​Another gloomy start to the day.  We woke, went to breakfast and settled in our cabin to watch the landscape roll by.  Mom read and I blogged.  The day didn’t really start until after lunch.
We joined the walking tour of Cologne.  Our guide gave a brief history of the area and pointed out a few things we would never have seen.
  1. The Pegel Cologne river gauge.
  2.  The Fischmarkt and Warehouse area.
  3. A clock that sticks out his tongue on the hour.  If it is 5:00, he will sway his beard and stick out his tongue 5 times.
  4. The statue of a boy high up on a building.
  5. Statue of Agrippina and Nero on the side of a building. Our guide told us her story.
  6. The Jewish area under construction and excavation.  This is where the underground mikveh is that I visited last time I was in Cologne. “Cologne breaks ground on new Jewish Museum”
  7. The ancient sewer system pipe.
  8. The history of Cologne Cathedral.
One of the other pieces of information that she shared concerned the first colognes created in Cologne and are still being produced today.  There are two, Farina and 4711. She had samples that we were able to compare. Click here for more information on the two fragrances.    
​Mom and I left the tour a little early. Mostly because we passed a public bathroom and I needed to go to that room.  I was very glad Maarten had warned us that you have to “pay to pee.”  I was set with a fifty cent piece in my pocket.  Who would have ever thought that fifty cents would be so important in your life?  We found out later that we only missed about the last seven to eight minutes of the tour.  
​Winding our way back through the city, we made it to the Chocolate Factory Museum to our friend Markus who lives in Germany.  He took a long trek into Cologne just to visit with us.   We sat in the Café just next to the museum and had a lovely visit.  Markus talked me into tasting Cologne’s beer, Sion Kolsch, along with a slice of German cheesecake.  The beer was so light it practically slid down my throat.  The cheesecake with blueberry topping wasn’t sweet at all but rather light and creamy with the blueberry sauce having just a hint of sweetness.  It was the perfect combination.
​Afterwards we walked back over to the museum and went shopping in the museum’s chocolate store. I bought some to take home to my friends. The three of us walked back toward the ship and stopped beside the gangway. We shared a bite of a ginger and lemon chocolate bar before saying goodbye.  I was almost tempted to go back to the chocolate store and buy one of those bars. It was that good.  But, I didn’t.
​After dinner everyone headed to the Lounge to listen to the Zither concert by Tommy Temeron. He is one of five world renown zither players.  The music was good but I was feeling the pull of the blog so Mom and I headed back to the cabin so I could work.  I must have been very tired because the next thing I did was knock my water glass all over my laptop.  Thank goodness I had enough presence of mind to turn my laptop upside-down so the water didn’t get inside.  Mom grabbed towels to finish drying it off. This did appear to save the laptop. I gave up and went to bed.