"She had always been fond of history, and here was history in the stones of the street and the atoms of the sunshine." -Henry James (Portrait of a Lady)
Once we knew that going to Europe was indeed going to become a reality, I called up Angie and asked if she might want to book a trip at the same time so that she could be my travel buddy while Neil was working. She thought about it for...oh...about one and half seconds, then she was in. I'm not quite sure how we pulled off the logistics of this trip. The booking of this trip came at an insane time. Neil and I were in the middle of moving, and Angie was dealing with beyond crazy deadlines, not to mention we all took a trip to the Oregon Coast in there. Hey, that trip had been planned for a year. I'm not going to discuss how much of our hard-earned money went to traveling this year, but I will tell you that every penny was spent in the very best way.
Between flights being cancelled and hotels being full, and the fact that we really only communicated via Facebook, it is quite a miracle that we all ended up on the same flight and in hotels walking distance from one another. The night before our flight, we got together with Angie, because we had literally not sat down and discussed the details of this trip once. We had sent each other giddy messages with lovely European links, but aside from that, we hadn't even discussed how or when we were getting to the airport. We scanned the internet and decided last minute to buy a Paris pass, looked over the metro website a little, then called it a night, hoping that somehow everything would work out.
And work out it did! We survived the ten hour flight to Paris. Yours truly has never flown further than Washington D.C. and considered that experience less than pleasant. I was worried about this flight. It wasn't as bad as I thought. We survived the six hour layover in the Charles DeGaulle airport, though by this point we couldn't keep our eyes open. We survived the hour flight to Dusseldorf and the 30 minute train ride to Cologne, where we collapsed into our cute tiny German hotels and slept like babies. Jet lag was not a problem on this trip.
The next morning, Neil got up and went to work, and Angie and I got up and went to explore Cologne. We had no agenda. Aside from the breath-taking Dom Cathedral, we had no other sights on our radar. We just wanted to spend the first day taking in Europe. It was a rainy Sunday morning. Bells from the many surrounding churches and cathedrals seemed to be welcoming us to Cologne. Even the constant drizzly rain didn't dampen our spirits.
I don't have a lot of pictures from our meanderings the first day, because the rain made it difficult to get my camera out. But we just walked and walked and walked. So much so that I carved horrendous blisters into my heels. My feet proved problematic throughout this trip, but what's new? I refused to allow my stupid feet to keep me from seeing Europe. So I hobbled around the rest of the week, feet covered in bandages and tape.
We walked cobblestone streets and stopped at medieval buildings and listened to the Germans chatter around us. It was absolute heaven. My very favorite thing about Cologne was the towering Dom Cathedral. This 800 year old mammoth of a structure towered in the center of the city. For two clueless women who didn't speak a word of German, exploring a new city, it made the for a perfect landmark. If ever we felt lost, we would simply locate the Dom towering in the distance, and then we would regain our bearings.
It was just so very Gothic. I'm not sure why it is so smoke stained and dirty. I'm not sure if it's because it is parked by the train station or because it suffered the effects of World War II, but I love it! Absolutely love it! There are portions of the building that you can tell they are trying to clean, and I wish they wouldn't. If they polished this building up, I somehow think it would lose some of its charm. Here is a building that has stood in the same place for over 800 years. Generations of people have come and gone, and the building still stands. The entire city of Cologne was leveled during the war, and yet the cathedral remains. I love that it shows its age and its history.
My camera could not even begin to fit this gargantuan piece of architecture into the frame. A wide angle lens would have been very nice on this trip.
When we went inside the Dom in the morning, they were in the middle of mass. What a treat that was as the priest's German sermons echoed throughout the massive building. I wish I could have understood the language. I didn't want to be numbered among the other rude tourists snapping photos during the worship services.
So we came back in the afternoon, fully prepared to take on our role as the Dom Paparazzi. And I must say, we did a smashing job. I couldn't get enough of the place. The natural light coming in through the stained glass, the arches everywhere, the warm candles glowing. It was just lovely.
The relics throughout the cathedral were fascinating, especially those of the Magi.
Angie and I found ourselves all alone in the crypt of the Dom Cathedral. I see now where the word cryptic came from. Little bit creepy, little bit cool. Nothing like two giggly sisters taking selfies in a crypt. Selfies I won't be sharing with you, because we women don't generally like to flaunt our double chins.
We spent most of the day pinching ourselves. It was all so surreal. As we crossed the bridge that sits across the Rheine river, we kept saying, "Look at us all taking a walk across the Rheine river, in GERMANY! Yep, you and me, just hanging out in Europe."
As we sat and ate our gelato in front of the cathedral and listened to the live accordion music echoing through the square, and watched children chase pigeons, we asked ourselves, "Is this for real? Or are they just doing this because they knew we were coming?"
The street performers were just delightful. A banjo, a trumpet, an accordion, and a string base? You just don't get any better than that. Oh I don't know, the bagpipes were pretty cool, as was the didgeridoo. There was something about the massive cathedral that just kept all of the sound reverberating through the square. There was hardly a moment that we weren't being serenaded. Jessica was oozing with jealousy as I described to her the plethora of musicians just hanging out by the Dom. I wish we were rich, so that our children could have experienced all of this with us.
I finally met up with Neil and joined him for a dinner event for all those attending the lawn and garden show. Let's just call it a night of complete and utter schmoozing. Let's just say that this frumpy housewife was completely out of her comfort zone. We decided to walk home afterwards. This was our view as we strolled home. Just me and Neil strolling along the Rheine, the great gothic Dom looming in the distance. Just us having the time of our lives.
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