Cologne is one of Germany’s oldest cities. It is where we stayed for the night on the first day of our trip.
We were delayed for a bit because there was some demonstration and road closure due to some construction work. The GPS wasn’t smart enough to know about the road closure and kept redirecting us back to the closed road when we took a detour. It took us a while to figure out how to get to our hotel and it was very late by the time we arrived.
I didn’t have much planned for Cologne. After dropping our bags off, I took a quick walking tour of the city.
One of the city’s most famous landmarks is the Cologne Cathedral. This Gothic-style cathedral took over 600 years to complete (1248 to 1880) and is a UNESCO Heritage Site. At about 45 stories high, it used to be the tallest building in the world before 1880. It is now the second tallest gothic-style cathedral in Germany and the third tallest in the world.
Another famous landmark here is the Hohenzollern Bridge, known for its “love locks”. Many couples often attach padlocks to the bridge’s railings and throw the keys into the river as a symbol of their everlasting love.
You see see all those padlocks reflecting light in the picture below.
Cologne Cathedral the next morning.
