Koln

John's wife was out of town this weekend so he and I took a road trip up to see the cathedral in Koln.  The city was really nice and we got prime parking downtown.  In fact, this is what we were looking at coming out of the parking deck:

 The Koln cathedral is really impressive.  John mentioned it was the tallest building in Europe until the Eiffel Tower was built.

 Above is part of the entrance.  Below are pictures from the inside.  It is really had to get a grasp of how big that place is since there is no scale to judge the height of the ceiling.

I though this was cool.  In some parts, the ceilings were painted with murals.

 What is really neat about the cathedral is that you can climb up inside the tower and go out on a viewing balcony.  The climb is pretty difficult since it is a spiral stair case that climbs over 300 feet straight up.  It's almost like climbing a ladder but the work is worth it.  We got to see the bells in the tower, one was under repair:

 These two images I love, they are the inside of the spires that you can see at the top of the first photo.  That gives you an idea of how high we went up.

 Here is a photo of the city from the viewing deck:

Looking up at the other spire and across the way at another portion of the cathedral.

The cathedral is famous for their treasury which is a fantastic exhibit.  Their most famous relic is from the three magi that visited  baby Jesus.  The relic is located deep in the church and we couldn't get anywhere near it.  See that golden dot in the middle of the bottom of the photo?  That houses the relic.

Kolon was fantastic!  I highly recommend anyone to go there if for nothing else than to see the cathedral.  Next time I go I would like to see the cathedral again but also a bit more of the city!