Germany, Sunday

[lisa_goldstein]

Everyone comes to Köln to see the cathedral, but on our first full day there I want to visit to my own kind of religious site, the Chocolate Museum.  Fortunately our hotel turns out to be right next door to it.  I’ve been to quite a few of these places of worship — a chocolate museum in Barcelona, with a life-size statue of Don Quixote in chocolate, a chocolate factory in Costa Rica, a place called the Etruscan Chocolate Hotel in Perugia in Italy, and the Scharffenburger factory in Berkeley — so a lot of the exhibits and displays are familiar, but the Chocolate Museum stands out by giving away free samples.  They also have their own store and restaurant.  J. calls the store “diabetes, well lit,” but it’s open until late in the evening, and that, combined with its closeness, makes it especially useful.

After all that chocolate we’re only able to eat snacks for lunch, French fries and chicken wings.  We hang out as long as we can, but it’s Sunday and the Discord people have to go back to their lives.  They pack and we all meet back in the hotel lobby, where we have a long, drawn-out goodbye.  I get the ultimate compliment — even though I don’t play an instrument, they invite me to join their online conversations.  We can’t thank them enough for everything they’ve done for us.