Leaving Köln and the Kölner Dom

Our final day in Köln was rather uneventful.  We got up, checked out of our hostel and, with the extra hour or so before our train was scheduled to leave, went back to the Dom for one last look and to take some pictures of the interior.  The pictures below include some taken the previous day before our tour and when we climbed up one of the bell towers.

Views of the front exterior.

Here you can see some of the replacement work they did on this over-seven-hundred-year-old building.

And a few views from the side.

Here we go up the bell tower...

But we can still climb higher up into the spire!  Here is a bird's-eye view of St. Andreas Church.

Mores pretty sights.

The bridge crosses over the Rhine River.  We didn't get any photos of us down by the Rhine, but we got plenty from way up high.

The last morning at the Dom was very cloudy, leaving the interior of the cathedral rather dark.  As a result, we didn't get too many great photos.  Nevertheless, we took a few as memorabilia of our wonderful weekend.

This last stained glass window is one of my favorites.  Many of the glass panes of the cathedral had been saved from the destruction of WWII (like the ones shown above), but not all.  This particular window was one that did not make it.  Designed by Gerhard Richter, the new window was unveiled in 2007.  

Richter designed the window for free.  It consists of 11,500 pixel-esque squares in 72 colors.  At first glance it seems like a random abstract collage, but when you look closely, there actually is some symmetry to the colors.  Our tour guide had told us that the order within what seems like randomness and chaos in the window pane is an allegory of life here on earth.  

Of course, there is a lot of disagreement as to what should be depicted in stain glass windows, particularly newer ones that replace old windows with more traditional scenes.  The Archbishop of Köln did not attend the unveiling because he felt the design unfit for the cathedral.

And so ends our adventure in Köln.  We left one of the world's largest cathedrals behind and had a relaxing three hour train ride back to Wolfsburg.  Deciding to take it easy, we didn't go chasing after buses and allowed ourselves to get lunch (another Germany first for us -- McDonald's cheeseburgers!) downtown before catching the 202 back to Detmerode.