Prague Day 2 (August 8 2012)

Ralph again.  We slept in and ate breakfast at the hotel – the spread was very similar to what was available in our Munich hotel, and was more than enough to last us past lunch.  We walked downhill to the Vtalva River, along its banks for a bit, then crossed one of the several bridges to begin the long climb up to Prague Castle.

They picked a good site for this castle.  It is by far the highest point in Prague.  From the riverbank, it is about a mile up at about a 4-5% grade, including a very long staircase.  At the top is a square with the Castle Guards at the entry.  They were poor examples of military bearing (constantly shifting their weight, looking around, etc) but at least they are topped by statues of Czechs stabbing and clubbing their enemies to death:

Prague Castle is actually a complex of several buildings, including a Gothic cathedral and the residence of the Czech president.  [This is pretty typical of castles.  The president asked to live in the castle.  Previously, the royal family lived there.]  You can get into the Castle courtyard for free, but to get into any of the buildings or museums within you need to pay a fairly steep admission fee.  However, as a tourist, you’ve already spent 30 minutes climbing uphill to get to the place, so you are going to pay whatever the good Czechs charge (around $25/person to see nearly all the museums).  We did, however, pass up on the audioguide, which was the right call – nearly all the museum signs were in English, and the audioguide was pretty expensive to boot.  [Understatement – the audioguide was more than the cost of admission for three hours, more if you wanted it longer.  You also had to pay a high deposit.]

First we saw St. Vitus’ Cathedral.  It is, of course, gigantic.  It is the burial site of St. Wenceslas (Vaclav in Czech), who is considered to be the patron saint and eternal ruler of Bohemia. (Yes, the Wenceslas from the Christmas carol).

Next we went through the museum on the history of Prague Castle.  Honestly I expected this to be really boring but it turned out to be the most interesting part of the Castle complex.  It wasn’t just about the Castle, but also about the history of Bohemia from prehistory until the Velvet Revolution against Czechoslovakia’s Communist rulers. [This is what I was most looking forward to.  I was not disappointed.  It’s interesting to hear some of the same stories from different viewpoints.]

Next we went to the Basilica of St George, a small basilica on the grounds:

[The St. George of St. George and the dragon.]

We also went to Golden Lane, a series of small two-room houses that were purchased from their modern owners and “reconstructed” to resemble medieval times.  [The houses had been built into the niches of the outside wall.  Originally for the castle guards, eventually they were bought and sold to anyone.  The homes were one by one made to look “more medieval” by their owners who could then charge visitors admission to look around.]  One of them was where Franz Kafka wrote A Country Doctor.  That house, of course, is now a gift shop.

The upstairs of the houses contained many suits of medieval armor and a carnival game where you could shoot a crossbow at a target about thirty feet away.  I thought I did pretty well until Lynnae tried her hand at it and landed two of three in the bullseye.  [We have video of us shooting the crossbow but we can’t post videos here.]

For lunch we ate on the castle grounds.  We had goulash in a bread bowl, a traditional Czech meal.  Not too long after that we were kicked out of the palace grounds as it was closing for the day, so we sat on a wall on the edge of the castle grounds for a while enjoying the view:

Then walked through St. Wenceslas’ vineyard, which have been around for a long time and are the oldest in Prague. [Also the oldest in the Czech republic.  It’s been around since 906 AD.  It’s next to the castle grounds at the top of the hill so it also has great city views.]

We walked back to the hotel and ate leftover pizza for dinner (thankfully it had a minibar fridge).

Cologne Cathedral (Cologne Day 3) – 30 July 2012

Ralph here again.  Monday we headed to the Cologne Cathedral again and were finally able to tour it.  It is very difficult to describe with words just how immense it is: in physical size, in intricate detail, in the volume of random religious artwork.  [It has the largest front of any cathedral in the world.  It towers over the surrounding buildings.]  The Cologne Cathedral is a result of 600 years of progressive building and as a result, it does not have the relative simplicity that I am used to seeing in church buildings.  [It was built according to the original design.  Work was stalled on several occasions.]  We both would sit down and discover a theme within the cathedral that was completely unnoticed before.  So instead of talking I’ll just give a lot of pictures:

[The stained glass in this location was broken in WWII and replaced with plain glass.  The stained glass above was put in in 2007.  The archbishop did not attend the unveliing as he had desired a more traditional design.]

[A floor mosiac]

restoration work is never finished

the golden shrine on the altar is supposed to hold the remains of the Magi.  I really doubt that the bones of Arabian mystics ended up in northern Germany via Italy, but who knows

another view of the Magi shrine

[One of the oldest large crucifixes.  It was commissioned in 960.]

Additionally, we walked up one of the towers, nearly to the top.  It was clearly not designed for tourists, as it is one very narrow stone spiral staircase going up 500 feet.  Additionally, it goes up in a clockwise manner so by walking on the right, as you are going up you have the narrow part of the stair.  Not good for claustrophobics.  Additionally, a rainstorm whipped up while we were walking up, meaning we were getting whipped with wind and rain when we arrived at the observation levels.  Quite a view from the belfry (about 2/3 of the way up) and the top, though:

[Another gothic cathedral only a block away.]

[Right in the middle of this photo is our hotel.]

[We toured the Cathedral Treasury.  It was mostly made up of chalices, bishops’ rings, crucifixes, ornate staffs as well as priestly vestments.  These are still in use during some Sundays.  Photos weren’t allowed so we have none.   The treasury used to be much more impressive but many of the riches had to be turned over when the chuch was secularized.  Then it was robbed in the 1970’s.  It still seemed substantial.  Additionally, you could see some remains of the Roman wall there.]

[We also went down into the crypt.  Other than the funky smell, it wasn’t that interesting.  Photo below.]

After we were done at the Cathedral, we had a 5-hour drive to Berlin ahead of us.  So we loaded into the rental car and hit the Autobahn for the long drive across northern Germany.

Cologne (Koln) Day 1 – 28 July 2012

Lynnae again – Saturday we were still in Spangdahlem.  Fortunately, Ralph had finally heard back from his prof and could take his final exam.   He submitted it Saturday morning as well as the documentation for our move/travel claim that had been bounced back to us.  Finally we were done and all checked out of the hotel.  We bought some provisions and headed north. [Ralph: I was very happy to leave Spangdahlem.  It is a nice base but it is in the middle of the German countryside, so if you do not have a car there is very little to do there.]

We drove to Cologne [Koln in German].  It was an easy 2 hour drive despite some rain.  We arrived in Cologne in the late afternoon.  We checked into our hotel, the Barcelo Hotel Cologne.  We went up to our room and discovered that we had been given a smoking room in spite of the fact we’d requested a non-smoking room.  Even more perplexing, none of the lights would turn on.  We tried all the lights in different combinations.  We realized the little desk lamp was unplugged.  After plugging it in, that did give light but it was the only one that did.  It was plenty light outside though so we could see just fine but we were concerned about after sunset – especially in the bathroom.

We went back to the desk to share our concerns.  The clerk apologized but they didn’t have any nonsmoking rooms available.  She was sorry our room smelled and would move us to a better smoking room.  She completely dismissed our concern about the lights without comment. [I think this may have been because she didn’t understand what we were saying.  Most Germans seem to know enough English where we can muddle our way through a question or transaction, whereas I barely know enough German to buy a cup of coffee.  When the cashier asks a question I don’t understand, I just mumble and look away until the question passes.  Still, there are times when the language barrier is too high… I think the nonworking lights issue is one of those times.]  Our new room, although slightly smokier was much larger and on the eastern side of the hotel with a view of the Cologne Cathedral [German: Kolner Dom].  However, the lights didn’t work in this room either.  This led us to believe that the lights would work if only we could figure it out.  Eventually we stuck one of our keycards in a funny holder by the door and voila! The lights turned on.

We left the windows open, the fan on and our bags unopened in the hopes the smokiness would dissipate while we were out.

Morning view from our hotel room

We walked toward the cathedral.  We walked through a popular shopping area – another pedestrian street.  This area of Cologne is recommended for its shopping although I overheard a German tell his friend that for “real” shopping it was better to go to Dusseldorf.  It was pretty crowded.

We found our way to the cathedral.  It is massive.  It dwarfs its surroundings. [It is extremely tall and flat, and appears to have no depth when you walk up on it.  It reminded me of the alien spaceships from the movie Independence Day.]

[Additionally, there were several “living statues” in the plaza outside the Cathedral.  Having prepared for our traveling by watching EuroTrip, I knew not to fight any of them.  But you will not convince me that this choice of hobby/work/begging is really weird.]

(The Cathedral’s Wikipedia entry has some great photos that show the scale link)

This will maybe give an idea of the size.  The photo below shows me standing next to a full scale replica of the flowers at the top of the cathedral.  It’s 9.5 meters tall.

We went into the cathedral but we turned away as they we going to be having services soon.

Right by the cathedral is an old Roman gate and Roman road (around 50AD).  There were similarly old remnants of the Roman city all along the river. [Cologne was established as the colonial capital by the Romans when they first conquered “Germania.”  The Cathedral is on top of the wall of the Roman city, and you can see the wall in the basement of the Cathedral.]

We walked around.  Bought some bratwurst and sat in a nearby square and people watched.  We walked down the river and across it.

On the bridge, committed couples have been inscribing their names on a lock, locking it to the chainlink fence, and throwing the key in the river.  If one of the people wishes to end the relationship, he/she would need to retrieve the key from the river.  Ralph and I resolved to lock one of the locks we brought with us to the bridge.  Ralph bought me a couple of roses and we walked back to the hotel. [Actually, a young girl walked up to us, put the roses in our hands, then asked for four euro.  I was confused because I am not used to dealing with street peddlers.]

[These steps lead to the Rhine waterfront.  Behind us is a decent-sized plaza which apparently sits right above the Cologne Symphony or some similar high-brow thing.  There were enforcers keeping people off the plaza to ensure us plebeians’ footsteps didn’t disrupt the performance.]