Cologne
our became two when my friend Nishad lost his passport two nights before flying. Despite the setback, the trip was still a great success (except for poor Nishad and Gemma).
Cologne Cathedral is unquestionably the city’s most famous landmark and the world’s largest Gothic building. It was also the tallest building in the world from 1880 until 1884 when it was overtaken by the Washington Memorial. The RAF bombed the city in the first 1,000 bomber raid, ‘Operation Millenium’, during the Second World War which saw the destruction of 600 acres of built-up area. Miraculously, the Cathedral was relatively unscathed. The surroundings have obviously been rebuilt but it doesn’t quite work for me as the buildings are clearly fakes. Post-war architecture just isn’t the same. To give some credit though, the buildings around the Cathedral are at least low in a way that St Paul’s in London can only now dream of.
The people of Cologne are certainly strange, that’s for sure. There are moustaches everywhere, all meals involve sausage and they have a strange obsession with dogs. But, that’s the fun of the place, I guess, and we had a thoroughly good time because of it. If that’s not your thing though then go for the Cathedral – architecture fans would be mad not to do so.
