July 19th, 2011

Today was our day trip to the City of Cologne. As mentioned before, it is just a short 25 minute train ride to the next city up from Bonn. We had an amazing day starting with a tour of the city. Our tour guide was the best one we have had so far. He gave us very interesting details of the city and fun facts. For example, Cologne is the 4^th largest city in Germany and was founded by the Romans as a soldier camp. Cologne is also the oldest big city in Germany and has a population of over 1 million. The tour guide also taught us where the saying “stinking rich” came from and why brides carry flower bouquets. The rich people always paid a bunch of money to be buried in church but when they were buried the graves they weren’t sealed very well. This caused the churches to smell really bad and that’s what made people call them the “stinking rich”. And since the church smelled that is why the bride had a bouquet of flowers when they married in the church so that she could smell something more pleasant while she got married. Also, another fun fact was that cologne was actually created in Cologne and that is why cologne is called cologne! Anyways, that is enough history of the city of Cologne.

After we went on the tour of the city we all decided to go to lunch and have some beer and Weinershnitzel! Lunch was fun, a nice break, and delicious, but after we went to this place called El De Haus which was the headquarters and prison in Cologne for the Gestapo before and during the war. The tour was very humbling and I don’t think that more than two words were said between the people in our group while we were there. We walked down this narrow corridor to the stairs, which were even narrower, and it led us to the prison where the Gestapo held prisoners. If you aren’t aware of what the Gestapo is, it’s the Nazi police that basically controlled the population. You could get arrested if you were Jewish, Gay, Handicap, and mentally ill just to name a few. There were cells that were about 10 feet long by 4 feet wide and in each cell the prisoners were crammed in. At one point the lady said there were 33 people in one cell. That is mind boggling to me and not to mention super unhealthy. These prisoners were interrogated and tortured and the cramped, smelly cells were used as a method of torture as well. Many prisoners wrote on the walls of the cells to count the days or keep hope or communicate to further prisoners. There was one man that actually wrote on the wall and counted the days he was in there. After the war, when many people saw the writing, they assumed he had been hung (they started becoming over crowded so in the court yard they started hanging the prisoners). Come to find out he was Russian and had been living in Russia and actually had escaped from prison! On the record, he is apparently the only person who has ever done this. The Americans took over the building after the war because it was one of the few buildings that weren’t destroyed by bombs. They disregarded the basement and used it for storage but now today, almost 50 years later, the place has turned into a memorial/museum. It is now a place for people to come and understand what the people had to go through and understand the horrible acts of the Gestapo and Nazi reign.

The event that followed the El De Haus was the best part of the day! We got to tour the world famous Cologne Cathedral. As mentioned before the cathedral is gothic style and is stunning. There is constant construction on it to replace parts of it that fall off throughout the years. Stained glass is also consistently replaced and one window cost about 500,000 Euro! Anyways, the moment you step out of the train station you are immediately greeted by the Cathedral. You have to tilt your head all the way back to see the entire thing. The coolest part of the cathedral: WE GOT A TOUR OF THE ENTIRE THING! And when I say we got a tour of the cathedral we got the hook up! Apparently because the owner of AIB, Rainer, knows someone we got to climb up one of the towers that overlooked the city. We went up I think a total of like 300 steps but let me tell if you are afraid of heights this is no hike in the park, like me. But it was so accomplished once I got all the way up! Pictures of the view are below. It is breath taking. And so is the Cathedral. You basically can’t use words to describe this place.

The day was jammed pack and long but totally worth it! I came back to pass out but before that I got an awesome dance party from one of the girls Liz. It was so entertaining and lifted me up because I was getting a little homesick. Needless to say, all in all the day was amazing and definitely made me fall more in love with Germany!