Monday, August 20
Cologne, Germany
First let me make some comments about last night’s Captain’s Welcome Aboard reception and dinner. In the Viking Lounge they passed out glasses of sparkling wine so we could all drink to the Captain’s toast. He and other senior officers were introduced to us. It was short and sweet just like the emergency drill, which last maybe one minute. The Captain’s speech lasted less than a minute before he made the toast. I am not complaining as I like these “short & sweet” deals. We sat with a very nice couple from UK for dinner. We both had chateaubriand that we asked to be medium rare and I ask for extra. I got extra but both was very well done. Tasty though and rest of dinner was excellent. They do a very good job of keeping your wine glasses full. This morning I spoke with the dining room manager and chef (they were both at breakfast ) about the well done beef. They said, indeed, we should have gotten our meat cooked just the way we wanted it so next time if we are not pleased just ask waiter for him.
Ok, we arrived at our docking area, which is right near the center of Cologne, just before 10am. As there are about 190 passengers on the boat, we were divided into 6 groups for our two hour walking tour. We had a local guide who was excellent. There are listening devices in our room that we place around our necks and has ear piece. Our guide talks via mouth piece and we can hear only him as we walked through the town.
Cologne is the 4th largest city in Germany and know for its churches and museums. The museums are closed on Mondays. That works for me!! The population is 2.1 million and the city is on both sides of the river. Our tour initially followed the river passing by St Martin Church. Then he pointed out a bridge crossing the Rhein River. On this side of the bridge was the Cologne train station and he said over 1200 trains cross this bridge daily. Cologne’s most famous landmark (you can see it for miles) is a Gothic masterpiece featuring pointed arches--The Cologne Cathedral. Construction was begun in 1248AD and finally completed in 1880, over 600 years later. Construction of it was halted for 300 years due to lack of money. During WWII Cologne was heavily bombed by the Allies but the Cathedral, although damaged, was not destroyed. The MANY stain glass windows (over 30,000 square feet of stain glass windows) were removed and put in bomb shelters during the war for protection. We spent quite a bit of time inside the cathedral as our guide filled us in on its history. What makes this catholic church unique is the gold coffin with the bones of The Three Wise Men. They were brought here in the 11th century as spoils of a war from a cathedral in Milan. There is also a 1000 year old Crucifix (wood carving of Christ on the cross) . Photos will show these. We have seen many churches on our world travels but this one has to be in top 3 or 4. From there we walked to old city hall and that was it for tour.
We got back to boat at 12:30 just in time for lunch. The rear end of our boat (where antennas are located) is docked under a bridge today so there is no internet again today. This afternoon we went back in town to two different Starbucks to us wifi. Had good signal but laptop would not connect to internet for a strange reason. I am writing this post on Word so hopefully tomorrow I can post it. Also need to download some photos from Sat & Sun onto the blog. It is 2pm and just came a rain shower. Weather changed quickly as it was very sunny this morning. We will not leave here until midnight. Tomorrow we will be in Koblenz. I ask young lady at purser’s desk to tell Captain not to park under a bridge tomorrow! On way back to boat this afternoon I stopped at a kiosk and bought a bottle of Kolsch beer. It is only bottled in Cologne. Excellent beer and I don’t particularly like beer.
Very difficult time getting internet on the river. Still trying to upload photos.
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