Today was Aaron's birthday so I made him a Domo birthday cake. I had been planning this for awhile. When I saw JustJenn made Domo cupcakes I was happy to see that Domo does indeed translate well to baked goods.
I think the birthday boy liked the Domo cake.
Yesterday Aaron and I went to the Naples Grape Festival. The whole town smells like grapes. We got grape juice, grape pie and a big basket of grapes.
We also won a bottle of sparkling grape juice. I was pretty excited.
Some of the food I have had in Cologne...
Pomme frites with mayonaise, ketchup and fried onions (like the kind you put on green bean casseroles)
Soft pretzel... a must.
A berliner and chococcino.
Someone told me on Facebook to try a doner kebap and I ran into one so I tried it! Yum!
How cute are these weckmann pastries?
I got a lot of great recommendations for Cologne and the one thing everyone mentioned was the Cologne Cathedral.
Domo and Piglet liked it.
I thought the outside was amazing. The inside was breathtaking.
You can climb to the top of the cathedral tower. 509 steps... I can handle that.
Ooo-wee.
At this point I felt a little woozy.
But I made it. So did Domo and Piglet.
I posted a video of my climb to 1000words.kodak.com
One of the things that surprised me about Cologne is the amount of graffiti.
All the signs and posts were covered in stickers.
Even the stairway walls up the cathedral tower were covered with graffiti.
This was a door inside the cathedral tower stairway. I don't think I have ever seen this much graffiti, even in NYC.
Interesting things I have seen in Cologne.
Guards are posted around this courtyard at certain times of the day to keep people from walking on it because it could be heard in the music hall below.
Rock climbers practiced on the wall of the Hohenzollern Bridge by my hotel.
The light switches and the toilet flush button in my hotel are all huge.
I love the little cars in Cologne. Look how this Smart Car sqeezed into a tiny parking space.
Aaron should be getting his Smart Car soon. Maybe it will come with a clown on it. Hah-hah!
I couldn't figure out why there were locks attached to the fence along the bridge walkway. This one is going to bug me.
UPDATE: I have been informed that these are Love Padlocks! Love padlocks are a custom by which sweethearts affix padlocks to a fence or similar public fixture to symbolise their love.
This evening I walked across the bridge with some fun coworkers to find dinner. I also had Domo and Piglet stashed in my purse. They couldn't miss Germany!
Domo was happy to get out.
Piglet enjoyed the walk.
All the buildings look so charming.
Here is where we settled on dinner.
Inside I ordered the world's largest frankfurter. Honestly... I had to chop it up so it fit on the plate. Oh and since I was in Cologne I felt obligated and I drank 1/3 of a Kölsch. Didn't get sick but it's still not my thing.
Despite how optimistic I look, I was only able to finish half of the frankfurter. I had to leave room for apple struesel of course. I also discovered I like red cabbage.
I have arrived in Cologne, Germany and this is the view from my hotel window. I can walk over the bridge to the cathedral, shops and pubs. So nice!
Photokina is huge and I am going to be busy this week!
There are bits of orange in our backyard.
Little round carrots in the garden.
And this pumpkin. A pumpkin vine spouted from our compost bin this spring. Lots of pumpkin vines really. Here's a composting tip... don't throw all your jack-o-lantern guts in the composter unless you want a bunch of pumpkins growing out of it. For some reason this was the only vine that survived our rainy summer and it only had one pumpkin on it. The pumpkin was about 7 feet from the begining of the vine and grew on the garage alcove roof.
I am very proud of my one pumpkin. I made Aaron take this Martha-esque picture of me with it.
