A day in Cologne, The City of Stairs

Today we spent the day in Cologne (a.k.a. Köln). And in keeping with the theme of the past few days, it was awesome! We were delighted to soak in the quintessentially "european" landscape of the city. Though overcast, the day was warmer than days previous and just crisp enough to balance out the heat of physical exertion that would result from our million stair climb!

First we went to Cologne Cathedral, a world renowned work of gothic architecture. It is one of the most beautiful churches I have ever been inside of. And the view from it's uppermost point was breathtaking.

From the outside, the Cathedral is grand and imposing, and surprisingly difficult to effectively photograph. Inside, I lit a candle for my Dad, who loved old churches, and deeply appreciated the grandeur of times past.

Then came the STEPS! I now know that we climbed 509, rather than 1 billion, but still the climb felt as endless as it did perilous. The stairs were narrow and oncoming foot-traffic came to pose a pretty serious threat.

....I'm smiling in this photo, but I assure you my quads were not!


The view, though! It made every single one of those 509 steps worthwhile! The view of the Rhine was INCREDIBLE!

So, having been rewarded for our efforts, we completed the trek in reverse and made our way over to the German version of the Parisian Love Locks Bridge, The Hohenzollern Bridge. It crosses the Rhine and is covered in Love Locks.

There were bike locks and wildly decorated locks and simple locks, and I kind of wished that I had brought a lock from home. I love the idea that you could return to the bridge in 30 years and find the lock right where you'd left it. Maybe I can decorate one in time for Paris's bridge!


After taking an ungodly number of pictures at the bridge, we attempted to go to the city's chocolate museum, but it closed before we got there. We did however, climb the museum's million step staircase to stand on the roof getting a bird's eye view of the city for the second time that day.

We then wandered down a charming little street that led us to a plaza where we could enjoy live music and a meal. And on our way back to the buses, we stumbled upon some really cool street performers.  

Zeynep knew the secret to their trick, which she promptly spoiled for us all (maybe you can figure it out), but still I found the theatricality of the stunt very impressive.

I don't know how many "I love (insert city name here)" T-shirts a person is allowed to own before the authenticity of that love starts to be called into question, but I would definitely pick up such a shirt with Cologne written on it. I most appreciate that this is a city in which you could never get lost. With the towering Cathedral and the Rhine as landmarks, it was easy to navigate and enjoy. And it has a Starbucks!!!! At the end of the day, that was the most pleasant little slice of home there ever was! Though my sore calves may beg to differ, today was wonderful. Auf wiedersehen Köln!