We slowly got ready, Janis making me some epic eggs for breakfast, and then decided to head out around 2 and spend the day wandering through Cologne.
The streets of Cologne are adorable. Though a large amount of the buildings are covered in graffiti, there are little shops and cafes everywhere, typical of most places in Europe.
We walked to the Starbucks around the corner for a tea and then kept on our journey. We were headed to the Dom. On our way, Janis showed me one of his favorite stores, a concept store called Apropos.
Apropos is a large high end store. When you first walk in, you walk through a long corridor, painted in a bright magenta pink. You walk up a few small steps and find yourself in a large naturally lit courtyard with a bar/cafe to your left, all with white tables, chairs and bar stools, complete with a large shiny disco ball. To your right, a store within - the handbag boutique. Walking through the courtyard, you end up in the main area of the store. Rows of racks with only a few pieces of clothing hung them. One, specifically with a gorgeous satin & tule dress on it.
I walked up and admired it, promising to come back and try it on when i was feeling a bit less like I had just been hit by a vodka bus. So we left the store and continued on to the Dom.
The Dom is an exquisite cathedral in central Cologne, right outside of the Bahnhof (now if I could just get the pronunciation down, eh Janis?! Haha!) (for all others: the train station). It is made of sand stone and covered in black filth from years and years of pollution in the air. However, there are some parts of the exterior that are very clean and white from the ongoing restoration. Being one of the 6 million people that visit the Dom every year, as Janis just told me, we headed inside to take a peak around. The doors were tall and slender, with large lion knockers. Once inside, I was blown away with how high the ceilings went! The main sanctuary room had tall columns lining either side connecting the arched ceiling. High up on the left side over hang an enormous silver organ. The one thing I was surprised about, unlike ,at of the churches Ive been in through out the years, this one didn't have as much color as the rest. It was very dark and muted, very quiet.
While in the church, Janis explained that normally we would be able to walk around the whole cathedral but unfortunately while we were there, there was a small service going on and we would be restricted to the lobby area and up to where the pews began. So we spent a few minutes inside, saw as much as we could and then headed out, walking around past the Dom and towards the Hohenzollernbruecke Bridge that crosses one of the busiest waterways in Germany, the Rhine.
When we began to make our way across the bridge, it was hard to miss all the padlocks hanging from the fence that separates the walk way from the train tracks. I asked Janis what this was all about because it reminded me of Pont des Art in Paris (that I hadnt had a chance to see). He explained that lovers come from all over the world to hang a "love lock" on the bridge to profess their undying love for each other and then they throw the key into the Rhine below. He also explained that when making the bridge they had to take in account the weight of all the locks, in terms of the architecture, because there are thousands of them going all the way across the bridge.
As we strolled along, it was absolutely beautiful to see all the locks. Different sizes, colors, types of locks. Some were engraved, some written on with sharpie, some with ribbons or flowers... It was so touching! Some of the locks had multiple locks attached for families...the first having an engraving of a wedding date, then newer ones attached each time a child was born. Another ones saw and fell in love with, was a lock that I'm sure was placed by couple that lived near by. It had their names on it "KD und Seph" and a date of "9 Aug 2003," attached to this lock were 10 or more other locks engraved with the names of cities. I can only assume that whenever they went somewhere in the world they came back and put another new lock on the bridge alongside their own. There was Berlin, Tahiti, East Coast, West Coast, Australia. It was definitely the neatest one to me.
We carried on across the bridge, seeing a few couples attaching locks, until we passed 3 teenagers. I don't think they were much older than 15 or 16. One girl was standing with her iPhone taking a picture of the other two that were standing beside the wall of padlocks. What made seeing this special, was that the other two, a girl holding a rose standing with her boyfriend. They were holding hands, smiles on there faces and posing for the picture. It was absolutely adorable. It began a conversation between Janis and I about how simple and exciting teenage love is. It's like, you don't ever have to think about distances, money, life responsibilities, anything that seems to complicate or get in the way of something really great when you're an adult. At that age, all it takes is a boy or girl holding your hand to make you feel on top of the world. I know some of those feelings, like the butterflies and excitement when someone special calls, never gets old... But I'm sure everyone can relate and understand what I mean in some way!
When we finally got to the other side of the bridge, some 15 minutes or so later, having been sauntering pretty slowly in our sorry hungover states, we decided to head over to the Triangle Tower.
The Triangle Tower is actually a tall round building with an observation deck in which you can see all of Cologne. Arriving at the top, and sitting along the glass walls were several watercolor artists painting the Dom, bridge and horizon. Definitely tugged at a few heart strings having not painted in years and recalled the last time I was in Florence where I bought a sketch pad and few pencils and drew here and there along my trip. Janis had never been atop the Triangle Tower before, so we both took some pictures then he pointed out places throughout Cologne, like the Stadium, his school, a "beach" bar along the Rhine and a few other cool places. As we walked around the observation deck, I heard this man by us explain that Cologne reminded him of Toronto. Of course my ears perked up when I heard Toronto and I asked them if they were from there. They explained they were from Montreal and then made a few hockey jokes, complete with an "eh" here and there. I love my country. Fellow Canadians make me laugh. It took the last few years living in San Diego to realize but I've found that we fit the stereotypes to a tee, and frankly... I think it's hilarious.
We headed back down the tower and decided at this point we were absolutely starving. Janis had told me earlier that there was a really great Schnitzel place by his house, called Oma Klienmann, that is incredible. So off we went to get some schnitzel!
On our way, I kept seeing these trees decorated with steamers and ribbons and hearts. They weren't actually in the ground, they were just tied to lamp posts, leaning against walls beside doors... in very random places! Janis explained to me, that when someone is in love and wants to express their love, they decorate a birch tree, usually put a heart with the persons name on it and the get it as close as possible to the persons doorway or window as they can! Hooooow adorable is that?! This city is so full of love! Pshhhh! Paris has nothing on Cologne, with their birch trees and love locks! Anything else Cologne?! So cute! I wish North America had such beautiful traditions, like these, to express love! And don't even get me started on Valentines Day, that doesn't even count!!!
Anyways, when we got to Oma Klienmann, we managed to be able to sitar a table with a time limit of an hour and a half. The table, among almost all the others, had reservations set for them! Busy place! We got the menus, of course the whole thing in German and complete gibberish to me. Janis started going down the list of what everything was until I stopped him and said, just order me whatever you think I'll enjoy with a side salad! No sense in having an entire menu read to me! Haha
So, he ordered my meal which arrived shortly after and it was the biggest piece of schnitzel I have ever seen!!! It took over the entire plate, slightly hanging off one side. It was incredible! I decided to take on the challenge and I almost finished the whole thing, but the last several bites were torture. Absolutely painful. I had made it soooo close to the end but I just.couldnt.do.it. (Especially with the hangover stomach ache I already had.) haha
We finished up, paid the bill then headed back to his apartment where I ended up sitting and writing while he took a nap. We were supposed to go out again, but after about an hour or two of relaxing, neither of us wanted to. Perfectly content, we opted to stay in and mentally prepare for the adventures we had planned for the following night!
A great, mellow and enjoyable night with much needed sleep and recovery time!
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