Cologne Germany

On January 2nd, the travel bug hit me again.  I figured we had been stationary way too long and needed some sight seeing.  :-)

Lucky for us our friends live about 30 minutes from a huge town, Cologne.  Here is Michael ready to go for some sightseeing!!!!

During World War I Cologne was a target of minor air raids and survived without significant damage.  It was occupied by the British army through 1926.  World War II wasn't as forgiving with 262 air raids.  The worst day was May 31, 1942; that day brought "Operation Millennium" - the first 1,000 bomb raids by the Royal Air Force.  The statistics are incredible, 75 minutes of bombs, 600 acres destroyed, 400 civilians killed, 59,000 homeless.  By the end of the war the city population was reduced by 95%.  Twelve Romanesque churches were destroyed but the Cathedral was not heavily damaged.  Reconstruction of the city lasted until 1990s when St. Kunibert Church was completed.

 This is the famous Cologne Cathedral.  We tried to go in there first, but it was so packed because there was a church service going on and we couldn't see the whole thing, so we decided to head to our other destinations before visiting the inside of the Cathedral.

We decided to head into the Roman museum.  When archaeological excavations were carried out in Berlin metro in 2010, Modernist sculptures emerged quite unexpectedly in front of Berlin's "rotes Rathaus" city hall.  Classified as degenerate art, they had been removed from museums by the Nazis and were considered lost.  Many were thought to be destroyed when the building was bombed, but they have been preserved.

I found this interesting, it is a part of a dig, you can see all sorts of things in it, including bones, bits of pottery and different types of roads.

This is a milestone that was found on Via Agrippa from Cologne to Trier.  Milestones were used by travelers for orientation purposes and indicated the distance from a reporting point.

This is a reconstruction of a typical Roman carriage.

Here are some of the first scissors and other pottery.  I am glad our scissors are a little better now.

Now I thought this was really cool!!!  You slide the computer over the map, the Tabula Peutingeriana.  It is a medieval copy of an illustrated Roman map.  The original is kept at the Austrian National Library in Vienna.  So when you slide it over the map it tells you about that particular area.  It goes from Italy all they way up past Germany.  Very informative and interactive!

This is a statue from 475 of Hercules vanquishing the Nemean lion, a symbol of man's victory over evil.

Lions and sphinxes were believed to provide protection for the graves along the major roads leading from the city.

These are the first generation of lamps made by the Roman people.

According to Greek and Roman mythology, the goddess Athena/Minerva helped Perseus behead the gorgon Medusa who turned to stone all those who gazed upon her face.  Medusa portraits were believed to have the power to ward off evil.  This mask was found in the Forum Romanum in Rome.

This is a funeral monument, erected around AD 40.  Lucius Poblicius from Teretina in Italy was a veteran of the 5th Legion.  Upon his discharge after 20-25 years of service with the Roman army he would have received the equivalent of 13 years' salary to buy a farm or set up a business.  It might have also paid for this monument.  Here he is depicted not as a former soldier but as a Roman citizen surrounded by his family.

 This famous Dionysos Mosaic - found in Cologne in 1941 as an air-raid shelter was being built.  The mosaic - dating to the 3rd century - decorated the floor of a banqueting hall.  Dionysos, the God of Wine (that is a good thing right?!?  :-) ), with his attendant menaeds and satyrs underline the festive character of the room.

This is the Jan Van Werth Fountain.  He was a general in the German army during the 30 year war.  The story goes that Jan fell in love with a beautiful young Griet, but Griet turned him down because at the time he was just a poor farm boy.  He went on to become a successful general and married a noble lady.  When he triumphantly returned to Cologne he saw Griet, who was old and wrinkled and still single because no rich man ever asked for her hand.  When she saw him she said, "Jan, if only I had known."  Now newly married couples come here to have their photos taken in front of the statue.

I couldn't help myself, this was on the side of a second story building.  One of the locals actually tapped me on the shoulder and pointed it out.  Look out or the poop might get you!  :-)

The Christmas market was still going on here, so the boys asked if they could ride the carousel and of course I said yes!!  They love the one that spins!

I think gnomes are their mascot here.  They are all over, including riding up this chairlift. :-) 

David really liked this one, the "three wise men" bringing gifts to Jesus.  It was one of many that we saw.

They had a figure eight ice skating rink around this statue.  The boys wanted to go, but we didn't have time for it this day.  Statue of Frederick William III of Prussia by Gustav Blaeser in the Heumarkt in Cologne, erected to the glory of Prussia. The base is surrounded by statues of great Prussian reformers such as Stein, Hardenberg, Schön and Humboldt. 

This was part of an old Roman doorway.  They just had these sitting all over the town.

Michael eating his fries and checking out the scenery across the water. 

AJ on the bridge to the Chocolate Museum.

So I know what you are probably thinking, a chocolate museum?!?!  Who would really want to go see and learn about that.  To be honest, both David and I were very impressed with it!  These are a few of the old wrappers they used to use.

I am not sure if you can make out the yellow monkey or not on the left of Michael, but that is so the kids know there is something interactive for the kids to do.  They had to find them all over the museum.  Here they are looking at different parts of the tree.

This is Carl von Linne.  He was a Swedish doctor and botanist who developed the modern scheme of binomial nomenclature, the binary naming system in Latin.  I won't bore you with all the facts just know that he named the cocoa tree Theobroma cacao (Greek: theos - god and broma - food; food of the gods).  Yes he called chocolate food of the gods and who is to argue that?

Michael checking out the fish in the tropical rain forest.

This is a boat they used back when to transport the cocoa beans.  Around 80% of the world's cocoa production is produced by smallholders who are located predominantly in West Africa.  The number of cocoa farmers worldwide is estimated at between 5-6 million.  However, the number of people who are dependent on cocoa cultivation is far higher - the estimated figure is between 40-50 million.  I found this fact a little bizarre - approximately 75% of cocoa farmers and their families have never tried a piece of chocolate.

You can see the boys here found another monkey and are checking out the different stages in cocoa beans.

These are some of the tools used to harvest the cocoa beans.  Almost everything has to be done by hand.  I had no idea it was such a process to get them ready.  They are first layered on banana leaves during the fermentation process.  This procedure takes between two and ten days, depending on the type of cocoa in question.  The cocoa beans and the fruit mush are carefully removed from the fruit and placed in buckets, sacks or baskets.  The cocoa beans are placed in the sun to dry.  They lose around half their weight in the process.  They also increase in flavor and the specific character of the various cocoa types become apparent.  The drying process lasts several days, and may extend to up to three weeks in the rainy season.  The beans are stirred continually during this period.  Rotten beans and other waste are removed.  Then they are taken and transported to the ports where they are ready to be shipped.

This was a cool place that showed exactly how the chocolate was made.

They are checking out the different ingredients that are being mixed in to make the chocolate bars.

AJ watching the chocolate head down the tube.

The boys really liked this one, they were watching it get mixed.

Here are some of the older molds, you can see Mickey here and many others.

The boys are looking at an old fashioned way of mixing chocolate that took a lot longer.

Who doesn't LOVE a chocolate fountain?!?!  They were giving out tastes and boy was it good!!!

This is a full chocolate replica of the Shrine of the Three Kings, everything is chocolate.  It is made of 660 lbs. of chocolate.  The artist did this in 8 months.  She used fruit gums, marzipan, sticks of candy, isomalt, egg-white glaze and pistachios.  The main foundation of the shrine was dark chocolate, mild chocolate and white chocolate.  She designed 47 figures in the chocolate shrine.  The real one is in the Cathedral. 

Here the robotic arm picked up the chocolate to move it over so it would be ready to wrap.

The chocolate being filled into the molds and then shaken down flat.

The boys really liked watching the machinery.

This wrapping machine is able to wrap two small bars in a single second!

These are some of the creations that they have made from chocolate.  It is pretty impressive.

The view from the second floor - you can see the cathedral on the left.  It turned out to be such a beautiful day!!!!

More hands on fun for the boys - they were building a puzzle.

These are old chocolate dispensers.  We had to get the lighthouse one for Mary!

The boys decided they wanted to take the elevator down instead of walking.  :-)

Of course we had to try the hot chocolate!!!  The boys had regular ones, David had a Kahlua one and I had a mint one.  They were all YUMMY!!!!!

Heading back to the cathedral we saw this one man band heading through the Christmas market.

Here are the gnomes having fun swinging up in the air!!!

This is a better picture of the Cathedral.  It is really hard to get it all in with its massive size.   Construction of Cologne Cathedral commenced in 1248 and was halted in 1473 leaving it unfinished.  Work restarted in the 19th century and was completed, to the original plan, in 1880.  It is 474 ft long, 284 feet wide and it towers are approximately 515 feet tall.  The cathedral is the largest Gothic church in Northern Europe and the second-tallest spires (after Ulm which we have already climbed).

You have to love the lion door knockers!!!!

The front of the cathedral - I love seeing it at Christmas time all lit up!!! 

More beautiful stained glass windows!!!

There was impressive work all over the cathedral.

On August 25, 2007 this new stained glass was put in.  It is 1,220 sq. ft. of glass.  It is composed of 11,500 identically sized pieces of colored glass resembling pixels, randomly arranged by computer, which create a colorful "carpet."  Since the loss of the original window in WWII, the space had been temporarily filled with plain glass.

This was one of their nativity scenes in the church!!!! 

Here was another one that was much more in depth and beautiful!!

This is the original Shrine of the Three Kings, the one the chocolate version was made from.  It was started in 1190 and completed around 1225.  It is traditionally believed to hold the remains of the Three Wise Men.  It shows the Christian history of salvation from the beginning of time until the Last Judgement.  The shrine consists of two long sides as well as a front and rear side.  Six prophets from the Old Testament are positioned on each of the lower long sides.  At the center of each, King Salomon and David represent the seventh figure.  The two long sides are therefore known as the Salomon Side, to the left of the observer, and the David side on the right.  Moses can be seen on the very left hand side of the David side.  It was opened on July 20, 1864 and was said to have bones (the Three Wise Men) and coins of Philip I.  The bones were wrapped in white silk and returned to the shrine. 

And of course the picture of the organ - I was able to hear it play earlier in the day and it was beautiful!!!!

I am not sure exactly what these guys were doing standing in the front of the cathedral, but I am sure they had a purpose.

My boys in front of the cathedral, you can see it is HUGE!  I couldn't get the whole thing in no matter how close to the ground I got.  I wanted to climb up the spire, but to no avail, they stopped those at 3:30 and it was almost an hour past.  Oh well, maybe next time.

Then we decided it was time to head home.  So off we went back to our friend's house.  I saw this statue with the moon on the left as we were heading out of town.  So cool!!!  It was a fun day and I still was amazed how neat the chocolate museum was!  Then we had another rousing game of Uno after dinner.  My sides hurt, my face hurt, we were having soooo much fun!!!  It was hard to leave the next day to head home and back to the daily grind.