17 January 2005
Cologne Germany and the ride along the
Mosel River
By Annie Warmke
You can visit with Annie by going to http://www.bluerockstation.com
The gothic black colored cathedral, Kolner Dom rises up out
of Cologne (Kohn in German) like some sort of a huge dragon about to devour the
city. We could see the ancient
building all the way from our hotel room window.
As I watched the misty clouds roll over the church on a very gray day I
was anxious to take a walk so that I could look up at all of those ornate spires
that seemed to reach all the way to the low lying clouds.
I soon discovered that Cologne is a beautiful old looking
city. It is difficult to imagine a
city that was founded in 38 BC, but those Romans were really great at traveling
to far off places and setting up shop. Over
90% of the city was destroyed during WWII.
The cathedral I admired from the hotel window was the only building that
remained relatively undamaged after the bombings. The gingerbread-looking
buildings and even the Romanesque churches were rebuilt just as they stood
before the 1940’s.
We decided to get acquainted with the city by walking to
The Kolner Dom, which was actually built in 1248 but not finished until 1880.
We just followed the church spire until we rounded a corner, and there,
spread out before us was a huge concrete town square with many many steps
leading up to the Kolner Dom. This
marvelous building has “acres” of stained glass.
It was actually built to house the relics of the Magi, the three kings
who visited the infant Jesus. The
huge cathedral was built to accommodate the thousands and thousands of pilgrims
who came to see the magi relics.
There are huge life-like statues of saints.
Thousands of candles, apparently lit by folks who deposit a euro into a
box, represent prayers that are repeated by visitors.
The main part of the church was packed with people attending a church
service.
Even though it was late Sunday afternoon most of the shops
were open, and we managed to find a quaint restaurant for a meal.
The cigarette smoke was horrible though so we ate quickly and headed back
out to explore more of the city.
Our favorite parts were the wonderful German and Turkish
bakeries. It seemed there were
small department stores on practically every street corner.
We visited a three-story grocery store called Globus that
had loads of Mexican and Middle Eastern food.
The ride down the escalator to the produce department made it seem like
we were in some sort of a movie because it felt so strange to be riding an
escalator in a grocery.
I loved this city…walking through the narrow cobblestone
streets, past the shops filled with leather goods, beautiful clothes and fancy
restaurants. We even visited a
wonderful toy store where we bought a small pair of leather shoes for Cat’s
doll, Josephina.
Sometimes as I walked along the streets, dodging cars, and
people I marveled at the cleanliness of the area, or I wondered why we don’t
have places like this in the parts of America where I’ve lived.
When the train sounded its arrival at the station I actually felt jealous
that people have access to transportation that doesn’t require driving
themselves because when I go home to America I will be forced to drive a car
everywhere I need to go.
Our time in Europe will soon draw to a close.
I find myself wondering how we will adjust to the changes we’ve made in
ourselves…like using the trains instead of a car, or buying fresh produce
every day or so at small markets. I
am not ready to face those changes just yet.
Mostly I am grateful to have so many opportunities to visit new place,
learn new things and experience life just for today.
I hope I can hang on to that enthusiasm for life when I go home…
But for now we were ready to move on because the Mosel
River, which is as picturesque a journey as I will ever take was calling to us
to explore further. Germany seems
to have a million picture-postcard places to visit, and I want to see them all.