Cologne

We set off from Göttingen where we stayed just southwest of the Harz Mountains. We left quite early - yes, we did work out what that meant. We were so early that there was still fog in the first valley we came to. We even had to slow down from the usual autobahn 'go whatever you want' speed to a measly 100km/h. Up to now, when the 'go whatever you want' sign came up, we would usually sit around 140km/h. It was still amazing how fast the cars would pass us. In our little opal, however, we think the engine would burst at much faster. At times we did push to 150 or so when passing, but it seemed quite happy at 140. It was actually more happy there than at 100 where the engine sounded to be struggling. The sad thing is that the trucks can only go 80, so it was constant passing and being passed the whole way.
As we get more north and west in Germany, we see more and more wind turbines. Really cool!
We arrived in Cologne at about 11:30 and checked in to the hotel. We were right next to central station and the cathedral - great location. So we set off to check out the town. We decided not to go into the town museum as it was just a collection of armour. It did, however, have an interesting statue on top. Not quite sure what it was all about.

Of more interest was the El De house which was used by the Gestapo from 1934 but kept the initials of the original owner. It had a prison in the basement with about 10 cells where up to 33 men were kept in each. It was rather spooky with the 1000 odd writings on the walls, many in Russian. After the war (somehow the building was not bombed) it was used as municiple offices until emptied and turned into a museum in about 1981. Really wonderful displays in this little known about museum. I would recommend to anyone to go there and get the audio tour for a little extra as it is worth it for the extra information as everything there is only in German. We could take photos, but we had to sign a book saying we would not publish them anywhere, so you'll have to go there yourself to see inside.

Next, and most famous of all, the Cologne cathedral. On the outside, an absolute marval. Wonderously huge, not done justice in these photos, and amazingly ornate. Betters the ones in France (I think that was the point). We did not stand in a line for ages only to climb the 509 steps to the top of the tower - wonder why?






We did pay 1 euro for the tour booklet and that was well worth it. With 23 stops around the cathedral, it told us pretty much everything. Here are only a few highlights. If you want to know the rest, go yourself!




One of the oldest wooden, opening altars in the world.


We could not get in to the 7 chapels in the front that were built and used before the rest of the building was finished. In the middle is the shrine to the 3 Magi, or 3 kings and is said to hold the remains of the 3 wise men who visited Jesus in the manger (small gold chest in the middle).

This statue of Mary is said to be miraculous.

Afterwards, it was a nice, sunny, warm day so we walked down to the Rhine River (with all the other tourists) to have a beer. The breeze was a bit chilly, so we went back to the hotel to get more clothing and then ventured out again to find food.



Thus was Cologne. In summary - great cathedral, OK art galleries (not good compared to the big ones in the world), VERY touristy, extremely smokey (you can smoke in all of the cafes and there are no non-smoking areas what-so-ever, expensive fashion shopping (if that's what you are into), and worth spending a day in unless you smoke - then I'd stay a week!