Remnants of WW II

Cheryl had a commitment this morning so Uwe took us to the nearby tram station which we took to downtown Cologne. It was such a lively place with people, buskers, squares with monuments, and activities on the nearby Rhine River. Our first destination was the NS Documentation Building which was the headquarters of the Cologne Gestapo (secret police) from 1935-1945. It is a memorial to the victims of the Nazis as well as a research centre. Our moods changed from happy to sombre as we toured the basement level where the prisoners were kept, interrogated, tortured and sometimes executed. There were 10 small cells, about 6’ x 9’, that at times held up to 30 prisoners in each. The men and women prisoners were from European countries and had scratched messages into the concrete walls. It seemed that most of them were communists or part of the anti-nazi youth movement. The main floor had a display about the Warsaw uprising where Hitler had ordered the whole city and it’s people to be destroyed. The 2 upper floors were about WW II history but it was all in German, while the other exhibits did have English descriptions. It was a sad but enlightening visit.

The Cologne Cathedral was a few blocks away so we also visited this enormous, elaborate Cathedral along with a few hundred other tourists (average is 20,000 per day!). During WW II the Cathedral was hit 14 times by aerial bombs and remained standing, despite the rest of the city being flattened. The allied aircraft used the twin spires as a navigational landmark.

We met Cheryl and Uwe and after stopping at 2 shops on our to-do list, we settled on a Bavarian restaurant for a very late lunch. Afterwards we walked along the Rhine before heading to their home on the tram. It was a sunny, mild Spring day and after a long, cool and wet winter in Cologne, we all welcomed the pleasant weather.Read more