Friday, December 8 Today was a travel day. We left our wonderful B&B in Bruges after our host fed us an early breakfast. We stopped off in Brussels for a few hours and wandered around the Grand Place. The buildings surrounding the Place were beautiful and we got there just in time to see a parade of firemen marching down the street and onto the Place. It seems they were commemorating firefighters. Of course we went to see the Manneken Pis (Dutch for Little Pissing Man) statue. I think it’s a requirement for anyone visiting Brussels. What was unusual was that he was dressed in firefighter turnout’s and a helmet. It was finally time for us to retrieve our luggage from a locker at the train station and continue on to Cologne. We were fortunate that I bought our tickets from the Belgian train company because there was a train strike today in Germany and the trains weren’t running. Cousin Sascha and Marc met us at the train and we took a scenic walk to our hotel. I loved the B&B in Bruges, but our hotel room in Cologne is twice as big with bigger beds. I think they must have upgraded us because when I asked at the front desk if breakfast was included she said it was for the executive rooms. I definitely didn’t reserve an executive room, but I’ll take it! After we settled in we walked to Sascha & Marc’s apartment and she made us a delicious dinner. Cousin Danielle and her 6 year old twins joined us. It was so nice to be together again and we will be doing something fun together tomorrow.