A Crappy Start to a Wonderful Weekend

Long title but you should be happy I waited 3 days to write this and decided against naming this one "This Post was Brought to You by Profanity." Wil had a four-day weekend, and I was dying to just get out of Kaiserslautern. The weather had been horribly cold, but I thought I could brave the frostbite with my sanity intact instead of going to KMCC one more time to walk off my boredom and subsequently open a can of whoop ass on the next spastic 11-year-old, who is destined to run into me--AGAIN--while I'm holding an extra large and very cold beverage. In case you didn't get all that: I REALLY HAD TO GET OUT.

So off to Cologne we went.

We probably could have made it a day trip since it was only a little over 2 hours away, but I was unsure of how Wil's back would behave at the end of a long sightseeing day plus another two hours back. This trip was momentous because it was our first overnight trip since his back gave out in October and the surgery in November, and have I mentioned that I really had to get out? So the plan was that I was going to get up early on Friday, drop the boys off at the kennel while Wil got the baby up and ready for the trip, and we would head out and arrive in Cologne about 11 a.m. Here's exactly how it went:

7:00: I woke up feeling like I had singlehandedly drank the entire content of our bar. Surely a cup of decaf tea before bed would not do that to me. Rolled over and went back to sleep.

8:00-9:00: Opened my eyes. Blinked. It felt like there was a very small and very naughty leprecon swinging a bat inside of my skull. Elbowed my husband, who was still fast asleep, and told him that I thought I was going to projectile vomit on him. Then I heard on the monitor, "HI! Elmo...Momma...Papa...BooPaddy!" Wil got the baby up, dressed, and fed while I sat very still and quietly holding up my head in my hands front of the computer.

10:30-11:15: 800 mg of Ibuprofen dulled my headache enough that I could actually stand up straight in a shower. Still sucked very bad. Made a mad dash to pack while my angel of a husband handled everything else.

11:45: Arrived at the kennel to drop off the boys. Saw the one person I probably didn't need to see for the rest of my life and two of her obnoxious Boxers, whom happened to be Brutus' #1 arch nemesis from Baumholder and apparently were also staying at the kennel for the weekend. Now I really felt like vomiting. Asked my husband to go back inside the kennel to let the owners know that under no circumstances should my dogs and hers come within ten yards of each others unless she was prepared to lose limbs.

12:15: Went to a nearby post to get gas. The attendant informed everyone that the system was down and we would have to wait at least 15 minutes for it to come back. FYI: we get gas on post or at ESSO gas stations with ration card for the same price as what people stateside are paying. Anywhere else we pay what the Europeans pay, which is about double the cost. We decided that we could make it to Cologne with 3/4 of a tank that we had and would fill up there.

13:00: My child promptly passed out from having screamed for the last 30 minutes or so. Just in time for us to pull in to a McD's to feed and change her very full diaper.

13:05-14:30: Wil informed me while in line that the baby was wet and I discovered that everything from her waist down was soaked. He fetched an extra outfit out of her suitcase while I held up the line to the bathroom because the changing table completely blocked access to it when in use. Way to go, German engineers! Surprisingly, we had a rather pleasant meal with no major disasters after the outfit change.

15:00: Found ourselves back at home because Wil forgot his medicine and we needed to grab another outfit for the baby to replace the now used extra outfit. I grabbed 3 sets of everything. While on the way out the door, the baby pooped a massive pooped.

15:15: Having no success pinning down an overexhausted child, who did not want a diaper change and only cared to tickle (scratch) me, I yelled out in frustration, "I'M NOT GOING!!!"

15:30: Wil repacked the car--again--and called the hotel--again--to inform them that we'd be really late checking in. Finally on the road.

17:15: In Cologne and looking for an Esso gas station. Followed the direction from our Garmin that eventually led to a gas station that was not an Esso.

17:30: At another gas staion (via the direction of our trusty Garmin), still not an ESSO, which had apparently been bought out by everybody else in the greater Cologne area. Wil forked over 20 Euros for a third of a tank.

17:50: Checking in at our hotel. I sat and cried on the bed thinking about how miserable Brutus was at the kennel with that obnoxious Boxer barking at him from across the kennel. Wil said I would feel better with dinner in my stomach even though I had no appetite. The baby started saying "mmmmmm...." as soon as we spoke of food.

18:30-19:00: Walking around in sub zero temperature from restaurant to restaurant trying to siphon the menus to make sure that we were not accidentally feeding our child some kind of dairy ingredients. She ate a plate of bow tie noodles with some brown gravy. I cried some more at the dinner table and was ready to call it a night.

20:30-21:30: Back in the hotel room and discovered that our baby would no longer sleep in her pack n' play as long as she knew that we were just feet away. She spent the next hour flinging her little body back on forth on top of ours in the dark.

22:30: Finally, the room is quiet and we all felt asleep.

I woke up about 6 o'clock the following morning, got ready, and told Wil that I was going out for a stroll. I really needed that to clear my head from yesterday's fiasco. The amazing spires of Cologne Cathedral could be seen from our hotel and I thought I would try to get there. By the time I stepped out in the bitterly cold and windy street, it was about 7:30 but still pretty dark. It didn't take long for me to find my way to the Cathedral. I quietly took in the sight before heading inside. It was eerie quiet as I was the only tourist there. It was truly remarkable to see all the carving and stonework in person knowing that every single inch of that massive cathedral was touched by thousands of artisans' hands over 600+ years span. I sat down to have a chit chat with God in his big house, thanking Him for seeing us though those past terrible few months, and letting Him know that I was grateful for the opportunity to be there with my healthy and happy family. I believe that there's one God for all of us, and regardless of where we choose to worship or what name we call Him by, He can still hear us. I felt calm and made peace with putting yesterday behind me and starting our day with a good spirit. Took a few pictures and headed back to the hotel. Wil and the baby was already up and playing, and we headed down to the lobby to have breakfast. If you are planning to visit Cologne, I can't recommend Hotel Domstern enough even it's just for breakfast alone! We ate our weights' worth in French soft cheese, freshly baked bread, homemade yogert, and lots of meat. And let's not forget the never ending big mugs of caramel macchiato. We were one of the very first to get to the breakfast area and most definitely the last to leave.

After breakfast, we headed out to the Cathedral. By this time, the whole square was packed with tourists, but we somehow managed to find a room inside the cathedral to see the possession of the Cardinal during mass. It was such an amazing experience to hear the organs and the prayers. One of the bishops told Wil to stay put where he was because the Cardinal would walk right by us and bless the baby. I didn't hear any of this and told him to move because it looked like he and Chase's big green stroller was in the way. We still had a pretty good shot to shove the baby into the Cardinal's blessing way had my child not decided to bark. You heard me. The whole place was quiet except for the low hymns until Miss Chase decided that mass should be liven up with some puppy dog action. Needless to say, the Cardinal walked right by our kid to the next peacefully sleeping quiet baby to bless him. His parents were over the moon, Wil and I were mortified, and everyone around us tried hard to not bust out laughing. After taking a few quick pictures in the cold, we trekked back to the hotel and helped ourselves to a few more buckets of hot chocolate before heading out to Lindt's Chocolate Museum.

The Museum was an interesting looking place on the Rhine, easy enough to find, and, most importantly, warm! As soon as we stepped inside, the gorgeous smell of chocolate turned my legs all wobbly. Really, it was a perfect thing to do on a cold day. There's just enough "museum" type of info mixed in with the fun exhibits of machines, test kitchen, and little rain forest. It helped that they were seemingly throwing really good chocolate at us at every turn as well. We wrapped up our visit with a late lunch in their Cafe, which proved to be the highlight of our trip. The food was simply incredible and we lingered far longer at our little table next to the river because we just couldn't stop eating. All and all, it was the perfect "slow travel" kind of weekend. We didn't get to see everything on the agenda, but great time was had by all. The following day we had dinner with our great friends, the Carrolls, to celebrate Brady's 2nd birthday. I don't really miss living in Baumholder, but I would gladly go back if it meant we would get to spend more time with our friends.

This is quite long enough and I didn't forget the pictures! Hope your weekend was restful and fun!