Before telling you the trip story, I had to mention about my 1st experience filling up my gas tank.  Gas stations here do not accept any of my cards at the machine.  I had to go inside to pay with credit card.  Not in-and-out kind of deal.

OK, we followed Garmin, set the address to Kölner Dom.  It was predicted that we arrived at 09:17...sweet!  We took E34, passed Venlo, NL and not long after that, we were in Deutschland.  It was raining a little bit.  We saw 'Ausfahrt' along the highway.  Mmm...funny name!  Told Derek to take picture of the 'Ausfahrt' sign.  We both thought...what a funny town name!  After seeing about 5 of 'Ausfahrt' signs and took different highway, I said 'Mmm...Ausfahrt is a big city!'  Then all the way to exit to Cologne, we saw more ausfahrt...and I finally understand that it means 'EXIT'...duhh!

The streets in Koln was very narrow and not straight!  I like the red light system...it's like in a car race, before it turns to green, yellow turns on for 2 seconds and green.  Following the GPS, I finally saw the top of Cologne Cathedral.  We followed DOM sign and parked the car (next to the church).  It was hourly parking and we had no clue how much it was going to be...but who cares, we were there already.  The parking structure is under the ground.  On the way to the stairs, there was the brick walled ruin from either WWII or something.  It seemed like old cells/jails.

Went upstairs from the parking, there it was...Cologne Cathedral.  It was magnificent!  It looks very rustic, old looking stoned cathedral.  I felt so small being so close to the cathedral. 

We didn't see so many people yet.  It was around 09:30. Train station is just right next to the Dom/Cathedral.  Many hotels are surrounding the Dom, big and small.  The Dom was not opened yet, so we walked towards the outdoor shopping strip.  Stores were just starting to open.  Saw Dunkin' Donuts, bakery shops, clothings stores, etc.  We followed the sign towards Rhine River. 

Rhine River is the longest river in Germany.  The current was high, water color is brown.  There were some cruise ships around.  Also saw some tour groups.  In front of the river are the multicolored buildings look like giant milk cartons standing next to each other.  And in front of those building are restaurants, with typical European outdoor seatings.  

We walked towards the Dom again and there was crowd already.  The Dom was opened so we went in.  There was a homeless guy sitting just right next to the entrance door.  Inside was dark and many people (tourists).  The glass mozaic windows were huge and so detailed.  There were some detailed mozaics on the floors...I bet it took such a long time to complete them.  Did not spend much time inside.  We did not know we could go to the top of the building for 2.50 euros...NEXT TIME!!!

We walked around again, bought personal pizza at the shopping strip.  Took pictures, watched the guy who can swallow water and bring them back out from his body through his mouth again.  Saw a line of live mannequins, the 3D painter, chess players, and many groups of tourists. 

Around 13:00, we decided to go back.  We had Hank's birthday dinner invitation to go to at 16:00.  Overall, it was a very good experience.  Driving there and back was nice because there was no speed limit in most areas.  Those BMW, Benz, and Audi were flying!  My Ford could only go up to 160 km/h....*sigh