David has been sick with a nasty cold all week, so we haven't been on any further car trips since my last report. And as bad timing would have it, we have had beautiful weather this week - clear and sunny every day, although very cold. Highs are only in the 20s F and the frost is building up in layers so it looks like snow.
Blue sky is hard to come by in the winter, so on Wednesday and Thursday I took the tram into Cologne by myself and visited as many of the city's 12 Romanesque churches as I could. I managed five churches on Wednesday and two on Thursday. It was quite the adventure, as I carried both hefty cameras around my neck and walked for hours in the cold.
But it was well worth it. I really enjoyed all the churches and thanks to the good weather and equipment, I came home with some nice photos too. It was the first time I'd used two cameras at once, but it was easier than I thought it would be. I sure got the looks, though - David's long lens especially attracts stares. Kind of fun to masquerade as a professional photographer for a day.
My two days' "work" yielded 800+ photos, which I've been captioning and tagging and turning into articles in the evenings. But I actually enjoy the churches and art all over again when organizing and editing the photos, so it's not a bad job. Here are a few highlights:
Interior of the church in the photo at the top of this post, called St. Aposteln. The architecture is very old (1100s) but the murals and furnishings are ultra-modern.
St. Maria in Kapitol, the largest of the 12 churches
Inside St. Maria in Kapitol
West front of St. Maria Lyskirchen
Mythical beasts in the doorway of St. Maria Lyskirchen
Side view, St. Maria Lyskirchen
Misericord with a drinking man in St. Maria Lyskirchen.
West choir and font in St. Georg. West choirs are unusual in churches but there are several in Germany, where they were used by the Holy Roman Emperor.
12th-century carvings of Adam and Eve and a guy with a harp at St. Georg.
While I was taking the above photos a man about David's age shyly pointed at my cameras and said something in German. I said apologetically in German that I only speak a little German, and he replied, "Ah so!" (Germans really do say that and I love it), then translated in English after a moment of finding the words: "I also like to make pictures but I do not have such nice equipment as you." Aw.
St. Pantaleon, which also has a west choir - this is the south side of it
St. Pantaleon's stripy details. This set of a little arches is a distinguishing characteristic of early Romanesque and is called a "Lombard band" because it originated in Lombardy, Northern Italy. That's your useless fact of the day! But I've been enjoying learning about stuff like this because I harbor dreams of publishing a photography book on Romanesque churches one day.
The Church of St. Cecilia was one of the ones I visited yesterday. It is a cool Romanesque church in itself and has some murals and carvings still on its walls, but also houses an excellent museum of medieval art.
Reliquary from c.1200 France, depicting the murder of St. Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. This was a fun connection since we were recently there, and I've been organizing our Canterbury stained glass photos this week.
Nativity and Annunciation scenes in a beautiful ivory diptych by the court artists of Charlemagne, c.800. Note the weird beady eyes and the animals looking in the manger - the latter is a common (and very cute) element in medieval Nativity scenes. They appear in stained glass windows too.
Ivory reliefs of the Nativity and Crucifixion from Cologne, c.1170. Nearly four centuries later, and the animals are still peering in the manger! Another fun pattern I've started to notice is that Joseph always looks rather overwhelmed. Understandably so.
Inside St. Cecilia Church and Museum
Once in the museum, another lady came up to me with her eye on my cameras and asked if the pictures would be for me and not for commercial use. I managed to respond, "Yes, for me," then concentrated really hard to try to come up with a further German phrase in order to convince her. I finally managed to say, very slowly, "I love Romanesque churches." She understood and smiled (but continued to watch me with suspicion the entire time - good thing I didn't have a tripod!).
At St. Cecilia I had some very basic German conversations with the museum staff, and it was still pretty thrilling to communicate without resorting to English. The Germans are so much more fun to practice their language with than the French. The French tend to look horrified if you don't get it exactly right, then immediately reply in English because they can't bear it anymore. By contrast, my crappy German has met with nothing but delight at my effort and many people whom I'm sure speak English have instead spoken slow, simple German back to me so I can learn.
On Wednesday, my most ambitious day, I ended the evening at Cologne Cathedral:
The Gero Cross (Gero-Kreuz) in a chapel on the north choir aisle. Carved in 976, it is the oldest surviving monumental crucifix north of the Alps.
The Shrine of the Magi (1180-1230), made of pure gold and studded with jewels pillaged from Constantinople during the Crusades.
Then I rested my weary bones and camera-carrying neck on the 45-minute tram/U-Bahn ride home.
