Getting to Cologne was not the most simple thing in the world. We had reserved our trains, but one of our companions hadn't activated his rail pass. We missed a train to a place where he could activate the pass, so we went on to the station where the train to Cologne would pass through. But the information center was closed, so he couldn't activate it. The conductors couldn't activate the pass either, so our decision was that Bernadette and I would go on to Cologne that night and the guys would meet us there the next day. So in a crazy exchange, we grabbed our reservation slip from them, I handed one of them my emergency phone so they could contact us once they got to Cologne, and jumped on the train.
We got to Cologne early that morning, and saw the Koln Dom, the Cologne Cathedral, immediately as we came out of the train station! It was huge!! Not sure what we wanted to do yet, and since it was raining and cold, we decided to go inside and relax for a little while in the presence of the Lord. This was a great decision because it just gave us some time to think and pray and just not have to be anywhere except with God. :) After that, we felt like we could take on the world.
We made our way to the well-known bridge over the Rhine River. This bridge has a significant number of "love locks" on it. Bernadette had to find one from her boyfriend to lock her own onto, so we went for an adventure to find it. He gave great directions to her, so it didn't take us very long. :) It was super cute!
After that adventure, we went into town and found a nice little cafe called Eraclea, where we had lunch. I ordered a white hot chocolate, and, oh my gosh, it was like drinking melted chocolate, or pudding. It was so yummy!! I also got a toasted open face sandwich, which was also yummy.
Since the guys were still on their way, we decided that we would do our shopping and looking around until they got there, so once they arrived we could do what they really wanted to. So we wandered through the shopping district of town. As we did so, we also found a few churches to stop in and visit. This first one we found was Minoritenkirche. It was a bit unusual...sort of modernized Gothic in style. But there was a little area on the side where we could sit before the Tabernacle, and it was so quiet. It was a perfect place to rest ourselves (we were still hauling our backpacks everywhere) and take some time to pray before the Lord.
This was the second church we found, which I don't remember the name of right now. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but it was a very nice church. We spent a good deal of time praying there as well, and then figuring out where the guys were going to be getting in and where our hostel was.
Finding the guys was a little confusing: first we were going to meet them at the hostel, then we realized we were further from the hostel than was convenient to do that and we were having trouble figuring out where we needed to go to get to the hostel. Then we were going to meet the guys at the bridge. So we walked all the way there. Just kidding! They're outside the Cathedral! So we turn around and go back. There they are! Finally! Haha.
From there, we went on to the hostel. During that trip, we got to hear the whole story of what the guys did the night before and how they ended up finally getting to Cologne, which was really entertaining. We checked into the hostel, went back into town, and started wandering about looking for somewhere to go have some authentic German food for dinner. We found some fun stops along the way.
We finally found a nice place to go. The patrons hardly spoke any English, but we managed to order, and the food was absolutely delicious.
By the time we finished eating, we were all really tired, so we just went back to the hostel, and settled down to a cup of tea. We chatted for a while, and then took a good night's sleep.
The following morning, we went into the part of town surrounding our hostel and bought breakfast from a little corner bakery with some amazingly good deals. DOUGHNUTS!! And not just doughnuts, but Milka Doughnuts! (Milka is a big deal over here in Austria; it's like the Hershey's of Europe...or at least of Gaming, Austria.) The leftmost one was filled with Nutella, the middle was a Berliner with chocolate icing, and then there's the Milka doughnut.
Afterwards, we took the trains back into town, and made our way to the Basilica of St. Ursula. The morning Mass for the locals got out shortly after we arrived, and, surprise surprise, the bishop had been there. :) We went to the "English" Mass that followed about an hour later. I say "English" Mass because...it was in English; but it was a very interesting, multi-cultural experience. We were at a Church in Germany, attending a Mass said in English by a German priest, attended mostly by people of Kenyan descent. Everyone was very friendly and welcoming! It was a unique experience.
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| Yes, there was a playground outside...more importantly a see-saw, which, of course, the guys had to try. |
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| This was really cute/funny. There were little animals on the ends of the pews! "Squirrel!" |
After Mass, we went back to the Koln Dom. I'm very glad we did! We took time to look around very closely this time, especially at the stained glass windows. In most of the churches in Europe, due to World War II bombings, or changes in the style of churches, etc., there are not stained glass windows. But at the Cologne Cathedral, the windows have been preserved! They are breathtaking in their detail and bright colors.
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| The Nativity. |
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| The Pieta. |
I also found this statue of St. Hubert, which was special to me. My Grandpa loved to hunt, and one Christmas I gave him a medal of St. Hubert, which he wore for many years after that. My little brothers also like to hunt, so it reminded me of them.
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| Aquinas and Bonaventure. |
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| The Council of Jerusalem. |
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| The conversion of St. Paul. |
This cathedral is also famous for being the resting place of the remains of the Three Wise Men! The golden box in the upper left-hand corner of the next picture is where the remains are kept. The statues are the three wise men from a Nativity scene behind the altar.
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| I'm not sure what specifically this represents in its wholeness; but it looks like it was once an altarpiece. The panels on either side (not in the photo) are painted; but the center panels are all carved figures! The detail was amazing! It seemed to depict numerous scenes from the life of Christ, but I couldn't place all of them. |
After exploring the inside of the cathedral, we went to climb to the top of it!
After we heard the bell toll the quarter-hour (scared us half-to-death because we weren't paying attention at the minute before it was going to happen, and then DONG!!), we climbed down from the steeple, and went to check out a few other churches (after we got lunch at Subway; yes, Subway). We also took a look at a few souvenir shops here and there, and I found a pin of the German flag for my German hat!
Then we decided to go and watch the sunset from a park or somewhere along the riverbank, so we started walking. We got to the river and then the "park" a bit slowly because Bernadette and I would stop to take pictures of the setting sun. We crossed back over the love-lock bridge as the sun was getting lower in the sky, and snapped a few shots. Then walked further, snapped a few more. Haha. The guys were patient with us. We found a nice spot by the river to watch the sun keep going down, and then went further down the river to watch the sky keep changing. We prayed a Rosary along the banks of the Rhine River, which was super awesome, and we even saw an otter swim up to the bank (then he disappeared and we didn't see him again). It was a great, peaceful way to spend the evening. I climbed down to the riverbank and found some washed up, smooth bits of glass to keep. :) Not quite as good as Lake Erie's, but it's from Germany so that makes up for it, right? :)
We took the train back to the part of town where our hostel was, then, and got dinner in a very...interesting setting (this was the guys' idea, for the record). We decided to get food at a place called "Pizza Taxi," which had a variety of Mexican, American, and other nationality-based foods in Germany, run by people who clearly weren't locals. After dinner, we went back to the hostel, and enjoyed cups of tea again. This was my favorite part about the trip, I think: coming back, making tea, and just hanging out.
The next morning, we took the train into the main part of town, and made our way back to Gaming after a very nice, relaxed, and fun journey to Cologne.
Praise God for fun times and great people to share them with!
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