Eurotrip 2013, Part one: Cologne with Lotta and Brendan

The beginning: getting to Cologne.  many steps: thanks god I had company! Brendan, Lotta and I all arrived at Dundee Bus station a bit early… guess we are all a bit excited.  get to bus station, get on the bus, wait at inverkeithing, get on new bus to edi air, check in, security, waiting, boarding haphazardly at Ryanair terminal, waiting in Weeze for the bus, then train, then another train, then Lotta’s home.  she lives in a beautiful home, farm animals and art for deoration, pretty lighting, a pool table, and room for plenty. The area had entire roofs covered in solar panels! And, shutters that not only a-close, but b-electronically! We cooked a frozen pizza then went out for cocktails with Caro to kick off Brendan’s birthday! The bar menu was super organized (Surprise,surprise :p kidding…. sort of). 

started the morning with breakfast rolls straight from the Bakery. Then headed into Koeln. This city is super supportive to arts, you encounter sculptures and painting scattered everywhere, and in general the buildings were colorful, and pretty modern.

We began with a trip to The NS - Dokumentationszentrum (Museum of the history of National Socialism in Cologne).  It was founded in 1987 and is located in the EL-DE building, site of the Gestapo (secret police) in Cologne from December 1935 to March 1945. The prison tract of the building with numerous examples of wall inscriptions by prisoners was made a memorial site in 1981. The permanent exhibition "Köln im Nationalsozialismus" deals with political and social life in Cologne during the Nazi period. The Dokumentationszentrum is devoted to the commemoration of victims, research into the history of Cologne during this period and imparting the knowledge to the general public. (Information from their website!)  People had to sleep in the cells while standing and leaning on eachother, was very sickly and un-livable conditions. they wrote on the walls to keep time, memories, and messages. 

Then we experienced a whole new side of history.  We went to see the Dom, catholic cathedral, home of the relics of the three magi (which is pictured above).  It is the seat of the Archbishop of Cologne and the administration of the Archdiocese of Cologne. It is a renowned monument of German Catholicism and Gothic architecture and is a World Heritage Site.  Construction of Cologne Cathedral commenced in 1248 and was halted in 1473, leaving it unfinished. Work restarted in the 19th century and was completed, to the original plan, in 1880. The cathedral is the largest Gothic church in Northern Europe and has the second-tallest spires and largest facade of any church in the world. The choir has the largest height to width ratio, 3.6:1, of any medieval church. Cologne's medieval builders had planned a grand structure to house the reliquary of the Three Kings and fit its role as a place of worship for the Holy Roman Emperor. Despite having been left incomplete during the medieval period, Cologne Cathedral eventually became unified as "a masterpiece of exceptional intrinsic value" and "a powerful testimony to the strength and persistence of Christian belief in medieval and modern Europe".tall tall tall cielings, huge pointy arches, and of course spots where the façade was clearly restored. The three magi were buried here, there was superornate detailing, paintings on occasion, and loads of sculptures in the chapels.  the crypt  under the altar, was a bit small and not really impressive when compared to the rest of the church; but I think there was a nicer part we didn’t want to pay for.  Then we went around the back, and climbed all 509 steps to top of the tower, that is 322 feet  high!  This thing was so high! We had an amazing view of the city of Koln, people looked like ants that high up! We were able to see the Bells.  4 are medieval, The first was the 3.8-ton Dreikönigsglocke ("Bell of the Three Kings"), cast in 1418, installed in 1437, and recast in 1880. Two of the other bells, the Pretiosa (10.5 tons; at that time the largest bell in the Western world) and the Speciosa (5.6 tons) were installed in 1448 and remain in place today.  The 24-ton St. Petersglocke ("Bell of St. Peter", "Dicke Pitter" in the Kölsch dialect), was cast in 1922 and is the largest free-swinging bell in the world.  and of course they were decided to ding right when we didn’t expect it and scared the crap out of us.  

Then we continued down to the river, walked along the most  popular love padlock bridge I saw on my whole trip, it was mental! There were no spaces for any more and some were so so old and original!  There are a couple historical origins,  I heard it is a Latvian tradition, then someone published it in a book and they started popping up soon after 2005. in Rome, the ritual of affixing love padlocks to the bridge Ponte Milvio can be attributed to the book I Want You by Italian author Federico Moccia, who later made it into the film-adaptation Ho voglia di te.  I think my favorite explanation is this:

an attribution for the bridge Most Ljubavi (lit. the Bridge of Love—now named after the love padlocks) in Serbia exists, where they can be traced to even before World War II. A local schoolmistress named Nada, who was from Vrnjačka Banja, fell in love with a Serbian officer named Relja. After they committed to each other Relja went to war in Greece where he fell in love with a local woman from Corfu. As a consequence, Relja and Nada broke off their engagement. Nada never recovered from that devastating blow, and after some time she died due to heartbreak from her unfortunate love. As young girls from Vrnjačka Banja wanted to protect their own loves, they started writing down their names, together with the names of their loved ones, on padlocks and affixing them to the railings of the bridge where Nada and Relja used to meet.

We continued down river to the lindt chocolate factory where we could watch the process of chocolate being built, learn about the history and current condition of chocolate in the world. we also got a free sample from a fountain on a wafer.. yum!

for a break from walking we stopped and got hot chocolate, people watched for  bit, then headed back out again to see the arch/gate which is really pretty and really old! walked through there and down the park near college campus to catch the train to Br¨uhl, where Lotta lives and where we were staying.  We actually went grocery shopping with a car! we bought loads or German beers to sample, kolsch, mixed beers, and a grapefruit beer.  The beers here are drank from a small straight glass, and the beer here is only legally allowed to be brewed in the area!  We also got ingredients to make cheesy potatoes german dish, and a birthday cake.  We ordered chinese which was great, and finished the night in good company.