A Day in Cologne, Germany

A Day in Cologne, Germany

On Saturday, January 17, we drove to Cologne to see the Imhoff-Stollwerck-Museum for the History of Chocolate and cathedral (also known as the Dom).

The chocolate fountain reminded us of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Yummy! They dip cookies in the fountain for visitors to have a taste!

The chocolate museum is in old and new buildings along the Rhine.

The kids (and Kevin) were fascinated by the assembly-line production of chocolate. The robotics were especially fun to watch. As we left the museum we purchased a few souvenirs (chocolate!)

We walked from the museum to the cathedral along the Rhine. Here we saw piles of sandbags left from the flooding the first week of January. There were also signs about flooding in 1993 and 1995 that was quite severe and flooded the museum. All that chocolate gone to waste!

Koln (Cologne) is an interesting city. It was bombed heavily during WW II (by Americans) and most of the city was completely destroyed. They intentionally avoided bombing the cathedral. Koln was rebuilt, with some buildings restored to their historical designs, but many new buildings erected. Thus, the city has a lot of 1950s architecture. Some is nicely done and some is really tacky. We liked this typical street scene with the Gross (big) St. Martin in the background. This Romanesque church was rebuilt after being flattened in WW II. Its tower was originally built in the 13th century.

OK, it's magnificent. It took 600 years to build, staying true to its Gothic design. But, sometimes cathedrals can be boring to a kid (and even to an adult). In this case the kids were just worn out, probably crashing from all of the chocolate. So we spent about a half-hour inside and then had a break at the McDonalds across the street. The fact that McDonalds here has beer, capuccino and fried salmon nuggets was probably more interesting to the kids than being in a dark, cold cathedral.

This bigger-than-life crucifix, in the cathedral, was made in the 10th century. It is the oldest remaining monumental crucifix of the Western World. It is called the Gero-Crucifix because it was donated by Archbishop Gero in 976. It now stands near the entrance to the confessional, where we saw people going to confession.

The stained glass at the Dom is amazing. We were struck by how some panels are explicitly Christian (bible scenes, etc.) and others were more political (images of kings and queens, favored crusaders, etc.

Click to see:

- pictures of our hometown, Braine L'Alleud

Thank Goodness for Gameboy! Actually, shortly after I took this picture, the kids put their Gameboys down and we had a long, wonderful conversation about how mommy and daddy met, where daddy grew up, etc.