Old Retired Guy Blog

June 28 - 30, 2010

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Cologne and Bonn (Page 3 of 3)

Back in Cologne we returned to the cathedral to see some things we missed during our previous visit.  A church service was in progress, so much of the inside space was roped off to allow the congregation some semblance of privacy.  It must be very strange to try to worship while tourists are staring at you and the church.  We left.

While walking around near the cathedral we decided to go out onto the railroad bridge that crosses the Rhine River.  There is an almost-constant flow of trains into and out of the city on the six tracks that fill this bridge.  On each side is a pedestrian walkway so that you can enjoy views of the river and the city. 

As we approached the walkway we saw what appeared to be locks hanging on the fence separating the pedestrian bridge from the railroad tracks.  When we got there we could see thousands of locks on the fence as far as the eye could see. 

We didn't walk across the entire river but it sure looked like the locks extended the whole way.  I asked a young woman if she could explain the meaning or purpose of the locks.  She said that a couple in love puts their names on the padlock, then locks it to the fence and tosses the key into the river.  This is to bring them good luck.  (Most padlocks come with two keys; I wonder if they toss both of them into the river.)

After our walk we found a nice sidewalk cafe to have some dinner.  As with the cafes in Amsterdam, a television set had been placed outside and the evening soccer game was playing.  Germany wasn't playing that night so, though there was still interest, it was somewhat subdued.

We decided to try some kölsch with dinner.  Kölsch is a beer specially brewed in Cologne.  According to Wikipedia (and they never lie), it's a clear beer with a bright straw-yellow hue, and it has a prominent, but not extreme, hoppiness.  Unfortunately, the prominent hoppiness did not generate prominent happiness for my taste buds.  I'll stick with my usual beers.

Back at the hotel I turned on the television to do some cultural research.  Some of the television programs that I saw in Amsterdam were American movies and TV shows.  They were broadcast in English with Dutch subtitles.  In Germany, however, when I found American movies or TV shows they were all dubbed in German.  It was interesting to hear the characters of Two and a Half Men speaking German.  It sounded like the company that did the dubbing made an effort to hire speakers with voices similar to the American actors they were dubbing.  Based on my research I can say that the dialog in Two and a Half Men is so simple that even I could understand quite a bit of the German version.

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Read Part 3 of the Anderson's European Vacation