Rewind...

Okay, let's go back to the Black Forest, shall we? I didn't really talk much about the time since then. In Triberg there was a lot of snow. The roads were clear but they had quite a bit of snow built along the road. The navigation system tried to make us turn on a road that wasn't plowed but other than that there weren't any real problems. We checked out Germany's "tallest waterfall" that is somewhat debated. It wasn't that tall but that's okay. We also saw that world's largest cuckoo clock and I bought my own cuckoo clock (not anywhere near the size of the world's largest). I ended up buying a battery one instead of one you have to wind everyday. There's no way that would have worked well for me.

On the way to Cologne we stopped in Heidelberg for a few hours. We hiked up a very long hill to visit the castle there. The hike was long but the view was beautiful. We didn't end up taking a guided tour so Matthias and I have some research to do about the castle, but we got some nice pictures anyway.

Then we headed to Cologne. For the first time at the hostels Matthias and I split up to different rooms. After a decent night's sleep we headed out into town. We checked out the cathedral. It was very nice. There were several crypts there including one of the 3 Kings. After a morning of walking around town checking out the churches we went to the Zoo. It was a very big zoo and quite good. They had 3 baby elephants and the biggest herd of elephants I've ever seen at a zoo. They also had raccoons at the zoo which totally cracked me up. I was surprised that there weren't trash cans in the exhibit. After relaxing at the hostel in the afternoon (and listening to a group of English rugby players complain about their bills at the hostel while waiting for their plane) we headed to a local festival. Matthias and I took a ride on the Ferris Wheel and got some great photos of downtown Cologne. After that it was time for bed.