Cologne

We had a brief German language orientation before we disembarked in Cologne, Germany on Saturday morning.  I wished I remembered more of what I learned in German language class from college, but that was way too many years ago!

We were divided into 6 walking groups, each of us led by a local guide -- ours was a wonderful, attractive young woman.   Cologne is a very old town, founded by the Romans.   There is an archeological museum that has many of the relics and some of the old sewer tunnels from that era.   In 785 Charlemagne founded an archdiocese there, and from the 12-18th centuries, Cologne led the world as the 4th Christian metropolis after Jerusalem, Byzantium and Rome.

The Dom, their huge cathedral, was very impressive.   Work on the cathedral started in 1248.  It wasn't completed until 1880.  We were in the cathedral square at noon, just as the newly elected archbishop was arriving.  The carillon bells rang for over half an hour -- wonderful, loud chimes that celebrated both the noon mass and his arrival.  The crowds were huge.  TV cameras, cheers.  Exciting.  Couldn't walk around the cathedral until after the noon prayers, so we went back later.  Supposedly the bones of the 3 Magi are buried in that cathedral.  The cathedral stained glass had very vivid colors. Much of the city was bombed during the war, but not the cathedral, although some of the stained glass had shattered and had to be replaced.





We walked past the excavation of an earlier Jewish settlement.   Many pogroms took place in 1423;  in the 16th century Protestants were persecuted;  in the 17th century many women were victims of

witch-hunts.

The perfume shop, Faria, was on our walk.  Sweet-smelling water began here, and the water was named cologne, after the city.  

We stood at the City Hall square and watched newly married couples leaving, with their friends cheering.  Couples have to be married in a civil ceremony before they can be married in a church.  We then walked to the bridge that crosses the Rhine where it has become a popular place for couples to write their names on a padlock and then permanently lock it to the bridge.  From one end to the other, thousands of padlocks adorn the fence.

There were many attractive bier hauses along the Rhine, so we had to have at least one glass of German beer -- I was happy sharing just a few sips of John's, but the picture looks like I drank the whole thing!

The crowds in the shopping area were packed.  It was a nice day, the World Cup was happening that weekend, the archbishop was there -- could be one reason the streets were packed.

That evening, after dinner on our ship, we had a wonderful piano-clarinet-bass clarinet concert in the lounge, which I thoroughly enjoyed.