We had a very nice day in Cologne yesterday. It was even sunny most of the day! We rode the tram all the way there, which was smooth and not very crowded. We hung out in several different Christmas markets (Cologne has at least five, I think), and tried a new dish:
This is schupfnudeln: potato dumplings fried in a pan with sauerkraut and topped with sour cream. Quite delicious.
Cologne Cathedral is one of our favorites; David is especially a fan. It really impressed us when we saw it in 2005, but we thought maybe that was because we hadn't seen too many other cathedrals. But nope, now we've seen lots and it is still impressive.
The main part was built in the Gothic style from 1248 to 1322, but then construction pretty much stopped. It remained only half-built until the 1800s, when the craze for all things medieval helped it to finally get finished. So unfortunately the towers are from that late date, but they were built according to the medieval plans and match nicely with the rest.
Here's a 1944 photo of Cologne after extensive bombing by the RAF in World War II. The cathedral was amazingly undamaged; it's thought it was purposefully spared by the bombers. Thanks, boys!
After lunch we visited two Romanesque churches near the cathedral. Cologne has 12 of these beauties! On our previous visit I think we saw four, but we had inferior cameras then. First up was St. Andreas, which had some great old murals and an interesting crypt with the tomb of St. Albertus Magnus, who was the teacher of Thomas Aquinas.
Next we saw Great St. Martin, which was closed when we visited last time. It is huge and impressive inside but has very little decoration. There were Roman excavations underneath, which we paid 50 cents to visit, but it was just a lot of piles of stone.
In the plaza outside the church was a pair of cute bronze sculptures, the bulbous noses of which a Japanese tour group took turns rubbing. After they left, we had to do the same. We have no idea of the statues' significance but we had fun and maybe got some extra luck in the process!
