This last weekend Eric and I traveled to the German city of Köln, also known as Cologne. We did not have a specific reason for going, mostly that we heard it was nice and it was reasonably close enough for us to make it a weekend trip.
Cologne is Germany's 4th largest city and is located on the Rhine river. It was founded by Romans so there is a lot of cool Roman ruin stuff to see. The big thing in Cologne is its Cathedral. The cathedral construction began in 1248 and was halted in 1473. It sat unfinished for a couple hundred years but was eventually completed (as per the original plans) in 1880. The cathedral is Germany's most visited tourist site.This is easy to believe because it was crazy busy when we went!
The 5 other tourists in this photo are not doing justice to how busy it really was.
After the cathedral we went to the Roman museum which is super close to the cathedral. In the second picture you can see the cathedral through the window.
The highlight of the museum is a large mosaic floor. The floor was discovered during WW2 when bomb shelters were being built. Eventually the museum was built around the floor.
We saw lots of cool things and were able to spend a leisurely time strolling around. The cathedral was really busy but the museum was not which was really nice.
I have to take pictuers of every gaming device we come across in our travels for Eric. Roman dice!
After the museum we gabbed a late lunch and ate it in a park along the Rhine. The pigeons in the third picture are enjoying the crust from my pizza.
We took the scenic route back to the hotel through a nice park Eric found on our map. (Fun Fact: Cologne has the BEST free city map we have come across in any country).
In the park Eric found a 'minibib'. The German word for library is bibliothek, so it is a mini library. Sadly it was not open but the way Eric was oohing and ahhing I think he was ready to move in. (Basically everywhere is more appealing than our apartment).
The next day we only had a little bit of time in the morning before we had to catch our train back to Marburg. Lots of things are closed on Sundays but the Wallraf - Richartz Art Museum was open! We checked out of our hotel and left our luggage at coat check. The museum was a really nice size, not too small and not too big. We were able to see all three floors of the permanent exhibit with our limited time and only missed the temporary exhibit. From now on I will always go to museums on Sunday mornings. There were a few times where we were the only ones on the entire floor! This is evident in the these photos Eric has titled 'Connoisseur'.
Here are a bunch of nice paintings I took photos of. There is also a dark photo of Eric where you can see the cathedral out the window.
After the museum we had to run to the station and get home to Marburg. Overall Cologne was a nice trip that we could have spent more time in. Brace yourselves for next weeks post- Essen Board Game Convention!!!
Auf Wiedersehen!
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