Kölner Dom (Cologne Cathedral)

Though we have walked by it many times in the last week, we paid a proper visit to the Cologne Cathedral yesterday and I have to say it did not disappoint.  A few points of interest regarding the Kölner Dom:

- it is the largest Gothic church in Northern Europe and has the second tallest spire and largest facade of any church in the world
- it suffered 70 attacks via aerial bomb during World War II and did not collapse - the rest of Cologne was almost completely leveled after World War II.
- it is rumored that American soldiers used the inside of the cathedral as a rifle range in 1945
- an average of 20,000 people visit the cathedral every day
- it took 632 years to build, with construction beginning in August of 1248 and ending in August of 1880

Here are some closer pics of the main entrance, one looking straight ahead

 and up, up, up...

This is looking up from the north side of the cathedral.  Above on the right is scaffolding where workers are performing restoration.  There is pretty much always scaffolding somewhere on the structure as it needs constant repair to keep it safe from weather and pollution.

View from northeast corner or the back of the cathedral.  These pictures just can't capture how massive it is.

 East side of cathedral.

 Looking up on to the south side.

After exploring the outside of this massive building, we ventured indoors, and found it to be equally breathtaking.  Below is a view of the nave looking east.

 I loved the way the light was shining on the organ through the stained glass windows...

 Moving toward the east end of the nave...more beautiful light.

 Yet another organ in the northeast corner.

Matt was remarking on the stone that the cathedral was made of.  Looking at this incredible place it is no surprise that it took six centuries to build.

After visiting the Dom, we stopped off for a pretzel smothered in butter and then got K back to the hotel so he could stretch his legs.  Later on, we went to an Italian restaurant with some new friends we have made here and their two kiddos, ages 4 and 1 1/2.  Bruschetta, fresh salad, cheese pizza, gnocchi and red vino made for a delicious dinner.  We all walked home pleasantly full and called it a night.

To learn more about the Kölner Dom, visit Wikipedia - Cologne Cathedral.

K At Play

Though two adjoining hotel rooms don't offer a lot of space for playing, Kellan is still having a really good time playing with his toys we brought over and anything else that interests him.

Below, he has nail polish.  They fit perfectly in his little hands, they're colorful and he can't open them.  It works. That's Nutella on his face, which he had never had before and loves.  I hadn't had it either and thought that it was just like peanut butter.  Then I tried it and found out it is what peanut butter would taste like if it wasn't peanut butter, but chocolatey, hazelnutty deliciousness that is 547 calories per two tablespoons.  Yikes.

 Not really sure what's happening here.  He's pretty excited, though.

 I told him to say, "Cheese," which he knows how to do now, and this is the adorable smile I was given.

 The sweet happiness the bottle brings...

 Playing with his big rig named "Zig."  Look at those little squeezy thighs!  Love!

 Making cars "Vroom!"

 Surveying the destruction of the hotel room.

I'd say he's settling in quite well!

Laundry and Curry

We had to do our laundry at a laundromat on Saturday at the Eco Express Waschsalon. Seems pretty simple, right? Just bring some coins and some detergent and you're all set. Wrong.  First of all, the walk to the laundromat was about 3/4 of a mile, so we opened up our largest rolling suitcase, piled in our clothes and started our walk.  A very kind fellow FedEx pilot who has been here since December helped us navigate our way there since it is hard to find.  He walked us through the process of getting soap and selecting a machine and then headed back to the hotel.

Unlike American laundromats., where each individual washer and dryer have a place to give your money and select your wash cycle, German laundromats have a large control panel where you enter your money and select your machine.  It looks something like this:

You also get your detergent (a different type for colors and whites) and fabric softener at this control panel.  Note that it is all in German - labels for buttons, directions, etc.,.  Once you have tackled the control panel, you walk over to your machine, load your clothes in and then put in the soap.  But even this is a wee bit confusing if you aren't speaking much German yet.  There are three different places to put soap, fabric softener and prewash, once again all labeled in German as you might expect.  So Google translator on my new IPhone was my best friend.  We finally figured it out and got four washing machines going while Kellan had tons of fun running around and attempting to push the buttons on every single machine.  I had to be very careful to keep him from actually pushing one of those buttons, as he could have disrupted someone's wash or dry cycle and caused me to have some angry Germans on my hands.  While most people seem to be pretty nice, some seemed to be impatient with us Americans and I'm never sure which type I'm going to get...

Right across the street was an Indian food restaurant that we decided to give a try while our clothes washed.  We were a little nervous as our last two dinners out with Kellan hadn't ended so well.  One night we had to throw our food into to-go boxes right as it arrive and leave because he had a full-blown tantrum.  At the enxt dinner, we rushed through very, very quickly to prevent what was quickly moving towards a full-blown tantrum.  Poor guy.  I was also nervous about whether or not I would like the food, because my tummy has been a little sensitive since we got here.  Some foods - meats, dairy products and water - taste just a little bit different and I just haven't adjusted to that yet.  Of course, all of the foods that are particularly bad for you - croissants and other delicious breads and candy - taste delicious.

We were seated quickly in the Indian restaurants and had very friendly, English speaking waiters.  K was in very good spirits after his romp at the laundromat, so things were looking up.

K loved both the crispy and the soft Na'an bread, as well as the rice.

 Matt and I had chicken masala and curry and both were delicious!

K was very good the whole time and it turned out to be one of our best meals yet.

We returned to the laundromat after to dry our clothes, then after folding we loaded everything back up into our suitcase and went back to the hotel.  I am looking forward to having a washer and dryer of our own at our apartment, but I think I could get used to weekly laundry and curry if I had to.

Good News and Bad News

We chose the Lindenthal home listed on the last blog post!
We move in February 6th.  That means only about two weeks of hotel living.  The place is fully furnished, but we will be able to add some of our furniture to the home (a sleeper sofa and a crib).  This will save us SO MUCH money as we won't really have to buy any furniture or anything for the kitchen (no dishes, silverware) - everything comes with the home.  And it is very reasonably priced and in a very sought after area.  We are about a half a mile from great shopping areas and there is a huge park with a lake and lots of jogging trails across the street.  Only a short metro ride puts us in the heart of Cologne.  I can't wait to move in.

Tonight there was a happy hour at the hotel where we are staying with all of the FedEx pilots and their families.  We were able to meet a bunch of the great people who are living here.  Kellan started getting really sleepy around 8pm, so he and I went upstairs and went to bed while Matt socialized.  I snuggled under my cozy down comforter with a glass of wine and prepared to watch the two most recent episodes of "Parenthood."  I clicked on the link, the video started to load and....the following message appeared, "This video is not available in your country."  I was not deterred.  I went to Hulu and started to try to watch videos there.  Click, click...same message.  WHY??!?!?!!?  Looks like we will be investing in a Slingbox.

Guess I will be drinking my wine while learning German from Rosetta Stone instead...

House Hunt

We are currently living in the Pullman Hotel here in Cologne while we look for a permanent place to live.  The two adjoining rooms we are living in are quite nice and the hotel is being very understanding of our situation as many of the pilots and their families transferring over here are staying at this hotel.

Matt and I sleep in one room and Kellan sleeps in the other.  Matt and I have each taken a bathroom and closet of our own from each room, which is great.  We still have some stacks of clothes to hang up, but we don't have enough hangers.  The only place we have been able to find hangers the cost was about one euro per hanger ($1.30=1 euro, btw)!  A little pricey...so we are going to wait until we visit IKEA to make this purchase.

 Kellan has settled right into his room and has resumed his normal activities, such as pulling all of his "First Words" cards out of their  box.

 My bathroom.  Very nice to have my own space!

The hotel has offered to remove one of the beds from Kellan's room, so we may end up doing that to create more space in there.  For a free, temporary home, these are pretty good digs.

We looked at six apartments on Wednesday and got a better feel for the area.  We had a real estate agent drive us to each place - each one in a different part of Cologne.  There were two places we liked, one was in Lindenthal (circled in red), about ten minutes west from downtown (the inner circle colored pink on the map) and the other in Rath (circled in red), which is twenty minutes east of downtown and across the Rhine.  The one near the city is much smaller, but offers shopping and daily needs within walking distance.  The one in Rath is bigger with beautiful views, but is much further from the city and would require a car.  We just aren't sure which we prefer...or if our indecision is due to the fact that we aren't really crazy about either place.

We will be looking at another apartment in Lindenthal and an apartment downtown with a view of the Rhine River on Friday. We are pretty excited about the home in Lindenthal because it is next to huge park, is fully furnished and close to downtown Cologne.  Hopefully it will be as great in person as it seems online...  I will let you know how it goes!

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.

We arrive in Germany...

Our flight left at 12:45pm from Tulsa on Sunday.  It took two separate cars to get Matt, Kellan, and I and our 12 bags, 2 strollers, Pack N Play and car seat to the airport.  We off-loaded most of these when we checked in, but carried quite a few with us (2 carry-on suitcases, a duffle bag, two back packs, a diaper bag, stroller and car seat) throughout the rest of our journey.

We made it through security (which we mistakenly thought would be the hard part) with ease.  I snapped a photo of K while Matt was gathering our things back together.  K looked at all of our luggage and told us we were crazy.

Fortunately, FedEx was kind enough to fly us over in Business Class on Delta.  That made for an incredibly enjoyable flight.  The first flight was from Tulsa to Atlanta, and K did great.  We read books, played with bottles and had fun looking out the window.  He fell asleep promptly upon landing in Atlanta.

I didn't take any pictures on the flight from Atlanta to Dusseldorf, as I was too busy enjoying to wonders that you experience when flying in business class on an international flight.  After getting situated and drinking a glass of champagne, we departed Atlanta around 6pm.  Once we were up, the food extravaganza - a five course meal - began.  K and I were in the very front row, so there was a wall in front of us and then the wall of the plane to our right.  Our seats were like recliners, so I lifted my recliner and created a little playpen for Kellan in front of his seat.  He played with his cars, ate dinner and read books.  After dinner we read books and put him back in his car seat and he went to sleep.  Then he slept for almost the rest of the flight.  About an hour before landing, we were served breakfast and K woke up and ate.  Not a bad way to travel.

Sadly, upon our arrival in Dusseldorf, we deplaned and found that the pull cart to which we attach our car seat and our stroller had been delivered to the baggage claim, not to the gate.  We had been putting Kellan in the stroller and then stacking about two bags on the car seat dolly.  Now, we had no stroller or a place to stack bags, so we had to carry Kellan, a total of six bags and a car seat.  Fortunately, there was no one around to see Matt throw all of these bags down a flight of stairs after we carefully formed them into a precarious pile (after multiple failed attempts where they crashed to the ground) only to find that there were no working elevators we could use.  

Once we got to customs though, we obtained two baggage carts and it was smooth sailing.  Our driver was waiting outside, we loaded all our bags into his van and headed to Cologne - about 30 minutes drive away.  Even though it was a dreary day, in my excitement, I couldn't help but snap some photos.

I realize that my son is 18 months old and technically should not be taking a bottle.  But we only use it in emergency situations (NOT at bedtime).  I would say that the end of a 12-hour trek across an ocean and many hours of lost sleep constitute an emergency.  He did a great job kicking the binky and I'm sure he'll do a great job kicking the bottle once we get settled here.  Dismounting soapbox.

Driving through Dusseldorf

Next stop, Köln!

We arrived at our hotel at about 10am and ordered room service.  After filling our bellies, we all napped from about 11am to 4pm.  At 4, we unpacked, then showered up to head out for some dinner.  Fun Fact about Germany: Almost everything shuts down on weeknights after 7pm or 8pm.  And almost EVERYTHING is closed on Sundays.  We barely made it to the grocery store for some diapers!

Monday night we went to bed around midnight and then slept until 11am this morning.  Each day, we are putting K down one hour earlier until he gets back to his normal bedtime of 7/8pm.  So far, he is handling the time change like a champ.

I took LOTS of pictures on Tuesday that I will be posting tonight or tomorrow that capture this bustling city.  We are so excited to finally be here and I can't wait to share each day's adventures with you!  The internet is super slow at our hotel so it takes FOREVER to upload photos to the blog!

Gearing Up for Our Move to Germany

Kellan in Liederhosen, a gift from our
awesome friends Neil and Nicole.
Der Junge ist schön.  

Months ago, when I started this blog, I think I mentioned that we would be moving to Germany soon.  While some of you may have thought that was never going to happen (I, myself, was beginning to wonder), it is finally happening!

Quick recap:

Summer 2011: Matt was hired to be a pilot for FedEx and was offered a position in Cologne, Germany.  We accepted a two-year assignment.
Early Fall 2011: Matt quits his job with Booz Allen Hamilton and starts training to fly the 757 for FedEx.
October 2011: I quit my stressful job to be a stay-at-home mom.
November 2011: We sell our house and go to stay with my parents in Tulsa until what we thought would be December 26th.
Early December 2011: We learn we will not be moving until January 13th due to changes in Matt's training schedule.
Early January 2012: We learn we will not be moving until late February due to changes in Matt's training schedule.
About five days ago: We learn we will be leaving for Germany in two weeks, January 22nd.


SO, our airline tickets are booked, as well as two adjoining rooms at the Pullman Hotel, located in the heart of Cologne, where FedEx will be putting us up for about 30 days while we look for a permanent residence.           

The Pullman

Kölner Dom (Cologne Cathedral)

We will be reinventing ourselves to a certain extent over there.  FedEx is footing the bill to ship 1,000lbs of our stuff (which almost covers my shoes) and then providing us with seed money to furnish a new home.  There is the option of getting a furnished rental there, though they are expensive and somewhat hard to come by.  If you get an unfurnished rental, they aren't kidding about the unfurnished part - no fitted kitchen, no light fixtures.  Unfurnished.  That's right, no counters or cabinets, refrigerator or stove.  Hello, IKEA.  I have never gotten to furnish a home from scratch, so I am super excited about this part.  They have some really great flea markets over there, I hear, so I will definitely have fun with that.  Kellan is excited about all of it.  Especially the Liederhosen.

 Kellan is undergoing rigorous training to prepare for a smooth transition into German society.  Tonight, dressed in this traditional German garb, Kellan practiced his various daily activities, including but not limited to:
exploring the cabinets,

running and yelling with delight,

posing nonchalantly,

pushing his fire truck,

running his fingers through his hair (while showing off his adorable little bottom),

 and even throwing a tantrum.

This tantrum was prompted by me removing him from my dad's studio where he was turning all of the electronics on and off. I put him back in the den and closed the baby gate and this was the result.  He's just started to say a few words, that are usually unintelligible, but I'm pretty sure during this second picture he was saying, "You are a horrible woman!  What is wrong with you?!?" then he threw himself on the floor after the photo was snapped.  He found the Liederhosen was very forgiving and flexible for tantrum-induced acrobatics.

He quickly recovered from his tantrum, (I highly recommend the method suggested in The Happiest Toddler on the Block - it works like a charm most of the time).  After the tantrum, he began to experiment more with adding the hat to the outfit.  Unfortunately, it was too small for his 94th percentile head, so I had to add a strap to it.

 After getting comfortable in his Liederhosen, K began to practice traveling to various European countries.  I was able to get a photo of him practicing going to Ireland.

Top 'O the Mornin' to Ya!

10 days to Germany and counting...  WOO HOO!