Art & Architecture Trip - Day 4

I got up at 0730 today and arrived on time for breakfast. We had rolls and tea - with chocolate milk later. Next, Georg described Cologne (or Koln) for us. We then rode the subway into the city. First, we went to cash our travelers cheques at the American Express office. The first main event of the day was the tour of the Gothic Cathedral in town. It has nearly a 1500 year history (Koln is nearly 2000 years old). After climbing 504 steps, we reached the top of the tallest Gothic Cathedral in the world and were able to view the city below. The cathedral is still the tallest building in Koln. In the front, in some photographs, you can still see the bricks which were put into one of the butresses and have been left to honor the brave, conscientious German officer who wisely put them there (despite Nazi orders) to save the cathedral from destruction during World War II. Next, we went to the Roman town hall (Praetorum). The building, which is ironically underneath the new city hall (they were not aware of the old building's existence until 1946 when they were cleaning up the city rubble), is almost 1900 years old and is a fine example of the hardiness of Roman architecture and construction. We toured the scenic sewer of this classical building. We ate lunch at a restaurant named Alt Koln. We were served a buffet dinner with lemonade. Oh yes, we also visited a German McDonalds before leaving the city hall - they serve beer... We returned to the Jugendgastehaus on the subway and stopped into a supermarket for gummi letters (mmmm....). At 1600, we began our German instruction. We started learning numbers, verb tenses, money and helpful sayings. That night, we went to the cafe for drinks and talked with two Canadians about Germany, Europe and American-Canadian relations. At 2330, being slightly late, I went to bed. Gute nacht!