September 5 - The Dom and the Chocolate Museum

Saturday in Cologne

Seemed like a good time to go to Mass so we sat down. Then we realized that this was not your everyday version. That is the archbishop at the altar, 8 priests, 22 altar servers, the pews are packed, the big pipe organ is playing the music, the choir is awesome and there is a lot of incense. It was a High Mass in celebration of the commissioning of 5 lay ministers. 

It lasted 1 1/2 hours. The Lord's Prayer was especially beautiful in all those voices in several different languages all at once.

It was a little dark last night to do justice to the stain glass windows.

This singing group is from London and are here for the weekend. They had a wonderful sound and their director was very animated and fun to watch. We took a video but it is a lot of megabytes.

These young ladies were enjoying the music too, especially when they had the crowd clap along.

We had lunch then headed through the tourist throngs to the Chocolate Museum.

Their special exhibit was about advertising chocolate over the years. One part specifically noted that the invention of the printing press had a significant influence on advertising.....how interesting that it meshed with our visit to the Gutenberg Museum just days before.

The pod

The cacao beans

The process of making it smooth.

Making it into finger food.

The forms are for making chocolate creations.

Our favorite........the chocolate version of a Snow Toad.

You could even order your own custom-made chocolate bar. It required a 2 hour wait so Donna opted for the gift store instead.

Wrapping the custom bars.

They have been using chocolate in Mesoamerica for 4000 years and this folding book is some very early advertising!

The gift shop was huge. What a dilemma for a chocoholic!

We should mention that it rained buckets almost the whole time we were in the museum. The cheap umbrella we purchased in Prague was totally wiped out by a big gust of wind on our way back to the hotel.

In the square around the corner from our hotel. It is about Iran. They were only getting set up when we went by this morning. They did their last dance and started packing up while we ate dinner in an adjacent restaurant.

We do think is was a bit of a protest.

Dessert pretzels. They are covered in almonds held on by a sweet coating. We passed here several times in our comings and goings and there was always a line. So, of course, we just had to give them a taste test.

Thank you Cologne for treating us to a great "rest" day.