Thursday 5-15-08Koln
I arrived today in Koln. In English and French it is called Cologne. I suppose you can guess where it got its name? Yup, it is where Kolnisches Wasser was discovered or invented. In other words, eau de cologne, or just cologne. It was discovered there naturally and was first thought to promote good health and, later, just to make you smell better. The French pretty much took over the business and developed perfume for women.
The big attraction of Koln now is its enormous cathedral. A pretty amazing place! It is either the biggest cathedral in the world or the biggest in Germany, I'm not sure. Even though it was built from the 1100s to the 1300s, the towers are over 50 stories high! It had to have taken a lot of faith in God for those people to take on such a task! You can climb 300 feet to the south tower, which I did. A little tiring , but worth it! It just reinforces to you what an amazing structure it is, to have been built that long ago. It has dozens of little ornate towers all over it, about a dozen flying buttresses and lots of those little guys, what are they called?
Koln is right on the Rhein River, too, and there is all sorts of river traffic on it, carrying coal and chemicals and tourist boats.
I got to stay in a little hotel in a Dachzimmer, an attic room, one of my dreams come true! Pretty cool and with a nice view into the inner courtyard. If it is any indication about the places I am staing, the Marriott was right across the street! OK, well, that is no indication, since it wasn't even close to the same league. They even let cars drive on the sidewalk to drop people off at the Marriott. I jusat get to share the bathroom and shower with everyone on my tiny floor.
Friday 5-17-08
Essen - Duisburg - Dusseldorf
Friday 5-17-08
Essen - Duisburg - Dusseldorf
See below
Saturday 5-16-08
Well, here I sit on the train from Essen to Bremen. How do I write a "blog post" from the train? With my little Palm Pilot and keyboard gizmo. I'll take a picture of it and post it, too.
I slept late today. I guess it's one of those days that you need to catch up from the 5 to 10 miles of walking I've been doing. I just went around to a few local towns in the Ruhr area yesterday. It is not a touristy area, but us of great importance historically as Germany's big industrial area. It is where most of the arms for WW II were built. They are now less industrial areas, but, like the US, most of the industry has moved oversees. It seems to have become a shopping area and Essen's slogan, as you come out of the train station is "Germany's shopping city!" A lot of the old train stations and tracks have fallen into disrepair as their need has declined
Well, it was raining this morning. I guess that is pretty common weather for this time of year - or all times of the year, since it is so far north and so close to the North Sea. And, like it was in Hamburg many years ago, it is very foggy. Like in Portland, that is the price you pay for all the green! It IS gorgeous here.
I stopped in Munster (that's not MONster, but the name means cathedral) to see the famous Munster, but got soaked in the rain. My jacket was just as wet on the inside as on the outside. There was some sort of festival going on so people were lined up inside the cathedral - for what, I didn't have time to find out, or I'd have missed my train. On the outside was a huge open-air market selling mostly fruits and vegetables, but you could buy just about anything there in the rain! "Frische Spargel" is sold all over the place - everywhere I've gone. That is fresh asparagus and is not like ours in the US, but is white and very thick. I need to eat at a real restaurant one of the days and try it cooked. Also outside the cathedral there were outdoor cafes and people were eating, but, mostly, drinking. Good way to celebrate a religious holiday, huh? Now, the landscape is mostly flat, as we get closer to the North Sea coast and a bit foggy.
I am at an Internet Café right now in Bremen and, you know how there always seem to be little parades go by whenever we go to Mexico? Well, believe it or not, one just went by on the street right now! The cars were all sporting Turkish flags! There are a lot of Turks here in Spain. They were brought in as ‘guest workers’ after WW II to provide manpower that was badly needed to rebuild Germany. There are new generations still here. Anyway, there was just a Turkish parade. And, Kristina! They love their Döner kebaps here, too! They are all over the place!
I’ll write a little about Bremen tomorrow. I just need to try to get some pictures up here right now! Tschuß for now!
Saturday 5-16-08
Well, here I sit on the train from Essen to Bremen. How do I write a "blog post" from the train? With my little Palm Pilot and keyboard gizmo. I'll take a picture of it and post it, too.
I slept late today. I guess it's one of those days that you need to catch up from the 5 to 10 miles of walking I've been doing. I just went around to a few local towns in the Ruhr area yesterday. It is not a touristy area, but us of great importance historically as Germany's big industrial area. It is where most of the arms for WW II were built. They are now less industrial areas, but, like the US, most of the industry has moved oversees. It seems to have become a shopping area and Essen's slogan, as you come out of the train station is "Germany's shopping city!" A lot of the old train stations and tracks have fallen into disrepair as their need has declined
Well, it was raining this morning. I guess that is pretty common weather for this time of year - or all times of the year, since it is so far north and so close to the North Sea. And, like it was in Hamburg many years ago, it is very foggy. Like in Portland, that is the price you pay for all the green! It IS gorgeous here.
I stopped in Munster (that's not MONster, but the name means cathedral) to see the famous Munster, but got soaked in the rain. My jacket was just as wet on the inside as on the outside. There was some sort of festival going on so people were lined up inside the cathedral - for what, I didn't have time to find out, or I'd have missed my train. On the outside was a huge open-air market selling mostly fruits and vegetables, but you could buy just about anything there in the rain! "Frische Spargel" is sold all over the place - everywhere I've gone. That is fresh asparagus and is not like ours in the US, but is white and very thick. I need to eat at a real restaurant one of the days and try it cooked. Also outside the cathedral there were outdoor cafes and people were eating, but, mostly, drinking. Good way to celebrate a religious holiday, huh? Now, the landscape is mostly flat, as we get closer to the North Sea coast and a bit foggy.
I am at an Internet Café right now in Bremen and, you know how there always seem to be little parades go by whenever we go to Mexico? Well, believe it or not, one just went by on the street right now! The cars were all sporting Turkish flags! There are a lot of Turks here in Spain. They were brought in as ‘guest workers’ after WW II to provide manpower that was badly needed to rebuild Germany. There are new generations still here. Anyway, there was just a Turkish parade. And, Kristina! They love their Döner kebaps here, too! They are all over the place!
I’ll write a little about Bremen tomorrow. I just need to try to get some pictures up here right now! Tschuß for now!
1 comment:
Hey Mac! So you need to smile in your pictures!! Looks like a handy dandy set up you have, your palm pilot…do you get Internet on it? That’s brilliant!
So someone here told me that the French invented perfume particularly for the British because they were so dirty and smelled bad…
What a neat Cathedral! Lots of gargoyles, eh? Like Notre Dame, which Sonya and I will see in July.
Did you eat Munster cheese in Munster? Haha!
There is white asparagus here in Spain, and yes, that’s all Europe people do for fiestas is drink. Spain is especially good at it!!
Kebabs!! Yum! Have you eaten very many! Just wait til you get to Berlin! I’ve heard there are sooooo many places. The Germans put “doner” in kebab you know. Is “doner” a German word? What does it mean?
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