Cologne (spelled Köln in German – pronounced Kern) is the fourth largest city in Germany with about a million residents inside the city limits but a little over 3 million in the entire urban area.  In fact, the Rhein-Ruhr region, where Cologne is located, is the most populated region in Germany, and the second largest economically (based on GDP) in the entire European Union.  That said, we were surprised and delighted to discover that Cologne has retained a great deal of “small town” charm even after post-WWII reconstruction and modern era industrial growth periods.  

The city of Cologne was decimated in World War II.  By 1945, the city was absolutely ruined from aerial bombing by the allies.  An estimated 260+ air raids dumped more than 34,000 long tons of bombs over the five year period between 1940-1945.  (A long ton is exactly 2,240 pounds) In excess of 20,000 German civilians were killed by the bombing.  The most famous of the aerial attacks on Cologne happened one night in May 1942, when the British Royal Air Force (RAF) launched a raid of 1,050 bombers to Cologne in history’s first ever “bomber stream”.  The German Luftwaffe and ground troops diligently defended the city and launched a counter offensive while the fire brigade worked furiously to control the 2,500 fires the bombs ignited in the city. Somewhere between 43-44 RAF fighters were downed in the attack, but the devastation to the city was phenomenal.  Now, before we start feeling sorry for Cologne, let’s not forget the Blitz, ok?  

To me, the interesting thing about Cologne is that even after all those years of war – all those tons of bombs that were dumped over the city again and again – the Cologne Cathedral remained standing.  Allied pilots later admitted that the twin spires of the cathedral were a navigational landmark for them – maybe they left it alone so they could recognize their location at night?  Allied pilots also were officers in the Air Force, most with college and university degrees, who may have placed value on buildings with historical and religious significance, so perhaps it survived out of respect?  Who knows?  The building was hit by bombs a little over 10 times (mostly nearby and not on the actual structure) but the damage was largely minor and the building remained integral.  There are countless photographs of the devastation of Cologne after the war and all show this massive cathedral standing tall among ruined, flattened buildings and blackened homes.  The Cologne Cathedral is the largest Gothic church in Germany.  Construction started in the 1400s and ended in 1880, with obvious repairs made following WWII and even as recent as 2005.  As far as gothic structures go, it is absolutely a fascinating architectural masterpiece with an almost sinister, dark design that lends itself to more of a “Dracula lives here” than a “place of worship” feeling. The cathedral is literally right beside the train station and was our very first location to visit when we arrived in Cologne. Just south of the cathedral is the Römish-Germanischs Museum (Romano-German Museum), which is an archaeological museum primarily focused on the Roman era but also covering the last 100,000 years of life in the region with some local artifacts over 8,000 years old. 

While in the lovely city of Cologne, we visited the Skulpturenpark Köln (sculpture park with massive trees), Severinstorburg (12th century gatehouse with portcullis!), old town Cologne where we did some shopping, eating and general exploring on foot, and Ulrepforte (13th century stone watchtower and gate).  We also spent several hours touring the Chocolate Museum of Cologne and even had a private tasting!  While at the Chocolate museum, we rode the ferris wheel and had fantastic views of the area while enjoying a fun ride.  Lucky us, the Cologne Gourmet Festival was being held at the same time as our visit and was just outside the Chocolate Museum – so we also explored that, naturally!  Finally, we enjoyed a lovely cruise along the Rhine river from where we were able to see so much of the city and learn a variety of interesting facts about Cologne’s history and rebirth post-WWII.  Cologne is absolutely a city you can explore easily by foot, however, if you are in the area and time allows, we highly recommend a Rhine river cruise.  In addition to some fantastic views, we were able to just slow down, relax, watch all around as interesting things slowly passed us by and share some tasty snacks and drinks from a comfortable seat in the sporadic sunshine.  It was quite lovely. 

We only spent two days in Cologne and would happily return to that city for a future visit as we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves there and are certain there are fun and interesting local sites left to explore.  For example, the city hosts over 30 different museums and we only saw ONE!  Also, Cologne has thousands of historic buildings; although we did make an effort to visit or see most of the remaining city gates and towers.  From Cologne, we spent the weekend with family friends who live nearby and then returned, once again, to Frankfurt am Main.  We departed Germany and brought an end to our month-long European adventure on Monday, July 29.  We arrived back in Tucson just after midnight on Allita’s 16th birthday.  I admit it is strange to time-travel and I’m not sure how well I would manage it if it were more than just a few hours.  Good thing I’m not John Titor.

Ok – so I have to mention our London departure just really quickly.  We finished our late night tour of London on a double decker bus (remember?) and got back to the flat around 10pm.  At 4am, we woke to start preparing for a 5:15 bus departure to St. Pancreas station to catch the 7:50am “chunnel” (tunnel under the English Channel) train to Cologne.  Only we discovered our Eurostar train was CANCELLED!  With literally minutes to spare, I booked us on the 7am “chunnel” to Brussels and prayed we would make it on time and I would figure out a way to get to Cologne once we got to Belgium.  We were so stressed out from the last-minute schedule change, very little sleep, and earlier-than-expected departure that we slept almost the entire ride and missed the Channel Tunnel entirely. Luckily however, we did find a Deutsche Bahn train that took us very quickly from Midi to Cologne and we only lost a couple hours on our itinerary.  That said, this is not the first time on our trip when a train was cancelled and we had to do some quick tap dance to find ways to keep our timeline.  For future reference: either allow for more downtime in the itinerary and/or plan to have cancellations in transit bookings so that connections are more flexible and you are prepared for any necessary rescheduling.  This is particularly true in the spring and summer when the weather is finally good enough for scheduled track maintenance that can’t be performed in the colder fall and winter months.  Also, yes, it did rain on us in Cologne and the following weekend as well – but you don’t get all that lovely flora without water and by then, we were used to it, so we weren’t too bothered. However, I am already shopping for travel galoshes from Amazon for our next trip. Until then!

Some of our favorite things about visiting London involve British humor – in particular, the ads we saw in the Tube and on city busses.

But fun can be found just about anywhere you look in London.

We also learned a few items of interest during our visit. First, Diana’s presence is still very much alive in the city. Nearly every day we saw a photo or likeness of her. As much as I still have a tender place in my heart for the Princess, I can only imagine how difficult this constant visual reminder is for her children, William and Harry. Probably another reason why Harry doesn’t mind leaving home and living in the U.S. for a while.

The Tube is absolutely massive. I studied maps of transit systems in Berlin, Hamburg and Stockholm before our visits. Once I saw how complicated the Tube is in London, I just downloaded an app. It’s more than I could mentally handle. Thank goodness for smart phones.

Finally, you are constantly being instructed to “Mind the Gap” at every train stop – because, well obviously, there is a gap between the train and the station platform just at the door – particularly if there is a bend in the track or you are in the lead or tail cars. Over and over again, we were told “Mind the Gap” until finally, Allita looked at me and said “Well, that explains ‘nevermind’.” At age 53, I had a lightbulb moment in the Tube in London shortly after my daughter had her own similar moment. If you “mind” the gap, then when you don’t need to “mind” it any more – it’s “nevermind”. Not to be confused with never mind. You should probably Google that.

On the fourth day in London, my daughter gave to me…..(did you sing it?)… a full day of walking, museums, and shopping!

We started our adventures at Madam Tussauds where we ran into quite a number of celebrities and also took a brief and somewhat creepy tour of London history in wax. An interesting note about this museum is that it is the original Madam Tussauds wax museum and was established by the artist herself in 1835 where she showcased her famous “Chamber of Horrors” (a name she originated, which has since been used by entertainers all over the world). 

From there, we made our way to Baker Street.

Yes, THAT Baker Street.  

221b to be precise.

To the home of the Great Detective himself, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, and Dr. Watson too, of course.  Interestingly enough, their building shares a common wall with a Beatlemania museum.  Go figure.  

For a completely fictitious literary character, Mr. Holmes certainly has a well-stocked residence.

While we waited for our appointment at the residence of the great detective, we shared hot beverages and healthy sweets (somehow that sounds like an oxymoron) at a yoga salon cafe on the corner.  Thankfully there were no chia harmed in this process.  

Here’s a fun fact about the home of Arthur Conan Doyle’s, Mr. Sherlock Holmes: in 1932, the addresses 219-229 Baker Street were owned by the Abbey National Building Society.  Almost immediately after taking possession of this block, Abbey National had to hire a “Secretary to Sherlock Holmes” (that was literally their job title!!) to manage the volumes of mail regularly received from his fans.  In honor of their history with the famous detective, Abbey National (who has since vacated that particular address as it now houses the “residence” a.k.a. museum) commissioned a bronze statue of Mr. Holmes that stands near the entrance to the Baker Street Underground station.  

After our visit and some shopping, we wandered through the lovely Covent Garden district meandering along the famous market square and surrounding streets until we finally made our way to the traditional Victorian-style tavern voted “most quirky pub in London” in 2022, Mr. Fogg’s. Sticking with the theme of the day – reproductions and fictional characters – this delightful tavern is conceptualized around Mr Phileas Fogg, the world renowned explorer who traveled the world in 80 days in the book of same name by Jules Verne.  Mr. Fogg’s wife, Gertrude, supposedly left her home to her housekeeper, Fanny McGee, who converted the place into a theater-goers dream establishment complete with a Cockney-style sing-a-long and an eccentric collection of memorabilia taken from Mr. Fogg’s supposed travels decorating literally every surface in the place (even hanging from the ceiling!).  On the front of the tavern, just above the entry doorway, is mounted a massive theater poster advertising the Taming of the Shrew starting Gertrude Fogg and claiming nightly showings!  We were simultaneously charmed and enchanted by the tavern’s costumed staff and whacky decor – and, best of all, the food was delicious! 

*****

What can I tell you about our fifth day in London?  We began extremely early with breakfast in the flat and then a nice uphill walk over the river Thames to the Monument to the Great Fire of London where we started a self-guided audio walking tour with a destination of the Tower.  What Great Fire, you ask? Well, from Sunday, September 2 until Thursday, September 6, 1666 (perfect year for it), a massive and incredibly destructive fire swept across central London destroying almost all of the medieval city and St. Paul’s cathedral.  Really, the fire was a comedy of errors that was only stopped thanks to a change in the wind and some well-placed firebreaks created by soldiers at the Tower of London. 

The impact to London was colossal and is so important in British history that in the 1670s, they constructed a massive monument to the “Great Fire”.  If you lay the monument down, it is long enough to reach the actual starting point of the Great Fire (the royal baker’s house on Pudding Lane).  From there, we followed the tour along the Thames, down the Queen’s (Elizabeth II, of course) Silver Jubilee walkway, past the HMS Belfast (Royal Navy cruiser turned into a museum ship and operated by the Imperial War Museum), down to and across Tower Bridge and eventually around the Tower completely.  

The Tower, officially know as “His Majesty’s Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London” (what a mouthful), is basically a castle that sits on the river Thames.  The White Tower, sitting in the center of the whole mess, was built by William the Conqueror (remember him from York?) in 1078. 

Since then, multiple other buildings have been added and the Tower has been used as a residence, a prison, an armory, a place for executions (even as recently as WWII), a treasury, a menagerie, and, is currently, the home of the crown jewels of England.  

The Tower is currently guarded by the Yoemen Warders, also known as Beefeaters (because they were given meat to eat from the tables in the Royal halls), who act as greeters, guides and all-around problem-solvers, among other things, for the hoards of daily visitors. One of the other duties of the Yoemen Warders is that of Ravenmaster (isn’t THAT a cool job title?!), who releases the captive birds and makes their breakfast at dawn every day.  The ravens at the Tower are as well-known a feature as the Beefeaters and the Warders joke that the birds are the actual “beef eaters” on site.  Ha!  

After spending nearly an entire day at the Tower of London, we hopped on the Tube and headed, once again, to the Covent Garden district, but this time to Seven Dials.  Seven Dials is a place where seven streets converge into one tiny circle at the center of which is a column containing six sundials with the column itself acting as gnomon for the seventh.  The area is fantastic and has been mentioned in literature across the ages (Dickens, H.G. Wells, Agatha Christie, Anne Perry, etc.) but, to me, the most interesting fact about Seven Dials is: it is exactly 0° 07′ geographical degrees to the west of Greenwich (where Greenwich Mean Time is counted).  I mean, how cool is that?!  Ok. Ok.  So, what, other than these interesting facts, brought us to the Seven Dials Marketplace?  Well, cheese, of course.  

Pick and Cheese is a cheese bar that offers gourmet cheeses paired with condiments all neatly arranged on little colorful plates with clear domed lids that travel down a conveyor belt encircling the kitchen in the center of the restaurant.  Read that one more time and look at the photos again – in this case, a picture really does say a thousand words.  It claims to be the world’s first conveyor-belt cheese restaurant but I am not 100% sure how accurate that claim is.  Still, the experience was very fun and better than even I (the consummate food skeptic) anticipated.  As you can imagine, they also offer a variety of beverages to accompany the cheese dishes and provide a very detailed, numbered, and color-coded menu to help you make educated choices as the cheeses parade past you.  After an hour of lactose-laden consumption, we decided to wander the streets of the Covent Garden district and explore the little shops and venues tucked here and there.  We may also have made a few purchases – just a few! – one has to acquire souvenirs, after all.  

*****

We were extremely busy on our final full day in London.  We hustled through breakfast, made our way via underground back to Trafalgar Square and then down the mall to secure a good viewing location for the changing of the royal guard ceremony (Guard Mounting).  So, there a few things you have to know about how the royal guard changes in London.  First: the ceremony involves three parts and they happen at three different locations.  So, you are never going to “see it all” from one vantage point.  Second: the ceremony is viewed by a zillion people so if you are planning to watch it from Buckingham Palace, you better get a good spot on the birthday cake so you can peer over everyone’s heads.  (The birthday cake is the affectionate nickname for the Victoria Memorial located at the end of the mall)  Third: the ceremony lasts 45 minutes, which feels like eternity even for an avid fan, and is only held on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. 

We selected a spot just up the mall from the memorial where we could easily see the Blues and Royals arriving on their stunning black horses and listen to the Royal Guard band with their fancy red uniforms and shiny instruments, and watch in delight as they stomped down the mall accompanying the new Foot Guard soldiers leaving St. James’ Palace. 

From there, we wandered leisurely through the lovely St. James’ Park enjoying some ice cream in the sunshine and listening to the continued pomp and circumstance of the ongoing ceremony nearby.  We made our way up Horse Guards Road past the Churchill War Rooms (more on that later) and 10 Downing Street (Prime Minister’s house) and eventually to Horse Guards, the home of the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment, where another part of the mounting ceremony was ongoing: a squadron of the Life Guards (red coats) and a squadron of the Blues and Royals (blue coats) all equipped with horse mounts were on attention and actively exchanging guard post duties while the crowds were managed by mounted London police.  It was indeed a morning full of professional equines.  

We lunched at the Old Shades Pub on Whitehall (a family tradition) around noon and from there walked down past Great Scotland Yard to Parliament Street and back to the Churchill War rooms. 

Yes, the Churchill War Rooms! Remember part of this trip is about World War II?  Well, here we are.  The Cabinet War Rooms (more commonly known as the Churchill War Rooms after the Great Winston Churchill) are a maze of tunnels, rooms, offices, kitchens, sleeping quarters, radio communication centers, etc. all completely hidden underground and used by British government officials, specifically the War Cabinet, during World War II.  Actually, the rooms were finished literally one week before Britain declared war on Germany in 1939 and remained in operation until Japan surrendered in 1945.  Today, the Imperial War Museum maintains these same rooms as a museum with many of the original contents still in place and the addition of a section specifically dedicated to the life and history of Winston Churchill.

Of particular importance in these rooms was the Map Room (Allita’s favorite room) manned around the clock by British military officers who produced regular intelligence summaries for the King, Prime Minister and the military Chiefs of Staff, and the Cabinet Room, which Churchill famously declared “is the room from which I will direct the war” (and he did!).  Did you know that Churchill had a SIGSALY (encrypted telephone) installed in the Cabinet War Rooms that was directly connected to the Pentagon so that he could speak to President Roosevelt securely?  It’s still there too.  Also, Churchill made four broadcasts on the BBC from his office-bedroom giving the British people a direct update on the status of the war from his underground bunker.  That entire radio equipment array is still set-up in the room and you can just imagine the man himself sitting there with his fat cigar barking out his news to the listening public.  The most unusual fact about the War Rooms (to me) is that on the day after Japan surrendered, the lights were literally turned off and people just walked away from their desks – leaving them as-is – so that they could be preserved for historic purposes.  

From the war rooms, we wandered down to Westminster to see Elizabeth Tower and hear Big Ben (that’s the name of the bell, not the clock).  We saw Oliver Cromwell’s statue, Saint Margaret’s and Westminster Abbey all on foot and from a distance. 

Then we took the Tube to Green Park in Piccadilly and hopped onto a double decker bus for a night tour of London.  If you ever find yourself in London, I recommend a night tour at either the 7:30 or 8pm start times so that it is still dusk and you can see both the lights and the buildings they decorate.  We saw some places we had already visited but many places we had not and we learned several interesting new facts about London and British history.  A great way to wrap up our visit to this massive metropolis – it only rained a little bit on our open-top seating and going through tunnels and under bridges was quite the sensory experience!