July 22-23: Cologne and back to Leuven

Yesterday (Sunday) Cherish and I took a train from Strasbourg to Cologne.  We left Strasbourg around 10 am and went directly to our hotel in Cologne, which was close to the train station.  Ashley, Rob, Andrew, and Sean weren't there yet and our room wasn't ready.  Cherish and I used the Wifi in the lobby and about 10 minutes later, the TN group came in!  To my surprise, Dorina, a Ukrainian girl who lives in our dorm, was with them.  She goes back to Ukraine today but she just wanted to see Cologne (and hang out with Sean..)  Their room was ready so we put all luggage in there and started to walk around.

First we walked to the famous Dom, near the train station.  Largest cathedral I had ever been to!  We walked around and took pictures but couldn't stay too long because it closed at 5 for mass.  After that, we went down to the Rhine riverfront and had a few drinks.  Dorina invited her friend from Cologne to join us, and he was really sarcastic and funny.  We ate dinner at a restaurant on the riverfront.  My schnitzel was delicious!  We went back to the hotel and situated everything in our rooms.  Andrew and Sean were planning to go out with Dorina that night.  Around 9, Rob, Ashley, and I walked back to the Dom to see it at night and get gelato.  Beautiful weather and totally nice riverfront.  We really had fun.

We got up early this morning and had breakfast at the hotel.  We boarded a 9:15 train to Leuven and got back around 12:30.  Rob and I took our bikes back to Velo and I exchanged mine.  (Not sure if I included this, but my bike broke on Thursday!  The light fell off, then got caught in my spokes and I fell off!  Horrible.  And it was making a funny sound because some screws fell out.)  My new bike is 1000 times more comfortable!  Now I have to finish writing my field trip report and finish my Excel file and go to the grocery store and do laundry...  Yay.