Day 2 began with a stop at Cologne, where we walked through the old town to see the cathedral, the largest in Northern Europe.
We walked through a square housing the oldest beer garden in the town, a clock that sticks it tongue out, a mooning statue, and the statues of two jokers who are famous for their jokes about their own stupidity. We dutifully rubbed their noses.
Here we started to hear about what would become familiar themes: the percentage of the towns that had been destroyed by bombing in World War II, and the reconstruction of old architectural treasures after the war, and the record levels of flooding over the centuries.
The cathedral was enormous, with stained glass windows rebuilt after the war, and the reliquaries of the three wise men for which it is famous.
Some windows were replaced in a modern style. In some churches damaged in the war, the original windows had been plain glass, but the introduction of modern lighting allowed them to be replaced with colored glass.
The wise men holding models of the church.
After the cathedral, we had some free time. After sampling some of the local cologne, Tom and another road scholar headed off to sample the beer. I went to the museum of modern art, which had a substantial collection of Picassos that do not often travel.
Look familiar? Think Mant's Dejeuner sur L'Herbe.
We walked back to the ship...
to find a dog waiting for us in our room. We became quite fond of him.
The ship sailed on to Koblenz, where we had an after-dinner walking tour.
Germans seem quite fond of statues of ordinary folks, or local folk heroes,
as well as clocks that stick out their tongues or
roll their eyes.
By the time we woke up the next morning, we were on our way to the Rhine Gorge.
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