From Germany

It's just after midnight our time and I'm posting from Essen, Germany. Carter and I took the TGV/Thalys to Köln and then the German ICE to Essen, as promised in our previous post. We were impressed with the speed of the trains (and the breakfast they served us!), as well as the friendliness of all the people we met on the trains and in Köln and Essen.

In Köln, we walked around the Dom, their 600-year-old church, where Carter met a statue. We wandered the city for a while, ate some frites on the street, and checked out some shops and scenes. Then we went to the Chocolate Museum and saw chocolate made, and ate some.

In Essen we easily found our way to the hotel, which happens to be on a shopping street that today was hosting its big annual street fair (which is still going on outside). We chilled for a few then checked out the scene - think of your local fest after everybody's been partying 10 hours in the hot soon, and you've got the idea. We ate some German food - mmm, wurst - and had a couple of drinks before heading back to the room around 11-11:30. The bar downstairs has some bowling-like alleys so Carter wants to check that out tomorrow. We'll likely also go to a coal-mine turned museum complex, one of the highlights in this post-industrial area.

We'll keep you posted, but since I'm paying 2€ per 15 minutes for this wi-fi access, I'll keep it short - we just wanted to let everyone know we're here safe and sound and sleepy.