Here are pictures from our trip to the Lindt Chocolate Museum in Cologne.  Even your ticket is chocolate!  The museum features information on the growing and processing of cocoa.  A portion of the museum is a working factory, producing those chocolate tickets, truffles, and hollow molded chocolates.  And there are free samples!  The process for making miniature chocolate bars is completely automated - the melted chocolate is poured into plastic molds and shaken to get air bubbles out.  The trays ride into a cooling tunnel where the bars set up.  A machine at the other end twists the molds and invert the trays onto a conveyor belt.  A robot sucks up 25 or so bars and transfers them onto another conveyor belt for wrapping.  A truffle machine rides chocolate centers through an enrober, and then to get a hand-dipped look, they ride under a mesh screen which leaves a texture on the chocolates.  The ugly ones get set out for visitors to sample!  Finally, there are hollow-chocolate molds spinning around in all directions to coat the inside of a mold with chocolate and keep the coating even while the chocolate cools.  They were making hearts and soccer balls the day we were there.  The gift shop features all kinds of chocolate stuff, including chocolate pasta and mango-chili chocolate bars.