Today I did actual sightseeing stuff. I went to the Römisch-Germanische Museum, which is home to all the fun ancient things that have been dug up around here. Mostly it’s too late for my tastes, being AD – although I have learnt to identify a bust of Augustus at 20 paces. Teaching archaeology and running around Roman museums has done that much for me. I really need to take a tame archaeologist with me to the museum, in order to properly appreciate all the stuff that’s in there – because it is clearly a really good collection that properly illustrates Roman life in the Germanic provinces. I just don’t know anything, really, about that (except that some of the Imperial family hung around up here fighting battles), and I can’t properly read the explanations, as my German isn’t that good (and my imperial archaeology isn’t good enough to guess). Then I think I will get much more out of it. That said, the two big mosaics (the Dionysus and the Philosophers) and the reconstructed Tomb of Poblicius can’t fail to impress even *this* Republican philistine. They really are stunning – and beautifully displayed. I invested in a year’s pass to the Cologne Museums (it covers all the major beasts), which at €50 for students was an absolute steal. You’d comfortably spent €20 visiting three of the eight or nine covered, as a student, and I have plans to go to all of the ‘big three’ (the Römisch-Germanische, the Ludwig, and the Wallraf-Richartz) more than once. And I’m only here for six months. Even if you’re not a student, the year’s pass is only about €68, which is still worth it.
After all the ancientness, I decided to take advantage of the sunshine – and ended up wishing I’d taken my sunglasses – before going to listen to Vespers at the Kölner Dom. There’s this pilgrimage thing – Domwallfahrt 2009 – going on at the Dom, and there’s a bunch of services taking place, so I thought I’d go and listen to some music in stunning acoustics. I strolled across the Hohenzollernbrücke (which is the railway bridge) to see the view back to the cathedral. You’d never think that a railway bridge and station would do much more than spoil the view of a gothic cathedral, but the juxtaposition really does work – despite the fact that the sun was directly above the Dom, requiring much eye-screwing-up. I’m going to go back in the morning and after dark some time to take some more photos across the Rhine. Vespers was lovely, too. I only stayed for a little while (and sat through the build-up before hand, which is what the last photo shows), but it was just perfectly relaxing, and the music (girls’ choir) was gorgeous. I think I’m going to have to go back for more services in a language and denomination I don’t understand.
