Not London! First of many Köln posts

Most of this blog is going to be photos of London, but as I have just been to my second-favourite city, you're now going to get a load of pictures from Germany (vast majority from Cologne but a few from Brühl and Düsseldorf). I will attempt some explanation as well :) 


Dom exterior


Might as well just get the Cathedral out of the way first, right? You can hardly miss it... 


(our hotel - Hotel Mondial am Dom - was oh so very near the cathedral, it was amazing)


View from outside the hotel:

Building on the cathedral started in 1278 and was apparently left unfinished in the 1470s. I love how this happened with medieval buildings, like after a while everyone got fed up and couldn't be bothered to finish the damn thing. Happily, it was finished in the late 19th century. 


More outside views: 

 
                      

 

The cathedral is a World Heritage site. A few years ago, it was on the 'World Heritage in Danger' list (which I will have to look into...) because there were plans to build a tall apartment building nearby that would have impacted the cathedral visually. There's since been a ruling to control the height of buildings constructed around or near the Cathedral.