Redux: Köln - Part 2

You really didn't think that I'd stop at Köln Part 1, did you?

You did? Well, I suppose I can't lay any blame after taking so long to get this post going. But posts shall be delivered, and this is part of the delivery.

Cologne is known for its cathedral. It appears, however, that it is not known for much more than its cathedral. This is a shame, because it is a lovely, chilled out place in which to spend a few days.

Glen and I attended an evening mass at the cathedral, to get an even better feel for it, and afterwards wandered out in hunt of food and drink. You see, in Germany, you are allowed to drink openly on the streets.

Allow me to repeat that: German laws permit people to drink on the streets.

For Canadian prairie-born travelers, this is a novelty that bears noting. How often have you been out on a walk, or on a pick-nick, or at a similar event in a public place and thought "it's such a lovely day/evening! A nice glass of wine/beer would be excellent right about now! It's a shame we can't have a responsible drink out in public." It seems, however, that the prudish, puritan spirit of our pioneer forbears is still alive and well as our legislators feel there is no way for people to be allowed to have a drink out in public without becoming slavering, foolish, drunken hooligans.

Do you know what was distinctly absent in Cologne, and just about everywhere else in Germany*? Slavering, foolish, drunken hooligans. This may be because the German liver is capable of filtering massive amounts of alcohol and rendering the booze to an inert state. It may also be because they often drink to enjoy the taste of their fine brew rather than to get staggering drunk.

Anyway, back on topic: we went questing about for food and drink, and did a bit of sightseeing while we were at it. Cologne has a beautiful riverfront where the general population goes to relax.



We came across many open-air restaurants, street musicians (including a particularly wonderful jazz band with a New Orleans feel playing in a square next to a fountain), and our first sample of lovely European buildings.



They're so narrow! And tall! And pink!

The city was conspiring to make us feel like we belonged there. We even found gnomes. Gnomes! Gnomes in stone!



And if that wasn't enough, there are also remnants of Roman colonization in the form of a beautifully preserved mosiac dining room floor (peered at through the museum's windows), and this gate arch which is on the same square as the cathedral:



Among all these fantastic sights, we did find our street food and drink. In fact, we found much better than that - we found an entire wine festival!




We started off with food - Glen had his first wurst of the trip and I tried frickadeller. The latter often translated as 'meatball', but it's more of a beautifully spiced and fried ground meat patty. We rinsed our hasty and tasty food down with wine (of course). Being in Germany - and at one point in history, in the Roman Empire, we did as Germans/Romans do and hunted through the stalls for some sweet white wine. We found it. We drank it. It was heavenly; sweet without being syrupy, tooth-achingly cold, and served in a proper glass. The stalls all had a wine glass deposit system which ensured that we could enjoy our vintage in a nice fluted glass instead of a plastic cup. The abomination of the plastic cup is usually what you can expect in any sort of outdoor beer garden in Edmonton. This was much classier.

After wandering around the wine stalls for a bit, we decided to meander back to the hotel via the riverside walk. Glen felt it only appropriate that we do this while sipping our first Beer Out In Public. A quick stop in a convenience store provided said beer, and the nice fellow at the counter was quite amused that we found drinking on the street to be so novel. We chatted briefly about our trip, and he told us that "Cologne is where you find real Germany. Laid back, know how to relax...not as busy as Berlin. People there rush around to much. People here just like to sip a beer and relax by the riverside."

They do indeed. So did we. Next time we find ourselves in this town, we'll take a little longer, wander a little more slowly, and spend a couple more days poking about and enjoying the riverside.

That night we slept solidly, ate another fantastic breakfast in the lovely little grotto room, and attended the guided English tour of the cathedral (detailed in the previous post). Afterward, our packs went back on our backs, and we hopped a train out of town.

On to Amsterdam!


*With the exception of the nightclub areas of larger cities. Predictably, there were a few revellers staggering out of the bars, but not nearly as many as there are on Edmonton's Whyte Avenue on a Thursday night.

Redux: Köln - Part 1

It is true: I have already blogged about Köln, aka Cologne. This time, however, I can put in our own photos! This is sufficiently monumental to warrant revisiting the Cologne post, so here we go:

Cologne was our first stop after landing in Frankfurt. As soon as the airplane landed, we bee-lined to the airport train station, avoided getting ripped off by some random guy trying to sell train tickets he "couldn't use", and had the nice man at the DeutchBahn (DB) help us with purchasing our tickets to Cologne. We were far too confused to figure out the train ticket booth at that point, so standing in line and waiting for a human being to process the transaction was worthwhile.

Two and a half hours after getting off the train, we were in Cologne. It was there, in the bustling Cologne hauptbahnhof, we first encountered a singularly intoxicating thread that wound through our entire trip.

Bread.

The Germans, like most Europeans, treat bread with the love and respect it deserves. They have bakeries everywhere, and in that train station alone we ran into at least three, all pulling fresh loaves, buns, pretzels, pastries, and other dough-based wonders out of their ovens. We were very hungry. The sandwiches at the third bakery didn't stand a chance.

Our B&B was only two blocks away from the train station. We passed two more bakeries on our way there.

The B&B (called 'pension' in ze deutch), was a delight. It was quiet, comfortable, clean, and the staff were helpful. The delicious and ample breakfast was served in this delightful, grotto-like room which had an equally pretty garden patio out the back door:


We arrived in Cologne in the early afternoon, and after a power nap (and some blank, frog-eyed staring at the wall) to fight off jet lag, we headed out to explore the city's main attraction: the Cologne Cathedral. It is one of the best examples of gothic architecture in Europe, Glen had studied it in art history, and we were determined to do it justice.

The cathedral, just off of the main square and smack outside the main train station, is huge. From the exterior it is an imposing mountain of black stone that dominates the centre square. Ancient stone weathered black contrasts sharply against new stone used in restoration. It creates an odd, mottled look with the occasional white stone against the black, and new white statues flashing alongside their original patinaed mates. It is a marvel of columns, spires, statues, and stone lace.

Did I mention that it's huge? Our impression of the outside was as follows:



Oooooooohhhhhh....

Impossibly, it feels even larger from the inside. We had quite a bit of time to explore the interior, as we attended mass there that evening and the following morning took a guided tour of the church (thoughtfully provided in English). This place is a marvel of architecture. It was started in the thirteenth century and was not completed until the late 1800s. When the construction on it began, the architectural innovations being developed at the time allowed it to accommodate huge windows that flooded the interior with light. The delicate columns and arch ribbings soar up and up and up, making you feel like a tiny inhabitant of an immense, light-filled forest. It is beautifully meditative.



The art on the interior is just as magnificent. We were fortunate enough to be there during the exhibit of the Rubens tapestries, which are only on display three weeks out of the year. I found the medieval statuary around the central nave and altar to be the most interesting. The ones nearest the congregation look grayed and somewhat dull, which is due entirely to the pancake-like layer of dust on them. Apparently the previous building master was concerned that any dusting would remove particles of original paint, and simply let the dust build up. Fortunately, the current building mistress has more sense. All of them are being cleaned and restored. The statues that have been properly dusted glow with beautiful, lifelike tones and ornate details on their robes, which are just barely distinguishable under the dust on the statues that have not yet been cleaned.

The remainder of the cathedral was bursting with the expected stained glass, tombs, statues, and mosaics. The item that attracts the most attention, however, is the reliquary holding the supposed Bones of the Magi. This sucker is big and gold. Really gold. The majority of the reliquary is made of gold plated silver, studded with precious gems:




The faceplate, however, is not gold plated silver. It is solid gold. A big, big hunk of solid gold (with the exception of the bits which are covered in MORE precious stones):



Really, you can never have enough precious stones.

We spend a considerable amount of time crawling around the interior and exterior of this place, and loved every minute of it. You'll simply have to wait until the next post to read about it!