Second day in Bonn

My first day at Bonn was nice and it was all spent in doors. After nicely relaxing for one whole day we regained our energy and boost the enthusiasm. We all wanted to explore Bonn and other cities around there. So early in the morning we all dressed up heading towards Cologne, Cathedral.

The distance between the cities Cologne and Bonn was roughly around 24 Km. But there are no speed limits in Germany. I had the pleasure of travelling at 180 km/ hour and it felt so good and fun. But even at that speed there were people overtaking us. They drive so fast, so easily and it really impressed me.

As I remember it took us less than 30 minutes to reach Cologne. Well well... I was so thrilled to see all the Gothic architecture. I was always dreaming of seeing how Europe looked like in medieval period. All that I learnt in history just rushed in to my mind the moment I saw the Cologne Cathedral. There were many other small churches of similar architecture surrounding the entire Cologne city. These great churches and cathedrals and in a number of civic buildings that the Gothic style was expressed most powerfully, its characteristics lending themselves to appeal to the emotions.

After exploring the Cologne cathedral, we decided to walk around the city. Though I referred it as Cologne, people in Germany called it Koln ( pronounced as Kirn ). Talking a little bit about Cologne city, it is the fourth largest city in Germany. And it is one of the oldest cities in Germany, having been founded by Romans in year 38 BC. The name of the city Cologne is derived from that of the Roman settlement, Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium. This city lies on the River Rhine. I had the pleasure of seen the river Rhine too. It is one such view that I cherish for the my whole life.

And also Cologne is famous for Eau de Cologne. My friends told me that the birth place of Eau de Cologne is city Cologne. And the name 4711 aroused my curiosity. After I came home I searched a little bit about it and found the following details from wikipedia.

At the beginning of the 18th century, Italian expatriate Johann Maria Farina created a new fragrance and named it after his hometown Cologne, Eau de Cologne (Water of Cologne). In the course of the 18th century the fragrance became increasingly popular. Eventually, Cologne merchant Wilhelm Mülhens secured the name Farina, which at that time had become a household name for Eau de Cologne, under contract and opened a small factory at Cologne's Glockengasse. In later years, and under pressure from court battles, his grandson Ferdinand Mülhens chose a new name for the firm and their product. It was the house number that was given to the factory at Glockengasse during French occupation of the Rhineland in the early 19th century, number 4711. In 1994, the Mülhens family sold their company to German Wella corporation. In 2003 Procter & Gamble took over Wella. Today, original Eau de Cologne still is produced in Cologne by both the Farina family (Farina gegenüber since 1709), currently in the eighth generation, and by Mäurer and Wirtz who bought the 4711 brand in December 2006.

We walked around this ancient city for hours. Though it was very cold, we never got enough of it. I tried my best to capture pictures of every nook and corner of the city. But unfortunately what I saw was not what was exactly captured in to pictures. Especially the low lighting inside the cathedral made it impossible to capture a perfect picture. At the end of the day I understood one thing, what we see on TV and pictures are not even a close resemblance of their true beauty. All we could photograph was a fraction of their true beauty. So it worths traveling. Exploring the world.