Cologne Wednesday 3 September

A very quiet night and a comfortable bed so all is good in my world. We arrive in Cologne and have good weather ahead of us again. We wander to breakfast and as we go through the dining room I say to Julie that we need to sit at the end furthest from the buffet. She agrees but after my poor choice of dinner companions last night, Julie is in charge of picking the table. I go and get some cereal and as I head to the back of the dining room, Julie calls my name. She is sitting at a share table, close to the buffet! What the ??? Sure enough, I sit down and find myself opposite Kathy from last night! I look at Julie and day that i thought we agreed to sit at the other end of the dining room. She says that these seats were free so she grabbed them. I eyeball her and whisper that I can't believe she has done this seeing as who I'm sitting opposite. Julie is blonde, but honestly how dumb can she be when she says that it's not the same person from dinner last night and no amount of my assuring her it is is working. Kathy had gotten up to get some more food and at that point I ask Julie how much she wants to bet that it isn't Kathy. She simply says she isn't a being person but it still isn't Kathy. As Marcia is nowhere to be seen at this time when Kathy returns to the table I ask her if Marcia is coming to breakfast or having a sleep in. Kathy replies that she things she is sleeping in as she left her still asleep when she came to breakfast. Julie is now speechless and didn't know where to look, especially when a couple of minutes later Marcia arrives with a plate piled high and eating the bacon with her fingers before she had even put her plate on the table. She also has baked beans on the plate and there is no way I'm hanging around to see how she eats them so I excuse myself from the table and Julie is sick to follow. All the way back to our cabin she keeps telling me that she was so sure it wasn't the same woman because the woman lay night didn't have a child sore on her lip and this one did plus her hair was different. Lesson learnt from this is to never believe Julie if she picks someone out of a line up! So with lots of laughing happening we head off on one of the coaches to Augustusberg Palace in Brühl and are escorted through the former residence of Archbishop Elector Clemens August. It is world heritage listed and beautifully maintained, boasting lovely examples of rococo architecture from the 18th century.

The gardens were lovely too.

Picturesque drive back into Cologne, via a photo stop of the Cologne cathedral from across the river. The bridge has 6 train lines which allow over 1000 trains to pass over it every day. There are no vehicles, only pedestrians and bikes allowed. We then arrive back at the Vega in time for lunch.

Julie lets me pick where we are to sit! Lunch is uneventful and their very pleasant... We then have the rest of the day free so head off to look at the cathedral. It is impressive and the stained glass windows are beautiful. They were all removed at the beginning of the war and only one was broken while it was being removed. they were unable to put it back together so in its place is a modern mosaic. Supposedly the gold shrine houses the bones of the 3 wise men but I'm not a believer as they haven't been tested for any sort of authenticity, however I'm not 200% convinced that the Americans were first to land on the moon so I clearly have cynical tendencies.

We then need to find a bank or Atm for Julie to withdraw some cash from her cash card. Travelmarvel have advised that they will not accept her cash card for payment towards any optional tours or other purchases on board! It is some sort of glitch with their system. what a pain. e eventually find an atmosphere and a very nervous Julie inserts her card, pushes some buttons and hopes for the best. Thankfully we have success so I stand guard while she checks her money and puts it away. We then head to the tourist info centre to get directions to the 4711 store. We managef to get temporarily misplaced as we couldn't find the mall we find ourselves at, on the map. A very helpful shop assistant sets us straight and just around the corner, we found the store. What a lovely step back in time to remember when 4711 first hit Australian stores. the scent has not changed although there are now a lot of extra variations to choose from.

We are a bit thirsty so find a lovely patisserie to have a coffee. I ask for a Cafe au lait as I knew I wouldd be getting coffee with hot milk. What I didn't know was that it wouldd be served in a soup bowl! We had quite a laugh as I pictured Marcia finishing off her soup the night before by drinking it directly out of the bowl and here am I doing the same.

Coffee finished and time to wander back to the Vega. It's already after 5 and that means we have just enough time to put our feet up for a while in the cabin before we head to a briefing on tomorrow's activities and then dinner. At dinner I get to choose where e sit so I put for a table for four at the neck of the dining room. Tricia and Tony come in and ask if it is okay to sit with us and we are pleased to welcome them. They are in fits of laughter when we retell our dining story from last night and this morning. the food was really nice but I was surprised when my entree of spring rolls was just one! The main was a stuffed chicken breast and was very nice. None of the serves are big but there are lots of options and courses. I've yet to have dessert as I've been too full.

After dinner they is a quiz night so we 4 head up to the lounge and form our own little team (other groups have 6 people) and call ourselves Tony's Harem. We end up scoring 22 out of 40 such was average and we had plenty of laughs along the way. Time for bed. Another lovely day.