A River Cruise in Europe: November 1, 2018 Traveling to Cologne

The boat landed this morning at the small German town of Zom. We were then bussed into Cologne while the ship continued down river and would later meet us there. We were let off in the middle of town in front of the massive Cathedral. At almost 500 feet tall, it is a sample of old Gothic architecture. It required 650 years to finally complete. During WWII, the town of Cologne was bombed just about level but the Cathedral was spared. We met our guide, Hendrick who provided us with history and customs of the town past and present. With today being All Saints Day, Germans celebrate as if it were a Sunday. So the city was crowded with visitors. We had a light rain but we were dressed for it. After lunch back at the ship, we went back I to town on our own and explored more of the old section of the city. Barb and I then did our own "pub crawl" and that was fun sampling the beers in the different gast hauses. We were able to make it back to the bus and the ship for dinner and entertainment in the evening. We are entering the section of the Rhein that is hard to navigate because of the low water levels so tomorrows schedule will be interesting.