On Wednesday, March 23rd we took the train to Cologne, where my cousin, Sascha, and her boyfriend, Marc, met us at the train. They so kindly took our bags to their apartment so we could wander around the area for awhile, until it was time to travel to Belgium for time with the family. I’ve been to Cologne, but Jim had never made it out of the train station. The first thing we did was go into the beautiful and very impressive Dom, located directly outside of the train station.

Stained glass that was totally different than the others. It was likely replaced after damage in the war.

Sascha and Marc recommended that we walk across the Rhine River to a tall building on the other side, where we could get a wonderful view of Cologne. The bridge is covered with locks. They must weigh a ton. Unfortunately when we got there we discovered the viewing area wouldn’t open for another hour. Oh well…

We then walked along the river before crossing back over on another bridge. We had lunch by the river, where Jim enjoyed a Kölsch beer from Cologne. My brother, Dave, insisted that he have one so of course he did. When it was time we walked to Sascha and Marc’s apartment and he drove us to our new home away from home in Belgium for a 5 night stay.

The Belgian countryside is beautiful. We are staying in a wonderful large house on the outskirts of Spa. The house is perfect for the 8 of us, with 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.

We can see this house on the hill from our house.

The house photos, other than the front of the house and the château on the hill, were taken from the Airbnb listing. I should have taken pictures before the other 5 people arrived and it became total chaos. Lol! It is so nice to be able to see the family after far too long. The twins have grown so much since I saw them in October 2019 and Jim had never met them. I’ll do separate posts for the other days.