Day 13
We're pretty tired and starting to look forward to going home. And, we miss our cat, Cloudy, who is staying in a cat kennel for the first time. Hopefully he remembers us...
We have a 6 am flight from Dusseldorff tomorrow, so we'll be getting up around 2:30 am to start the lengthy process of checking our luggage and getting through security. German news sites have repeatedly covered the lengthy delays at Dusseldorff airport.
Before leaving Cologne, however, we wanted to explore the Cologne Cathedral. So, we decided to take a much later train to Dusseldorff and then have a relaxing afternoon with no more touring.
The Cologne Cathedral is unbelievable. It took 600 years to build, starting in the 1200's. Just incredible.
Chest of the Magi: relics from the Three Wise Men are supposed to be in this chest.
Known as the "Gero Cross," this is the oldest surviving sculpture of the crucifixion, from the 10th Century
While the ground floor of the cathedral was amazing, we were happy to discover the "Treasury," which was underground. There were multiple rooms of relics that were hundreds and hundreds of years old. The first room has various religious artifacts, including items of archbishops, such their scepters:
There was another room with old statues and relics from graves found during a basement project at the cathedral. There was yet another room that had clothes and tapestries from centuries ago. Lastly, there was a room that had a cane from St. Peter and chains that had bound him. This church has been around forever and has mind-blowing relics.
What a great visit to the cathedral.
We left the cathedral, gathered up our things from the nearby hotel, and caught a train to Dusseldorff. There was a loud and drunken bachelor party (at 2:30 pm) in our train car. They were singing and doing shots of some blue liquid. The bachelor was forced to wear a pink tutu, a pink cape, and a shirt with Cupid on it. They paraded him from car to car. It was a funny German tradition.
This is the quiet moment before the bachelor party arrived...
We arrived at the Dusseldorff airport and scouted it out to make sure we're ready for tomorrow's early start. Rather than touring, we're taking the afternoon off to relax and gather up our strength.
We did have lunch in the airport and I tried the Dusseldorff specialty: altbier. It is a dark lager with a slight hint of maltiness -- but otherwise it is clean and crisp like a lager. It was good.
Perhaps if we get our strength up, we'll do a pub crawl in the Dusseldorff airport... 😋
Well, that's it. That's our trip. This is the final entry. I hope everyone enjoyed traveling with us. Mom, we love you and wish you could have been here. See you back in The States!
