September 11, 2021 

The Skirnir flew it's flags at half mast for the 20th anniversary of 9-11.  It was a sweet gesture and a grim reminder...in the background news, the US has just finished pulling it's military from Afghanistan - a 20 year endeavor to root out terrorist and extremists.  It is a bittersweet time.  We watched this news carefully as Nate was deployed on the USS Eisenhower in that arena. His deployment was extended to be available to assist with this process, but luckily they were allowed home after another group arrived to take over.  But I digress...back to the river.

Cologne, Germany

Docking in Cologne one could tell right away that it was a very large city dominated by it's most historic landmark, the very very Gothic Cologne Cathedral.   We also could see the Great St  Martin, one of the 12 restored Romanesque churches. We now seemed far from the quaint and medieval little towns that we had been visiting.  

According to Wikipedia - with Lynne comments:

Cologne (English; German: Köln) is the largest city of Germany's most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the fourth-most populous city and one of the oldest in Germany. With 3.6 million people in the urban region and 1.1 million inhabitants  within its city proper (about the size population-wise of San Diego but more compact), Cologne is the largest city on the river Rhine and also the most populous city of both the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Region and the Rhineland.

The city's medieval Catholic Cologne Cathedral (Kölner Dom), the third-tallest church and tallest cathedral in the world, constructed to house the Shrine of the Three Kings (i.e. their bones!), is a globally recognized landmark and one of the most visited sights and pilgrimage destinations in Europe. The cityscape is further shaped by the Twelve Romanesque churches of Cologne, and Cologne is famous for Eau de Cologne, that has been produced in the city since 1709, and "cologne" has since come to be a generic term.

Prior to World War II, the city had undergone occupations by the French (1794–1815) and the British (1918–1926), and was part of Prussia beginning in 1815. Cologne was one of the most heavily bombed cities in Germany during World War II. The bombing reduced the population by 95%, mainly due to evacuation, and destroyed almost the entire millennia-old city center. The post-war rebuilding has resulted in a very mixed cityscape, restoring only major historic landmarks like city gates and churches (31 of them being Romanesque)

Cologne is a major cultural center for the Rhineland; it hosts more than 30 museums and hundreds of galleries. Exhibitions range from local ancient Roman archeological sites to contemporary graphics and sculpture. The Cologne Trade Fair hosts a number of trade shows such as Art Cologne, Dmexco, imm Cologne, Photokina and Gamescom, a leading video games fair - haha very much like San Diego and comic con.

The city in destruction 

Buildings and bridges destroyed and in rubble

It is obvious that a great deal of restoration or renewal has happened since 1945 and we did get a feel for both the restoration and mixture of the old right beside the new.  Sooo, one very large city with so much to offer and only one quick walking tour past one of the restored roman churches to its famous cathedral in the old city center.  It is obvious that we only scratched the surface.  But what we did see was an awe inspiring combination of architecture over the ages. (Side note....there is much graffiti in many of the spots we visited.  You will notice this particularly at the train station)

I have to say that it is impressive how hard Germany worked to restore all the heavily damaged cities and emerged as a major tourist destination today.

Great St. Martin Church  is a Romanesque Catholic church.  The current buildings (restored that is), including a soaring crossing tower that is a landmark of Cologne's Old Town, were erected between 1150-1250.  The church was badly damaged in World War II; restoration work was completed in 1985.  Wow, 40 years to restore what was damaged in only a few years.  

It is very clear to me now that this restoration process happened all over Germany and has  perhaps restored some pride to the Germans who suffered much damage to their country (physically as well as mentally).

I tried to take a picture that was posted at the site about the WWII damage to this church and although it has a great deal of glare, I think you can see the beginnings of the restoration process. Volunteers gathered the rubble and put into separate piles based on where each portion the rubble belonged in the church.  (Reminds me of working on jigsaw puzzles...first step is separating the colors and distinct pieces)

It is hard to imagine what gumption it must have taken to pick yourself up from total devastation and begin the process of repair and renewal.

We did not go into this church but the guide mentioned that the romans built their walls very thick and so the shell of this church survived the worst bombing and gave the Germans a skeleton with which to restore this beautiful church.

We reached the Centerpiece of Cologne - visible all over the city (and in our pictures) - the Cologne Cathedral.  

It is Germany's most visited landmark, attracting an average of 20,000 people a day. At 515 feet, the cathedral is currently the tallest twin-spired church in the world, the second tallest church in Europe after Ulm Minster, and the third tallest church in the world. (Okay, a must see!) It is the largest Gothic church in Northern Europe and has the second-tallest spires. The towers for its two huge spires give the cathedral the largest façade of any church in the world. 

Unfortunately there was scaffolding around much of the right side of the cathedral and it was difficult to get a clean picture so I have included a stock photo to show you the full picture.  We will include details of what we saw. It was  impressive and so photographic.  I have to say that we encountered weather as good as shown in this stock photograph and were lucky our whole trip to have this beautiful picture taking light and clouds.

Flying buttresses with all their gothic details - making it look rather lacy to me.

West entrance 

Showing arched detail over the doorway

 A better view of the golden insert above the doors...so much detail...so much to take in

Love the gold cross detailing in this saint's statue on the right - it glittered in the sunlight against the flatness of the stonework

Bob enjoyed the gargoyle detailing

Interior destruction from WWII

Restored...looking forward (East)

Looking backward (West) 

Looking upward

Partially restored stained glass windows - the glazed windows still apparent in the upper portion of each arched section

Originally, in 1863, windows with the depiction of secular and Christian rulers made by the Royal Stained Glass Institute in Berlin-Charlottenburg had been installed, donated by the Kingdom of Prussia. The windows were destroyed in World War II and replaced in 1948 by a simple ornamental glazing by Wilhelm Teuwen, that was in need of restoration. Because of their colorlessness, the incident light was very bright, which was perceived as very disturbing.  

The Cologne Cathedral Window is the stained glass window in the south transept of the Cologne Cathedral designed by Cologne artist Gerhard Richter. On a surface of over a 1,000 square feet  11,263 glass squares in 72 colors of 9.6 cm × 9.6 cm were principally arranged randomly, with others selected in response to architectural context. The window was inaugurated on August 25, 2007 as part of a Eucharistic celebration; the abstract execution was both celebrated and strongly criticized.

The tour guide left us at this point and we just wandered toward the right of the cathedral and were delighted with the combination of old and new right next to each other.  The Cathedral Central Station was right near cathedral square as was the Lugwig Museum and the Cologne Philharmonic Concert Hall.  See if you can pick out the concert hall in the following pictures...aw, that isn't fair....you'll never see it.  It was built underground and you can only pick it out because of the large red brick square placed over it.  It is part of the building assembly of the Museum Ludwig and was opened in 1986.  And the interesting thing (well, more interesting than being underground) is that they discovered that if people were walking on this brick courtyard that it could be heard in the concert hall below, so they have guards posted in the square that remind people to stay off of the brick area....He blew his whistle a couple of times to get people to not tromp on the "roof" of the hall.  Took us a moment to realize why he was blowing his whistle...not at us, of course.  Hmmm, maybe.  We were very careful to walk on the designated area after the whistle blowing.

So, I guess this would be called the south side of the cathedral

Fun detailing on the southeast side

As we continued in this direction it started to open up the area with this red brick courtyard 

And suddenly we see this more modern structure which is the Cathedral or Central train station.  It was very very busy!  Trains coming and going every second.  Lots of tracks and overhead wires.

You can see the cathedral in the left background of this picture

As we continued on along the red brick square we could see the Ludwig museum.  Part of the museum is dedicated to showing the history of the cathedral.  In fact they had a few artifacts of the church on display along the way ....hmmm, cathedral put back together with some pieces still left out....I feel their pain.  But it was great to be up close and able to touch some these artifacts.  They were just along the brick courtyard and in the museum "lab" courtyard (pictured).

Ludwig Museum and Heinrich-Böll square

Museum cathedral artifact

So, have you found the Concert Hall yet?  Well, it was in there.  Would have been fun to go to a concert.  (The hall inside has no columns in it and has place for 2,000 people. The size of the hall created some problems: The hall is below the public Heinrich-Böll square. Walking noise from people with stiletto heels or driving noise from skateboards or trolleys can be heard in the hall. Due to this reason, the town square is closed during performance.  Or rehearsals, I would guess..Too funny.  The last time I can remember someone blowing a whistle at me was in elementary school.

 

We then came across a somber tribute to the victims of the holocausts a single rail leading Eastward...the directions most victims were taken to the concentration camps.

Past this memorial we came upon the The Hohenzollern Bridge (alias lock bridge) which is a bridge crossing the Rhine River.  Originally, the bridge was both a railway and road bridge. However, after its destruction in 1945 (see first picture in this posting) and its subsequent reconstruction, it was only accessible to rail and pedestrian traffic.  It is the most heavily used railway bridge in Germany with more than 1,200 trains daily (think we might have seen all of them).  Apparently it used extensively as a pedestrian bridge as well because of all the locks attached to the bridge railings.

The Hohenzollern Bridge functioned as one of the most important bridges in Germany during World War II (1939-1945); even consistent daily airstrikes did not badly damage it. On 6 March 1945 German military engineers blew up the bridge as Allied troops began their assault on Cologne.

Thousands of padlocks now hang from the railings of the bridge, each inscribed, painted, or otherwise decorated by the couple that hung it. 40,000 padlocks hang on the bridge to date – a shocking number considering that the tradition only started in 2008.

Tourists and Cologne residents like to immortalize their relationship in the form of love locks on the bridge. As a sign of eternal love and fidelity, they attach their lock to the bridge grating and throw the corresponding key into the Rhine.

See the cathedral in the background as we turned back from the bridge and exited the square

Down the stairs towards the Rhine River we came across the "bubble man" as described by one of our fellow cruise mates.  The kids were having a great time, plus there was a Rhine River Fountain which is a nice sprawling water feature that they enjoyed as well.

The lock bridge is just to the right of the trees and you can see the Rhine in the background

Rhine Garden Fountain

You can see the Great St Martin Church in the background from the fountain...we have made a circle back towards our boat along the Rhine River walkway.  A beautiful stroll.

Cologne at night -  as we go on our river journey towards Amsterdam (the chain bridge is in the far background)