Day 13. Cologne

      Didn't really hear us get underway last night but there was enough boat traffic making noise we occasionally heard. We're in a much higher populated area so there is more sound but we passed through Bonn without noticing. 

     We arrived in Cologne (Koln) just as we were waking up. The last bridge we had to clear before docking was very low, not like the canal low where the upper deck had to be cleared, but low enough that the boat had to crawl to get under it. We had a nice view until another Viking ship rafted to us. After breakfast we went on land near the ship to hear the sounds of the city and the birds. A lot of birds. Our Aussie tablemate said they sounded like their budgies from back home but didn't look like them. We are docked in the city so no busses needed this morning. We can start our tour at the ship and in the afternoon we can explore on our own. 

     Our guide for the walking tour was an American who moved here about 20 years ago to marry a local woman. No accent to deal with. He was the slowest and the most detailed of the guides so all the groups, including the more physically limited group, all passed us. Not a problem until the very end when we abandoned the dawdling tour a few minutes before the end. I have had the same experience with one of my fellow guides at Crane Point Hammock in Marathon who has self-editing issues. That may sound funny coming from me but I do constantly work on editing. Others may disagree (my wife especially). 

     Among the highlights in Cologne is the Cathedral, the largest in Europe. Interesting, but not the most ornate, fanciest or impressive. It is an immense Gothic structure that took 700 years to build. It wasn't terribly damaged in WW2 because its distinctive spires were used as aiming/reference points that they didn't want to knock down. Beautiful stained glass windows but otherwise a bit dark. Probably the most impressive feature is the remains of the Magi, the Three Kings that visited Bethehem and the Christ Child bearing gifts. The documentation and provenance is good enough to justfy the belief that these are authentic bones. The thefts over the millenia were a source of pride not shame so well documented. 

     Pretty impressive display of the Magi. 3 gold covered wooden boxes supposedly with their remains (bones). 

    Below is the rest of the cathedral. Not quite as impressive but the windows are awe inspiring. It is huge, however.

     There were 13 churches here in Koln, now there are 12. Where the 13th was is now the above huge cathedral. The bishop at the time wanted it, the locals didn't. They expressed their opinion in stone.

     Below is the same photo but zoomed in. 

     In the below photo you can see a balcony on the church. That is how high the rubble was after WW2. About 3 stories. 

     The stones were taken away then numbered and organized before being brought back to rebuild. The cobblestones were bulldozed and piled on the sides of the roads to fix foundations and run utilities under the roads. They were not reorganized so stones of different eras are in the streets together. 1st millenia to 20th century. 

     This is an original Roman wall from around 50 CE. These stones are actually 2 to 3 meters deep into the wall like rods so the foundations are extremely stable. 

     Above is the view from the river near our dock. We could not find our way into St. Martin's there but did get into a couple of other churches in the afternoon. 

     The more ornate church above is the Jesuit church, St. Mary's (Santa Maria). The 3 bottom photos are from a simpler church.

     Random Cologne photos below.

     And one more, the tide station. The side facing the river has a dial on it. 0 is the datum, about 2 meters. Right now the depth is about 2.5 meters above that.

     A few random thoughts about Cologne and the cruise. Koln is a large cosmopolitan city. Very modern with modern styles. The center city was rebuilt after WW2 as it was. Pretty much. But the rest of the city has more modern styles that continue to evolve. It is the center of a German transportation hub and you can get to any European city reasonably quickly. Every German city we visited has been different from the others. Unique. 

     We have been very lucky on this cruise weather-wise. We had one full day of rain but not too heavy. We had two days with some rain either early or late that didn't really interfere with our tours or exploration. It did get colder than expected, into the 40s the day we were on the Rhine in the wind. Sounds terrible. It wasn't. The cruise from Budapest to Amsterdam that departed a week after we did has had terrible weather. Flooding. Snow. Extreme conditions. They had to abandon their ship temporarily as it could not get under bridges we cleared easily. We were shown videos of one of the locks in Vienna that looked terrifying. 2 meter waves. Our weather went from unusually warm to unusually cold but we did not experience snow or dangerous floods. Parts of Europe are experiencing devestating floods including some places we visited. Happy it missed us. 

     Anyway, as we come down to the last few nights of the cruise people are slightly down. We know we will go out on a high note the next couple of days but it will still be going out. We've met very interesting people (mostly) and we think some now are great friends. We'll miss them. 

     After dinner we had a music trivia session in the lounge. We scored 20 out of 30 possible points. The winners scored 23 so... close. Fun anyway. We got underway just after going to bed and will dock in the Netherlands early afternoon tomorrow. Then we'll be on to Holland for our final day on the ship, disembarking in Amsterdam. FYI: The Netherlands is the name of the country, Holland is a part of the country. The northern part. Amsterdam is in Holland. All very confusing for us parochial Americans.