Cologne, a city with roots in the Stone Age and hands on the pulse of the future, offers a bustling, lively welcome to northwestern Germany's picturesque Rhineland. And as in so many European cities, the traveler must give thanks for the landmark city cathedral. Since Cologne's cathedral spires soar more than 500 feet into the air, it's hard to get lost.
If you cross the Rhine by train on the Hohenzollernbrucke, you enter via the central train station - just a stone's throw from the cathedral and its gemutlich square, the hub of the city, where impromptu performers, youth hostelers and tourists from everywhere rub shoulders with residents hurrying about their tasks.Unlike the rest of the city, which suffered near-annihilation during the heavy bombing of World War II, the cathedral was untouched, forming a link to medieval times when it was commenced, in 1248. For 300 years, after 1560, the cathedral remained towerless, while people of many generations knew it only as an earthbound torso. Finally by 1860 the cathedral took on its present glory, finished according to the medieval plan, with capacity for 10,000 worshipers.
The interior's impressive features include some exceptional stained glass windows, the gold plated Shrine of the Magi by Nikolaus of Verdun (1181-1220) and the Altar of the City (1445) by Stephan Lochner. Or you can climb the 509 steps to the viewing platform, where the city and the whole West Rhineland plain is spread out before you. The panorama is beautifully lighted by night.
Perhaps in summer the visitor might be drawn first to the Rhine Park winding along the river, with trees, flowers, meadows and a chairlift. On the town side are the few authentic rowhouses that were left standing after World War II bombing. More acquisitive tourists might enjoy a turn down the Hohe Strasse, Cologne's fashionable shopping district for pedestrians only, or equally chic Schildergasse.
Many churches are worth seeing, several of them being reconstructed and refurbished from World War II days - St. Georg, St. Maria im Kapitol, St. Aposteln and the notably beautiful St. Martin's with its fascinating restoration back to original form. Also try the St. Martin's neighborhood down by the river, for ambient sidewalk dining in attractive restaurants, or a little alley-hopping to discover tucked-away boutiques, eateries and pubs.
Among the city's wealth of fascinating museums, one of special interest harks back to antiquity - the Romano-Germanic Museum, a gathering place for scholars and archaeologists. Adjacent to the cathedral, it's built on the remains of a Roman civic villa and the medieval Imperial Palace.
Indeed, Cologne (Koln in German) derives its name from the Latin Colonia, or colony, so declared by the Empress Agrippina in 50 A.D. The city was a prosperous Roman colony for 400 years, before the fall of the Empire.
The museum offers a fascinating glimpse of everyday Roman life, including a great collection of elegant Roman glass, antique clay lamps and wonderful jewelry. You will find a reconstructed tomb of the legionary Poblicius, a Roman traveling wagon and a well-preserved mosaic floor, with classical figures of a man and woman. Portraits, ceramics, tombstones, mosaics and wall decorations show how houses were decorated, with myriad household and personal items and works of art showing a high degree of crafstmanship. Pre-historic artifacts are also displayed, from the Stone, Bronze and Iron ages, as far back as 100,000 B.C.
Roman relics and ruins are to be found everywhere throughout the city, often in fascinating excavations under existing buildings - the remnants of the praetorium beneath the Rathaus for example, and a Roman and Frankish cemetery under St. Severin's Church.
You might try the Wallraf-Richartz and Ludwig Museums, whose beautiful modern building houses the largest collection of conventional and contemporary art in the Rhineland. Also among the nine government-supported museums is the Cologne Municipal Museum, which tracks the city's history and culture since the Middle Ages.
Cologne was a prosperous member in the Hanseatic League during the middle ages, and notable among structures surviving from that prosperous era is the Gurzenich concert hall, a Gothic festival hall, built between 1437-44. The inside was rebuilt to modern taste in the '50s.
Other centers of the thriving arts in Cologne include a beautiful new opera house, the Philharmonie concert hall seating 2,000, the Schauspielhaus and many other theaters.
From Cologne, it's natural to think of taking off on a tour of the Rhine River, surely one of the world's 10 great experiences in riverboating. Usually musicians think of going "down the Rhine," because that was the direction of Siegfried's famous Rhine Journey in Wagner's Ring. But from Cologne, it's up.
Although the Rhine is Europe's most important river - 820 miles long, and the continent's most heavily used inland waterway - above Cologne it yet maintains an aura of legend and leisurely romance, with its somnolent vineyards and tiny riverside villages.
Rising in eastern Switzerland, its waters form part of the boundaries of Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Austria, France and Germany. From Duisburg, Germany on the north it flows through the Netherlands into the North Sea.
Before leaving home I felt compelled to line up a company, KD River Cruises of Europe, which offers many Rhine journeys, running between Cologne and Mainz daily, April 1 to Oct. 30, with an increased schedule June 26-Aug. 22.
However, on the spot it seemed unlikely that one would need to make advance reservations. There are many excursion boats plying the Rhine, both up and down, one-way or round trip, on short hops or long, and one should have no trouble lining up a suitable accommodation.
KD does offer multiday Rhine River cruises, some of which also explore the beautiful Moselle Valley with its hillside vineyards. These more leisurely excursions offer the opportunity to disembark at folklike hamlets and ascend to some of the castles for historic information and beautiful views from the hilltops.
But it's quite possible to go up the Rhine in one afternoon, even with ferry stops at every major village. In fact you can go in as little as four hours from Cologne to Mainz by hydrofoil; but who would want to rush through one of the world's great river experiences?
I was advised to ride the train from Cologne to Koblenz and take the ship from there, since below Koblenz the Rhine is so heavily industrialized.
Koblenz is itself an interesting town - a Roman fortress that gave way before the Germanic tribes, then yielded to the Franks, all the while taking care of its real business - the prosperous wine trade. A German stronghold during World War II, the town lost 80 percent of its buildings to bombing, but it has been largely restored to its former ambience. Of significance is the imposing Memorial to German Unity, on a point jutting into the confluence of the Rhine and Moselle Rivers.
The run from Koblenz to Mainz is through the heart of castle country - a 5 1/2-hour trip (from 2 to 7:30 p.m. in my case) of idyllic proportions. So it was that on a beautiful June day, most passengers (and two pampered poodles) gathered on the upper, open-air deck of a comfortable and fleet KD ferry, ready to sacrifice their skins to old Sol in the cause of photographing castles and vineyards, enjoying ambient cool breezes, and nibbling tasty German crackers and cheese.
Expectations of most Americans who embark on the Rhine is that there will be a castle every few hundred yards, and that each will have a glamorous history. Such is not the exact reality - but by the time you reach Mainz, you won't care. Soon you adopt the slow pace of the succession of beautifully terraced hillsides planted with grapevines, frequent redoubts on the hilltops and villages clustered along the riverbanks, each with its own towering church steeple.
Nobility on the hilltops, clergy in the villages seems to have been the pattern, as powerful lords built strongholds from which to enforce their toll-taking upon passing mariners, and fishermen and tradespeople carried on lucrative trade, clustered below the castle's protection.
Marksburg above Braubach is one of the best kept castles. Commanding a strategic position, it was begun in 1150, was added to by succeeding generations of nobility, and it has endured as a habitation to the present. It now serves as headquarters of the German Castles Association and is open for touring.
Burg Rheinfels above St. Goar is a prototype of the old tribute-exacting stations along the Rhine. In 1245, Count Dieter V of Katzenelnbogen started building the castle above the town. At its completion the lordly family drastically increased toll rates on the Rhine and were able to defend their position until 1479, when the family died out. Others took over and built onto the structure, which was handed over to the invading French in 1792. They blew up all they could, and the ruin became a quarry. It has been somewhat restored and offers a conducted tour.
The village of St. Goar was at one time a place of thanksgiving for mariners who survived the Lorelei rapids, just upstream, and it's now a center of tourism on the Rhine with many accommodations and a wonderful network of scenic hikes, as well.
With the establishment of Burg Katz castle across the river and the little village of St. Goarshausen at the foot, the Katzenelnbogen counts' hold upon this stretch of the Rhine was complete and powerful.
At the Lorelei Rock, the Rhine is squeezed to a quarter of it normal width, with a rocky river bed and rapid flow. Here Lorelei, the blond siren, reportedly sang from atop the rock, tempting passing sailors to neglect their navigation and crash to their deaths on the shoals. (Nowadays the Lorelei could never be heard above the din of trains and automobiles skirting around her feet, however. It's a disappointment to purists, but a reality of civilization.)
So the golden afternoon passed away, with a succession of enchanting towns and strongholds. Easy to recognize was the Pfalz, the little fortress on an a tiny outcropping of land, often seen in pictures, which with the Burg Kutenfels above controlled another toll spot on the Rhine for the Counts Palatine. The Pfalz never fell to an enemy.
A charming port of call is Rudesheim, a picturesque Rhineland town of historic significance, noted for its hospitality and superior wine. The Rhine there at one time was shallow and rocky, requiring boatmen to cart their cargos around, before a serviceable channel was blasted out 150 years ago.
It's also renowned for the Niederwald Monument standing more than 35 meters high above the town. As the symbol of German's regained unity (1883), this statue of Germania, a giant woman similar to the Statue of Liberty, is mounted on a base richly adorned with angels, mythical characters and battle scenes. It may be reached by cablecar.
As luck would have it, I happened upon the Hotel Lindenwirt, which fronted on a cobblestone court and backed its restaurant onto the charming Drosselgasse (Thrush Street), a narrow passageway lined with boutiques and eateries, and filled with the sound of German folk music - the perfect end to a day immersed in Rhineland tradition.
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
For information . . .
You can request information about traveling in Germany by contacting the German National Tourist Office, 11766 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 750, Los Angeles, CA 90025; telephone: 1-310-575-9799.