6/13/2016 - Cologne

6/13/2016 - Monday

Yesterday evening we enjoyed a Welcome Dinner hosted by the Chef de Cuisine.  We sat with a couple from Tennessee and had a very enjoyable meal.  Afterwards there was a slide show explaining the history of the Netherlands and a brief look at some of its most famous artists.  By 2200 hours, we were all ready to turn in for the night in anticipation of our introduction to Germany.  This morning, we will dock at Cologne at 1030 hours after traveling for for over 22 hours.  The captain explained that during the trip we will be covering more that 1000 miles as we travel between Amsterdam and Budapest.  I believe that last night will represent the  longest leg of the journey.

Of interest to us is the scenery along the shore and how it has changed since we traveled from the lowlands of the Netherlands to the rolling hills of the German country side.  It is much more beautiful and much less industrialized that what we encountered in the Netherlands.  Plus the fact that the Germans have not, apparently, cut down all of their forests like the Dutch have.

We departed the ship at 1030 and took a bus into the city.  Our group organized in front of the massive Cologne Cathedral.  The city was almost totally destroyed during WWII and there are only a few buildings left that were representative of the original ancient city.  Cologne was founded by the Romans 2000 years ago and they have unearthed (7 meters underground) a beautiful mosaic floor that is about 20' by 20' that you can see from the street through glass that is part of the Cologne museum of Roman antiquities.

I think we found Cologne to be a rather uninteresting city from the standpoint of things to see.  It was, however, very interesting from the standpoint of things to eat and drink.  The chocolates and pastries are excellent and their special bier "Grolsh" isn't bad either.  All in all it was a fun day.  We are, however ready to get into the Rhine Wine country and visit the small villages along the shores of the River.

The river, by the way, is really high and just about to spill over its banks on to the river-side walkways.  Nothing dangerous and it is supposed to begin falling tomorrow.  The crew doesn't seem concerned about it so neither are we.

On to Koblenz!

Of course, the pastries are wonderful.

A fountain depicting the Cologner's version of menehunes.  The dwarfs are the ones that did a lot of the work but were surprised by the woman at the top of the fountain and they were frightened and left the Cologne area forever.  Since then the Cologners (who by their own admission don't like to work much) have had a fairly chaotic and messy city.

The old City Hall (Rathaus) of Cologne.  The city was 93% destroyed during WWII so there are only remnants of the ancient city visible.  

This supposedly represents the populaces displeasure at the city counsel for some decision they made that was unpopular!!!

Cologne cathedral from the left side.

This fountain in the center of the fishermen's guild square in Cologne represents the fishwives who were infamous as rabble rousers in the area.  Apparently they were very aggressive and argumentative and were always fighting.

The Cologne Cathedral is the most impressive part of Cologne but they have built things so close to it that it is hard to take in the whole structure... quite amazing though.

The Team.. thanks for taking the picture, Pat.

The hike to the top was fun and tiring... every time we thought we were at the top another set of stairs appeared.  I don't know why we pay money to punish ourselves.

Colorful buildings right on the Fishermen's Guild Square.

Here we are after climbing to the top of the tour... it was a long way up and there isn't really a good clear view because you can never really get outside of the tower.

The chocolate selection was beautiful and very yummy!