The weekend of February 24th we decided to make a last minute trip to Cologne, Germany! Our flight wasn't long and for the first time since traveling in Europe, my carry-on bag wasn't checked! We flew into Dusseldorf and took a train to Cologne. It was definitely a nice change going to Germany and experiencing some of the great German engineering. I didn't even realize that the train was moving until I looked out the window. After we arrived, our first stop was of course-FOOD!!! We found this little brat shop and had currywurst-it was really good even though it may not seem like it!
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| Currywurst Shop! |
The next place we went to was the Kolumba Museum which was designed by Peter Zumthor. His designs are simple to further emphasize his focus on the materiality of the building.
The simplicity adds a sense of elegance to the spaces and the view focuses more on the exhibit than on the space.
Some of the exhibits were really interesting as well. Like this fishing pole?, ...
...the typewriter exhibit, ...
...this classic coat rack, ...
...and this piece which appears to have footprints in the mud on canvas which is reflected clearly in the floor if you stand in the right spot.
This is the wood room which clearly shows Zumthor's creativity in the manipulation of different materials in an elegant way.
This is one of the staircases that he designed in the museum-simple yet beautiful. There is a small gap between the wall and the floor which makes the floor appear to be floating.
After leaving the museum, we starting finding our way to our hostel but found some interesting buildings along the way like this one which plays with rotating squares at different angles, ...
...or this one that has an ice cream cone on top of it!
Later that evening, I was able to meet up with Martin and his family! It was great to get to see him again. He picked me and Sarah up in Cologne and drove us back to his house on the Autobahn! When we arrived, I was finally able to meet his family-they were really excited to meet a Peters because they had always heard so much about them but had never met any of us! I hope they knew what they were getting themselves into...
They decided they wanted to take us out to the only restaurant in their "village" which reminds me a lot of Readlyn-it has a bank, church, elementary school, and a restaurant... When we got there we went Kegeln-ing which is a German version of bowling where there are nine pins set up in a diamond form. Unlike traditional bowling, you can create your own rules which makes for some pretty interesting games. Fabian came up with the game we played and Barbro, his mom, ended up winning! (I, of course, was the first one out...)
When we were done with the kegeln-ing, we headed over to the restaurant portion for supper. We had appetizers consisting of a piece of melon with a small piece of meat on top and bread with flavored butter, and of course we had to have German beer with our meal! We had Kolsch which is brewed in Cologne!
For supper, I had the jägerschnitzel which is schnitzel with mushroom sauce which also came with french fries. It was really, really good! After our meal, we needed something to help "digest" so Martin ordered us all a grappa or schnaps.
At the end of the night, we had a group photo taken. Front row: Fabian-he was really excited for us to come because he could practice his English!, Vincent-Jakob's friend, Jakob-Martin's youngest; Back row: Martin, Barbro-his wife, me, and Sarah!
We went back to Martin's house where we visited for a while before we made our way back on the Autobahn (we went a little fast this time...)
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The next day (25 Feb.), we we took a train to a little town in the middle of nowhere in an attempt to find the Field Chapel designed by Peter Zumthor.
Once we were off the train, we had to walk for quite a while...about an hour I think...
We went through villages, ...
...past castles, ...
...down main streets with very little cars, ...
...had some fun with some photo humor :) ...
...and pretty soon we finally came upon it.
This literally is just a chapel in the middle of a field. There's no place for parking or anything, people are expected to walk up the path to it and they do.
The inside was very unexpected when compared with the outside. There's an opening in the roof in the shape of a teardrop and a very small, shallow pool beneath it that dries up when there's not enough rain.
The door is a triangle shape that is only supported in one spot which happens to be at the base.
By only having the one hidden joint, the door seems to float in its place.
This is another excellent example of how he experiments with materiality.
Of course we had to sign the guest book!
When we arrived back in Cologne, we went straight to the Cologne Cathedral!
This is considered to be one of the best examples of French Rayonnant Gothic architecture even though it was built in Germany. I have lots of pictures of this so I'll just let you look through them!
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| Skeleton-like structure with glass infill |
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| Scaffolding still attached for cleaning and repairs |
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| Replacement of one of the statues |
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| Stained glass window in the aisle |
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| View down the nave looking toward the altar |
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| Front facade |
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| Beautiful organ! |
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| Reconstruction after damage from bombing during WWII |
The church was accidentally bombed in WWII and they just recently reconstructed some of the elements that were damaged. Many of the residents (and I agree) that they shouldn't have done this because the damage didn't affect any of the interior spaces and the damage from the war was something that happened in its past and should be remembered as part of the history of the church. Now in a few years, the new stone will discolor and you won't be able to tell the old from the new.
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| Top of the bell tower spire |
The next morning, we made sure we got up early enough to have time to climb the bell tower before we needed to catch our flight.
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| View across the river |
Even though it was drizzling that day, the view was still pretty impressive.
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| View of the structure of the flying buttresses |
Many visitors of the bell tower have left their mark over the years.
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| Graffiti from visitors |
All around the walkway, there is a wire cage-I guess they're afraid of jumpers...
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| Cage around the exterior walkway |
And then we had to make our way down the scary narrow steps...
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| Narrow steps going down |
This was definitely one of the better trips and one that I won't ever forget!!!
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