Cologne, February 4 - 6

A group of us, tired of the grey Kiel weather, decided to rent a car and drive 5 hours to Cologne to enjoy the grey weather there and party with the Catholics during pre-Carnival weekend. Six of us and one dog all packed into a Volkswagon Passat Wagon and drove southwest, stopping in the town of Munster for lunch. Driving on the Autobahn is always a white-knuckle experience, especially when Michael is driving, but the Dorfs and Bergs just zipped by and we soon found ourselves in Cologne.
The famous cathedral, called the Dome by locals, is amazingly huge. Cologne is very old, 2,000 years to be exact, and was once part of the Roman Empire. Christian pilgrims flocked to Cologne for hundreds of years to get peek at ancient religious relics including the bones of the magi, three skulls and golden crowns. Unfortunately the cathedral and the Roman-German museum were closed for Carnival so we didn't get to see them from the inside but were still wowed by the enormity of the place.