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:
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.
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.
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:
Then I rested my weary bones and camera-carrying neck on the 45-minute tram/U-Bahn ride home.