Day 3 - Cologne

Day 3, Friday, April 27, 9pm

I didn't. The dinner I chose was a specialty of Holland and was rather bland and uninteresting but well prepared and not worth writing about.

This was a busy day in Cologne. We arrived at about 8am and went into town on a tour at 9am, right to the front of the Dom (cathedral). It's near dusk right now and I am sitting on the top desk of our ship overlooking the skyline of Cologne with the Dom dominating the scene. The Dom construction was begun in 1248 and completed in 1880. Allied bombers avoided destroying it but leveled all around it. Let's just say they don't make'em like that anymore. It is overwhelming. Supposedly it houses the bones of the 3 Wise Men in a gold sarcophagus. I think it best to let you see this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzQZuQBm074

Our guide led us around the central part of the city. Lot of breweries and cafes. Back to the ship for lunch and a nap. You will later learn why I needed one.

After my nap we hopped the shuttle and went to town for more sights and a pub crawl. With Lisa it turned into more of a limp. There are numerous brauhauses here specializing one of the twenty varieties of Kolsch, the special beer of Cologne. No matter what I ordered she did not like it. That is her right, of course, and on the up side I had to drink what she did not like. I did get a photo of her drinking her first beer. Hope she posts it. The city is experiencing its first warm days of Spring and the sidewalk cafes and brauhauses were full. We sat at one and ordered beers and schnitzel with potatoes. We could have returned to the ship for dinner but I just wanted to experience Germany. My German language returned very well tonight.

My first German speaking attempt was rough last night, trying to explain at 3am that I was looking for the bridge abutments for the Remagen bridge which was the key for the Allied invasion of Germany. During the War all the bridges across the Rhine were destroyed except that one. On May 7, 1945, Americans captured the town but not the bridge. While they were fighting toward the bridge, the Germans loaded it with explosives. They blew it but most explosives did not detonate and the bridge remained. American engineers fought their way across and disabled the explosives. Tanks poured across to establish a base in Germany. Thousands crossed before May 10 when the bridge collapsed with 300 engineers on it. Many were killed. Pontoon bridges had been established and the push was sustained with the demise of the Nazi government resulting. I had been told by one of the ship's officers that we would be in the vicinity at 3am. So I and Lisa dressed and went up on to the bridge. The German pilot of the ship showed me on a chart that we were still 150 kilometers from the bridge. Back to bed and little sleep. My sleep has not been steady so I may not get up tonight but here is what I am missing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LacCFe9avc4

We went to the top deck at dusk to watch the Dom be illuminated in the dark.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAPAZwjz1T4

Good night. Tomorrow Rudesheim and Koblenz.