We arrived in Cologne this afternoon after stopping off for 2 hours in Dusseldorf to meet up with helen's German exchange partner, Anne. We ate in Macdonalds, and then had 30 minutes to see Dusseldorf. We have had a nice wander around cologne, and settled into our hostel, and have at last found a cheap internet cafe. We plan to possibly go to Aachen tomorrow, although the chocolate museum in Cologne is also tempting. xxxxxxxxx

 Ahah! busy day accomplished! We started by waking up at 7.30 (eek!), then climbed the cathedral (it is HIGH!), went to the chocolate factory (yum yum, free samples were gooood) then went to Museum Ludwig. This was all before lunch. The art gallery (museum ludwig) was the best (or close to it) that either of us have ever been to- it was spacious, white, quiet and had tonnes of fantastic modern-ish art! picasso, matisse, warhol etc, and also the die brucke stuff too (german stuff from early 20th century, really different and interesting to look at).  We did some reserving trains, attempted to buy stamps (unsuccesfully, you WILL get postcards from amsterdam soon!) and then went to the small pretty town of Aachen, where we walked the streets, ate 40p ice creams, listened to buskers playing THE female duet from the Tales of Hoffman (life is beautiful for those that have seen the film!) and had dinner there. We're back in cologne now and are going to go for a walk/relax in teh lounge before packing then leaving stupidly (but necessarily) early for Stuttgart tomorrow, where the thermal baths await us! xxxxxxxx