Von Osnabruck nach Koln: De Osnabruck a Koln: From Osnabruck to Cologne

We woke up and had another fantastic hostel breakfast...with the German soccer team, might I add-haha-"CHISTE!" and then we headed into town for a church service before leaving the city.

This little old church was our first choice, but mass didn't start for another hour.

All we had to do was cross the street to find a church with mass in 15 minutes, so Tom and I sat and talked while Bob explored a bit, then we sat and enjoyed mass. The priest had everyone get closer because we were all spread out. I thought it was a nice gesture...the only time I've seen it done before was in a classroom...where you don't WANT to be closer-haha. Little did we know until part-way through the service, that we weren't at a Catholic mass! I didn't mind. I actually understood a lot of what was being said. Tom commented later about how similar German sounds to English as far as intonation goes. He's definitely right. I would even argue that many of the words and phrases are similar...but that's also from knowing that there aren't many false cognates between the two.

On the road and a little crack that was less than an inch wide at the airport is now about 9 inches long and we are only part-way to Koln where we are staying tonight. We pull over because my eyes need a rest from all of the driving, and we try for a while to call the car service and car emergency numbers...nothing is working. Finally we give Mike a call, and he, in turn, saves the day and calls the company for us and sets us up to turn it in at another location in Koln. We get there, have a huge scare when they say "the cost you are liable for will only be up to 800 Euro" and we quickly let it be known that the crack was there PRIOR to our driving it (photo-proof exists...thank God for being excited about driving and our cool car)! No worries, the glove compartment holds the info regarding a previous crack. We are off the hook, but we buy some extra insurance just in case, then head off in our new Ford Fiesta...which is not nearly as sleek and cool as the French Clio...but we're in Germany, so who cares?!

We make it to the hostel we had looked up online, but we have nothing to do today so we drive around looking for an information place to see if we can find a cheaper hostel. Near the Dom (the German name for "Cathedral") we find info on a backpacker's hostel, check it out, and decide to leave Fiesta overnight under the Dom. Nothing is open in Koln on Sunday except for the info place, churches, the train station, and McDonald's...we opted for the train station and found food for dinner and dessert at the hostel kitchen as well as breakfast and snacks for the road. We enjoyed a home-cooked meal in the "Gastekuche" then got ready for bed...and it was only 8 pm...we were super-tired!

Yes, we are nomads in Germany, and this is our present home.

I heart traveling internationally!