Our first port of call on the Rhine and our first cathedral! It is magnificent!
You think you've seen it, you think you've appreciated it, but you keep looking and you see more. The detail is astonishing. Such a huge, magnificent cathedral, yet exquisite detail everywhere you look.
One of the things that will become more and more evident as our trip progresses is that these beautiful buildings are in a constant state of upkeep and repair. It's like the Golden Gate bridge; when they've finished painting at one end, it's time to start all over. It's the same here. They are constantly cleaning, constantly repairing. One of our guides in one city told us he had lived in that city for over twenty years and that he had never seen its cathedral without scaffolds.
The ruins of one of the old Roman gates to the city.
Contrasts: a treed park with the magnificent cathedral in the background and modern buildings off to the left.
This is a portion of an old Roman cobble stone street, still here and quite serviceable after many hundreds of years. Admittedly, they are a little tough to walk on. But still, we're lucky to get our streets to last ten years before they need to be redone.
Here we are at Cologne's largest bar. Reputedly, its vast rooms inside can accommodate over 1500 people. (Oops, that's more than the cathedral!)
Each city has its own beer. When you sit down to order, you don't ask what kind of beer they have. You simply ask for beer and they will bring you the local beer. What if you don't like their beer? Leave town! If you are drinking draft beer, they will keep bringing you another until you cry uncle by placing the coaster on top of your glass.
