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Published: October 25th 2019
Cologne cathedral
Cologne cathedral is so large that it is a bit difficult to take it all inOne grand cathedral, one grand palace garden and some more
The basic plan for our vacation can be summarized in the sentence "We flew to London and then slowly we made our way back home". Home is Stockholm in Sweden and when travelling slowly from London to Stockholm it is almost impossible to avoid going through Germany. The first German city we arrived in was Cologne.
Cologne Before we came to Cologne we only knew of one thing we wanted to see there - the cathedral. We had high hopes before coming there but still we weren't prepared. The cathedral is absolutely gigantic. Add to it that we arrived at night when it was dark. When it is dark you can't see any details of the cathedral. Instead we sensed that there was this gargantuan building there. That was more intense than we had expected.
We visited the Cologne cathedral several times actually. Partly because it is so large that it is a bit difficult to take it all in by only visiting it once. But also because it was really hot the days we were in Cologne and the cathedral was cool and nice
Replica of the top of the spire
This is a replica of the top of the spire. In the previous picture you see it as a tiny dot and free of charge to visit.
Cologne was a nice city to walk around in. However, of all we saw only one other attraction is worth pointing out here - house No. 4711 at Glockengasse 4. It is here the
perfume 4711 originates from. That perfume is the original Eau de Cologne. But why is this perfume known under the French name, Eau de Cologne? Why not under the German equivalent, Kölnerwasser, or the English Water from Cologne? That is a bit odd, isn't it?
Hannover After Cologne we went to Hannover. We would probably not have gone to Hannover at all if we hadn't had friends who live there. Well, you don't have to have friends to have a reason to visit Hannover. It is a city well worth visiting in its own right.
The red thread The main walking tour in Hannover is clearly marked with a red line. It takes you all around central Hannover and to a lot of small and big sights. Here follows a short description of some of the things we saw on the walking tour.
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Aegidienkirche - a former church,
Gargoyle
A gargoyle on the Cologne cathedral now a ruin. It was bombed during World War II and was left as a war memorial.
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Town Hall - a magnificent building from early 20th century. When we were there it was open and it was OK to go in and have a look.
• The Archer - It is a statue of an archer ready to shoot an arrow. A fun detail is that the statue stands in front of the city hall and the archer is aiming at the window of the mayor's office.
• Nanas - the Nanas is a series of sculptures created by Niki de Saint Phalle.
•
Herrenhausen Palace - A classic European palace with a truly magnificent garden. This is probably one of the 20 best palace gardens in all of Europe.
We will write more from our adventures in Germany in the next blog entry. We have some interesting things to write about there.
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RENanDREW
Ren & Andrew
Architecture
I enjoyed looking through the architecture in these photos. I love grand buildings, but it can sometimes be frustratingly hard to fully absorb their essence or capture it in a photograph.