Cologne, Day 2

We woke up bright and early on Tuesday...at 11am.  It felt pretty good to sleep that late.  Kellan slept through the night, which was awesome.

On our agenda for Tuesday was a one o'clock appointment to complete our registration in Cologne.  We grabbed some Starbucks (yep, they have them here) and walked down a street of shops - about one mile - to the registration office.   When we arrived at the registration office, we met a lawyer there who was hired by FedEx to helped to translate forms for us.  The woman who processed our registration had her name engraved on a plaque on her desk: "Frau Balznscak."  As we were sitting there, when she was looking at her computer, Matt pointed to her name and raised his eyebrows.  After that it was like being in fourth grade and having a case of the giggles in the middle of class.  We were dying.  Fortunately, we managed to keep our composure until we left.  Mrs. Balls n Sack.  I think our 18-month-old may be more mature than we are.

We had to take a cab to get to the next destination - the immigration office - so we had to walk back to the hotel to get K's car seat.  On the walk back to the hotel to get the car seat, I couldn't wait any longer and had to start taking photos.

One of the many streets in downtown Cologne with every type of shop you can imagine:

Vendors line the streets with stands full of fresh produce, flowers and other fun treats.

When we got back to the hotel we picked up warmer coats and our car seat, then caught a cab to immigration and became official resident aliens!  The high on Tuesday was 41 degrees and the low was 36 degrees.  With a proper coat and scarf, I was very comfortable even though we spent the better part of the day outside.


After registering, we went back to the hotel and let Kellan run around for a while.  We met some of the other FedEx families in the hotel lobby who are living here as well.  Everyone is so nice and supportive, which just makes me all the more excited for this experience.  Almost everyone has kids and Kellan has already made some new friends!  We took a long walk around Cologne after that and grabbed a bite to eat.

We aren't sure what this is because the description was written in German, but it looks old and Roman and cool:

Strasse = Street.  Many of the streets have their names hanging above them in sparkly white lights.

Below is one of the 600 churches that are in Cologne.

German version of TJ Maxx.  I found this amusing.

Bakeries are on every corner.

Yummy pre-dinner snack:

We all have fallen in love with these pretzels that are sold everywhere.  Especially K.

Yet another street full of shops.  I swear I walked by at least 5 different H&M's while we were out.  Awesome.

We ended up eating dinner at a Doner Shop, which serves kabobs and gyro-type sandwiches.  Kellan and I weren't big fans, but Daddy was.  Afterwards, we went grocery shopping again and crammed all of our groceries into the stroller undercarriage because everyone uses their own bags in Europe.  We knew this and brought bags over with us, but we forget them every time we are out.

Kellan fell asleep while Daddy was reading to him at the end of the day.  K was turning the pages while Matt read and then Matt asked him to turn the page and he didn't do anything.  He asked him again and K's tiny little hand lifted to turn the page then dropped in his lap.  Matt looked down and he was fast asleep.