Day 5:  Köln (Cologne), Germany

Throughout our trip, we hadn’t really spent much time in a large metropolitan city. Part of our trip took us near Frankfurt, Köln, and Düsseldorf, and so I kind of arbitrarily chose Köln, since it looked kind of cool.

Per usual, we parked our car and began strolling around as much as could. Immediately, the colossal Kölner Dom, the second tallest  twin-spired church in Europe (and third tallest in the world) at 157 m (515 ft) tall. According to our handy-dandy Wikipedia, the cathedral was first constructed around 1250, with several phases of construction throughout the next centuries. Currently, there is scaffolding on the left spire.

This cathedral is massive, probably the largest I’ve seen. Going inside was surreal, seeing how high the ceilings and the trusses were. (By the way, I took art/architecture history a while ago, so forgive me for poorly describing this amazing cathedral). My brother and I walked around inside for about 20 minutes, taking in the stunning details.

Afterwards, we walked along the riverfront by the Rhine, which flows through the city. We walked around the city a bit and went back to our car to drive to a different part of town with more cafes and shops. We made our way to Hiroshima-Nagasaki Park, a park dedicated to the people of the two Japanese cities bombed during the war. It was a really pleasant walk, seeing the geese and swans swimming in the pond.

We eventually made our way back towards the shops and settled on a place called Mad Dogs for lunch. We’ve had our share of bratwurst, so we mixed it up a bit with… hot dogs! Each of us ordered a different hot dog, and we split them all into fourths so we could all sample one. Thanks to my bro for documenting which items we ordered… we got the Orient Express Dog, the Curry Dog, the Chili Dog, and the Mad Dog No.1 with some fries and special Harissa Mayo sauce on the side. One of the dogs had a mozzarella cheese stick on top, one had I think pickled beets on it. Some odd combos, but overall it was really good.

We walked around a bit more and ended up driving over to the Köln Triangle, an office building on the opposite side of the river that provides nice skyline views of Köln. For just 3 euros, we went up the the 29th floor onto an observation deck to see panoramic views of the city. It was breezy and chilly, but it was pretty cool viewing the city and seeing all of the major landmarks depicted on the glass that surrounded the deck.

We rounded out the evening by heading to Dinslaken for our AirBnB, just north of the city of Duisburg. We didn’t really have much food options so decided on a quick bite at the Burger King before hitting the hay for the night.

Kölner Dom, Cologne, Germany

Kölner Dom

She’s been through so much, this cathedral. 

Someone dreamed her up and began building her in 1248, even though they knew they would never see her finished.

Building stopped abruptly in 1473, leaving her open to the elements. She stood mute and silent for another four centuries for building to begin again.

Finally completed in 1880, (according to the originalplan!) she gleamed like a beacon along the Rhine for a mere sixty years - a blink of an eye in her life - until the bombs began falling in World War 2. She sustained numerous massive hits, yet remained standing while the rest of the city was leveled.

Repairs were completed in the 1950’s, and now the Cologne cathedral stands proud as a Unesco World Heritage site. 

Maybe my recent re-reading of The Pillars of the Earth and World Without End have wormed their way into my mind too much, but I can’t help but wonder … the person who dreamed this cathedral up and sketched it out in sand and on parchment? Do you think he dared to dream that his cathedral would still be standing in the twenty-first century? 

Sources - Wikimedia Commons

design-is-fine:

Cologne Cathedral, Germany. Construction began in 1248, was halted around 1560,  restarted in 1814 and was completed to its original medieval plan in 1880. The builders in the 14th century created a pastel light effect that remained unique among medieval churches. It is preserved in the cathedral choir to this day. The oldest window dates back to the 13th century, the most recent window was created in 2007 by Gerhard Richter. Source