We stayed the night in the city famous for its cologne is also famous for its parking fines and we not wanting to miss out on an opportunity for an authentic experience received one – for parking between the hours of 8am and 6pm (we parked there at 5:55pm). The man in the tourist info office told us not to worry, it’s usually only a 10€ fine and that you haven’t really been to Cologne unless you have one in your filing somewhere.
Guess we would have to settle on this.
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| Us enjoying pancakes while Mulder was getting in trouble with the law |
Determined not to have another one Cologne experiences the next day we parked safe and sound in a multi story car park. We had arrived in time to catch the 10:30am tour of the Cologne Cathedral – the huge KolnerDom.
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| KolnerDom |
Blackened gothic facades festooned with gargoyles and with a footprint of 12,470m2 this monolith is Germany’s largest cathedral (and they are very proud of this fact, with an information centre dedicated solely to the Dom). Our guided tour explained the various decorative features of the church including mosaic floors laid by whom else but Vileroy and Boch.
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| Pretty windows... |
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| ...soaring columns... and... |
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| Vileroy and Boch floors |
We also saw the various shrines to the sacred relics:
· The Jewellery Madonna – small statue of Mary adorned in jewellery donated by pilgrims. She recently had to be fixed up a little as she began breaking under the weight of the pearls and crucifixes.
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| The Jewelery Madonna |
· The sculpture of Christ on the crucifix. This was believed to have had a crack which was fixed by filling the gap with the powder of the host and a splinter of the true cross, transforming the statue eventually into the body of Christ on the true cross.
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| Blurry pic of Christ statue |
· The Milan Madonna. Believe to create miracles for those who touch her. So they put it up high on the wall so that no-one could – hmmmm not sure about that one.
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| Milan Madonna |
And the most impressive relics
· The shrine of the 3 Magi – the crown adorned skulls (the rest of the bones in a casket underneath) believed to be those of the 3 kings who came to adore the baby Jesus. The really old bones of 3 really old guys (probably kings as they are wrapped in precious old fabric from Syria) are lovingly encased in a jewel spangled casket behind the main alter.
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| Shrine of the 3 Magi |
After the cathedral we only had one thing on our minds – CHOCOLATE!
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| Koln Shokolade Museum |
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| Random... Sand sculpture of the KolnerDom just outside the chocolate factory |
WE headed to the chocolate museum on the riverbank and were pleasantly surprised to find it was a Lindt chocolate factory – delightful.
We took a journey from the rainforests of South America and Africa all the way to the production plant – heating, tempering, moulding, cooling – until yum, yum CHOCOLATE TIME!
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| The chocolate fountain |
Unfortunately our chocolate appetites were not sated by the measly samples they gave us, even though we may have passed the chocolate fountain for wafers dipped in chocolate a few more times than we were meant to. So we had to have some prelaunch dessert at the Museum’s cafe. Mind you it was now about 2pm! We indulged with delicious Sacher and double mousse tortes. Mmmmm chocolaty goodness.
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| Lindt Bunny! |
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| Yummy choccy cakes! |
We walked it off on our way back to the car park to pick up Mulder and head yet further north. Belgium – Brussels was our next stop!
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