Koln. Cologne.

onwards we go! to cologne now!

again, rothenburg being a little out of place, the journey to cologne needs 3 connections (though its less than 3 hours as well)!!

but the transfer between them range from just a mere 5 to 20 mins so it could be a lot worse, i guess. 

left: no more struggling with our luggage through the cobblestone streets to the train station!

we called a cab and a mercs cab came. and look! the back seat can be adjusted to become an elevated child booster seat!

how cool.

right: waiting for the next train at a small local unsheltered platform. *brrr* very cold with the wind blowing at us. 

finally, seek refuge in warm ICE train. :)

its a good thing our mecure hotel is just a 3mins walk from the subway station. we were feeling most hungry by the time we checked in ard noon time!
first thing first, even before all of us bath, i ordered room service for our lunch!
the best thing i like about accor hotels is that you can more or less trust their food standards.
we've tried the room service/restaurants for sofitel, mecure, novotel, ibis alike and all is either acceptable or delicious.

yz happy to just laze around in bed after hours on rail.

pork schnitzel with pommes + salad for the little one!

it was very nice and v affordable ~ euro 14 for room service i feel.

after settling the tummies, it's time to venture out to this city which seems to have nothing to offer but its dom.

so is that true? we shall go find out.

tada! the dom is a 10mins walk from our hotel so we took a leisure walk there and it was pretty exciting to see it emerging as we walked closer to it.

really pretty gothic facade with intricate spires and steeples.

interior of the cathedral is airy and gives a good sense of space and serene to those in it.

but due to the cathedral being completed in stages over the centuries, the interior is no doubt more modern than that of its facade.

and i have a thing for old churches not old one...

oh well.

after the church, time for mummy's museum time! :P

one of the attractions in cologne is its ludwig museum. given its name, i would presume it's one which houses the old grandmasters but no, its actually a rather good collection of modern art.

it boasted of having a rather extensive collection of picasso's pieces but i was not really impressed.

given the sheer volume of art pieces the artist produced over his lifetime, he has sooo many pieces scattered round the world that any given museum can easily have >100s of his works in it.

what i was impressed with is that the museum has some interesting pieces of expressionism and surrealism. 

left: they have some really nice pieces from Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. this is women with hats

right: Max Ernst's The Virgin Chastises the infant Jesus before Three Witnesses: André Breton, Paul Éluard, and the Painter

this is done before his works got more and more "surreal", similar to those typical of Dali.

i like how the buttock is a little reddish from the spanking. ha.

dali's the railway station at perpignan:

this work is rather fascinating to view. more and more details surface as you scrutinise further.

the four sides of the painting were decorated with mainly humble peasants at work.

the first thing that you'll see in natural light is the rather obvious cross in the middle of the painting.

only upon stepping further away then you can make out the faint jesus overlapping with the cross.

in fact, i didnt realise that until i saw the "cut"and thinking how much it resembles the one on christ's right ribcage.

so only when i stepped backwards, then i noticed the bigger fainter figure.

i used the camera to take a photo and the apparition became more apparant.

though the "shock" factor is nowhere near those classics of his housed in madrid's reina sofia museum, it is still one that pulls you in and gets you pondering.

after the "cultural" time, its time to stroll aimlessly along cologne's "orchard road" and see if there is any retail opportunities. ha.

we chanced upon an authentic lego shop and the husband was very happy to see the destroyer and R2D2 on display.

so much so that he requested a photogragh with them..... @_@

the pricing is definitely much cheaper for all the sets compared to sg even if there is 20% sale going on here (which is rare by the way).

more for myself than for the boy, i finally got my hands on the black pearl set that i've been eyeing for the past so many years until its no longer easily available in sg.....

jack sparrow's ship!

still, i think this would be a great project for hubbi, yz and myself to spend time completing it.

after its done, then yr will smash part of it im sure. LOL.