Breakfast at the Cathedral

We landed very early in the morning, and after we got through customs, there was a city tour scheduled. The letter I wrote to my mom about the tour either never arrived, or did not get put in the folder with the rest of them, so I have only my slides (or at the moment I just have my slide list because I haven't yet found these particular slides yet) to remind me what we saw 42+ years ago.

I wrote my daughter from the airport.

Dom, Rheinufer im Sonnenuntergoing, Hohnentor-card I sent to my daughter from the airport

Dear Daughter

We are going to see this church this morning. So far we haven't left the airport. I was one of the first thru customs. I showed my passport, identified my bag and had nothing to declare. If the Poste opens before we leave, I'll mail this.

Love Mummy
The card had two 20 DM stamps.

City Tour of Cologne

We crossed the new Severns bridge which was built in 1959 as a single suspensions bridge. The Cathedral dominantes most of the landscape. There was a cardboard statue in 1964 taking the place of where a real statue would eventually be. We also saw St. Pantaleon, a church which my notes say was begun in 980.

View of the Cathedral and RR station from the bridge in 1964

They arranged for us to have "breakfast" (sandwiches on pumpernickel) at a cafe in front of the Cathedral. I was astonished to discover that the Germans eat their sandwiches with knives and forks - they apparently regarded those from North America as barbarians because we pick them up and eat them with our hands.

Opposite the Cathedral, I saw the Dom hotel where we stayed in 1950.

Dom Hotel in 1950

We saw St. Aposteln which was built about 1100, a Roman tower with a market underneath.

After that, we toured the cathedral. There was some scaffolding on the back tower.

We went into the Rathaus which on looking back on it seemed a strange place for a tour to go as municipal buildings are most often viewed from the outside unless one has some business there.

Stained glass in the Rathaus

Inside was a modern stained glass window - "The Life of the Town" by Professor Georg Meistermann. It was a kind of timeline of history. The major figures in the city of Cologne are lined up along its abstracted Rhine in a window. These included historical figures such as Agrippina in addition to more modern people. The 13 x 9-meter window is in the stairwell of the recently renovated Town Hall.

I took a picture of it with Scarlett in front of it and it is one of the few photos of the first part of my 1964 trip that I have so far found. But when I looked on the internet I could find no mention of it whatever. The internet problem was solved when GrumpyDiver explained that I was misspelling his name - it isn't Meisterman as I had thought. Even with the correct spelling I can find only one photo on the internet (other than mine) and that is on Wikipedia, which says

George Champion Meistermann (b. June 16 1911 in Solingen, June 12th 1990 in Cologne) was a painter, illustrator and graphic designer, and created over a thousand glass window at about 250 locations throughout Europe.

It is certainly a contrast with the Cathedral. We also saw (according to my notes from 1964) the foundations of the Roman Praetorium (or palace) which was underneath the Rathaus. These ruins were discovered in 1953 when they were doing excavation for a new wing of the Town Hall. It turned out to be the Roman city headquarters. The remains still lie under the city hall and can be viewed. The picture that I took of this is still missing.

There is an information desk in the lobby of the Town Hall where one can enquire about viewing the excavations.

After the tour, I left the rest of the group and traveled on my own for the rest of the trip.

cathedral through the RR station roof in 1950

Train down the Rhine

I went to the railroad station and had "lunch" at a snackbar there. I remember having something like a bratwurst. At the station I got a train going down the Rhine to Frankfort. In 1950, we took a boat down the Rhine and my dad had taken many pictures of the castles on the way.

View from the river in 1950

Next: Frankfurt