I’m back in Cologne(!) on the first stop of our Christmas tour. Our train ride turned out to be a bit of an ordeal as we had to move seats mid-travel due to not having specific seat assignments. Props to NS High Speed for making 21st century train travel really easy for all of us. Add to that the fact that the information desk didn’t even know what to do about tickets displayed on tablet devices. Who still prefers to actually print tickets these days??

Three hours of rail-riding later, I rediscovered how awesome the cathedral is as we made our way around the corner to our little jewel box of a hotel, where the ceilings are high and the minibars are free. It surely does smell like Cologne…