Weekend in Cologne, Germany
Trip Start
May 17, 2008
1
21
22
Trip End
Aug 24, 2008
Cologne,
North Rhine-Westphalia,
Germany
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Friday - Sunday: Go to Amsterdam, see the city, Mike leaves on Monday
Monday - Thursday: Work
Friday - Friday: Tour around the Netherlands with my dad
Saturday, August 23: Leave the Netherlands
As a result of the crazy schedule I'm not sure if I will be able to update anymore or not... but here is what has been happening this past week... the pictures, by the way, are not in chronological order.
Last Wednesday Mike & I took our roommate Peter and his girlfriend Hanneke out to dinner for one last evening together, and as a way for (in a very small way) thank them for taking us under their wing this summer. We went to the centrum of Doetinchem and had a delicious dinner.
On Saturday morning Mike & I boarded the high speed train for Cologne, Germany. We were originally hoping to meet up with one of Mike's friends there, but it didn't work out to meet with him, but we still decided to go to the city on our own. It was great to see a little bit of the German culture and some of the differences between the Netherlands and Germany.
Cologne has an amazing cathedral that took over 600 years to build (though, not consecutively) and towers over the entire city. When we first got off the train it was right next to the station and it just blew us away.
More Hotel room
We toured around the cathedral, walked up one of the towers (a long almost 600 ft. climb up a spiral stairway!) and at lunch on the square outside. There were some amazing "treasures" inside including the believed-to-be remains of the 3 wise men! But really there are no words to describe how amazing this chapel was, and certainly pictures do not do it justice. On Saturday, after seeing the cathedral, we took a tour of the city and saw some of the other churches there. The city was heavily bombed during WWII (~ 80% destroyed) so many of the buildings there are newer, but many of the historic churches and other historic structures have been rebuilt or preserved. In the afternoon we checked into our hotel; a modest space in the center of the city. In the late afternoon we took a tour to a large park area and saw an after party from a running race, and then took gondolas above the city to get a view. In the evening we decided to walk around the downtown area, and ended up running into a marching band performance with several different bands. There was so much energy in the performances & in the crowd, and we just had a great time in the evening listening to them.
Sunday morning we got up and caught an early breakfast. The city was absolutely dead in the morning, it was amazing to see empty streets where they had been packed the night before. In the late morning we went to a museum describing the history of the city. Cologne has been around for a couple of thousand years, so there is a lot of history there and a lot of things have happened in its time. Including, of course, WWII. It was very surreal to be in such a city where 11,000 of the approx. 11,050 Jews in Cologne had been taken to concentration camps. The museum spoke openly and frankly about that shameful part of the German history.
In the afternoon we took a tour to a more modern part of the city and saw some funky new buildings and more Medieval and Roman structures. We also stopped by an Olympic museum (fitting as Friday is the opening ceremonies) and learned some more about the history of the Olympics relating to Germany. In the late afternoon we hopped on the high speed train again & headed home.
The experience in Cologne was amazing, and I could go on & on about it for a while I'm sure... but it is 11:30 pm & I've got work in the morning, so it is off to bed for me. I'll hopefully be able to update again next week about Amsterdam....
Until then,
Nate
