Palaces near Cologne

Augustusburg and Falkenlust Palaces in Brühl are two palaces built in the early 18th century and lies in proximity to Cologne. The complex consists of a main palace, Augustusburg, and a smaller palace for hunting, Falkenlust. Both lies in the same complex and are connected through a large park. The complex is one of Germany's most important Baroque complexes and is therefore included in the UNESCO-World Heritage. Entering the castle is only possible with a guide and costs 5 euros. The palaces with its beautiful parks and proximity to Cologne made it a perfect one day trip for me.

The main entrance to Augustusburg, the complex area lies just beside Brühls main train station.

Location of Brühl. It only takes around 15 minutes to reach the UNESCO-Palaces in Brühl.

The fabolous garden. The parks in the complex are huge and very beautiful.

Garden.

One lucky goose.

The beatiful garden as seen from above.

The road to Falkenlust palace is well marked and does not lie far away from Augustusburg. 

Falkenlust palace is mainly a palace used when hunting for birds. It is placed not far from the normal bird route.

We also had time to walk through the small town of Brühl.

Brühl is a very small town but cosy.

Unfortunately it wasn't allowed to take pictures inside the palace. The main entrance was so impressive though, that I had to attach it in this post (photo find on the web).

Kölner Karneval

Köln is not only famous for its mighty Dom Cathedral but also for its yearly carnival, Kölner Karneval (or Cologne Carnival in english), which counts to one of the largest in the world, with around 1.5 million people visiting the city for the festivities. The main celebrations takes place on the first carnival day on 11/11 at 11:11:11 AM in November and the last 6 days before the Lent (the fast). The Lent is a Christian fasting period before Eastern. It is a period when Christian believers commit to fasting, i.e. they either eat much less (~half a portion a day) or they abstain some foods (usually meat), and does so during ~7 weeks before Easter. As the day of celebration of Eastern depends on the movement of the moon, the day is different from year to year and thus the last 6 days of the carnival. The carnival ends as the Lent begins which begins at Ash Wednesday. So the last 6 celebration days occurs at the same weekdays every year. 

The carnival highlights are the 11 of November (the opening day), the Weiberfastnacht (Fat Thursday (6 days before Ash Wednesday)) and Rosenmontag (Rose Monday (2 days before Ash Wednesday)). 

The age of the carnival is not exactly known but probably it is as old as the Köln itself, more than 2,000 years old. As can be understood after reading the above, the carnival celebrations is not an original Christian celebration as it is older than christianity itself. It is known that the Romans celebrated spring in greatfullness to their gods with wine and songs (the Romans founded Köln). After the fall of the Romans the Germanic people took over Köln and also conducted large celebrations in the spring in greatfullness for their gods. Later Christianity overtook the celebrations. The first written record of the carnival is in 1296.

The festivities takes place in the whole German Rhine region, with the carnival in Köln being the largest. However the cities Aachen, Bonn, Düsseldorf, Eschweiler, Koblenz, Mainz and Neuss also conduct large celebrations. 

The carnival train passing by the Kölner Dom

People usually meet up and eat breakfast togheter on Weiberfastnacht and Rosenmontag.

As mentioned the Weiberfastnacht and Rosenmontag is the carnival days which traditionally starts with a breakfast. On the picture (to the left) you can see the traditional German breakfast "Mett". It is essentially raw minced pork on a "Brötchen" (small loaf of bread), it actually tastes very good. Of course the local bear Kölsch is consumed too.

On the last day of the carnival, on Tuesday, the carnival parade passes through the suburbs.

Even though it was bad weather the parade kept a good mood by singing and throwing sweets to the children.

Me and some carnival friends. For my first carnival I went like a Pilot.

On Rosenmontag the traditional Karnevalszüge (Carnival trains) passes through the central parts of town. Usually they are decorated with politicians and other leaders. 

One who follows Bundesliga may have noticed that the home kits changes slightly for the teams at the Rhein in the middle of the season, this is due to the carnival. Here is the Home- and Carnival Kit for FC Köln and FSV Mainz respectively, these kits are usually only used during the carnival period.

Some more of the carnival trains 

Traveling Middle Rhein - The Most Beautiful Part of Rhine

Rhine is one of the most, if not the most, important river in Europe, both historically and currently. Throughout history the river have had a central role in expanding trade far into Germanys inland. The importance and role that the Rhine has played in the German history should not be underestimated. The 1,230 km long river (2nd largest in Europe) creates a natural transportation route and border between countries. It has helped Germanys development, especially during the industrial revolution. The Rhine has also had a special role in most of the conflict in the region, especially in the earlier French-German conflicts. During WWII the river was a great obstacle during the Allied invasion, which led to many heavy battles taking place at its shores, one of the most famous ones being Operation Market Garden. 

The river flows from the alps in Schweiz and ends up in the North See in the Netherlands, with the longest part of the river flowing through Germany. The river can be divided into 7 parts, with the main parts being High-, Over-, Middle- and Lower Rhine. 

Middle Rhine (in German: Mittlerhein), marked in yellow, is considered to be the most beautiful part of Rhine. This part of the river is surrounded by beautiful valleys and nature. Rheins large influence in German history is also exposed in Middle Rhein. Here one can see castles and fortifications at almost every corner of the river.

With me living just some kilometers from this part of the river, made it an obvious target for traveling for me. Me and some friends rented a car and went from Cologne (Köln on German) through Bonn, the formal capital of West Germany, Koblenz and we ended up in a small town named Bacharach.

To the left: the stretch of Rhein with Middle Rhine in yellow.
To the right: The route of my trip, starting in Cologne, passing Bonn, Koblenz and ending up in Bacharach.

Bonn

Bonn, a small city and formal capital of West Germany. It is also home to HARIBO, which gets its name from HAns RIegel BOnn (founder)

Bonn, Beethovens birthplace (1770)

The documents for the "Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany", it is the new consistutional laws approved after the defeat in WWII. It was signed 1949.

The University of Bonn, persons as Karl Marx, Nietzsche, Goebbels and Hertz  have studied and worked here. 

Koblenz and Rheins

Koblenz, second stop of the trip. Here another important river of Germany, the Mosel connects with the great Rhine. One of Germanys most important monuments, Deutsches Eck (German Corner), stands where they flow into eachother.

Deutsches Eck, reinstalled 1993 as a reminder of German unity.

We stayed over in a cosy little town named Rheins.

Me having an hectic phonecall in one of Rheins telephone boots. 

Marksburg Castle

Marksburg Castle is almost 900 years old (!) and on of the few non-destroyed castles by Rhine. It was also one of few castles open during autumn (tourist low season).

Me, very happy at this castle.

The only way to enter is with a tour guide, which did not cost more than 5€, totally worth it.

Inside the castle. Amazingly some people still calls this castle their home!

"We stayed over there!"- Me pointing out where Rheins is.

The Loreley

The Loreley, is a famous rock located in one of Rhines narrowest turns, which has lead to many sailors dying there. This has led to the famous folklore about a beautiful, singing Lady distracting the sailors and making them to either crash into the rocks or into other ships.

One can visit the platform at the top displays an amazing view over Rhine.

Notice the traffic lights for the ships by the road? This light lets the sailors know if any other ship is in the curve as they approach it, inorder to avoid accidents.   

At Loreley I found these two statues, which are from the South Korean island, Jeju. They displaying the friendship between the two locations. As I have earlier been on Jeju, it was a small surprise for me to see these.

Bacharach and the way there

There are many cheap ferry-crossings over the Rhine. The city of St Goar, famous for its display of cuckoo-clocks and castleruin lies a stone throws away from Loreley. German cuckoo-clocks are built in south west of Germany but are very popular here, picture below, they were therefore found throughout the whole town.

We saw many castles of the way. This is one of the unique ones, as it is built on a small island in the middle of the Rhine. These types of castles was mainly built to collect tax from passing ships.

Bacharach, also one example of a beautiful cozy German city by Rhine. It is at least 1,000 years old and still have parts of is wall and castle left.

Bacharach downtown. Our last stop.

Entrance in city wall.

On the wall.

The Ruhr Valley, a Land of Transformation

The Ruhr Valley is the large industrial area located north of Düsseldorf. Here some 5.1 million people live in many different cities such as Essen, Dortmund, Duisburg to mention some. They are so closely connected to one another that people sometime sees it as one huge city. However the inhabitants refer to themselves as Dortmunder, Duisburger etc.

The area is famous for the industrialization of Germany, which is part of the reason for Germany's development to one of the most industrialized countries of the world. The huge amount of ore, the early mines and the already developed technology for mining made the Ruhr Valley one of the most thriving areas during the industrialization. The demand of workers attracted people from all around Germany and gave an explosive increase of people to the area, it explains the high density of people in this area today.

Today the Ruhr Valley is different. Much of the industries have been transferred to China, but some still remains. However the high population remains. In the last decades the area has transformed from a highly industrialized area to an area for education and art.

To experience the past and to understand the transformation of this area we went with my German class on a trip there. What we saw was amazing and I can recommend everyone to go there. We went to the Duisburg Landschaftspark. The Duisburg Landschaftspark have been listed on New York Times top 10 list parks of the world and one can understand why. The park is an old coal mining facility intended to let people to remind the industrial past rather than forgetting it.

Our guide showing showing us the amazing view of the Ruhr

The view on an old complex for melting steel.

It can be seen how the nature has recaptured lost land.

It is amazing how the germans have managed to transfor this old industry to an park. To the left they have created an cinema within the old steel melting area.

The second largest open volume building in the world.

Inside the second largest open volume building in the world.

On the second largest open volume building in the world.

The Ruhr Area has also given place for artists to display their art. This is the Teatreder in Bottropp.

A group photo in the teatraeder

An old coal cleaning complex transformed to an museum and concert hall.