Monday: September 30
Koln (Cologne), Getting High
This morning for breakfast, just to be different, I ordered two Eggs Benedict.
At 8:45 we were in the second group to leave for the included walking tour of Kohn. It was probably about 50 out and spitting. I wore my orange fleece shirt and my red fleece jacket. I ended up wearing my rain hat, more to keep my head warm than to keep the rain out of my eyes.
On our way off the boat, we passed the two people who were doing a bike tour of Koln. Rumor has it that four people had signed up, but at least when we left, only two had turned up. I was really glad we went biking the previous day. This did not look like anything close to good biking weather. I’m happy that we weren’t going out on bikes today.
We walked to the cathedral, as our guide talked about the ancient Roman wall that was still visible in places.
Then a strange thing happened. Our guide noticed these two guys standing nearby. One was an extremely well-known soccer star from the area, and the other guy was a TV personality. They were being filmed for something. There was a woman with a fancy stabilized camera, another guy with a camera hanging from a boom on a backpack, and someone else with fancy audio equipment. We didn’t recognize either of the two subjects, but our guide was rather in awe of them.
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They don’t let guided tours into the cathedral, so after he talked to us for a short time about it, we went in to explore on our own.
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We met up again outside the church after about a half hour. The rain had stopped, but it was still a bit breezy and raw. The tour continued down to the river. The guide showed us where our boat was docked (maybe a mile or mile-and-a-half) down the shore. Then we could either go back with him to the cathedral/bus, walk back to the boat, or explore the area on our own.
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Amy wanted to check out the area, and in particular a chocolate museum, so we left the group and headed up the shoreline. We ran into an interesting hotel, where there was a very large main lobby/atrium, that was set up to look sort of like a quaint street, with the two rows of rooms/shops looking like buildings/store-fronts along the street.
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We continued up a short ways and found the chocolate museum. We didn’t feel like paying the entrance fee, and we didn’t have time for it anyways, but Amy hit up the gift shop, which Amy thought looked like a giant candy store. (It *was* a giant candy store.)
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Then we needed to hurry back to the boat, so that could catch a quick lunch and make it to the afternoon tour. Amy noticed a teetering skeleton on a radar reflector on the bridge that required a few pictures.
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Another interesting thing we noticed is that there a fairly high gondola system spanning the Rhine here. There is no good reason to have it so high, except to give people a good view of the area (and to scare me half to death if I ever went on it).
We got to the boat after lunch had started. I dropped our stuff off in the room and then hurried to the restaurant to join Amy. We were in a bit of a rush, as we only had an hour to get lunch, get prepared, and head over to the bus for the afternoon tour. It looked like it started sprinkling just after we got on the boat, so perhaps we timed things perfectly.
I was a little concerned about the time, but we ended up finishing lunch with 10-15 minutes before we had to head out. The afternoon was supposed to be wetter than the morning, so I switched into my hiking boots and wore my down vest and raincoat. I took our umbrellas in a fanny pack, and while Amy used hers, I didn’t bother with mine.
We got off the bus at the usual place, and our guide led us to the cathedral. At this point it was sort of drizzling on us. We had about a half hour to wait for our real guide to show up, so Amy and I went across the street to the train station. I thought that I could get a better photo of the cathedral from that angle, with a roof to keep the rain off my lens.
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About five minutes early, we left the train station and walked over to the cathedral. We then huddled with our shipmates until the real guide showed up.
Our tour was “The Top of Cologne”, featuring a trip to the top of the cathedral. There was an elevator, so we didn’t have to climb all of the stairs. I was expecting to go into one of the towers, take an elevator to near the top, go out, see the views, head back down, and then I’m not sure what. I was very wrong. The tour was much cooler than that.
There was a fair amount of scaffolding around the cathedral. I’m not sure if they were cleaning it, maintaining it, or both. We ended up taking a construction elevator up the scaffolding, and then exited onto the halfway part of the scaffolding. She talked a bit about the cathedral, and then we went in a door, and we ended up in a walkway that ran around the inside of the cathedral just below the huge windows. We had really good views of the inside of the cathedral from above.
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One of the things that she talked about was one of the organs (they have, I think, four organs). It looks like it is clinging to the wall high up between two windows, but in reality it is hanging from the roof trusses. The keyboard is on the inside of it, rather some distance up from the floor. Organists who were afraid of heights had difficulty playing it.
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Eventually we went back out to the elevator, and rode it to the top. I was a bit more nervous at this altitude, but the scaffolding was very stable. We went in and around the roof, looking at the roof truss system and the views of the city. It was very strange to be looking sideways at the tops of the spires.
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We ended up under the central tower. There were a few flights of stairs going up, and then a spiral staircase going up to the top of the tower. That was optional for people who were either afraid of heights or who had difficulty with stairs. I was happy that I didn’t have any problems with it. Then we took the elevator back to the bottom, and the tour ended.
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I wanted to check out the inside, so Amy and I went in. We visited the crypt, and we noticed that there was a classic labyrinth (which is different from a maze). Then we high-tailed back to where the bus was waiting. I was a little nervous as I didn’t remember the bus schedule or when the last bus left. We ran across about a half dozen of our shipmates, so I figured we were pretty safe.
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The bus was there when we got there. It didn’t leave for about a half hour, but at least we could sit while we waited. Our bus driver took a slightly scenic detour on the way to the boat. He showed us where the zoo and botanic garden was. Amy and I were thinking of maybe checking it out after we got back to the boat, but we really didn’t have the time.
After we got back, I changed out of my hiking boots, came up to the lounge, and started typing this up.
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Dinner was interesting. I wanted two of the appetizers, but I didn’t want both of those and a main course, so I ended up having just two appetizers and dessert. I figured that I’ve been eating too much anyways, so eating less wouldn’t be a problem.
Then we went up to the lounge at 9 for an hour long classical music concert featuring a pianist and a clarinet player.
So ends another day.