30 Days of Spring - Day Five - Summer in Cologne

Man, I almost feel guilty for still posting in this spring contest - we actually got sunburned today.
After staying home sewing all day long yesterday, I decided to take the kids to Cologne today, to do something fun. The three little ones, that is, Eva decided to spend the day riding horses with her friend.

When we moved here, I used to hate Cologne. Too crowded, too posh, too dirty, too loud, too conservative, too capitalistic... well, maybe I was just homesick. In those last months, I really learned to love it, and the ones who taught me how to love it were...

guys like these. Streetmusicians.

Sometimes I get the impression that the finest musicians of all genres gather under the Cathedral and play for small change. Really, there were musicians I sat down and stayed for the duration of a concert, musicians I´d happily pay to see them in an arena, again.
And then, suddenly and unexpected, places like this pop up in the middle of the city:

And we throw away our shoes, and socks, and pants...

and stay there. And splash and wade and giggle. Although we had planned to go somewhere else. But it´s spring break, so we´re free, right?

 Then we decided to take a Rhine Cruise.

It´s a typical tourist treat here, and I guess that´s the reason we never thought of it before. I mean, I love boats. I love floating on a glistening river and listening to some minor educative details about the buildings on the left and on the right in 8 languages.

 We saw sheep...

and beaches...

 and the twins threw questions at me for the whole two hours, and behaved like real tourists on a cruise:

And then we picked daddy up from his work,

and because he´s supposed to have some fun, too, had a nice barbecue in our backyard:

And now, we´re all spent, and even though it´s not even 10 o´clock over here, I´m the only one still up and awake, listening to:

Pachebel´s Canon. I think I posted that song already, a while ago, but the amazing band on the first picture, the ones with the huge triangular base-balalaika, they have it in their repertoire and greeted me with it today. Well, not exactly me in person. All people in Cologne. But maybe, me. And they played Vivaldi´s summer afterwards :)