I cannot believe we are already done with week 3. This trip has gone by so much faster than I expected it to. Part of that is probably because I still have not slept much since I've been here, but that's a small detail. We had a really full week this week.
Luckily, we had Monday off, and I am so glad we came back from Prague on Sunday night. Otherwise, I would have been so incredibly exhausted. Wednesday, we went to the Cologne Cathedral and the museum with the Roman ruins. The Cologne Cathedral was unreal. That was honestly probably the coolest thing I have ever done in my entire life, and that is saying something. That cathedral is one of the most unique and beautiful cathedrals I've ever seen. The feats of engineering accomplished while building that church were amazing. The fact that people were able to comprehend what they needed to do to support a structure of that size that long ago is truly incredible. They did not have the knowledge that we do today when it comes to construction, and yet, they created something more beautiful in my opinion than any current piece of architecture from the last 200 years. The church itself took more than 600 years to build. Construction was stopped at one point from about 1520 until the 1800s. It is quite impressive to me that people had the drive to finish the construction after a 300 year break! Today, I feel like that would never ever happen. Everyone would have given up and moved on. This Cathedral had two towers and is said to contain the relics of the Three Wise Men. Their skeletons are contained in a beautiful golden coffin at the very front of the church.
Inside the church, there is also a beautiful mix of stained glass, much of which was restored after World War II because it was destroyed after the bombings. It blends so well with the overall theme of the church though. It's very cool and unique, definitely different from other traditional Gothic cathedrals. We were so blessed to get to do a rooftop tour of the cathedral. It brings a special perspective to the beauty of the cathedral. First, we went up just 20 meters. Here, we got to walk through the clerestory past the massive organ. We were able to see all of the stained glass up close and personal which was really neat. The organ itself was also massive. It's so cool that an instrument such as that exists that produces such a unique and wonderful sound. Next, we went up to 27 meters. This gave us the opportunity to see the flying buttresses.Not only were the flying buttresses a genius way to accomplish the tall structure of the church, but they were so ornately decorated. Each one had different carvings and cutouts that gave them so much character, and it's interesting, because most people would never even see those details. They still took the time to add the details though.
Inside the church, there is also a beautiful mix of stained glass, much of which was restored after World War II because it was destroyed after the bombings. It blends so well with the overall theme of the church though. It's very cool and unique, definitely different from other traditional Gothic cathedrals. We were so blessed to get to do a rooftop tour of the cathedral. It brings a special perspective to the beauty of the cathedral. First, we went up just 20 meters. Here, we got to walk through the clerestory past the massive organ. We were able to see all of the stained glass up close and personal which was really neat. The organ itself was also massive. It's so cool that an instrument such as that exists that produces such a unique and wonderful sound. Next, we went up to 27 meters. This gave us the opportunity to see the flying buttresses.Not only were the flying buttresses a genius way to accomplish the tall structure of the church, but they were so ornately decorated. Each one had different carvings and cutouts that gave them so much character, and it's interesting, because most people would never even see those details. They still took the time to add the details though.
After this, we went up to 40 meters. At this point, I was starting to realize how high up we are. For what it's worth, it was so incredibly high. I am not afraid of heights by any means, and even I got nervous at this point. This is when we actually got up out on the roof and walked around. Don't get me wrong it was so cool, but my mom alarms were going off the whole time. There were so many people-sized holes that we could have fallen to straight down to our deaths, AND the walkways were slippery. I'm pretty sure it would for sure not have been legal to do that in the US due to various different safety regulations, but I'm glad we got to do it nonetheless. The view from the roof was beautiful. You could see the entire city from the roof in all directions. It was truly one of God's most beautiful creations. On top of that, our tour guide was incredible, and she made the experience so much better than it would have been had our tour guide not been passionate about the cathedral.
We also got a chance to go see a lot of Roman ruins at a museum right next to the cathedral.
There were a lot of examples of old Roman jewelry from the 4th and 5th centuries throughout the exhibit. The techniques used to make these pieces of jewelry were obtained from the Byzantines. These craftsmen added their own style to the design though using influence from Germanic and Hunnic tribes. The samples of earrings and bracelets were incredibly intricate designs, and they were quite beautiful. Along with these pieces, there were lots of old glass artifacts from the Roman Empire. Most were blue or green glass, and they were beautiful. Seeing all of these pieces of art leftover from hundreds of years ago is proof that the Roman Empire was truly amazing and ahead of its time.
Thursday, we went to Koblenz to see the Theater Koblenz and the fortress. The theater was a cool experience. One of the best parts about it was getting to hear Professor Waltz sing opera!!!! He was so good, especially for not having sung in 10 years!!! It was really cool, and I'm glad he let us see him perform even if it was just for a quick few seconds. Our tour guide was the head of the theater, and she was very passionate about the theater itself, which made the experience more enjoyable. We then took a gondola up to the top of the fortress. The gondola ride was actually fun! It was short, but the view was so beautiful. It overlooked the Rhine and the entire city. The fortress itself was a neat thing to see. It was really big, much bigger than I expected it to be! And the view from the top of the fortress was even more beautiful than the view from the gondola. You could see the entire valley.
This was probably the highlight of the day for me. On Friday we got to to go Henning's concert!!!!!! It was very much a cultural experience for me because I had never really been to a rock concert before...but it was very cool! His band is actually super famous, so basically we know a rockstar. That's pretty cool. Henning is an awesome drummer too! He rocked the concert pretty hard. I thought it was funny though because they played so much country music in between the sets, specifically Jason Aldean. I don't know why I expected German people to not like country, but it just seemed so odd and funny at the same time.
This week was jam packed with lots of stuff to do, but again, it was another fun week in Bonn. It's crazy that we only have one week left there! I guess time flies when you're having fun.
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