Cologne (Köln)

We took a fun day trip to Cologne, Germany with our friends Matt and Sarah and their darling little girl Hayden. I know, leave it to us to find friends with the same name as us. At least their little girl's name isn't Hallie. :) Anyways, Sarah is German and lived in Cologne for a few years so it was great to have a little directional help while we were there. We went and saw the Dome in cologne, I will cut and paste a little history on this AWESOME building at the bottom of this post for those of you who are interested. After we went through the dome, we went shopping. ahhhh, how I've missed shopping. I got a ridiculously cute new skirt and an even cuter purse. Hallie was pretty naughty all day, but we tried not to let it get us down. :)

Picture of one of the MANY stained glass windows inside the dome. So beautiful

This is the dome. It is gothic architecture....really creepy and cool looking.

This is Matt, Sarah, Matt, and the kids heading into the dome.

This cross was the first cross of it's size ever made. Most churches that have crosses of this size can be traced back to using this one as inspiration.

Matt and Matt climbed to the top of the dome (us Moms couldn't make it with the kids and strollers). Matt got some cool pictures of the city while he was up there. It was the biggest building in the world up until the 19th century.

A cool city shot from the top of the Dome. This is the Rhine River below.

Another good shot.

This guy had little dancing puppets that Hallie loved watching dance. It was pretty fun to see.

Of course there's the guy with the Lama in the middle of the street. Why wouldn't you bring your lama shopping with you?

Some interesting German art. I have nothing more to say.

Matt being a turd.

Chase was so good all day. He is just the sweetest, happiest, little guy ever.

So all in all, it was a really great day! Here is the history end of things about the dome for those interested:


The Dome of Cologne, which was built in the period from 1248 until 1880, is known as a masterpiece of Gothic architecture. In its whole period of construction the original architect’s drawings had never been changed.Up until its completion in the 19th century, the cathedral was the biggest building in the world. The draft of the western façade broke all conventions: as the biggest church façade of the world it was supposed to have a surface of 7,000 m² flanked by two powerful towers with a height of 156 metres each.The reliquary for the relics of the three holy kings, which is the biggest reliquary of the Occident, is said to be an outstanding artistic work of the Middle Ages. The Ottonian Gero cross on top of the rood altar inside of the Dome is the first big cross of the western Occident: all triumphal crosses of medieval churches can be traced back to it. The dome has two big winged altar-pieces: the “Klarenaltar”, an altar from the 14th century with 36 paintings and 25 sculptures, as well as the altar of the city patrons created by Stephan Lochner, the master of Cologne.The dome’s architecture mostly corresponds to plans from the Middle Ages. Some construction parts were made in a neo-Gothic style. Due to its size and the quality of the work the Dome became a crystallisation point of this kind of architecture. In 1996, it was included in the list of the UNESCO world cultural heritage.