Not London! Random pictures

So, I've got one more themed post to do but that'll come after I get round to do the London ones on the same theme (the theme, in case you were wondering, is 'empty streets aaaah where are all the people'). Until I get to all of that, here's the other random Germany photos that didn't really go anywhere else.

Not London! Köln Roman dig & Praetorium (big post)

It had somehow escaped my notice that Köln was a Roman settlement. This explains a lot about why I love it so much. 


So, the usual story: Romans came along and settled near a river, the city got bigger and developed over time, and with development comes building. And in Köln it seems like anywhere you start to build, you hit Roman remains. 


While we were there, there was an open air dig very close to the Rathaus, which seemed to be a complex of at least a couple of houses (the info board was in German so I couldn't follow the whole thing):

 

On our last day in Köln I also visited the Praetorium, which is housed in a building near this dig. The term Praetorium originally referred to a general's tent within an encampment, and the term then carried over to have an administrative meaning for the headquarters of a governor or emperor. 


This is a photo from inside the Praetorium but sadly I failed to write down when it was taken. Post WW2 maybe. 

Artefacts inside the Praetorium:

 

 

      


The site:

And finally, in the Praetorium building there was a section of the Roman sewer system to walk down.

Not London! Düsseldorf

More photos from Düsseldorf...

Statues etc:

 

 

 

And water in Düsseldorf (the Rhein, Königsallee and random canals/channels that seem to pop up as you're wandering around)