Cologne - The Tour That Seemed to Last Forever

Note:  The Germans pronounce and spell Cologne differently:  Koln.  This morning started out a little different.  After breakfast, we were treated to a history of the Roman Empire in the Rhine area.  It was a very interesting and informative talk.  We had a walking tour of the city.  Our guide was a little strange.  While she was very knowledgeable (she indicated she was an archaeologist by profession), we found that she did not talk about main historical highlights of Cologne, but rather sights that (in my opinion) she thought were neat.  We saw a naked St. George (don’t ask) and a statue of two guys talking.  If you rubbed the one guy’s nose, it was supposed to bring you good luck.  We passed by the Cologne Cathedral.  More on that later.   

Cologne is known for its Roman History.  Our walking tour finished up at the Roman Germanic Museum, where our guide conducted a tour inside. By this time, we were getting a little antsy with our guide and ready to bolt.  The museum had some well preserved artifacts. There was an impressive mosaic tile floor that was unearthed and the museum was built around/top of it.  The mosaic had over 1 million tiles in it.  The guide indicated that when the G8 conference was in Cologne a few years back, the leaders ate dinner on the tile floor.  At one point, I zoned out on my tour guide and listened in to another group.  It was interesting and informative.  There was a large plan of the old Roman town posted on the wall.  She said that the Cathedral was built over part of the ruins and that there was a stairwell in the corner of the church that led down to the Roman ruins. 

The tour finished and we headed back to the ship for lunch.  It was about a ½ hour walk.  We walked down the main pedestrian/shopping street.  It was a little before noon and crowded.  Cologne has a Lego store in it, so we stopped in on the way back.  Our friends have a 5 year old that loves Lego, and we wanted to get him a mini-figure keychain that said “Germany” on it, similar to my Canadian Dude.  We did find something creative and only available at the Cologne store.  Sorry Pete, you’ll have to wait until we get back to find out what it is. 

After lunch, we headed back to see the Cathedral.  It is the largest gothic style cathedral in the world, and (we think) the 2^nd largest cathedral in the world after St. Peter’s at the Vatican.  It took over 600 years to complete.  High ceilings, intricate sculptures, beautiful paintings.  We went down to the crypt where the archbishops are buried.  The have a plaque on the wall indicating all the (arch) bishops of the area/church, dating back to 313.  The last one on the list is Pope John Paul II in 2005.

Cologne is also home to a chocolate museum.  Something that we could not pass up.  The museum was interesting.  The first level was dedicated to chocolate production and where all the ingredients come from.  They had a small room that had real cocoa bean trees in them form warmer climates.  The room was environmentally controlled with lots of windows.  You had to enter and exit through an airlock to keep the temperature and humidity constant.  It was muggy in there!  The first level also had old production equipment and a small scale production line that made small individual chocolates.  The 2^nd and 3^rd  levels displayed a historical account of products, posters, cups, pots to serve hot chocolate etc… Of course, no trip to a chocolate museum would be complete without a trip to the candy store.  While not as big as the one in Switzerland, it had a larger selection of chocolate offerings.  Now for the most amazing part, we did not buy anything.  I will pause for everyone to pick themselves up off the floor.

Dinner was good again.  We sat with Brian, Anne, Roger, Ann, Peter and Joan again.  Jennifer had the broiled fish with beet risotto.  I had the grilled pork tenderloin with braised witlof.  Just before dinner, as we were cruising, I got a few pictures of the sunset.  It was amazing.  We said goodbye to Cologne around 6:00pm and will dock at our final stop, Amsterdam around 1:00pm.

 Shout out to my favourite mother-in-law.  We thought of you when we saw these.

To our nephew Noah.  Here is your boat. 

 Naked St. George.  You can tell its him by the sword and dragon.

 The Cathedral.  It was too big to get the whole thing in one picture.

Good bye Germany.  See you again.