Bad Hoffen to Cologne June 25

                                                                              Current Day.                                          Trip to date

Miles traveled.                                                          11.2.                                                      126.2

Feet climbed.                                                               90.                                                      12,900

Song of the Day:  A hard rain's gonna fall by Bob Dylan

Oh, what'll you do now, my blue-eyed son?

And what'll you do now, my darling young one?

I'm a-goin' back out 'fore the rain starts a-fallin'.....

But I'll know my song well before I start singin',

And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,

It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

When we woke up at 7 am it was pouring rain.  After a hearty breakfast with the Nuns and other religious people at the hotel, we took off for the train station.  Fortunately, the rain let up slightly for the 20 minute walk to the station.   After a very pleasant one hour train ride, we arrived at Cologne's central train station.  

Today we are staying at the Marriott in Cologne.  When we arrived at the hotel, the clerk told us that we had been upgraded to a suite!  The room is terrific and it's a nice break after some of the hotels this week.  Plus, the Internet works.  It's the little things in life....

This is also the first time we have had English TV this week.  Has been interesting to watch all the discussions about the UK exit from the EU.  There are 4 or 5 English speaking channels, and everyone of them is filled with analysis and discussions about Brexit.  Tomorrow, we will spend the day in Brussels, the EU headquarters.  I suspect things will be crazy in Brussels this next week....

It rained hard most of the day.  Not sprinkles, but hard rain.  Made for a challenging day of touring.  In spite of that, we still managed to walk 11 miles today.  Thanks to the Marriott for providing a nice big umbrella.

Cologne is Germany's 4th largest city (after Berlin, Hamburg and Munich), with more than 1 million people in the city itself and 3 million in the greater metropolitan area.  It is located on both sides of the Rhine River, with 7 bridges connecting the two sides.  Sort of similar to Pittsburgh in that regard. Cologne was one of the most heavily-bombed cities in Germany during World War II, the Royal Air Force (RAF) dropping 34,711 long tons of bombs on the city. The bombing reduced the population by 95%, mainly due to evacuation, and destroyed almost the entire city.   During our walking today, we spent much time in the so called "old town".  However, this area was virtually totally reconstructed after WW II.

One major attraction that was not destroyed during the war is the imposing Cathederal.  It is Germany's most visited landmark, averaging 20,000 visitors per day. It is also the highest twin spired church at 515 feet tall and apparently the largest Gothic church in northern Europe and has the largest facade of any church in the world!  Man, I feel like some Guinness world record  advocate here!  Construction on the church started in 1248, but didn't finish until 1880, due to a 400 year period of inactivity.  Reminds me of the remodeling project in our Sonoma home, which feels like it has been going on for 400 years.....

We had a short tour of the church.  Impressively large for sure.  Here are a few shots of the Cathedral:

 

 

 

 

We spent the day walking around the shopping area as well as old town.  In spite of the rain, the place was packed.  Throughout the day and during the night, we came across many groups of women and men who clearly were enjoying bachelorette or bachelor parties.  By night time, they had become much wilder....

We also took a boat ride up and down the Rhine.  Unfortunately, because it was raining, we had to stay inside and look out the windows.  Still, it was a good way to get an overview of the city.  Here are a couple of shots from the boat:

 

 

By around 8 PM, it had stopped raining, so we decided to go out again and find a restaurant where we could watch the Portugal-Coatia Euro Cup game.  We found a German restaurant on the river and had a pleasant evening (but marginal food) watching the game and talking to Europeans sitting near us.  A woman from Barcelona and her husband sat next to us and it was interesting to talk to them about the UK exit from the EU as well as ongoing Spain political issues.  Sunday is an Election Day in Spain.  

I like this item from the children's portion of the menu where we ate lunch- see item 41, the " Schnorrtellar":

 

Tomorrow, we take a 2 hour train to Brussels.