Koln (Cologne)

Another weekend... Friday was a busy one. Joseph had his friend Max over for supper and to play in the forest. Ellen got out of school early for a teacher in-service and she was out and about with her friend Kat. They shopped on the Hauptstrasse, went to Kat's house, watched a movie at our house and went to a "club" until midnight - this is a big dance hall that "all" the teenagers go to on weekend nights. They had a blast! Jeff and I were invited to the neighbor's house and had a really nice time with them.

Saturday we decided to head north to Koln (the o should have an umlaut and for you Americans that is Cologne :) ). Koln is the 4th largest city in Germany. It is west centrally located, built along the Rhein River. It is a really old city. The old Roman wall, parts of which are still standing, dates to 50 AD. There are lots of Roman excavations and it was neat to think that some of the things we were seeing were built only a decade or so after Jesus' death and resurrection! Koln is probably most famous for its amazing immense cathedral - the Kolner Dom.

Here are some highlights of our day in Koln...


The main attraction in Koln is the unbelievably huge and beautiful Kolner Dom. This was the site of church structures since at least the fourth century (early 300's). The cathedral that stands today was built in the middle of the eleventh century. It is so unbelievably huge it is impossible to get into a single picture but here are portions of it in several pictures.

























To give you some idea of the size of this thing - here is a true size replica of the decorative structures you see at the very top of the cathedral's spires...





















The view from the top of the cathedral (some 500+ steps) is breathtaking. Ok, that is what Jeff, Ellen, Joseph and Daniel said. And the pictures bear that out. However, a particularly severe case of vertigo prevented Sara from making the last 40 or so steps out to the viewing platform. Oh, well.



























The inside of the cathedral is beautiful too - sculptures, paintings, stained glass that are old, intricate and just beautiful.



This Mary statue is connected to several miracles.


















Here is Daniel under the "Daniel" stained glass window :) !

















But, the main attraction is a gold covered shrine said to hold the bones of the Three Magi. We couldn't get very close but even from a distance it was impressive!





















Koln is a very old city. It has a wall, some of which still stands, that dates to about 50 AD. Here is part of the wall,


a corner tower,








and a doorway arch.


















There are excavations all over this old city. Some of them can be visited. This one was below another church.














Koln is a beautiful city and we loved it! Jeff especially loved the autobahn on the way home. Here is proof that he drove 200 kph. My knuckles are still white!