Köln has a Great Personality!

Trip Start May 11, 2007

Trip End May 27, 2007

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Flag of Germany Köln, Germany
Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Tip # 1: When riding a night train always bring an alarm clock. Even though the conductor will wake you 30 mins before your arrival city if your like me it can take you 30 mins to get your backpack on!

Arrived at 7am and not much to do since sights don't open until 9am and I couldn't check into my hotel until 10am. Luckily I found a store (kind of like a Walgreens) and was able to spray on some perfume. After a long night on the train I'm sure I was a little smelly and my perfume was somewhere in the nether regions of my backpack. The innkeepers at my hotel were all very nice and the room was old but clean unfortunately it had a really strong musty smell...like your Grandmother's house. Quick took a shower and then off to see the sights, which were all very close to my hotel.

First off, the chocolate museum

Me in front of the cathedral

! Here they show how they make Lindt chocolate. I've always loved those shows where they show you how food is made, shout out to the Food Network. See us cable girls always gotta plug those cable networks! From there I headed to lunch and ended up at a Subway...I know, I know but I really love Subway and they even had my veggie patty sandwich which you can't even find everywhere in America. When I ordered I accidentally said a 16 inch instead of 6 inch. I corrected myself and we had a good laugh over my mistake. Then on to the Hohe Straße which is know for it's shopping, I wasn't trilled because most of the shops we have back home. At one point a lady with a little beard on each side of her chin came up asking for money, that was my first panhandler in Germany.

Suddenly, I had to go to the bathroom and of course not a WC in sight! I walked aimlessly and frantically for a while until I noticed a really nice hotel. Since I looked OK I headed right in and found a WC and bonus it was free, so I guess that would be tip #2! No longer in a panic I strolled over to the cathedral. It is so big and dominates the entire city. Everywhere I went I could see the spire poking above the buildings. If the designers meant for you to feel constantly watched they certainly succeeded here. God is watching...yup I guess he is! The cathedral is absolutely stunning. It's something like three football fields worth of stained glass

Walking the streets

. It is meant to make you feel as though God's light is shinning on you. I sat in a pew and was overcome with a need to pray, something I have not done for a while now. Thoughts of my cousin, sick with leukemia flooded through my mind, tears silently streaming down my face. I was not expecting this. I wish I could say that afterwords I felt this amazing sense of relief or goodwill, but I didn't. What I did feel was as though my prayers were carried above and heard. I can only hope that they are answered. Pulled myself together and began my Rick Steves self-guided tour. Rick is my constant travel companion and honestly with the humor in his writing I almost feel as though he is here with me! There are three pilgrim sights here. One a crucified Jesus showing him with his eyes closed and dead (which I guess is really rare); second a chapel of Mary with a statue said to heal; third is a relic of the three Magi said to contain the skulls and crowns of the three Kings of Christmas fame.

It's amazing that any of this is still standing today, it survived 15 bombings during WWII and has been rebuilt to it's former glory. In the original sections outside it's said that the pock marks are from bullet from the war. That got me thinking about the bad rap Germany has gotten since WWII. I don't think anyone would argue about what a horrible man Hitler and his people were, but I think the majority of German people were misguided by an insane and powerful man

The Rhine runs through it

. Which lead me here with my thoughts: Bush and the war. How he has so many people misguided in their thinking that all people of middle eastern descent are terrorist. Look at all the people that have been victims of hate crimes since 9-11. How far would some American people take it? If it went to far how would we stop it? It puts me in fear of how powerful our President really is. I can only hold hope that he is replaced by someone who can put an end to this madness and bring our boys home. Sorry for getting political but traveling does that to my mind.

With lighter thoughts I made my way to the birthplace of the first perfume, Eau Du Colonge. They still have the original scent! You don't need much of it and to me it smells a little soapy and musky - crisp and clean. Of course, I bought some!

Then I headed over to the Ludwig Museum, they have a great collection of pop art. The two that I enjoyed the most was the portable war museum, it was built out of metal and one side had a replica of soldiers putting up the American flag and underneath the helmets there were no heads. On the other side was a metal replica of a 50s soda shop. It was by an American artist, from Indiana I think. The second was a still made out of plaster it depicted a fully dressed man standing behind a seated naked woman

Chocolate Museum and Factory

. All of their skin was colored silver. There was a bucket at the man's feet and white paint everywhere and I thought they were alive. When I first turned the corner I thought what's the etiquette here? Do I go straight over or will that look like I'm thinking "Oh, look, someone's naked let's have a look immediately' or do I look at all the art in order and look when I get there? So I smiled in their direction and proceeded to look at all the art in order. When I got to the display I'm looking and still thinking they#re alive. Thinking how long can I look without being rude? Then I noticed that the woman and the metal chair are fused together! Oh my, they look so real - you can even see the hairs on his arms! The realism is facinating. When I left the room I kept looking over my shoulder just to check...yup still not real. I even went as far as going back once to double check. Now as I write this I start to doubt myself. No, definitely not alive...right??? Thy also have a good collection of Picasso and good surrealism, but I only found one Dali. It was a man falling into what looked like another world, I'll have to figure out later what painting that was.

By this time I couldn't ignore the pain in my legs, knees, hips and butt. I guess that hiking yesterday was a lot harder on me than I thought. So I grabbed some take out from Kim's China Imßiss, sweet and sour tofu. I saw a lot of locals going in so I figured they must know something I don't. It was either good food or a gambling room in the back. Turns out it was good food. Tip #3: When in doubt follow the crowd out! Yes, I can rhyme too! Went back to the hotel to take some Aleve and decided to take a very short nap while waiting for it to kick in. I'm almost embarrassed to say I didn't wake up until after midnight, I never even heard my alarm! So I scratched that night and went back to sleep!

Next up: I leave Köln for the Rhine!!