Who knew trains can float!

With my mom's arrival in Scandinavia, we decided to take a little tour down to mainland Europe. We boarded a really chic, modern train here in Copenhagen, it looked more like an office than a train. It was a great ride down to Germany - did you know that full trains can board a ferry?? Here is the train actually on board the ferry - how weird!

We also braced ourselves because we heard of the soaring temperatures down on the mainland... our first stop was Hamburg. As soon as we got off the train we were greeted by a soaring 30+ degrees and as you probably know, there is NO air conditioning in MOST of Europe. By the way, if you ever come across a popsicle with the laughable name of 'Bum Bum', don't buy it. It's gross.

This product is real, what was Nestle thinking??!@

The second train was not so pleasant. We were stuck in a 6 person compartment, full of sweaty men and a big dog! Poor Chris, with his severe allergies to four-legged people he had to go find another place to park - there were people everywhere, in the hallways, in the doorways, I had flashbacks of the scenes of I have seen of rural trains in India. It was like that. Except that they were giving out free water and at one point calling for a doctor because someone must have had heat stroke. The train trip was worth it though because we arrived in Cologne just in time to see Germany beat Argentina 4-0. The streets were full of parties and the parties lasted all night. And because you can drink anywhere, flip flops were strickly prohibited the next day due to the broken beer bottles, EVERYWHERE.

The party did not end there, we also got to celebrate Cologne Pride which was an even bigger, louder and longer party than the football win over Argentina.

Cologne is a great party city - and it also holds the biggest church I have ever seen!

Compared to southern Germany, the biggest difference was the size of the beer. We all love the 1 litre beers you order in a beer hall in Bavaria, but what's up with the tiny beers in Cologne that are more like shots than a drink?? They are called Kolsch and the servers just keep them coming until you tell them to stop! Notice the delicious fresh fish meal Chris is enjoying,

by far my favorite meal of the trip!