Traveling Light: We're on a boat...in Köln

First of all, we must discuss the hostel that we stayed at in Köln. It was situated in the middle of a community living building, and each room was designed by a different young artist. We were cool enough to stay in the 'tree' room. We had large pieces of bark painted all different crazy colors hanging on the wall and on the opposite side, petrified wood went from ceiling to floor with an interesting 'forestesque' background. Quite interesting, and a really nice place to stay!!

While driving into town we saw a breathtaking view of the cathedral and knew that that had to be our first stop. We headed down to the 'Dom' and tried to take in the massiveness of this place. It was so beautiful. We took a self guided tour around the inside and reveled in all of the stained glass windows that surrounded us. The pipe organ also accompanied our visit. Very pleasant indeed! As we walked out the other side, we finally found a view where we could try to capture the whole thing in one photo (still very difficult to do).

After that we walked down to the river where we met up with the Rhine again and decided to take a little boat cruise. We really wanted to get some views of the city from the water. I really liked the way the harbor was lined with both new and old architecture. My favorites were these buildings that literally hung over the water and as you went up the elevator you could see out over the entire river.

Right next to those were old warehouses that were converted into luxury apartments. Very cute!

As the boat turned around at the other end of the river we also got amazing views of the cathedral and downtown Köln. Thank you sun for coming out during our boat tour so we didn't freeze to death!