18 December 2012

The Grey Bus

One evening while we were walking to our hotel after having a wonderful dinner at Mongo's, we noticed a cement school bus sculpture.  We thought that it would be fun to take some silly pictures there, but after we read the sign for the bus, we couldn't imagine doing it anymore.

The Grey Bus is a monument to the mentally and physically handicapped people who were annihilated by the Nazis during WWII.  There is one bus that is permanently located in Ravensburg.  This photo is of the second one that travels the route to Grafeneck. Cologne is on that route, and the bus arrived here in 2011.

We returned to Canada on December 14th, the same Friday that so many children were killed in Newtown, Connecticut.  Pictures of the Grey Bus now will always remind me of this tragedy too.

Neither event will ever make sense to me.


Snow Day


We had the most delightful sight to look at each morning and evening out our window. We faced the Rhine river, and looked out towards the grand Cologne Cathedral and the Hohenzollem bridge.  It's a beautiful sight, and it was a pleasure to watch the trains cross the bridge, or the cruise ships and barges going underneath it.  There was a lone kayaker some days.  Even the night lighting added a bit of beauty to it. It lacked a little something on snow days though.  All four of these pictures were taken from our window.  What a difference a day made!

We were undaunted.  On this Saturday, we chose to leave the crowded city of Cologne, where no less than 15 river cruises had docked near the market.  We knew that it would be overrun with people, and well, we're not really the crowd-loving type.

The snow and the fog made for a magical morning as we rode the train.  The country itself is lovely, but there is just something about fog blanketed trees that speaks to me.   I love the mystery of it all.

We travelled to Koblenz, a city whose name means "at the merging of rivers".  Koblenz is situated at the point where the Mosel river (on the right) meets the Rhine river (on the left). The old part of the city was delightful, and it is where the market was held.  We walked on centuries-old cobblestone, drank glühwein with the locals, and peeked at some of the crafts for sale.

After that, we walked to the Kaiser Wilhelm memorial, a monstrous statue but a lovely lookout point.  We saw one of the river cruise boats navigate the turn, and it was quite interesting to see how they did it.  We walked to the point along the Rhine, and back again along the Mosel.

During the time we were there, this lovely gentleman played traditional Christmas carols for us on his accordion.  He was really quite good, and I appreciated his efforts very much.  What I especially loved was that he did it just for the joy of it, he wasn't accepting any donations at all.  Now, that's the Christmas spirit!






17 December 2012

Love locks on the Hohenzollern



Hohenzollernbrücke is the train bridge that goes across the Rhine river.  From our hotel to the cathedral is roughly 1.5 km, and the entire bridge is covered by locks of all shapes and sizes  (though I did notice that there are many Abus aluminum locks, probably because they come in jewel-tone colours).  

Some of the locks were engraved with names and dates.  Others, like ours, were simple padlocks labeled with sharpie markers.  Almost everyone tried to do something that would make their lock stand out--I thought that adding a green ribbon to ours would make it more visible but apparently so did 2500 other people.    The strangest locks included an actual door panel riveted to the bridge frame, some large aluminum hearts chained to the fence, and some bicycle chains that were piggy-backed by all the locks attached to it. Someone even chained a small grinder to the bridge. 

We walked that bridge at least twice a day, and it never ceased to be interesting. We always saw couples adding a lock and tossing the keys into the river.  We saw people searching for a lock, older people leaning on each other reading the inscriptions, young people taking pictures.  I found myself wondering if anyone ever came to take a lock off the bridge if things didn't work out. 

There were far too many locks, in my opinion, that had Martin's name.  It's a real comfort though to know that only one matters.  It's on the hotel side of the bridge, right where the bank is, on the panel with the frog lock in the top right corner.  I don't know if I'll ever get back to Cologne, but I want to remember where to look. 

Cologne in December

We have been in Köln, Germany for a couple of days. It's been wet and cold and drizzly and rainy and sleety and damp and can't-quite-warm-up weather, but it's been fantastic. We have come mostly for the Christmas markets which we are enjoying. It's quite a culture, and it's all about being together, even though there is also a significant commercial aspect.

There are six markets here, of which I have seen four. Each market has its own character. There is one based around gnomes, another has an angel, the largest is based around the cathedral, and the fourth features Grimm's fairy tale characters. Many of the characters are placed on the roofs of the little Christmas villages. There is an ice rink in one, and all of them have carousels with horses and carriages.
It's a feast of smells too. Grilled bratwurst, currywurst and Weisswurst cozy up to the biggest vats of sauerkraut I have ever seen. People wait in lines for fresh potato pancakes and applesauce or for crepes and waffles, or mushrooms sautéed in butter, garlic and caraway. More people line up for souvenir mugs of glühwein, and each market has their own mug design. It is possible to take them home, or return them for a refund. There are spiced cookies, spice stalls and spiced nuts. Pretzels of all kinds are everywhere.

It"s a friendly atmosphere too, where the idea is to mingle and wish a happy Christmas to other revellers. Cozy on up to the table if you can find a spot, say hello, raise a toast and enjoy. There is quite a bit of Christmas music, some of it live. My favourite so far was the children's choir we heard on the first day. This morning the sun is warming the old cathedral with tinges of pink. It looks like the clouds are moving in again, so I must go.

As much as I like it here, I have had enough of being wet...but, at least I am learning how to order my coffee because of it.