Wow! Cologne

Today we're in Cologne, albeit rather briefly. A morning here before setting off on this last leg of our river cruise to Amsterdam. It's rather incredible that we've travelled all the way from Bucharest to Amsterdam on the Danube, Maine and Rhine rivers. We've asked the ship's captain for details of exactly how many miles it has been as Google can't compute the mileage by waterway! We reckon it's somewhere in the region of 1800 miles in total. There have been some short journeys and then longer ones - like the journey we're taking from Cologne to Amsterdam, leaving early afternoon for an overnighter. Tomorrow (Wednesday) is the last day for everyone, some of whom have early flights to catch. We're lucky that we have a much more civilised departure time.

I was looking forward to the stop in Cologne. Not that there is much there to see in a morning other than the very grand cathedral. It towers above the city landscape, it's sandstone varying colours - mostly a darkened stone as a result of the weather over the years. In total this cathedral took around 600 years to complete. Read more HERE.

The two spires rise above everything and standing looking up, the tops of them seemingly not particularly large. However, a visible reminder of the grandeur and size of the tops of the spires is a replica of one of them at ground level standing at 9 meters tall.

Whilst much of the surrounding city is of fairly modern design as a result of heavy allied bombing in the second world war, the cathedral survived - as it was used as a navigational aid by the allies in their bombing raids. The cathedral precinct isn't a pretty one. Rectagular block buildings overlook the facade. However, the construction of a hotel within the confines of the cathedral precincts was driven by local voices protesting the proposed modern architecture, so now it is being fashioned in a more sympathetic way.

The interior of the cathedral is glorious. The internal height is remarkable and in some ways unimaginable. The stained glass windows providing light in the sunshine of this August day. Along one side of the cathedral are a number of small chapels - some open for prayer, others appearing to be more like chantry chapels. And at the end of the Quire and Chancel sits the reliquary of 'The shrine of the three kings' - allegedly containing the bones of the three kings or magi who visited Jesus in Bethlehem as told in Matthew's Gospel. I try not to be too cynical but..........well; I am!

As we leave Cologne I'm not particularly looking forward to the day of travel on Wednesday but compared to some of our fellow travellers our trip is easy - a flight from Amsterdam to Heathrow mid-afternoon followed by a coach home. All being well we shan't be home to late, then it's time to switch the out of office off, see what the parish email brings me and get straight back to it. I can't wait!