Life: Idiotropic

Cologne is not the most fantastic city that I've ever been to, but it is one that you just need to see. The first time I saw Cologne with the Dom sitting magnificently next to the Rhine, it made a solid impression as a great city and I was excited to come by myself and explore it. The grassy area along the Rhine is nice and there are some interesting shopping districts. The Dom itself is a big draw to the city with so much detail that I still notice something new every time I see it.

But, sadly, Cologne was very heavily bombed during WW2 and most of what was old and beautiful and historical is gone. The Altstadt is almost entirely gone. The flames during the bombing got so high that the planes had to turn back with undropped bombs. It was a different time, but the city can't go back, of course, so much of the glory of what was is seen only in museums.

If you have a day to explore museums, then Cologne would be an interesting stop. Roman artifacts are still discovered and several nice museum house what's already been found. Before I move, I'll do that.

But, we drove to Cologne which is an easy hour drive and then parked below the Dom in a parking lot that comes out right next to it. The Christmas market was being set up to begin the next day. Three human statues stood still in the cold wind in front of the Dom waiting for people to drop coins into the little genie bottles in front of them. They were different than the statues we'd seen before and not as serious. Two of them were ladies - one in silver and another in gold. Then a man dressed as Charlie Chaplin stood still. Luci was too shy to give him a coin, but he smiled and waved. Later we walked by and the statues were huddled in the doorway of the Dom counting their change and getting ready for lunch. Luci exclaimed, "Mommy, the statues can walk!"

Just around the corner in a nice shopping area was the restaurant where we stopped for food. The menu was mostly Italian and good, but sometimes I get tired to eating Italian food. It's almost too common here no matter how good it might be. Even on a good Dutch menu, you can almost always find Spaghetti Bolognese. It's reliable, but nothing very exciting.

After lunch we walked around the Dom. On one wall some men were cleaning and painting some of the carved art on the walls. One window had scaffolding up outside with men working on it, so from the inside there were all sorts of little silhouettes sitting with their legs hanging or standing working. I haven't been to the Dom yet without seeing scaffolding up on some part of it. It's so immense that it probably gets dirty as fast as they can clean it. In the photo above you can see the degrees of filth in some statues sitting in a row by a doorway. It's hard to visualize the church ever being completely white like that far right statue. It was the first time that I'd been there when the back portion of the cathedral was open.

Walking around the half-circle we could see tombs and shrines with the large life-sized carved figures of their owners resting on top. Alters with crosses sat behind a lot of the tombs. Most of them had large gates in front of them, so you could see them, but not touch. Some had pews set up so that one could potentially pray there.

After the Dom we tried to get to the Rhine. It's close, very close, but the construction in the area was so hard to navigate that we eventually gave up. Mom and Jeff did get a tour of the Hauptbahnhof (train station) though with all it's little shops and eateries.

Before the drive home we stopped at good ol' Starbucks for a Toffee Nut Latte. Luci and Elise sat at the little kid table a good 20 feet away and had a nice time together while us adults enjoyed some quiet.