We had a full second day in Cologne today. We started by touring the huge Catholic Cathedral.
This church is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Germany. It is visited by 20,000 people per DAY. It can be seen from quite a distance. It is actually pictured on the back of Ben's religion book. His visiting the cathedral is surely worth some extra credit!
Construction was started on the church in 1248. After some starts and stops (due to lack of funds, disagreements and wars) it was finally completed in 1880. That's a 600+ year project! This cathedral is known for housing the bones of the three Magi who came to pay homage to the infant, Jesus. The relics are in a gold shrine behind the high altar. This is what has made Cologne a pilgrimage for Catholics for centuries. It is an impressive building with many chapels inside. It has a very long center aisle and lots of stained glass windows.
Each year that the archbishop has served the diocese is symbolized by a guilded rod. These are visible at the top in this picture of Myles and Natalie.
The current archbishop has served for 22 years so far.
This was taken in the Chapel of the Cross. It is the oldest monumental crucifix of the Western World. It was donated to the Archdiocese of Cologne by the Archbishop Gero in 976.
After we explored the cathedral, we went outside and found a fountain representing the Legend of Cologne. The story goes that the people of Cologne were very lazy and that gnomes came in and did all the work of the people at night. One day a woman who was very curious about this, decided she wanted to see some gnomes. So she put peas on the floor and waited. When the gnomes arrived that night to do the work of the people, the peas made them fall down. They were so angry that they all left Cologne. From that point on the people of Cologne could no longer be lazy and had to do their own work!
We walked along the river and decided to hop on an hour boat ride up and down the Rhein. It was a quick little trip where they pointed out the sights of Cologne as we went by.
They showed us this actual Roman era aqueduct that is on display. It is kind of off the beaten path, so we would not have seen it if they had not pointed it out to us. It's hard to imagine that this structure is 2,000 years old
.
We had some sandwiches for dinner and then went back to the apartment after this very full day! We are planning to take a train to Bonn tomorrow and see the sights there.
We walked along the river and decided to hop on an hour boat ride up and down the Rhein. It was a quick little trip where they pointed out the sights of Cologne as we went by.
When the short cruise was over we headed back near the cathedral. When my sister came to visit us in Poland, she made some friends on the flight from LA to Frankfurt, Germany. Margrit and Hans were very kind to her on her very first trans-Atlantic flight, and helped her navigate customs and get to her connecting flight. They have kept in touch with her, and they live near Cologne. We emailed them and told them we were going to be in town. They met us today for a couple of hours. We sat outside on this magnificent spring day and had some ice cream together. Then they showed us a few sights around the area. It was very kind of them to meet us and we enjoyed their company very much!
They showed us this actual Roman era aqueduct that is on display. It is kind of off the beaten path, so we would not have seen it if they had not pointed it out to us. It's hard to imagine that this structure is 2,000 years old
.
We had some sandwiches for dinner and then went back to the apartment after this very full day! We are planning to take a train to Bonn tomorrow and see the sights there.
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