At the moment of writing this, I'm 36,000 feet up in an airplane where the outside temperature is -50 below zero but the images and experiences that we had while in Cologne and Amsterdam are all that fill my thoughts. I've traveled thousands of miles to get there, walked all over those wonderfully old cities and still have 1500 miles to go. Yet the travel is part of the BlogTour experience as well. It's part of the experience.
So how my journey started was on Friday with a flight from Eleuthera to Nassau at 7:00 am landing at 7:30. It's is a trip I've done so many times that it requires very little thought. It's the waiting for the next flight at 3:00pm that's trying. Wandering around, finding internet to use, watching the tourists who are coming from Nassau. They are looking excited, sad or confused. Some are coming and still up tight. Some are leaving and wishing it wasn't over. There's also finding food. Most people do not know that the local workers eat from some great truck vendors just outside their view offering local fresh food that is made right there and at local prices, not tourist prices.
Then off to Florida for the night in Fort Lauderdale. I have to say Fort Lauderdale isn't one of my most favorite stops but a necessary evil and end up being there fairly frequently. It's a place that I really don't or want to spend much time in.
Saturday
Up and off to Newark, NJ to catch the flight to Dusseldorf, Germany. Here we would meet up with other bloggers that would be attendingBlogTour Cologne. Other bloggers were also flying in from other various countries but by morning we would all be there in Cologne.
This is an overnight flight that leaves Newark at 5 pm and arrives in Germany at 6 am. Given that I would be ending one day and starting another, it seemed like a good idea to try and get some sleep yet that was all too elusive. The best I got was a measly half hour and here we were with a new day upon us. Checking thru security, hotel check in and we decided to take a walk to The Dom Cathedral. Kölner Dom
The Dom
The Dom can be seen from all over Cologne and due to the bombing of WWII it was one of the few structures that remained basically untouched. It took over 600 years to build this incredible structure and it has survived so many historic events to this day.
On that Sunday we decided that we would visit it and possibly attend the Mass so off we traipsed thru the light snow and brisk winds to The Dom and when there we decided to attend the Sunday Mass that had a choir and was a full service. Now there is no heat and with all stone saying it was cold is an understatement. Our feet after the walk and now on the cold stone floor were like blocks of ice yet it was so worth it. Attending Mass, listening to the choir, smelling the incense made you steeped in years of history and amazement. What must it have been like for all those of years gone by attending a Sunday Mass here? What about all the generations that were born, saw it progressing, stone by stone and dying without ever seeing it completed?
Having taken over 600 years to build it is indeed something to see and the next time your client complains that you project is taking too long, just tell them the story of the Dom's construction!
We'll be looking further at The Dom as I took so many pictures of the structure, mosaics, stained glass and more that it couldn't possible be covered here.
Later in the afternoon we returned to the hotel Mercure and tried to get a rest but I got a 15 minute catnap and it was off to a dinner event. The trick to travel is to quickly get on the time zone you are going to so thus the lack of sleep till it was night time there.
Two days of travel, 45 minutes of sleep, three countries in three days, walking tours, visiting and attending Mass at the Dom, dinner courtesy of Blanco, drinks after that and we could call it a day!
Tomorrow would be the start of the IMM show with so many new designs and things to see!
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