July 24 –
We awoke to more teeming rain (no run *again*!) and so took our time getting dressed and enjoying our first European breakfast. Duncan and Frank love the sausages! Since we had pretty much seen all there was to see of Dusseldorf in the rain yesterday, we pulled on the rain gear, grabbed the brollies and hopped in the car. We programmed Helga (our name for the satnav system!) to take us to Cologne or Koln if you are in Germany. We couldn’t quite follow all her instructions due to construction but eventually we found our way to the main part of town and into a parking garage.
It turns out we were in the main shopping precinct so it took a little while to locate the cathedral precisely. You can’t really lose it because the thing is so HUGE! There are 12 gothic churches in Koln but there was no way the family would put up with visiting all of them so we decided to settle for just the really big one! It is quite amazing inside and we wandered all over admiring the 13th century bits as well as the parts that have been added in the 800 years since then! Unfortunately, because it was so dark and rainy, we couldn’t really fully appreciate the stained glass windows but we did our best. We also saw the sarcophigi of lots of dead archbishops with unpronouncable German names! One of the most striking things though was what we *didn’t* see: relatively recent reconstruction from WWII. According to some photographs we saw in local shops, the cathedral emerged relatively unscathed compared to the rest of Koln.
After soaking in all the gothicness and lighting another candle for my mom (4 countries, 4 cathedrals, 4 candles – the woman should live forever!), we wandered through town to find the Schokolade Museum and factory. Yes kids, we were off the see Charlie and there was even a glass elevator! The museum was very well done; it outlined the entire production of chocolate from the growing of the cocoa trees (including a mini-tropical rainforest with live trees) all the way to how chocolate has become such an integral part of our culture. There was even a mini-theater showing commercials for chocolate in German. We got to see a miniature production line showing how chocolate bars, hollow molded chocolates and truffles are made. And of course, there was a gift shop in the museum selling every possible chocolate thing you could image! The main brand that would be recognizable is Lindt which I can get in the Safeway down the street from the house so I wasn’t overly tempted – but we did walk out with a few “samples”!
Of course, while we were in the museum, the sun came out and was now blazing down although large black clouds still threatened. We decided to wander to a craftshop in the aldstat (old town) where I got the most wonderful wooden moose for my collection! Since the sun was still out, we wandered back to the cathedral to see if it had brightened up in the sunshine. On the way in, we realized that we had neglected the belfry and the draw to climb to the highest thing around. Even Frank ventured as far as the bell in the bell tower (just in time for it to chime the half-hour – what a din!) then the three of us headed to the top of the spire to see an amazing view of Koln and the Rhine. Duncan actually filled up the memory card in Frank’s camera taking pictures before we headed back down.
I’d like to see what the cathedral area is like on a really nice day because the square outside will forever be known by my family as “The Square of the Incredible Wind” due to the 30+ mph winds blowing across the open platz. The fountain was blowing water horizontally! We saw more broken umbrellas today than Chicago gets in a week!
Since Koln is the home of Kolsch beer, similar to how alt bier is a Dusseldorf product, we felt that we had to sample the local wares before heading back. We ventured to the Kaufhof Galleria (department store) to eat in their cafeteria which was another adventure. They had an entire “salad bar” of different cooked vegetables along with lots of other types of food so I was in heaven! I actually had half a kilo of veggies for my dinner – the first in nearly a week I think! The food was excellent – and fairly cheap – and we sampled the local brew as well and found it to be satisfactory if much lighter than last nights alt bier. Back in the car, we told Helga to take us home and now we’ll enjoy the take away bottles that we purchased before leaving Koln….
/san/
[Pedometer: 18,561 or about 9 miles – most of it in gale force winds]
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