Sunday, June 19th:
Köln Cathedral:
Today we had a wonderful dinner and got to hang out with my German family friends Annike and Marcel Henrix! I also would like to wish a happy Father’s Day to my dad, Dana Tufts. You are the best! Jen and I slept in pretty late and took a train from Berlin to Köln, Germany after grabbing a quick cinnamon scone at the train station. We had a forty-or-so minute train swap in Köln, so both us had time to run out of the station to see the famous Köln Cathedral. This gothic cathedral, when it was completed, was once the tallest of its kind in the world. When I visited Germany over a decade ago my family went to Köln for a day and we got the chance to walk up the stairs to the top of the cathedral. It is an awesome view, but we did not have enough time for that before catching our train to Aachen, Germany, Annike and Marcel’s hometown.
Our wonderful hosts picked us up at the train station and helped us with our bags into their car. I had been to Aachen before, when I visited Germany in 1999, but I did not remember much outside of its main site, the Aachen Cathedral. Annike and Marcel drove us through the cozy city of Aachen and through a beautiful park up to a lookout that looks down upon all of Aachen. It is a very pretty spot, and the rain subsided when we got there for some time to stop and take in the view! We then drove back down the road to their home.
Beautiful View of Aachen:
Annike’s brother, Martin, and his girlfriend, Jennifer, also came over for dinner. We talked for a while and enjoyed some Sherry and appetizers before Annike and Marcel prepared us a wonderful, traditional German meal. We ate Roulade, a beef dish with gravy-style sauce, bacon, and sauer inside, as well as Spaetzleauflauf, a noodle and cheese dish. We also ate Knoedel, similar to a ball of mashed potatoes, and had red cabbage and green beans on the side. It was a lavish feast, and it was topped off with a wonderful German dessert called Quarkspeise which is like sweet, creamy yogurt with nuts and apples in it. Thanks again for the wonderful dinner guys!
After dinner we enjoyed some traditional German beers (I still like the Bavarian beer best, Marcel), before walking down the hill to an Aachen bar. There we tried a beer from Köln and one from Düsseldorf before heading back up the hill to go to bed. Tomorrow we will wake up early for a nice German breakfast before visiting downtown Aachen and the Aachen Cathedral.
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