Cologne Germany

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July 22
Cologne

We had a fabulous dinner last night with our new found friends, Diana, John, Beatriz and Terry. There was much laughter reminiscing about the ill fated windmill tour in the Netherlands but now we we sail on to Germany..........



This is our first time on tour in Germany and Cologne is our first port of call. We were told the city was nearly destroyed in WWII and that there is only a very small portion of any medieval buildings left. The biggest of these would be the Cologne Cathedral named after Saint Peter, so off we bused to explore what we could of Cologne which sits right at the waters edge on both sides of the Rhine. The enormous Cathedral is easily seen from a distance. The bus dropped us off in front of McDonald's across from Starbucks......well you get the picture, most of what we see are modern 20th century buildings with a large U.S. influence. The Cathedral is mammoth in size and towers over any other of the newer buildings. As we approached it I really noticed was how black the outside was. It was a shame really, in 1859 Germany put in the train station right next to where the Cathedral was still being constructed and almost completed. Years of coal dust spewing from the smoke stacks on the trains have blackened the outside and our guide told us there were no plans to clean it off. The expense was too great. There were a few new looking clean blocks and statues around the church and our guide told us parts of the church had been hit by shrapnel during the war, it was easy to see where the church made repairs after the war because that is were the "clean" pieces were. The Cologne like many European Cities are in constant stages of renewal, construction, cranes and scaffolding are everywhere including the church.



This church houses the Shrine of the three Magi believed to contain the bones of the biblical Three Wise Men. The Shrine was originally housed in Constantinople and was brought to Milan in an oxcart by Bishop Eustorgius I in 310. Eight centuries later in 1164 Emperor Frederick Barbarossa removed the Shrine from the church of Saint Eustorgio and gave them to the Archbishop of Cologne. A Cathedral worthy to hold these relics needed to be built and so began the construction of the Gothic church (cathedral) in 1248. It took 632 years to build and was completed in 1880. Okay end of today's history lesson.



Our guide who was probably only in his late 20's and wanted to clear the air in the event anyone in our group wondered how the Germans perceive post WWII and what happened between our countries and the world.........it was many years ago and the current generation must deal with the past. He said that by the end of WWII 95% of Cologne had been bombed and razed. He added that Germany needed to be liberated along with the occupied countries and ultimately they gratefully accepted the allied bombings as their price to pay to be free from Hitler and the Nazi's. We thought that was a touching way to put it.



This evening we were signed up for a beer tasting. Now anyone who knows me has probably never seen beer touch my lips. It's not that I hate beer it's just that I prefer wine. I knew Tom would enjoy the beer tasting so I signed us up. Turns out our new table mates were on the same package so we went together on this side adventure. The bus ride was just to a restaurant in the old section of Cologne. It only took about 10 minutes to get there. We were led into a main dining room with a large table for our party of about 15. Everyone was eager to grab seats and as they began to sit down the six of us were trying to figure out how to all sit together. Since some of the others were already seated we just politely kept moving everyone down a bit till we had six seats at the end. Then the beer began to flow. They only brought small cold glasses maybe 4 ounces each. They brought them in these round trays with enough nooks to hold about 10 glasses, they pull the glass out of the nook, tap it four times rhythmically before handing it to you. They just kept coming back taking the empty or nearly empty glasses and replacing them with a newer cold one. I remember being thankful that our guide Anna (so sweet) told us that they will continue to replace your empty glasses until you take you coaster from under your glasses and put it over your glass. I did my best, I would drink about half the glass then trade Tom for his empty then put a coaster over it for while and do it again. The beer was actually pretty good. We were provided a full meal along with the beer and when done our guide told us we'd be walking to another beer pub, and then another and another. Welcome to my first pub crawl. We had a lot of fun and laughs with Diana, John, Beatriz and Terry. We became a tight knit group of six began to make sure we took as many tours together and also let Viking know to put us on the same buses together. Others on the trip noticed we spent a lot of time together and asked if we knew each other before boarding the boat.

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