Cologne, Germany

Wed., Nov. 4 (Day 3) - Today we took a short bus ride into the city of Cologne. There a local guide gave us a walking tour of the city. At one point, we passed by a place that sold, among other things, a donut-like pastry called a Berliner. We also learned about the local beer called Kolsch. Our tour guide told a story about President Clinton, when he visited Cologne, tried to say "I am a Cologner."  He was doing this because when President Kennedy had visited Berlin, he had said, "I am a Berliner". But President  Clinton messed up and said "I am a Kolsch." When President Kennedy had said "I am a Berliner", the pastry had not yet been created. But now, in retrospect, Germans get a kick out of the fact that one of our presidents is a pastry and one is a beer. We walked around the town square and our guide shared with us some of the local customs. One of them is carnival. It is very similar to Mardi Gras, but with one major difference. They start their carnival season on November 11 at 11:11 a.m. And, yes, they do continue with the carnival season until Ash Wednesday. We passed by city hall and actually saw 2 weddings taking place. We learned that the government does not recognize church weddings, so if someone wants to get married in a church, they must also have a civil wedding. It is not uncommon for people to get married at city hall and then get married in the church months or even years later. After our tour of the city, we returned to the ship for lunch, and then had free time on our own in Cologne in the afternoon. The first thing we did was to go to the Cologne Cathedral. The Cologne Cathedral is absolutely beautiful and it towers over the city. We went inside. It is huge - 515 feet tall. It took 600 years to complete. It was the only building in Cologne that was not destroyed during World War 2. That reminds me, another tidbit we learned this morning is that during the war, there were 1.5 million bombs dropped on Cologne. It was the most heavily bombed city in Germany. Not all of the bombs detonated, and they still are finding bombs in the city today. Our tour guide made a joke this morning, when showing us a building that she apparently thought was rather ugly. She said that maybe they'll find a bomb underneath it and they'll let it detonate and rid the city of the ugly building. After we visited the Cathedral, we did a little shopping. We decided it was a must that, while in Cologne, we buy - some Cologne. Now that's no coincidence - that the city shares its name with the product. Cologne - the product - was created here, and thus was named for the city from which it originated.