Date: Fri, 25 Nov 2005 10:54:54 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Another long weekend, another trip across the pond...

Guten abend, (and happy belated Thanksgiving)

Thursday was my 29th trip across the Atlantic, 7th on a Boeing 767. There was
no dinner option on the plane that included turkey, so all I had was some pasta
and a hot fudge sundae. The DVD movie this time was Batman Begins and the first
half of some Ashton Kutcher movie that was so boring I fell asleep. Or maybe
that was just the sherry I was having.....

I flew to Frankfurt, reaching here 15 minutes early at 10:55 AM. No flight
troubles through a white O'hare airport! "The usual" shower-and-2nd-brunch at
the Frankfurt Admirals Club, and I was on the road again (got rental car
upgrade to Mercedes C200) by 1pm.

I'm dreamin' of a white thanksgiving....

It's a winter wonderland! Snow has been falling for the last few days, covering
everything in white. Fortunately it stopped snowing last night and all the
roads were clear today! The maintanence of the Autobahn system never ceases to
amaze me!! The roads were all fantastic -- not even any water on there, let
alone ice! There were heavy windgusts though, limiting my speed by quite a bit.
The speedometer never touched 210 kmph.

Started driving north from Frankfurt and now I'm in the town of Troisdorf, a
suburb of Cologne/Bonn. Just 200 km north of Frankfurt. I checked into a motel
in the afternoon, then drove up to Cologne (Koln) for the rest of the day...

"Rest of the day" started at 3 PM. After parking the car outside the city, I
headed out on foot, along the scenic Rhine river... and lots of cobblestones.
There was only one thing that I really wanted to see - that was the (quoting
from my tourbook now) "Gothic masterpiece... majestic" Cologne Cathedral.

One of the better ones that I've seen.

Its the final resting place of the Three Magi -- the gold tomb is the highlight
inside. I also liked the tall stained glass windows -- very much like Ste.
Chapelle cathedral in Paris. And of course, it was a nice place to shield
myself from the heavy winds and sub-freezing temperatures!

I think I remember reading on a website somewhere that this is the largest
Gothic cathedral in Europe, but I also remember the one in Seville, Spain
called the largest one in the world. So obviously one of those claims is wrong.
But this one does dominate the whole skyline of Cologne -- the two tall spires
can be seen for miles!

Some other facts about this one:
- Construction lasted from 1248 to 1880 -- more than 600 years.
- 144 meters long by 86 meters wide with 157 meter tall spires.
For you Americans:
- 475 feet long by 284 feet wide and 518 feet tall.

And at night, the views of the city with the cathedral from a bridge across the
Rhine are well worth the walk, never mind the weater!

By 5:30 PM I was back to the car, and thanks to some excellent road signs, by
5:50 PM I was back to the motel..

I only took one wrong turn today, and knew I was on the wrong road so could
find my way back quickly... I'm finally getting better at this "driving in a
foreign country" thing, and its about time too :)

So aside from some chapped lips and a not-yet-defrosted nose, its been a great
driving/sightseeing day.

Tomorrow I'm driving back to Frankfurt airport, taking the scenic way all the
way down along the Rhine. This time last year I was on a road that runs
parallel to the Mosel River from Trier to Koblenz (B53 and B49). From what I've
read about it, I'm expecting tomorrow's road along the Rhine (B42) to be just
as scenic, if not more -- all the way down from Bonn to Koblenz and into
Frankfurt.

Pictures from today (all Koln) will be up on the website within 5-10 minutes of
my sending this email:
http://www.callmewanderer.com/eur05-5/nov2505.html

I need to learn German!

Cologne:

November 26, 2005: Along the Rhine River Valley
Table of Contents