Yesterday, I met up with my parents for the first time since September. They have come to Germany for the week to do tour a few cities and spend a bit of time with me. Cologne is the first city on their list. We met in front of the cathedral, hugged, talked, and then decided to tackle the cathedral tower. From the first step to the last, the tower extends 157 meters into the air. That's 515 feet, or 509 steps without an elevator. I knew I'd get my exercise in that day.
The staircase spiraled upwards with a clockwise twist and had just enough space for two people to pass each other. Given the number of people ascending, descending, and taking breathers much scooching ensued. My dad, the marathon runner, seemed outwardly unaffected by the climb. My mom and I had more trouble. Out of pride, I refused to stop unless she asked to stop, but I'll admit that I rarely objected to the breaks.
One built in break came when we reached the Glocken, the church bells. Narrow stone passages let visitors move from one viewing area to another. The bells ranged from the size of a barrel to the size of a bedroom. Some had bell clappers and electric motors to swing them about. The smaller ones rang when struck with an automated hammer. While my dad tried to take a selfie, the smallest bells sounded the quarter hour directly behind us. Wow. If you've ever heard an air horn blare unexpectedly you have an idea of how loud it was and how high we jumped.
We continued our ascent, which brought us at lost last out of the spiral staircase and into an airy opening with scaffolding and metal stairs in the center leading every higher. My dad and I continued, but my mom declined when she saw an even tighter spiral staircase near the top. When we finally emerged, we stood beneath a conical stone lattice with the sky peaking through. A path wrapping around the tower perimeter and encased by wire fencing allowed us to get mostly unobstructed views of the city and structures on the cathedral. It was such a shame that people had graffitied the walls with mostly pointless declarations of love or awesomeness. If you love someone or if you're awesome, you should not have to write it on part of a priceless landmark to prove it. That really just proves that you don't respect the people who have to maintain the building.
Despite the graffiti, the architecture was worth the climb. Should I receive copies of the photos my dad took, I'll be sure to upload them.
After the tower, we wanted something to fill our bellies. We ended up eating outdoors at a restaurant whose name has drifted out of my mind When the waitress came over, she asked "Nehmen Sie die Karte?" meaning "Will you take/like the menu?" Something in my brain wasn't clicking though. I though she'd asked if we had the menus. I just sat there wondering why she'd ask that when she clearly had them in her hand. The rest of our transactions occurred in English. Drat. I can explain the difference between cognitive and intuitive ethics or how to balance a system to reduce vibration, but ordering food escapes me.
My dad got bratwurst and my mom and I had currywurst. It differed from the street currywurst I'd enjoyed in Berlin. The sausage had been sliced in zig-zags to help it cook through, and the sauce resembled home-made barbecue sauce with curry powder rather than curry ketchup. It tasted pretty good, but I think I prefer the street food. I'll take cheap, hot, and greasy over expensive and refined most any day.
After lunch we wandered around a little longer, returning to the cathedral for a somewhat lack-luster English tour. Sure we looked at drop of blood from Pope John the 23rd next to a statue of the Madonna covered in an insane amount of donated jewelry, but I had hoped to see parts of the building we wouldn't otherwise see or learn about the enormous hanging organ.
What stuck with me far better than the tour was an event just before hand. Outside the cathedral, a couple hundred people or so had collected and distributed multicolored balloons with cards dangling from them. On the card, you could write a message to combat homo- and trans-phobia. At 2:30, everyone released the balloons into the air while music played and enormous rainbow flags fluttered. I had heard that Cologne had an active lgbtqia+ community. I'm glad to have seen it in action.
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