Germany (Datteln/Cologne)

Next were the cities of Datteln and Cologne. I started in Datteln living on a couch at the work of my step dad's business partner Volker. Thank you again Volker for everything!!

The business I lived in

This is the couch I slept on. It has a fold out bed
and is actually very comfortable.

They had just finished building when I arrived. So they were
putting on the finishing touches (ie landscape, windows, doors).

This is a robot they use. It is pretty cool.

I even did some work while I was there. I helped spread the dirt
around the building that was going to be used to plant flowers and
make the place look good.

        Dortmund an old steel mill city and a great soccer team

This is a mechanism to raise and lower ships that pass
through the canals.

We went to an old steel mill at night that gives tours. The old steel
mill was like its own city. It had a railroad track, shops, and places to eat.

This was used to carry the hot steel to the cooling area.

Cologne a city with a chocolate museum

This is the city from a rooftop I was on.

This was a high ropes park for kids and adults.
Looks pretty cool.

The big cathedral in the center of Cologne.

A biergarten in Cologne. We decided to have some
Budweiser from Czech. It was originally produced in Czech
and then one brother went to America to produce it. It was
100 times better then the Budweiser in America.

The Sheep Hostel in Cologne

More from Cologne

The cathedral again.

Some guy fishing.

This is the bridge of love in Cologne. Each lock represents
a marriage or a proposal of love. And only the couple has the lock.

The Chocolate Museum in Cologne

These are cocoa beans from Brazil.

The top ten chocolate consuming countries.

The ingredients for one chocolate bar.

Free Samples!!!!!!!!! It is a chocolate fountain!

Old chocolate vending machines. So cool!

MILKA

Plants in the museum's greenhouse. This is a coffee plant.
Oh yeah!

This is the mustard museum across from the chocolate museum.
I decided not to go in because their free samples are not as
good as the chocolate museums =)

The Nazi Documentation Center

-It is located in an old Nazi Gestapo (police) building. The top two floors were used as office buildings and in the basement was a prison where Jewish people were imprisoned.

The sign says, "Give me five years and
you will not recognize Germany again."
It was said by Adolf Hitler to get elected
and in the back you see the destruction of
the city after WWII. I guess he was right. 

The bridge after WWII

One of the cells.

These were writings on the wall of the prison cells.
In this set they are mostly numbers for each day they
were in the prison. 

In this cell there was two inscriptions. They are explained
in the  writing above but I think it is too small so I will write them.
#1 "My mother would come by every evening, roughly between 9 and
10 pm. She would knock against the window, as she knew where I was
imprisoned. It was sometimes possible to hold a short conversation.
#2 Once, when I went down to the lower cellar, a door leading to
one of the rooms was opened and I looked inside. There, standing at t
he wall, was a weird kind of trestle with four legs, up on top was a
board and leather straps were hanging down the side. I was not able
to see what it was used for, we were normally not allowed to leave
the cells, the only time we came down was during the air raid drills.   

I hope you enjoyed the pictures, and my next stop is Berlin. So be ready for some pics.

Talk to you later,

Patrick