and I was disappointed in that.  I have become a bit obsessed with seeing the German depictions of Christ as they are generally so detailed and fantastic in quality.  As we looked around there was very little displays of Jesus.  We did find one corner of them though:

 We walked around outside in the little square and down the side roads (there is a ton of shopping...and a ton of people).  We got to see street performers which is always neat.  Overall, Cologne was not a total loss.  I actually really liked the outside of the Cathedral (the pictures don't do it justice) and there is said to be a great zoo (we ran out of time as everything closes at 5pm on Saturday).  I think we will go back for the zoo and they have tons of museums there which sounds great to me as well.  Cologne is a great city you just have to give it some time to show you its beauty.

On the way to Cologne we passed some great villages (they all have wonderful churches so I am in Heaven with each village we passed).  So on the way back we stopped at a few.  I just love taking pictures of these churches (even if I am not a professional photographer).  This was one of my favorites...it was in the village of

Waldböckleheim.

This one was in another village down the road called Staudernheim.  In between these two villages was a little ridge area and we caught a glimpse of 3 paragliders.  It was really neat...we got to see them setting up.  Then around the corner they were taking off.  And down in the next village we caught the first one landing.  It was really fascinating and intrigued my girls.  They have now declared they want to do that...the momma in me says NO!!!!! but I kind of think it would be fun. (Ok so in the collage picture you can't really see them but they are there LOL).