We pulled into Cologne late in the evening. Cologne was founded by the Romans, as is not unusual along a river, and is the fourth largest city in Germany.
Click on each image to see Viking's information of the day.
We pulled into Cologne late in the evening. Cologne was founded by the Romans, as is not unusual along a river, and is the fourth largest city in Germany.
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This church is very close to the waterfront, but is not the cathedral. |
Notice the numbers above the windows. |
An archealogical dig. There is something hard to see in the picture. |
A wallet had been thrown away here. Notice the credit cards. We were told to be very careful in Cologne for this is where pickpocketers are rampant. |
A busker (street performer). Where does he work? |
Right in front of the holiest place in town, the cathedral, which was once the tallest building in the world. I believe they said that it was started in the 1200s and completed in the 1800s. |
This ladder is on the outside of one of the spires and is used to inspect the facade after storms. |
Inside the cathedral. There was a choral mass in progress. It was very nice, very solemn and holy. We wished that we could have stayed. Click on the picture for a closeup of the windows. |
Right next to the cathedral is where they found Roman ruins. Here is the most important of the ruins - a mosaic floor. It costs 8 Euros to get in, but amazingly, there are windows so that you can see the most important part of the museum with out paying. |
Close up of the floor. |
The other important find was a large monument to a career soldier. Supposedly if they survived in the military for 20 years they were given a bonus which was so lavish that they could live out the rest of their life in luxury, which is how this soldier must have been able to pay for the construction. Of course, making it 20 years was a bit harder in those days. |
The top of the monument. Click for an even closer look.
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The symbols we think are swastikas are actually a very ancient symbol for the sun. The real swastika is going the other way. But look at the other relics on the table. There were too many to show you, but all amazing in their complexity, ingenuity, and beauty. We are not better than them, at all. They were just as talented. |
Wall fragment they had found. The painting behind them is what they think the complete wall might have looked.
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After the museum they took us to a beer garden for a drink. I had to drag Dad in. He wanted to go straight for the ship. We had an orange soda (a Fanta) and some nice conversation. The lady at the door was washing the beer glasses in this way. The containers her hands are submersed in have soap and bristles which clean the entire glass in seconds. |
We were going to rent bikes again, but they didn't have one small enough for Jenny, so we climbed the cathedral. Most of the way up is via this small stone spiral staircase. We didn't have the assistance this little girl had. |
Half way up (maybe) are the bells, including the enormous bell bigger than the liberty bell. |
And even Dad made the 500 steps up. I kept asking him to slow down, but he kept trucking. I wonder what his cardeologist would say about that! |
The spires from above. |
We did walk a bit more after the cathedral and Dad eventually decided to go back to the ship and rest. Boy, he is a trooper. Not many other 73 year olds can do that! |
