Cologne: cathedral, kölsch, carneval, and... chocolate!

Sunday morning I drove to Cologne with Thommy, getting out the car at Alter Markt in the middle of the old town. He went on to a meeting with other oldtimer lovers, and I walked through another upcoming storm towards the famous cathedral (world heritage and Germany's most loved spot) to wait for Kliment. He had been sent here for two weeks by his university to work on an EU-project, and since I was just round the corner of course we had to see each other. I didn't dare to take the train though, they're still not running smoothly.
The wind almost blew me across the cathedral square, so I looked for shelter in one of the huge entrances, and when Kliment came, we decided to rather visit a museum than walk along the rhine. Cologne is all about history, a rich merchant city since many thousands years. In "Römisch-Germanisches Landesmuseum" on roman Cologne we had a look down on the marvellous Dionysos-mosaik, sadly damaged by Kyrill.
Then on to "Im Früh" for some regional lunch (hard to find veggies for Kliment) and a Kölsch or two. Lots of soccer fans and carneval jecken around. They have carneval sessions every day now until the carneval high season and Rosenmontag in February, we were told.
When walking out the door again, the weather had changed, wind ceased and sun was shining bright, so we had the stroll along the river after all. Towards the chocolate museum we went, and after buying some weird and exclusive bars (with ginger, orange pepper and even seasalt!), had another hour to explore the museum and learn on the history of cocoa and chocolate, and watch chocolate bars being made in the museum. Hmmm, soooooo tasty!
Four hours went by fast, then it was a last hug and a promise to join me and so many of our good friends end of march in Berlin. It'll be a week of celebrating the end of my 18 months sabbatical and starting work again, and my birthday on march 28.
Sofia had called when we were on our way to the chocolate, and told us she'd booked the flight from Athens already. Elsis will come from Helsinki, Jeena from Riga, Annabel from Leuven, Sarah from Ghent, Ingria from Granada, ohhhh - and a few others from other places all over Europe. Looking forward to it! :)