Viva Colonia!

Last weekend I made the trip to Köln (or Cologne, as you Amerikans call it). Köln is famous for a few things--its cathedral, its beer, and being colonial, among others. I met up with Matt, another Fulbrighter, to check out the Dom during a Sunday mass. The Kölner Dom is pretty amazing--I highly recommend a visit if you're in the area. If you choose to visit during mass and would like a good seat, I recommend NOT getting there 5 minutes before it starts





When I couldn't understand the sermon because German is hard to understand with an echo (and in general) and also because my kirchliche Wortschatz--church vocab--is lacking, I stared at the pretty colors cast on the wall (above) by one of the stained glass windows (below).

The Dom is huge. It's really hard to capture the scale and beauty of it (especially with my lack of skill as a photographer). After hanging out for a little bit, we were kicked out before the next mass by a guy in a red robe who said something about 'no visit time now.' I forget exactly what he said, but it was cute.

We then headed out to the Weihnachtmarkt next to the Dom. Köln has several Weihnachtsmärkte scattered around the city, connected by this train, which costs 5 Euros. As you may expect, Matty and I did not choose to take the train.

The second Weihnachtmarkt we visited featured swinging gnomes (Heinzelmännchen).

The Markt der Engel (Market of the Angels) featured stars in the trees. I was pretty obsessed with the stars in the trees. Nice touch, Köln, nice touch.