Cologne

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Today I went to Cologne (or Köln as everyone over here seems to spell it) and saw the cathedral, the Roman Museum, and a Lego store. For Jacob, the highlight would probably be the Lego store, but the cathedral was probably the most stunning one I have seen so far. Everything at the Lego store was in German anyway.

If one left the ceilings out of it, the outside of the cathedral would be more interesting than the inside. I walked around the building several times just looking at the incredible stonework done the entire height and length of the building. Once inside, the tombs and everything were interesting, but the soaring ceiling was the most awesome thing about the place. There evidently were some reliquaries there that I probably took pictures of, but there was nothing in English that I could find to tell me what I was looking at. Unfortunately, I did not get to hear the organ here, but I did get a picture of it.
(http://www.koelner-dom.de/index.php?id=19167&L=1)

Next was the Roman museum. While I am not greatly interested in Roman antiquities, this museum was supposed to have a great collection of pottery, glass, and other easily breakable but very useful materials. They did, and also had a lot of gravestones, jewelry, and metal artifacts from when Cologne and the surrounding area were Roman. The museum was quite good, once I got past the beginning exhibits which had no English labels, and was laid out quite well. Unfortunately, the text panels that would have put everything in context and told me all about Roman Cologne were all in German, so I really did not learn all that much, except all the things that the Romans had, and that it is amazing how long things can stay in the ground undisturbed.
(http://museenkoeln.de/english/default.asp?s=252&tid=123&kontrast=&schrift=)

Last was the Lego store, which was right down the street. Everything was in German here too, so it was not very intelligible, but it was fun to wander around and see some new sets that Jacob and I have never seen in person. After that, it was back to the train, and back to Maastricht!

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