Schokolade... or my adventures with Stephanie

Today, after a very lazy morning Stephanie and I met to fulfill our joint destiny, that is to visit the Chocolate museum in Koeln.

It was a sunny morning, one well suited for the ten minute stroll from the Koeln Hauptbahnhof to the museum, but nothing not even a wonderful sunny day could have prepared us for the wonders that awaited. We entered the chocolate museum at about 1:30 pm and first read about where chocolate comes from, sent ourselves an interenet cocoa bean tree, and entered the sweltering hot greenhouse just long enough to get pictures of the tropical plants. As we wound our way through the three story museum we saw wonderful things, like a chocolate production line, the most glorious chocolate fountain you'll ever see in your entire life, truffles getting filled, and a hollow molded chocolate making machine. It was fascinating as well as tasty (we were able to sample a few things) and altogether a great experience. There was even a room where they showed old chocolate commercials and one was really adorable.

Three hours later we were in the gift shop and it was crazy, they had everything from chocolate liquor to elaborate models of the Cathedral (in chocolate) to chocolate cell phones, but my favorite item had to be what was called a "first date kit"(pictured at the right.) That's right it was what appeared to be either a non-alcoholic Cranberry schorle or some kind of cranberry champagne with a condom and perhaps some chocolate (we weren't very clear on that) and it was apparently "for girls only." That really provided immense entertainment for us, but little were we to know that real romance was right outside. As we exited the chocolate museum we saw a cround of well dressed people near a door and turned to see a just married couple exiting the chocolate museum, that's right they got married at the chocolate museum, how cool is that! Anyway we ended our time in Koeln by wandering back to the Hauptbahnhof stopping to get presents for our mothers along the way.

In the evening Stephanie and I had a romantic dinner for two at the little Italian place we'd been to with the group at the beginning of our trip and now I'm going to cut this short because Stephanie and I will be rounding off our evening with a free concert we're already late for near the old Radhaus.

Ciao!

Caitlin