Only one of the many aisles
Hmmm, how much can I fit in my suitcase?
After our sugar fix, we headed into the center of Bonn to sightsee and shop. Bonn used to be the capital and seat of government for Germany, until these designations were moved to Berlin in 1998. We saw some of the old government buildings, Bonn University, the Rhine River, and Post Tower.
Bonn University
Our sightseeing group
After spending a couple hours in Bonn, we headed back to Koln to do some final shopping. Kim and I needed to fill our pretzel fix, so we found a vendor that sold right-out-of-the-oven fresh pretzels. Delicious! It reminded me of the times Kim and I used to walk around the Galleria mall and we'd smell the fresh pretzels and have to take a detour over to Auntie Anne's because they smelled so dang good. The group of us also took a break at Starbuck's for a few minutes. I walked inside and forgot I was in Germany. Haha. It was exactly like a Starbuck's here. The funniest part, to me, was that after finishing our drinks, we headed down the street and saw another Starbuck's just one block away. Is that really necessary??
My pretzel buddy
We did a lot of walking and a lot of shopping, which was great for the ladies, but probably not too enjoyable for the guys! I think Jer had his fill of shoe stores. What a great hubby for being so patient!
Can someone please turn on the Tour at least?
At some point during the day, Jer and I started talking about queso and how much we were craving it. We got the crazy idea that we should try to make a batch at home later that night. After we left Koln, we stopped by a grocery store to buy the necessary ingredients. Talk about complicated! In America, it's easy peasy - Velveeta cheese, Rotel, Cream of Mushroom soup, and Jimmy Dean sausage. In Germany, not so easy. We found cream of mushroom, but everything else was a challenge. Fresh cheese? No, actually, we need the processed kind that is shelf-stable. Fresh tomatoes? No, actually, we need diced tomatoes and green chiles that come in a can. Made me a little embarrassed that we could only find fresh, non-processed ingredients, and that wasn't what we wanted!?! We tried to improvise with what we could find, but we knew the cheese selection would be the biggest hurdle. (It ended up tasting alright, per Mik's opinion, but Jer and I knew it didn't hold a candle to Rosa's queso or what we were used to personally making). I guess queso should just stay in North America. :)
After we got home and freshened up, Kim's dad, Peter, picked us up for dinner. He was taking us to a Biergarten serving traditional German food, and we were very excited about it! Jer ordered Leberkase and I ordered rumpsteak. Hands down, the best meal we had on our European trip. Jer was impressed with the beer as well! (They don't play around when it comes to quantity).
Leberkase
Prost! (Cheers!)
We had a wonderful time getting to know Peter. We could tell he didn't feel entirely comfortable with his English, but we thought he did a great job! He even gave Jer a Deutschland cap, which was an awesome souvenir! We really appreciated his generosity and hospitality, and gave him an FC Dallas scarf to show our thanks.
Last dinner in Germany
After dinner we headed over to Peter's house to hang out a while longer. Jer tried a grapefruit Hefeweizen (Schofferhofer) that he thought was pretty good. We recounted some of our favorite memories from the prior two weeks, which was a great way to bring our European adventure to a close.
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