Ascending. 6 October, 2009

Another rainy day in Koln and as a warning: this post is only likely interesting to people like my mom any teachers out there, and my italian-catholic family who may oooh-and-ahh over the pretty churches.
  
Around 10am I met my rent-a-friend at the university (okay she was really one of Josef’s graduate students) and the two of us headed into town for coffee and to visit the Köln Dom or Cathedral which is a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site.  It is a Gothic Cathedral. I would actually care what that meant if I could remember anything from Grade 5 Art History and Architecture.

   The cathedral is visible as you come in on the train, plane, and yes, automobile. So there are strict building restrictions on anything that would alter the skyline.

A couple interesting things about this cathedral: It took around 600 years to finish, stopped for 300 years in the middle, and then after being finishing in the late 1800s, was bombed shortly thereafter during WWII. You can see that parts of the Cathedral are black and that is the effect of acid rain on the sandstone.

The Cathedral is still (and always) undergoing restoration and it has been repaired enough so that you can not only go inside the church, but one fantastic part of this you can ascend into one of the two spires.   Once I learned this was possible, I decided we would climb all 532 stairs.

I think Kristina was both  1) surprised and 2)  not pleased that I wanted to do this.  So I bought her a coffee and paid her 1 euro entry fee (something like a bribe) after dragging her all the way up there as the least I could do.  It was a pretty remarkable view of the Rhine and the city.  And yes there ARE pictures of me smiling from the top of it. Just not on this post. :)

After descending the stair, we crossed the Rhine to head to a different part of the city. Hark the view from the middle of this bridge... look at the shrine down on the waterfront:
the king lives!

(click on the photo to get a larger view)