Cologne walking tour

We met our guide, Heinrich, just outside the boat at 9:15 to begin our walking tour. Cologne is the oldest city in Germany and was founded by the Romans. The first thing I noticed was all the bird poop which initially seemed concerning to stand near.

Heinrich explained that green parakeets nest in the trees at night and have become over populated. Now I want to see them and take one home!

We began our tour along the Rhine River.

The bridge in the background has hundreds of thousands of padlocks attached to it with keys thrown in the river by couples showing their love. He said some couples chose combination locks potentially to not be so committed. Kinda funny.

Lowenbrau is from Bavaria and Heinrich says no one from Cologne goes here.

One of these is a Jazz bar where you can go down in the cellar to see a Roman ground mosaic.

This is one of the many breweries in town. Each one only serves one type of beer…their own. Also, you don’t order pretzels in breweries. That’s a Bavarian thing. Pretzels are in bakeries here.

Long ago before these streets had names it was common for people to give directions based on businesses. “Start at the Barking dog and walking until you see the Golden Goose, turn right until you see the Whalfish.” This isn’t too far off how long time Louisville residents give directions, especially those involving the Toy Tiger

These metal anchors on buildings are what the floor boards are attached to.

This square is dedicated to a musician who founded Carnival music. I had no idea that Cologne has a yearly Carnival but it seems that the case. Heinrich is not a fan and says he leaves town every year for a ski holiday at that time. He describes the music as “kindergarten music for drunk heads” Also that within hearing the song for 20 seconds you are able to sign along.

Cologne has about one million residents here and on Carnival you can find about 500 thousand in the street partying. Three hundred thousand of those are tourists.

The people on this fountain are people who are in the carnival songs.

Old town 98% of this was destroyed during the war. Only three houses had roofs after the war.

When the clock rings the face moves. This is an example of old humor from 160 years ago but no one knows the story behind it.

This is known as the rain gutter pooper. There are several examples of old humor here in Cologne

This building had the years marked on each level when it was built.

The alcohol for perfume was discovered here

Beer is served in tiny glasses here because “they are refined beer drinkers” and they don’t want it to get warm and flat. They also don’t celebrate Oktoberfest or wear lederhosen or dirndl’s. All of that is for Bavaria. If your beer glass is empty it’s assumed you want another one and they will bring it (for a charge.) If you are done you put your coaster on your glass to signify you don’t want more beer.