Colongne

We had a four hour drive to Cologne, the river boat would have been more fun! We heard that the ship was now through the broken lock, but it has many locks to go before it can reach us. We'll see how many nights we spend at a hotel in Frankfort. Tonight we’re staying at the Marriott right next to the train station, close to the Cathedral.

Train Bridge and Cathedral 

Courtesy of Judy Cannon

We went into the Cathedral, but it was Corpus Christi, so mass was being celebrated. We decided to have lunch just off one of the squares. Most of us tried bratwurst  it was delicious. We ended up being 5 minutes late for our tour, but found Stefan nearby.

Cathedral Altar Piece

The Dom Cathedral is the largest gothic cathedral in the world, but it took 800 years to complete. During WWII it suffered collateral damage because the train station near by was a primary target. The stained glass windows were removed so many of them remain from the 15^th century. There was also one large pixel window, made of circular pieces of modern glass with traditional colors. As usual there was scaffolding, they are continually refurbishing parts of the cathedral.

Roman Mosaic Tile

Cologne was founded by the Roman’s because of the hot springs here. We saw a large mosaic floor from Roman times. As we walked through town we had a mix of old and new styles. Before Napolean there were no street addresses, so houses were painted different colors to distinguish them.  Napolean also introduced last names to commoners, previously only used by the upper class. We saw several interesting fountains. The elf fountain was based on the legend of elves cleaning up for a tailor at night until his wife discovered them , when they promptly disappeared. We also saw several versions of Tunis and Schell, popular figures for jokes.

Tunis and Schell