We awakened rested and refreshed in Ibbenbüren, Germany, and sat down to a traditional home-cooked Germany breakfast that featured breads, hard-boiled eggs and the greatest creation of all time, Nutella. Bright and early we set off to explore the nearby town of Tecklenburg. I am not entirely sure why, but it was nice and picturesque. There was a tower, an outdoor theatre and several shops. That is about all I remember about Tecklenburg.
We then set off to Cologne, approximately 185 km and almost two hours from Tecklenburg. On the way, Anke pulled out some divine lebkuchen. Upon arrival in Cologne, we set out for the Cathedral, known in German as the Kölner Dom (or, wikipedia tells me, Hohe Domkirche St. Peter und Maria). Wait, I should document that before that I had my first experience with a European pay toilet. I am sure the Germans laughed at my touristy self. Anyway, the Cathedral is quite impressive. They have a spire in the courtyard so you can see just how big they are up close. There was scaffolding over a section of the facade, apparently some portion is always being renovated, which is not that surprising given that construction on the dom was from 1248-1880.
The two things that stuck with me from the inside of the church (the nave, but that's getting just a little too Catholic for me here) were the Shrine of the Three Kings (I didn't know what it was at the time, just that it looked cool) and the Crucifix of Bishop Gero, which I remembered as the oldest cross left in Europe but which wikipedia tells me "is the oldest large crucifix north of the Alps and the earliest-known large free-standing Northern sculpture of the medieval period." Still pretty good. I also took pictures of the insane tile work on the floor and the Mailänder Madonna, which name I also did not know until I started looking stuff up for this travelogue. (I know! I'll do better next time.)
We then proceeded up the cathedral's 509 stairs to the viewing platform. These stairs are similar to the stairs going up to the Statue of Liberty's head, and both made me slightly nauseous. As it turns out, I don't do well with spiral staircases in dark and cramped quarters. We took lots of pictures, including pictures of the Christmas Market in the square below the cathedral and pictures of the Rhine (Rhein?) River. Then it was back down to street level, where I enjoyed a bratwurst. Yummy!
Then it was on to the Imhoff-Stollwerck Schokoladenmuseum, which, if I remember correctly, was within walking distance. Also very near to the Rhein River. I believe someone mentioned the words "chocolate museum" and then I insisted that we go. You got a little bar of milk chocolate when you paid admission for the (self-guided) tour, and then they had a lady who was dipping wafers into the chocolate fountain.
It was evening by the time we finished at the chocolate museum, and here is where my memory gets fuzzy, because I know we did certain things but I just cannot figure out the timeline so that it makes sense, but I think we then got back in the car and drove to Frankfurt, which is 194 km and about two hours from Cologne. Anke's sister, whose name I cannot for the life of me remember, her husband, Gerhard, and their son Lukas, lived in Frankfurt, and we were going to (all) stay with them. I think Anke mentioned that she could do this because the work schedules in Germany rock and the U.S. sucks. (I may be paraphrasing slightly.)
We took the autobahn to Frankfurt and I remember thinking that it was a good thing I didn't have to drive it, because you are going so fast that you have to pay attention to the cars two miles ahead of you in order to brake in time, and I just don't have that good of an attention span. Once we arrived in Frankfurt, we had a meal at Anke's sister's house. Everyone had a little bowl, and you filled it with ... fillings, stuff like meat (I thought of my mom cautioning me not to eat the European meat so as to avoid mad cow) and potatoes and veggies and then you topped it off with cheese and then cooked it on this big cookspace, but everybody had their own individual serving. It was cool. And then Gerhard brought out the Black Forest schnapps brewed by one of his Black Forest relatives.
And that is all I remember of Day 2.
We drove into the city. It was a nice day, partly cloudy and cool, with a few sprinkles in the area. We parked at a garage somewhere near the VanGogh Museum, because Lisa is cultured and likes museums like that. I stopped at an ATM to withdraw euros and lost five years of my life when the ATM nearly ate my card. It returned it with a crimp in the side, however, and I did not have to freak out entirely. Before heading to the museum, we had lunch in a local pancake house, complete with cats walking around the restaurant. We walked along canals and saw houseboats and tulips and clogs that I was tempted to buy but resisted. The museum was actually really cool; it traces Van Gogh's life chronologically through paintings, but by the third floor, I was about done in by the jet lag. When we left, we adventurously took a different route back to the parking deck and promptly got lost in a local park.
Once we reached the car, Anke drove us back to her house in Ibbenbüren, Germany, which is 219 km and about two hours west of Amsterdam. I marked the border crossing into Germany by drooling on myself while sleeping, or some such similar activity. At Anke's house, we met her husband, Volkmar, and their dog, Buffy. Anke and Volkmar lived in the left half of the house, and Anke's parents lived in the right half, which was "next door" because it had a separate entrance. Anke insisted that we call home to let our parents know we had arrived safely. We got a tour of their house, which had very modern bathrooms and showers (which we used judiciously but which I am not sure were used very often otherwise) and these cool outdoor shutters which are controlled from the inside and block every single bit of light from outside. Fabulous for sleeping. 
Jim Rutherford has replaced Uncle Drayton at the top of my most-hated sports GMs list (of two).