Today I decided to take my daughter tubing so we spent the afternoon at Perfect North Slopes .   It is located on the Indiana side of Cincinnati and offers skiing, snowboarding & tubing.  My photo gallery of Perfect North can be found here. 

As Germany’s 4^th largest city behind Berlin, Hamburg & Munich I knew relatively little about this city.  Köln was a city that intrigued me because of the amazing photos of the city after WWII.  The city was destroyed beyond belief and to see it with over 1 million people today with a vibrant dense urban core is incredible.  Construction of the Cathedral started in 1248 and took over 600 years to be completed and while it took several direct hits during WWII, the steeples never collapsed.   I had the opportunity to go up to the top of the right steeple which consisted of 509 steps provided a hellva workout.  The foot traffic for a Sunday in Germany was surprising and the pedestrian walking/shopping areas were perfect for people watching and photography.  After two weeks on a trip I am usually itching to go home, I could truly see myself living in Germany.  You can view the Köln gallery here.  

I haven’t had much time to get away from work while in Germany but I did make it down to Munchen (Munich) for a half of day.  The city is absolutely amazing and it was a tease to visit for half a day.  I did visit the original Hofbrauhaus which lived up to the hype and spent most of my time around the Marienplatz and the Rathaus Glockenspiel.  The historic architecture and dense streets were heaven.  European cities truly are the standard for public spaces.  From the major cities to the quaint villages, they all have great pedestrian walkways, local shopping and few chains.  American cities planners should really take note, this is how it is suppose to be done.  While in Bavaria I also made it to the Schloss Neuschwanstein, Garmisch, Germany and the Bavarian and Austrian Alps.  The country is very clean and scenic but it hasn’t stopped raining since we arrived.  To see the photo galleries click on the highlighted links in this post.