an afternoon in cologne

On Saturday, the little family and I headed over to Cologne (or as they call it in Germany, Köln) to meet up with a few of Josh's coworkers from both the Asheboro and Germany plants for an afternoon. Despite it only being an hour away from where we live, we have yet to spend much time there, so it was nice to see a few of the sights and get to know the city just a little better.

Full disclosure that the majority of these photos were taken by Josh (my hands are usually full with a baby), but I'm gonna just go ahead and call myself the Art Director of most of them, since I tell him "you should take a picture of that."

Cologne Cathedral | Germany | iPhone 6

We met up in front of the well-known Cologne Cathedral. Once the tallest building in the world, there's no arguing how magnificent the structure is with it's twin spires and beautiful gothic style. Seeing as it was close to lunch time, we headed round the corner to the Früh for some food and libations.

Hohenzollern Bridge | Cologne, Germany | iPhone 6

After lingering for awhile and enjoying the local Kölsch beer, we decided to head over the Hohenzollern Bridge, covered in "love locks," to the observation deck at the KölnTriangle. The view from atop the 30 story building was fantastic, albeit a bit chilly, and featured these cool, to-scale, drawings of major landmarks around the city.

If you look closely, you can see the drawing on the glass overlaying the building below.

Miles was enjoying a nap, but he still got his selfie with the Cologne skyline :)

Ready to warm up, we went back across the water to the most quaint pub for drinks (coffee for me!) and lingered there for a bit before picking up a print from a local artist (Josh and I collect art from each city we visit, which we hang in a hallway at our North Carolina home) and heading back to Aachen to get the little one ready for bed.

There's definitely a lot more we'd like to see of Cologne, so I'm pretty sure we'll be back on a day when the weather's a bit nicer!