Day 18 Cologne Germany A visit to Cologne Cathedral

Tony's View

We got up this morning, finished cleaning the bicycle and making more adjustments. There is a bicycle shop across the street, and they let us borrow a pump to get the correct tire pressure. Joan got all our clothes washed up last night and they are still air drying, though slowly. I wander what they have against dryers. Very few, if any, over here. 

Off to the main attraction in Cologne. The Cathedral decision in 1164 came with the transfer of the relics of the three Maji. The construction started in 1248 and after many events it was finally completed in 1842. The tour guide brochure says the prominent twin-steepled facade with its openwork spires is visible for miles. It is the largest church facade ever built. 

The church has some very beautiful stained-glass windows. 

This stain glass window consisting of mouthblown glass panes. There are 11,263 glass panes. 

Here is a wood model of the Cathedral, that the woodworker/engineer really enjoyed.

Here are some pictures inside.

We decided to climb the 533 steps to the top of one of the spires. The sign below tells it all when you buy your tickets. Germans get right to the point.

Just what you want to do on your day off when you are giving your legs some rest. But the sites were awesome. Check out the cool bridge across the Rhine. 

On the way down, part of the way, the bells were playing. As you can guess they were extremely loud, but super cool. 

Here is a video of them playing.

We went to the cathedral treasury, which is a museum, and took a picture of the original shrine of the Maji relic. It was a cool museum with many relics and artifacts. Kind of like a miniature Vatican Muesum. 

Also, in the museum there was an excavation of an old 1st century Roman sanitary sewer. See the arched hole at the bottom. Who isn't fascinated by a sanitary sewer? 

When walking around we had to dodge people. Cologne is a very busy city with stores, shops, bars and restaurants in every direction for miles. Definitely a tourist town. They have a population of over 1 million people. Biking through all this craziness yesterday was exciting. On our way back, we saw our bicycle of the future for Joan and me. We just need a motor. We elected Wade to cycle us around, since we had to feed him so much growing up. Thanks Wade. 

Had to stop for ice cream, so I decided to go big. Maybe overdid it this time.😋😋

We headed out for dinner, then Mass. The restaurant that was beside the church was called Gertrudenhof. My Mom's name was Gertrude, so we decided to eat there. I told our kids that we are eating there, and they asked "🤣does it serve beef noodle special, awesome dippy eggs, tang, cherry delight or popcorn? ” I said, "It might, but I can't read anything on the menu 😕" Those were some of the favorites that Grandma fed them. 

At the church for Mass, the altar had the Holy Spirit right above it. That is a wonderful representation of when the Priest calls the Holy Spirit down, during the Eucharist prayer. 

Out of the big city tomorrow morning. We are expecting it to not be as hectic on Sunday early morning as it was when we came in on Friday afternoon.

Joan's Extras

Cologne is the halfway point in our travels. While I love all this exploring, I love and miss these guys in the picture even more (plus the 2 more Grandkids on the way 😀).