Hi,
we went to Cologne today. First we had to appompany Katja's daughter to the airport. She went on a class trip to Prague in the Czech Republic today.
Afterwards we went to the city centre. When you leave the train station the first thing you see is Cologne Cathedral.
Cologne Cathedral is a Roman Catholic church, seat of the Archbishop of Cologne and is under the administration of the archdiocese of Cologne. The cathedral is a World Heritage Site.
Construction of Cologne Cathedral began in 1248 and took, with interruptions, until 1880 to complete; a period of over 600 years. The cathedral is he largest Gothic church in Northern Europe and one of the world's largest churches. Because of its enormous twin spires, it also presents the largest façade of any church in the world. Its medieval builders had planned a grand structure to house the reliquary of the Three Kings and fit its role as a place of worship of the Holy Roman Emperor.
It is so large that you cannot take any good photo from here.
We went to the shopping streets than. Here you can see the old brewhouse of "Früh", one of many "Kölsch"-breweries here.
Carnival season started on November, 11th. The residents of Cologne love carnival 
This is Neumarkt. Can you see the large ice cream cone on one of the buildings?
This is one of the most famous buildings in the shopping street, the "whale" of Peek & Cloppenburg. You can see more of it here.
We went to the old town than. You can find old houses here which were built in 13th century. Not all of them, of course, but the old town still has this medieval character with its narrow lanes.
They have a lot of pubs here in the old town.
The remains of the old town are close to the river Rhine.
Opposite of those buildings there is the jetty of one of the excursion boats.
We walked along the rivr bank until we reached the old harbour. Nowadays several companies settled here and you can find extraordinarily expensive appartements here.
Two museums are also situated here on the Rhine peninsula, the Imhoff Schokoladenmuseum (Imhoff Chocolate museum) and the Deutsches Sport- and Olympia Museum (German sports- and olympics museum).
Those large buildings are partly still under construction.
We walked back to the city centre than.
From here you can see more Cologne Cathedral .
We went back to the train station and went home.
Bye
Walter
