Not London! Köln Rathaus (city hall)

The city hall in Cologne is Germany's oldest. It's on the site of the Roman Praetorium (that's coming in a later post; the Praetorium was pretty big). Different parts of the Rathaus date from between the twelfth and twentieth centuries. Most of my pictures are of the the tower, which dates from the early 15th century, and the loggia (a gallery or corridor at ground level), which dates from the late 16th.  


Tower:

Loggia:

More detail:

Not London! St Andreas, Köln

St Andreas is a Romanesque church (gosh, last week German, this week Heritage Studies, it's like I'm going back in time) very near the Cathedral. Just over the road, in fact. 


...what, you thought I might have done something like taking a picture to illustrate that? Hahaha, no, that didn't occur to me until right now. 


Anyway, here's a quick screencap I did from Google Maps (the A is St Andreas, the cross-shaped building is the Cathedral):

I didn't get to go inside the church, but the outside is pretty impressive anyway. It was consecrated in 974 and rebuilt in the 13th century. It's one of the 12 Romanesque churches of Cologne (I could spend a week in Cologne just on the churches), but actually combines Romanesque and Gothic elements. And being really huge, obviously. 

Not London! Köln Schokoladenmuseum

This place is about 10% of the reason you should visit Cologne. It is, of course, the Chocolate Museum. 


It's apparently one of the ten most visited museums in Germany.


YEEEEEEAH


I love Germany. One day I'll go to the Ritter factory place in Waldenbuch and I will buy so much chocolate in the factory shop I'll collapse under the weight of it. Oh yes. 


ANYWAY, enough about places I haven't been (do Milka have a factory/museum? Must investigate). The museum is on a little man-made island thing on the Rhein, about ten minutes' walk from the Cathedral. According to Google Maps, it's on the same island as the German Sport and Olympia Museum, which might have been quite interesting had I known about it. Although not as interesting as the Chocolate Museum, CLEARLY. Let's not be silly. 


So, anyway, you go in and unlike some chocolate-based attractions (coughCadburyWorldcough), it's a proper museum rather than some 'experience' thing (on the other hand you get more free chocolate at Cadbury World). So there are displays in English and German telling you the history of cocoa growing and chocolate, and some interactive displays about how and where cocoa grows etc etc. It's pretty interesting but tbf if you're obsessed with chocolate as I am you probably know some of it already. 


You then walk through to the awesome bit, which is the bit with the chocolate machines. Some displays ones, some working a little production line - you can see how the whole process works. It's pretty cool, especially the machine that picks the pieces up with a vaccum and for some reason just turns round and deposits them on a different conveyor belt:

Not sure what that's doing tbh but it looks fun. 


And there's a the wrapping machine, although you obviously can't see the actual wrapping as it's going so fast: 

Upstairs there's a machine slooooowly spinning chocolate in moulds to make sure it distributes evenly: 





There's also a section about the development of chocolate from a luxury drink to a mass-produced product, including some rather lovely chocolate pots:

And then the awesome advertising area, with a) a big Milka cow, b) a load of Kinder wrapping/toys and c) a load of Ritter bars. 


Cow:

KitKat bench:

Lindt poster things (think these are enamel):

After the modern stuff, you walk through to some of the older adverts and the Stollwerck vending machines that used to be all over Germany. These used to be advertising with sample sizes of bars (note to chocolate manufacturers: bring this back please) but they became incredibly popular and could come in all shapes and sizes, including for some reason as a chicken:

That wasn't even the weirdest one. 

There is also a cafe that we did not go in and a shop that we did. Yeah. 

Other random chocolate moulds from the museum:

Oh and I almost forgot, the tropical hothouse bit, which is there just because:

And to finish on topic, here's a truffle on a conveyor belt:

In conclusion: chocolate. 


http://www.chocolatemuseum-cologne.com/ 

Not London! German Graffiti (and other things on walls)

Not so much with the architectural merit, this post. But spending as much time as I do commuting into central London on the same damn routes, I've got rather over familiar with the graffiti I see on the way into town. And then we went to Germany and lo, there was loads of new graffiti :). These were taken at various places along the way to Cologne, including Aachen, and some in/on the way to Brühl and Düsseldorf. 

This one was on the ground and seemed more like spilt paint that had been quickly messed about with rather than anything intentional...

On the way into Cologne there were these paintings on buildings: 

And this one in Düsseldorf:

And finally, a little Pac-Man-style mosaic from near the station (not the best pic):

Annoyingly have just googled this and it looks like there were quite a few mosaics like this in Cologne but I missed them all. Bah.