Köln to Gelsenkirchen

Breakfast at the hotel was a smorgasbord with a huge range of choices.  Far too much to eat.  I did a quick walk across the Hohenzollern Bridge, and arrived back in time for a quick cup of tea before they closed the breakfast room.

On the right bank of the Rhein.  It's about 400 metres wide here

The bridge carries about 1200 trains daily, and can be used by pedestrians.  No cars.

Barges on the river

Thousands and thousands of padlocks on the fence

An unassuming building, but the hotel was pretty nice inside

Off to climb the Domturm, the south tower of the Kölner Dom.  Unlike the church tower in Amsterdam, this climb was not guided, and they let everyone who wanted to climb go up at any time.  Most of the stairs were two-way, which was fun (not).  We ended up 100 metres above the ground after climbing 533 steps.  Well worth it just to get close to the architecture of this amazing edifice.

Gargoyle!!

Magnificent Gothic windows

The detail is astonishing

Looking up to the top of the south tower

Yes - I got to touch it!!

Looking down on the main part of the cathedral...

...and east out across the Rhein and the Hohenzollern Bridge

Looking south down the Rhein

Looking west towards outer Cologne

There was a welcome stop on the way up - at the bell tower, 42 metres up.  St Peter's bell is the largest freely swinging church bell in the world, weighing in at 24,000 kg. There are eight bells in the bell tower.

St Peter's Bell.  How on earth did they get it up here??

The little one - bottom right - rang while I was standing there, watching.  St Peter's Bell is in the centre of the photo

The viewing walkway can be seen here.  It's just below and on either side of the tip of the pointy bit above the arched window, level with the outer spires.  It looks a more silvery grey than the rest of the spire

Right up the top where the top triangle begins - that's where I was!

Back to the hotel to collect my suitcase, then onwards to Gelsenkirchen, where I finally arrived at the Hotel Arena at around 4.30pm.  

Again, for a cheap hotel, the room is pretty nice

A reccy walk to the stadium to work out where I needed to go was guided by loud music, as Helene and crew went through some rehearsals.  Even then there were plenty of people there.  Back to the hotel to pick up my now-fully-charged camera (have I mentioned how much I like my new camera?)  By the time I got back to the stadium they were letting people in.  I think Helene deserves her own post, so I'll stop here.  :)