Köln: best landmark you can imagine

Yep, there it is, right at the other end of the Hohenzollernbrücke. A cathedral so big, it's impossible to get all in one shot if you're any closer...

...the main attraction here for hundreds of years. And, as we learned from our knowledgeable Viking guide, a landmark for more than the faithful. During the war, when almost all the rest of the city was bombed to smithereens, those towers were untouched (even though some other parts of the cathedral were damaged). Not, we learned, because of an Allied desire to preserve such a structure, but because they were an impossible-to-miss landmark guiding the bombers to their other targets.

This is the picture I referenced in my last post, taken by the U.S. Army, and it's easy to see what an amazing landmark, and aiming device, the cathedral was. Fortunately, we're at least one generation removed from the people who inflicted this damage and those who lived through it, and we were able to see this incredible structure restored to its glory.

The steeples are of course, for us as well as the bomber/navigators, a "highlight," but they do have to have maintenance done occasionally. How would you like to have to climb this ladder to do some spire-scrubbing?

the height of the towers is 515 feet!

Back down on terra firma, you can see that, as is often the case with these humongous European churches, the doors (and associated decoration) are a main attraction:

And of course the interior is just as awesome (in the original meaning of the word) as the exterior...

for sure most of these shots have to be verticals!

There's even floor tile art! Longtime readers will know how happy this made me...

And I always love the stained glass in these old churches, but can't always get good pictures of it. Somehow, I was lucky this time:

As wonderful as all these aspects of the cathedral are, we took it upon ourselves to get a different perspective, too. After a much-needed nutritious lunch aboard Alruna, we crossed the bridge again to see if we could meet the challenge of climbing 2/3 of the way up those imposing towers...

Turm=tower; besteigung=ascent; Stufen=steps; Aufstieg=climb;
Auf-und Absteig=roundtrip; kein Aufzug=no elevator

533 steps might not sound like that many (or, it might!) but, believe me, it is! However, the experience was worth the effort. (Although I should warn claustrophobes that the spiral stairs are narrow and the up and down traffic use the same stairway.)

Even before you get to the top, there are neat things to see, like the bell chamber (which also provides a nice respite for a while from climbing)...

But the views from the end of the climb...wow!

view looking upstream from the tower
(that's Groß St. Martin in the center)

That's our lovely Alruna in the red square, right at the other end of the bridge:

Here's another look outside, this time featuring some of the incredible decorative touches on the church itself:

And here's what one of those amazing towers looks like from the inside. (Remember that the climb only takes you part of the way to the very top, so this is as close as you can get.)

Happy tourists enjoying the views and getting ready for the long walk down...

...where we treated ourselves to a much-deserved sampling of the local brew:

Before, of course, heading back to our lovely ship and another amazing dinner. As we headed on up the Rhine. Stay tuned!