Wheels Around Europe . . . . . . . : Cologne, oh dear….

We awoke today to a warm and dry sunny day on the Rhine.

After yesterdays showers it was welcome to see the sun again.

The sat nav was set for north. For a few days we`ve been trying to get Louis a wash and cut at a dog groomers without success.

All the ones I tried were closed, uncontactable, or just didn`t respond to emails. Anyway I found one in a town called Bad Honnef which my Eyewitness Travel book described the town as “The Nice of the Rhine” Great, that sounds like it`s worth a visit.

We got there soon after the groomers opened at 1000 and fortunately they could get him in straight away, for 58 euro !!! no way, that’s nearly three times what I normally pay.

Anyway, old stinky really needed a wash, more for our benefit than his, so a deal was done for a lesser, no frills, no treats, no piped music, no aromatic scents, more basic beauty session at 40 euro, eek.

I`m not sure I would compare the town with Nice, but it was pleasant enough, but nothing outstanding.

A coffee was enjoyed at a pavement café and a wander around the shops, again.

One hour later we picked him up and he was so much more handsome and fragrant.

Next destination stop was Cologne central.

I headed for the Stellplatz just north of the city centre (GPS 50.96238 6.98594). It sits right on the Rhine and overlooks a park and the Zoo is just across the road, so it`s a great location.

After our cuppa Yorkshire tea, we set off for the nearby tram stop to go into the city.

At this point I don`t mind admitting I wasn`t keen on coming here, but the decision was made to come and I was sure I was going to like it here.

We got off the tram right next to Kolner Dom, Cologne Cathedral, and it is an impressive looking building, even if it is really difficult to get far enough away to photograph it. After walking around for a bit we saw an open top tour bus and decided that would be a good way to see the city, so off we went.

The tour was 90 minutes and would bring us back to the Dom.

Now I understand the city was reduced to rubble by Allied bombing and by 1945

45,000 tons of high explosive and incendiary bombs had been dropped on the city.

To make matters worse the city was the first to experience the RAF`s 1000+ bomber night raid on 31^st May 1942 .

In 1945 architect and urban planner Rudolf Schwarz called Cologne the "world's greatest heap of rubble".

The Dom and the Romanesque churches have undoubtedly been rebuilt with the intention of keeping them as they were, but sadly the same can`t be said for much of the rest of the city.

It seems that 1950`s 60`s and 70`s urban town planners were allowed to introduce modernism and ran amock replacing everything with masses of reinforced concrete in the belief they would create a new urban utopia.

This is a shame as other cities destroyed in the same way have shown they can be rebuilt as they were for the most part, and are much the better for it.

I had really wanted to like the city and to be fair we only spent an afternoon there so there is probably much that we missed. But the tour bus gave us a pretty good overview and I just didn`t take to the city I`m afraid, just not my sort of place.

I later spoke to a Dutch lady on the Stellplatz and she loves it here, comes every year and thinks it`s wonderful.

One of the stops the tour bus made towards the end of the trip was at the Zoo, which was next to the Botanical Gardens and not far from the Stellplatz. So I`m afraid we decided to bail out and go look at the gardens. They were very good too.

This had the added advantage of us being able to walk back and not having to go back to the city in the hope of getting the correct tram line back to where we wanted to be. There seemed to be many lines and we hadn`t figured out the colour coding to the different lines.

The down side was we didn`t go back to the city to look inside the Dom and get a photo, but by this time we`d had enough of Cologne.

Anyway this evening it looks like we have gatecrashed a gay pride fest.

There are lots of single sex motorhome occupants, and then the garlands and rainbow flags came out and I put two and two together.

Ah well, they`re very friendly and live and let live. Just didn`t expect it here.

It`s not been very sunny in Cologne, but it`s very warm, 28c this evening.