Cologne and Half Marathon #3

Earlier in the spring of 2013 Warren and Andrea decided to do a half marathon in Cologne in October.  So...after months of training we traveled to Cologne the weekend of October 12th - 14th to see the sites the city had to offer as well as run Andrea's third and Warren's first half marathon.
We got there on Friday afternoon and went to the expo to pick up our registration packets for the race on Saturday.

We walked around Cologne after that and took some photos of the sites around the city.  We visited the famous Cologne Cathedral as well.  This cathedral is the most visited site in Germany and averages 20,000 visitors a day.  Construction on this cathedral started in 1248 and wasn't completed until 1880.  This is the largest gothic church in northern Europe.  It was pretty awesome!  

To carb load for the next day we had dinner at an awesome Italian restaurant and called it a night.  The next morning we headed to the center of downtown for the race!

While Warren and Andrea were running, Toni and Brandon took some more pictures from around the city. 

Andrea finished with her best time to date and is going to do a full marathon next summer!

At the end of the race we went back to the hotel, got cleaned up and went on a Kolsch beer pub crawl.  Kolsch beer is a special type of beer that is brewed in the city limits of Cologne (Koln).  

Yummy German food!

Even though the Kolsch beer was good, we ended the night in our true fashion...we found an Irish pub!

The next day we left Cologne and headed for Bonn, Germany on the way home.  Bonn is where Beethoven was born.  We walked around the market in the city center and went to Beethoven's birth house which has been turned into a museum.  They had an amazing collection of artifacts from his life that included glasses, ear horns, pianos, original manuscripts and even his death mask.  

We then drove a little outside of the city to take an old cog train up to some wonderful views of the Rhine River.

On our way down the hill we stopped at Schloss Drachenburg.  This palace was a private residence built in the late 19th century.  The palace is now owned by the state foundation and is open for tours.  

We had a great weekend in Cologne/Bonn and are excited to show my parents some of the sites around Bonn when they come in a few weeks!  

Stay posted...more blogs to come!