We decided on a lazy morning, scrapping the plan to visit a farm museum. So we walked around Bad Salzuflen. We hadn't seen much of it yet. As the Bad name implies there is a mineral spring in town and part of the town business is taking the cure.
As part of that the city built huge structures with spring water with lots of minerals dripping through them. Standing near them and breathing that air supposedly has curative properties.
Some of our meanderings were interrupted by areas reserved for those who had paid to be in or near other cure related areas.
Some of the old buildings in the downtown area have large half circles above big doors. This used to allow room for wagons to enter. These buildings usually have a date. In this photo I think the date for the house on the left is 1635.
In our wanderings we saw what looked like a new laudromat being installed. The location is a block from our hotel.
After a light lunch we drove to Cologne. Thirty years ago next month I had moved to Cologne for a two year work assignment. I was last here 22 years ago. So I wanted to see the city again and my travel companions agreed Cologne would be a good place to visit.
Before going to the hotel near the main train station we wanted to return the rental car. It wasn't easy. Google maps (guiding most of our navigation) said to park on the southwest side of the station for the rental office. Parking was not cheap – 3 Euros for a half hour. Once at the Avis desk they gave us a map on how to circle round to the northeast side of the station and their return lot. I'm good with maps (as Brother can attest since I've been serving as navigator) but we ended up in the wrong spot (though not too far out of the way). We parked, unloaded the car, and went back to the Avis desk. I complained that the map showed one thing but I found another, which prompted the wrong turn. The agent studied the map a moment, then said, huh, the map is wrong.
My hotel room here in Cologne is quite small compared to our spacious accommodations of the last few days. There is barely enough room to open the suitcase.
While Brother and Niece rested a bit I wandered the area south of the cathedral. I was looking for a restaurant I enjoyed 30 years ago. I didn't find it, which is unfortunate but not surprising.
I went back to the hotel to get Brother and Niece and we went to a Chinese restaurant near the cathedral (upstairs from the McDonalds). I've been in other Chinese restaurants in Germany and thought the food rather bland. This was quite tasty. And the service was efficient.
Into the cathedral itself. On Tuesdays in the summer the cathedral holds free organ concerts. I attended every one I could when I lived here. So an hour before the concert we went in to get seats. That was good because the place filled up. These are popular concerts. While waiting I walked with Brother and Niece one at a time to see some of the cathedral sights, such as the windows, the Three Kings reliquary (seen from the nave), an amazingly busy alter carving, and just gaze up at the amazingly tall space.
I told them a brief history of the place – work started in the 1200s, the east end (known as the Choir) was finished sometime in the 1300s. Work began at the west end and a crane was created to haul up stone as the south tower was built. About 1520 work stopped. No money. The south tower was about a third of its current height. That crane became a part of the Cologne skyline. For 300 years. Our hotel has a copy of a print made about 10 years after the work stopped and it shows the crane. In 1840 enough people were convinced to raise the money for the cathedral's completion. Old plans were found so the building has the same style throughout (though Niece believes she spotted angels with an Art Deco vibe). Work was completed in 1880. So when I last visited they we celebrating the 700th year of the place, even though it had only been completed 110 years before.
There is scaffolding around several parts of the exterior of the cathedral where stones eaten by pollution are being replaced.
As I walked with Brother around the inside he stopped to light a votive candle. His wife had died three years ago today. We also remembered her at the Maulbronn Monastery a week ago. Brother said it was that day three years before when it seemed her spirit left and it took her body a week to die.
The inside clock chimed eight times. A cathedral representative talked for a bit, saying the guest organist is from Notre Dame in Paris and his program would be entirely of French music. He said more than that but it was all in German.
Then the music began. The first piece was a fanfare with trumpet stops alternating with full organ. It was glorious! The inside is a huge space with a seven second reverberation. And this organ could fill the space. An hour later we agreed this was the highlight of the trip. The rest of the crowd agreed, applauding long enough that we got an encore.
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