Gossip, Gladiators and Gothic Cathedrals

Last week was a lovely 3 day week! I just love it when you get up on Wednesday morning, and it't the last time before the weekend.  This weekend I had extra cause to be excited; my lovely best buddies came to stay.  They arrived on Thursday evening (after Matt and I had a very lazy day). We decided to head straight out to the Inland Harbour for gigantic pizza at L'Osteria.  The pizzas are so tasty there!  We could only eat about half each, so asked if we could take the rest home.  The waitress dropped our halves on the floor, so Becky and I got a fresh half each cooked for us!

On Friday, us girls headed off to Cologne for the day, while Matt spent the day playing Football Manager and running errands (including meeting with the tenants advice bureau regarding our landlady trying to keep our whole security deposit).  Friday reached temperatures of 33 degrees!  Ridiculously hot!  We had to take shelter in the Cathedral when we arrived, just to get out of the sun.

We then headed off to the Lindt Chocolate Museum.  There was lots of information about fair trade and the cocoa bean, but the most interesting bit was seeing the machines actually go from start to finished wrapped chocolates.  It was fascinating watching the process, and physically stopping myself from thrusting my head into this big vat of liquid chocolate!

The above are chocolate molds.  They are enormous!

Mini chocolate cathedrals, and lindt bunnies...

 We, of course, had ice cream sitting on the Rhine...

When we left, we got on a train that had broken air con.  It was like walking into a sauna.  We actually got off the train and waited for the next one, because sitting on it for 45 minutes just wasn't an option!  In the evening, we met some of my work friends for cocktails in the town that we will be living in from mid-July.  It was nice to introduce old friends to new ones.

On Saturday, the girls went into Xanten. I went last week, but it was so good, and I knew the girls would love it, so I just had to go again.

Above, are some of the original gargoyles from the Cathedral before it was almost totally destroyed during the war.

The archaeological park had some sort of event going on, which was nice as there were lots for kids to do, like chariot racing.  There were some gladiator fights too which was really cool!

There were lots of tents set up with Roman trades like medicine and chain male working.

We had a great day in Xanten, despite there being a fun fair in the middle of the little Medieval town, which somewhat took away from it's charm, but still a lovely day.  We topped it off by going to the local brewery in Duisburg, for traditional German schnitzel. Yum!  Matt spent the evening out watching football in the local pub.

On Sunday we had nearly the whole day before Nic and Becky left for their 9pm flight.  We decided to have a restful day at the 6 lakes beach.  It's 4 Euro to get in, and there are toilets and cafes.  It was pretty much empty at midday when we arrived, and steadily filled up throughout the afternoon.  I dipped my toes in the lake, but it was freezing!  Matt and Becky went for a proper swim. They are much braver than I am!  I was content just to lay in the sun and read my book and listen to the dragon boat practices on the lake.  Bliss.