Cologne

So we waved good bye to Sehnde and headed towards Cologne. We decided to stop in Essen on the way at Zollverein which was once the largest coal mine in Europe. The enormous site is now a series of museums,

View from the top and inside the coal washing building. Nick didn't make it up here!

studios for artists and performance spaces, cafés and play areas - all still with the buildings intact and various trucks etc left seemingly where they were last used.

We spent a couple of hours there but could have honestly spent the whole day I think as we only explored a tiny part of it. Definitely recommended.

Friday was our only full day here in Cologne so we first went to the iconic Kölner Dom ( Cologne cathedral).

It's Germany's largest cathedral and the scale of it is something incredibly impressive - all very gothic and stained glass windows although there is one new stained glass window made of 11500 squares which we all liked. We then took a little wander around the city centre both old and new and after lunch in a large sunny square we decided to have a ride on the Bimmelbahn (one of those little road train things).

We spent most of it trying to stop Reuben climbing everywhere but by the end realized that we'd seen most of the sights during our wanderings in the morning. The afternoon was finished with a trip to the Chocolate Museum - could there be any better way to finish the day?!?

Trying to get into the machine with the liquid chocolate

Oh yes - by sampling chocolate cake in the museum cafe.

We had a few hours on Saturday morning and so visited the Deutsches Sport museum which was conveniently near to our hotel. Although not massive, there  was plenty to see and try out and it finished with a game of football on the roof with another boy. The international language of football :)

We now head into the Rhine Valley for our week on a farm with an expected lack of internet so will update next weekend when we get to Stuttgart.