Germany 2013 - Days 1-2

This post has take a long time because after the trip I was working full time and then the holidays it.  I finally have everything together so I will start posting it.

In August Shane was told that he would be going to Germany for work.  The fantastic this about this was that the location of the business trip was right in the heart of his mission.  He hasn't been to Germany for 19 years and the idea of seeing his mission was so exciting.  His employer allowed me to go along!  I only had to pay for my airfare and we went ahead and rented a car.  It was fantastic!  Here is some of the stuff we were able to do and see.

The first day was more like two full days because of the flight and the time change.  We left at 5 p.m. and arrived at about 2:30 the next day, but it wasn't just under 24 hours, it was because of the time change as well as a long flight. if that makes sense.  Anyway, we flew direct from Salt Lake to Paris, which I highly recommend.  It is so nice to not have to switch planes in the middle of the night and it was fantastic to not have a long layover.  In Paris we didn't really see much, just some fields as we flew over.  The airport is MASSIVE!  They are also a little strange when it comes to security.  We got off our flight and went through a customs type area where we had to throw away a water bottle that was purchased in an airport.  No way of getting it somewhere else, but it didn't meet the guidelines.  And on our return trip, when we bought something at a little shop, they scanned our plane ticket for customs, I would assume.

When we arrived, we picked up our car.  We upgraded to have GPS and that was the best investment we made the entire trip.  It was wonderful.  We could just change where we wanted to go at the last minute, look for banks, look for whatever.  It made all the difference, especially when looking for castles in the countryside.  After getting our car we called Shane's colleague, who would be meeting us in Cologne (Koln).  We arrived in Dusseldorf and drove about 40 minutes South to Cologne where we would stay.  We checked into our hotel, the Lindner, and then we met his coworker for a short tour and dinner.  He showed us some fun sights around cologne before taking us to a yummy dinner and then back to the hotel.  The first night we went straight to bed because our time it would have been really late and we really needed to adjust to the time change.

Shane at the Paris Airport, about to get on our flight to Dusseldorf

On our flight from Paris to Dusseldorf.  We were pretty tired here because we didn't sleep much on the way to Paris because of a very loud flight attendant.

Some fields in France

Blurry picture of Shane with the car

A cute little town when we got off an exit to switch to a different autobahn

Cathedral.  This thing is so tall!

The new "Modern" glass window in the cathedral.  I guess it was a bit of a controversy because some don't feel it fits in with the old cathedral, while others feel like it bridges a gap in different parts of society.

A more traditional stain glass window

Inside the cathedral

On the door of the cathedral

A Fountain

Gargoyle

This road is from the year 12 AD.  Can you believe it?  It was built just after Christ died.  That is amazing!

The Rhine.  Looking over at the other half of Cologne,

This bridge goes over the Rhine.  The bridge holds locks of lovers on it.  We returned later and I will blog about it.

Another church

This is the Ludwig museum with the cathedral behind it.  The cathedral is called the Dom.

Cute little German buildings by the river.

The Rathaus.  This is like a government building.

They are excavating under the Rathaus because they have found some Roman ruins under there.

There is a finial that you can stand by to show just how big the finials on the top of the Dom are.  It was massive and you really don't understand how big when you look at the Dom.  Here is the sign of the size and then a picture next of Shane next to the Finial.