Kellan and the Chocolate Factory

OK, so it was actually a chocolate museum, but that title was too cute to pass up.

It was very cold in Cologne today; a balmy 23 degrees. But that didn't faze the Jones clan. We ventured out around lunchtime, very layered and very bundled. Goal number one was too get a quick bite before making our way to the chocolate museum. We chose a popular bakery chain here - Merzenich - and had some delicious sandwiches. Mine was turkey on some sort of pumpkin seed baguette with fresh lettuce, tomato, cucumber and some sort of Miracle Whip tasting condiment with fresh herbs. Yum.

Kellan fell asleep while Matt and I ate lunch (K had eaten back at the hotel) and we walked over to the chocolate museum.

The museum is actually on the Rhine, so it was in a beautiful setting. We went in and unbundled, which woke Kellan. We meandered through a section that displayed some in depth info about cocoa and how chocolate is made. This led into a small chocolate factory housed inside of the building that displays the process of how chocolate is made. In this area was the first free chocolate station where a woman was dipping wafers in a huge chocolate fountain and handing them out. These were delicious.

This area had floor to ceiling windows that provided great views of the Rhine, which Kellan enjoyed from every angle.




After taking in the Rhine, we explored the chocolate making process.
Mix cocoa with milk and sugar. Pour into trays. (This machine was vibrating pretty violently so it was hard to get a good shot).  Chocolate hardens and is transported onto a belt.

Trays are flipped so that chocolate falls onto belt. A very intelligent machine picks up chocolate squares and moves them to another belt.

Chocolate pieces are then shuffled into a single file row, wrapped and dropped into a box.

Pretty cool.

After this, Matt explored the rest of the museum and Kellan and I explored the various flights of stairs around the building. Stair practice is a favorite past time of K's these days. We also found a few other free chocolates to sample, too.

We ended our tour in the gift shop where there was every type of chocolate you can imagine.

Chocolate cell phones and lipstick

Many, many delicious truffles

A chocolate cheeseburger

Chocolate beer

And whatever this weird assortment is...(insert raised eyebrow).

This was a great afternoon activity for K, and Matt and I enjoyed ourselves too.

The walk back took us through a really neat area of Cologne that we hadn't seen before with quaint buildings and streets that made us smile.

We ended our day today with some yummy Thai food and a webcam chat with Nana, whom Kellan was very excited to see. Now it's time for some Rotwein and Rosetta Stone. Goodnight!