Koln - August 16, 2011

3 hours in Koln

Several times today I turned to Joe and said, “Why did we go to Koln anyway?

Reason #1: It is a transportation hub directly connected to Brussels via the Thayls train meaning a faster, less expensive ride to Germany.

Reason #2: We never made it to WYD 2005 here, and if the Catholic youth of the world decided to come here, it must be an important place.

Reason #3: We found and now display in our home a Cat’s Meow piece of Koln’s Cathedral…again must be important if it made it into the International Collection with the Eiffel Tower, St. Peter’s and the Tower of Pisa.

Every time I look at that Cat’s Meow piece, I will now be reminded of the stressful 3 hrs. that Koln turned out to be.  Sure, the Cathedral is massive and somewhat interesting, but otherwise, there’s not much to see in Germany’s fourth largest city.  Couple that with Kemwel’s mistake in booking our car rental from the airport 30 min. outside the city instead of the train station, and Koln made for a frustrating side trip.  Guess we better trust Rick next time instead of the WYD Committee and Cat’s Meow.

Highlights:

• Cathedral: Huge Gothic Cathedral that received only limited WWII damage compared to the rest of the city…Supposedly the Magi’s bones are inside the golden reliquary behind the altar.  Not our favorite Cathedral, but worth a short visit as long as the red-robed “guards” will allow you to stay!

Beware of the Red Guards

The 3 Magi's Bones are in here

• Rick’s City Walk: Learned some interesting tidbits…Cologne was an old Roman Settlement and had a lot of Roman Ruins buried beneath it, we were able to peek into the museum to look at a famous floor, The Hohenzollern Bridge is the busiest bridge in Germany, Hitler apparently didn’t like prostitutes either so he turned slums into nicer areas.  Also saw the place where the city’s toilet water became Eau de Cologne, starting the phenomena of alcohol-based fragrances.  Joe made sure to try some!  

Dionysus Mosaic, which dates from about 220 AD.

Hohenzollernbrücke

Original Eau de Cologne

• Baggage Storage: Put your luggage in a machine and your bags are brought underground to a storage unit.  When it’s time to get them back, scan your ticket and the computer brings your bags back up almost instantly.  Amazing how it works since you don’t even need to drop off/pick up your bags in the same kiosk!

Put things in...

...and they come out

Food

• Subway: We NEVER eat here more than once on a vacation, especially in Europe.  But again…gotta stretch the Euro as far as you can.  Good thing we opted for the foot-long subs…at least we had something to eat on our adventure to get our rental car.

After a 30ish minute train ride, wandering the airport for 30 minutes we finally got our car!