Eau de Cologne

Today was a full day in David’s favourite German city - Cologne. He lived there some years ago and today acted as tour guide for us. We went by car and parked near the Philemonica which is a huge underground musical performance centre. While performances are taking place people are prohibited from walking on the lawns outside on top of the centre because the sounds echo down to the theatre and can disrupt the performance.
First stop was the large Cologne Cathedral where the bones of the Three Wise Men are allegedly buried. We suspect this might be a myth (like the Shroud of Tourin), but it does get the tourists coming in large numbers. An impressive building with a large number of huge beautiful stained glass windows. At the beginning of WW2 the priests removed all these windows in case of bombing and stored them underground (a big job!) and incurred the wrath of Hitler because he believed no parts of Germany would ever be bombed. Most of Cologne was reduced to rubble but the Cathedral survived.
Then it was off to a local pub for some German beer and food where Carolina has her favourite pork knuckle.
After lunch several hours were spent wandering through the many streets of shops before heading down to the Rhine river and finally back to the car. The weather has been very nice and Cologne is certainly a lovely city.
We drive back to Herne by early evening to be met by Lisa who was preparing one of her famous lamb curries for us to have out on the balcony overlooking the gardens.
A fitting end to what had a been a very enjoyable 5 days in Germany with our friends.Read more