On Sunday we took the train up to pre-Karneval Koeln to check it out. The train route took us north on the east side of the Rhein, crossing over it just as we reached downtown Koeln. The train station is right on the river and sits on the same plaza as Koeln's most famous landmark, the Koelner Dom!
Koeln was still experiencing a lot of wind, made worse by a huge wind tunnel formed by the enormously tall Dom. We blew over to the tourist information/gift shop to get a map. The gift shop was filled with all kinds of Karneval junk and items with words written on them in the local dialect, Koelsch (in which the city is known as Koelle). I also found a purse that said Koelnerin on it....I need to find one that says Heidelbergerin, if only to get a photo for this blog!
Afterward we fought the wind back toward the Dom and went inside. A service had just ended and the aisles were all blocked, so tourists were all jammed into the back of the church. We decided to try again later and moved on to the Rathaus. On our way there, we saw a street sign blow right over! The Rathaus was, like most of Koeln (but not the Dom), destroyed in WWII and then restored. It had previously been covered in statues, but only a few were still there. In photos it looked like more than that had survived the war, so I'm not sure if they were just moved elsewhere, lost later, or if I misinterpreted the photo I saw. The plaza by the Rathaus also included some old ruins we couldn't interpret, and an old Jewish bath (a synagogue used to stand here), covered by a skylight.
We wandered south toward the Heumarkt. There was some construction going on and as we wandered we decided we weren't headed anywhere interesting, and made for the Chocolate Museum on the banks of the Rhein instead!
The museum belongs to or is sponsored by the Lindt company, as huge signs showed the Lindt logo and a shop inside the front door sold mostly Lindt chocolate. The museum focused first on the growing of cacao. It can only be grown in a very narrow swath of latitudes around the center of the planet, and only in very specific wet, warm, shady conditions. All the more reason to crack down on global warming (if it's still possible now)...the changes could result in the loss of these specific cacao-growing conditions. As cacao is a New World plant, there was also a section focusing on the Aztecs, Mayans, and Incas. I never realized the reason that the Aztecs sacrificed people was to get the sun to come up again the next day. Did they never forget one night, or get it done too slowly, and realize that the sun comes up again anyway?
At the end of the museum is a big room where tiny Lindt chocolate bars and truffles are made. (The little bars are given to each person when they enter the museum, or sold there in big bags.) It smells great and it's interesting to see the various methods I always wondered about, such as how they make chocolate in hollow shapes! (A machine rotates them all on two axes so the chocolate coats the entire mold evenly.)
As a side note, the museum was incredibly packed, and it's only one of many museums we saw just in the small part of Koeln we visited. I have heard a lot of concerns from Germans about the falling birth rate and aging of the German population. After visiting this museum I have no concerns whatsoever that there is any aging issue in Koeln. There were children underfoot everywhere, to the point that I'm pretty sure I've been put off having them for a good long time. The loose parenting style of having kids run around everywhere seems to be popular here - in a cafe later, a kid was running all around out of her parents' sight, whenever she wasn't establishing herself at another empty table. Maybe it's because I grew up during the 80s kidnapping scare, but I think leaving my parents' sight in a giant city cafe wouldn't have worked well with my parents!
After leaving the museum we had lunch at a restaurant along the river. Prices there seemed higher than most of the other places we have visited. Damon enjoyed a Koelsch beer, the regional beer served in a small tall glass. People joke that it tastes awful. I tried a bit and it didn't taste terribly different from regular beer to me, except for a sort of not-great aftertaste.
Next we headed to the Romanesque Gross St. Martin's church, built in the 11th century, and the site of older Roman buildings since the first century. St. Martin's was destroyed in WWII and only reopened in 1985 after restoration. Photos from before war showed that the inside of the church was almost completely covered in frescoes, which now only remain in a couple of archways that must have stayed up through the bombing. Under the church are the excavated ruins of the older buildings that were on the site - mostly walls, the bottoms of columns, and a curious plaza-looking area covered in old coins.
After St. Martin's we made our way back into the Dom, which was now completely open (except the crypt - but I'm not sure if it is ever opened). Building on this cathedral was started in the 11th century. I'm not sure what I can say about it that I haven't already said about a zillion other cathedrals - it's amazing! The floors are covered in mosaics, side chapels are filled with beautiful art, the ceilings are dizzyingly high. In the front behind the altar is a gold shrine (reminiscent to me of the Ark of the Covenant in Indiana Jones...hehe) said to contain the remains of the three Magi. Religion note: St. Ursula and her 11 - 11,000 companions are said to have been martyred near Koeln. There is a church there dedicated to her which we unfortunately didn't get a chance to see.
When we finished taking in the Dom, we visited some more Roman ruins known as the Praetorium. The ruins are approximately under the Rathaus and were discovered while excavating for a bomb shelter during WWII. They consist of a long stretch of sewage tunnel and a corner of a former palace, with walls, the feet of columns, and some other things we couldn't identify (all placards were auf Deutsch), but which were intriguing. We didn't realize our admission here would also get us into one of the larger museums near the Dom, but it was too close to closing time for us to visit both.
Next, we decided to see the supposedly controversial design of the Koeln Opera House, built in the 1950s. We were pretty suprised when we found it. It didn't seem controversial at all, just boring. It reminded me of an Iowa county courthouse. To be fair, we didn't see the inside, but from the outside, there didn't appear to be anything controversial about it. It was, without question, exceptionally bland.
It was now getting dark and cold, so a big bright corner cafe that we passed, Cafe Merzenich, seemed especially inviting. Damon and I went inside and split a piece of cake that said Herren (men) on top. It had several layers of chocolate cake and cream, covered with a layer of marzipan and then a layer of chocolate fondant. Very, very, very good. I'm not sure how it got its name, though! Rich enough for a man?
We concluded our day by remembering that we had wanted to smell the local cologne! Cologne really did originate here, as Koelnisch Wasser, meant to be good for one's health. (Considering the German spa tradition this makes perfect sense.) In former times (as a German would say) this was the only fragrance available in Germany, so everyone wore it. As a result, it reminds our friend Markus of old people, since many of them still use it, being from the time when it was all that was available. To the right you can see the tiny sample bottle of it which Damon couldn't stop himself from getting. Now we can smell like a German's conception of "old person smell" any time we want!
After this, we headed back home on an extremely crowded ICE train. We ended up sitting in the smoking section, which is only marginally better than standing in the open area outside the toilets. The smoking cars are far worse than any bar, club, restaurant, or other smoking area. They seem to have very poor ventilation, but they are the only place one can find a seat when the train is packed, because of course no one really wants to sit there, not even most smokers. I hope they will either get rid of them (it is under consideration) or build them with seriously improved ventilation.
Next week: Fasnet in Endingen!
