The trip from Amsterdam to Cologne took over 24 hours rather then the 20 hours expected, so when I got up about 7, we were still a long way from our destination. so after breakfast, I busied myself reading and composing in my cabin.
At 11:00 I went to the lounge and heard a lecture on “Johannes Gutenberg: Changing the World One Letter at a Time,” by Peg Faimon, a professor and Dean at Indiana University. Very interesting; JG changed the world with his invention, and sadly, had it taken away from him by a court. He was later recognized and provided a stipend that prevented him from suffering in his old age.
After lunch and tea, we arrived in Cologne and separated into groups of about 10 for a tour of the old city of Cologne. Built on a flood plain, the city began as a Roman city in about 38 BC. The Roman city was surrounded by a wall about 2.5 miles in circumference and held about 35,000 people, with water supply, sewage, and all the advantages that Rome knew how to integrate into its cities. The river divides the city much as railroad tracks divided some other towns and cities — one side good (where the Roman city was), the other bad. As recently as the 1990s, the city has flooded, but now has a flood wall that prevents that. Nearly destroyed in WW II, the town was rebuilt integrating both the old that survived with new, modern structures. The old city has a cathedral that was started in the 1200s and left untouched for centuries but then completed in 1880 or so, by Frederick I of Prussia. Built in Gothic style, it contains the relics of the three wise men, and two other Christian martyrs.
Cologne is the New Orleans of Germany, with a carnival much like that of New Orleans, with King and Queen plus excessive celebrations going on for days. The local beer, kolsch, can only be brewed within a radius of the cathedral, and every brewer has a different version. It was a really interesting tour, but by the time it was over I was exhausted and returned to the ship.
At dinner I met a new couple from Memphis, and they asked, when learning that I was an alum of WSU, if I knew Lane Rawlings. What a coincidence. Lane and his wife, Mary Jo, have been friends since about 1968 when I returned to WSU after serving in the army. Small world.