Quick Trip to Cologne

With our belongs unpacked in our comfortable room in Frankfurt, we took advantage of being located right over the long-distance railway station and went to Koln (or Cologne) for the day. The train ride was just 55 minutes and it was much less work to go there from Frankfurt than if we went there to stay overnight. We wanted to explore another great city in Germany and this one-day trip was the perfect amount to see the main city center.

Having been there before, I knew the first thing to visit from the main train station there was the cathedral. The Dom is hard to miss as it towers over the city and is right next to the old town and the Rhine River. Cologne is truly beautiful, and even though one day isn’t enough to really appreciate it, it was a great addition to the European tour. I walked the kids through the massive church so they can see what was inside. We admired the art, but mostly talked about the tombs that were the homes to men buried “a very very long time ago.” Perla and Trent seemed more interested in tombs, and started to plan where they would want to be buried in the same church.

Greg and Claire explored the Dom some more and even climbed to the top. I took the kids to McDonalds with the stroller and got a nice table and got lunch for them and fed Diane a bottle. I needed to change her but the line for the restroom was extremely long. I ended up taking Diane outside and changed her in the stroller in a nice shady corner of the old town. We then got some food for the grownups at a place right on the water here: http://www.ex-vertretung.de/

The next item on the agenda was to explore a playground, so I took the kids to begin a walk to a large playground next to the Rhine river. While walking both Perla and Trent were asking to go on a boat ride, so I stalled on giving them a definitive yes/no until I could ask a ticket booth for times and prices. There was a one-hour cruise available that would give me time to let them play in a nearby fountain and allow Greg and Claire to finish their meal. The fountain was the perfect time filler since the day was incredibly hot and I just happened to bring their swimsuits! Then the boat was great to enjoy some breeze and shade for Diane, and gave us an audio tour for some of the buildings we were seeing along the river.

We were still in hot pursuit of a playground (literally) and I found a “Wasserspielplatz” nearby a local train station. We found our way there, and I was hopeful it was worth the journey to get there. All the trains seemed to be delayed and we were waiting for some time for a train just to take us one stop away. We figured out how to get to the street (since it’s always a puzzle looking for an elevator and hope it’s working okay), and finally got to the location. And what a worthy journey it was! This place was huge, newly updated, and overall amazing. There were probably one hundred families picnicking out and watching their children run around the water sprays. Here’s the playground location for future reference: https://goo.gl/maps/AMhps1h8QApURJx19

We made it back to the train that returned us to Frankfurt. We didn’t have reserved seats since our original train back to Frankfurt was canceled. This meant our return journey was valid for any other train that left Cologne for Frankfurt that day. We took the opportunity to sit in the family car, which was a perfect sitting compartment for travelers with small children. There were activities on the wall and space for a stroller so you didn’t need to break it down. This was our last train ride on this trip as a family, and getting to leave at the time we did and finding the seats we did capped of a perfect one day outing to Cologne. We even returned with enough time to enjoy the executive lounge before it closed!