Friday, January 2nd we boarded a train from Potsdam to Hannover to meet up with Britt Sieber; she was a foreign exchange student hosted by Melissa’s aunt and uncle a few years ago. We arrived around 11:30, saw a little of downtown Hannover, then stopped into an American style restaurant for hamburgers. It was such a relief to be with someone who natively spoke the same language as the restaurant staff. I get nervous trying to communicate with the staff at restaurants and worry I might be doing or saying something wrong, so it was nice to feel not quite so out of place. It was great chatting with Britt, and she gave us a mission to convince Melissa’s cousin Kirsten to come over for a long Euro-trip. We stopped for ice cream after lunch and then boarded a train for Cologne.

After checking into our hotel in Cologne we met up with a friend of mine, Sebastian Binz, who was an exchange student at Faribault High School.  He showed us a few sites in Cologne: the cathedral, the Roman ruins, and a bridge over the Rhine covered in lovers locks. Then we went bar hopping between local breweries. We visited four breweries that all only served the local Kölsch style beer.  I was very impressed with the beer scene in Cologne, considering that all I had ever heard in the US was about the beers in Munich.  

We saw German efficiency at its best at all the breweries where the waiters would bring you another beer without your asking, even though your current beer was only about half gone. Coupled with the great fresh-from-the-brewery taste, it was a little too easy for the beers to go down. Zauber bier according to Sebastian. We also had a fun time catching up with Sebastian and hope we convinced him to trek down to Switzerland.  

With all out catching up we forgot to take any pictures besides the selfies with out friends.