Cologne Cathedral

Cologne is one of those places (like Germany itself, actually) about which I wonder HOW we English-speakers have the audacity to call it what we do. In German the city is Köln. So why don't we call it "Köln," or at least, if we harbor a justifiable suspicion of umlauts, "Koln"? And if we're going for a spelling that gives a more phonetic pronunciation, surely we could think of one without a "gn" in it?

Well, it's a mystery to me, but the city itself was wonderful! After we went to Drachenfels, we headed back on the train to Cologne, which is quite close to Düsseldorf. I didn't have a sense of any of the geography before we went, but the city of Cologne is about equidistant from Bonn on one side, and Düsseldorf on the other. And they're all along the Rhine, which flows UP (well, you know, downstream, but north) from the southwest side of the country. 

I had heard of Cologne, of course, mostly because of Cologne Cathedral, which must be mentioned in every study of Gothic architecture. When we went through Cologne on the train on our way to Königswinter, we saw the ghostly spires of the cathedral rising up through the misty clouds. But in the afternoon when we came back, the clouds had thinned and the sky was brighter. You walk out of the train station and the cathedral is RIGHT THERE. It is amazing and surreal, kind of like walking out of Westminster Station in London to see Big Ben not fifty yards away. Looming dark and massive above us, it was breathtaking. (This picture is actually of the other side, once we'd walked around a little.)

There are a lot of Roman ruins in the area, including this archway and wall. There was a Rome museum we didn't go into, but we peered in the windows and could see old Roman mosaics on the floor. Very cool.

We did go inside the cathedral, and it was stunning—just the vastness of the space was impressive enough, but together with the stained glass windows and the intricate piecing and carving of the stone, it was almost too much to take in. You can never really get a picture that captures that Gothic splendor.

But the main attraction was outside! No, I don't mean Sam (though Ziggy seemed to think so, upon emerging from his cocoon—and Sam IS a fine specimen of manhood)—I mean the outer cathedral at sunset. As the sun got closer to the horizon, the clouds cleared away altogether, letting the golden sunlight finally catch the spires and pinnacles of the cathedral. It had been imposing before, but with the sun out it was BEAUTIFUL.

Even the train station was beautiful.

And all the other church spires nearby.

But the cathedral! The light on it was changing every minute, and with it, the look of the stone walls. They changed from grey to white to gold to brown, and different areas suddenly leapt to your notice as the sun fell on them. Sam and I kept trading the camera back and forth, no doubt taking repeats of each others' pictures, but each of us wanting to capture exactly the area our eye was falling on at that moment. And Malachi! We found a little shop where we could get new batteries for his camera, and, emboldened by this, he photographed every square inch of the cathedral. He LOVED it. And we loved watching him love it!

You can see the scaffolding on the outside of the spire there—I think they've been restoring this cathedral for years now. It was damaged (destroyed?) in the war and we saw some pictures of the damage. That stained glass window, totally blown out! It's so sad to see it. But I'm glad it's being restored to its former beauty.

I sat in a corner of the courtyard and nursed Ziggy and watched the sunset while Sam and Ky walked around looking at everything. The sky was just SO BEAUTIFUL.

After awhile it got dark and we went through another part of the city to find dinner, and then catch the train back to Düsseldorf.

As we walked around the city, and even in my mind afterwards, I kept seeing those two cathedral towers rising up over the buildings, and something was nagging at me—it felt so familiar! Finally I realized that it reminded me of the way the Salt Lake Temple rises up against the sky! The temple isn't nearly as ornate…and I don't know how their heights compare…but there are some similarities, don't you think?

This sure was an amazing place to visit! We loved it!