Cologne in Cologne

Our time in Cologne draws to a close.  We have all enjoyed it here and like the city and find it easy to get around.  Yesterday we took a train to some Christmas markets that seemed a long way away - it was a total of seven minutes on the train/tram.  It actually took us longer to work out how to buy the tickets and wait for the connecting tram than actual travel time.  We discovered how close it really was when we walked back to the hotel.  (There was lots of ironic glances at each other and exclamations of 'Is that it?'). The markets were cute and half of the stalls sold products the same or similar to what we'd seen in other markets. Teliah managed to find something, I found a decoration or two and Kamahl bought some more nuts (he brags to us that he has almost had all the types on offer and will have sampled them all by the close of all the markets).  Mum bought some gluhwein (warmed wine) which everyone tried except me and everyone went yuck except mum.  It kept her warm though.
We found a vegan restaurant for lunch and fell on it in delight! We ate up heaps and was grateful for the waitress who lived in Australia for a year who gave us tips and help on how to say vegetarian - it looks like vegetaritsch but is pronounced completely different and had many food vendors shaking their heads at us when we said it.
We walked the streets looking for a shopping centre and after aimless wandering found it almost by accident.  I was looking for a longer jacket (to cover my backside and some of my thighs) but found some velour tights instead.  I was grateful to find a decently priced shop rather than all the boutiques we had been seeing (I desperately wanted to ask "Vo ist Kmart?" which is where is Kmart).  Then by accident again we found the main shopping street. We decided to come back the next day and did - finding something in the fashion area for us all to buy.
Today we went to the Dom Cathedral again and was able this time to look around better.  We saw the fancy gold sarcophagus/container that supposedly holds the remains of the three wise men (three magi). Fancy doesn't really describe its ornateness and beauty.  It is quite a dizzying thought that the reason to build the mighty Dom Cathedral was to house the bones of the Magi.  It is like buying a really nice bowl and deciding to build a house to put it in (rather than the reverse).
We did some shopping and visited the 4711 House of Cologne, dipping our hands in a fountain of cologne.  It smelled lovely.  I succumbed to the cliché of buying some cologne in Cologne.  It wasn't the original Eau de cologne maker but another famous perfume maker, also with a good story.
Later in the evening mum and I visited another beautiful church, St Gereons.  It was more like afternoon but since it starts getting dark at 4.30pm it feels like evening.  It still bewildering to us how early it gets dark.  We see people in offices and think they must be doing overtime only to realise that the work day isn't over.  We head back to our accommodation thinking it is late and it is only 5:30 and we have hours before we can go to bed.  I guess that leaves plenty of time to rest the feet (they are getting such a workout) and blog and read/relax.
Tomorrow we leave Cologne for Nuremberg. It is also Mum and Dad's 40th Wedding Anniversary.  Mum is going to place a lock on the Cologne bridge in honour of the occasion.  It will be a bittersweet day - being in a country Dad loved without him on such a special day - leaving mum to celebrate it alone.
Happy Fortieth Anniversary Dad and Mum!!! Thanks for the love you have shared and shown to others.  Your love for each other will be forever in all of our hearts.