Cologne and the Dom

We got out today, briefly. Eddie let me choose and I wanted to see the Dom Cathedral. I had emailed and they responded that there was no accessibility problem at the Dom, unfortunaely not so. The large open plaza to get to the Dom is surrounded by steps on the two sides we saw, but we got close anyway...and it is amazing.

This the second time I've had a smart-mouth taxi driver here. So much for the friendly people of Cologne, or possibly it's just the nature of taxi drivers everywhere... who knows? I didn't know exactly the location of the Dom from our hotel, but did know it was on the other side of the huge rail station, and thought it was a few miles. It's actually about 7 blks away, and one can cut through the rail station to get there (we figured that out on the way back!). I had the hotel phone for a taxi, and the driver acted like he didn't understand English, but Dom Cathedral is the same in either language. When we got loaded he turned to me (in the back seat) and shook his finger at me, telling me (in very good English) how he had waited for two hours (two hours he repeated) for a fare before getting our call...and it being such a short distance.

Eddie and I laughed about it later because I was wanting to learn the driver's true grasp of our language with some coarse Oklahoma terminology. Eddie and I came up with some colorful examples...of course we didn't actually do it.

I think the driver was messing with me (and the meter) by going in a large circle around the site before actually arriving there, but not really sure. I do know that when we arrived, and Eddie was comfortably seated in his wheelchair, I told the driver that I would be fair with him, but not because (wagging my finger at him now) of his scolding. He grinned rather sheepishly and took the 11 Euros I offered.

No good luck with our sightseeing expedition. There was physically no way to get the wheelchair safely up the 4-5 steps to the entrance, and within minutes of our arriving, it began to drizzle! I got him under the shelter of a nearby canopy, packed with other people getting out of the rain. I told him we were lucky it was nowhere near what we've had in Oklahoma the past few months with the huge downpours ... he had to agree with me. It can always be worse, right?

After a bit of back and forth discussion, should we wait, will it rain harder, etc. I left him for a few minutes to dash across the street to a souvenir stand and buy an umbrella, and warned him not to put my eye out with it, since the driver (that's me) is about eyeball/umbrella height! His jacket was damp and he was getting chilled. I saw a McDonalds (yep, German McD) about a block away and scouted out the terrain (curbs) to see if we could get there okay. Well, McD's entrance has a step, as do most buildings in the city, so that was a no-go. In one direction was the tunnel the taxi took to bring us there, but we couldn't tell if it had sidewalks or not. I'm always up for an adventure, but wasn't sure about Eddie. I don't mind getting wet but he was uncomfortable. So we chose a different route, keeping the (very tall, imposing) rail station in sight.

I was really angry with myself for not thinking about possible rain. Part of the "stuff" I'd packed included my very ugly yellow rain jacket, a new rain poncho for him, and a brand new, large umbrella...all back at the hotel. It's always that way when it rains though, isn't it?

We stopped into a smaller souvenier shop (no steps) along the way (out of the rain) and picked up a few things, then continued onward. That's when we discovered that the Dom is located just on the other side of the rail station and we could have walked, I suppose. Eddie hasn't been to the rail station since we arrived and was whisked through with the porter and luggage. So we meandered around the rail station mall looking at all the shops and food choices. He let me stop at a bookstore. We discovered they have an English section, so I have reading material for the trip home. Then I let him decide what we would eat. He chose baked chicken served with french fries (they seem to serve everything with french fries. I decided to try the curry wurst that I've seen everywhere here (with fries, no less). It's wurst (like a large hot dog weiner), cut in sections, covered with a sauce (sweetened ketchup, sort of) and sprinkled with curry powder. Hummm, I wasn't sure about that at first, but it wasn't too bad. I won't be craving that when I get home (like the pastries...LOL). Eddie said the chicken was very good.

I had my first experience with a pay toilet there. I followed the WC (water closet) sign...and came to a large group of people all paying to use the toilet! It costs 1 Euro (about $1.50). And, of course, me with no 1 Euro coin in my pocket. We needed water and soda, so I left him working on the chicken, and picked those up at a nearby store (like a mini supermarket)... requesting one Euro coins in change. The toilet is very different than anything I've seen before...there is no crawling under the door (like I remember as a very small child, when there were pay toilets on the Turnpike.... yep, I'm old!) I watched for a while to see how it worked. One troops down a flight of stairs to arrive at a turnstile, drop your coin into the slot, a light turns green and you push through. A few more feet, there is a hallway running left to right (no door, no wall between), women go left, men go right. There are individual restroom stalls (with doors) with a light above each. If the light is green, it's unoccupied. Do your business, wash your hands and off you go. So now I'm thinking that 2.50 Euro coffee (kaffe) actually cost me 3.50 Euros.... I'll have to remember that in the future.

So we got to see the Dom. Eddie was so tired when we got back, laughing because he said he didn't actually do anything to exert himself. I told him that me pushing him on those bumpy sidewalks, and hauling him backwards up all the curbs was probably stressful. Not really..but then he doesn't get stressed when someone else is "driving" like I do... Ms. control freak here. He decided early in the marriage that it was easier to let me drive the car than listen to me talk him through it....LOL.