What I Ate in Cologne

I love doing a What I Ate Wednesday post after I travel. It is so fun to document what I ate...I love trying to find unique, yet tasty treats. My trip to Cologne was a blast and boy did I find some tasty treats!

First night...we were exhausted after the frazzle of train travel and finding our way to our place and settling in so we walked for about an hour trying to find something but our minds were blown that so many places had only German menu's and my daughter is quite fluent in Dutch as am I when it comes to menu's but don't let people fool you when they say Dutch and German are close because they are two completely different languages...so we settled on a little Hard Rock action. We were served by another American who wanted to know all about Amsterdam hehe

I started with a glass of wine and the kiddo had some sort of fruity concoction.

Dinner was supposed to take a while because there was a group of 43 there (a school group it looked like) but our dinner came like 5 minutes after our drinks...I wasn't prepared, but we ate anyway hehe The burger was delicious. Service was prompt, highly recommend, especially if you are having difficulties with menus or people not speaking much English and your brain needs a break.

Day two...started off with Coffee Bean and Tea leaf. We saw this walking around the first night and this was our absolute favorite corporate coffee place when we lived in Southern California. So, naturally we had to get the hook up with a creme brulee latte and a blue berry muffin.

Lunch prior to the chocolate museum was curry wurst....this place is just outside the chocolate museum, I am sure it is strategically placed because you need to have some fuel to power through chocolate!

Post chocolate museum fuel. This is in the Chocolate Grand Cafe. There are amazing views of the Rhine from here, lots of seating...even some outdoor. The service was very prompt and the food was amazing.

That cake, doesn't quite compare to the one at the Louvre, but it was a very, very close second!

After a ton of shopping and even heading back to our hotel we needed to eat. We tried desperately to find a good looking menu on our side of the city, but pretty much no one spoke English in the little neighbourhood we were in....that, and by the time we were ready to eat a soccer football game was starting and we were just a couple streets from the stadium, so back over the bridge we went (with our exhausted legs) and decided pasta was in order. So, Nudlehaus it was...I can't find a website, but it is right behind Museum Ludwig, which is behind the Cathedral.

This place is just your run of the mill pasta place, much like an Olive Garden but doesn't pretend to be fancy. ha! We felt very welcome and it was full of tourists from all over the globe. I had a glass of wine and the lasagna. It was good and filled the belly. 

Final day...we were so tired this particular morning. We wanted something different for breakfast but wasn't quite sure what. We googled traditional German breakfasts but came up short. Seems like the Germans typically have just bread of some kind for breakfast, so we hiked it back to the Coffee Bean and Tea leaf for another tasty latte and split a muffin.

After that we made our way to the zoo and tried their cafe, it wasn't horribly overpriced and was pretty good. Of course we got curry wurst and chips again.

Post zoo and lots of walking we went back to the shopping district and grabbed some Dunkin' and took it to the Cathedral steps for a pic-nic. It was fantastic! 

After Dunkin' we walked the Rhine for a while enjoying the architecture and all the people. There was a guy out there blowing big bubbles and he had bubble stuff for rent, people were renting it, it was very cute. After that we went to Bruehaus Sion.

This place has been around for a very long time and was extremely busy. I am not sure if that is just because of Oktoberfest or if it is always that busy. We got the last available unreserved table at 5:30pm so keep that in mind if you go. They do take reservations so I would definitely reserve a table as you may not get lucky like we did.

The inside is beautifully decorated with these candelabras and stained glass.

The food is typical German fare. I wanted to get one dish with black pudding, but looked up black pudding and decided against it. I just couldn't eat straight up blood lol so I went with my husband's suggestion of the pork belly. I couldn't eat it all, but it was good...especially if you are a fat lover it would be good...I spent too much time trying to peel off the fat haha

In case you are wondering pork belly is basically what we call a ham hock...what we'd traditionally use to make a split pea soup, they've turned in to an entire meal.

Post dinner we wanted dessert. The kiddo was craving ice cream so we found a cute cafe with a fire place so we'd be warm as we ate our ice cream! ha!

These larger than normal martini glass desserts were extremely popular throughout Cologne, so naturally we each got one of these. It came with four truffels and three scoops of ice cream, I made it through two truffels and the chocolate scoop. It was extremely filling. I highly recommend getting one when you go to Cologne as they are quite a treat and as I said, very popular!

That is it for what I ate in Cologne, make sure you stop by Peas and Crayons and The Big Man's World for the rest of the party! :)

Rome Eats! (WIAW)

Wow! This last weekend was a whirlwind! We got up Friday and dashed to the airport and met our good friends from Vancouver in Rome for a little weekend getaway and sightseeing. We drank and ate way too much but we had a fantastic time!

Day one started on the plane with some solid reading and a blueberry muffin I split with the hubs...

Once our turbulence ended I was delivered this "american coffee"...you brew it with a coffee bag! How funky huh?! Don't worry it was everything you dreamed it would be...crappy! hahaa So,  next time someone offers you an American Coffee brewed with a bag say no thanks and wait until you land in Italy! 

 After we landed we were starving so we check out some pizza...it was not okay. We took two bites and dumped it.

After that we found some more pizza and were way more pleased with our choice...we grabbed a bottle of wine to go with it and had a picnic. It was amazing.

Dinner was fantastic. Prosciutto with fresh mozaarella balls, carbonara for the hubby, and regular spaghetti for me. We got to dine outside...was a fantastic evening!

On the walk home we scored some fantastic ice cream....

Day two started with a trip to an Italian Coffee bar....I have to say it was so hectic, I could not enjoy my coffee like that everyday, but it was a fun experience to drink my coffee at the bar...

So amazing, the milk was frothed perfectly...I hadn't had milk like that in a very, very long time!

After this we walked around a bit and then decided on a brunch before our tour of the Coliseum....

More prosciutto for he husband....plus something omelet like...was good though!  

...and french toast...it was very good and delicious!

I of course had a latte with it...it was fantastic!

After spending a solid two hours touring the Coliseum we needed a rest...so we found a nice cafe nearby, bought half a liter of wine and some fruit and ice cream and we were happy campers.

After this we made our way to the store for yet more wine and some appetizers.

We sat around for a solid 3 hours enjoy wine, bread, some balsamic and olive oil, and parm. A few of us may have napped before showering ;)

After all this good food we decided to get dressed up and walk to a more locals only area we were told to go to for food. We had some delicious eats...

Spinach ravioli...the pasta was all made in house. It was delicious!

Our desserts....chocolate cake above and tiramisu below. All were made in house. They were so amazing.

After all of this we took a long walk home to see all the major sites lit up at night, we even got a look at Trevi Fountain, but it was mostly all covered up as they are doing some restoration work on it until 2016. But, such a great way to end a fantastic day!

Our final hours in Rome were a bit hectic as we had to get packed up, but we got up a bit early for a last coffee and pastry...

Time to say goodbye :(

But this totally made up for it!

At the airport we had some time to kill since our friends flight was about 90 minutes before ours, so we found a great burger bar. We were worried it would be awful but it is probably the best burgers we'd had since coming to Europe...

(Sorry for the sideways picture apparently blogger hates me so I will try and fix later)

It had cream cheese, peppers, fried onions, and spinach. It was amazing.

(again, sorry)...this was the best espresso I'd had in a while. The after taste had citrus notes to it...I loved it! The truffle on the side wasn't bad either!

So, those were our eats from our weekend getaway to Rome, Italy! 

Have you ever been to Italy? What was your favorite restaurant or dish you got while there?