DATELINE: June 2011
"You must go to Cologne."
"The church is just across the train station."
"It's only less than an hour by train from Bonn."
That's what they told me. But still, I did not go. Perhaps it's the daily long walks along Rheinalee from Bad Godesberg Station to Hotel Haus Berlin that sapped my juices. Or I miscalculated my trip back home thinking I would be passing by on the way to the Koln/Bonn airport.
The thing is, I should have went but did not.
DATELINE: May 2012
This time, I don't need to be told.
The cathedral beckoned as I made the changing of the trains in Cologne.
I in fact went out of the Hauptbahnhof a bit to gawk at the ornate imposing structure.
And I did come on the second Sunday after learning that Bad Godesberg has a Bahnhof aside from the underground train stop; walking my way around, trying to get the best vantage view I can manage with an impossible 55-250 mm lens of a borrowed Canon EO 350D; focusing on the details as I can't get a panoramic shot; like from Burgamauer where I miserably failed in getting that full shot...
....and the Komodienstrasse where I got foiled again.
I went inside, tried some low light shooting of the main altar with a lens designed for long distance people photography...
...before venting my frustration on a 144.5 meter climb to one of the towers where I was able to get some good shots of the 960 AD era Great St. Martin Church...
...some not to good shots of the basilicas of St. Gereon (circa 1151) and St. Ursula (Circa 1106)...
...and some other churches which I later found out to be among Cologne's also famous 12 Romanesque churches. Then I decided to be a paparazzi for a while...
KOLNER DOM: Officially called as as the High Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Mary, the Cologne Cathedral was started to be built in 1248 and completed only in 1880. It's 157 meter twin towers are the second tallest and its facade the biggest of any church in the world. The cathedral houses a reliquary which contains what is believed to be the remains of the Three Maggis. It was damaged by aerial bombing during World War II and was repaired until 1956. The cathedral was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996.
"You must go to Cologne."
"The church is just across the train station."
"It's only less than an hour by train from Bonn."
That's what they told me. But still, I did not go. Perhaps it's the daily long walks along Rheinalee from Bad Godesberg Station to Hotel Haus Berlin that sapped my juices. Or I miscalculated my trip back home thinking I would be passing by on the way to the Koln/Bonn airport.
The thing is, I should have went but did not.
DATELINE: May 2012
This time, I don't need to be told.
The cathedral beckoned as I made the changing of the trains in Cologne.
I in fact went out of the Hauptbahnhof a bit to gawk at the ornate imposing structure.
And I did come on the second Sunday after learning that Bad Godesberg has a Bahnhof aside from the underground train stop; walking my way around, trying to get the best vantage view I can manage with an impossible 55-250 mm lens of a borrowed Canon EO 350D; focusing on the details as I can't get a panoramic shot; like from Burgamauer where I miserably failed in getting that full shot...
....and the Komodienstrasse where I got foiled again.
I went inside, tried some low light shooting of the main altar with a lens designed for long distance people photography...
...before venting my frustration on a 144.5 meter climb to one of the towers where I was able to get some good shots of the 960 AD era Great St. Martin Church...
...some not to good shots of the basilicas of St. Gereon (circa 1151) and St. Ursula (Circa 1106)...
...and some other churches which I later found out to be among Cologne's also famous 12 Romanesque churches. Then I decided to be a paparazzi for a while...
(TO BE CONTINUED)
KOLNER DOM: Officially called as as the High Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Mary, the Cologne Cathedral was started to be built in 1248 and completed only in 1880. It's 157 meter twin towers are the second tallest and its facade the biggest of any church in the world. The cathedral houses a reliquary which contains what is believed to be the remains of the Three Maggis. It was damaged by aerial bombing during World War II and was repaired until 1956. The cathedral was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996.
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