Day 160 - A hint of Cologne and some Comic Relief

The old meets the new.

Today's blog post is about yesterday. That's because today is another one of those work day things that we can't seem to avoid for too long. Although we did go for a walk to the garden centre this morning and did a bit of shopping, that's about it; yesterday was much more interesting.

After a somewhat restless evening in Cologne (the hotel where we were staying had a wedding, or some sort of noisy party, echoing through the place until the wee hours), we awoke in time to take a quick walk around the Catherdral area.

Cologne is Germany's fourth largest city and the Rhine River passes through the middle of it. As goes for many major European cities, it was founded by the Romans, in this case in the 1st Century when it was known as Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium.

That first word, Colonia, is where it gets its current name from (although it's Köln in German). The word "Cologne" is, as you might guess, the French version of the city's name, who occupied the city several times. We English speakers have also chosen to use the French version of the name.

Being in a very industrial part of the country, it was bombed heavily during WWII, when almost all of the city was destroyed. Today the city has the look of one that has been rebuilt, sometime quickly as economics would demand, and other times with great thought. In some cases you can see how the remains of bombed buildings have been used as the basis for a restored building.

The Cathedral is the most visited landmark in the country. Construction on it started in 1248 and continued until 1473, although it was still incomplete at that time. Work didn't start back up again until the 18th century, when it was completed to its original design. The cathedral was originally designed to house the relics of the Three Kings which had taken from the Basilica of Sant'Eustorgio, Milan, Italy.

Phil and I didn't have a lot of time for site-seeing, but we did manage to have a morning coffee and pastry while sitting outside at a table enjoying the spring-like temperature of 15C!
The rest of our day was travel, travel, travel: a train to Dusseldorf, a plane to London Heathrow, a subway into London Paddington (which proved aggravating given that portions of several lines we needed were closed for repairs), and then a train back to Moreton in Marsh (delayed). We were hungry and exhausted by the time we finally made it back to the flat.

Rowan Atkinson seals the deal for the charity Comic Relief.

We did have one rather humorous experience. British Airways has changed up their safety video. Instead of having to watch the flight attendants (or not watch the flight attendants as is more likely to happen), they run a video of the safety features and introduces their charity. The video stars Chiwetel Ejiofor, celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, Thandie Newton, Sir Ian McKellen, Gillian Anderson and Mr. Bean (Rowan Atkinson). You really can't help giggle when you watch it. Here you go...for your daily laugh.