Cologne Cathedral - Colossus on the Rhine

It was the tallest building in Europe until the Eiffel Tower was built.. despite the fact that the record stays lost for nearly a hundred years, it still seems an impressive introduction to the Cologne Cathedral, looming large and black on the river Rhine, easily dominating not just the skyline but the very life of the city of Cologne. Germans all proudly say that this was the only building in Cologne that escaped destruction during the second world war bombings, without mentioning the fact that it was purposefully kept intact as landmark.


The Cathedral of Cologne has a long and colourful history - like most buildings worth mentioning in Europe - and yet today it defines the city. It is everywhere.. on souvenir t-shirts and mugs and keychains, on the glasses of the typical local Kölsch beer, and of course very much present there physically right in the centre of the city, immediately outside the main station. No matter if you have been told before it is still surprising to every visitor just how close to the main station it is.. you come out and, well, there it is! I am yet to meet anyone who escapes without an Oh! of surprise.


I find it very difficult to describe the Cologne cathedral as 'beautiful' - I personally think its rather forbidding, especially on winter evenings with the moon hanging behind it - but I cant escape the word Impressive. In fact I have already given myself away on that front in calling it that in earlier post. It makes for a wonderful object for photographs, day or night, cloudy or sunny!

Lorraine: A border land with no borders

I heard of the regions, or rather, the words 'Alsace' and 'Lorraine' as part of 10th standard history of the world wars. Not knowing much about where they lay and what they are, they were then just words to be learnt by heart, a part of two history chapters that made the world wars sound as if they took place within a day of each other, and lasted only about that long.
Anyway, I had found out since that these words are regions, and that today they are in France, and that one of them - Lorraine - is actually the closest french region from Düsseldorf. So, I immediately grabbed the opportunity of the easter break to plan a visit. Alsace, of course, is still pending, maybe I will make it there next easter.

Lorraine: contested between germany and france for years, occupied by one or the other at their whim, and today with open schengen borders, only 300km away. It is a region that is said to have had strong german influence at one time: the village names still make me believe that, but the people have completely and perhaps knowingly broken from that unwanted history, and have bid to become more french than france itself. I had instances of people being offended and disdainful when asked if they speak german, and just about deign to try a few words of english.

Metz is the capital of the region, and is home to a wonderful cathedral and an old city on the Moselle river. The obvious comparison to someone staying in the Rhineland is of the Metz cathedral with the one in Cologne, and despite Metz having a far prettier colour and masses of beautiful stained glass, Cologne for me remains far more impressive.






The Lorraine countryside has an important series of historical monuments from the world war period: The so called Maginot Line, a series of fortifications along the border designed to hold at bay a frontal German attack until the french army could be mobilized. The germans, though, simply entered france around the Maginot Line instead of attempting a passage through, resulting in the fact that most of the Maginot forts faced no action at all, and are still considered by the french as an embarrasing piece of history.



Nancy is the traditional capital of Lorraine, and for a tourist it is completely dominated by the grand Place Stanislaus, at the city centre. With wonderful weather, the city was full of sidewalk cafes and restaurants, and the square was lit at night in a way that the french manage make much better than anywhere I have seen in germany. All in all, Place Stanialaus was for me the most impressive single city square I have seen in Europe so far.

Vianden

Following in your own footsteps is a luxury that I have very rarely had the chance to indulge in. Hence, nostalgia and goosebumps were the orders of the day as I stood at the foot of the little castle of Vianden in Luxembourg. I was on my second visit there, this time in a more whirlwind fashion and with my own set of wheels, rather than the leisurely visit I made by train and bus when I first visited Luxembourg. The important point that Vianden marks for me though, is that this is where I fist tried my hand at HDR photography. It was (or so I believe) a good start, though the final results of that trip still left a lot to be desired. I discussed a good deal about those photos and about what I should and could have done to get them to synchronize better. Nearly two years down the road, I have solved that problem with a tripod, which I was not yet willing to pay for then on my student travelling budget.
And hence the goosebumps, as I stood at the very same spots where I took my first trial HDR photos, spots where I never thought I would ever visit again, and had a second go.

Things seem to have become sunnier in the meanwhile.

The Journey is the Destination -- Der Weg ist das Ziel.
I heard this quote first in German, in reference to a marathon run participation of the Chemical (Process) Engineering group, and the aptness of the the quote to a marathon, to process engineering and indeed to a travel blog - makes it an easy choice of title.