Blog 6: Koblenz and Cologne, More Cool Places to Roam

Cologne: I've actually traveled through cologne before, on the way to Brussels. I'm still amazed I never noticed the gigantic cathedral right next to the main station. The inside of the cathedral was somehow more fantastic than the outside. The incredible amount of attention to detail was simply breathtaking. The claim that the bones of the three wise men resided here was a little hard for me to believe personally. Also I haven't been religious in a while so I feel like my experience could have been different if I were to visit this cathedral at a different time in my life. I'm still baffled by what people do in the name of God. Both good and bad.

 
 
 After the tour of the inside we took a walk though an Museum near by. I found a certain piece particularly interesting. A set of Doctors tools. These were located on the very bottom floor of the museum and were far from being classified as a complete collection. Back in the day doctors were sometimes buried with their tools. This was a more common practice among wealthier or more prestigious doctors of the time. Most doctors did house calls, hospitals were not all that common. And if an individual was wealthy enough you could have a doctor around 24/7 who was basically a slave. It was fascinating to see how the general structure of the medical tools we have today haven't changed too much from the ones I saw beyond that glass.

Afterwards we got an inside tour of the cathedral from a different perspective, and honestly I still get butterflies in my stomach when I think about how high we were. When we returned to the ground we split into a dinner in cologne group and a dinner in Bonn group. After dinner we split up once again as a few of us wanted to get gelato at the place Dr. Wasser recommended. After all it was a combination of a gelato place and somewhere Dr. Wasser recommended, both of which never disappoint. We ended up getting home later than all of our classmates, but I have no regrets. That was some damn good gelato.

Koblenz: After over an hour of jamming to Latin music on the bus with Karen we arrive in Koblenz. I found myself especially giddy for the Koblenz tour as I've been entertaining a love for the theater since childhood. The theater wasn’t architecturally spectacular but the history behind it was pretty amazing. Over 200 years of history. I knew without a doubt that this would be the focus of my paper. Throughout the tour I found myself knowing all the terminology and procedures, but it was really interesting to see the professional German version of one of my favorite childhood hobbies. We then got some free time to go have lunch. I found my self joining Karen, Paisley, Matt and Jop at a little bakery then a candy shop in the mall. I DON’T UNDERSTAND THE OBSESSION WITH BLACK LICORICE. Personal onion: it has no place in a candy store, or any store for that matter. ESPECIALLY the salty black licorice. If you see some and think: huh, that might taste interesting, don’t do it. Its not worth it. Its about on par with the terrible pickle juice/vinegar like substance we took a shot of in Vienna to help rid us of "the plague". Luckily there were other gummies and chocolates to fill my little cone shaped bag. We snacked and made our way back to the meeting point where we took a gondola to the other side of the river. I had always pictured the small boats on the canals in Venice whenever I hear the word gondola. These were not boats though. They did take us to a pretty interesting destination though. We got to explore a fort(not a castle like I had initial thought). My favorite part of this portion of our journey was getting to look on the river and see where there rivers mix. I have the travel over the Rhine to get to class, but this was anew perspective that was really amazing. I think that’s the theme of my whole journey abroad: Traveling all day but in the end being rewarded by getting to experience life from a different perspective.