Solo Trip to Köln, My European Memories 3 独行科隆 —— 欧洲记忆之三

My first solo trip was to Köln.

As a huge fan of architecture, I wanted to visit all the famous architectures in Europe. Kölner Dom (Cologne Cathedral) was my first destination.

I got up early in the morning to visit the cathedral. It looked...dark...and not as overwhelming as I've expected at first glance. However, the decision of climbing to the top of the cathedral tower totally changed me view.

You need to pay 5 euros and climb 533 steps in the narrow tower. But it was fun seeing the city from the small windows along the way, and the panorama from the top was impressive.

However, what impressed me the most was the tower's internal structure. It's my favorite architectural photo.

Seeing this after all the 533 steps, the first and only word I said was 'WOW'.

I was totally facsinated by the structure, and I still am every time when I see the photo.

View of the Rhine on the top

The steps and the view from the small windows along the way

Fun facts of this trip before I visited the dom

I didn't have driver's license then. So I booked train ticket, hostel, even contacted the daughter (let's call her J) of my aunt's best friend. That was unbelievable because I never met her before, and I'm never a actively social person.

Guess what was the first unexpected thing in the trip?

The train was late.

What? Didn't they say that Germans are punctual all the time?

Well, it was about 30min late. I guess we can ignore it. So I was finally in Köln, wandered in the city, visited several museums, and met J for dinner.

That was my Saturday before I visited the dom.

Thank you for reading! You can also check my previous posts of my European memories:)

我人生中第一次独自旅行是去科隆。

我当时一心想着要亲眼见到欧洲大陆上所有有名的建筑。打开地图一扫描，就锁定了最近的科隆大教堂。然而在欧洲，让你最快审美疲劳的就是教堂。思来想去，我最后决定一个人上路了。

当时我还不会开车，买了火车票，定了青年旅馆，还写邮件联系了我姑妈的好朋友的女儿——这点我觉得挺不可思议的，因为我一直是个非常被动社交的人，而且这个小姐姐之前我从没有见过，只是因为我要来德国出差，我姑妈提了那么几句，给了我她的邮箱而已。不过小姐姐给我回信了，约了见面吃饭，这里就不赘述了。

到了周末，我怀着忐忑的心情上路了。你们猜发生的第一件意想不到的事情是啥？

火车晚点了。

什么？说好的德国人很准时呢？！

算了，也就晚了半小时多，四舍五入也可以算准时了。接下来的事情就都很顺利了，在城里逛了，参观了几个博物馆，见到了小姐姐吃了饭。

第二天我起了个大早直奔大教堂。然而，真正站在它面前的时候，我脑海里只有一个字——“哦”。请不要脑补激动的语气。那时太阳还在厚厚的云层后面，大教堂一眼望去黑不溜秋有点不起眼，不像呆梨家的米兰大教堂白的发光。。。

在教堂里面走了一圈，看了看神龛、彩色玻璃和虔诚的教徒们，我觉得好像也平平无奇，就决定去登顶教堂了（查了下现在价格是5欧，）。

就是这个决定，让我认识到了建筑之美。

在狭窄的旋转楼梯拾级而上，通过小窗看外面的世界是一种很有趣的体验。到了最顶上，抬头看就是这样了。这就是教堂尖顶的内部结构。我当时脑海里也就一个字——“WOW”。至今看到这张照片都非常着迷。

感谢阅读！有兴趣的话，也可以看看我之前的文章：）

My Europe Memories／欧洲记忆系列
Heidelberg／海德堡
The First Impression of Paris／初探巴黎（上）
The First Impression of Paris／初探巴黎（下）