On the Move: Cologne Stopover

It's been a bit surreal: an idea to do something we have never done before; deciding to go for it, planning all the detail ... and now it is happening.

We have an Inter-rail pass for ten days travel over three weeks. My hearing disability allows Jenni to travel free as my carer ... she has over 50 year's experience! The extra cost to go First Class was surprisingly modest... So that's what we are doing.

Already we are pleased with that decision. We got seats, space and comfort. Of the three trains we used on our first day, including Eurostar, the Avanti West Coast Chester to London journey was easily the best!

Eleven hours, including changeovers took us from Gobowen via Chester, London and Brussels to Cologne where we decided to break the travel.

An Internet comment warned that there's not much to see here except "the cathedral, the cathedral, and the cathedral". In a way that's down to us. According to Wikipedia the allies dropped 44,923.2 tons of bombs on the place, so precious little was left of this historic settlement on the Rhine used at least since Roman times.

The Cathedral Church of St Peter dominates the city. Although started in the 13th Century it was not completed till the 19th. It is huge: still the largest church facade in the world and the 3rd tallest of any church structure in the world.

About 6 million visitors a year. I don't know about the other 5,999,999 but, apart from being architecturally amazing, it does nothing for me. I have never quite worked out how this sort of edifice fits in with the beatitudes and Jesus's sermon on the Mount. Perhaps someone can explain?

We particularly enjoyed strolling by the river. Although it was Saturday, we saw a lot of large cargo barges: evidence of the continuing industrial significance of the river. Probably because it was Saturday, there were about a dozen of the luxurious River Cruise barges most taking g on new passengers for the week.

On the tourist tick box list is the Hohenzollernbrucke, the railway bridge to the station which is right next to the cathedral. It is now famous for its love locks.

Yes,there are reckoned to be about 350,000 padlocks on the bridge!

One of the arguments for using railways is that, unlike airports, stations are in the centre. We are using hostels (private rooms not dorms) and our first was 400m from the station, 250m from the cathedral and adjacent to the main shopping streets.

I liked the bubbles, which, with the river, attune with livetheflow themes!

Next stop Denmark.