Cologne, Germany
where i left a permanent mark
After a disappointing and brief visit in Frankfurt I was pleasantly impressed with Cologne (Köln). The hostel I stayed at was a converted church and had a nice lounge area where I spent time planning my daily and upcoming travels. But my first night there just consisted of getting some food at the nearby train station and calling it a day.
The next day I walked to Rudolfplatz to meet up for a free walking tour of the city but no one showed up so I took up the job myself. That is, I walked to the grocery store to get snacks and sat by the river to have a picnic. Afterwards I went to the nearby Cologne Cathedral. It’s a massive church, probably one of the biggest I’ve seen thus far on my Euro trip this summer. And even though I had seen a plethora of churches up till then and I wasn’t super interested in seeing another altarpiece I decided to pay for a pamphlet and tour around. I wasn’t disappointed. The cathedral is best known for being the home of the three Kings’ relics, you know, from the Bible, the wise men who gave gifts at the birth of Jesus. Housed in an elaborate gold box sitting on the altar I was only able to get a good view from the viewfinder of my camera. Other notable sights within the cathedral are a crucifix from the 1100s, a pope’s blood relic (literally a piece of material the size of a fingernail with blood drops on it), and a really big organ. I remember thinking when I left the cathedral that they should power wash the stone façade as it has turned black over time.
Later that day I had an obnoxious encounter with a man trying to solicit money from me whereas I ignored him and he proceeded to cuss at me. I mean this ain’t my first rodeo, I’ve had dozens of people approach me for money over the years traveling internationally (traveling in Asia this is much more difficult to deal with, IMO). It’s super common and usually I don’t make eye contact or shake my head no to get them to leave me alone. But this time I decided to just ignore him entirely even when he spoke two different languages to get my attention. In situations like that I am acutely aware of my gender because I know he would not have done that or said those things to a man. I was a target cause I’m a woman. But I won’t get into all that now and for what it’s worth I do recognize my privilege to be able to travel internationally in the first place. …
—On a side note, I didn’t realize beforehand that Cologne was the home of Kölsch beer but when I figured it out I jumped all in, buying it at every opportunity as it’s an easy light beer to drink. I never made it to a bierhaus or biergarten but one neat thing about Germany is that it is legal to have an open container of alcohol in public. You’ll see people drinking beer walking down the street everywhere so I did what the locals did and bought beers at shops and then drank on the steps of the cathedral or by the river.
After that encounter I crossed the river and found a nice outdoor café where I could enjoy a cold Kölsch on draft while writing in my journal and watching rowers on the river. I was ushered away by the increasing wind and storm approaching so I walked down to the Hohenzollern bridge, home to thousands of love locks. (If you’re not familiar with the concept it’s basically a lock that couples attach to the bridge symbolizing their love for each other and they throw away the key in the river. And you can find bridges covered in locks in many different cities all over the world.) Once arriving at the end of the bridge I looked closer at some locks reading names, initials, and dates. I got a spontaneous urge to tag a lock with my name and my love. Luckily I had my pen in my bag and used it to write “Sara loves Kiki”. My Instagram post describing this action says it best :
On my last day in Köln I walked along the river to the Skulpturen Park (sculpture park). I had been intrigued by the main photo of a sculpture of a broken egg on a rock. Plus I didn’t really have anything else to check out so away I went. Once there I took my time looking at each piece, viewing from different angles, and playing around with some pieces that had mirrors. Some pieces seemed boring, some confusing, but that’s what’s great about art, it’s subjective and everyone interrupts it differently. After the visit, I grabbed a German pastry and sat on the steps of the cathedral drinking a kölsch while waiting on my train to Düsseldorf.
these are chocolate!