Rambling Cyclists: Cologne rest day

Day 8 - no cycling!!

Had a late wake up & start to the day, left the hotel about 11am and searched out some brunch, we found a fabulous little cafe called Textile which was decorated with pieces of clothing hanging all over the place. A couple of hot chocolates & food & we were off to the Cathedral via some other old stuff. It was raining, cold & miserable in the morning.

One of the old city gates. Köln eigelsteintorburg

Insturments ready to play - bands played in this area all day.

Looking back through the city gate Köln eigelsteintorburg

Cologne Cathedral is breathtaking. We entered while a church service was underway & the sounds from the organ were awesome. We decided to return later in the day when services were not underway to get a better look around.

A rain soaked Cologne Cathedral

The detailed stone masonry was amazing.

One of the side naves (right hand side as you enter the cathedral)

The main nave of the cathedral - just amazing. 43m high.

The northern stained glass windows from around 1509

One of the other stained glass windows

Very old window washer ...

A door knob on the entrance doors

When we left the rain had stopped & the sun was shining. We walked down to the River side & found this strange creature. (Yes I am wearing short sox with my shoes ... It is colder than I like!!

Dianne with the spires in the background

Wayne with someone on a horse statue behind (either
Friedrich III or emperor Wilhelm I)

Wayne pointing to the D8 sign post we need to be following.

Hohenzollern Bridge from Cologne side of the Rhine

Design fail here ... Read the sign. These guys were employed to stop people walking across the red bricks.

We then headed down to the chocolate museum... That was well worth spending a couple of warm hours looking around. Learned so much about chocolate & they even had displays about the human rights issues surrounding chocolate that have always been a part of the industry.

Still rain soaked

A fountain in one of the many town squares

Old buildings everywhere.

Statue and fountain

This is a detail from a larger statue

Cobblestones - everywhere, lovely to look at, awful to ride on.

The older organ in the cathedral.

The newest organ in the Cologne Cathedral. The birds nest organ.

The names of the Cardinals who are buried in the Cathedrals crypt.

Detail of the stone work and holy water bowl.

Candles lit by the worshippers

The Cologne Cathedral.

Schokoladenmuseum Köln

The Germans are a bit soccer crazy

A world cup soccer ball made of chocolate

The amount of foil required to wrap a Lindt bunny

The best chocolate fountain ever!

More soccer balls for sale

And this is the reason Hershey chocolate tastes so bad ...

Ordering our own flavoured chocolate. If you do this - do it before you look around the museum as the order can take up to an hour to be filled if it is busy.

Bike sized pieces to keep us going.

A quick lunch on the go & we headed back to the Cathedral via the old riverfront area while it was not raining.

Bratwurst on a bun - the best of German cuisine.

Some of the old part of Colgne, much of which had to be rebuilt after WW2.

Very pretty view of the old part of Colgne with one of the mnay churches behind it.

After the chocolate museum we headed back to the cathedral for another look.

Detail from the crypt door in the Cologn Cathedral

The cathedral is so big, bigger than I expected.

Waiting for 5pm Sunday mass to start.

The stained glass windows are lovely.

We ended up staying for 5pm Sunday mass as we wanted to hear the amazing organs again. The sound was incredible. The mass was in German, and are not Catholic, so it was a bit foreign but there were quite a few people and it was a good, warm place to be.

Off to find food and to watch the game between Mexico & Netherlands which was very exciting. We are both exhausted, but thankful for the rest day. Tomorrow we head for Bonn.