Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Day One: Cologne Cathedral



We were gone for 10 days re-discovering Germany. With a rental M*ini Cooper we covered over 1.700 km / 1,100 miles. Our first stop was in Cologne with a short visit of the cathedral, which is a World Heritage Site and Cologne's most famous landmark.



Construction of Cologne Cathedral began in 1248 and took, with interruptions, until 1880 to complete – a period of over 600 years. It is 144.5 metres (445 ft) long, 86.5 m (84 ft) wide and its two towers are 157 m (515 ft) tall.The cathedral is one of the world's largest churches and the largest Gothic church in Northern Europe. Source. (conversions in the brackets are my contribution...)

There wasn't much left after WW2 around the cathedral, as the picture below reveals. It was a place mat displayed for sale, that explains the wires...



A detail of the entrance. The façade is so huge, there isn't enough time to concentrate on every single beautiful work. It was such a gray day, I am spoiled used to have sunshine most of the time, that makes photographing much easier.






Mr Mar was way more delighted with the local Kölsch beer. It is usually served in long, thin, cylindrical 0.2 litre (6.7 fl oz) glasses. This glass is known as a Stange (pole), but is often derisively called a Reagenzglas (test tube), or Fingerhut (thimble). (From the wiki, left picture included, which shows the way Kölsch is served).



The lines on the coaster show that was the third beer. 2.80 means the price in euros (USD 4) of my Weinschorle or Spritzer (white wine mixed with mineral water)

There will be windows tomorrow...stay tuned!

11 comments:

  1. Beautiful my friend. Thanks so much for sharing :) ALoha

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  2. Spectacular. Love the golden lighting.

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  3. Ah ! Kölle am Ring ! (Köln am Rhein) that's the only dialect I understand ! Last time I had a stiff neck from looking up to the Dom's top was in December for the Christmas market !

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  4. I was in Cologne in 1972. Wish I were sharing that beer with you now :-)

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  5. Your photos are beautiful. I too hate when my lighting doesn't work out, but you managed to get great shots in spite of that.

    that's a cute way to keep track of your tab! If you stay alert you know how much you owe. :D

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  6. THe Kolner Dom is an amazing Building. I first saw it in 1977. It was his first time on the ground in Cologne, having seen it several times from the air in WWII!

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  7. What a fantastic cathedral. Your shots are so beautiful. I wish I was more into photography when I was in Germany very briefly 8 years ago. I didn't take a single picture of the cathedral in Ulm which is also a remarkable one. It actually has some similarities to this one.

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  8. I'm impressed the way you present this fantastic cathedral.

    Excellent Photos and background story.

    We've only seen it from distance, several times.
    But we will sure have the chance to visit in the time to come.

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  9. Oh WOW! Talk about Gothic! That first shot is absolutely stunning!

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  10. What a FANTASTIC Structure that place is! So very Beautiful....It is almost unfathomable that it took 600 years to actually get built and finished...Were these breaks in time like 50 or 75 years at a time? The detail of that entryway is stunning! I look forward to the windows and everything else, Mar. You and Mr. Mar covered a lot of miles! Congratulations on that!

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